ESAT News (September 8, 2017)
A former land administrator in the Amhara region says the recent pact signed between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) has illegally transferred several villages to the Tigray region.
The land administration expert who wish to remain anonymous told ESAT that two areas – Gichew and Gobe – that were historically Amhara were given to Tigray against the will of the people. He said the TPLF regime had illegally annexed the Wolkait and Tegede and other agriculturally fertile regions to Tigray and the recent pact gave more areas to the Tigray region against the will of the Amhara people.
The expert recalled a referendum ten years ago in Gichew that was monitored by the House of the Federation in which the people voted to remain in the Amhara region. The expert said the result of that referendum has never seen the light of day.
The former land administrator told ESAT that the TPLF had settled thousands of people from Tigray into the Amhara territory in the last two decades to deliberately change the demographics of the region.
The Wolkait and Tegede regions that were forcefully annexed to Tigray was the cause of the protest last summer in Gondar and Bahir Dar where TPLF forces killed at least two hundred in the two northern cities.