Militia fighters ride to the frontline to face troops from the Tigray People's Liberation Front. A week of air raids and clashes in northern Ethiopia has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced. photo:Reuters
What is the Current Ethiopia Conflict?
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | NOVEMBER 30th 2020
At the current moment, a civil war is raging through the Eastern African country of Ethiopia between the government forces and the soldiers of the Northern Tigray region since early November. Tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes behind and escape the increasingly violent fighting.
It all began when troops had been sent to the Northern region of Tigray on November 4, where a military base is situated and bordering both Eritrea and Sudan. It was only a year ago, in fact, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Aiby Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving the border conflict with Eritrea – a conflict that had lasted little over 20 years.
Prime Minister Ahmed was the one who ordered the troops to be sent there, bearing the accusation that the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the Tigray legion, had launched an attack on the base. It was later announced in a televised broadcast that the Ethiopian military led a retaliation bombing against the base. This was the spark to many building circumstances that would lead to the full-on outbreak of civil war in the country.
Clashes between the federal troops and TPLF would increase gradually. A few days after the broadcast announcement, Amnesty International would come to report hundreds of deaths in the Tigrayan town of Mai Kadra, as the result of an attack involving knives, machetes and other bladed weaponry. An incident for which the TPLF would also receive blame, despite wildly denying any accusations of fault or involvement.
In a statement, Amnesty International’s East and Southern Africa director, Deprose Muchena said that “We have confirmed the massacre of a very large number of civilians, who appear to have been day labourers in no way involved in the ongoing military offensive.”
The Tigray government made a statement on the tragedy, saying “TPLF absolutely refutes allegations the TPLF members and the Tigray special police force were involved in this most tragic event.”
The next major event occurred on November 13, when two airports in Tigray’s neighbouring state of Amhara were targeted with rocket fire. The conflict had thus widened and become even deadlier. The airport in Gondar received a hit, while the rocket aimed at the Bahir Dar airport luckily missed, according to the Ethiopian government.
The TPLF spoke out about the attacks, stating that they were retaliation for the many instances of air strikes made against the Tigray region by Prime Minister Ahmed, though no evidence was given to back up the allegations. Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the TPLF said “As long as the attacks on the people of Tigray do not stop, the attacks will intensify.”
Debretsion Gebremichael, the Tigray regional president, went on to claim that Eritrea had sent in tanks and troops to support the Ethiopian government, though this hasn’t been confirmed either.
This far into the conflict, it’s estimated that the death toll has reached the thousands if not the definite hundreds. Nearly 44,000 refugees were forced to flee across the borders into the neighbouring Sudan and thus “overwhelming the current capacity to provide aid”, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
