Dear reader,

 

In the first section of this 54th Tigray Digest, we borrow the wordings “land of graves, land of hunger” from the German magazine Der Spiegel. The article shows that we need to keep sharing information about the massacres, sexual violence, starvation, and the lack of accountability in the Tigray war. This is also highlighted by the below map published by The Economist, which recently titled: “the world’s deadliest war last year wasn’t in Ukraine”.

Further, we address the current situation in Tigray (section 2) and the continued targeting of Tigrayans in Ethiopia (section 3). War has also broken out in Sudan (section 4), which affects the local population, as well as the many refugees in that country (including Eritreans and Tigrayans). We give some hints for further reading about the Sudan war. Unfortunately, our earlier fears are confirmed that the EU Council has decided to patronize the genocidal Ethiopian government (section 5). We conclude this digest with an overview of newly published books and scientific publications related to the Tigray war (section 6), as well as other opinion pieces and media articles (section 7).

A map of the world with red spots Description automatically generated with medium confidence

 

  1. Tigray, “land of graves, land of hunger”

Article header in Der Spiegel: Ethiopia after the Civil War - Land  of Graves, Land of Hunger - The Civil War in Tigray is over – for now. It is estimated that up to 380,000 civilians have died and tens of thousands of women have been raped. Can peace hold after all the crimes?

(Der Spiegel, 31 March 2023. Ethiopia After the Civil War - A Fragile Peace in the Wake of Unspeakable Horrors -in German: Äthiopien nach dem Bürgerkrieg - Land der Gräber, Land des Hungers,)

Additionally, after evidence of theft surfaced, as a collective punishment the humanitarian aid to Tigray has been totally stopped by WFP and USAID – a drastic measure, which was also implemented in the Amhara region after the violence there, that will lead to hundreds of additional deaths. The results are directly tangible, including extreme hunger in the IDP camps on the outskirts of Mekelle.

Read and listen:

And also:

On 26 April, the CSIS Humanitarian Agenda and Norwegian Refugee Council hosted a two-day conference on “Sustaining Access: Humanitarian Principles, Practice, and Policy for Today’s Challenges”. One of the conclusions was that the tragedy in Tigray could become the norm in future conflicts. Lise Grande from the U.S. Institute of Peace: “You've got a major global power that says 'neutrality' is in fact 'non-interference'. If you're not worried about that, start to panic. The humanitarian stakes are very high as we all know, in less than two years 500,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict in Tigray. Organizations which track this estimate that 300,000 of the 500,000 people who died, died because they didn't have us, they didn't have humanitarian assistance. Despite the best efforts of the teams on the ground, none of the existing humanitarian diplomatic or economic tools (…) resulted in predictable access. So of course the tragedy in Tigray is going to become the norm unless we figure out how to adapt our engagement strategies to fit the new realities in a very different balance of global power.” (34:00 minutes into the YouTube recording).

 

  1. Current situation in Tigray

The Tigray budget releases have not resumed through the normal system, everything needs to be negotiated, piece by piece. We are also aware of the huge tensions within the Tigrayan leadership which doesn’t ease up things.

Schools have started in Tigray after almost three years (!) of interruption, but there are huge needs to refurbish buildings, resupply furniture and teaching materials. Also, due to hunger and disorganisation, many teachers and students did not yet show up in schools. Importantly, 552 schools in Tigray are inaccessible due the presence of Amhara and Eritrean forces.

Further reading:

 

  1. Continued targeting of Tigrayans in Ethiopia

There has been a Cessation of Hostilities between the TPLF and the Ethiopian Government, but specialists have hinted that there is never a clear line between war and post-conflict; rather, it must be regarded as a continuum. Colombia and Iraq and are both prime examples.

With regard to Ethiopia, and as far as we are aware, no mass arrests of Tigrayans have occurred since the Pretoria and Nairobi Agreements.  Since then, many Tigrayans have been liberated from unlawful prison camps. However, thousands of Tigrayan soldiers (regular army personnel) have been incarcerated in camps since 2020 primarily on the basis of their ethnicity; some dozens have been released but most are still in the concentration camps.

For the Ethiopian government, and for the public opinion in Addis Abeba, anybody with a Tigrayan name is suspicious and could be targeted for abuse; this is the result of an aggressive hate campaign that began even before the outbreak of the Tigray War. Those who have stood up to the Ethiopian government, for example, by sharing information on the numerous war crimes in which it has been implicated, may be particularly targeted by secret services and paramilitary groups.

Also, Tigrayans who are no longer in jail suffer severely from the evil that occurred in prior years. Tigrayans in Addis Ababa were forced to close their shops and businesses well before the peace deal, did not have access to their bank accounts for two years, were evicted from their residences, and so on. Such a drastic campaign to weaken one ethnic group politically, economically and socially cannot heal in a few months: the Tigrayans in Addis Ababa are still without a job, without money, bank accounts often blocked, etc. When trying to renew their business license, requesting a passport or other administrative documents,  Tigrayans often have to pay a substantial "facilitation fee" under the table, otherwise their files will not be processed. Birth certificates and identity cards issued by the regional government of Tigray after September 2020 are systematically discarded. The poorest half among the Tigrayans in Addis will simply not have any administrative issues resolved.

In summary, we are unaware of any additional systematic arrests or discriminatory measures after the Pretoria Agreement. However, many previously enacted discriminatory restrictions remain in effect and de facto Tigrayans are outcasted in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia outside Tigray.

 

  1. Sudan war

War has broken out in Sudan, which afflicts the local population, as well as the many refugees in that country (including Eritreans and Tigrayans). When it started, this war received much more media attention than the Tigray war, presumably because many international media are present in Khartoum, and the evacuation of foreign nationals.

The UN Human Rights Council met in a special session on Sudan. All the African states that are currently part of the Council either abstained or voted against a resolution giving the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan authority to report on violations in the current war. Ethiopia argued for “African solutions for African problems” and held up the Pretoria Agreement (two years after the start of the Tigray war!) as an example, saying that the session was “untimely”.  Presumably Sudanese should also have to wait for a million to die, like in Ethiopia.

Those who wish to follow the situation in Sudan, may usefully subscribe to the EEPA newsletters (EEPA stands for Europe External Program with Africa).

Background reading:

 

  1. EU Council shields the Ethiopian government.

The EU Council has decided to normalize relations with Ethiopia. In light of the reality in Tigray which is still a de facto blockade with Eritrean and Amhara forces still occupying large swathes of Tigray where they are still actively displacing Tigrayans, this decision paints an exaggerated progress aimed to rationalize the normalizations of relations the EU wants (Tghat, 25 April 2023: About the EU Council Conclusions for Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian government continues to discriminate against Tigrayans, withholds supplies, or covers up organized starvation and other war crimes while the western diplomatic community is busy praising it for enforcing "justice." The Amhara Region has ethnically cleansed the Tigrayans in Western Tigray, and the Abiy regime permits them to bring in Amhara settlers there. No number of diplomatic visits to Mekelle will be able to conceal this collaboration with a genocidal regime. As if the current situation in Sudan serves as a beautiful testimonial for the glowing benefits of cuddling up to war criminals and believing that they would change for the better.

 

  1. Newly published books and scientific publications

 

  1. Other opinion pieces and media articles

 

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Jan Nyssen
Em. Senior Full Professor
Department of Geography
Ghent University
Belgium
(0032) 9 264 46 23
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan-Nyssen/research