Etiopía (Continuación)

Memorial service for the victims of the Tigray conflict organized by the city administration in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images.

The conflict between the federal government and the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) has spread beyond Tigray, intensified old animosities between Tigray and Amhara, and drawn in armed groups from Oromia, Benishangul, and Afar, deepening identity-based contestations across Ethiopia.

These days fighting is moving ever closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, threatening a catastrophic escalation. Ethiopia’s cabinet declared a nationwide state of emergency and there are widespread reports of Tigrayan civilians being arrested without reasonable grounds. Governments around the world, from the US to Turkey, are advising their citizens to leave the country immediately.

Meanwhile, northern Ethiopia is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis, with more than eight million people in urgent need of assistance.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopia Is Spiraling, and There’s One Man’s Mistake Behind It

Thousands of people killed, more than two million internally displaced and nearly a million facing famine. The conflict in Ethiopia, begun a year ago when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military assault on the Tigray region, is spiraling out of control.

The crisis has been building since June, when Tigrayan fighters took back control of much of the Tigray region and, emboldened, crossed into neighboring regions. After an uneasy hiatus, government forces last month tried to push them back. But the Tigrayan fighters repulsed the offensive and, in a stunning reversal of fortune, captured strategically important towns on the way to the capital, Addis Ababa.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed taking the oath during his incumbent ceremony at the parliament building in Addis Ababa on Oct. 4. (Tiksa Negeri/REUTERS)

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s forces have not lost the war that he launched one year ago against the rebellious ruling party of the country’s northern Tigray region, though the conflict appears to be spiraling out of control as militias and separatist groups mobilize and join forces against the government.

But even if fighters loyal to Abiy manage to pull off a military victory against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Abiy has forever lost the image of savior and peacemaker. The young leader who was once compared to Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama is now mentioned in the same breath as war criminals such as deposed Sudanese strongman Omar Hassan al-Bashir.…  Seguir leyendo »

Elena plays checkers using bottle tops with Hailemariam in May at a reception and day center for displaced Tigrayans in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Thousands of Eritrean refugees are among the most vulnerable groups in the Tigray conflict. (Ben Curtis/AP)

For the past year, Ethiopian federal troops have been fighting against troops loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in a conflict that has killed thousands of people and displaced over 2 million. Last month, armed conflict escalated in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions. And this week, Ethiopia’s government called for citizens in Addis Ababa to prepare to defend the capital as rebel groups reportedly seized towns along the road to Addis Ababa.

A month ago, the Ethiopian government alleged that United Nations officials had meddled in the country’s affairs and expelled seven of them. This move may complicate civilians’ access to humanitarian assistance, as the threat of famine looms.…  Seguir leyendo »

The sudden fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has rightly drawn much of the world's ire and attention. Fears of women's rights and civil liberties being swept aside by Islamic extremism, along with trepidation about the country's threat to regional stability, have all justly triggered global concern.

And yet, much to our distress, for nearly a year the world has paid comparatively little attention to another brutal and escalating conflict; the catastrophic violence in Ethiopia that is affecting the lives of millions and imperiling stability in the Horn of Africa.

The fighting, which first erupted in November 2020, is the result of a dispute between the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and fighters in the country's mountainous northern region of Tigray.…  Seguir leyendo »

The war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region just took an unexpected turn. Seemingly isolated in mountainous reaches of central Tigray only weeks ago, Tigrayan rebels last week overran regional capital Mekelle and other cities and towns they had left last November when federal troops moved in. They were met by dancing and cheering crowds. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had promised a short clash in Tigray and declared victory late last year, pulled federal forces back after a run of battlefield defeats. It’s a stunning turnabout in a brutal war.

So, is the fighting over? Sadly, probably not. If Abiy and Tigrayan leaders can somehow reach agreement on a ceasefire and getting urgently needed aid into Tigray, that would calm things down.…  Seguir leyendo »

He Promised Peace. Then He Tore His Country Apart

Ahead of Ethiopia’s general election on Monday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been laying out his grand ambitions for the country. He wants it to be “comfortable for all Ethiopians,” he recently told a TV interviewer, “where every Ethiopian moves around relaxed, works and prospers.” The country, he said, should be one whose “sovereignty is respected and feared, and whose territorial integrity is preserved.”

He’s going about it in a horrifying way. For eight months, Mr. Abiy’s government has been waging brutal war on one of its regions, Tigray, killing thousands of people, displacing over two million and creating a disastrous famine.…  Seguir leyendo »

Imperfect elections do not fortify Ethiopia’s transition

Ethiopia’s current government is hoping gaining a new electoral mandate will give them the authority needed to pursue their reform agenda, which includes drafting a new constitution and potentially redrawing regional state borders.

This election represents the first true test for the ruling Prosperity Party (PP), led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, since it was formed in 2019 from the ashes of Ethiopia’s formerly dominant political coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Originally scheduled for August 2020, the elections have been postponed twice – firstly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then recently due to logistical challenges and rising insecurity.…  Seguir leyendo »

In 2018, after a two-year conflict, two historically warring nations — Ethiopia and Eritrea — at last signed a peace agreement. The following year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who brokered the peace, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the two years since, Abiy joins the ranks of controversial Peace Prize recipients and nominees, as his record now includes overseeing what may amount to war crimes. Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for example, was awarded the prize in 1991 "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"; shortly thereafter, her government was accused of genocide against the Rohingya minority.…  Seguir leyendo »

A view of the Blue Nile near Dejen, Ethiopia, in September 2020. (Yonas Tadesse/FTWP)

Egypt and Ethiopia are inching, slowly but surely, toward conflict.

Negotiations over the construction and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile — which Egypt fears will cause droughts in the country downstream — have collapsed. On Tuesday, the Egyptian president warned that “no one can take a single drop of water from Egypt, and whoever wants to try it, let him try”. The following day, the Egyptian military revealed joint air force training with Sudan, which it is calling the “Nile Eagles”. (Sudan also depends heavily on Nile water from Ethiopia). Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government is moving forward with plans to fill the reservoir of the dam, which it wants to complete by 2023.…  Seguir leyendo »

I’ll use this month’s President’s Take to highlight two places where we’re worried things could fall apart further over the month ahead, at enormous human cost.

First is Yemen. The UN calls the war the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

It has left almost a quarter of a million people dead, more than half from malnutrition and disease. Many millions more are starving, displaced or homeless. The UN’s humanitarian chief recently warned of the “worst famine the world has seen in decades”. Four hundred thousand children under the age of five are severely malnourished, he said, and “in their last weeks and months” of life.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopian Army soldiers stand near children at the Mai Aini refugee camp in Ethiopia on Jan. 30. (Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images)

Nearly three months have passed since the conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) began. Despite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s assurance that the military operation ended in late November, the conflict in Tigray is far from over. United Nations officials this week cited reports that Ethiopian troops may not have the region under their command, and warned of grave food shortages, calling for the government to allow aid workers to enter the region.

On social media, pro- and anti-government groups continue to vie for control of the conflict narrative. Abiy released a statement on Tuesday encouraging Ethiopians to launch an offensive against the TPLF’s distortions and “lies” in the international arena.…  Seguir leyendo »

Etiopía no es cualquier país. Etiopía es un espejo que plasma bondades y desventuras de todo el continente africano. Lejos de las hambrunas de los años 80 que subyacen en nuestro imaginario, Etiopía crece hoy económicamente por encima de la media africana y del mundo; posee voz propia, resistiendo injerencias extranjeras, y presume de orgullo patrio por ser el único territorio no colonizado de África. Sede de la Unión Africana, la llegada al poder en 2018 del Primer Ministro, Abiy Ahmed, reconocido en 2019 con el Premio Nobel de la Paz por finalizar el conflicto duradero con la vecina Eritrea, encarnó la esperanza africana para este siglo.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopian refugee children who fled the Tigray conflict wait in a line for a food distribution by Muslim Aid at the Um Raquba refugee camp in Sudan. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia’s long-serving former foreign minister, was one of the foremost African diplomats of his generation. He was gunned down this month in Tigray by the armed forces of a lesser man – Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister and Nobel peace prize winner. Some suggest it was the Eritrean military, Abiy’s allies, who killed Seyoum, although their presence in Tigray is officially denied. The circumstances of his death remain murky.

As with much of the unreported, unchallenged murder and mayhem currently occurring in northern Ethiopia, murky is what Abiy prefers. When he ordered the army’s assault on the breakaway Tigray region in November, he blocked the internet, shut out aid agencies and banned journalists.…  Seguir leyendo »

Refugees from the Tigray region of Ethiopia head to a refugee camp in Hamdayet, Sudan. (Byron Smith/Getty Images)

I was first in northern Ethiopia in the mid-’80s in the wake of the horrific famine that took the lives of a million people. In the 35 years since then, Ethiopia’s story has been one of remarkable progress. Children in school and jobs created. Roads, railways, factories and power stations built. Addis Ababa became one of the leading African cities; Ethiopia a bulwark of relative stability in the region.

What’s tragic about the current conflict is the danger of all that progress being lost.

As I write, the conflict in and around Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is well into its fifth week, with hundreds of people reportedly killed, tens of thousands displaced and millions enduring day after day without food, water and power.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Nov. 30. (Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images)

There was an aura of excitement when Abiy Ahmed became prime minister of Ethiopia after the abrupt resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn in 2018. Abiy was from a new generation of Ethiopian leadership that wanted to reshape a nation in pain — from civil unrest, famine, and the lack of democracy and peace in a region known for endless conflict.

Abiy, an Oromo, was sworn in as a 42-year-old, one of the youngest leaders in an African continent full of dictators who extend their terms far beyond their time. He spoke from the House of People’s Representatives, reflecting on the protection of human rights, peaceful coexistence with Ethiopia’s archenemy Eritrea and the importance of opening up the democratic process.…  Seguir leyendo »

Refugees on Monday stand on the bank of a river that separates Sudan and Ethiopia. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into the northern region of Tigray on Nov. 4, accusing a powerful faction of traitorous behavior. On Saturday, the government claimed its military took control of the region’s capital city, Mekele. On Monday, the Tigray leadership accused Ethiopian troops of launching a “genocidal campaign” in the region.

Tensions have been brewing with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), once a dominant force in Ethiopia’s regime, since Abiy gained power. The conflict erupted soon after Abiy claimed that the TPLF crossed a “red line” when Tigrayans attacked a federal military base in early November. Fears of mass atrocities grew after Abiy’s 72-hour ultimatum for the TPLF’s surrender expired last week.…  Seguir leyendo »

An Ethiopian refugee who fled fighting in the Tigray Region looks on from behind a fence as she waits with others at the Village 8 border reception center in Sudan's eastern Gedaref State, on 20 November 2020. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP

A humanitarian catastrophe may soon unfold in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Following the expiry of a 72-hour federal ultimatum demanding the Tigray government either surrender or face attack, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced he had authorised the Ethiopian army to begin an assault on the city. The cost of a clash between two heavily armed forces in a metropolis of about 500,000 inhabitants could be staggering. But it is not too late to avert more civilian deaths, nor to avoid a bloody confrontation that could inflict lasting damage to the country. Following the African Union’s lead, the U.S.,…  Seguir leyendo »

A Mekele, dans le Tigré, le 9 septembre 2020. Photo Eduardo Soteras. AFP

Les communications sont coupées ; quelques connexions intermittentes par des lignes satellites permettent d’avoir de rares nouvelles ; la vie suit son court, durement ; les vivres manquent, leur prix atteint des sommets, l’argent est rationné. C’est aujourd’hui que l’ultimatum de trois jours prononcé par le gouvernement avant de lancer son assaut final a pris fin. L’armée avait annoncé qu’elle serait sans pitié.

Les préoccupations exprimées par les partenaires internationaux au sujet des conséquences humanitaires de ce conflit ont suprêmement agacé le pouvoir, rejetant ces interférences étrangères, mais incitant à plus de modération dans les communiqués envers les populations civiles devant se tenir à l’écart des cibles stratégiques.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ethiopian refugees fleeing from the ongoing fighting in the Tigray region wait for food at the Um-Rakoba camp on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Al-Qadarif state, Sudan, on Nov. 23. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

In early November, Ethiopia’s federal government launched a military offensive in the country’s Tigray region. Why would leaders declare war on their own people? Could the violence potentially spread to other countries?

How the conflict started

The Ethiopian state is structured according to the principle of ethnic federalism, with nine regional ethnic states and two federally administered city-states. The northern Tigray region is inhabited by ethnic Tigrayans, and it is ruled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF was the dominant faction in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a multiethnic, four-party coalition that ruled the country for almost 30 years before Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018.…  Seguir leyendo »