Uganda describes the information regarding alleged support for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to destabilize Ethiopia as an “invention”.

Madrid, 4 (European press)

“The report on the alleged attempts to destabilize Ethiopia is an absolute slander that shows the author’s ignorance of simple and basic facts,” Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulaygi said in a series of messages on his Twitter account.

“The first thing is that Uganda has no border with Ethiopia, says the author. James Kabarebe was never Uganda’s Minister of Defense,” he said regarding the report, published last week by a New Zealand media outlet which considers alleged financing of the TPLF from Kampala.

Kulaygi also stated that “the Ugandan ambassador to South Sudan has never met (South Sudanese General) Akol Kaur.” “They have never met and do not know each other,” the Ugandan army spokesman settled.

The report, published by the Scope media agency, details a list of senior Ugandan military officials who will be behind the training operation in the Masaka region, in which more than 4,000 members of the TPLF could have received information and would be supported by the TPLF. The United States and Egypt.

Among the names on the list is Muhuzi Kaynerugaba, the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and army chief, who in 2021 tweeted about his support for the Tigrayan rebels, whom he described as “brothers”.

Last week, the Ethiopian government appointed a negotiating team to start peace talks with the Tigray Liberation Front with the aim of ending the conflict that has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the African country.

The conflict erupted after an attack by the TPLF on the main army base, located in Mekele, the capital of Tigray, after which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an attack on the group after months of political and administrative tensions. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in effect, although the two sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.

The TPLF has accused Abiy of stirring up tensions since he took power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had been the dominant force within the ethnic coalition that had been ruling Ethiopia since 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, viewing them as an attempt to undermine his influence.