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On November 29 last year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the end of the administration’s military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Tigray region. This announcement was premature. The Tigray conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis continue to this day.
The TPLF, an ethno-nationalist front that dominated Ethiopia’s coalition policy for nearly three decades before Abiy came to power, was responsible for the outbreak of the conflict that is destroying the region.
The conflict began in early November, when the TPLF launched coordinated attacks on the northern command centers of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) across Tigray. In the face of this, the federal government immediately declared a national emergency and launched a widespread counterattack. With the support of militias and police forces from the border regions of Afar and Amhara, ENDF quickly pushed TPLF forces and gained control of the capital Tigray and Mekelle for a few weeks.
The TPLF, however, refused to accept defeat and vowed to continue the fight. Fighters loyal to the group are still fighting guerrillas against the federal government.
The ongoing conflict has come at a high human cost. Forces loyal to the TPLF, as well as the ENDF and regional allies, have complained that they have caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Civilians have been killed and many have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in nearby regions and countries. According to the United Nations, hundreds of cases of sexual violence have also been reported and the people of Tigray are still struggling to get clean food and water. TPLF guerrillas have also attacked aid convoys and road infrastructure, which has worsened the humanitarian situation in the region.
Although the conflict has had a tremendous impact on all Ethiopians, many believe the military counterattacks carried out by the federal government with the help of forces in neighboring regions were justified. In fact, if the government did not respond forcefully to the TPLF attacks, the consequences would have been much worse for the country. A TPLF victory against the federal army in Tigray could have led to an endless and bloody civil war throughout Ethiopia and marked the beginning of the country’s disintegration. The federal government and neighboring regional states were doing everything they could to stop the TPLF from attacking Tigray before they had no other choice but to spill over to other parts of the country.
However, some complained that the states of Amhara and Afar had sided with the federal effort to maintain the TPLF because it was an “ethnic enemy” against the group.
When the conflict began with the TPLF’s attacks on the Ethiopian national army, which is responsible for protecting all Ethiopians and not specific ethnic groups, these allegations have no basis. However, there is no denying that Amharas and Afars have suffered horrific discrimination and ill-treatment under the TPLF for decades and have every reason to fear the group and their attempts to regain control of the country.
To understand how Ethiopia ended up where it is today and why the state administrations around Tigray did not hesitate to help the Abiy government defeat the TPLF, we need to look at the country’s new past.
When it started as a fighting group that began in the 1970s, the TPLF led the movement that came to power in 1991 after the Mengistu Haile Mariam overthrew the communist government. He formed a multi-ethnic governing coalition, dominated by ethnic tigers.
The TPLF, which was established and run for nearly three decades, led to an unprecedented level of instability, ethnic violence, displacement, and numerous massacres across the country.
While the TPLF put the Tigers ahead of all other Ethiopian peoples, they were particularly hostile to ethnic groups such as the Amhara.
The group’s founding political manifesto listed the Amharians as the main enemies of the Tigrayan people and called for their control. After gaining political power, the group illegally kidnapped Amhara who traditionally inhabited many territories in northwestern and northwestern mountainous Ethiopia and added them to the administrative boundaries of Tigray.
Since then, many Amhars have been expelled from the area and those who managed to stay have been banned from speaking Amharic and living as Amhars. Those who tried to question this discrimination and ill-treatment have had serious consequences, such as arbitrary detention, beatings, torture, and enforced disappearances and murders.
And under the coalition led by the TPLF, the Amhars were abused not only in areas controlled by Tigray, but throughout the country.
In particular, in the Oromia region, which was initially co-administered by the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (a coalition partner in the TPLF government), there have been significant acts of violence against Amharas in Arba-Gugu and Bedeno.
The regime led by the TPLF condemned the crimes, but did nothing to stop the ethnic-based abuse of Amhara or bring those responsible to justice.
Similarly, Amhars in other regions of Ethiopia have suffered abuse and discrimination since at least the 1990s.
Most Ethiopians, multi-ethnic groups, began protesting against this tragic backdrop of growing ethnic-based abuse and discrimination in 2015 against the regime led by the TPLF. Oromos and Amharas, the two largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia, joined forces against the TPLF, overthrew the regime and managed to pave the way for Abiy to rise to power. Unfortunately, ethnic violence against Amharas continued even after the fall of the TPLF.
The October 2020 massacre in Gura Ferda in the southern region, where 31 Amhara civilians were killed, for example, was not a new eruption of violence, but a continuation of ethnic-based violence and friction that began during the TPLF’s tenure. The January 2021 massacre against the Amhara in the metekel area of western Benishangul-Gumuz, when 81 civilians were brutally murdered, also took root in the ethnic tensions sparked by the TPLF regime. More than 100 civilians in Amhara were killed in another ethnic-based massacre in the region in December 2020.
Amhars in these regions are still suffering from dire humanitarian conditions and the continuing threat of ethnic violence.
Since taking power in 2018, Abiy has been constantly working to achieve national unity and help the Ethiopians leave behind the tensions and despair created by the TPLF. However, as the TPLF and its nationalist allies showed that they were so determined to keep the ethnic divisions of the nation alive, the atrocities committed against the Amhars continued unabated.
In western Ethiopia, the Oromo Liberation Army, designated by the Abiy regime as a partner in the TPLF crime, has been charged with kidnapping Amhara students, school massacres, burning Amhara villages and killing hundreds of innocent people. unexpected farmers only in the last two years.
The attacks by the TPLF on Amhara communities also continued in the recent conflict. After the attack by TPLF against the Northern Command of the ENDF in Wolhara, when the Amhara special forces repulsed them, the TPLF soldiers and the youth group “Samre” against Amhara retreated, targeting civilians in the western Mai-Kadra village of Tigrayan. Common pits are still being found in the area.
The Amhara people are no more or less than other ethnic groups living in the country. They have no intention of dominating the country or becoming a nation led by Amhara. The majority of Amharians want to live in a peaceful and united nation that does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic identity. This is why the Amharas are targeting nationalist groups such as the TPLF and OLF / OLA, who want to dismantle the country’s ethnic line.
Ethno-nationalists often claim that the Amharians wanted to return to the previous period of Haile Selassie I, at which time the Amharians had a marked dominance.
Unfortunately, it is true that the people of Amhara as a whole never benefited from the old systems that governed Ethiopia; instead, they have suffered the injustices of past authoritarian regimes.
The ongoing conflict in the country is not the result of different views on Ethiopia’s future, as some say, it is a direct consequence of groups like the TPLF, sparking nationalist tensions and reviving historical enemies to divide Ethiopia.
When the TPLF launched an attack on the Ethiopian national army, the Amhara and Afar regions went to support the federal government, not because they wanted to subdue or punish the Tigrayars, but because they wanted to maintain the unity of the country.
Abiy’s regime is far from perfect – I myself wrote articles criticizing his administration. But the prime minister certainly put in place important reforms and policies to unite all Ethiopians and move the country forward. Abiy is an Oromo, but he is pushing not only his ethnicity but the interests of all Ethiopians. To this end, nationalists have taken the target and named it as “neftegna” (a derogatory term used to refer to the Amhara). Even some administrators in the Oromo region, who have long been perceived as Abiy’s natural allies, are now working against reform and the unity agenda.
To put this destructive conflict behind us and embark on the path of progress and reform, Ethiopia certainly needs to embark on a national reconciliation project. Fortunately, the upcoming national elections in June end peacefully and create the much-needed framework. The latest atrocities against civilians should also be documented and those responsible brought to justice. Even before that, what the country really needs is a strong federal government that works proactively to make all Ethiopians, from all ethnic groups, feel safe and secure in their country.
Amharas, like others who suffered terribly under the ethno-nationalist regime of the TPLF, want a federal government that takes steps to prevent the recurrence of the atrocities that have taken place over the years as well as to prevent recurrence.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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