It’s up to the Ethiopian people and government to safeguard the nation’s integrity and national interest from being sacrificed on the altar of the US’s newly articulated strategic objective, by holding firm the principle of independence and non-interference of others in the conduct of the nation’s affairs.
Currently the country is under great stress and in distress as the result of pressure from outside actors working hand in gloves with their counterparts from inside. They all seem to be determined and have unleashed all their resources from their military hardware to social media to render the forthcoming election a fiasco. The situation has some similarity with the one we had experienced following the Ethiopian Revolution in the 1970’s. This unholy alliance ought to be defeated at all costs.
Indeed, a closer look at the formation of the ruling Prosperity Party reveals the thinking behind the restructuration of the EPRDF. The latter was a coalition of ethnic parties held together by the hegemonic position of the TPLF. The restructuring of the coalition into one Prosperity Party was obviously meant to lessen the ethnic divisions and make way for a pan-Ethiopian party. Where a united party tops or crowns regional divisions, it dilutes their political impact and likens them to administrative distinctions. Since the top is where everything converges and integrates, the regional divisions appear as ramifications of one single
After Mussolini’s revenge invasion in 1936, Ethiopians were tormented for five years by aggressive fascist Italy. The city of Addis Ababa still shows memorial landmarks of several massacres, executions of national patriots, religious leaders, imprisonment and exile of aristocrats and citizens.
As Ethiopia hopes for peaceful days ahead, everyone should contribute towards constructive engagement.
Thus, it is also high time that the ethno-nationalist camp stop the divisive rhetoric and replace it with calls for dialogue, forward looking reconciliation, and peaceful co-existence.
For Ethiopia to be at peace and prosper and for Ethiopians to co-exist in peace and harmony, a closer look at the current constitution, attempt to understand the perennial challenges or questions concerning the citizenry of the country and an effort to address the Eritrean territorial demand for once and for all is important.
Today’s Ethiopian generations must also take up these challenges, help the government and all stakeholders that work to stabilize the Tigray and other violence prone regions and work to make Ethiopia a peaceful and prosperous country. Then, this generation will be remembered for its role in the transformation of Ethiopia for good.
A political settlement through dialogue and negotiation could be a solution to the conflict. However, at this point, the likelihood of a negotiated settlement seems unlikely given the fact that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front admitted to firing rockets into the neighboring Amhara region, further enraging federal authorities.
Tsigereda Meleskachew (BA, MPH) TPLF’s attack against ENDF’s Northern Command, which overwhelming majority of Ethiopians considered an act of betrayal,
The challenge for Abiy now is to ensure that there are no losers and winners at the end of the conflict. That is to say, the Tigrayan people must not feel they “lost.” So far, the government has done a commendable job of separating the TPLF leaders from the people in Tigray.
By: Neamin Zeleke There is a need to inform the world about the true nature of the conflict in Tigray
Aderru Janni aderru.janni.w1800@gmail.com (Independent writer and consultant in Water and Environment Issues), 1. Nile and the GERD in Context Ethiopia
By: Dejen Yemane Messele. (Lecturer of Law, Wollo University & PhD Student, Addis Ababa University, College of Law and Governance
