Ethiopia: Mekelle Residents Call for Sustained Federal Govt Efforts to Advance Reforms in Tigray

What the report says

Residents of Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, have called on the federal government to keep up and speed up reform, reconstruction and development work in the area, according to the Ethiopian News Agency, distributed by AllAfrica. The appeal was made during a consultative forum in Mekelle attended by Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, chief of staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force.

At the meeting, residents said their main concerns were lasting peace, security and economic recovery. They urged authorities to rebuild damaged infrastructure, create more jobs for young people and restore conditions that would allow daily life to return to normal. The forum also heard support for the resumption of salary payments to civil servants and for ongoing rehabilitation work on infrastructure, which participants described as signs of progress.

Field Marshal Birhanu said his engagement with residents was intended to encourage dialogue and cooperation in support of stability in Tigray. He also criticized the defunct TPLF faction and linked it to an alliance he said had been formed by Ethiopia’s historical adversaries, a claim reported by ENA. The discussion comes as Tigray continues to recover from years of conflict, making the pace of reconstruction and the durability of peace central issues for local communities and the federal government.