Ethiopia’s escalating war

[Deeq A.]

When Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, launched an attack on the country’s northern Tigray region he spoke of a swift, surgical operation. The intention was to neutralize the main challengers to his dream of running Africa’s second-most populous nation from a strengthened government in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian refugees who fled the fighting in Tigray rest in Eastern Sudan.
Photographer: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images

Africa’s Three weeks later, Ethiopia is embroiled in a brutal civil war.

Abiy’s forces have bombed Tigrayan towns and tens of thousands of refugees have fled across the Sudanese border. International news reports include harrowing accounts of civilians being hacked to death. The situation only looks like getting worse after Abiy on Thursday ordered the army to move on the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle.

Tigrayan militia are in turn accused of slaughtering 600 people from different ethnic groups and the province’s government has launched missiles at the capital of neighboring Eritrea, which it accuses of supporting Ethiopian national forces.youngest leader is the target of growing criticism from the United Nations, European Union and other international groups, which are all calling for a peaceful end to the conflict.

There are economic consequences too. MTN and Vodacom, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone companies, have expressed concern about taking part in an ongoing privatization process and Kenya’s biggest bank has paused its plans to expand into Ethiopia. That’s a blow to the leader’s strategy of attracting foreign investment to fuel growth.

Abiy could also find his attempts to remove a dissident regional authority has created an enemy that will dog the rest of his time in power. Tigrayan rebels fought against Ethiopia’s communist Derg regime for almost two decades before marching on the capital and installing themselves as national leaders.

They may not be easily defeated.

Source: Bloomberg

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