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Toronto – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Monday announced reshuffling of two cabinet ministers. The Office of the Prime Minister disclosed that Aisha Mohammed is named again as the Minister for Defense. She was holding the position before she was transferred to Minister for Irrigation and Arid Areas Ministry in October 2021.
Abraham Belay, the current Minister for Defense, is taking over Aisha Mohammed as Minister for Irrigation and Arid Areas Ministry.
He was removed from the Head of Tigray Interim Administration following the first defeat of the TPLF in its war against Abiy Ahmed’s government. In October 2021 when Abiy Ahmed’s administration introduced a major cabinet reshuffle, he was named as the Minister for Defense.
There are speculations that Abraham Belay’s removal as Minister of Defense could have something to do with the government plan in Wolkait.
Dr. Abraham has been recently making headlines in connection with his remarks to planned changes to the administrations in Wolkait and Raya areas – areas that the Federal government and Western powers have described as “contested areas.”
He has been stating that government structures currently in place in Wolkait and Raya will be removed and replaced by administration from Tigray. The process is framed as “implementation of the Pretoria agreement.” Historically, the TPLF annexed Wolkait and Raya after a military victory over Colonel Mengistu’s government in 1991. An identity question has been simmering in these areas since then as residents opposed imposed ethnic Tigray identity. The TPLF finally lost control of these areas after it launched a war against the Federal government which it lost.
There have been reports that the Federal government is working on an arrangement to hand over these areas back to the TPLF forces and a recent remark from Tadesse Worede seems to confirm that. if it happened, it is prone to trigger resistance against the Federal government.
In a related development, Abiy Ahmed appointed Mohammed Indris as State Minister for “Democratic System Building” Coordinating Center – according to the disclosure from the office of the Prime Minister.
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the speculation that Abrham Belay is removed from Ministry of Defense because of his stand on Welakit is totally unacceptable. Abrham Belay is not worse than Abiy Ahmed for Amhara people. Abrham does not also do anything without getting green light from Abiy Ahmed. Abiy Ahmed is currently determined to hand over WElkait to TPLF until Fano is weakened by the joint aggression of the so-called “Defense force” and TPLF. Once Abiy Ahmed believes that Fano loses its fighting capacity, Abiy Ahmed again snatches Welkait from TPLF. That is why Abiy does not want to give Welkait to TPLF in some form of legal process. If Abiy provides Welakit through legal process such as fictitious referendum, he cannot easily use legal arguments to take WElkait back from TPLF. He is using Welkait to derive military support from TPLF and as gambling card.
what is implied rather sounds different. I would have understood it in light of the strengthening TPLF-Abiy political and military alliance. It may not be ok for Abiy to use an ethnic Tigray Defense Minister for his next round of war project against Amhara – which will manifest itself as Amhara versus ABIY/TPLF
Abraham Belay is a traitor and will face justice in Independent Tigray.
Independent? You hardly even have any police in Mekelle after being defeated by Ethiopia and Eritrea; you don’t have enough funds to rebuild on your own; there’s a rift between your god’s the TPLF. Keep dreaming though. As if Ethiopia would let Tigray secede and allow Ethiopia’s external enemies to come there and surround them. Will never happen.