Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia’s former former foreign minister, was one of the leading African diplomats of his generation. He was shot dead in Tigray this month by the army of a lesser man – Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Some believe that the Eritrean army, Abiy’s allies, killed Seyoum, although their presence in Tigray is officially denied. The circumstances of his death remain obscure.
As with many of the unreported, undisputed murders and chaos currently occurring in northern Ethiopia, it is unclear what Abiy prefers. When he ordered the assault of the army on the breakaway Tigray region in November, he blocked the internet, shut down aid agencies and banned journalists. It’s a conflict he claims to have won – but the emerging reality is quite different. It is a war waged in the shadows, with the outside world kept in the dark.
After humanitarian workers finally gained limited access this month, it was estimated that 4.5 million of Tigray’s 6 million people needed first aid. Hundreds of thousands are said to be starving. The UN warns that Eritrean refugees in the Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps are ‘desperately needed’ and plagued by armed gangs. It is said that some were forcibly repatriated by force.
Access is still denied to two other camps, Shimelba and Hitsats, which were set on fire. It is believed that many of the inhabitants of the camps fled among the Eritrean and Amhara militants. Satellite images published by the DX Open Network in the UK apparently show damage to 400 structures at Shimelba. Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, points to ‘concrete indications of major violations of international law’.
There are persistent, unconfirmed reports of massacres, torture, rapes, kidnappings and the looting or destruction of centuries-old manuscripts and artifacts across Tigray. Last week, EEPA, an NGO in Belgium, described a massacre of 750 people in a cathedral in Aksum, which allegedly houses the Ark of the Covenant. Ethiopian troops and Amhara militia are accused of killing the Church of St Mary of Zion, which is part of a UN World Heritage Site. The report has not been independently verified.
Despite Abiy’s claims that the war is over and no civilians have been harmed, sporadic fighting continues, an analyst familiar with the government said. Thousands died, about 50,000 fled to Sudan, and many are homeless and hiding in caves. Intentional artillery attacks destroyed hospitals and health centers in an echo of the Syrian war, the analyst said.
Aid workers gathered in Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, this month to see Ethiopia’s government continue to block aid and demand full access. ‘People are dying of hunger. In Adwa, people die while sleeping. [It’s] the same in other zones, ”a regional administrator, Berhane Gebretsadik, is quoted as saying. But there has been little response from Addis Ababa.
Official Ethiopian and Eritrean denial that Eritrean forces operate in Tigray is contradicted by eyewitness reports. Amid the darkness, it seems clear that the dictatorial president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, has made a general case with Abiy. The two met in October, shortly before the war was launched, in Addis Ababa to discuss the ‘consolidation of regional cooperation’.
Finishing is an old enemy who is waging a brutally oppressive regime. But he shares Abiy’s hatred against the Tigrayan leadership that dominated the government of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during Ethiopia’s 20-year border war with Eritrea. Abiy, an Oromo of the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, made peace with Eritrea in 2018, expelling its rivals from the Tigraya and fighting with them ever since.
Further evidence of secret alliances comes from Somalia. The Somali guardian reported this month that 2,500 Somali recruits were treated as ‘cannon fodder’ after being sent to a military base in Eritrea for training and then deployed with Eritrean forces in Tigray. There are apparently dozens dead.
International investigation into Abiy’s Tigray war was largely lacking. An exception is the EU, which has indefinitely suspended € 88 million in favor of Addis Ababa. “We are receiving consistent reports of violence, numerous murders, looting, rapes, violent return of refugees and possible war crimes,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief.
The warnings from the UN and the EU, coupled with the shocking assassination of the internationally respected Seyoum Mesfin, could now bring further investigation. I met Seyoum, a co-founder in 1975 of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, in Addis in 2008. He was a master diplomat. According to Alex de Waal, the African specialist, Seyoum was a capable peacemaker in Rwanda and Sudan who was ‘the chairman of the rehabilitation of Ethiopia’s international position’ after 1991.
Abiy is now in danger of destroying the position. ‘The circumstances of Seyoum’s murder are not clear. The Ethiopian government is not a reliable source of information. Eritrea – which may have carried out the assassinations – remains silent. The official report that Seyoum and his colleagues’ refused to surrender ‘is opaque,’ De Waal wrote.
He noted that the two other elderly Tigrayans who were killed along with Seyoum, 71, were Abay Tsehaye, who had just had heart surgery, and Asmelash Woldeselassie, who was blind. This trio hardly posed a physical threat to heavily armed troops.
It looks like Abiy has lost control of events. There is anger in Mekelle, where a puppet administration has been installed, over ongoing security issues, including rapes. The threat of rural famine threatens great. In the mid-1980s, the famine in Ethiopia shocked the world. About 1 million people died. These horrors were consequently overcome by decades of hard work.
To the great shame of Abiy, the ghost of famine is now haunting Ethiopia again. The good work of the past is undone. He must return his Nobel Peace Prize and answer for his actions in Tigray.