Addis Ababa, October 4, 2026 (FMC) — The illegal TPLF group deliberately blocked efforts to return internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their homes, seeking to keep their displacement alive as its last political card, Commissioner of the Ethiopian Nuclear Energy Commission Abraham Belay (PhD) said.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Fana Media Corporation, Abraham said the Federal Government had repeatedly worked to facilitate the safe return of citizens displaced by the northern conflict, but the illegal TPLF group obstructed those efforts because it regarded the IDP issue as a political instrument.
He said displaced people wanted to return to their homes, reclaim their livelihoods, cultivate their land and rebuild their lives, but the group had no genuine interest in enabling them to do so.
According to Abraham, the group understood that the return of IDPs would deprive it of one of its remaining means of maintaining a political connection with the people and advancing its agenda.
He said the illegal TPLF group instead kept the displacement issue alive, turning the suffering of citizens into a political matter and using it to sustain its relevance.
Abraham, who also briefly served as head of Tigray regional interim administration a few years ago, said the group’s leaders had effectively made their position clear by insisting that they would not return unless they could take their political organization with them, placing party interests ahead of the immediate needs of displaced citizens.
He stressed that the people affected by displacement were not seeking to remain part of a political struggle. They wanted to go home, farm their land, live in their houses and return to normal life.
The Federal Government, he said, continued to pursue the return of displaced citizens by working with regional authorities, local communities and other stakeholders, recognizing that safe and sustainable returns required coordinated efforts.
Abraham said the illegal TPLF group repeatedly frustrated these efforts while presenting the IDP issue as a political cause. In his account, the group’s refusal to facilitate returns was not driven by the interests of displaced citizens but by the political value it attached to keeping them displaced.
He said the political leverage derived from the IDP issue would disappear once citizens returned home, which was why the group sought to keep the issue alive.
Abraham said the situation had ultimately exposed a fundamental divergence between the interests of ordinary people and those of the illegal TPLF group. While displaced citizens sought peace, security and the restoration of their livelihoods, he said, the group sought to preserve a political instrument through their continued displacement.
He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to enabling all displaced citizens to return home safely, stressing that displacement should not be prolonged for political purposes and that citizens must be allowed to resume their lives in their communities.