We have been reporting on the escalating war in Ethiopia since it broke out in early November. It was launched by its Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after the region held its election in September without Ahmed’s approval.
As the war spread, we reported on Ethiopia bringing in troops from neighboring Eritrea to help them battle the TPLF. Prime Minister Ahmed – who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 – denied the accusation, stating there were no outside troops in the country.
Then and Now
Last week, Amnesty International issued a report that put the spotlight on an Eritrean troop offensive in November in a town north of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, where soldiers killed hundreds of civilians in a “coordinated and systemic” manner.
Al Jazeera reported that the timeframe of the atrocities ranged from 28 to 29 November. Amnesty’s report said the forces killed civilians as they fled and randomly shelled buildings. These troops, some of whom wore Eritrean uniforms, entered homes and killed teenage and adult men, the report said.
The U.S. recently called for the forces to leave the country immediately.
TREND FORECAST: As we had forecast when the war was launched, the greater the tensions rise and the deeper the nation falls economically, the more people in this highly-populated nation will seek refuge in safe-haven European nations.
Since then, there have been numerous reports of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean as they try to escape their ravaged homelands for safer European shores.
As economies decline, civil unrest, civil wars, crime, violence, and corruption will sharply increase, further fueling the migrant crises. If there is not a peace movement to stop escalating wars across the Horn of Africa, human conditions will dangerously deteriorate.
