Addis Ababa, August 9, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stated that the outlawed TPLF is pursuing an outdated political ideology and leadership approach that is entirely incompatible with Ethiopia’s current political realities.
It is known that within the Tigray region, the illegal faction has already toppled and replaced the regional interim administration, plunging the area into lawlessness and actively mobilizing aggressive military activities. This belligerence includes colluding with the Asmara regime to allow its forces to violate Ethiopian territory, all while orchestrating hostile maneuvers through the shadowy “Tsimdo” arrangement to manufacture renewed instability.
In Episode 2 of his recent interview with local media OBN, which was aired on Fana Media Corporation platforms, the Prime Minister addressed national peace, security, and the country’s democratic trajectory.
In relation to the situation in the northern part of the country, PM Abiy highlighted that the defunct group has openly violated the Pretoria Peace Agreement and prepared for renewed conflict, describing the faction as a political force attempting to destabilize Ethiopia through obsolete strategies and alliances that serve external actors with longstanding strategic interests in weakening the country.
He noted that the defunct TPLF group remains trapped in the political thinking and methods that shaped its rise to power in the early 1990s, despite having governed Ethiopia for 27 years before leaving office.
The obsolete group continues to portray itself as a liberation movement while pursuing narrow organizational interests rather than the genuine welfare of the people of Tigray. Furthermore, the Prime Minister explained that the faction seeks to use armed groups operating in other parts of Ethiopia as instruments to advance its objectives, reflecting a broader strategy aimed at undermining the Ethiopian state and creating conditions for continuous instability.
Operating as a proxy for external interests, the group’s current political and military posture aligns directly with efforts to undermine Ethiopia’s sovereignty and strategic position.
However, the Prime Minister underscored that the political formula through which the rogue TPLF assumed power decades ago—which excluded broad sections of Ethiopia’s population—has become entirely obsolete and cannot be replicated under today’s political conditions.
Contrasting this with the nation’s progress, Prime Minister Abiy stated that Ethiopia’s political awareness, public participation, and democratic engagement have transformed fundamentally.
The reform process has successfully expanded democratic space, opened opportunities for peaceful political competition, and enabled diverse political parties to participate in government institutions.
While noting that a National Dialogue process is underway to ensure lasting political solutions, he reaffirmed the government’s steadfast commitment to peace, emphasizing that the door remains open for any group willing to abandon violence in favor of peaceful political engagement.
It is known that having exercised centralized authoritarian rule over Ethiopia for nearly three decades and subsequently plunged the nation into a destructive conflict in 2020, the TPLF faction has since been stripped of its legal registration by the National Election Board.
Having lost its independent political leverage and capacity to stand alone, the group currently resorts to internal coercion, defying regional interim administrative structures, and forming an unholy tactical axis with the Eritrean regime and other insurgent elements to manufacture artificial chaos on behalf of foreign adversaries.