Field Marshal Birhanu Jula addresses the 119th Defense Forces Day ceremony at the Armed Forces General Headquarters in Addis Ababa, October 25, 2026. Photo: Fana via X
Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, Ethiopia's army chief, said Sunday the army had defeated a seven-group armed alliance that includes Fano, and warned that "Amhara survival" and similar causes hide threats to the country.
Speaking at the 119th Defense Forces Day ceremony at the Armed Forces General Headquarters in Addis Ababa, held under the theme "Army of Victory," the chief of staff told troops and officials that the army, "guided by God's justice," had beaten "seven Tsimdo groups" and "three external forces" behind them, Sputnik Ethiopia and Fana reported. Tsimdo is the name officials use for the Ethiopian People's Forces Alliance for Survival, which was announced in September by seven armed and political organizations, among them the Amhara Fano National Movement, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Army, and which says it wants a transitional government.
He took direct aim at that goal. "Bold bandas have hatched who say, 'We will dismantle the defense army, we will bring a transitional government,'" he said, using the old word for collaborators with a foreign invader. He described them as creatures "driven and loaded by Ethiopia's historic enemy," separatist and terrorist, carrying "a foreign mission." Fana quoted him as saying the army would never be dismantled to open the way for a transitional government imposed by armed struggle.
The warning about ethnic causes came in the same speech. According to Fana, he said that claims built around "Tigray survival," "Oromo survival" or "Amhara survival" can hide the bigger danger facing Ethiopia itself, and that invoking the survival of one community must not become a way of pulling its people into a war that threatens the country. The Amhara Fano National Movement has framed its war against the federal Gov't, now in its fourth year, as a fight for the survival of the Amhara people, and its slogan, "Our survival is through our united arm," closes its battle statements, including one issued for its Gondar offensive on Saturday.
Most of the speech was about the fighting that started on Meskerem 13, or September 23, on the North Wollo, Wag and Afar fronts, which the federal Gov't and its allies say ended with them taking the main cities of Tigray. Field Marshal Birhanu said the alliance, which he said was coordinated "from Egypt to Khartoum and Asmara," had sent the TPLF to open the war and "has become as if it never existed in the war it opened itself."
He made two specific claims. The first was that the army had seized weapons "that could be the defense arsenal of a modest country," which he said had been delivered to the Tigrayan forces through the Eritrean port of Massawa. The second was that TPLF leaders had crossed into Eritrea. "They used up Tigray's property and entered Mendefera," he said in a clip posted by Sputnik Ethiopia, naming the town in southern Eritrea, and he dismissed the TPLF's description of its pullback as a strategic retreat. "Retreating does not mean turning up in Mendefera within 10 days," he said in another clip shared on X. He did not show evidence for either claim during the speech.
Both claims have been rejected. TPLF deputy chairman Amanuel Assefa told AFP earlier that "the leadership is working inside Tigray," and Eritrea's information minister Yemane Gebremeskel called the accusation a "lie," the news agency reported. In a letter to the UN Security Council, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of trying to justify a war against a sovereign UN member state "in the name of self-defense." Egypt and Sudan have also denied any role.
On X, Daniel Daba wrote that Ethiopia had "defeated 7 Tsimdo alliances and 3 external backers conspiring to destabilize the country all in less than two weeks."
The victory claim sits uneasily with reports from the Amhara region. On the eve of the ceremony, Fano commands in Gondar said they attacked nine towns and took Addis Zemen and Kimir Dingay, and DW Amharic has reported continuing fighting and drone strikes in North Wollo and South Gondar this month. The federal Gov't has not commented on the Gondar claims.
Field Marshal Birhanu also turned to the waters. He called the Abay "Ethiopia's natural gift" and the Red Sea "a sea the Creator made for us Ethiopians to use," and said Ethiopia's Gov't and army have no choice but to secure the country's interest in both, according to BBC Amharic. Ethiopia has been saying since 2023 that it wants sea access, and Eritrea has accused Addis Ababa of planning to take the port of Assab by force, an accusation that has fed fears of war between the two countries since Eritrean troops were reported inside Ethiopian territory during the latest fighting, BBC Amharic noted.
"Both waters are enough for the region," the field marshal said, "but we are struggling against a greedy one who wants to wrap it up alone."