Date: Sunday, 14 March 2021
We came to the conclusion that the people of Tigray were in clear danger and coupled with our realisation that the conspiracy to crush Tigray from the south, from within and from the north by Isaias Afewerki was reaching a critical point, we had to take swift action.
This is why we worked with members of the Northern Command who were willing to collaborate with us and used force to overpower those who were not willing to work with us, in an effort to destabilise or demobilise them. The operation we undertook was a very quick one. Within 45 minutes we were able to bring under our control the entire Northern Command, except for a few pockets of resistance here and there.
The measures taken were in accordance with the internationally accepted concept of Anticipatory Self defence. The basic principle of this concept allows small countries who believe that they are facing an imminent and clear attack from a larger power to launch a pre-emptive attack. This mechanism allows these smaller countries, when they believe that they will be crushed and destroyed, to launch a swift lightning attack on the larger force to cause disarray in the invading force and thwart the attack.
This taking action before being attacked is referred to as Anticipatory self-defence, it is a mechanism that gives you the right to launch a pre-emptive strike when you feel that you are facing certain attack.
In Tigray there was an Ethiopian army of 30000, where Tigrayans constituted a major part of the chain of command of this force. So when you have Unitary forces intending to invade from the south, and from the North you have Isaias Afewerki and when these forces are planning a war on the people of Tigray, should the people just sit with folded arms and wait? No they shouldn’t.
It was because of this that a lighting strike had to be carried out. If the lighting strike had not been taken, today Tigray would not be a region where we can sit here and discuss these things. Multitudes would have been killed and there would have been a great deal of destruction. As stated, the dictatorial dream of Abiy would have been fulfilled, albeit temporarily.
The Northern Command had about 70-80% of the military hardware, including the heavy artillery weapons, and the firepower of the entire Ethiopian army. This strong Northern Command was destroyed by incorporating its existing members who wanted to join us peacefully. Our intention was to commandeer the weapons and firepower of the Northern command for the benefit of the Tigray people.
This was the first phase of the action. But, things have moved beyond that. They had worked the invading force into a frenzy by telling them that the Ethiopian army had been stabbed in the back and was told that now is a good opportunity to regain the land that it had lost to the TPLF. The invading force had been mobilised while in a state of shock.
As there were some pockets of the Northern command that had not been yet been subdued, the army of Tigray firstly defended against an invading force from the south, secondly it carried out a mop up operation in the Tigray region where, either through negotiations or the use of force it had disarmed the pockets of the Ethiopian northern command that were still armed.
