{"id":837899,"date":"2026-10-17T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837899"},"modified":"2026-10-17T13:57:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T17:57:00","slug":"displaced-raya-residents-rally-in-kobo-to-demand-halt-to-interim-administration-vote-federal-official-says-they-can-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837899","title":{"rendered":"Displaced Raya residents rally in Kobo to demand halt to interim administration vote, federal official says they can return"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Residents<\/figure>\n

Residents carry Ethiopian flags at a Saturday, October 17, 2026 rally in support of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, in one of four photos the Ethiopian Press Agency's Gazette Plus posted from rallies it said were held in Raya Kobo woreda, Kobo town and Gondar Zuria woreda. (Photo: Ethiopian Press Agency via X)<\/em><\/p>\n

Residents displaced from six disputed Raya woredas rallied in Kobo on Friday to demand a halt to the selection of interim administrations in their home areas, saying the process excludes them, DW Amharic reported.<\/p>\n

The participants came from Alamata, Wofla, Bala, Raya Alamata, Zata and Korem, six Raya areas where residents have raised identity questions and which they fled over the past year, and they said the process for choosing the interim administrations lacks inclusiveness and neutrality, DW correspondent Esayas Gelaw reported from Kobo, a town in North Wollo Zone of the Amhara region.<\/p>\n

"Because there is an administration system that excludes the Raya people, the rally is being held here so that the federal government stops, thinks and does this correction work," one participant told DW. Others said they had been prevented from going back to their homes. "First, the displaced cannot enter their homeland. Second, while armed men are still there, they have blocked the displaced from entering. It is an armed body that is there," another participant said. "Let alone for elections, even for our own safety we are stranded in Kobo town."<\/p>\n

The organizer of the rally, Eyasu Tareke, told DW that the rally did not oppose the creation of a transitional administration, but that the selection should include every community. "Right now, through the back door, various things are being done and an interim administration election that favors one side is being carried out, so today's rally is for this to stop," he said. "What we, all six woredas of Raya, are opposing is not the structuring of the interim administration, but the way it was structured and the question of whom it reports to."<\/p>\n

Borkena reported that Eyasu chairs the Wollo Raya Amhara Identity and Boundary Restoration Committee and that he alleged political and military leaders from Simret, RDP and the Tigray Peace Force were taking part in the process while thousands of displaced people had not yet returned home. An X user posting as neby_G, who shared video from the rally, wrote that the committee demanded an immediate suspension of the selection, the withdrawal of the Tigray Peace Force from all six woredas and the safe return of displaced civilians, and quoted protesters as saying that "any decision made about Raya without hearing the voice of the Raya people cannot be fair."<\/p>\n

Addis Standard reported that the rally was held according to a statement issued on October 16 by the Korem Town Government Communication Office, and that participants asked the federal and regional governments to suspend the process until the disputes are resolved through constitutional and legal mechanisms.<\/p>\n

Biruk Gizaw, who leads the committee overseeing the selection on behalf of the federal government in the Raya areas that he said were freed from the administration of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told DW that his team is working to make the process free and neutral. He said the committee had reached an understanding with local committees that displaced residents can go home and take part, and that it extended the selection period by six days to allow that. "They can enter. There is a committee there. Nothing stops them; let them enter and take part," he said. "This administration is a technocrat administration; politicians do not enter it."<\/p>\n

Biruk said the displaced would face no security threat if they return, because federal police are in control. "There are federal police here, in fairly large numbers," he said. On the question of whom the new administrations report to, he said it can be discussed over time, but that the Tigray region itself currently reports to the federal government.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Ethiopian Press Agency's Gazette Plus posted photos on X of what it called "a public rally supporting the National Defense Force in Raya Kobo Woreda and Kobo Town in North Wollo Zone, as well as in Gondar Zuria Woreda." In March, Addis Standard<\/a> reported that some displaced people said they were pressured to attend an earlier Kobo rally that backed the House of Federation decision.<\/p>\n

An X account posting as The Horn African Guy wrote that a grenade explosion struck a public rally in Kobo on Saturday morning, and that the number of casualties and the extent of the damage remained unclear. Mereja could not independently verify the report and found no official statement on it by Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

In a separate post, neby_G shared a video that he said shows a Tigray Peace Force commander telling a public gathering in the Raya area: "If anyone says Raya is Amhara, let them go beyond Waja. Otherwise, let them fight us, defeat us, and then enter." He also wrote that Tigray Peace Force fighters had earlier opened fire on displaced civilians trying to return to Alamata, killing at least 20. Mereja could not independently verify the video, the identity of the speaker or the casualty claim.<\/p>\n

The rally also drew mockery from the other side of the dispute. An X user posting as Bahre Nhegasi, writing in Amharic, ridiculed a loudspeaker at the rally announcing that "the identity of the Raya people is Amhara," and wrote that the identity of the Raya people is Rayatai.<\/p>\n

Biruk told DW that waiting too long carries its own risk. "If you wait ten days, under the current situation looting could begin. Or what will you do, hand it to the armed force?" he said. "We are not political people. It was decided that a person free from any politics should enter."<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n