Ethiopia Civil War : Nobel Prize Winner To Brutal Dictator Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is a Nobel Peach Prize winner. Moreover, his speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony in 2019 was highly watched, Prime Minister Ahmed had ended a 20 year stalemate with a neighboring country and seemed to be the coolest African politician around.
“I…accept this award on behalf of Africans and citizens of the world for whom the dream of peace has often turned into a nightmare of war,” Abiy said.
Then reality set in.
A destroyed armored vehicle in one of the main streets of Hawzen on 6 June 2021
The Prime Minister was on track to lose his re-election campaign. However, instead of accepting his inevitable defeat, he decided to postpone elections. But then in the Tigray region, free elections were held anyway. The Prime Minister lost. But, his “peaceful” reaction was to send in his National Defense Forces into Tigray. As a result of that decision, the Prime Minister has now been battling the regional police force and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, an ethnic party that has dominated Ethiopian politics for decades.
Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation
The Liberation Front, despite having a very honest sounding name has been marred for corruption and violence for decades.
The TPLF was once Abiy’s allies, but now they are considered terrorists by his government.
VOA – https://amharic.voanews.com/a/tigray-air-attack-11-16-2020/5664582.html
Aftermath of Mekele airstrike
Furthermore, now the war has broken down into awful acts of ethnic cleansing on both sides of the war. The Nobel prize winner has become nothing more than another ruthless and violent dictator.
One of the numerous mass graves of civilian victims in Tigray, massacred by ENDF and allied forces[70] VOA – https://tigrigna.voanews.com/a/residents-dig-mass-graves-to-bury-tigray-war-victims/5925704.html
U.S. Department of State from United States – Secretary Pompeo Meets with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy
Both the government and anti-government forces boast total troops of around 200,000 each. In addition, both sides have lost roughly 5,000 soldiers each in the conflict.
Rr016 – Own work, derived from the Template:Ethiopian wars and insurgencies
Moreover, an unknown number of civilians have been massacred. In addition, some say are saying the number of citizens massacred is in the thousands. As a result of numerous mass graves throughout the country and reports from local villagers.
Kches16414 – Own work
A protest against “Tigray Genocide” on March 26, 2021 in New York, NY.
In conclusion, President Biden signed an executive order in September of 2021, that allowed Washington to take punitive sanctions against the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Amhara regional government, but will it make any difference?
Lastly, how will this awful war and humanitarian crisis conclude, is there an answer to ending the violence?
