After Eritrea thaw, Tigray’s southern border with Amhara heats up

 Solomon Yimer, Kibreab Beraki (Ethiopia Insight)

After violence in recent years over power, identity and resources rattled Ethiopia’s centre, east, west, and south, this time it is the north’s turn.



Fatal protests last week in Alamata over the Raya identity question echoed recent events elsewhere in Ethiopia. Related territorial disputes between Tigray and Amhara regions, exacerbated by fresh political dynamics, mean worsening conflict is possible, soon after hostilities with Eritrea unfroze.

Despite its leaders being at the forefront of national politics, Tigray state had been relatively peaceful over the last few years. That was until regional police shot at least three people dead on Oct. 21 in response to protests opposing Tigrayan rule in Alamata town near the border of Amhara region.

In scenes familiar from Oromia, and to a lesser extent parts of Amhara and Southern Nations regions, youths frustrated with local Tigrayan administrators in Alamata blocked roads with burning tires, said a teacher, requesting anonymity. Regional police killed five, and then two more, with 20 seriously wounded, he said.

There have already been protests in response in Amhara towns. And the disturbance could presage a more serious conflict due to festering historic disagreements over territory between the two powerful regions and political dynamics encouraging greater assertiveness from Amhara—and a fierce defensive posture from Tigray. There is a similarly problematic dispute with Amhara elements on the southwestern border of Tigray over the Wolkait district. Both are fanned by online activists.

Officials didn’t respond to our requests

Despite the attention of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, there is no obvious quick resolution, as Amhara’s new breed of ruling politicians, such as regional president Gedu Andargachew, respond to popular feelings of exploitation—which some even call the “Amhara genocide”—and seek to contain threats from more aggressive opposition factions liberated by Ethiopia’s political amnesty.

For example, in an Oct. 21 Facebook post, the leader of the newly formed National Movement of Amhara (NaMA), Desalegn Chane, accused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Gedu “of criminal negligence and complicity in an alleged genocide campaign against the people of Angot-Raya” A NaMA statement said Tigrayan forces deliberately attacked the Amhara people of Raya and called for the Amhara and federal governments to intervene.

Meanwhile, embattled Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) officials are unlikely to be in the mood to countenance processes such as a referendum that could possibly lead to a loss of territory and prestige. They have already ceded too much power at the federal level in Ethiopia’s political shake-up this year, and their energies are now focused on regional affairs, including managing the reopened Eritrean border.

Alamata activists have organized petitions, but local administrators told them not to promote the issue, and refused to discuss requests for the public to have their say on the question, the 35-year-old teacher said. “The officials didn’t respond to our requests and were heard saying there is no question on Raya identity. There was no room for discussion,” he said.

Militia mobilization

There are signs of militarization and mobilization of militia and special forces along the border recently as tensions build, according to Ethiopia Insight’s political commentator Alemayehu Weldemariam, who is originally from Raya but is now based in the U.S.

“The demand for recognition of the Raya distinct identity is an all-too-familiar story. But it’s always been highly contested: some claim it’s Amhara, others say it’s Tigrayan, while still others say it’s neither Tigrayan nor Amhara, but a distinct cultural group itself,” he said.

Despite the trouble in the relatively fertile Southern Tigray Zone, the destabilization has not reached proportions seen in other parts of the federation after elections in 2015 that led to the sole opposition parliamentarian losing his seat.

Popular protests in Oromia over marginalization and oppression led to more than 1,000 deaths and the destruction of countless private and public properties. The Konso people’s homeland in Southern Nations endured protests and repression over a reduction in that community’s administrative autonomy.

Unsolved and politicized territorial disputes between Somali and Oromia region contributed to extreme violence since late 2017, while Wolayta were killed and displacedin Hawassa amid a renewed push for Sidama statehood in mid-June. Nearby, there was mass displacement of Gedeo from West Guji Zone of Oromia this year.

Fighting related to resource competition struck the border areas of Benishangul-Gumuz and Oromia earlier this month. Another hitherto relatively unscathed location was the federal capital, Addis Ababa, but that suffered communal killings on its fringe in September as recently liberated opposing political factions held rallies.

In the latest in a series of mob killings, two medical researchers were killed last week in West Gojjam Zone of Amhara after a false rumor spread that they were delivering fatal injections, according to The Reporter newspaper.

Demands for greater autonomous territory from the Qemant ethnicity were violently dealt with by Amhara security forces in late 2015. That issue rumbles on despite attentionfrom the House of Federation, Ethiopia’s upper chamber which rules on constitutional matters, and a referendum. Nominally, that issue is similar to the identity-related question in southern Tigray.

We need someone from this area to administer us

The Raya issue has not been presented to the upper House, according to its speaker. And nor, it seems, to Tigray’s Council, which is where such demands are first supposed to be lodged. However, the claim is longstanding, according to another resident.

He said locals are not campaigning to be part of Amhara, but want self-determination, which is promised by Ethiopia’s constitution. The demand, which was not influenced by outsiders, has been insultingly rejected by officials, who said Raya was the name of an ox, he said.

“There is smear campaign against us. There is high level of unemployment and other related issues. We protested demanding these problems to get attention. We waited for a long time. We need someone from this area to administer us. But nobody is listening. So we protested,” they said.

Agezew Hidaru, who has authored a political history of the Raya-Qobbo people, wrote on Oct. 24 that the protests were triggered by ethnic Tigrayan activists trying to counter the Rayan movement, as well as by the insults, and the efforts of Tigrayan special police to undermine campaigning.

In a statement on Oct. 21, Tigray region said the identity issue was being used to advance a political agenda and that violent protests were engineered to incite the police into forceful action.

“It is unacceptable to use force and illegal means to address interests in a region where legitimate and peaceful questions are heard and resolved. The regional state will not tolerate any forces who directly or indirectly involve in this act,” the statement said.

Abraha Desta, the leader of Tigrayan opposition party Arena, said the regional government should address the cause of the protests rather than using force. “The people have concerns such as governance, democracy, development and freedom. Instead of addressing these concerns, Tigray Regional Government is punishing the people,” he said in the Oct 24 interview with Voice of America’s Tigrigna service.

Abraha also claimed the ruling Amhara Democratic Party has been creating problems by using ethnic identity questions. In an Oct. 23 statement, Amhara’s government reminded Tigray’s that the Raya identity question has to be solved in a constitutional manner in consultation with the public.

A case of mistaken identity?

Since 1930, Wollo Province was the personal fiefdom of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, with Crown Prince Asfa Wossen as its governor. In 1942, Haile Selassie enlarged Wollo to include Yejju and Lasta, with Dessie as its capital. And in 1957, Haile Selassie enlarged Wollo again to include Raya, particularly, Alamata and Kobo towns, which were part of Tigray Province, according to the Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia and Eritrea by Chris Prouty and Eugene Rosenfeld and other archival records.

When TPLF-led rebels captured state power in 1991, Alamata, with a majority of Tigrigna-speaking residents, was incorporated into Tigray, while the Amharic-speaking Qobbo was absorbed by Amhara in the new multinational federation. The ‘loss’ of Alamata has never been accepted by some Amhara, who allege that the TPLF moved Tigrayans into disputed areas during the civil war, or fiddled the numbers.



Mikael Arage, a Finland-based political commentator and citizen journalist, calls the 1991 process illegal, and even says Amhara are willing to go to war over the issue with Tigray, which has a population that is slightly over one-fifth of Amhara’s estimated 28 million.

“War between Amhara and Tigray regional states could break out as the call for defending and liberating ethnic Amharas in the forcefully annexed provinces of Wolkait and Raya continues as tyranny by the notorious Tigrayan soldiers exacerbates the situation,” he said, evidencing the passions accompanying the issue.

That is unlikely to happen, and any serious conflict would legitimize federal military intervention, according to Alemayehu, but the situation is problematic for the TPLF, with Alamata long having been badly governed and many administrators originating from northern Tigray. Additionally, discontent has increased recently, with allegations that Tigrayans displaced from Oromia and Amhara are being resettled in the area, he said. Some of those are Rayans originally resettled into present-day Amhara by the Derg, said Alemayehu.

“A referendum has often been suggested as a solution, but no state boundaries were originally decided by popular votes, and there is no reason Rayans cannot be a group living within Tigray like the Afar, Erob, and Kunama,” he said.

Peaceful demonstrations, albeit with some aggressive sentiments expressed, over the Raya situation occurred in towns including Bahir Dar and Dessie today and are planned for Debre Birhan on Nov. 4, as well as other Amhara locations. Government authorizations demonstrate the region’s support.

The overall movement is organized by an Addis Ababa-based group of activists, some of whom are promoting a youth movement in Raya to match Oromia’s Qeerroo and Amhara’s Fano, according to Alemayehu. It is called Siber, which means ‘break it’ in Amharic and Tigrinya.

“What they are aiming to break, it seems to me, is rule by the TPLF, but they might end up breaking the very social fabric that held the people of Raya-Qobbo together,” he said.

Aksum Post note: This article is favouring Amhara demands, which are expanissionist and false. The Tigray Region is an important historical area for Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is the foundation of Ethiopia. The Tigray Regional State leaders have not taken land that did not historically belong to Tigray. In fact they have left many towns and villages to be under Amhara Regional State. Raya is part of the Aksumite Kingdom and has always been part of Tigray. In Raya, there is a town called Maichew. In Agame District there are towns called also Upper Maichew and Lower Maichew, showing Raya's historical connection with Tigray. Some Aksumite archeological artfacts have been found in Lake Hashenge, near the town of Korem.There have been some maldadministration and not identity problems. In Raya, people speak any language they want. But as part of the Great Aksumite Kingdom , The Raya People would benefit from Tigrigna and Geez languages as a means of communication for business and for the pursuit of studies at Kindergarten, Elementary and Secondary School Levels. This is what is going in current Tigray Regional State and Raya or Wolqait.. The federal government should not allow such criminal gangs to destabilize Tigray Regional State and should arrest the people who are agitating the population for tribal wars to prolong the domination of Amhara tribe in Ethiopia. The Amhara, currently around 10 million have migrated from South and South West Ethiopia as the result of Oromo and islamic invasion led by Ahmed Gragn, The Terrible. Tigray has sympathy for the suffering of the Amhara people and has always supported them. But not at the cost of Tigray's historical and political entity. The Amhara should rather focus on how to get back the territory they have lost to the Oromo or Galla tribe.

የዛሬው የአማራ ጎጦኞች ሰልፍ፡ ዶ/ር አብይን ለመቃወም ወይም ለመጠየቅ? ኦሮማራን ለማጠናከር ወይስ ለማፍረስ? (ስዩም ተሾመ)

በዛሬው እለት በተለያዩ የአማራ ክልል ከተሞች ሰላማዊ ሰልፎች ተካሄደዋል፡፡ በሰልፉ የተላለፉት መልዕክቶች ለብዙዎች ጠብ-አጫሪ፣ ፀረ-አብይ፣ አክራሪነት እና ፀረ-ህገመንግስት፣… በተለይ ደግሞ ፀረ_ኦሮማራ ሊመስሉ ይችላሉ፡፡ በእርግጥ አንዳንድ መፈክሮች አግባብ ናቸው ለማለት ይከብዳል፡፡ ሆኖም ግን ሰላማዊ ሰልፉ ሆነ መልዕክቶቹ ከሌሎች ህዝቦች ጋር ፀብ ለመጫር፣ የዶ/ር አብይን አመራር ለመቃወም ወይም ህገመንግስቱን ለመጣስ አይደለም፡፡ ከሁሉም በላይ ደግሞ የኦሮማራ ጥምረትን የሚፃረር አይደለም፡፡ ከዚያ ይልቅ የአማራ ህዝብ መብትና ፍትሃዊ ተጠቃሚነት እንዲረጋገጥ፣ ህገመንግስቱ በአግባቡ እንዲተገበር፣ እንዲሁም የኦሮማራ መሠረት እንዲጠናከር፣ የዶ/ር አብይ አመራርም በዚህ ረገድ የሚጠበቅበት ድርሻና ሃላፊነት ለመጠየቅ የተደረገ ነው፡፡ ይህን በአግባቡ ለመረዳት ስለ ኦሮማራ ጥምረት በቂ ግንዛቤ ሊኖረን ይገባል፡፡

በተለያዩ የአማራ ክልል ከተሞች የመልካም አስተዳደርና የፍትሕ ጥያቄ ያነገቡ ነዋሪዎች አደባባይ ለሰልፍ ወጥተዋል።በራያ ፣ ወልቃይት ፣ ጣና ፣ ሐረር ፣ወልድያ ፣ ደሴ እና ሌሎች የኢትዮጵያ ክፍሎች በዜጎች ላይ የሚፈጸመውን  የመልካም አስተዳደር ችግርና በደል በማውገዝ ተቃውሞቸውን በሰልፍ እየገለጹ ነው።

የኦሮማራ ጥምረት መሬት ላይ የተመሠረተ ነው፡፡ “መሬት” የሚለው ቃል፤ አንደኛ፦ የሁለቱ ህዝቦች ጥምረትና ትብብር በተጨባጭ እውነታ ላይ የተመሠረተ መሆኑን ያሳል፣ ሁለተኛ፦ የኦሮማራ ጥምረት መሠረቱ የሁለቱ ህዝቦች የመሬት ባለቤትነትና ተጠቃሚነት ላይ የቆመ መሆኑ ነው፡፡ እስኪ ወደ 2008 ዓ.ም ተመለሱና የኦሮማራ ጥምረት በተግባር የተጠነሰሰበትን ሁኔታ ለማስታወስ ሞክሩ፡፡ በ2008 ዓ.ም በኦሮሚያ ክልል ለተቀሰቀሰው ህዝባዊ አመፅና ተቃውሞ መነሻ ምክንያቱ የአዲስ አበባ ማስተር ፕላን ነው፡፡ ይህ ማስተር ፕላን በአዲስ አበባ ዙሪያ የሚገኙ የአሮሞ አርሶ አደሮችን በልማት ስም በማፈናቀል የእርሻ መሬታቸዎን ለመቀራመት የተዘጋጀ መሆኑ እርግጥ ነው፡፡

በሐምሌ 2008 ዓ.ም በጎንደር ህዝባዊ አመፅና ተቃውሞ የተቀሰቀሰበት ምክንያት የወልቃይትና ፀገዴ ማንነት ኮሚቴ አባላት አፍኖ ለመውሰድ የተደረገው ሙከራ ነው፡፡ በተለይ ደግሞ የኮ/ል ደመቀ ዘውዴ የአልሞት_ባይ_ተጋዳይነት በክልሉ ለተቀሰቀሰው አመፅና ተቃውሞ ቁልፍ ሚና ተጫውቷል፡፡ የማንነት ጥያቄ የተነሳበት መሠረታዊ ምክንያት የህወሓት አፓርታይድ ስርዓት በወልቃይትና ፀገዴ የሚኖሩ አማራዎችን ከመሬታቸው እያፈናቀለ፣ በምትኩ የራሱን የቀድሞ ታጋዮች በማስፈሩ ነው፡፡
ኢትዮጲያ ውስጥ መሬት የህልውና መሠረት ነው፡፡ የመሬት ባለቤትነትና ያለመፈናቀል መብት ከነዋሪዎቹ ባህልና ማንነት ጋር የተቆራኘ ነው፡፡ በየትኛውም አከባቢ ከመሬቱ የተፈናቀለ አርሶ-አደር ከስሩ እንደተነቀለ ዛፍ ነው፡፡ ከአዲስ አበባ ማስተር ፕላን ጋር በተያያዘ በኦሮሚያ የተነሳው ህዝባዊ አመፅና ተቃውሞ፣ ከወልቃይትና ፀገዴ፣ እንዲሁም ከቅርብ ግዜ ወዲህ በራያ የተነሳው የማንነት ጥያቄ መነሻ ምክንያቱ የመሬት ባለቤትነትና ያለመፈናቀል መብት ጋር በቀጥታ የተቆራኘ ነው፡፡ በ2008 ዓ.ም ጎንደር ላይ “የኦሮሞ ደም የእኛም ደም ነው” ብለው የወጡበት ምክንያት ሁለቱ ህዝቦች የጋራ ጥያቄና ጠላት ስላላቸው ነው፡፡ በአጠቃላይ የኦሮማራ ጥምረት የተመሠረተው መሬት ላይ ነው፡፡ ይህን መሠረት አድርጎ የተፈጠረው ጥምረትና ትብብር የህወሓትን የበላይነት ገርስሶታል፡፡ ነገር ግን ህወሓት የዘረጋው የአፓርታይድ ስርዓት የፖለቲካ ስልጣን ለመቆጣጠር ብቻ አይደለም፡፡

ህወሓት የፖለቲካ ስልጣኑን የተቆጣጠረበት መሠረታዊ ምክንያት የኢኮኖሚ ብዝበዛ፣ በተለይ የህልውና መሠረት የሆነውን መሬት ለመቀራመት ነው፡፡ ህወሓት ወደ ስልጣን እንደመጣ የወልቃይትና ራያን መሬት፣ የአፋር የጨው ማዕድን ተቀራመተ፡፡ በመቀጠል የጋምቤላ እና የአዲስ አበባ መሬትን ዘርፈ፡፡ የአዲስ አበባን መሬት ተቀራምቶ ከጨረሰ በኋላ በማስተር ፕላን ሰበብ የኦሮሞ መሬትን ለመቀራመት ሲመጣ ታላቅ ቁጣ ተቀሰቀሰ፡፡ የተጠራቀመ ብሶት ያለበት የወልቃይትና ፀገዴ ህዝብ አልሞት-ባይ-ተጋዳይነት በአማራ ክልል የለኮሰው አመፅና ተቃውሞ በኦሮሚያ ከነበረው ጋር ሲጣመር የኦሮማራ ጥምረት ተወለደ፡፡

የኦሮማራ ጥምረት የህወሓትን የበላይነት አስወግዷል፡፡ ከዚህ በተጨማሪ በኦሮሚያ ለተቀሰቀሰው ህዝባዊ አመፅና ተቃውሞ መነሻ የሆነውን የአዲስ አበባ ማስተር ፕላን አስቀርቷል፡፡ በአማራ ክልል ለተቀሰቀሰው ህዝባዊ አመፅና ተቃውሞ መነሻ የሆነውን የወልቃይትና ፀገዴ፣ እንዲሁም የራያ የማንነት ጥያቄ ግን አልተመለሰም፡፡ ቀደም ሲል ለመግለፅ እንደሞከርኩት፣ በእነዚህ አከባቢዎች የሚነሳው የማንነት ጥያቄ መሠረቱ የመሬት ባለቤትነትና ተጠቃሚነት ነው፡፡ የትኛውም ማህብረሰብ በማንነቱ ላይ የማንም ምስክርነትና ፍቃድ አያስፈልገውም፡፡ የወልቃይት ህዝብ “አማራ ነኝ” ካለ ከራሱ በስተቀር “አማራ ነህ” ወይም “አማራ አይደለህም” የሚለው አካል ሊኖር አይችልም፡፡ በተመሣሣይ የራያ ህዝብ “ራያ ነኝ” ካለ ማንም አይደለህም ሊለው አይችልም፡፡
እስካሁን ድረስ ህወሓት ይህን ጥያቄ በሃይል ሲያፍንና ሲያዳፍን የነበረው ከማንነቱ ጥያቄ በስተጀርባ ያለውን የመሬት ባለቤትነትና ያለመፈናቀል መብት ላለማክበር ነው፡፡ የወልቃይትና ራያ ህዝብ ከሚያነሱት ጥያቄ በስተጀርባ የህልውናቸው መሠረት የሆነውን መሬት እየተዘረፉ በሄዱ ቁጥር እንደ ማህብረሰብ የነበራቸው ባህልና ማንነት እየተሸረሸረ ስለሆነ ነው፡፡ ለዚህ ደግሞ የወልቃይት ህዝብ ከ1983 ዓ.ም በፊትና በኋላ ከመሬት ባለቤትነት፣ ባህልና ቋንቋ አንፀር ያለውን ማንነት ብቻ በቂ ነው፡፡ በኦሮሚያ ክልል ለተቀሰቀሰው አመፅና ተቃውሞ መነሻ የሆነው የአዲስ አበባ ማስተር ፕላን ተቋርጧል፡፡ በተመሣሣይ አማራ ክልል ለተቀሰቀሰው አመፅና ተቃውሞ መነሻ የሆነው የመሬትና የማንነት ምላሽ ሊሰጠው ይገባል! በዛሬው እለት በተለያዩ የአማራ ክልል ከተሞች የተካሄደው ሰላማዊ ሰልፍ መሠረታዊ ጥየቄ ይሄ ነው፡፡ ዶ/ር አብይን ለመቃወም ሳይሆን ለማስታወስ ነው፡፡ ህገመንግስቱን ለመጣስ ሳይሆን እንዲከበር ለመጠየቅ ነው፡፡ ኦሮማራን ለማፍረስ ሳይሆን ይበልጥ ለማጠናከር ነው!

ተጨማሪ  ከአክሱም ፖስት :

ፀሐፊው የተሳሰተ ግንዛቤ ይዛል:: በመጀመሪያ መሬት በኢት በኢትዮጵያ የመንግስት ውይንም ይየህዝብ ነው::ወያኔ በመራቡ ዓለም አይፈልግም ምክንያቱ ከቻይና ያላቸው ግንኙነት ስለአስፈራቸው ነው:: " ኦሮማራ" ተበትኖአል:: ስለ አብይ የምናውቀው የለም::ምናልባት የኦሮማራ አቅናቅኝ ነው:: ለሁሉም ኦሮማራ የሚባል ስልት ውይንም ስትራቴጂ ከትዉንም አይሳካም ምክንያቱም ወደ ሌላ ራሱን የቻለ ዘረኝነት ስለሚወስድ ነው:: በተጨማሪም የአሁኑ የኢትዮጵያ ጉዳይ አንድ ታስዛብ በ "Tigrai Online" አንዳስቀመጡት "ከሀዲዎቹ ብአዴንና ኦሆዴድ ወይም ኦሮማራ ስልጣን ከተቆጣጠሩ ስድስት ወራት ወዲህ የተለያየ አላማና ግብ ያላቸው የውጭ ሀይሎች በይቅርታ ስም ወደ አገር ውስጥ እንዲገቡ ቢያደርጉም ለዚህ ቦታ ያበቃቸው የኢሕአዴግ ድርጅቶችና የክልል መስተዳድሮችን ግን እየነጠሉ በምታትና በማፍረስ የተላላኪነት ተልእኮቸውንና ድብቅ አለማቸውን በማሳካት ላይ ይገኛሉ። ግንባር ቀደም ተመቺው የደቡብ ብሔር ብሔሮችና ሕዝቦች በታሰበው መሰረት ከተጠናነቀ በኃላ ቀጣዩ የሱማሌ ክልል በተደራጀ ፕሮፓጋንዳና በወታደራዊ ጣልቃ ገብነት ጭምር ለበኃይል እንዲፈርስ ተደረገ። ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝም በተመሳሳይ መልኩ ቀጣዩ ታርጌት ሆነ። ጋምቤላም እንደ ደቡብ አመራረቹ በተፅእኖ ከሰልጣን አንዲወረዱ ተደርጓል። ዘመቻው እንዲህ እንዲህ አያለ ጉዞውን በአፋር በኩል አድርጎ " ዋናው ጠላት" ብለው ወደ ፈረጁት ትግራይ ለመዝለቅ በማያባራ የኢሣት፣ አቢሲና ፋና ቅስቀሳ እየታገዘ ራያና ሌላ ሌላም ምክንያት እየተፈለገለት ነው። ትግራይ ከማናቸውም ጊዜ ይልቅ አሁን ደክሟል ብለው ያሰቡት የአማራ ገዥዎች ለመስፋፋት፣ ለገዛ ራሱ ውድቀት ከትግራይ ራስ የማይወርደው ሻእቢያም ለበቀል የተነሱበት ወቅት ሲሆን የፌደራል መንግስትም ቢሆን ስልጣኑን ለማደላደል እንደእንቅፋት የሚቆጥረው ኃይል ስለሆነ ሁኔታውን እንደበጎ ቆጥሮ ዝምታ መርጧል።

Eritrea should unite with Tigray

Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia give away a group of Tigray's districts to Italy in 1890 after the death of Emperor Yohannes of Ethiopia. Italy called these districts "Eritrea" and proclaimed as it's colony. There was no opposition from Menelik II to Italy's colonisation of North Tigray or Upper Tigray now called Eriirea. It is mentioned in some historical anecdotes that Emperor Menelik II wanted to give  the whole of Tigray to Italy to appease The Italian Emperor. Emperor Menelik II defeated Italy in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa and made himself history as the first African to defeat an European army. Menelik is almost worshipped in Ethiopia as a hero and a benefactor. However, a look into Menelik's campaigns in South Ethiopia would illustrate that he was a fascist thug, who killed thousands of Oromo, Guraghes and Sidamo to subdue them to his rule. Ethiopia's capital city was called " Addis Ababa", which means a new flower in the Amharic language, one of the languages in Ethiopia, which is spoken by about 20% of the population. The original name of "Addis Ababa" is Fin Finne in Oromo language and should have been called Fin Finne. The name "Addis Ababa"  or New Flower connotes that Menelik II was occupying the area and the Amhara were settling in the area. Thus the Amhara and other tribes living in Fin Finne or Addis Ababa migrated from other parts of Ethiopia.

The other crime Menelik II committed to Africans is that he gave away a territory of Tigray to Italy for free or sold it  for a few rounds of  ammunition. Some say Menelik II was farsighted for selling away a territory of Tigray to Italy as the weapons and ammunition served to defeat the invading Italian army in 1896. We believe Menelik had support from Russia and was already importing weapons from other countries during the Reign of Emperor Yohannes. Besides this should not be a reason to give away one's population into slavery. Menelik has been preparing to take the crown by overthrowing Emperor Yohannes, but Yoahnnes was more powerful. Menelik started collaborating with Italy while Yohannes was the head of state (Emperor or King of Kings of Ethiopia). The Treaty at Wichale is a clear illustration of the betrayal of Menelik to Ethiopia indirectly and to Yohannes directly.

As Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it :

"Treaty of Wichale, Wichale also spelled Ucciali, (May 2, 1889), pact signed at Wichale, Ethiopia, by the Italians and Menilek II of Ethiopia, whereby Italy was granted the northern Ethiopian territories of Bogos, Hamasen, and Akale-Guzai (modern Eritrea and northern Tigray) in exchange for a sum of money and the provision of 30,000 muskets and 28 cannons.
Article XVII of the Treaty of Wichale stated that the emperor of Ethiopia “could” have recourse to the good offices of the Italian government in his dealings with other foreign powers; but the Italian text of the treaty had the word “must.” Based on their own text, the Italians proclaimed a protectorate over Ethiopia. In September 1890, Menilek II repudiated their claim, and in 1893 he officially denounced the entire treaty. An attempt by the Italians to impose a protectorate over Ethiopia by force was finally confounded by their defeat at the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896. By the Treaty of Addis Ababa (Oct. 26, 1896), the country south of the Mareb and Muna rivers was restored to Ethiopia, and Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Ethiopia."

The Wichale Treaty clearly shows how Menelik II gave away a territory of Tigray-Ethiopia to Italy. Menelik II also willingly collaborated in enslaving Ethiopia's population. This is a heinous crime against humanity. Besides Menelik invited a foreign power to colonise Africa or part of Africa, which makes him a collaborator with the European colonisers. After defeating Italy in Adwa in 1896, Menelik II took possession of The St. Mary Tsion of Aksum Orthodox Church. He also ordered the nobilities of Tigray to subdue to his rule. Allula Aba Nega, an experienced African general who wanted to go to Rome to conquer Italy lived under house arrest in Addis Ababa and was  killed by order of Menelik. Ras Menegesh, son of emperor Yohannes, who was  the legitmate heir to  the throne, was also taken to Addis Ababa and  was poisoned to death by Menelik's spies.

Even though Menelik defeated Italy in 1896, but he had policies that devastated some parts of Ethiopia. The Tigray, Oromo, Guraghe and Sidama people of Ethiopia were subdued by Menelik. The Oromos were killed en mass and made landless. As to Tigray, it was weakened as half of it's population was under Italian colonial rule. Eritrea colonised by Italy for 50 years and was under British protectorate  for 10 years. Eritrea is now an independent country since 1993 after 30 years of armed struggle against Ethiopia. Tigray has been supporting Eritrea during the armed struggle and after independence. Unfortunately Eritrea declared war against Ethiopia in 1998 due to border issues. Tigray was in difficult situation as it could not fight against it's own brothers and sisters. Tigrayans opposed to any war against Eritreans. However, Issayas Afeworqi provoked Ethiopia to war by bombing  children at Ayder School., in Mekelle, Tigray. This was unpardonable and Eritrea paid a high price for it, which was a hard pill for Tigrayans to swallow.

Since April 2018, there is a peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Many Eritreans have been crossing the border and are most welcome in Tigray. However, the co-operation between Tigray and Eritrea should lead to a unity of both Tigrigna speakers. Eritreans should learn from Tigray that The Amhara do not accommodate equality of all tribes in Ethiopia. Tigray and Eritrea should unite to have more say in the geopolitics of Eastern Africa. Tigray and Eritrea could develop standard Tigrigna to facilitate communication and develop literature. The youth on both sides of the Mereb could have the same curriculum at kindergarten, elementary and high school levels. We believe Tigray and Eritrea have the same fate and should face the challenges of 21st Century together come rain or shine.



 The Treaty of Wichale in English ad verbatim:

Treaty of friendship and trade between the kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Ethiopia (Treaty of
Wuchale) His Majesty King Umberto I of Italy and Menelik His Majesty The King of Kings of Ethiopia, in order to make
meaningful and lasting peace between the two Kingdoms of Italy and Ethiopia have agreed to conclude a treaty of friendship and commerce .

And His Majesty the King of Italy having delegated as his representative, Count Pietro Antonelli, Commander of the Crown of Italy, Knight SS. Maurice and Lazarus, his extraordinary posted by His Majesty the King Menelik,whose full powers were found in good and due form, and His Majesty the King Menelik concluded in his name as

 King of Kings of Ethiopia, agreed and concludes the following Articles:

Article 1. There will be perpetual peace and friendship between His Majesty the King of Italy and His
Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia and between their respective heirs, successors, servants and protected populations.

Article 2. Each Contracting Party shall be represented by a diplomatic agent accredited to the other and may appoint consuls, agents and consular officers in the other.
Such officials shall enjoy all the privileges and immunities according to the customs of the European governments.
Article 3. To remove any ambiguity about the limits of the territories over which the two Contracting Parties shall exercise sovereign rights, a special commission composed of two delegates and two Ethiopians will draw on Italian soil with special signals a permanent boundary line whose strongholds are established as below:
a) the line of the plateau will mark the Ethiopian-Italian border;

 b) from the region Arafali Hala, Sagan and Asmara are villages in the Italian border;

c) Adi and Adi Nefas Joannes Bogos will be on the side of the Italian border;

d) by Adi Joannes a straight line extended from east to west will mark the border between Italy and Ethiopia.

Article 4. The monastery of Debra Bizen with all their possessions will remain the property of the Ethiopian government but will never use it for military purposes.

 Article 5. The caravans from or to Massawa to Ethiopian territory pay on one single law of the customs entry of 8 per cent on the value of the goods.

Article 6. The trade of arms and ammunition from or through Massawa to Ethiopia will be free for the only King of Kings of Ethiopia.
Whenever they want to get the passage of such kinds will make regular application to the Italian authorities, bearing the royal seal.

The wagons with load of weapons and ammunition will travel under the protection and cover of Italian soldiers until alconfine Ethiopia.

 Article 7. The subjects of each of the two Contracting Parties will be free to enter, travel, go out with their merchandise and effects in the other country and will enjoy greater protection of the Government and its employees.
And, therefore, strictly forbidden to people on both sides armed contractors to meet many or few and pass their borders in order to impose itself on people and groped by force to provide food and livestock.
Article 8. The Italians in Ethiopia and Ethiopians in Italy or Italian possessions can buy or sell, take or lease and in any other manner dispose of their property no less than the natives.

 Article 9. And fully guaranteed in both states the option for other subjects to practice their religion.

Article 10. Any disputes or quarrels between the Italians in Ethiopia will be defined by the Italian in Massawa or his delegate.

 The fights between Italians and Ethiopians will be defined by the Italian in Massawa or his delegate and a delegate of the Ethiopian.

 Article 11. Dying in an Italian in Ethiopia or an Ethiopian in Italian territory, the local authorities were carefully kept all his property and held at the disposal of government to which the deceased belonged.

Article 12. In any event, circumstance or for any Italians accused of a crime, they will be judged by the Italian authorities.
That is why the Ethiopian authorities shall immediately deliver to the Italians authorities in Massawa the Italians accused of having committed a crime.
They also accused the Ethiopians of crime committed on Italian soil will be judged by the Ethiopian.
Article 13. His Majesty the King of Italy and His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia is obliged to deliver criminals who may have become refugees, to escape punishment by the rulers of one on the other domains.

Article 14. The slave trade was against the principles of the Christian religion, His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia is committed to prevent it with all his power, so that no caravan of slaves can cross its member.

Article 15. This Treaty shall be valid throughout the Ethiopian Empire.

Article 16. While in the present Treaty, after five years from the date of signature, one of two High Contracting Parties may wish to introduce some modifications to do so, but he must prevent the other a year earlier, while remaining firm and every single concession on territory.

Article 17. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia can use the Government of His Majesty the King of Italy for all treatments that did business with other powers or governments.

 Article 18. If His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia intends to grant special privileges to nationals of third state to establish businesses and industries in Ethiopia, will always be given, under equal conditions, preference to the Italians.

Article 19. This treaty being drafted in Italian and Amharic and the two versions agree with each other perfectly, both texts shall be deemed official, and will in every respect equal faith.

 Art 2O. This Treaty shall be ratified.

 In witness whereof, Count Pietro Antonelli on behalf of His Majesty the King of Italy, His Majesty the King of King Menelik of Ethiopia, in his own name, signed and affixed their seal to this Treaty, at the camp Uccialli of 25 miazia 1881 corresponding to May 2, 1889.

 Imperial Seal of Ethiopia

 For His Majesty the King of Italy Pietro Antonelli

Ratification of MS, Monza, September 29, 1889

The impending tribal wars in Ethiopia

Since Abiy Ahmed took power through a soft coup in April 2018, there has been mass displacement and killings based on tribal groupings. It is astounding Abiy Ahmed and his government are not taking any measures. How is it impossible for Ethiopia's strong army to stop such heinous crimes against humanity? Probably the UN should send a peace keeping force to protect the population from killing and displacement.

It is clear Abiy Ahmed has no power over the country's  local powers or underground armed groups. It is time the government acts. There should be no displacement or killings on civiilians. The military should also take over as Mr. Abiy is not able to enforce the law. Preaching about peace might help only if there is justice. Tolerating the displacement of  people from their homes and preaching peace is promoting  war.

The Lemma- Abiy Team is a failure. Neither would TPLF-EPRDF be an alternativee. It is time for the Defence Forces to take state power to prevent the country from further suffering and collapse. We all are supportive of Dr. Abiy's new ideas of peace and unity. But this is not going to solve any problem as some political groups are planning to take state power by using force. Dr. Abiy should have dealt with Eritrea's President Issayas Afeworki, who is a mortal enemy of Ethiopia. Whether we like it or not, the people of Eritrea are not ready for peaceful co-operation with Ethiopia. Ethiopia has lost it's ports to Eritrea, even though international documents show that both Massawa and Assab belong to Ethiopia. Further on, Badme has been part of Ethiopia and is given to Eritrea by a court, which Ethiopia was not represented by it's own citizens.

The Eritrea-Ethiopia Peace Deal is only of symbolic importance to Ethiopia. Eritreans are taking advantage of the peace deal by importing agricultural products and petroleum from Ethiopia. The government of Abiy Ahmed has left the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea open without any regulatory measures such as import and export taxes. There should be some regulation of import and export between the two countries.  Eritrea is getting what they want from Ethiopia as in the 1990 period, when Eritrea was taking Ethiopian agricultural products like coffee and selling them to other countries. We hope history is not repeating itself again. Unfortunately there are some evidences that Eritrea is blackmailing Ethiopia again with the same method it used in 1990 period.

The fact that Abiy Ahmed came through a soft coup by using Qerro ( Oromo Youth) and Fano (Amhara Youth) , who used force to bring down the EPRDF regime to make way for Team Lemma or The Oromara group.The Oromra group is an Amhara group using  the Oromos to dominate Ethiopia. Some Oromo political groups in EPRDF have lent their support to the Amhara group and change took place. However, there is no political programme in place. The group has no vision. It's main aim seems to challenge the domination of TPLF.

In our opinion, the Ethiopian Defence Forces should intervene by replacing Abiy Ahmed and his supporters with a more nationalist military leader that stands for justice and equality. For instance, The METEC group is patriotic and nationalist. They could provide leadership until the country stabilises and the rule of law is the norm. We appeal to the nationalist and patriotic groups in the military to save Ethiopia from destruction. We believe  a Tigrayan millitary group could save Ethiopia from further deterioration. But also Amhara or Oromo military together withTigrayan group could be the only way out of the quagmire Ethiopia has placed itself in. We post the following article and pictures about displaced persons in Ethiopia. Our people are living in tents facing cold winters and rain. We should stop this madness by replacing Abiy Ahmed and his supporters with a more responisble and patriotic group.

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ወደ ቀያቸው ተመለሱ የተባሉ ዜጎች እንደ አዲስ እየተፈናቀሉ ነው!  

በቡኖ በደሌ ደዴሳ ወረዳ ያሉ ዜጎች ከጥቅምት 10/2011 ዓም ጀምሮ ቤታቸው ሲቃጠል ሰንብቷል። ከትናንት ማታ ጀምሮ ጥቃቱ ስለተጠናከረና ቤታቸውም ስለተቃጠለ ሶስት ቀበሌ ውስጥ የሚኖሩ በርካታ ዜጎች ተፈናቅለዋል።
በአሁኑ ወቅት በቡርቃ ጃለላ ቀበሌ ሜዳላይ ዳስ ሰርተው ይገኛሉ። ከተለያዩ የኦሮሚያ አካባቢዎች ተፈናቅለው ባህርዳር የነበሩ ዜጎች ወደ ቦታቸው እንዲመለሱ መደረጉን የአማራ ብዙሃን መገናኛ ኤጀንሲ በቅርቡ መዘገቡ ይታወሳል። ተፈናቅለው የነበሩት ወደ ቀያቸው ተመለሱ እየተባለ እንደአዲስ ዜጎች እየተፈናቀሉ ነው።

The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s War ( The New York Times)

Written by Declan Walsh

Photographs by Tyler Hicks

Oct. 26, 2018 

Chest heaving and eyes fluttering, the 3-year-old boy lay silently on a hospital ward in the highland town of Hajjah, a bag of bones fighting for breath.

His father, Ali al-Hajaji, stood anxiously over him. Mr. Hajaji had already lost one son three weeks earlier to the epidemic of hunger sweeping across Yemen. Now he feared that a second was slipping away.

It wasn’t for a lack of food in the area: The stores outside the hospital gate were filled with goods and the markets were bustling. But Mr. Hajaji couldn’t afford any of it because prices were rising too fast.

“I can barely buy a piece of stale bread,” he said. “That’s why my children are dying before my eyes.”

The devastating war in Yemen has gotten more attention recently as outrage over the killing of a Saudi dissident in Istanbul has turned a spotlight on Saudi actions elsewhere. The harshest criticism of the Saudi-led war has focused on the airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians at weddings, funerals and on school buses, aided by American-supplied bombs and intelligence.

But aid experts and United Nations officials say a more insidious form of warfare is also being waged in Yemen, an economic war that is exacting a far greater toll on civilians and now risks tipping the country into a famine of catastrophic proportions.

Hunger is Expected to Spread Over Hundreds of Miles in War-torn Yemen

Oman

Saudi Arabia

Sparsely

populated

areas

HADRAMAWT

Region

Al Ghaydah

Aslam

Yemen

Hajjah

Sana

Juberia

Marib

Zabid

Rida

Al Mukalla

Densely

populated

areas

Taiz

Where the Hunger Crisis Is Worst

more severe

100 miles

Aden

Where the Hunger Crisis Is Worst

more severe

Saudi Arabia

Sparsely

populated

areas

Hajjah

Al Ghaydah

Yemen

Sana

Al Mukalla

Rida

Taiz

Aden

100 miles

Oman

Saudi Arabia

Sparsely

populated

areas

HADRAMAWT

Region

Al Ghaydah

Yemen

Hajjah

Marib

Sana

Al Mukalla

Zabid

Rida

Taiz

Where the Hunger Crisis Is Worst

Aden

more severe

100 miles

Oman

Sparsely

populated

areas

Saudi Arabia

HADRAMAWT

Region

Al Ghaydah

Aslam

Hajjah

Yemen

Sana

Juberia

Marib

Zabid

Rida

Al Mukalla

Densely

populated

areas

Taiz

Where the Hunger Crisis Is Worst

more severe

100 miles

Aden

By Jugal K. Patel and Troy Griggs

Note: Hunger severity data projected for next three months | Source: Famine Early Warning Systems Network

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi-led coalition and its Yemeni allies have imposed a raft of punitive economic measures aimed at undercutting the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen. But these actions — including periodic blockades, stringent import restrictions and withholding the salaries of about a million civil servants — have landed on the backs of civilians, laying the economy to waste and driving millions deeper into poverty.

Those measures have inflicted a slow-burn toll: infrastructure destroyed, jobs lost, a weakening currency and soaring prices. But in recent weeks the economic collapse has gathered pace at alarming speed, causing top United Nations officials to revise their predictions of famine.

“There is now a clear and present danger of an imminent and great, big famine engulfing Yemen,” Mark Lowcock, the under secretary for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Tuesday. Eight million Yemenis already depend on emergency food aid to survive, he said, a figure that could soon rise to 14 million, or half Yemen’s population.

“People think famine is just a lack of food,” said Alex de Waal, author of “Mass Starvation” which analyzes recent man-made famines. “But in Yemen it’s about a war on the economy.”

The signs are everywhere, cutting across boundaries of class, tribe and region. Unpaid university professors issue desperate appeals for help on social media. Doctors and teachers are forced to sell their gold, land or cars to feed their families. On the streets of the capital, Sana, an elderly woman begs for alms with a loudspeaker.

“Help me,” the woman, Zahra Bajali, calls out. “I have a sick husband. I have a house for rent. Help.”

And in the hushed hunger wards, ailing infants hover between life and death. Of nearly two million malnourished children in Yemen, 400,000 are considered critically ill — a figure projected to rise by one quarter in the coming months.

“We are being crushed,” said Dr. Mekkia Mahdi at the health clinic in Aslam, an impoverished northwestern town that has been swamped with refugees fleeing the fighting in Hudaydah, an embattled port city 90 miles to the south.

Flitting between the beds at her spartan clinic, she cajoled mothers, dispensed orders to medics and spoon-fed milk to sickly infants. For some it was too late: the night before, an 11-month old boy had died. He weighed five and a half pounds.

Looking around her, Dr. Mahdi could not fathom the Western obsession with the Saudi killing of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

“We’re surprised the Khashoggi case is getting so much attention while millions of Yemeni children are suffering,” she said. “Nobody gives a damn about them.”

She tugged on the flaccid skin of a drowsy 7-year-old girl with stick-like arms. “Look,” she said. “No meat. Only bones.”

The embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington did not respond to questions about the country’s policies in Yemen. But Saudi officials have defended their actions, citing rockets fired across their border by the Houthis, an armed group professing Zaidi Islam, an offshoot of Shiism, that Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, views as a proxy for its regional rival, Iran.

The Saudis point out that they, along with the United Arab Emirates, are among the most generous donors to Yemen’s humanitarian relief effort. Last spring, the two allies pledged $1 billion in aid to Yemen. In January, Saudi Arabia deposited $2 billion in Yemen’s central bank to prop up its currency.

But those efforts have been overshadowed by the coalition’s attacks on Yemen’s economy, including the denial of salaries to civil servants, a partial blockade that has driven up food prices, and the printing of vast amounts of bank notes, which caused the currency to plunge.

And the offensive to capture Hudaydah, which started in June, has endangered the main lifeline for imports to northern Yemen, displaced 570,000 people and edged many more closer to starvation.

A famine here, Mr. Lowcock warned, would be “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”

When Ali Hajaji’s son fell ill with diarrhea and vomiting, the desperate father turned to extreme measures. Following the advice of village elders, he pushed the red-hot tip of a burning stick into Shaher’s chest, a folk remedy to drain the “black blood” from his son.

“People said burn him in the body and it will be O.K.,” Mr. Hajaji said. “When you have no money, and your son is sick, you’ll believe anything.”

The burns were a mark of the rudimentary nature of life in Juberia, a cluster of mud-walled houses perched on a rocky ridge. To reach it, you cross a landscape of sandy pastures, camels and beehives, strewn with giant, rust-colored boulders, where women in black cloaks and yellow straw boaters toil in the fields.

In the past, the men of the village worked as migrant laborers in Saudi Arabia, whose border is 80 miles away. They were often treated with disdain by their wealthy Saudi employers but they earned a wage. Mr. Hajaji worked on a suburban construction site in Mecca, the holy city visited by millions of Muslim pilgrims every year.

When the war broke out in 2015, the border closed.

The fighting never reached Juberia, but it still took a toll there.

Last year a young woman died of cholera, part of an epidemic that infected 1.1 million Yemenis. In April, a coalition airstrike hit a wedding party in the district, killing 33 people, including the bride. A local boy who went to fight for the Houthis was killed in an airstrike.

Bassam Mohammed Hassan, who suffers from severe malnutrition and cerebral palsy, at a hospital in Sana. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

But for Mr. Hajaji, who had five sons under age 7, the deadliest blow was economic.

He watched in dismay as the riyal lost half its value in the past year, causing prices to soar. Suddenly, groceries cost twice as much as they had before the war. Other villagers sold their assets, such as camels or land, to get money for food.

But Mr. Hajaji, whose family lived in a one-room, mud-walled hut, had nothing to sell.

At first he relied on the generosity of neighbors. Then he pared back the family diet, until it consisted only of bread, tea and halas, a vine leaf that had always been a source of food but now occupied a central place in every meal.

Soon his first son to fall ill, Shaadi, was vomiting and had diarrhea, classic symptoms of malnutrition. Mr. Hajaji wanted to take the ailing 4-year-old to the hospital, but that was out of the question: fuel prices had risen by 50 percent over the previous year.

One morning in late September, Mr. Hajaji walked into his house to find Shaadi silent and immobile, with a yellow tinge to his skin. “I knew he was gone,” he said. He kissed his son on the forehead, bundled him up in his arms, and walked along a winding hill path to the village mosque.

That evening, after prayers, the village gathered to bury Shaadi. His grave, marked by a single broken rock, stood under a grove of Sidr trees that, in better times, were famous for their honey.

Shaadi was the first in the village to die from hunger.

A few weeks later, when Shaher took ill, Mr. Hajaji was determined to do something. When burning didn’t work, he carried his son down the stony path to a health clinic, which was ill-equipped for the task. Half of Yemen’s health facilities are closed because of the war.

So his family borrowed $16 for the journey to the hospital in Hajjah.

“All the big countries say they are fighting each other in Yemen,” Mr. Hajaji said. “But it feels to us like they are fighting the poor people.”

Yemen’s economic crisis was not some unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of the fighting.

In 2016, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government transferred the operations of the central bank from the Houthi-controlled capital, Sana, to the southern city of Aden. The bank, whose policies are dictated by Saudi Arabia, a senior Western official said, started printing vast amounts of new money — at least 600 billion riyals, according to one bank official. The new money caused an inflationary spiral that eroded the value of any savings people had.

The bank also stopped paying salaries to civil servants in Houthi-controlled areas, where 80 percent of Yemenis live. With the government as the largest employer, hundreds of thousands of families in the north suddenly had no income.

At the Sabeen hospital in Sana, Dr. Huda Rajumi treats the country’s most severely malnourished children. But her own family is suffering, too, as she falls out of Yemen’s vanishing middle class.

In the past year, she has received only a single month’s salary. Her husband, a retired soldier, is no longer getting his pension, and Dr. Rajumi has started to skimp on everyday pleasures, like fruit, meat and taxi rides, to make ends meet.

“We get by because people help each other out,” she said. “But it’s getting hard.”

Economic warfare takes other forms, too. In a recent paper, Martha Mundy, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, analyzed coalition airstrikes in Yemen, finding that their attacks on bridges, factories, fishing boats and even fields suggested that they aimed to destroy food production and distribution in Houthi-controlled areas.

Saudi Arabia’s tight control over all air and sea movements into northern Yemen has effectively made the area a prison for those who live there. In September, the World Health Organization brokered the establishment of a humanitarian air bridge to allow the sickest Yemenis — cancer patients and others with life-threatening conditions — to fly to Egypt.

Among those on the waiting list is Maimoona Naji, a 16-year-old girl with a melon-size tumor on her left leg. At a hostel in Sana, her father, Ali Naji, said they had obtained visas and money to travel to India for emergency treatment. Their hopes soared in September when his daughter was told she would be on the first plane out of Sana once the airlift started.

But the agreement has stalled, blocked by the Yemeni government, according to the senior Western official. Maimoona and dozens of other patients have been left stranded, the clock ticking on their illnesses.

“First they told us ‘next week, next week,’” said Mr. Naji, shuffling through reams of documents as tears welled up in his eyes. “Then they said no. Where is the humanity in that? What did we do to deserve this?”

The Saudi coalition is not solely to blame for Yemen’s food crisis.

In Houthi-held areas, aid workers say, commanders level illegal taxes at checkpoints and frequently try to divert international relief aid to the families of soldiers, or to line their own pockets.

At the United Nations on Tuesday, Mr. Lowcock, the humanitarian official, said that aid workers in Yemen faced obstacles including delayed visas, retracted work permits and interference in the work — problems, officials said privately, that were greatest in Houthi-held areas.

Despite the harrowing scenes of suffering in the north, some Yemenis are getting rich. Upmarket parts of Sana are enjoying a mini real estate boom, partly fueled by Yemeni migrants returned from Saudi Arabia, but also by newly enriched Houthi officials.

Local residents say they have seen Houthi officials from modest backgrounds driving around the city in Lexus four-wheel drives, or shopping in luxury stores, trailed by armed gunmen, to buy suits and perfumes.

Tensions reached a climax this summer when the head of the United Nations migration agency was forced to leave Sana after clashing with the Houthi administration.

In an interview, the Houthi vice foreign minister, Hussain al-Ezzi, denied reports of corruption, and insisted that tensions with the United Nations had been resolved.

“We don’t deny there have been some mistakes on our side,” he said. “We are working to improve them.”

Only two famines have been officially declared by the United Nations in the past 20 years, in Somalia and South Sudan. A United Nations-led assessment due in mid-November will determine how close Yemen is to becoming the third.

To stave it off, aid workers are not appealing for shipments of relief aid but for urgent measures to rescue the battered economy.

“This is an income famine,” said Lise Grande, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. “The key to stopping it is to ensure that people have enough money to buy what they need to survive.”

The priority should be to stabilize the falling currency, she said, and to ensure that traders and shipping companies can import the food that Yemenis need.

Above all, she added, “the fighting has to stop.”

One hope for Yemenis is that the international fallout from the death of the Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, which has damaged Prince Mohammed’s international standing, might force him to relent in his unyielding prosecution of the war.

Peter Salisbury, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, said that was unlikely.

“I think the Saudis have learned what they can get away with in Yemen — that western tolerance for pretty bad behavior is quite high,” he said. “If the Khashoggi murder tells us anything, it’s just how reluctant people are to rein the Saudis in.”

Aksum Post would like our followers to read the full article in today's edition of "The New York Times"

As Ethiopia reforms, ethnic violence spreads

 People who fled the violence in the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa sit at a youth centre used as a temporary shelter, on September 18, 2018. PHOTO | AFP

By AFP

Addis Ababa 

Two decades ago, Ethiopia's leaders took a gamble: give the country's many ethnicities their own autonomous regions in the hope greater prosperity would forge national unity.

For a time it worked, but now simmering inter-communal disputes have erupted into bloodshed, with violence displacing 1.4 million people this year, the most globally, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The rise in violence contrasts sharply with the global praise for Ethiopia's young, reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has forged peace with neighbouring Eritrea, vowed to overhaul state companies and reached out to dissidents at home.

IRON-FISTED RULE

Analysts see no single cause for the killing that has stretched from the countryside to the capital and left scores of Ethiopians dead.

But they say Abiy, who inherited a vast, ethnically diverse nation used to the iron-fisted rule of his predecessors, has his work cut out for him as he seeks to impose his leadership without tipping into authoritarianism.

"My belief is that is there will be no re-establishment of law and order without strong leadership," said long-time independent Ethiopia researcher Rene Lefort.

He said the centralised decision-making behind the reforms has led to paralysis in the regions, creating fertile ground for discontent, violence and score-settling.

Under Abiy, he said, "there is a deep power vacuum."

The 1995 constitution, written by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) after it unseated the Derg military junta in 1991, puts ethnicity front and centre.

Africa's second-most populous country is partitioned into nine regions with borders that follow ethnic lines.

The constitution is one of few in the world to allow not only self-governance, but the option of secession.

The intention was to address demands for local empowerment that the Derg tried to stifle, said Zemelak Ayele, director of the Centre for Federalism and Governance Studies at Addis Ababa University.

"It was necessary to create an institutional mechanism so that peoples' culture was respected," he said.

The EPRDF also pursued economic expansion, hoping that if Ethiopia's deep poverty lessened, ethnic identity would fall away in favour of national unity, Zemelak said.

That has not happened and ethnicity remains pronounced despite the country's surging GDP.

That is due to the tendency of the EPRDF, which many saw as dominated by the Tigrayan ethnic minority before Abiy's rise, to overrule the will of the regions and their peoples, Zemelak said.

"They wanted to create this idea that every community is included," he said. "At the same time, they wanted to create a mechanism so that the regions wouldn't undermine the centre."

Abiy took office in April following more than two years of anti-government protests by his Oromo people and also the Amhara, Ethiopia's second biggest ethnicity.

Both groups charged they had been marginalised by the EPRDF, and their uprisings led to hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands of arrests and the shock February resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

While the anti-government unrest dissipated after Abiy took power, ethnic fighting flared almost immediately, and has continued despite Abiy announcing popular reforms, including a reshuffle of security chiefs, while warning security forces against rights abuses.

Nearly one million people have fled their homes in the coffee-growing south amid clashes between the Gedeo ethnic minority and the Oromos, while fighting in September between the Oromos and other ethnic groups in and around the capital Addis Ababa killed up to 65 people.

Many of the rivalries that fuelled the violence have simmered for decades, and analysts differ as to why they flared now.

Awol Allo, an Ethiopian commentator who teaches law in Britain called the clashes "the boiling-over of frustrations" resulting from the EPRDF's absolute rule.

But Harry Verhoeven of Georgetown University Qatar said the perception that demonstrations undermined Hailemariam sent a message that "violence pays".

"One can't underestimate the power of example here," he said.

The EPRDF has grown increasingly divided since the 2012 death of Meles Zenawi, a powerful prime minister known for forging consensus among the four parties that make up the governing coalition.

"At this moment, it seems the central government is at its weakest point," Zemelak said. "The central government being weak means regions can do what they want."

The violence risks tipping Abiy's administration back to authoritarianism, Awol warned.

"Governments usually become authoritarian when they're forced into situations. They make mistakes and then to cover-up for that mistake, they double down," he said, pointing to Meles, who was a strongman ruler, and his predecessor Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Derg's bloody dictator.

"I hope, this time, both the opposition and the government will choose different paths," Awol said.

Editor's note: Why is PM Abiy Ahmed not stopping or preventing the violence against civilians? We believe this  is not acceptable as people are being displaced in their own country. This is  happening in a country  which says stands for PanAfricanism and yet tolerates the displacement and killings of Ethiopian civilians. The criminals committing such heinous crimes should be arrested.PM Abiy is simply too soft and is a toy of foreign countries like Egypt, Eritrea and other anti-Ethiopia groups. Ethiopia's PM should lead or be led. He should be able to act. The Opposition to TPLF is unfair.PM Abiy should not isolate and alienate TPLF or Tigray just to meet the demands of the Dergists and other anit-TPLF groups. This is not to say TPLF  should not be critised. But what we see is an anti-Tigray and anti-TPLF campaign coming from all directions. TPLF should be thanked for overthrowing Mengistu Hailemariam's regime. TPLF should be thanked for laying the foundation of modern economic development for Ethiopia. Without Meles Zenawi, the Nile would have not been dammed. We should recognise Mele's Zenawi's role for initiating the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Abiy's government should act and stop the killings of  civilians . The displacement of Ethiopians should be also stopped, not through decrees or propaganda but bringing to justice those who are behind the killings.