Ethiopia says 156 terrorists surrender in past 4 months

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government on Thursday said some 156 terrorists have surrendered to Ethiopian security officials in the past four months.

The surrenders are said to be members of various outlawed groups such as Ginbot-7, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Amhara People's Democratic Movement (APDM) and Tigray People's Democratic Movement (TPDM), local media FBC quoted an Ethiopian security official as saying.

Teku Meteko, deputy administrator and security head of western Tigray zone, said the 156 individuals were based in Ethiopia's neighboring nation Eritrea.

According to Meteko, more than 160 members of various terror groups had returned to Ethiopia in the last Ethiopian fiscal year, the report added.

The Ethiopian government has alleged the abovementioned rebel groups are supported by its archrival and neighboring country Eritrea, while Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of supporting Eritrean rebel groups and running an international campaign to isolate the Red Sea nation.

Since Eritrea's independence following a referendum in 1993, the two nations have been locked in a hostile border dispute, which resulted in a bloody border war between 1998 and 2000 that killed an estimated 70,000 people from both sides.

Since then, the common border between Eritrea and Ethiopia has had an uneasy calm punctuated with periodic armed standoffs. Enditem