Alliance for Survival rejects Rubio’s “separatist” and “terrorist” labels, asks Washington for a balanced stance


Statement of the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival dated October 18, 2026, responding to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

The October 18 statement of the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival answering U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as it was shared on X. (Image: Sultan M. Sied via X)

The armed opposition coalition fighting the Ethiopian government said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was wrong to call its war "separatist" and its attacks "terrorism," and urged Washington to take a balanced position.

In a statement dated October 18 and signed in the name of the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival, the coalition said the "military acts of self-defense" it has carried out "are not aimed at, or prompted by, separatist objectives to fragment and balkanize our country." It said the fighting started "as a last resort when all sincere endeavors for peaceful reconciliation, including on the basis of the Pretoria Agreement, were rebuffed and totally jettisoned by the ruling regime." Calling the movement separatist, the statement said, "is legally inaccurate and politically inappropriate."

The alliance also rejected the word terrorism for its operations against government forces. "Classifying certain AFS military operations that target the military installations of the adversary as 'terrorism' is unwarranted as it portrays a skewed picture of the reality," the statement said. It accused the Gov't of using "extensively more advanced weapons" against military targets and against "densely populated civilian areas under our control," and warned that the label "will only embolden the regime to pursue its war agenda with impunity and foreclose all efforts for a peaceful resolution." It closed by urging the United States "to pursue a balanced and constructive stance on the whole conflict."

Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service to respond to the alliance's statement and to confirm or deny its claim that Gov't forces struck densely populated civilian areas, and will update this story with any response.

The statement was answering remarks Rubio made to reporters on Saturday, which the alliance said it heard in an interview carried by C-SPAN. As Mereja reported on Sunday, Rubio spoke of "these separatists" and "terrorist attacks" against Ethiopia, according to the State Department transcript, and called for a "wise and measured" response. He did not name any group, and he did not announce any formal terrorist designation.

A State Department spokesman, responding to questions from Mereja, said the United States reiterates its call for Ethiopia and Eritrea to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their neighbors, and that this message has been delivered privately and publicly to both sides at various levels over the last six months. The spokesman said Secretary Rubio spoke with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Oct. 14 to stress those messages.

Addis Standard, which reported the statement on Monday, described the alliance as a coalition of armed and political groups that includes the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo Liberation Army and the Amhara Fano National Movement, and said its formation was announced on September 20. The paper said it could not independently verify the alliance's claims about Gov't strikes on civilian areas. DW Amharic also carried the response in its live coverage of the northern war on Monday.

The statement spread fast on X on Sunday, often tagged to Rubio and to U.S. senators. Neby G and Sultan M. Sied, who describes himself on X as an economist and researcher, were among the first to post the full text. Martin Plaut, the Horn of Africa writer, reshared it, and the Ethiopian news account Mulugeta Anberber posted an Amharic summary under the words "breaking news," which drew more than 40,000 views by Monday.

Supporters of the coalition went further than the statement. Solomon Medhanie wrote a long post titled "Mislabeling the Alliance for Survival," arguing that "an alliance brings together diverse political forces" and "should not automatically be equated with a movement seeking to divide a country." He noted that Ethiopia's 1995 Constitution recognizes a right to self-determination "including secession" and said labeling the coalition separatist "should require clear evidence of an explicit separatist agenda." Another user, Ras Menelik, told Rubio that "labels are easy" and that Washington "cannot understand a conflict by repeating the government's talking points."

Others were less kind to the coalition. The account @Abyssinia_Rise wrote that Rubio's words expose "a weakness the coalition itself has handed Washington," because "six of its seven constituent organizations have historical roots in ethnic nationalism, several with explicitly separatist ambitions." The same post asked whether Rubio had "actually examined the alliance's political blueprint" or simply accepted the Gov't's version, and said rejecting a label "cannot settle the question of what these organizations collectively intend to build."

Habtamu Gurmu, a commentator, posted that the groups in the alliance "are being called terrorists and separatists" and that the Amhara Fano National Movement is now "officially a terrorist organization, just like the OLA-Shene and the TPLF." That reading was challenged within hours. The account Juxa replied that Rubio "described groups attacking inside Ethiopia as separatists and called drone strikes on the capital terrorist attacks," adding, "He did not issue a formal terrorist designation."

Some questioned how much attention Rubio has given Ethiopia at all. Lauren Blanchard wrote on X that "unlike when he is asked about Sudan, his response suggests he has spent little time on Ethiopia or Eritrea." Berhanemeskel Nega, a former UN official, replied to a post by the Norwegian scholar Kjetil Tronvoll that U.S. policy toward Ethiopia "has been shaped largely by ad hoc interests and expedient solutions" for half a century, and called Rubio's statement "a continuation" of that pattern.

Senait Senay, an Ethiopian commentator, came at it from another side. In an Amharic post she asked why people were surprised that U.S. officials now call the TPLF separatist, reminding readers that the same front was helped to power in 1991 after meetings that ran "from New York to London."

Mereja found no public Gov't response to the alliance's statement by Monday morning. Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had welcomed Rubio's remarks on X on Saturday, Mereja reported.

Sources

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