Tigray Defense Forces

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Tigray Defense Forces
ሓይልታት ምክልኻል ትግራይ
ሰራዊት ትግራይ
Mottoዘይንድይቦ ጎቦ
There are no mountains we would not climb
Founded4 November 2020; 3 years ago (2020-11-04)[1][2][3]
Current formGuerrilla forces
HeadquartersMekelle
Leadership
PresidentDebretsion Gebremichael
Commander-in-chiefLieutenant General Tadesse Werede Tesfay
Member of central commandLieutenant General Tsadkan Gebretensae
SpokespersonColonel Gebre Gebretsadik
Personnel
Active personnel<10,000[4][5]–250,000[6] (est. Nov. 2020)
Related articles
HistoryTigray War

The Tigray Defense Forces (Tigrinya: ሓይልታት ምክልኻል ትግራይ; TDF: ሓምት), colloquially Tigray Army (ሰራዊት ትግራይ) Is a paramilitary rebel group in Tigray. It was founded by distant former generals of Ethiopia in 2020 to fight the federal government mandate and federal forces which enforce federal mandate in the regional state, in the Tigray War.[7] The TDF is said to have experience with guerrilla warfare.[8][9] Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have reported that TDF rebels have partaken in gang rapes and extrajudicial killings of civilians during their occupation of the Afar and Amhara regions.[10][11] According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice TDF rebels have been found responsible for at least 540 civilians deaths by 28 December 2021.[12]

Territory controlled by the Tigray Defense Forces (dark green). Inside of the Tigray Region (light green)

Rural village near AGAMSA town burnt to ground by TDF

International medias reported that TDF burned down entire village near Kobbo which is in North Wollo. This reports show satellite images of entire village before and after it was burned. [13] [14] [15] [16]

War crimes

Main article: War crimes in the Tigray War

The TDF have been implicated in numerous war crimes in Afar and Amhara Regions to include the extrajudicial killings of civilians, indiscriminate shelling and shooting, rape as a weapon of war, use of civilians as human shields, and widespread looting and destruction of civilian infrastructure and private property.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

Composition

The Tigray Defense Forces consist of a merger of the Special Forces of the Tigray Regional government, soldiers that have defected from the federal forces,[6][24] local militia, members of Tigrayan political parties such as the TPLF, National Congress of Great Tigray, Salsay Weyane Tigray, Tigray Independence Party and others[25] together with numerous youth who fled to the mountains.[26][27][28][29]

The Tigrayan leadership, though driven from power in Mekelle, the region's capital, has rallied under the banner of the Tigray Defence Forces, an armed resistance group. It is led by the removed Tigrayan leaders and commanded by former high-ranking Ethiopian National Defence Force officers.
— International Crisis Group, Ethiopia's Tigray War: A Deadly, Dangerous Stalemate, [28]

Within the TDF, analysts believe that the relative influence of the TPLF has been weakened, at the benefit of the other, often relatively new, components.[28][29]

Equipment

As of 1 September 2021, the TDF was reported by a semi-anonymous, military-focused blog to operate at least 53 main battle tanks, 21 armoured personnel carriers (APCs), 48 pieces of towed artillery, 11 rocket launchers and even ballistic missiles. This is significant since, unlike a unconventional guerilla force, they can, in theory, fight conventionally.[30][better source needed]

Transition from regular to guerrilla force

According to the Jamestown Foundation:

Before the outbreak of hostilities, the TPLF-controlled regional militia functioned as a more traditional military force that was well-supplied and trained in the use of heavy weapons. The ENDF and the Ethiopian Air Force successfully targeted the TPLF-led regional militia’s heavy equipment during the first weeks of the war. However, much of this equipment was abandoned by the TPLF before it was targeted. The TPLF leadership knew that such equipment would be useless for the kind of war that they would have to wage.[9]

Leadership

Many of the TDF officers and non-commissioned officers defected from the ENDF in the lead up to and during the Tigray War.[9] In a zoom meeting with Tigray diaspora activists in June 2021, the President of the disputed Government of Tigray, Debretsion Gebremichael, said that the TDF is led by a central command which coordinates all aspects of the armed resistance of Tigray.[citation needed]

Lieutenant General Tsadkan Gebretensae, who was the Ethiopian national forces commander in chief until 2001, became the TDF commander in chief and remained in that post until March 2021,[28][31] when he became a member of the Central Command.[4][32]

Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede Tesfay ("Wedi Werede") is part of the command[28][9] and Commander-in-Chief of the TDF since March 2021.[5]

Brigadier General Migbey Haile is Commander of the Army.[33]

Brigadier General Abraha Tesfay ("Dinkul") is Commander of Army.[34][35]

Rank and file

According to the Jamestown Foundation, as of May 2021 "Young men and women—many of whom fear being raped or murdered—are fleeing to areas under the nominal control of the TDF. The TDF is also accused of carrying out attacks on Amhara civilians."[9]

Tigrayans belonging to civil society have also joined the TDF. This includes Professor Kindeya Gebrehiwot, previous president of Mekelle University; Desta Gebremedhin, previous journalist of BBC World, numerous popular musicians, and Prof. Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, an internationally renowned peace researcher.[29] Desta Gebremedhin's wife Weyni Abraha explained that Desta was not in peace after the breakout of the Tigray war. Desta made his decision to join TDF when he went to Sudan to cover the Tigrayan refugees.[36]

The TDF has been accused of forced recruitment, including that of minors. According to multiple witnesses and Tigrayan administrative officials, each household in Tigray was required to enlist one family member to the TDF, and those who refused to comply were arrested and imprisoned, including parents of minors who did not wish to enlist.[37][38]

Operational mode

In 2020–2021, the TDF operates as a guerilla force in the Tigray War.[39]

According to the Jamestown Foundation, as of May 2021 "the TPLF, or now TDF, possess the two components most critical to conducting a guerrilla war: deep knowledge of the geographic and socio-political terrain and a sympathetic population. The TPLF/TDF also has caches of weapons and an abundance of fighters as well as professionally trained officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs)."[9]

TDF's operational mode is to launch attacks at night, beat Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, take their equipment, and reuse it against them. To communicate, they pass through the people, "because this war is also theirs".[27][clarification needed]

In July 2021, after the Ethiopian government had declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrawn from much of the Tigray Region, the TDF invaded the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions.[40][41][42] The ENDF then launched its own counteroffensive and by December 2021 had recaptured those regions.[43]

Strategy

According to the Jamestown Foundation, "After the ENDF and soldiers from the Eritrean Army took over Tigray’s major towns, TDF forces retreated to strongholds in the mountainous central interior of the region. There, the TDF consolidated forces and re-organized for a transition to guerrilla-style combat... Following what was a strategic retreat to the rugged interior, TDF forces re-organized into small, highly-mobile, lightly armed, detachments of ten to eighty fighters. These detachments were then further divided into mission-specific units."[9]

Popular support

According to the Jamestown Foundation, "The Ethiopian government's scorched earth strategy in Tigray has all but ensured the alienation of most Tigrayans. It has also ensured that the TDF will have no shortage of committed fighters and sympathetic supporters within Tigray."[9]

Prospects

In May 2021, the Jamestown Foundation analyzed the prospects for TDF as follows:[9]

It is unlikely that the TDF will be defeated over the short or medium term. The TDF will draw on a deep well of local support to sustain itself over the coming months and, quite possibly, the coming years. Neither the ENDF nor the Eritrean Army is capable of launching the kind of sustained clearing operation that would be required to remove the TDF from central Tigray. Such an operation would also further and, rightly, provoke the ire of the international community.

References

  1. ^ "Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau Press Release on Facebook, Central Command Spokesperson Getachew Reda". Facebook. 14 November 2020.[self-published source]
  2. ^ "Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau Press Release on Facebook, Tigray Defense Forces spokesperson Gebre Gebretsadkan". Facebook. 19 November 2020.[self-published source]
  3. ^ "Central Command Spokesperson Getachew Reda Interview With Dimtsi Weyane Television". YouTube. 14 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b Tghat, 7 June 2021, General Tsadekan Gebretensae Exclusive Interview With Dimtsi Weyane Tigray, Broadcast on May 29, 2021
  5. ^ a b Dimtsi Weyane, 18 June 2021, ምስ ኣዛዚ ሰራዊት ትግራይ ተጋዳላይ ታደሰ ወረደ (ወዲ ወረደ) ዝተገበረ ቃለ መሕትት[self-published source]
  6. ^ a b Fick, Maggie (10 November 2020). "Battle-hardy Tigray back in spotlight as Ethiopia conflict flares". Reuters. Retrieved 3 May 2021. Tigrayan forces and militia are battle-hardened, have large stocks of military hardware and number up to 250,000 men, experts say. Federal authorities have restricted access to the region, making it hard to verify details of the fighting. However, there are indications that Tigrayans in the powerful Northern Command, which accounts for about half of the federal army's manpower and its best divisions, are defecting. Local forces are already in control of its headquarters in Mekelle and other army facilities in Tigray, according to a United Nations internal security report seen by Reuters. Ethiopia expert Alex de Waal said Abiy may have underestimated the Tigray leaders' skills in both politics and war. The Tufts University academic recalled the words of Tsadkan Gebretensae, a Tigrayan who once commanded Ethiopia's army against Eritrea, in a conversation with him: "War is primarily an intellectual activity"
  7. ^ "Ethiopia is fighting 'difficult and tiresome' guerrilla war in Tigray, says PM". The Guardian. 4 April 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021. Despite the deployment of Eritrean troops and militia from Ethiopia's Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south, most TPLF leaders remain on the run and ICG noted that none were reported captured or killed in February or March. Pro-TPLF fighters have regrouped under the Tigray Defense Forces, an armed movement "led by the removed Tigrayan leaders and commanded by former high-ranking" military officers, ICG said.
  8. ^ Plaut, Martin (8 January 2021). "Eritrea in the Tigray war: What we know and why it might backfire". African Arguments. The Royal African Society. Retrieved 22 August 2021. Tigray's regional capital, Mekelle, fell with hardly a fight but only because Tigrayan fighters withdrew in order to resort to tactics they adopted decades ago. The TPLF has always believed in war of manoeuvre rather than positional war – taking to the hills and mountains and attacking in the rear. The Tigray war is unlikely to be a brief conflict or produce an easy victory for Abiy and Isaias. As a Reuters report explains, the TPLF "is battle-hardened from both the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea and the guerrilla war to topple dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jamestown Foundation, 24 May 2021: Tigray Defense Forces Resist Ethiopian Army Offensive as Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethnic Militias Enter the Fray
  10. ^ "Ethiopia: Survivors of TPLF attack in Amhara describe gang rape, looting and physical assaults". Amnesty International. 9 November 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  11. ^ "Ethiopia: Tigray Forces Summarily Execute Civilians". Human Rights Watch. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  12. ^ "In Ethiopia war, new abuse charges put focus on Tigrayan former rulers". Reuters. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  13. ^ Zelalem, Zecharias (17 August 2021). "'They are out for revenge': Evidence of war crimes as rebels roar out of Ethiopia's Tigray region". The Telegraph.
  14. ^ "Genocide and Crime Against Humanity Being Committed by TPLF Terroris Group in Amhara Region | Zehabesha: Ethiopian News, Opinions Videos and More". 28 September 2021.
  15. ^ "BBC report confirms TPLF terrorist have conducted Agamsa massacre in North Wollo". 26 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Telegraph Exposed TPLF crimes!! 'They are out for revenge': Evidence of war crimes as rebels roar out of Ethiopia's .... - Mereja Forum".
  17. ^ "Ethiopia: Survivors of TPLF attack in Amhara describe gang rape, looting and physical assaults". Amnesty International. 9 November 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  18. ^ Reuters (9 September 2021). "Tigray forces killed 120 civilians in village in Amhara - Ethiopia officials". Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2022. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  19. ^ "Ethiopia calls on civilians to join army to fight Tigray forces". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  20. ^ "At scene of Ethiopia's new killings, some fight, some flee". AP NEWS. 10 September 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  21. ^ "Ethiopia: Tigray Forces Summarily Execute Civilians". Human Rights Watch. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Afar and Amhara Regions: Report on Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in Afar and Amhara Regions of Ethiopia Published". Ethiopian Human Rights Commission - EHRC. 11 March 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  23. ^ "Ethiopia: Tigrayan forces murder, rape and pillage in attacks on civilians in Amhara towns". Amnesty International. 16 February 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  24. ^ Walsh, Declan (7 April 2021). "Why Is Ethiopia at War With Itself?". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2021. As fighting erupted, Tigray officials declared that soldiers from the Northern Command of the Ethiopian military had defected and sided with them.... But although federal forces quickly seized control of Tigray's main towns, the T.P.L.F. and its armed supporters fled to rural and mountainous areas, where sporadic fighting continued through February.
  25. ^ Place St Pierre, 19 April 2021: Guerre civile au Tigré, la situation sur le terrain (Fulvio Beltrami)
  26. ^ Ethiopia Insight, 27 April 2021: René Lefort: Ethiopia's vicious deadlock
  27. ^ a b Radio France internationale, 23 May 2021: Éthiopie: comment les forces rebelles du Tigré organisent la résistance
  28. ^ a b c d e "Ethiopia's Tigray War: A Deadly, Dangerous Stalemate". Crisis Group. The International Crisis Group. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021. All sides in the conflict in Ethiopia's northernmost region appear to be girding for a protracted battle. The Tigrayan leadership, though driven from power in Mekelle, the region's capital, has rallied under the banner of the Tigray Defence Forces, an armed resistance group. It is led by the removed Tigrayan leaders and commanded by former high-ranking Ethiopian National Defence Force officers. It currently operates primarily from rural areas in central and southern Tigray, while federal troops control the main roads and urban areas. Eritrean soldiers have their heaviest presence in northern Tigray and Amhara forces patrol western Tigray and the far south. All sides are fixated on securing a military victory. None appears capable of achieving one in the near term. The Tigrayan resistance appears to enjoy broad support in the region, while federal authorities and their allies are determined to capture its leaders and put them on trial. The parties' positioning means that the conflict could well last for months, or even years, an outcome that would be even more disastrous for Tigray and the rest of the country.
  29. ^ a b c de Waal, Alex; Gebrehiwot Berhe, Mulugeta (27 January 2021). "Transcript – Call between Mulugeta Gebrehiwot and Alex de Waal 27 January 2021" (PDF). World Peace Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  30. ^ Stijn Mitzer; and Joost Oliemans (1 September 2021). "The Tigray Defence Forces - Documenting Its Heavy Weaponry". Oryx Blog. Retrieved 2 September 2021. A detailed list of heavy weaponry confirmed to have been operated by the Tigray Defence Forces can be viewed below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available. This list only includes vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment captured and operated by Tigray forces is significantly higher than what is recorded here. Tigray was home to a significant portion of the Ethiopian Army's heavy weaponry, much of which fell in the hands of Tigray forces in November 2020. Large numbers were subsequently recaptured by Ethiopia however, and therefore could not be included in the list.
  31. ^ Marks, Simon (22 January 2021). "On 'Rooftop of Africa,' Ethiopia's Troops Hunt Fugitive Former Rulers". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2021. And the top military commanders of the T.P.L.F. remain at large. Two Western officials and one with the T.P.L.F., who was not authorized to speak publicly, identified Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a former head of the Ethiopian military, as a senior rebel leader. General Tsadkan led Ethiopia into combat against Eritrea during the two countries' brutal border war between 1998 and 2000. In recent years, after retiring from the army, he ran a small brewery. Now 66, he is back in the fight with the newly formed Tigray Defense Forces, battling the Ethiopian army he once commanded.
  32. ^ " Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae: Ethiopia's Tigray rebel mastermind". BBC News website, 1 July 2021
  33. ^ Tigrai Media House, 17 June 2021, ቃለ መሕትት ተጋዳላይ ምግበይ 06-17-2021
  34. ^ Tesfaselam Informer: General Dinkul: The most famous general leading Tigraian Defence Forces speaks about the war in Tigray[self-published source]
  35. ^ Tigrai Media House, 2 May 2021, ተጋዳላይ ብ/ጀነራል ኣብርሃ ተስፋይ/ድንኩል
  36. ^ Asena TV, 28/5/2021: ጋዜጠኛ ቢቢሲ ኮይኑ ኣብ ናይሮቢ ዝዓዪ ዝነበረ ምኩር ጋዜጠኛ ደስታ ገብረ መድህን ንኽቃለስ ናብ ሜዳ ትግራይ ወሪዱ – ብዓልቲ ቤቱ`ውን ክርዓታ ገሊጻ
  37. ^ Paravicini, Giulia; Houreld, Katharine (16 May 2022). "Some Ethiopians claim forced recruitment by Tigrayan forces". Reuters. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  38. ^ "ህወሓት ለመዝመት ፍቃደኛ ያልሆኑ ልጆች ወላጆችን እያሰረ መሆኑ ተነገረ". BBC News አማርኛ (in Amharic). Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  39. ^ Lefort, René (30 April 2021). "Ethiopia's war in Tigray is 'but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conflicts ravaging the country'". The Africa Report. Retrieved 5 May 2021. Last year, Tigray's leaders underestimated their weaknesses. The region's security forces were swept away in the conventional conflict and largely unprepared to shift to guerrilla warfare after Mekelle was captured on 28 November. Even the grassroots party-state apparatus has vanished. In a 27 March phone discussion with Alex de Waal [Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and a professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University], the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) veteran Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, who has joined the armed struggle, said: "the former administration of the TPLF has collapsed… The administrators just ran away." He added that four and half months after the war started, "there is a zonal army that is organized in several places," which means this is not the case everywhere in Tigray. The Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and TPLF leadership have since avoided being wiped out, thanks to the resistance against the 'invasion' which has been spontaneously and autonomously built from both the civilian and militia grassroots and among scattered TDF units. The Tigrayans then came back to their age-old structure: the villages' self-organization. "The farmers in each locality asked [the administrators] not to return back; they said 'we don't need you, we will choose our own,'" said Mulugeta. "So, at the village level, they have a committee of seven, sometimes without any former cadre." In Tigray, the power pyramid was top-heavy. That top has been broken and is under reconstruction. At this stage, the most solid part of the pyramid lies at its bottom. The main Tigrayan war force now is the village-level popular resistance and the TDF military apparatus, which has been progressively regrouped from the remnants of the regional security forces and defected Tigrayan federal soldiers. This resistance will not be crushed even if the top leaders of the 'junta' are killed or captured.
  40. ^ "Ethiopia declares ceasefire as rebels retake Tigray capital". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  41. ^ Reuters (25 July 2021). "Ethiopia's Amhara state rallies youth to fight Tigrayan forces as war widens". Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2022. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  42. ^ Endeshaw, Dawit; Fick, Maggie (19 July 2021). "Ethiopia's Tigray forces enter neighbouring Afar region, Afar says". Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  43. ^ "Tigrayan forces announce retreat to Ethiopia's Tigray region". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
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