With an abrupt release of Tigray People’s Liberation Front key leaders, who are captured during a military operation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in January 2021, a rumour had been circulating on social media that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is ordering the withdrawal of forces from Wolkait, a part of Gonder which the TPLF annexed to Tigray following the military takeover of power in 1991.
Local news sources, however, reported, citing regional authorities, that the rumour is baseless.
However, the TPLF still has a military presence in parts of the Northern Gonder including Adarkay area. Residents from the area have also confirmed that Ethiopian forces are in place.
Prime Minister Abiy’s government ordered the Ethiopian forces to halt marching before entirely dislodging the TPLF forces from the Amhara and Afar regions.
According to confirmed local sources, places near Kobo and Zobel area, which parts of North Wollo of Amhara region, are once again under attack by the terrorist designated TPLF Forces.
Abiy Ahmed’s government has been denying that there will be no negotiation, whatsoever, with the TPLF forces, which have land claims over the areas they incorporated to Tigray after 1991, namely Wolkait and Raya.
The issue of Wolkait, if Mr. Abiy Ahmed’s government is intending to allow it to be an item for negotiation, something that will trigger more crises in Ethiopia.
His government released captured TPLF forces just a day after the United States’s special envoy to the region, Jeffery Feltman, held a meeting with Ethiopian authorities including Abiy Ahmed.
