Can the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia keep it together? Change has become increasingly bloody it The internet is routinely cut off in Ethiopia, CPJ has noted, including a nationwide shutdown in June 2020. The internet has been disrupted in Tigray since November 2020, when conflict broke out in the regional state, according to media reports. Officials have blamed the ousted Tigray leadership for the disconnection and Ethio Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, said in December that it was making repairs. In an email to CPJ in mid-April 2021, Billene Seyoum Woldeyes, a spokesperson for the Ethiopian prime minister’s office, said that the authorities did not cause the disruption and did not respond to a follow up question about why it had not been fixed. Ethio Telecom did not respond to CPJ’s social media message requesting comment about the ongoing problems.
Category: Amhara Militia
Which way for Ethiopia? Abiy cracks down on regional revolts ahead of elections
Can the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia keep it together? Change has become increasingly bloody it seems since the 2012 death of longtime leader Meles Zenawi, a Tigrean whose home region is now in open revolt against the central government. There, conventional fighting is morphing into guerrilla warfare with reprisals against civilians fuelling a vicious circle. Elsewhere, regional and ethnic tensions are also on the rise.
Rape and Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray
Victims have told investigators that when Ethiopian federal regular soldiers and militia inflict infertility on Tigrayan women with burning metal rods, after gang-raping them, they tell the women that this is to stop them having ‘Woyene’ children (the Amharans’ derogatory term for ‘Tigrayans’).
UNFPA Ethiopia – Preparedness and Response Plan for the Tigray Crisis – 2020
Nearly 96,000 refugees are affected by the crisis and are in need of protection and health services as well.
The plan seeks US$75.7 million to provide life-saving assistance to people affected by the conflict in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara regions.
Tigray could face famine without increased access to region, US aid official says
“somewhere between 950,000 to 1.25 million people are inaccessible to humanitarians.”
“Right now, we’re tracking about 4.5 million people in the Tigray region who are in need of humanitarian assistance, and about 4 million of those people are in need of food assistance,”
“We are seeing increased numbers of people who are internally displaced. Right now about 1.1 million internally displaced people are in the Tigray region. And we’re also seeing a concerning situation when it comes to the health situation, about 15% of hospitals and health centers are fully functioning.”
Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict: Six Months On and No End in Sight
A “dirty war” with no fronts that was causing suffering for “defenseless victims”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Congress that “ethnic cleansing” is unfolding in western Tigray, with Amharas driving out Tigrayans
“Further deterioration is expected as the conflict continues and disrupts the next planting season,” the UN said Tuesday.
Attackers kill at least 20 in attack in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region
Gunmen killed at least 20 people last week in western Ethiopia, a regional government official said on Thursday, in what he and two residents described as an attack on civilians from the Amhara ethnic group.
The Fleeting Promise of a Peaceful Ethiopia
A new prime minister was met with overwhelming optimism that he would help stem the country’s long-standing tensions. But military violence in the Tigray region dispels any hope of a unified republic.
“By using Amhara militias to attack Tigray, the government has tried to ensure further animosity between Amharas and Tigrayans. By involving Eritrea in this war and allowing its military to commit atrocities and wanton destruction of Tigray, the Prime Minister has deliberately tried to increase enmity between ordinary Tigrayans and Eritreans.
Ethiopia’s Tigray War Is Fueling Amhara Expansionism
Abiy Ahmed depends on the support of ethnic Amhara leaders and militias whose goal is to reconquer what they consider lost territories—from Tigray to Sudan.
Among the ethnic Amhara political elite, it is seen as a war to regain territories lost in 1991
US Continues Non-Humanitarian ‘Assistance Pause’ to Pressure Ethiopia to End Tigray Conflict
“The fighting must come to an end. There must be humanitarian access, which has been a problem,” the State Department’s acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Robert Godec, told VOA on Monday during a briefing by phone.
“We need the human rights abuses and atrocities to stop. We need the Eritreans and the Amhara [militia] to leave. And we need, really, an end to this conflict,”