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Weaponised famine and selective purging in Tigray, Ethiopia

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Published : Sunday, 1 August, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 937

Weaponised famine and selective purging in Tigray, Ethiopia

Weaponised famine and selective purging in Tigray, Ethiopia

Today Ethiopia is at 'war with itself.' The War in Tigray has been described as an ongoing ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Ethiopia against ethnic Tigrayans. New IDs have been prescribed to Tigrayans, and many Tigrayans living in other Ethiopian regions have been subject to "Ethnically Selective Purges". Ethiopia has also weaponised famine as a key war tactic in Tigray, leaving an estimated 90% of the population vulnerable to famine. All electricity has been cut off by Ethiopia, cutting off Tigray's communication with the outside world. One School teacher recalled, "Even if someone was dead, they shot them again, dozens of times. I saw this. I saw many bodies, even Priests. They killed all �"

Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous country with about 115 million people, was grappling with daunting economic and social challenges well before a political feud between Mr Abiy and the T P L F erupted into violence. Combined with surging ethnic violence in other parts of Ethiopia, including its most populous region, Oromia, the Tigray war has stoked fears of a wider crisis with the potential to tear apart Ethiopia and spread to neighbouring countries, destabilizing the entire Horn of Africa. More than 5 million people, the great majority of Tigray's population, urgently need assistance, United Nations and local officials say. Fighting has displaced 1.7 million people from their homes, and more than 63,000 have fled to Sudan.

Ethiopia launched an offensive against rebel forces in the northern Tigray region in November, vowing to end fighting in mere weeks. But the war may really just be beginning. Tigrayan rebels have rebounded, taking on thousands of new volunteers, and on Monday, June 28, they entered the regional capital after Ethiopian forces retreated. Over the past eight months, the conflict has led to thousands of deaths, displaced 1.7 million people, and led to charges of atrocities--including ethnic cleansing and horrific sexual violence--mostly committed by government forces and their allies. In June, a senior UN official declared that parts of Tigray were in the throes of a famine, the world's worst since 250,000 Somalis died in 2011.

The Tigray War is an ongoing armed conflict that began around midnight of 3-4 November 2020 in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The Special Forces of the Tigray regional government are fighting the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF), the latter being aided by the Ethiopian Federal Police, regional police, and gendarmerie forces of the neighbouring Amhara and Afar Regions with the involvement of the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF). The Tigrayan Special Forces received reinforcements from defecting ENDF soldiers and civilian volunteers; they were integrated into the Tigray Defence Forces. All sides, particularly the ENDF and EDF, have committed war crimes during the conflict.

In 2019, to distance the country from ethnic federalism and ethnic nationalist politics, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed merged the ethnic and region-based constituent parties of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition and several opposition parties into his new Prosperity Party. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a politically powerful entity that had dominated Ethiopian politics for 27 years as a repressive regime through a one-party dominant system, refused to join the new party.

The TPLF then alleged that Abiy Ahmed became an illegitimate ruler because the general elections scheduled for 29 August 2020 were postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The TPLF, led by its chairman Debretsion Gebremichael, went ahead with regional elections in Tigray in September 2020 in defiance of the federal government, which then declared the Tigray election illegal.

After a long build up of Eritrean and Amhara forces on Tigray's borders, the actual fighting between the TPLF and the Ethiopia-Eritrea-Amhara alliance began with the November 4, 2020 attacks on Northern Command bases and headquarters of the ENDF in Tigray Region by TPLF-aligned security forces and with counterattacks by the ENDF in the Tigray Region on the same day, that federal authorities described as a police action. The federal forces captured Mekelle, the capital of Tigray Region, on 28 November, after which Prime Minister Abiy declared the Tigray operation "over". The TPLF stated in late November that it would continue fighting until the "invaders" are out, and on 28 June 2021 the Tigray Defence Forces retook Mekelle.

Mass extrajudicial killings of civilians took place during November and December 2020 in and around Adigrat, Hagere Selam, in the Hitsats refugee camp, and in Humera, Mai Kadra Debre Abbay, and Aksum.

At 44, Mr Abiy is among the youngest and most closely watched leaders in Africa. After taking power, he excited great hopes for transformational change in Ethiopia. As well as making peace with Eritrea, he freed thousands of political prisoners, relaxed a repressive security law and helped mediate conflicts abroad.

His international profile soared after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. But his reputation soon took a turn for the worse, and now appears irreparably damaged by the Tigray war. In November, the peace prize committee issued a rare--if tacit--rebuke of one of its honourees. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee follows the developments in Ethiopia closely, and is deeply concerned," it said in a statement. The son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, he promised to heal ethnic divisions. But as criticism of Mr Abiy mounted, he resorted to old tactics like shutting down the internet, arresting journalists and detaining protesters and critics by the thousands.

On 16 June 2021, the Ethiopian ambassador to the UN stated that Eritrean troops in Tigray were to "definitely leave soon". On 22 June 2021, an Ethiopian military cargo plane was shot down over Samre, marking a turn of the war in the TDF's favour. On 28 June 2021, the Tigray Defense Forces retook the city of Mekelle. People celebrated in the streets of Mekelle as the TDF took the city.

Ethiopian soldiers, police and administrators were seen leaving, ahead of the occupation by the TDF. Shortly after hearing news of the TDF advance, the Ethiopian government declared an immediate unilateral ceasefire across the Tigray region. International News Reporters characterised the ceasefire as an attempt by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to save face, the government having little other option.
Avik Gangopadhyay, an author,
critic and columnist, writes
from Kolkata, India








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