Morocco Deepens Military Ties With Ethiopia In Strategic East Africa Pivot

RABAT/ADDIS ABABA (MEO) – Relations between Morocco and Ethiopia entered a new strategic phase, marked by expanding military cooperation that reflects Rabat’s broader push to deepen engagement with African partners and strengthen regional integration across the continent.

The growing defence partnership signals a significant shift in Moroccan diplomacy, as the kingdom moves beyond its traditional West and Central African focus towards a more assertive geopolitical presence in East Africa and the Horn.

This momentum was underscored by the first meeting of the Moroccan-Ethiopian Joint Military Commission, held in Addis Ababa on January13 and 14. The meeting follows a bilateral military cooperation agreement signed in May 2025, which formally established the commission and laid the groundwork for collaboration in training, capacity-building and the exchange of expertise across a range of military and security fields.

For decades, Morocco concentrated much of its political and economic influence in francophone West Africa. However, policymakers in Rabat have increasingly recognised that aspiring to continental power status requires a tangible presence in East Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, a demographic heavyweight, a rising economic force and host country of the African Union.

The rapprochement with Addis Ababa represents a deliberate effort by Morocco to diversify its African alliances and demonstrate its ability to forge South-South partnerships that transcend regional, linguistic and historical divides. A foothold in Ethiopia also strengthens Rabat’s diplomatic leverage on key continental issues and helps neutralise opposition to its core national interests, notably the Western Sahara, in regions that have historically lain beyond its sphere of influence.

Morocco’s engagement with Ethiopia has evolved from major economic investments to strategic security cooperation. Among the most prominent projects is a $3.7 billion fertiliser plant developed by the OCP Group, Morocco’s state-owned phosphate giant. That economic foundation is now being complemented by closer military and security ties.

The kingdom brings to the partnership a well-established reputation in counterterrorism, border security and military training. By sharing this expertise, Rabat is positioning itself as a credible provider of security on the African continent, a role that aligns with its wider diplomatic ambitions.

In May, Morocco’s Minister Delegate to the Head of Government in charge of National Defence Administration Abdellatif Loudiyi received Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed Mussa during an official visit to Rabat.

According to a statement from Morocco’s National Defence Administration, the talks reviewed bilateral cooperation and explored ways to enhance it, while reaffirming both countries’ commitment to peace, stability and security in Africa. The visit culminated in the signing of a military cooperation agreement covering training, scientific research, military health services and the exchange of expertise.

The defence accord built on earlier high-level military contacts. In April, Morocco’s Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces, General Mohammed Berrid, visited Addis Ababa, where he met Ethiopian Chief of General Staff Birhanu Jula. The two sides discussed a draft framework for broad-based military cooperation aimed at expanding and institutionalising the partnership.

During the visit, General Berrid toured several Ethiopian military facilities, including cyber security units, an artificial intelligence institute, Bishoftu Air Base in central Ethiopia and an ammunition factory, signalling the depth and technical scope of the emerging relationship.

Morocco and Ethiopia’s ties are rooted in a longer diplomatic history. During a visit by King Mohammed VI to Addis Ababa in November 2015, the two countries signed 12 agreements spanning air transport, mining, agriculture, tourism, water cooperation and diplomatic coordination, laying the foundations for today’s expanded engagement.

Military analyst Mohamed Chakir said the defence cooperation reflects Morocco’s broader African outreach strategy, noting Ethiopia’s pivotal role in the Horn of Africa and its status as host of the African Union. He described the Joint Military Commission as a key mechanism for advancing practical cooperation in security and defence.

From Ethiopia’s perspective, Chakir added, Addis Ababa is keen to benefit from Morocco’s military expertise, particularly in advanced defence technologies. Morocco has been steadily upgrading its military capabilities through partnerships with the United States, under a 10-year defence cooperation agreement signed in October 2020 and running until 2030.

Chqir noted that Morocco has invested heavily in military training and education infrastructure, and that the new commission provides an institutional framework to sustain long-term cooperation. He also pointed to Rabat’s parallel efforts to develop a domestic defence industry, including the launch of a combat vehicle manufacturing plant in partnership with India last October, aimed at supplying both the Moroccan armed forces and international markets.

For Ethiopian officials, the Joint Military Commission marks a turning point. The Ethiopian National Defence Force said the initiative aims to expand cooperation across military education, training, defence industries and technology transfer.

Speaking after the meeting, Director-General of Foreign Relations and Military Cooperation at the Ethiopian National Defence Force Teshome Gemechu described the first session of the commission as a historic milestone that opens a new phase of practical implementation across agreed areas of cooperation.

On the Moroccan side, Abdel Kahar Othman, head of Logistics at the Royal Armed Forces, called the meeting an important development in bilateral military relations, stressing Rabat’s determination to further elevate defence cooperation with Ethiopia and describing progress to date as encouraging.

Together, the developments point to a recalibration of Morocco’s African strategy, one that blends economic investment, security diplomacy and institutional partnerships, and signals Rabat’s ambition to play a more influential role across the full breadth of the continent.

Iran And Ethiopia Have A Security Deal – Here’s Why They Signed It

Iran has signed a security agreement with Ethiopia, a regional power strategically located in the Horn of Africa. Wikimedia Commons

BY ERIC LOB

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICS

AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Ethiopia and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on 6 May 2025. Under it, their national police agencies will cooperate on security and intelligence. This will include combating cross-border crime, sharing intelligence and building capacity. They will also share experiences and training.

For Iran, the MOU marks a significant step towards strengthening relations with a regional power that’s strategically located in the Horn of Africa.

Tehran has been using its security apparatus and military capabilities to establish and expand political and economic ties with countries in Africa. This has included drone transfers to the Ethiopian government that helped it turned the tide of the Tigray war, a separatist struggle in the country’s north that took place from 2020 to 2022.

Iran has also supplied the Sudanese army with surveillance and combat drones. These have been used against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s ongoing civil war.

The agreement is important for Ethiopia for two reasons.

Firstly, it’s likely to enable the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa to combat ethnic militias more effectively. It faces increasing internal instability, including tensions with hostile factions of the separatist Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Secondly, the agreement comes after a meeting in Addis Ababa between the Ethiopian police chief, Demelash Gebremichael, and a delegation from Iran’s regional rival, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The exchange concentrated on investigating and extraditing cross-border criminals.

Addis Ababa’s willingness to work with regional rivals in the Middle East shows its pragmatic approach to foreign relations. Ethiopia needs all the friends it can muster as an embattled and weakened state. Since the Tigray war, it has battled the rise of ethnic militias and confronted economic adversity. It is also facing renewed hostility with neighbouring Eritrea.

What Iran stands to gain

Since 2016, Ethiopia has been a gateway for Iran to gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa. That year, other countries in the region severed relations with Iran. This followed Tehran’s disengagement from sub-Saharan Africa under Hassan Rouhani, who served as president from 2013 to 2021, and his prioritisation of a nuclear deal with the US.

The severing of ties was also a byproduct of geopolitical pressure exerted by Saudi Arabia and the UAE on countries in the region. The Middle Eastern states wanted to reduce, if not eliminate, Iran’s presence in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea to limit its support for Houthi rebels in the ongoing Yemeni civil war.

Ethiopia was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to establish relations with Iran during the 1960s. It was also one of its top trading partners on the continent before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Strategically and ideologically, this special relationship was based on the pro-western and anti-communist stances of their monarchs: the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled from 1941 to 1979, and Emperor Haile Selassie, who was in power from 1930 to 1974.

After the revolution, Iran-Ethiopia relations revived under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as Iranian president from 2005 to 2013. He pursued an active Africa policy to mitigate Iran’s international isolation and circumvent US sanctions.

After Rouhani initially downgraded these relations, they were renewed during his second term. This followed US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

Relations firmed when Ebrahim Raisi, who served as Iranian president from 2021 to 2024, delivered military drones and other aid to Addis Ababa during the Tigray war.

What’s in it for Ethiopia

Ethiopia is facing increasing instability and uncertainty. The Tigray war has depleted the state’s resources. There is an economic crisis caused by rising inflation and unemployment.

Addis Ababa continues to confront ethnic tensions. Hostile factions of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front remain. It also faces tensions with the Amhara Fano militia, which initially fought alongside the government against Tigrayan forces. Forced disarmament policies and ongoing land disputes caused the militia to take up arms against the government.

Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed also faces growing opposition and resistance from his own ethnic group, the majority Oromo, and their Oromo Liberation Army. The reason for their discontent is Abiy’s imposition of centralised rule on their regional state within a federal system.

The security and intelligence cooperation with Iran could allow Addis Ababa to combat ethnic militias more effectively.

It would also enable Ethiopia to prepare for another possible war against neighbouring Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea normalised relations and fought together against Tigrayan forces. However, tensions between the two countries have been brewing again. These have been triggered by two factors. First, the conditions of the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement caused Eritrea to maintain forces inside Ethiopia. Second are the ambitions of Addis Ababa to acquire a Red Sea port in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. Eritrea has supported Somalia’s opposition to the deal.

Regional power games

This isn’t the first time that Ethiopia has tried working with two regional rivals – Iran and the UAE. The UAE is also among its top trading partners, along with Saudi Arabia.

In 2016, Ethiopia was the only country in the Horn of Africa that didn’t cut ties with Iran, though it was under pressure from the UAE and Saudi Arabia to do so. The decision was taken by Abiy’s predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, whose term ran from 2012 to 2018.

During the Tigray war, Ethiopia received military drones and other assistance from Iran and the UAE, alongside Turkey.

The civil war in Sudan has presented an even more complicated story. Ethiopia has vacillated between engaging with the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces at different points in the conflict.

For its part, Iran has supported the Sudanese army. The UAE has backed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Ethiopia’s efforts to strengthen its security ties with Iran and the UAE show a unique case of convergence between regional rivals that have otherwise remained on opposite sides of conflicts in countries like Yemen and Sudan.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Ethiopia’s Deal With Somaliland Upends Regional Dynamics, Risking Strife Across The Horn Of Africa

BY ALAMEYAHU WELDEMARIAM

PH.D FELLOW

CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

The Horn of Africa ushered in the new year with news of a deal that would ensure that diplomatic relations in the region got off to a bumpy start in 2024. Ethiopia, it was announced on Jan. 1, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the breakaway region of Somaliland, opening the door to an agreement to exchange a stake in flagship carrier Ethiopian Airlines for access to the Gulf of Aden.

Such transactions of economic reciprocity are generally routine, as scholars of international relations and law like myself are aware.

But this deal has another element. It intertwined sea access with Ethiopia’s formal recognition of Somaliland – and this has sparked quite a diplomatic stir. Ethiopia’s neighbor Somalia has demanded that the agreement be immediately retracted. In Somaliland itself, the deal has been greeted by protest and the defense minister’s resignation.

Prior to the memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had signaled his intention to gain Red Sea access for his landlocked country – a bid observers warned could have a destabilizing effect in the region.

Ethiopia is reeling from an intense and bloody two-year war within its own borders, coupled with ongoing strife among different ethnic groups. As a result of the violence, Ethiopia is currently experiencing massive internal displacement and famine.

Geopolitical tensions created by the pact with Somaliland could serve to exacerbate Ethiopia’s problems – and that of the region. But despite the risk, both sides know they have much to gain.
Somaliland’s quest for recognition

Since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland has operated as a fully functional de facto state, boasting its own defined territory, population and government.

However, it still lacks the international recognition that would allow Somaliland full participation in the global community, such as membership in the United Nations. A formal nod would also unlock access to protections under international law and economic opportunities.

The agreement with Ethiopia would be a step toward providing that critical missing link.

Recognition of a new state under international law requires established nations to acknowledge the sovereignty and legitimacy of the territory. This can be achieved through either expressed or implicit means.

Expressed recognition takes the form of an official unequivocal declaration. In contrast, implicit recognition can emerge through bilateral treaties, alliances or diplomatic exchanges – essentially signaling acceptance of a country without making an official declaration of recognition. Implicit recognition often provides a strategic advantage, safeguarding a country’s interest without triggering regional discord.

Mastering the art of crafting treaties with implicit acknowledgments can be crucial to avoid overcommitting a country diplomatically. Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was expected by the international community to navigate this diplomatic tightrope, balancing a degree of acknowledgment of Somaliland with restraint. Doing so might avoid rupturing relations with Somalia and imperiling regional security dynamics.

An ambiguous deal

The specific details of the memorandum of understanding remain unpublished. So far, any insights gleaned stem mainly from a joint press conference held by Ethiopia’s and Somaliland’s two leaders in Addis Ababa and subsequent press releases.

Nuanced distinctions in each party’s priorities have emerged: Somaliland places emphasis on explicit recognition; Ethiopia directs its focus toward regional integration.

And some larger discrepancies in messaging pop out when you look closer. Both sides point to economic and security benefits. But Ethiopia’s Jan. 3 statement suggests only an “in-depth assessment” of the request for state recognition. This seems at odds with Somaliland’s claim of guaranteed recognition in exchange for sea access.

But because the actual text of the agreement isn’t publicly available, its implications remain shrouded in secrecy – further adding to the unease in the region over the deal.

Rising regional tensions

In the days since the memorandum of understanding was inked, tensions have deepened between Somalia and both Ethiopia and Somaliland. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud issued a stern warning against the agreement and threatened to defend Somalia through all available means.

He urged Somali civilians to stand united against potential incursions and cautioned Ethiopia against escalating the situation into armed conflict.

Mohamud has also been seeking support from allies. Already in 2024, he has traveled to Eritrea for security talks aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and addressing regional and international concerns. He also received an invitation from Egypt in an apparent show of support.

Ethiopia’s precarious situation

In a further sign of growing tensions, Ethiopia’s army chief of staff has engaged in talks with his Somaliland counterpart to discuss military cooperation.

Considering Ethiopia’s delicate situation with domestic secessionist forces, critics have been quick to note that Ethiopia may not be best placed to entertain the idea of recognizing Somaliland. Not only would it risk conflict with Somalia, doing so could also lead to the renewal of a breakaway push within Ethiopia itself.

Somaliland is situated to the south and east of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State. The region is governed by the Somali branch of the Ethiopian Prosperity Party, whose legitimacy has long been contested by the Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF, a group demanding autonomy for Somalis in Ethiopia.

Until a peace agreement in October 2018, the ONLF had been engaged in a decades-long secessionist war with the Ethiopian government. More recently, in 2020, a push for independence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia resulted in a two-year armed conflict that displaced millions of people and forced hundreds of thousands into famine.

Meanwhile, the Amhara – an indigenous ethnic group in Ethiopia – have been resisting the federal government’s attempt to disarm their militia and regional special forces. And the state of Oromia also saw calls for independence before an Oromo prime minister, Abiy, was elected by parliament in 2018.

A renewed push for autonomy from Ethiopia’s Somali community could serve to reignite any number of these simmering internal conflicts and Somali irredentism.

Uneasy international response

Global attention to growing tensions in the Horn of Africa has been mounting: The U.S. has expressed serious concern, and the African Union has urged Ethiopia and Somalia to de-escalate the tensions in the name of regional peace.

Similar statements have come from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development — an African trade bloc — the European Union and the Arab League.
Widespread protests

Djibouti, which neighbors Somaliland to the northwest, has called for dialogue and a diplomatic solution.

But such calls – from both international and regional players – have done little to calm tensions.

In the days since the deal was announced, tens of thousands Somalis have protested in the streets of Mogadishu, calling the move an aggression against the nation’s sovereignty.

And while residents of both Somaliland and Ethiopia have largely supported the memorandum – hopeful in turn that it would lead to international recognition and economic uplift – not everyone is behind the deal. In Somaliland, Defense Minister Abdiqani Mohamud Ateye resigned on Jan. 8, stating that the handing over of access to the coast to Ethiopia represented a threat to Somaliland’s sovereignty.

It would seem that the memorandum of understanding has served to reopen old wounds across the region.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Ethiopia And A Breakaway Somali Region Sign A Deal Giving Ethiopia Access To The Sea, Leaders Say

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali speaks during a panel session at the 49th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Jan. 23, 2019, in Davos, Switzerland. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

BY OMAR FARUK

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (AP) — Landlocked Ethiopia took the first steps toward gaining access to the sea on Monday, signing an agreement in the capital of Addis Ababa with the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland to access the Somaliland coastline.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi.

As part of the deal, Somaliland plans to lease a 20-km (12.4-mile) stretch of land along its coastline to Ethiopia to establish a marine force base, Abdi said at the signing.

With a population estimated at over 120 million, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world.

The agreement strengthens the security, economic and political partnership between Ethiopia and Somaliland, a statement from the Ethiopian prime minister’s office said.

Somaliland President Abdi said the agreement included a statement that Ethiopia would recognize Somaliland as an independent country in the near future.

Somaliland seceded from Somalia more than 30 years ago, but is not recognized by the African Union or the United Nations as an independent state. Somalia still considers Somaliland part of its territory and reactions by officials from there were swift.

“Somalia is indivisible. Its sovereignty and territorial integrity is uncompromisable,” Abdirizak Omar Mohamed, Somalia’s petroleum and mineral resources minister, said.

Somalia posted on the social media platform “X,” formerly Twitter: “Ethiopia knows well that it can’t sign a military pact/MOU to lease a port with the regional head of state- that mandate is the prerogative of the Federal Government of Somalia.”

Somali state-owned media said in a post on social media that the Somali Cabinet would convene Tuesday to discuss the agreement between Somaliland and Ethiopia.

Somalia and Somaliland reached an agreement in Djibouti on Friday to strengthen cooperation on security and the fight against organized crime.

Ethiopia lost its access to the sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993. Ethiopia has been using the port in neighboring Djibouti for most of its imports and exports.

UN experts say Ethiopia’s conflict and Tigray fighting left over 10,000 survivors of sexual violence

A Tigrayan refugee rape victim who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, March 20, 2021. U.N.-backed human rights experts say that war crimes continue in Ethiopia despite a peace deal signed nearly a year ago to end a devastating conflict that also engulfed the country’s Tigray region. The violence has left at least 10,000 people affected by rape and other sexual violence — mostly women and girls. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

BY JAMEY KEATON

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts say war crimes continue in Ethiopia despite a peace deal signed nearly a year ago to end a devastating conflict that has also engulfed the country’s Tigray region. The violence has left at least 10,000 people affected by rape and other sexual violence — mostly women and girls.

The experts’ report, published on Monday, comes against the backdrop of an uncertain future for the team of investigators who wrote it: The U.N. Human Rights Council is set to decide early next month whether to extend the team’s mandate in the face of efforts by the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to end it.

The violence erupted in November 2020, centering largely — though not exclusively — on the northern Tigray region, which for months was shut off from the outside world. The report cites atrocities by all sides in the war, including mass killings, rape, starvation, and destruction of schools and medical facilities.

Mohamed Chande Othman, chairman of the international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, said the situation remains “extremely grave” despite a peace accord signed in November.

”While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any comprehensive peace,” he said.



“Violent confrontations are now at a near-national scale, with alarming reports of violations against civilians in the Amhara region and on-going atrocities in Tigray,” Othman added.

The report said troops from neighboring Eritrea and militia members from Ethiopia’s Amhara militia continue to commit grave violations in Tigray, including the “systematic rape and sexual violence of women and girls.”

Commissioner Radhika Coomaraswamy said the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia showed not only “an entrenched policy of impunity, but also continued support for and tolerance of such violations by the federal government.”

“Entire families have been killed, relatives forced to watch horrific crimes against their loved ones, while whole communities have been displaced or expelled from their homes,” she said.

Citing consolidated estimates from seven health centers in Tigray alone, the commission said more than 10,000 survivors of sexual violence sought care between the start of the conflict and July this year.

But accountability and trust in the justice system in Ethiopia have been lacking.

The commission said it knows of only 13 completed and 16 pending military court cases addressing sexual violence committed during the conflict.

The figures in the report offer a sweeping look at a conflict that was known to be rife with cases of sexual violence, even after the signing of the peace deal.

Ethiopia has also announced a state of emergency in the Amhara region last month, and the experts said they have received reports of “mass arbitrary detention of Amhara civilians,” including at least one drone strike carried by government forces.

Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region, has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities moved to disarm its security forces following the end of the war in neighboring Tigray.

“This evolving situation has huge implications for stability in Ethiopia and the wider region, and in particular the tens of millions of women, men, and children who call it home,” Othman said, and stressed the need for continued monitoring.

Scores Of Women And Girls Were Sexually Assaulted After Peace Deal In Ethiopia’s Tigray, Study Shows

FILE - A Tigrayan refugee rape victim who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, March 20, 2021. A new study of medical records released Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 shows that at least 128 women and girls were sexually assaulted in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region even after a peace agreement ended a two-year conflict there. Most were sexually assaulted by multiple people, and almost all believe their attackers belonged to military groups. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Scores of women and girls in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region were sexually assaulted, often by multiple men alleged to be combatants, after a peace agreement last year ended the conflict there, according to a new study of medical records released on Thursday.

The youngest girl raped was 8 years old.

The Tigray conflict killed hundreds of thousands of people and left untold thousands of women and girls with the trauma of sexual assault.

At least 128 sexual assaults occurred after the peace agreement was signed last November, according to the study, which looked at records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through June.

With most health facilities destroyed or looted as Ethiopian forces battled Tigray fighters, many women and girls were left without treatment for months. Some now have HIV or are raising the children of their rapists. Others live with incontinence or chronic pain, along with the cultural stigma around such attacks.

The study by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa, along with a commentary in The Lancet medical journal, looked at more than 300 randomly selected medical records from Tigray health centers focused on helping survivors of sexual violence.

It is just a “small glimpse” of the toll, the authors say, and they fear the chance for justice will be lost if independent accountability efforts by the United Nations and others are shut down.

“All the community is a victim of sexual violence,” a Tigray-based researcher into conflict-related sexual violence told The Associated Press. A collaborator on the study, he has spoken with hundreds of women and girls and said not one feels healed.

“Rape survivors, they are suffering the most,” he said. Like many Tigrayans, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from Ethiopian authorities.

At least 128 sexual assaults occurred after the peace agreement was signed last November, according to the study, which looked at records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through this June.

Overall, 76% of the 304 women and girls whose cases were reviewed were sexually assaulted by multiple people, often three or more. One was assaulted by 19 men.

In 94% of all cases, no condom was used. Many perpetrators also wielded guns, sticks or knives. Some women and girls were abducted for repeated assaults.

“They took her to their camp and raped her for six months,” one medical record cited by the study says.

Almost all the women and girls said their attackers appeared to be members of a military group, often from neighboring Eritrea, whose soldiers fought alongside Ethiopian forces against Tigray fighters and allegedly remain in parts of western and northern Tigray.

The findings suggest that “these acts were neither isolated nor random but a systematic use of rape as a weapon of war,” the study’s authors write in The Lancet commentary.

Spokesmen for Ethiopia’s and Eritrea’s governments did not respond to requests for comment.

“It is absolutely horrifying and devastating to even read the narratives of the patients,” Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser with Physicians for Human Rights, said in an interview. “The brutality didn’t skip the children. Many were also raped by multiple perpetrators.”

Mishori and her colleague, senior program officer Lindsey Green, expressed concern that independent efforts to understand the conflict’s toll and bring accountability to the perpetrators are being weakened or shut down under pressure from authorities.

“Most disturbing to me is the lack of focus on these crimes,” Green said.

Ethiopia’s government is keen to re-engage with key partners such as the United States, the European Union and global financial institutions after the conflict. On Thursday, Ethiopia was announced as an incoming member of the BRICS economic bloc.

But Ethiopia has sharply criticized outside efforts to promote justice and accountability. An African Union human rights inquiry was quietly terminated earlier this year.

Now Ethiopia wants a United Nations inquiry ended, too, human rights experts say.

After a conflict marked by the blockade of the Tigray region of more than 5 million people, with internet and phone links severed and human rights researchers and journalists barred, the lack of independent inquiry means that the civilian toll could remain largely in the shadows as Ethiopia’s government moves on.

“The world has accountability mechanisms, but almost everything is in the hands of diplomats and politicians, which is a recipe for failure,” said Martin Witteveen, an international criminal law expert who worked with the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission until early 2022. He says Ethiopia alone can hardly ensure accountability when its forces and allies committed most of the crimes.

Even now, the study says, survivors of sexual violence in Tigray are still coming forward, but others will never be known.

Rights Group Says Saudi Arabian Border Guards Fired On And Killed Hundreds Of Ethiopian Migrants

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

BY JON GAMBRELL AND EVELYN MUSAMBI

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — Border guards in Saudi Arabia have fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants in recent years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.

The rights group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be “possibly thousands.”

The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with war-torn Yemen.

A Saudi government official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, called the Human Rights Watch report “unfounded and not based on reliable sources,” without offering evidence to support the assertion. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling migrants over the border, did not respond to requests for comment.

Some 750,000 Ethiopians live in Saudi Arabia, with as many as 450,000 likely having entered the kingdom without authorization, according to 2022 statistics from the International Organization for Migration. The two-year civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region displaced tens of thousands of people.

Saudi Arabia, struggling with youth unemployment, has been sending thousands back to Ethiopia in concert with Addis Abba.

Human Rights Watch said it spoke to 38 Ethiopian migrants and four relatives of people who attempted to cross the border between March 2022 and June 2023 who said they saw Saudi guards shoot at migrants or launch explosives at groups.

The report said the group also analyzed over 350 videos and photographs posted to social media or gathered from other sources filmed between May 12, 2021, and July 18, 2023. It also examined several hundred square kilometers (miles) of satellite imagery captured between February 2022 and July 2023.

“These show dead and wounded migrants on the trails, in camps and in medical facilities, how burial sites near the migrant camps grew in size, the expanding Saudi Arabian border security infrastructure, and the routes currently used by the migrants to attempt border crossings,” the report said.

An April 27 satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed the same tent structures identified by the rights group near al-Raqw, Yemen, on the Saudi border. Two sets of fence lines could be seen just across the border into Saudi Arabia.

The site Human Rights Watch identified as the migrant camp at Al-Thabit also could be seen in satellite images, which corresponded to the group’s narrative that the camp largely had been dismantled in early April.

Both areas are in northwestern Yemen, the stronghold of the country’s Houthi rebels. The U.N. has said that the Houthi-controlled immigration office “collaborates with traffickers to systematically direct migrants” to Saudi Arabia, bringing in $50,000 a week.

The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition has battled the Houthis since March 2015, without dislodging them from the capital. Fighting has largely halted between the Saudi-led forces and the Houthis as Riyadh seeks a way to end the war. However, throughout the war years, the Houthis claimed multiple incursions across the Saudi border in this mountainous region.

Migrants from Ethiopia have found themselves detained, abused and even killed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the war. But in recent months, there has been growing concern from the U.N. human rights body about Saudi forces attacking migrants coming in from Yemen.

An Oct. 3, 2022, letter to the kingdom from the U.N. said its investigators “received concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire allegedly by Saudi security forces causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants.”

“If migrants are captured, they are reportedly oftentimes subjected to torture by being lined up and shot through the side of the leg to see how far the bullet will go or asked if they prefer to be shot in the hand or the leg,” the letter from the U.N. reads. “Survivors of such attacks reported having to ‘play dead’ for a period of time in order to escape.”

A letter sent by Saudi Arabia’s mission to the U.N. in Geneva in March said that it “categorically refutes” allegations that the kingdom carries out any “systematic” killings on the border. However, it also said the U.N. provided “limited information” so it could not “confirm or substantiate the allegations.”

Musambi reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

___ Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Rastafarians gathering for the 131st birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie are still grappling with his reported death in 1975

THE CONVERSATION

Rastafarians drum and sing during a special prayer and worship meeting at Menengai forest in Kenya. James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

BY CHARLES A. PRICE

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

The week of July 23, 2023, thousands of Rastafarians, known for their dreadlocks and for treating cannabis as a sacrament, will gather in Jamaica to celebrate the birth of Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia.

Estimated to number between 700,000 and 1,000,000 globally, Rastafarian communities are located on almost every continent today. Their beliefs are spread through migration, reggae music, as well as print, visual and digital media.

The first Rastafarian communities emerged sometime around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. The first two generations of Rastafarians were predominantly from African-descended people who belonged to working-class communities.

Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and will return to the Earth to reign over a righteous kingdom of his chosen people. Similarly, Rastafarians are of the view that Emperor Selassie is God, or Jah, who manifested in human form, and that they are God’s chosen people. They borrow generously from the King James Bible, braiding their theology around Black and African identity and culture.

Since the mid-1970s, however, Rastafarian views on the emperor’s divinity have varied, in part because Emperor Selassie had died but also because of an influx of new adherents of varied class, racial and national backgrounds.

Being a Rastafarian, and having researched and studied the faith community, I’ve seen how growing diversity among them has also brought varied views on the former emperor’s divinity.

God as monarch

The Rastafari believe that the prophecy of the New Testament of the Bible was fulfilled when the Ethiopian nobleman King Ras Tafari Makonnen, born in the Ethiopian province of Harar in 1892, was crowned the 225th emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930.

Rastafarians believe that the king traces his lineage to the Old Testament’s King David of the Tribe of Judah, and to David’s son, King Solomon. The “Kebra Negast,” a 14th-century Ethiopian literary epic, tells the story of how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and together they had a son, Menelik I, during ancient times. Menelik I was Ethiopia’s first emperor.

King Ras Tafari assumed the name Emperor Haile Selassie I, or Might of the Holy Trinity, along with commanding titles such as the King of Kings and the Conquering Lion of Judah.

Rastafarians view the king’s coronation in 1930, his titles and his lineage as fulfilling a prophecy in the Book of Revelation. According to Chapter 5, a book of “seven seals” reveals events of the apocalypse many Christians believe will begin once Christ returns – but only the “Root of David,” the “Conquering Lion,” can open it, each revealing events between Christ’s crucifixion and return.

The Rastafari, named for their god – King Ras Tafari – grew from a tiny community to number in the tens of thousands in Jamaica by the 1990s, as I explain in my 2022 book “Rastafari: The Evolution of a People and Their Identity.”

The travails of worshiping a Black god

Many Jamaicans, especially the elites, ridiculed the Rastafari for anointing an African monarch as a deity. They sought at every turn to prove the Rastafari ludicrous. From the 1930s into the 1970s the Rastafari were scorned by their fellow Jamaicans, subjected to discrimination and violence. Many Rastafari were imprisoned, beaten, and many men forcibly shaven for their beliefs.

Things started to change in 1966 when Emperor Selassie visited Jamaica and hundreds of Rastafari swarmed the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston to greet the emperor. He caused a greater stir by inviting the Rastafari to join him during official state ceremonies.

The emperor’s visit conferred respect on the Rastafari, attracting new converts, such as Rita Marley, reggae music singer and wife of reggae superstar Bob Marley. The Rastafari became paragons of Black identity, culture and history.

In 1975, press announcements that Emperor Selassie was dead sparked an existential crisis for the Rastafari. In a coup led by the Ethiopian politician and soldier Mengistu Haile Mariam, the emperor was imprisoned and allegedly murdered.

Some critics asserted that the Rastafari finally had been proved foolish and that their God was dead. Bob Marley rebuffed the critics in his acclaimed song, “Jah Live” (meaning God lives).

What happens if God dies?

The Rastafari responded to the announcement in several ways. Some denied Emperor Selassie was dead, insisting that God cannot die, and no body was found to confirm the death. Years later, bones said to be those of Emperor Selassie were recovered from a pit beneath Menelik Palace in Ethiopia, but never confirmed to be the emperor’s.

Others said only time would reveal the meaning of the emperor’s disappearance, since God’s ways are beyond the ken of mortals.

Another view was that the emperor’s disappearance signaled the beginning of a new era on Earth, much like Christ rising from death. In the new dispensation, these followers believed, the Rastafari must act as the emperor’s anointed and must continue the traditions, knowledge and communities they have birthed.

Some others believed that the emperor was worthy of veneration but not as God. This had a lot to do with the increasing diversity of the Rastafarians in Jamaica and internationally.

In Jamaica, middle-class Rastafarians known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel are more likely to subscribe to this view, as are many Africans who identify as Rastafarians. However, the doctrine of the Emperor as God remains predominant.

There are also those who continue to wonder why so many Rastafari reject the idea that the emperor is dead. As I argue in my book, claiming that the emperor still lives, without conclusive evidence, requires faith – just as it does for Christians – who believe that Jesus Christ is immortal.

This article has been updated to correct the date of Haile Selassie’s reported death.

UN Agency Suspends Food Aid To Ethiopia’s Tigray Amid Theft

FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers. (AP Photo, File)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers.

The World Food Program is responsible for delivering food from the U.N. and other partners to Tigray, the center of a devastating two-year civil war that ended with a ceasefire in November.

More than 5 million of the region’s 6 million people rely on aid.

WFP informed its humanitarian partners on April 20 that it was temporarily suspending deliveries of food to Tigray amid reports of food misappropriation, one of the four humanitarian workers told AP. Three other aid workers confirmed this information. They all insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to a journalist on this matter.

Last month, AP reported that the WFP was investigating cases of food misappropriation and diversion in Ethiopia, where a total of 20 million people need humanitarian help due to drought and conflict.


A letter sent by the WFP’s Ethiopia director on April 5 asked humanitarian partners to share “any information or cases of food misuse, misappropriation or diversion that you are aware of or that are brought to your attention by your staff, beneficiaries or local authorities.”

At the time, two aid workers told AP that the stolen supplies included enough food to feed 100,000 people. The food was discovered missing from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro. It was not clear who was responsible for the theft.

Tigray’s new interim president, Getachew Reda, said last month he discussed “the growing challenge of diversion & sale of food aid meant for the needy” with senior WFP officials during a visit by the agency to Mekele, the regional capital.

A spokesperson for the WFP in Ethiopia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UN, Others Cite New Displacement From Ethiopia’s Tigray

FILE - Terraced hills are seen off the road between Gondar and Danshe, a town in an area of western Tigray then annexed by the Amhara region during the ongoing conflict, in Ethiopia on May 1, 2021. Forces from Amhara have displaced tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans from disputed territory in the north of the country in recent weeks, despite a peace deal agreed late last year, according to aid workers and internal agency documents seen by the AP in April 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (AP) — Forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have displaced tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans from disputed territory in the north of the country in recent weeks despite a peace deal agreed late last year, according to aid workers and internal agency documents seen by the AP.

The Mai Tsebri area in northwestern Tigray is close to the regional border with Amhara. It changed hands several times during the war, which erupted in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire in November. The Amhara people claim the area as their own.

Since early March, some 47,000 people uprooted from Mai Tsebri have gone to Endabaguna, a town roughly 55 kilometers (34 miles) further north, according to United Nations figures seen by the AP on Thursday.

Another report, prepared by a humanitarian agency, says residents fled Mai Tsebri because of “harassment, ethnic profiling and direct threats” from irregular Amhara forces that also carried out “evictions.”

That report adds that there have been no aid deliveries to Endabaguna since the displaced people started arriving. As a result, it says, they are “on the brink of starvation.”


The displaced people at Endabaguna are sheltering in a reception center originally built by the U.N. and Ethiopia’s government for refugees from Eritrea, which borders Tigray. The site was badly damaged during the war.

An aid worker who recently visited the center said conditions there were “very bad” and the number of people was “increasing day by day.”

“The roofing and pipelines are damaged, there is no toilet and latrine, the doors and windows of the rooms are looted (or) damaged, and there is no proper water supply,” said the aid worker, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

It was not immediately possible to get a comment from Amhara authorities.

A second aid worker, who also requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to a reporter, said many of the people recently uprooted from Mai Tsebri were displaced for a second time, having already been forced from their homes in the western part of Tigray.

Amhara forces annexed western Tigray in the early stages of the war. They stand accused of “ethnic cleansing” by the U.S. State Department after they forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans from the area.

Under the recent ceasefire, aid deliveries to Tigray resumed after two years of restrictions. However, aid workers say Amhara forces have continued to block food distribution around Mai Tsebri, and residents have reported killings.

One Mai Tsebri resident, Teferi Muley, said he fled the area in November after he was threatened by Amhara troops, who accused him of helping the Tigray rebels. He said he returned in March to the nearby village of Haida, where he witnessed the shooting of several artisanal gold miners by Amhara troops.

Last week Ethiopia’s government said it planned to fold the security forces of the 11 federal regions into the national army or police. This prompted a wave of protest across Amhara, as well as gun battles between the federal military and regional Amhara units who refused to disarm.

Humanitarian officials believe the upheaval will likely lead to an increase in displacements from Mai Tsebri, which already stand at an average of 150 households every day, according to an assessment by another aid agency.

Ethiopians file lawsuit against Meta over hate speech in war

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say was allowed and even promoted on the social media platform amid heated rhetoric over their country’s deadly Tigray conflict.

Former Amnesty International human rights researcher Fisseha Tekle is one petitioner in the case filed Wednesday and the other is the son of university professor Meareg Amare, who was killed weeks after posts on Facebook inciting violence against him.

The case was filed in neighboring Kenya, home to the platform’s content moderation operations related to Ethiopia. The lawsuit alleges that Meta hasn’t hired enough content moderators there, that it uses an algorithm that prioritizes hateful content and that it acts more slowly to crises in Africa than elsewhere in the world.

The lawsuit, also backed by Kenya-based legal organization the Katiba Institute, seeks the creation of a $1.6 billion fund for victims of hate speech.

A Facebook spokesman, Ben Walters, told The Associated Press they could not comment on the lawsuit because they haven’t received it. He shared a general statement: “We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content.” Facebook continues to develop its capabilities to catch violating content in Ethiopia’s most widely spoken languages, it said.

Ethiopia’s two-year Tigray conflict is thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The warring sides signed a peace deal last month.

“This legal action is a significant step in holding Meta to account for its harmful business model,” said Flavia Mwangovya of Amnesty International in a statement pointing out that the Facebook posts targeting its former researcher and the professor were not isolated cases.

The AP and more than a dozen other media outlets last year explored how Facebook had failed to quickly and effectively moderate hate speech in cases around the world, including in Ethiopia. The reports were based on internal documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

As Tigray Calms, Ethiopia Sees Growing Conflict In Oromia

FILE - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks at a final campaign rally at a stadium in the town of Jimma in the southwestern Oromia Region of Ethiopia, June 16 2021. Even as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the U.S.-Africa summit this week to promote last month's peace agreement between his government and authorities from the country's Tigray region, the larger region of Oromia appears increasingly unstable (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — As one deadly conflict in Ethiopia begins to calm, another is growing, challenging a government that’s eager to persuade the international community to lift sanctions and revive what was once one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Even as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the U.S.-Africa summit this week to promote last month’s peace agreement between his government and authorities from the country’s Tigray region, the larger region of Oromia appears increasingly unstable.

Africa’s second most populous country, with 120 million people, is again wrestling with deadly tensions between ethnic groups and their armed allies. Both the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, the country’s largest, allege killings and blame the other. With telecommunications often cut and residents often fearing retaliation if they speak out, the death toll in the violence in Oromia is unknown.

Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of fears for their safety, several residents of Oromia described deadly attacks in recent weeks.

One witness in the region’s Kiramu district said his father and cousin were among at least 34 people killed since Nov. 24. He blamed soldiers under the control of the Oromia regional government, saying he saw their uniforms.

“It all started with a confrontation between a single local militia and members of the Oromia special forces,” he said. “The special forces killed the militia who was a member of the Amhara community, and then a week-long killing followed.” He estimated that hundreds of people have since fled the area.

An ethnic Oromo resident of Kiramu, however, accused an Amhara armed group known as the Fano of attacking and killing civilians and said he had seen more than a dozen bodies and buried four of them on Nov. 29.

“This militia group is killing our people, burning villages and looting everything we own,” Dhugassa Feyissa told the AP. “They shoot at anyone they find … be it public servants, police officers or teachers.”

The Oromo and Amara have lived together for years, he said, but they had never seen fighting like this before.

The deputy administrator of the Gidda Ayanna district, which also has seen some of Oromia’s worst violence in recent weeks, also blamed the Amhara Fano fighters.

“Civilians in our area are being killed, displaced and looted. This group is heavily armed, so it is no match for farmers who are defenseless,” Getahun Tolera said, noting that his district now hosts some 31,000 people who fled nearby districts. “We are still going house-to-house and discovering bodies.”

Ethiopian federal government officials declined to comment on the killings in Oromia and have not yet openly spoken about them. The prime minister last week said only that some “enemies with extreme views” were trying to destabilize the country, without giving details.

Ethiopian security forces, Oromo insurgents and Amhara militia are all battling each other in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“Amid an intensifying government struggle against the rebels, all three have targeted civilians, particularly ethnic Amhara, which has led to an increase in violence by Amhara militia claiming to be defending their communities,” he said.

As Ethiopian federal security forces battle the Oromo Liberation Army, which the government has called a terrorist group, Oromo and Amhara residents and their armed allies also fight each other over grievances old and new.

Amhara settlers first moved en masse to Oromia in the 1980s during a famine in northern Ethiopia. They lived peacefully there until the past three years. The OLA split from an Oromo political organization and reportedly began targeting Amhara, at times as revenge for its losses to government forces. Amhara militia reportedly began targeting Oromos, and regional security forces became involved.

Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, followed by the Amhara, who have dominated the country’s politics for generations. Many Oromos were jubilant when Abiy, who identifies as Oromo, became prime minister in 2018. But that excitement has changed to frustration with the growing violence.

Rallies protesting the killings have been held in some communities in recent days. Last week, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said “hundreds” of people had been killed in a “gruesome manner” in the past four months across 10 zones in the Oromia region, and it confirmed the presence of government forces, Amhara militia and the OLA in areas where repeated killings occur.

“The deliberate attacks against civilians in these areas are made based on ethnicity and political views … with the assertion that one supports one group over the other,” the commission said, urging the federal government to take urgent action.

Opposition parties also are speaking up. The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, All Ethiopia Unity Party and Enat Party called for more security for the affected communities, and a senior Ethiopian official from the opposition National Movement of Amhara asked the federal government to intervene.

“The totality of us have become a country that shows no strong aversion to a continued bloodshed of innocents, wherever it may happen,” Belete Molla said in a Facebook post earlier this month.

Another prominent political figure, Oromo opposition politician Jawar Mohammed, earlier this month asserted that at least 350 people had been killed and over 400,000 displaced “just in the last 48 hours” in the Kiramu, Horo Guduru, Kuyu and Wara Jarso areas of Oromia.

“The government needs to quit pretending as if nothing is happening,” Jawar said in a Facebook post. “The conflict is fast becoming a communal war involving civilians. If not contained soon, it will likely spread to other parts of the two regional states and beyond.”

Genocide And The 1995 Ethiopian Constitution

BORKENA

BY MAIMIRE MENNASEMAY

Since 1995, systematic ethnic cleansings have been taking place in various Ethiopian regions. Because ethnic cleansing is unheard of in Ethiopia until now, one is obliged to ask: why now?

Violence is not new to Ethiopian history. However, since 1995 we see a type of violence that is qualitatively different from the one that characterized Ethiopian history. One could call it “ultraviolence.” Ultraviolence refers to the articulation of “ultra-objective” and “ultra-subjective” violence (see here). The first treats the ethnic-other as things and as disposable matter, and the second treats the members of the ethnic-other as vermin, cockroaches, or incarnations of evil that must be eliminated to purify one’s community from being contaminated by it.

Since 1995, we have seen ultraviolence being directed at identifiable groups of people in Gara Muleta, Gelemiso, Wolfie, Dansie, Anchara, Arba Gugu, Guna, Arise Negelie, Kofelie, Korie, Gura Ferda, Benshangul-Gumuz, Jimma, Western Hararigie, Metekel, Horo Guduru, East Wollega, North Shoa, Qelem Wollega, Ilu Aba Bora, Buno Bedele, East Shoa, West Shoa, South West Shoa, Arsi zone, the two Guji zones, Kiramu, Gida Ayana, Alge, Hurumu, Amuru, Horo Buleq, Jardaga Jarte, Gindeberet, Chobi, Kuye, Merti, Jeju, and Welkait, to name a few (here for partial list).

Inasmuch as ultraviolence has become an identifiable practice only after the proclamation of the 1995 Constitution and the ethnic federation it founded, we are obliged to raise the question: Is the 1995 Constitution the womb that gestated and gave birth to the ultraviolence that is decimating and dehumanizing so many Ethiopians?

The 1995 Constitution has a center of gravity made up of two articles: article 8 which attributes sovereignty to “the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia” and not to the Ethiopian people as a political entity, and article 39 which gives “Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia” the “unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession.” The remaining 104 articles of the Constitution revolve around this center of gravity in that their interpretations and applications respect the political limits these two articles establish. Politically, that is, in practice, as we could see since 1995, the various rights and freedoms enumerated in the Constitution are subsumed to the exigencies of arts 8 & 39.

The “kilil” (ክልል) is precisely the territorial embodiment of these articles. Articles 8 & 39 presuppose that each “kilil” is the space of a particular ethnicity (art.8) and is a potentially independent state (art.39). Thus, instead of being a centripetal force that holds the parts of Ethiopia together to create unity, the Constitution incubates a centrifugal force that could enable each “kilil” to break away and trace its own independent path.

These two articles make sense only if one assumes that each “kilil” is ethnically homogeneous. However, this assumption is wrong. The Ethiopian population is heterogeneous. It is deeply intertwined historically, politically, economically, demographically, culturally, confessionally, ethnically, linguistically, and interpersonally. This historical reality belies the claim of ethnic homogeneity that underlies arts. 8 & 39. The contradiction between, on the one hand, the reality of demographic heterogeneity and intermingling and, on the other, the fiction of ethnic homogeneity that grounds the “kilil” is a contradiction that is at the heart of the Constitution and that it cannot resolve insofar as it is bounded by arts. 8 & 39.

The only way to put the false assumption of ethnic homogeneity that grounds the Constitution in practice is by creating a fictive ethnic homogeneity in each “kilil.” But how? The current practice is through ethnic discrimination and ethnic cleansings, i.e., killings and expulsions (here). Since the government seems unable to prevent these ethnic cleansings and to punish the perpetrators, one must question the democratic claims of the 1995 Constitution and of the ethnic federation it founds. To see this, let us succinctly examine what the spirit of a democratic constitution is.

A democratic Constitution enables members of a society to go beyond their primary (ethnic) identity and acquire a secondary (citizen) identity (here). The transition from primary to secondary identity is the necessary condition of possibility of democracy: the emergence of a public realm within which freedom, equality, fraternity, public reason, democratic representation, rights and responsibilities are exercised by all, irrespective of the particularities attached to primary identities. (here). The transition creates the realm of citizenship and democracy, i.e., —a realm that is governed by universal principles and norms.

It is important to see a Constitution as a living document that provides a cognitive mapping of the political and legal horizons which circumscribe and orient political institutions, practices and discourses. It articulates implicitly the matrices of possibilities, expectations, thoughts, images and actions that animate a society as a political and legal entity, and provides a framework for the practice of citizenship (secondary identification) that is not undermined by primary identities.

Does the 1995 Constitution enable Ethiopians to successfully make the passage from primary to secondary identification without which the exercise of citizenship and the existence of a democratic society are impossible? Does it create the conditions for the concrete practice of freedom, equality and solidarity, and for the respect of individual rights and freedoms without being fettered by the partial interests of primary identities? The answer to both questions is “no.”

The center of gravity of the 1995 Constitution is made up, as we have seen, of arts. 8 & 39. In setting these two articles as the limits of interpretations and applications of all the other articles of the Constitution, the Constitution raises an insurmountable obstacle that renders problematic the passage from primary (ethnic) to secondary (citizen) identification. That is, the Constitution itself prevents the emergence of a commonly shared Ethiopian public space as the framework for political relations among Ethiopians based on secondary identification (citizenship) and democratic principles and norms.

Rather, the Constitution treats Ethiopians as samples of ethnic groups. Articles 8 & 39 imply that the relations between Ethiopians are mediated by ethnic identity and that the interactions between ethnic communities are provisional and contractual—a contract from which an ethnic group could withdraw if its particular interests are not met (art. 39). The Constitution excludes the conditions that enable Ethiopians to go beyond their primary identities and acquire their secondary identity such that they could interact with each other as free and equal citizens. Articles 8 & 39 imply that the Constitution merely establishes a temporary truce between ethnic “kilils.” Neither democracy nor Ethiopian unity have primacy over the limits that arts. 8 & 39 impose on the Constitution.

Thus, the center of gravity (arts. 8 & 39) of the Constitution injects into the Constitution the negation of democracy. The two articles reduce democracy to ethnic primacy and repress citizens’ freedom; they shrink equality to ethnic loyalty and repress citizens’ equality; and they degrade solidarity to ethnic unanimity and repress citizens’ solidarity. Thus, the rampant everyday ethnic discrimination in the “kilils” and in Addis Ababa. What exists now in Ethiopia is a caricature of democracy. Whereas Ethiopians need forging universal solidarity and cooperation amongst themselves to defeat poverty, disease and ignorance, the Constitution lays the ground for ethnic egoism, discrimination and nepotism (here), for ethnic conflicts and secession, and for genocide.

The deadlock between democracy and anti-democracy is thus internal to the Constitution. Inevitably, political issues that are caught in this deadlock invite anti-political solutions, that is, violence. Violence thus appears to be the implicit condition of the very functioning of the Ethiopian ethnic federation and its “kilils” in all cases that are affected by the internal deadlock of the Constitution. Witness the violence that is afflicting the schools of Addis Ababa (here). Inevitably, violence as a solution to political problems leads eventually to ultraviolence—a violence that annihilates or expels those who are transfigured into the evil embodiments of problems.

The 1995 Constitution has made Ethiopia a land of fear, hatred and violence where the ethnic-other is represented as the incarnation of evil to be eradicated. Thus when the TPLF government cleansed Welkait of its indigenous inhabitants it followed up its ethnic-cleansing with name-cleansing and renamed the area Western Tigray, eradicating thus even the name of the annihilated: the intent is to erase the existence of the indigenous people of Welkait not only from the land but also from history. “Ultra-objective and ultra-subjective violence”—genocide—germinates actively in the anti-democratic 1995 Constitution.

The 1995 Constitution has paved the road for and opened the gates that lead to genocide. A slow-motion genocide is in the offing in many regions as recent reports of the EHRC indicate (here). Unless Ethiopians succeed in replacing the antidemocratic and violence-generating 1995 Constitution with a democratic one, the whole Ethiopian edifice could collapse into an archipelago of genocidal ethnic dictatorships lording it over their ethnic subjects in the name of a fictitious ethnic purity. Ethiopians should pull back the emergency brake now and avoid this tragic outcome. They could do it because they have the cultural, intellectual, spiritual, and political resources (here) to give themselves a democratic Constitution and a democratic federalism.

Would Ethiopians wake up to the genocidal impulses gestating in the 1995 Constitution before it is too late?!

Eritrean Forces Still Killing Tigray Civilians, Report Says

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Eritrean troops have continued killing dozens of civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and committing other abuses weeks after the two main warring parties signed a peace deal, according to an official document seen by The Associated Press.

The forces from neighboring Eritrea, which has fought alongside Ethiopia’s military in the two-year conflict, killed 111 civilians and injured another 103 in the eastern zone of Tigray, according to information compiled between Nov. 17 and 25 by the Tigray Emergency Center. Regional government offices, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations participate in the ECC.

The report also says there were 39 “kidnapping/disappearances” of civilians by Eritrean forces and “widespread looting,” including the destruction of 241 houses. One of the kidnapped civilians was later found dead.

The abuses threaten to harm the deal struck in South Africa between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray leaders on Nov. 2. Tigray’s forces are supposed to disarm within 30 days of the agreement, but they now say they will hand over their heavy weapons only after Eritrea’s military leaves the region. Eritrea, however, is not a party to the peace talks.

Last week the AP reported that Eritrean forces and troops from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region were still looting and carrying out mass detentions in the Tigray region of more than 5 million people.

Eritrean troops entered the conflict alongside Ethiopia’s government when fighting broke out in November 2020. They have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including gang rapes.

In a rare public statement on the issue last week, the African Union mediator who brokered the peace deal, Olusegun Obasanjo, called on “foreign troops” to leave Tigray.

Aid has started to reach Tigray since the deal was signed, but some aid workers have said convoys of humanitarian supplies have been blocked by checkpoints manned by Eritrean soldiers. Currently, aid workers can only access 54 of 104 camps for displaced people in Tigray, according to the ECC report.

Yet some observers remain hopeful that the deal will be implemented. On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the conflict had killed more people than the war in Ukraine and described the deal as an “an opportunity that Ethiopia cannot miss, that Africa cannot miss, and that the world cannot miss.”

A joint committee comprising representatives from the federal government, Tigray leaders and the AU and tasked with drawing up plans for disarmament held its first meeting in the Tigray town of Shire on Wednesday. The government’s communication service said its work has been “delayed due to technical factors.”