ADDIS ABABA – The terrorist TPLF group has caused huge damage on private and public properties including on historical artifacts in Amhara, and Afar states, a foreign journalist, historian, and author who recently visited the places said.
Sharing his observation to local media, the writer Jeff Pearce stated that the criminal faction has caused about nine million USD damage in Dessie Hospital. The state-of-the-art hospital was equipped with modern equipment and facilities and had the capacity to treat half-a-million-people annually. TPLF forces looted the hospital’s computers, dental machinery, drugs, and other medical equipment.
Wollo University President Mengesha Ayene (PhD) told Pearce that the radical element has caused millions of dollars in damage to the main campus of the university. “If you want to know the true sound of the TPLF, you look at the crunching on broken glass.”
The writer also noted that the gangs looted 97 television sets, a lot of chairs, and espresso machines from the Luel Mekonnen Hotel in Kombolcha town. The hotel’s finance manager told him the following: “When the federal government forces left, TPLF immediately took over the area and seized everything. They would wait for the cover of darkness to bring in their lorry trucks and load everything they can find.”
Meanwhile, forces loyal to the criminal clique looted and damaged artifacts including the phone that Emperor Menelik II used to talk to foreign leaders, a set of binoculars he used in the Battle of Adwa, over-four-centuries-old clay products, and the like.
Pearce said “Surprisingly, the Western media made a big fuss over the outlawed group and they worry about the arrest of ethnic Tigrayans living in Addis Ababa rather than finding the truth and keep professional ethics.”
By the same token, the terrorist enterprise committed atrocities in Kassagita town of the Afar state. “Though there are unmarked and uncovered graves in the area, they were not given attention by CNN and other corporate media. Mosques in the town and schools are also hit by the dissidents.”
Afar Development Association General Manager, Nuradin Sadik indicated the level of the damage is so severe and the people displaced by TPLF raid is assumed to be about 1.3 million, probably the figure might be going up this time. It is an untold story and unthinkable to human acts, he emphasized.
BY MESERET BEHAILU
SUNDAY EDITION 16 JANUARY 2022
