Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have rejected what they called “unfounded allegations” from Ethiopia’s government that they are preparing for war in an alliance with Eritrea, and have in turn accused the federal government of “serious violations” of their 2022 peace deal.
In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the TPLF said it needed to “set the record straight” in response to a recent communication from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which it said contained “inaccurate and politically motivated allegations.”
The TPLF letter, dated Oct. 8, 2025, and signed by its chairman Debretsion G/Michael, warned of a “deteriorating situation that threatens the credibility and future of the peace process.”
The TPLF said the federal government was failing to uphold its commitments under the Permanent Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA), signed in Pretoria in November 2022 to end a devastating two-year war.
The letter alleged that non-Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) troops remained in parts of Tigray, in violation of the agreement. It claimed these forces were occupying private and communal lands and were engaged in a “deliberate attempt to alter Tigray’s demographic and geographic status.”
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people remain in dire conditions, unable to return to their homes safely, and large parts of Tigray remain under the occupation of non-ENDF forces, the TPLF said.
The TPLF also accused the National Election Board of Ethiopia of taking actions that undermine its legal status, describing the move as “politically motivated” and designed to “marginalize one of the principal signatories” of the peace agreement.
“We are equally concerned about the growing militarization in and around Tigray,” the letter stated, citing the federal government’s continued training and arming of new militias, including the so-called Tekeze Guards.
The TPLF dismissed the Ethiopian government’s accusation that it was preparing for war as “unfounded,” stating that emerging people-to-people interactions between communities in Tigray and Eritrea “should have been recognized as a positive and constructive step toward peace building” rather than being “misrepresented as a conspiracy for renewed conflict.”
“We are, however, deeply concerned that the Federal Government appears to be building a case for yet another war on the basis of such unfounded allegations,” the letter read.
TPLF calls for urgent African Union, UN meeting to address peace deal suspended implementation
The Tigrayan party said it had repeatedly called upon the African Union and other international partners for an urgent meeting to address the “suspended implementation” of the peace deal. It urged the U.N. Secretary-General to support efforts to convene a “comprehensive political dialogue.”
The TPLF also called for the strengthening of the Joint Monitoring, Verification, and Compliance Mechanism (JMVCM), the withdrawal of all non-ENDF forces from Tigray, the safe and dignified return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and accountability for grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
The letter described the communication from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a “dangerous inversion of reality—an attempt to portray the aggressor as the victim and the victim as the aggressor.”
