GONDER, Ethiopia - The powerful Gonder militias fighting the regime in
Addis Ababa killed 18 soldiers and captured 20 more during battles on
September 5, Amara Tegadlo has reported.
Two army units were dispatched to Belesa, Wegera and other areas
surrounding Gonder to disarm the local militias who have come into the
spotlight in recent times following the outbreak of public protests in
Gonder, the main city seen as the bedrock of powerful opposition fighting
to unseat the ethnic minority TPLF regime.
Amara Tegadlo, a movement empowering the marginalized Amhara people, said
the 18 soldiers were killed during the first combat operation while a
second reinforcement unit of about 100 soldiers left 20 of their colleagues
captives of the local militia. The source didn't give details about what
happened to the rest of the unit.
Gonder caught the attention of the nation in recent months after a
clandestine TPLF group that had travelled from Mekelle to Gonder to arrest
members of Wolkait Amhara Identity Establishing Committee, a committee
trying to restore the areas annexed into Tigrai back under Gonder/Amhara
administration, was wiped out during a shootout to arrest Col. Demeke
Zewdu, leader of the rebelling committee.
Now in police custody in his hometown of Gonder, Col. Demeke enjoys the
status of a national hero, and any attempts by TPLF to take the former army
officer back to Mekelle is fraught with sparking a deadly fight with the
local militias spreading all across the northwest region of Ethiopia.
During funeral marches in honor of their fallen comrades, the local
militias sported their much-valued AK-47 rifles and fired shots after shots
as per the custom of the region.
TPLF has been on edge to disarm the militias and its latest attempt at
doing so has ended in a major setback amid a national uprising in Oromia
and other regions to end TPLF's 25-year-old brutal rule.
Received on Fri Sep 16 2016 - 15:04:08 EDT