Saturday November 6, 2021
Jigjiga (HOL) - Residents in Ethiopia's Somali region held a demonstration on Saturday in support of the Ethiopian government.
Hundreds of residents from Godey town in the Shabelle Zone carried placards with slogans expressing their opposition to the TPLF offensive threatening Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.
mewsinsideOther cities in Ethiopia, including Gambela, held similar demonstrations against the TPLF.
The protests come just days after Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, appealed to citizens to take up arms against the TPLF as the rebels push further into Amhara territory. Ethiopia's central government has designated the TPLF as a terrorist organization.
The TPLF maintains that it is a legitimate political group.
In a post made on Facebook, Abiy Ahmed said that the TPLF was "pushing the country to its demise," and he urged citizens to "organize and march through [any] legal manner with every weapon and power... to prevent, reverse and bury the terrorist TPLF".
Facebook later removed the post for violating its policies against inciting violence.
By conservative estimates, over 100,000 people have been killed since the war broke out last November, and millions have been displaced.
Independently verifying claims made by belligerents to the conflict is difficult because communication in the region has been severely restricted.