issues without any foreign interference . The same applies to Iran , Turkey , the United Arab Emirates , and China . If their cries against interference into their domestic matters are to carry any moral weight and win solidarity , then they ought to do the same for other countries .
They – bar none – have played a destructive role in the Ethiopian conflict by fuelling the conflict and emboldening belligerents in the belief that they could achieve victory regardless of the humanitarian cost . Whatever the outcome of the war , the belligerents will be harshly judged by history .
Amhara and Tigray forces
In this regard , Amhara regional leaders have many questions to answer . The overzealousness with which the Amhara elite are pursuing the war only serves to confirm the fears of those who are suggesting that the war is about the return of their dominance . They have ordered the forcible occupation of western Tigray . Border disputes between regional states of the same country are ridiculous , to say the least , at a moment where African countries are discussing ways of removing these colonially-imposed physical barriers . Furthermore , even if their claims on this territory were legitimate , these leaders have abysmally failed to reign in anti- Tigrayans sentiments , and the atrocities committed by their forces and militias in western Tigray speak to a failure of leadership , a dereliction of duty . This failure will not persuade other Ethiopians that the proposed centralised federal system is not a return of the old oppressive empire in which Amhara elites enjoyed all the privileges associated with dominance over state power . It is also worrying that all accounts suggest that these leaders are the most reluctant to a negotiated settlement of the conflict . If that is indeed true , the future of Ethiopia , a once admired country , hangs on their next decisions . What they have won is the legitimation of the concept of Amhara chauvinism as an acceptable lexicon , when in fact it is a term that denigrates a people and suggests that they are narcissistic and irrational .
The onslaught on Tigray united the Tigrayans in ways that
Addis could not have imagined . It prompted them into forming the TDF , which proved its worth on the battlefront . Its successes , however , attracted it to the same error that had been committed against Tigray . The decision to march onto Addis was as misconceived as the decision of the Federal government to march onto Mekelle . While TPLF might have had a legitimate cause for self-defence and breaking the siege , the moment it considered marching onto Addis to impose itself – knowing that the majority of Ethiopians don ’ t want it back in power – it proved to be no different from those who had marched onto Mekelle to impose themselves on a people who didn ’ t want them there .
All this is to say that the moral cause has collapsed in the war in Ethiopia since all protagonists seem to be locked into actions that defeat the logic of their stated objectives and everything they claim to stand for . Only dialogue can rescue them from this contradiction . ❧ ❧ ❧
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