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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the former Nobel Peace Prize winner who was recently sworn in for another term, called on federal troops in the country to conduct a new offensive in Tigray, raising new fears of an even worsening humanitarian crisis in the region.
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the war in Tigray and subsequent crisis in the country’s northernmost region. In June, we reported on a watershed moment in the conflict when Tigrayan forces took back control of the region’s capital Mekelle.
(See “ETHIOPIA UPDATE: TIGRAY FORCES RETAKE CAPITAL CITY,” “ETHIOPIA AND SUDAN: TENSIONS RISING,” “ANOTHER ETHNIC MASSACRE IN ETHIOPIA.”)
On 5 October 2021, in an article titled, “HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN TIGRAY DETERIORATES. ADDIS ABABA: ‘FU’ UN,” we reported that a United Nations committee released a damning report that painted a dire picture of the conditions in Tigray that includes widespread malnutrition, blaming the Ethiopian government that launched the civil war in November 2020 for staging a blockade against essential aid that is preventing about 90 percent of the aid from reaching its intended target.
There are over five million people in the region in urgent need of relief, and at least 400,000 are in famine-like conditions, according to The New York Times.
UN officials said that the new assault ordered by Ahmed will only increase the suffering in Tigray, which is considered the world’s worst famine in the last 10 years, the NYT reported. According to the paper, some Tigrayans are eating leaves to survive.
A top Tigrayan official said that Addis Ababa began the new assault with drones and warplanes to soften targets, and then deployed ground troops. These drones may have been supplied by Turkey, Iran, or China. The official called it a “decisive moment” and did not predict a protracted clash.
Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigrayan forces, told The Washington Post that there was active fighting Monday on at least three fronts in the Amhara region.
Eyder Peralta, a journalist for NPR, said that at the center of the new fight is “a centuries-old ethnic rivalry between Amharas and Tigrayans.”
“So when you talk to regular people, they frame this war as existential. They’re out to kill us, and we can’t let them,” he said.
TREND FORECAST: Again, as we continue to note, while the Presstitutes and politicians continually sell the COVID War, the ongoing Ethiopian War, like the Yemen War, the masses are oblivious to the mass murder and the destitution of millions of lives and livelihoods of innocent Ethiopian civilians.
The longer this war lasts, the more Ethiopians will be escaping in efforts to find safe-haven nations. As economic conditions deteriorate across the continent, there will be strong anti-immigration populist movements in Europe to stop the flow of African nationals who will risk their lives to leave nations wracked by civil unrest, poverty, crime, government corruption and violence.
TREND FORECAST: The conditions in Tigray are so dire, a Catholic church near Mekele is about to run out of flour and oil used to make communion, according to the Associated Press. A main hospital has also run out of soap and bleach and is in the process of considering whether or not to begin administering expired medication to patients.
We maintain our forecast that the fight in Tigray will ensnare much of the Horn of Africa. Both Eritrea and Sudan have been accused of supporting Abiy’s forces. One Tigrayan general said Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki, who has long hated the Tigrayans, is the “major spoiler.”
“If the international community is earnestly looking for a peaceful solution, a settlement will not happen without taking care of Isaias,” Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae said.