Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to lead an army ‘out of the war’ | Conflict Issues

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister says he will lead troops fighting Tigrayan militants from Tuesday.

Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize winner has led his country’s military “from the battlefield” since Tuesday, a new surprise as the year-long conflict draws near the capital Addis Ababa.

“From tomorrow, I will gather in front to lead the army,” Abiy Ahmed said in a statement posted on Twitter late Monday.

“Those who want to be one of the Ethiopian children who will be praised by history, stand up for your country today. Let’s meet on the battlefield.

Thousands of people are said to have been killed in the Ethiopian civil war by allied forces, as well as by rebels from the northern Tigray region, who controlled the Abiy government before taking office. The United States and other countries have warned that the second most populous country in Africa could be shattered and disrupted the entire region.

The words of the 45-year-old Prime Minister, a former soldier, did not say where he would go on Tuesday. Her spokeswoman Billene Seyoum did not respond to a request from the Associated Press.

Abiy’s comments came as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) militant group continued on its way to Addis Ababa, claiming it controlled the town of Shewa Robit, located 220 kilometers (136 kilometers) northeast of the capital.

It also followed a meeting of the Prosperity Party’s executive committee on military discussions.

Defense Minister Abraham Belay told state-affiliated reporters after the meeting that security forces had begun “various measures” without providing much.

“We can’t go on like this, it means there will be a change,” Belay said.

“What happened and what is happening to our people, the atrocities that the terrorist group, terrorists, terrorists, cannot continue.”

Tigray military spokesman Getachew Reda wrote on Twitter that “our troops will not stop their immovable movement to end (Abiy’s) extinction.”

Tigray troops say they are urging the Ethiopian government to end a six-month-long civil war, but they want Abiy out of office.

The Prime Minister’s statement also said that the West wants to conquer Ethiopia, which has recently taken place in the wake of his government’s intervention in various countries. Delegates from the African Union and the United States have continued their diplomatic missions to end war and negotiations without political will.

Shortly after Abiy made the announcement, a senior government official told reporters that the US still believes “little opportunity exists” in the mediation process.

For a year, the Abiy government has stopped describing the Tigray conflict as a “law enforcement operation” to the “existing war”. As Ethiopian troops have reportedly weakened in recent months, as well as their flight from Tigray in June, rural troops have intensified their campaign, and the Abiy government has appealed to all citizens to join the war. Earlier this month, the government announced a six-month emergency.

Abiy’s announcement sparked fears from a former Nobel laureate, Awol Allo, a senior law professor at Keele University in Britain. “The announcement is full of speeches of martyrdom and dedication,” he said in a tweet. “This is strange and it has never happened. It shows how difficult things are.”

Abiy won the Nobel Prize for making peace with neighboring Eritrea, which at the border of the Tigray region.

The objectives of the peace treaty have not been made public.