Here’s a thing. Was the Addis Standard wrong when it published this story on Monday:
NEWS: MEKELLE CITY INTERIM MAYOR ADMITS PRESENCE AND PARTICIPATION OF ERITREAN FORCES IN TIGRAY CONFLICT
The paper quoted from an interview in which Mayor Atakilti Haileslassie is reported to have said: “the question of the presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray was “a daily question of the interim administration,” and that “relevant military leaders have been asked to give explanations.”
Addis Standard says he goes on to question why the Eritreans were in Tigray: “Why did they come in?” Ataklti asks and goes on to explain “the country’s largest command [the Northern Command], which was supposed to protect the country, was stabbed on its back and they [Eritrean forces] entered because there was no other defense. But it was also announced that they were being withdrawn from the country in a short time. It is a mistake to associate this with the interim administration,” he said.
But is Addis Standard incorrect? The pro-government Eritrean website, Tesfanews certainly thinks so.
Nice try.
But he is talking about troops coming from the Amhara region (not Eritrea) that are still controlling the contested regions of Tigray such as Raya, Welkait and Tsegede. https://t.co/Gol6jlgFa9
— #In17Days 🎙️ (@tesfanews) January 3, 2021
The two media sources cannot both be correct - so which is?
Who are we to associate with other than the interim administration? Because we know they’re a member of the PP.
The beauty of taking things out of context and selective editing! (I am being sarcastic,of course). There are other videos floating around that show the questioning from Mekele residents that led to this response from the mayor. From the questioning it is blatantly obvious they are talking about Eritrean soldiers (e.g., the Mekele resident refers to soldieres in question as “Shabia Soldiers.” No way a person from Mekele will mistake an Eritriean solider for an Ethiopian one.) By the way, there are more videos popping up from interviews of other PP members in Tigray (e.g., Nebiyu Sehul Mikael) confirm the same.