borkena
January 8, 2021 

A day after news of the death Sekoture Getachew and three other members of TPLF leadership is revealed to the public, the Ethiopian Defense Force on Friday announced that Sebhat Nega who is the founder and  ideologue of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is captured alive.  He was captured in an operation that the Ethiopian Defense Force conducted on Friday. 

“Leader of the Junta that was orchestrating ethnic violence and other members of the Junta are under control,” a brief statement from the Defense force cited  Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew, head of the deployment division within the defence force. 

The Ethiopian Defense Force captured Sebhat Nega in the wilderness of Tekeze, Zinjero cliff, a place that is said to be hard to access, it was said. 

According to the report, he was carried to his hiding place in the cliff part of the mountain, and members of the defense force had to do the same to bring him down from the top of the mountain where he was hiding. 

The capture of his sister, Kidusan Nega, also a member of the central committee of TPLF, was reported on Thursday. 

Sebehat Nega was one of the few people who founded the militant TPLF in the mid-1970’s in the wilderness of Dedebit. He was one of the most powerful men within the organization, at one point even more powerful than the late Meles Zenawi, and the architect of ethnic politics, and manufactured ethnic violences in the country. 

Apart from serving as chairman of TPLF, he was in charge of the TPLF business empire under the conglomerate Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) and is said to have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars through corrupt means.

EFFORT itself is known to be worth well over 5 billion dollar as he himself hinted at one point. It was Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin who replaced him as EFFORT CEO after he was removed. After the war with TPLF in November 2020, the Federal government freeze bank accounts of companies under EFFORT.

The Ethiopian Defense Force also announced that it had captured six other TPLF officers : Colonel Atsedu Riche, Colonel Knife Tadese, Colonel Yemane Kahsay, Ato Asgede Gebrekirstos, Ato Amdemariam Tessema and Commander Berhe Girma.

The wife of Hayelom Araya, Alganesh Meles, reportedly died after she fell off the cliff in the part of the mountain where they were hiding. 

The Ethiopian government did not say as to when captured TPLF leaders including Sebhat Nega will appear in court – something that would also confirm to their followers that they are indeed captured. 

The Ethiopian government launched a law enforcement operation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia after TPLF leaders attacked several military bases of the northern command in what they called “pre-emptive strike.” 

On Thursday this week, the Defense Force announced that Sekoture  Getachew and Zeray Asgedom were killed as they were attempting to escape.