Mogadishu (SONNA)-Ethiopian officials on Wednesday continued to insist they were in control of the Tigray situation.
Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, arrived in Kinshasa on his latest shuttle diplomacy tour, telling his hosts why Ethiopia must crush the Tigray People’s Liberation Movement.
At a meeting with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, the current vice-chairperson of the African Union, Demeke said Ethiopia will return to normalcy as soon as the ‘junta’ is crushed.
He repeated the same message he had told other regional leaders — that Ethiopia can handle the situation alone without outside help and that it is seeking to restore order, peace and the authority of the state as quickly as possible.
“As was in the Second World War during the battle of Assosa and Gambela, the DRC is ready to help take back control Ethiopian lands if necessary”, suggested the office of President Felix Tshisekedi, using a historical metaphor on DRC’s readiness to help the country.
Assosa (in Benishangul regional state) and Gambela (Gambela region) are towns in Ethiopia which were battlegrounds during the WWII. Soldiers from the then Belgian-Congo helped capture an estimated 1,500 Italian fighters and destroyed their fort. It was part of an Allied Forces campaign against the Italians who later surrendered. Some 6,000 Italian fighters are said to have surrendered after five months of resisting.
@Daily Nation
