Amhara State will not annex Western Tigray: Govt official
Finfinne (Yeroo) — Despite claims by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Western Tigray territories “liberated” by special forces of Amhara region will not be annexed into Amhara State, according to a Prosperity Party official from Bahir Dar.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told Yeroo media that the regional government does not want to discuss this matter further during a “sensitive period” of the ongoing “law enforcement operation” in Tigray.
The dispute over Western Tigray began in the 1990s when the then ruling TPLF party established the current multinational federalism structure. The late Tigrayan Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was criticized for redrawing northern boundaries and awarding his own Tigray state a large chunk of the former “Begemeder” province, which is a predominantly fertile land and strategically important for Tigray’s outlet to Sudan.
After annexing the province, TPLF officials allegedly carried out a mass settlement program of Tigrayans to change the demography of the area, impose a Tigrigna working language and legitimize authority.
Now some Amhara hardliners and activists want to reverse this demographic change and take control of the area. However, analysts say the former Begemder province was historically neither considered an Amhara state nor Tigrayan. Accordingly, the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and top officials of his ruling party oppose such maneuvers, which might exasperate the conflict and fuel deeper ethnic tensions, long after the conclusion of the current operation.
