Conflict in Ethiopia 2020

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Location Tigrays in Ethiopia

The conflict in Ethiopia or the Tigrin conflict is a military conflict between the Ethiopian government under Prime Minister Abiy Akhmed on the one hand and the People's Liberation Front TPLF with its center in the Tigray region on the other. The background to this is also the conflict-ridden relationship between the different ethnic groups in Ethiopia . The neighboring states of Eritrea and Sudan are also involved in the conflict: Eritrea's permanent interim government supports Abiy Achmed, Sudan takes in thousands of refugee Ethiopians. According to UNHCRmore than 43,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the conflict. Figures on the victims of the fighting are not available from verifiable sources. The Ethiopian government reported on November 11, 2020 that 550 people had been killed in the fighting on the part of the Tiger rebels.

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Abiy Ahmed ( Amharic አብይ አህመድ አሊ), Prime Minister of Ethiopia from the Prosperity Party , picture 2018
Debretsion Gebremichael ( Tigrin ዶ / ር ደብረጽዮን ገብረሚካኤል), Chairman of the People's Liberation Front of Tigray (TPLF) and President of the Regional Parliament of the Tigray Region

Ethiopia is the second largest country in Africa , measured by its fast growing and relatively young population (Ø growth 2.5%, Ø age 18.33 years (2015)). The more than 110 million Ethiopians belong to around 80 ethnic groups with centers in different parts of the country. The relationship between the ethnic groups is sometimes fraught with conflict. Separate militias of the various ethnic groups established themselves over decades .

In 1975 the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) started a protracted war against the Derg military government. The TPLF overthrew Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1991 and ended the Ethiopian Civil War. From then on she permanently occupied important positions in the Ethiopian government and administration as well as in the Ethiopian armed forces . She represents the Tigray ethnic group . The party alliance Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples (EPRDF) ruled from 1991 to 2019. In the government alliance, which consists of four ethno-regional parties, the People's Liberation Front of Tigray (TPLF) formed the main force. The other parties in the coalition were the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement, and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement .

The Tigray make up about 6% of the 110 million Ethiopians. The main settlement area of ​​the Tigray is the region of the same name in the north of the country. According to the International Crisis Group , the Tigray regional government has around 250,000 paramilitary forces and militias at its disposal. Tigray's battle-tested military took the lead in Ethiopia's war against neighboring Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 over disputed border areas. The war was only officially declared over in 2018, thanks in part to peace efforts by Abiy Ahmed.

After his election in 2018, Abiy Achmed largely withdrew access to important positions from the TPLF. Abiy sought an agreement between the country and its 10 states, which are strongly oriented towards ethnic groups. The Tigray throw Abiy u. a. the discrimination against their ethnic group. Tigray leaders complained that corruption prosecutions would unjustly attack them, remove them from top positions, and genralize them and blame them for the country's problems. Several federal police and soldiers reported to the BBC that they had to surrender their weapons because, as Tigray, they were viewed as a security risk. State authorities, however, denied this type of ethnic discrimination.

In 2019, the TPLF withdrew from the ruling coalition after Abiy merged it to form the nationwide Prosperity Party . The government in Addis Ababa postponed all elections in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the TPLF-dominated Tigray, elections were nevertheless held and won by the TPLF. Abiy then declared the election invalid. The TPLF also disapproves of Abiy Ahmed's close ties to the once hostile Eritrea and its President Isaias Afewerki, who is poorly regarded by the Tigray .

The neighboring Eritrea, with which Ethiopia was in a border war until 2000 , also plays an ambiguous role in the conflict. The African Union sent the end of November 2020 representatives of Ethiopia, who should mediate between the conflicting parties. Abiy had previously forbidden any interference from abroad.

The Ethiopian government is blocking the internet in the crisis regions.

conflict

View of the capital of the Tigray region, Mekelle
picture 2018

In 2020, the conflict between the TPLF-sponsored regional government in the Tigray region and the Ethiopian central government escalated after the Tigray government called for elections to the regional parliament, despite the central government's cancellation of all election dates due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia . In the election in Tigray on September 9, 2020, which was nevertheless carried out, the TPLF won all 152 seats in the regional parliament and 98.2% of the votes, as in the previous elections.

The TPLF regional government had the Tigray police force equipped with AK-47 assault rifles and RPG anti - tank weapons demonstrated and accused Prime Minister Ahmed of wanting to establish a centralized regime in Ethiopia. He was illegally in office because his term of office had been extended due to the postponed parliamentary election.

After security forces of the regional government captured an Ethiopian army base in northern Tigray in the border region to Sudan and Eritrea on November 4, 2020, Prime Minister Ahmed ordered an offensive by the Ethiopian armed forces against the TPLF on November 5, 2020. In addition, a six-month state of emergency was imposed on Tigray and the telephone, electricity and internet connections to Tigray were interrupted.

On November 7, 2020, the Ethiopian parliament declared the regional government of Tigray dissolved.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission blames a youth organization affiliated with the TPLF for a massacre on November 11, 2020 in the border town of May-Kadra. Around 600 people from ethnic groups that did not belong to the Tigray were cruelly killed there. Even Amnesty International reported on the massacre, but points out that is unclear who the perpetrators were.

On November 13, 2020, the Ethiopian Parliament decreed the removal of the head of government of the Tigray region and appointed a new one. Arrest warrants for high treason were issued against 64 TPLF members from the region . On the same day the airports of Gonder and Bahir Dar in Amhara were fired at by TPLF fighters with missiles. Rocket impacts near the airport of Asmara , the capital of neighboring Eritrea , were also recorded. According to a report by the AP news agency , the shelling was confirmed by the regional government in Tigray, claiming, among other things, that the Eritrean port city of Assab used drones from the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. No evidence was presented. The Eritrean government denied any involvement in the conflict, but some observers have questioned this.

The Ethiopian government gave the TPLF an ultimatum to negotiate, which the TPLF did not respond to. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed then said on Twitter that the third and final phase of the military offensive in the region is now beginning. On November 26, 2020, the Ethiopian Army had concentrated its tanks around the capital of the Mek'ele region with around 500,000 inhabitants. On November 28, the attack on the city of Mek'ele took place and the army announced the capture on the same day.

Humanitarian situation

Figures on victims of the fighting are not available from verifiable sources; On November 11, 2020, the Ethiopian government reported that 550 people had died on the part of the Tigrian rebels in clashes.

Many people flee the armed conflict across the border into neighboring Sudan . As of November 28, 2020, the UNHCR assumed that more than 43,000 people had fled Tigray to Sudan. Even before the 2020 conflict, around three million people in Tigray and 15 million people across the country had to rely on humanitarian aid, according to the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Population growth in Ethiopia. Accessed November 30, 2020 .
  2. ^ Ethiopia mean age of the population, 1950–2019 - knoema.com. Accessed November 30, 2020 (German).
  3. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Separatism in Africa: A Legacy of Colonialism | DW | November 22, 2020. Accessed November 30, 2020 (German).
  4. ^ Fritz Schaap, DER SPIEGEL: Ethiopia: Ethnic violence after the death of Hachalu Hundessa - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Accessed November 30, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict explained in 500 words. Accessed November 30, 2020 (English).
  6. ↑ a b Ethiopia conflict: What are they fighting about and why? Retrieved November 26, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: Fears of ethnic profiling stalk conflict. BBC News, November 25, 2020, accessed November 26, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Abdi Latif Dahir, Declan Walsh: Why Is Ethiopia at War With Itself? The New York Times, November 5, 2020, accessed November 26, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Claire Wilmit of the Washington Post suspects the motive to be de-escalation. The Ethiopian diaspora appealed under the hashtag #StopTheWarInTigray not to take a one-sided view of the situation. In 2019, Wilmit observed significant hate speech on Facebook that may have fueled the conflict. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/17/ethiopias-cracking-down-tigray-activists-are-spreading-news/
  10. ↑ tagesschau.de: Conflict in Ethiopia: Abiy announces final offensive. Retrieved November 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ CNN's Eoin McSweeney and Bethlehem Feleke: Mass killing of civilians in Ethiopia's Tigray region: Amnesty. Retrieved November 28, 2020 .
  12. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Ethiopia appoints new head of government in conflict region Tigray | DW | November 13, 2020. Accessed November 30, 2020 (German).
  13. ↑ tagesschau.de: Ethiopia begins military offensive. Retrieved November 28, 2020 .
  14. ↑ a b Ethiopia: Army apparently takes the capital of Tigray. In: DER SPIEGEL. Retrieved November 28, 2020 .
  15. ↑ https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/ethiopia-550-rebels-dead-as-tigray-offensive-continues/2039855
  16. ^ Fighting in Ethiopia: Thousands on the run. November 14, 2020, accessed November 28, 2020 .