Addis Ababa, October 25, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Chief of Staff Field Marshal Berhanu Jula has linked the illegal TPLF group’s armed campaigns to external backing and ethnic-survival narratives that, he said, threaten Ethiopia’s national existence while forcing the people of Tigray Region to bear the devastating costs of renewed conflict.
Addressing the commemoration of the 119th Defense Forces Day under the theme “Army of Victory,” Field Marshal Berhanu said the ENDF had defeated seven Tsimdo groups and three external forces, presenting the outcome as evidence of the military’s ability to withstand coordinated threats against Ethiopia.
He connected the fighting to what he described as a wider effort by external actors to weaken Ethiopia through armed groups and internal divisions.
He pointed to support he attributed to the regime in Asmara and Egyptian authorities, and described a broader axis of coordination extending from Egypt through Khartoum to Asmara. He also said the ENDF had seized a substantial quantity of weapons delivered through Massawa.
Field Marshal Berhanu challenged narratives that frame political and military struggles as battles for the survival of particular ethnic communities.
He warned that claims centred on “Tigray survival,” “Oromo survival” or “Amhara survival” could obscure the greater danger facing Ethiopia itself. In his account, invoking the survival of one community must not become a means of drawing its people into a conflict that threatens the country’s existence.
He said the people of Tigray Region had already paid a devastating price for years of conflict, including the deaths of young people, the destruction of livelihoods and growing dependence on humanitarian assistance.
Rather than face another cycle of fighting, he argued, the region needed peace, development, new political ideas and new leadership capable of advancing its people’s interests.
The Field Marshal’s remarks placed the human consequences of renewed conflict alongside his account of the illegal TPLF group’s military conduct and external support.
He rejected a course that would once again leave the people of Tigray Region carrying the burden of war while political actors pursued their own objectives. He called on Ethiopians to stand with the region’s people and stressed that their suffering could not be separated from Ethiopia’s wider future.
Berhanu also challenged the TPLF group’s portrayal of previous military defeats as “strategic withdrawals.”
Referring to four major rounds of fighting over eight years, he said the group had repeatedly suffered setbacks while using its own narrative to obscure the outcomes.
His account of the latest fighting linked the group’s offensive on fronts in Amhara Region’s North Wollo and Wag Hemra zones and Afar Region to the wider external coordination he described.
The Chief of Staff’s warning was that ethnic-survival rhetoric must not conceal threats to Ethiopia’s national existence or serve as a pretext for another war that exacts its heaviest toll from the people of Tigray Region.
He maintained that Ethiopia’s communities should not be drawn into conflict under narratives that put the country and the people themselves at risk.