Addis Ababa (PP Editorial) — The decision by Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, to declare a war on a part of his country is unprecedented in the post-colonial history of Africa.
How did the Ethiopian leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, give in to pressures from chauvinists to plunge Ethiopia into a civil war that can have wider consequences for Northeast Africa?
Abiy Ahmed justified his decision under the pretext of “sovereignty” as if Tigray is a foreign a country threatening Ethiopia. By its very nature Ethiopia is an empire based on the conquests by Meneleik II. The regime change in 1991 ended statemaking campaigns started by elites from Shewa, argued Christopheer Clapham, a retired Cambridge University Professor and expert on Ethiopia. The regime change resulted in, among other things, the break-up of Ethiopia.
In 1991 the defeat of the Derg regime put Ethiopia on the road of economic recovery through a developmental state. The peaceful regime change of 2018 was viewed as an opportunity for Ethiopia to embrace genuine democracy. The declaration of war on Tigray puts paid to all the promises made by Abiy Ahmed during 2018 and 2019.
Ethiopia hosts the African Union headquarters and sends peacekeeping forces to countries such as Somalia, and yet its government is waging a war on its citizens. Afircan countries cannot look the other way. Already grappling with ramifications of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Ethiopian Government has made a decision that can undo all the achievements gained for the last 27 years. Abiy Ahmed’s unjust war must be stopped.
© Puntland Post, 2020
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