Source: Addis Standard
Addis Abeba– Debretsion Gebremichael, chairperson of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said the party is working to ensure that “the people-to-people relations developing between the peoples of Tigray and Eritrea continue to strengthen,” and added that efforts will also be made to establish “similar relations” with other neighboring communities.
Speaking at a ceremony held on 22 June 2025 in Hawzen town to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the region’s martyrs, the chairman, whose party’s legal status was recently revoked by the Ethiopian National Election Board, reiterated, “We will work to ensure that the people-to-people relations developing between the peoples of Tigray and Eritrea continue to strengthen,” adding that the party “will strive to ensure similar relations exist with other neighboring peoples.”
He said the people of Tigray have “nothing that conflicts with other peoples,” and added, “What they want is to live in peace with Amhara, Afar, Eritrea, Sudan, and other Ethiopian peoples — to emerge from poverty and live in development.”
His remarks came as BBC reported, in a video-supported story, that cross-border contact has resumed between Ethiopians and Eritreans in Zalambessa town, where communities had been out of contact for five years since the start of the war in Tigray. The report added that last week, on Saturday, communities on both sides of the Mereb River also resumed interaction.
Ties between Ethiopia and Eritrea were normalized in 2018, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Ethiopia’s acceptance of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) ruling, ending two decades of a no-war, no-peace stalemate.
However, relations deteriorated again following the signing of the Pretoria Agreement, which brought an end to the two-year war in Tigray. The war saw the involvement of Eritrean forces, who have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Eritrea, for its part, defended its role, stating that it provided sanctuary to Ethiopian forces.
In his speech, Debretsion also claimed that “many issues of the Pretoria Peace Agreement have not been implemented,” citing the continued displacement of people and unresolved territorial matters. “The territorial integrity of the region has not been respected,” he said, adding that “more than one million displaced people from the region have not returned to their homes.”
He warned that “not only have many issues of the Pretoria Peace Agreement not been implemented, but activities that could completely collapse the agreement are getting worse from time to time.”
Debretsion accused “the Prosperity-led government” and what he described as “the betrayal group” of obstructing the agreement’s implementation. “Not only the people of Tigray but also the leaders of international and continental institutions who made all necessary efforts for the agreement to be signed know well that the main obstacles… are the Prosperity Government and the ‘betrayal group,’” he said.
He further alleged that the Prosperity-led government “is still trying to split our party, TPLF, in two and scatter it,” and accused it of attempting “to make our people massacre each other.”
According to him, “the Prosperity-led government has provided complete leadership and support” to what he called “the betrayal group created within our party to carry out this mission.”
“I want to express,” he said, “that our party, TPLF, will continue to work to ensure that the genocide committed against our people is called by its name by the world.” He added that the party would also strive to ensure “accountability is established for the killing of General Se’are Mekonnen and others,” as well as “for those who committed injustices against our people.”
Debretsion also called on international actors to play a more active role in ensuring the agreement’s implementation. “We continue to call upon the international community,” he said, “the European Union, the African Union, IGAD, and America to do their part to ensure the implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement.”
Similarly, Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede, president of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration, who also addressed the gathering, said, “Our primary choice is peace.” He added, “The fact that any alternative outside of this is something we enter into by force, not by choice, is a reality that the entire world understands.”
He emphasized that “the primary choice of the Tigray people is peace and peace alone,” and said the region must “apply peaceful, diplomatic, and legal pressure to ensure the Pretoria Peace Agreement is implemented without delay.” AS
