It is one year this November since fighting broke out in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia and it seems it is getting out of control. The Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, had in 2020 sent federal forces to topple the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which controls the regional government following an alleged attack on a military formation. Ahmed was an ally of the TPLF who together ran the government of the country since the ouster of the dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, in 1991. However, after last year’s elections, the TPLF accused Ahmed of sacking its top officials from government.
The fighting, which the government had earlier declared over in June this year, has since escalated and widened to neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar. The war has so far resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, with more than two million displaced. Both sides have also been accused of deliberate killing of civilians and blocking humanitarian supplies. A United Nations (UN) report indicates that ethnic Tigrayans across the country have reportedly been targeted with arbitrary detentions, while civilians in Tigray have cited gangraping, human-caused famine and mass expulsions as what they are experiencing. The report added that acute food insecurity is affecting up to seven million people throughout Ethiopia.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) whose director general is an Ethiopian, on Friday, accused both sides of blocking medical supplies to the region, while the UN also accused the Ethiopian government of detaining its personnel.
It is sad that Ethiopia has found itself in another war only a few years after negotiating peace with its long-term “enemy”, Eritrea. In fact, the peace deal earned Prime Minister Ahmed a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. It is really an irony that just over a year after earning this prestigious prize for his effort in ending a war, Ahmed has found himself at the centre of a senseless war.
So far, efforts by the East African regional grouping, IGAD, the UN, the United States (US) and the African Union (AU) to bring the belligerents to discuss peace has recorded little success. The US Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffry Feltman, had discussions with leaders of the warring sides with no results. Similar efforts by Kenyan and Ugandan leaders, as well as former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the AU special envoy, have yielded no fruits.
It appears both sides are determined to continue to plunge citizens into further difficulties. To further show his determination, Prime Minister Ahmed has declared a six-month state of emergency, called on war veterans to rejoin the army and asked Ethiopians to defend themselves. The rebels have also intensified their attacks and vowed to take over the country’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia, with more than 112 million, is the second most populous nation in Africa. However, it is one of the poorest with a per capita income of $850. It is currently in dispute with Sudan and Egypt over the Nile River. A war or any conflict in this country is a great disservice to the ordinary people who are struggling to eke a living.
It is, therefore, important that the international community, particularly the AU and the UN, finds an urgent solution to this crisis. Leaders on both sides should be told in clear terms that they would be held responsible for the suffering of the ordinary Ethiopians. It is clear that the conflict is more about who controls the affairs of the country than the welfare of the people. This is indeed unfortunate and the leaders must be told so.
Africans have suffered enough due to the ego of their leaders, which this war represents, and the leaders of Ethiopia should know that.
We, therefore, call on both sides, especially Prime Minister Ahmed, who is a Nobel Laureate, to in the interest of their people and Africa, cease all hostilities and move to the negotiating table. This crisis has gone on for too long and only dialogue can bring about genuine reconciliation and peace.
Ethiopia, which hosts the headquarters of the AU, must not be allowed to descend into a jungle. Africa has had enough.
