Nine Ethiopian opposition factions have signed an agreement in the United States to form an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose government has called on former soldiers to join its yearlong fight against Tigrayan forces and their allies.
The developments on Friday came as the United States embassy in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, advised all US citizens to leave the country “as soon as possible”, calling the security situation “very fluid”.
At a news conference in Washington, DC, the new coalition said it planned to dismantle Ahmed Abiy’s government by force or by negotiations, and form a transitional authority.
Its members include the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been battling federal forces in a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions, and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) now fighting alongside it.
Organisers said the other groups were the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant People Right and Justice Movement/ Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National Liberation Front and Somali State Resistance.
In response to the alliance’s formation, Ethiopian Attorney General Gedion Timothewos dismissed it as a “publicity stunt” and asserted that some of the groups involved “are not really organisations that have any traction”.
On Tuesday, the US government said it would revoke trade privileges to Ethiopia for gross violations of internationally recognised human rights
The alliance was formed as US Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman was in Addis Ababa meeting with senior government officials amid calls for an immediate ceasefire and talks to end the war.
In the Ethiopian capital, the US said Feltman met the deputy prime minister and defence and finance ministers on Thursday. It was not clear if he would meet Abiy.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Friday again called for a ceasefire and talks, and called on the Tigrayan and OLA forces to “immediately stop the current advance towards Addis Ababa”. He also urged Ethiopia’s government to halt its military campaign, including air raids in Tigray, and the mobilisation of ethnic militias.
International alarm about an all-out war in Africa’s second-most populous country has surged in recent weeks as fighting spread beyond the frontiers of the northern Tigray region. The Tigrayan forces said they have moved closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, this week but the government accused them of exaggerating their territorial gains.
Meanwhile, the federal armed forces appealed to retired soldiers and veterans to rejoin the military, setting a November 24 deadline to register.
In the past week, the government has also declared a six-month state of emergency and local authorities told civilians in the capital to register their weapons and prepare to defend their neighbourhoods.
Addressing the new alliance on Thursday evening, the prime minister’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, tweeted that “any outliers that rejected the democratic processes Ethiopia embarked upon cannot be for democratization”, pointing out Abiy’s opening-up of political space after taking office in 2018. His reforms included welcoming some opposition groups home from exile.
The OLA spokesman, replying to the tweet, noted that some of the people who returned to Ethiopia were later put in prison or under house arrest.
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