By: Fistum Getachew 

A few days ago PM Abiy Ahmed gave a long and comprehensive interview to the Amhara Media Corporation on various issues of regional interests as well as national affairs that are topical. The interview was given to the Amhara Media Corporation because it was intended to specifically address the current situation of the regional state also because the government presumably felt that it needed to clarify what ideas are being circulated particularly on the various social media specially by enemies of Ethiopia and those who are associating themselves with the historic enemies of the country. The premier may not have expressly mentioned the names of those forces that work day and night to create chaos in Ethiopia so that it does not continue with its trajectory of development and growth and be a prosperous nation. But anyone who has some familiarity with the long history of Ethiopia will guess who those forces could be. 

It is known that there are forces in the Amhara Regional State who are engaged in what they call armed struggle with the dream of overthrowing the government in Addis Ababa and take on power to form their own government. The rationale of these forces is that they are being neglected and prevented from enjoying the same rights and get the respect they deserve by the government. They claim for too long they have been sidelined by the federal government and the plight of the people in the regional state is dreadful. They believe that the central government has not heeded their requests especially after the end of the recent conflict with TPLF forces and the coming into vigour of the Pretoria Peace Agreement more than two years ago. These forces have been trying to destabilize the regional state by engaging in guerrilla warfare, seeing to it that the day to day activities in various areas of the state have been disrupted with attacks on the federal and regional forces including civilian targets. They have been striving to disrupt normal life making it impossible for people to go with their life such as sending their children to school thus making them lose time without studying. These ruthless and unscrupulous forces have been ambushing civilian transport means and hijacking them. Many times they abduct people and ask for ransom in exchange for their release and there have been many such victims. 

Seeing the challenges that the peaceful communities have to face everyday, the government had to call repeatedly for talks in a peaceful manner with its officials but to no avail. They have preferred to continue to argue that they will take power by force and that they are becoming stronger and stronger by the day also because they have recently declared their association with the banned TPLF forces stationed at Mekelle and certain members of the so called Oromo Liberation Army, a breakaway from the Oromo Liberation Front, OLF, which are in fact part of the government in Addis. 

At the same time, however, there are more than suspicious indications that the EPLF government in Asmara and the government in Cairo have been trying to assist these forces in their declared bid to depose by force the current federal government in Addis through financial support and offering training. What is more they give them the base and office facilities from where they launch their campaign of propaganda against the incumbent in Ethiopia. 

These forces continue to disseminate lots of propaganda material trying to attract as many followers as possible but there have been many cases of defections and regrets for having joined them in the first place. These forces have taken advantage of the calls for peace by the government and returned back to normal life without being subjected to any form of retaliation or punishment. 

Very recently, these forces were trying to disrupt the seventh general election carried out on June 1, 2026 but were very much disappointed that their plans have not materialized. Having seen that more than fifty million people took active part in the 7th general election and the party in power has secured the majority that it needs to form a new government for the next five years, all their campaigns and efforts have miserably failed and that was a big blow to all the narratives they were engaged in not only from outside Ethiopia but also at the domestic level. 

These forces have been intensely engaged in disseminating false reports of people in Ethiopia who support them and hence would not take part in the elections in any manner. According to the calculation of these forces, this would pave the way for them to force the incumbent government to negotiate with them and reach a favourable deal practically at their terms! There were intense propaganda rhetoric on their part with a host of unfounded and misleading information released on social media including lots of inventions and fake stories. The government has been inviting all forces who have resorted to waging a war against it to abandon the use of force and come to the table of talks and discuss them instead of trying to have the alliance of historical enemies of the country in search of an unlikely victory by force. It is well known that those forces have the dream of destroying a country called Ethiopia from the face of the earth by disintegrating it using the ethnic weapon. They forget that Ethiopians may argue and engage in disputes at the domestic level but whenever there were assaults or threats of any sort from external forces they immediately set aside their differences and unite to foil the danger and that is what Ethiopian history tells us.  

During the past four years Ethiopians of all walks of life, be them supporters of the government or opposition forces, have all been invited to present any issues that need to be addressed by the government by taking part in the nationwide ad hoc National Dialogue Commission consultations which was established to bring together the nation to a round table and try to settle all the perennial differences which for years had been disturbing the peace and stability of the country exposing it to the interference of foreign powers which are not necessarily friendly with it. The members of this Commission have been calling people to join them in the platforms they led meant to present their views and claims so that they would be deliberated upon at the National Dialogue Conference where representatives of all the communities of Ethiopia coming from all corners of the country and even from abroad converge around the table peacefully. 

After four years of gathering the agenda for deliberations, the conference has begun a few weeks ago and is bound to continue in search of a certain consensus that could serve as a solution for the future of the country. 

In the interview the premier had with the Amhara Media Corporation a host of issues were raised including the state of security of the regional state and the stance of the regional government as well as the federal government. The premier tried to describe the major achievements of the government in the state since the advent of the reformist government and how it was much more than what the former government did during the previous twenty years. The premier a highlight of some of the most remarkable accomplishments of the government in a relatively short span of time given that there were also situations of conflict in the area. He said that numerous dams were constructed, a number of projects were completed and there was improvement in access to electricity and clean water to the inhabitants of the regional state. He mentioned the increase in employment thanks to the establishments of a number of industrial parks such as at Gondar, Bahir Dar, Woldiya, Dessie, Combolcha and Debre Berhan which have made a sizeable contribution to the growth of the regional economy. 

He said that the Amhara Regional State did not suffer of any sort of discrimination or the like as many would like to argue because the numbers speak clearly of all the changes brought about during the past eight years. The premier added that what was achieved is not enough and the government is trying to do its best based on a grand strategy devised for the entire countrys future trajectory of growth. The premier stressed that recourse to conflict was no use because our past experience has shown us how dreadful it is and how disastrous it can be both in terms of human life as well as the destruction of property. He said that the government has been fully engaged in repairing and building back all the hundred of schools, health stations and hospitals as well as the infrastructure destroyed due to the conflict in the north. This alone should be a lesson not to engage in any form of violent hostilities among compatriots any more because we should learn from our own history. There are neither winners nor losers because we all lose. 

PM Abiy said it is only in unity, by following the principle of Medemer that the country could continue to develop fast and guarantee the flourishing existence of the country in sovereignty and independence capable of obtaining the space it deserves in the international arena.