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Debating IdeasDemocracy and ElectionsEthiopiaWar and War Crimes
Home›Debating Ideas›Stop War Crimes in Ethiopia Today

Stop War Crimes in Ethiopia Today

By Alex de Waal
November 23, 2020
2843
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Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

Ethiopian military clashes with TPLF front – Photo credit: Sudan Human Rights Monitor

On 10 December 2019, the same day that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize, the 1991 winner of the prize, Aung San Suu Kyi was in court in the Hague, defending her government against accusations of genocide.

 

Abiy Ahmed is racing down that same road.

 

Over the weekend, the spokesman for the Ethiopian army, Colonel Dejene Tsegaye said that the army planned to encircle the Tigrayan capital Mekelle with tanks and begin shelling the city:

 

“We want to send a message to the public in Mekelle to save yourselves from any artillery attacks and free yourselves from the junta … After that, there will be no mercy.”

 

That would be a war crime. Abiy gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the residents of the city. Using artillery against a city (a civilian target) is a gross violation of international humanitarian law.

 

There is good reason to suppose that the leadership of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) may have committed war crimes too. In fact the casus belli for the offensive by the Ethiopian army is an alleged mass killing of Ethiopian army officers on 3-4 November as TPLF units overran army bases. In response, Abiy launched ground and air attacks.

 

The TPLF’s reported action was also reckless. Its military leaders may have believed too much in the myth of their own invincibility in the face of an all-out attack.

 

As the war has proceeded, government aircraft have bombed Mekelle town, including the university. The TPLF has fired rockets at cities outside Tigray. Amnesty International has reported large-scale killings of civilians by Tigrayan militia, and refugees entering Sudan speak of killings by Amhara militia. Violations by one side don’t excuse violations by the other. In a war the two sides are bound by the same standards.

 

Abiy has refused to call it a war and has instead called it a police action with the intent of bringing criminals to justice. That may have served him well in public relations in Ethiopia and have convinced the U.S. Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, but it’s not how the law works.

 

The Federal Government is at war with the TPLF. Airstrikes, tank battles, artillery barrages against a belligerent that controls territory and exercises command and control over armed forces, constitute a war. And in war, international humanitarian law and international criminal law apply. If the federal forces commit war crimes, the court won’t accept the plea that the other side fired the first shots.

 

The African Union has appointed envoys to mediate between the warring parties. The world should support them in calling for an immediate ceasefire and referring the case of the Tigray war for an independent international investigation.

TagsCivil warEthiopiaTigray region
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Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal is Research Professor and Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He was the founding editor of the African Arguments book series. He is the author of The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power.

3 comments

  1. IFFA HUSSEIN 23 November, 2020 at 14:49

    UNDOUBTEDLY knowingly as well ABIY AHMED side has committed GRAVE WAR CRIMES when carrying out offensive I discriminately to horrific level by especially AMAHARA HARDLINERS

  2. Alem 24 November, 2020 at 09:22

    To accept the Ethiopian PM propaganda that the war started November 4 because of TPLF attack on federal forces show lack of knowledge of Ethiopia political development the last 2 years from the side of the writer.

    The unelected Ethiopian PM and his mentor, the sadist Eritrean dictator has been preparing for this war for a long period. Tigrai has been blocked from the Amhara region of Ethiopia and Eritrea for more than a year. Civil war is going in most part of Ethiopia because the PM is putting in jail leaders of federalist political parties and activists. The same fate is facing critical journalists and activists. Any stakeholders in the country that don’t accept the ideology of the PM is at risk.

    The Eritrean dictator is highly involved in the various civil wars that are going on in Ethiopia. Eritrean forces involved on all fronts against Tigrai as part of the Ethiopia aggression. Ethiopia PM and the Eritrean dictator are working as they belong to the same country. There is no national law above them. They are act as they are above everything in their country.

    The world should stop this PM. He is not capable to solve Ethiopian problems peaceful. He is traitor by all standards.
    He betrayed the EPRDF party that elected him has transitional PM.
    He betrayed all federalist activists in the country who trusted him when he came to power and supported him.
    He betrayed the Eritrean people by supporting the Eritrean dictator by all means and prolonging the suffering of the people.
    He betrayed humanity by misusing the highest prize of the world for peaceful action – The Nobel peace prize.

  3. DtfWoowsGtv 17 August, 2021 at 06:34

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