Catholic Bishops in Ethiopia urged a ceasefire in the semi-autonomous region of Tigray, as intense fighting killed hundreds and displaced thousands of people.
The fighting between the national army and federal Tigrayan forces, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), started on 4 November when the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military action against the government in Tigray.
Under Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism, states enjoy a high level of autonomy with their own security forces and parliament. In the system introduced in the 1990s, the country had been ruled by the Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, which was dominated by the TPLF. However, Mr Ahmed dissolved the party and has been concentrating power on the new national Prosperity Party, which the TPLF refused to join. A TPLF decision to hold elections without agreement from the government in Addis Ababa triggered tensions between Ahmed and Tigrayan leaders, and dthe subsequent military action.
Ahmed, who was last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner following the peace accord he struck with neighbouring Eritrea, accused Tigrayan forces of attacking a national army base in Mekelle, the Tigrayan capital and ordered military reprisals.
In a bishops’ statement, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, the Archbishop of Addis Ababa and the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia said the Church regretted that tensions between Ahmed and the TPLF that had now descended into an armed conflict. He urged the two parties to agree an immediate ceasefire and talk peace in a spirit of understanding, mutual respect and trust.
According to the bishops, if the armed conflict is not stopped immediately, it will destroy the lives of many innocent people and “turn our country into a failure and create extreme poverty.” They want all the people of Ethiopia actively to engage in initiatives that promote dialogue, peace and reconciliation.
Pope Francis last week added his voice to international calls for an end to the conflict, urging the parties to resist the temptation of resorting to arms. He invited Ethiopians to prayers, fraternal respect and dialogue aimed at a peaceful resolution of the discord.
On the night of 9 November many scores – possibly hundreds – of people were stabbed or hacked to death in the town of Mai-Kadra in southwest Tigray, according to Amnesty International and other sources. Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa said the victims were innocent civilians and day labourers who were in no way involved in the conflict.
Wounded survivors told the organisation that they were attacked with machetes, axes and knives. Digitally verified satellite images showed large numbers of bodies strewn across the streets of the town. Earlier in the day the TPLF had suffered losses against the Ethiopian Defence Forces and witnesses said forces loyal to the TPLF carried out the atrocities, apparently as some sort of reprisal. Ahmed has ruled out any peace talks with TPLF.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is appealing for humanitarian access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region. “Our appeal is to see that there is a humanitarian corridor to support in the provision of basic and essential supplies to people affected,” the JRS Director in Eastern Africa, Andre Atsu, said on 13 November. More than 20,000 Ethiopians fleeing the ongoing fighting in Tigray have fled to neighbouring Sudan.
Meanwhile, given the perceived rapprochement between Addis and Eritrea, refugees from Eritrean living in Tigray are particularly at risk.
According to Abba Mussie Zerai, a priest of the eparchy Asmara, the Eritrean capital, said: “In Tigray there are thousands of Eritreans who are often hungry and exposed to all forms of exploitation and abuse … and many minors are on their own.” He called on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Ethiopian Government to help them.
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