The two-year war in northern Ethiopia resulted in approximately 100,200 deaths before an African Union-brokered ceasefire was reached in November 2021, a new report reveals. In comparison, the Ukraine-Russia war that began in February led to 81,500 deaths, the same source added.
The Eritrean army was in there too, though it took months to admit it. There was some very harrowing footage.
Politically, at some level the world tried to encourage peace insofar as asking them to respect human rights and to not genocide an ethnic minority.
The US government in particular organised a bunch of sanctions against the Ethiopian government, some of which are still in force.
Once the word “genocide” was being thrown around by observers, I would have liked to see a bit more action from the UN though.
But both countries were fighting together against the insurgency.
And outside of sanctions, what was the UN going to do? Send peacekeeping troops?
There were so many deliberate civillian casualties this went far beyond a war with insurgents.
You say that like you don’t think it would have been a reasonable option?
As this crisis unfolded, there were many reasons a UN peacekeeping force would have been a good option, particularly as the racial rhetoric ramped up and the detention camps were set up.
We now have a famine situation due to all the targeting of civilian infrastructure and crops.
There were so many deliberate civillian casualties that this went far beyond a war with insurgents. The Eritrean forces - who the government forces spent months denying were there - were also there to target Eritrean refugees (the regime is about as bad as North Korea).
You say that like you don’t think it would have been a reasonable option?
As this crisis unfolded, there were many reasons a UN peacekeeping force would have been a good option.
Particularly as the racial rhetoric ramped up, NGOs reported systematic rapes of minority women, and the nationwide ethnicity-based detentions began.
We now have a famine situation due to all the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure and crops.