Zitat:Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Why the rest of the world is worried

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is travelling to Kenya, where he will be discussing the conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia. [...] A year into the civil war, which has left a humanitarian crisis in its wake, the chorus of outside concern is getting louder. [...]

At least 400,000 people are facing famine-like conditions in the north, 80% of essential medication is not available and more than two million people have been forced from their homes. The federal government has been accused of deliberately preventing aid from reaching Tigray, which it denies. In addition, there is evidence of unlawful killings, torture and sexual violence committed by both sides. [...]

Ethiopia has also purchased Chinese and Iranian weapons, and flights taking off from the United Arab Emirates are being used to transport them, the defence website Oryx reports. [...] Stable government in Ethiopia has been vital to that relationship. The US has backed it up financially, handing over $4.2bn (£3.1bn) in aid between 2016 and 2020. [...]

Is the capital under threat?

After a series of advances by fighters for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) along a main highway leading from the north into Addis Ababa, the tension cranked up. [...] Another rebel group allied to the TPLF said they were also getting closer to the capital. The multi-ethnic nature of the city has added to tensions there, with some accusing the authorities of targeting Tigrayans in a series of arrests. But the Tigrayan forces are still more than 300 km from the city - around the town of Kombolcha. [...] "It's not the Taliban marching through Afghanistan and taking town after town without firing a bullet," Tibor Nagy, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, told the BBC. "Where the TPLF is operating now, there is huge resistance… and it would be a horrendously bloody battle for Addis Ababa."

Zitat:Wichtiger noch als die rund 300 km entfernte Hauptstadt einzunehmen dürfte für die tigrinischen Streitkräfte (TDF) die Kontrolle einer wichtigen Verkehrsachse sein. Eine Bahnstrecke verbindet Addis Abeba mit dem strategisch wichtigen Hafen im gleich nebenan gelegenen Land Djibouti. Über die Strecke wird die Hauptstadt zu großen Teilen mit Nahrungsmitteln und Benzin versorgt.

Zitat:Äthiopien feiert Rückgabe von im 19. Jahrhundert erbeuteten Kunstschätzen

Mit einer offiziellen Zeremonie hat Äthiopien die Rückgabe einer Sammlung von im 19. Jahrhundert von britischen Soldaten geplünderten Artefakten gefeiert. Rund zwei Monate nach der offiziellen Rückgabe der Kulturgüter an das ostafrikanische Land in London wurde die Sammlung am Samstag im Nationalmuseum in Addis Abeba der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Der äthiopischen Regierung zufolge handelt es sich um die bislang größte Rückführung historischen Raubguts nach Äthiopien.

Die Sammlung besteht unter anderem aus einer Krone, einem kaiserlichen Schild, einem handgeschriebenen Gebetsbuch und verschiedenen Schmuckstücken. Der Großteil der wertvollen Güter gelangte durch einen Raubzug der britischen Armee nach der Niederlage von Kaiser Tewodros II. in der Schlacht um Magdala im damaligen Abessinien 1868 nach Europa.

Die äthiopische Regierung fordert von Großbritannien die Rückgabe weiterer Kunstschätze, darunter Altartafeln mit Darstellungen der Bundeslade. Die in Äthiopien Tabot genannten Altartafeln befinden sich im British Museum in London, wurden dort aber nie öffentlich ausgestellt. Äthiopien fordert außerdem die Rückführung der sterblichen Überreste von Tewodros' Sohn Prinz Almayehu, die nach dem Suizid des Kaisers infolge seiner Niederlage nach Großbritannien gebracht worden waren.

Zitat:Die Auseinandersetzungen werden in den sozialen Medien angefacht.

Facebook wird in Äthiopien von etwa sechs Millionen Menschen genutzt. Vor allem in den vergangenen Wochen hätten Aktivisten, die der Regierung nahestehen, hasserfüllte Botschaften auf ihren Seiten gepostet, sagt Zelalem: Er nennt Aufrufe, Zivilisten aus Tigray zu töten, Appelle, sie in Konzentrationslager zu stecken. Die Aktivisten hätten Hunderttausende Follower: "Sie scheinen ihre Aktionen zu koordinieren, um Menschen aus Tigray zur Zielscheibe zu machen", beobachtet er.

Der Reporter vergleicht die Hetze mit den Botschaften, die vor dem Völkermord in Ruanda über einen Radiosender ausgestrahlt wurden: Nur das Medium habe sich geändert.

In manchen Fällen hätten gefährliche Online-Auseinandersetzungen zu tatsächlicher Gewalt geführt, die Menschen verletzt und sogar tötet. Speziell bezog Haugen sich dabei auf die Situation in Myanmar und Äthiopien.

Zitat:Very heavy clashes today and tonight on the road to Debre Sina, with the TDF+OLA making it as far as Armaniya. Many airstrikes take place on the road from Shewa Robit by jets and especially drones.

Zitat:Satellite imagery from the 19th of October 2021 indicates that the S-125 surface-to-air missile (SAM) site located northeast of Mekelle has returned to active duty. [1] The reactivation of the SAM site comes as the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) has deployed its newly-acquired Wing Loong unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) over Mekelle to designate targets for Su-27 fighter aircraft, resulting in a number of civilian casualties as the bombs dropped by the Su-27s missed their intended targets and fell on civilian areas instead.

That Tigray forces are now once again in the possession of missiles that are capable of shooting down fighter aircraft or drones flying over Mekelle is a worrying trend. As the airspace over and around Tigray is still frequently used by passenger aircraft and other civilian aircraft (such as those of the UN), the threat of mistaken identity or a missile missing its intended target to hit a civilian aircraft instead is ever present. In response to the UN flight incident, a spokesperson for Tigray forces said ''our air defence units knew the UN plane was scheduled to land and it was due in large measure to their restraint it was not caught in a crossfire''.

Zitat:Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Suspicion and sacrifice as fighting spreads

After dark, in a residential neighbourhood in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, dozens of civilian volunteers were busy patrolling their streets one night last week, stopping and searching cars and checking documents. "Our neighbourhood committee includes about 180 people. We've apprehended many people. And we've found a lot of suspicious materials, including guns and explosive devices," said an older man who appeared to be coordinating the searches.

The volunteers are searching for Tigrayan rebels, and their supporters, under new state of emergency regulations introduced by the Ethiopian government in response to a Tigrayan military offensive. Critics say thousands of people have been unjustly detained, but the clampdown appears to have widespread support in the capital. [...]

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, recently announced he was heading to the frontlines to lead his troops. Video footage, provided by the government, showed him in uniform surrounded by soldiers, apparently in the arid Afar region north-east of the capital.

"We have now managed to clear the area completely," Prime Minister Abiy said in the footage. [...] The prime minister said his troops were in the process of seizing several towns from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Zitat:UN humanitarian flights and convoys between conflict-hit Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and Mekele in the Tigray region have resumed, the global body's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday.

"Good news: 157 trucks arrived in Mekele," Guterres told a news conference.

"A new convoy is moving, so the humanitarian aid is effectively restarted, probably not as much as we would like. But that is a good signal and the UN flights between Mekele and Addis have been re-established."

He said the resumption of aid delivery to Tigray's capital city indicated "a small hint of hope" that "might facilitate a future more positive attitude for dialogue."

Zitat:A resident in the village of Gragne Amba, 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Lalibela, said Tigrayan forces had left it on Tuesday.
"I thought they were joking and TPLF fighters said 'Many of Abiy's soldiers are coming,'" she told Reuters. "This morning we saw Amhara special forces. They told us they are here for us and they tried to comfort us."
She said the Amhara forces had left in the direction of Lalibela on Wednesday morning, and residents coming from that direction said the Tigrayan forces had left there too.

Zitat:Visual confirmation that the Tekeze Dam’s electricity substation was destroyed/heavily damaged by the Ethiopian Air Force.

Zitat:The deployment of Emirati unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) on the side of the Ethiopian government has been speculated on ever since the beginning of conflict with the rebellious Tigray Region in November 2020. Nonetheless, the oft-repeated claim that several Chinese-made Wing Loong UCAVs operated out of Assab air base in Eritrea to undertake combat missions over Tigray has never been supported by evidence that points towards such a deployment. However, new information received by the authors' from an aircraft mechanic working at Harar Media air base appears to finally disclose the presence of Emirati Wing Loong Is UCAVs over Ethiopia. [1]

Rather than operating out of neighbouring Eritrea, the United Arab Emirates appears to have deployed at least six Wing Loong I UCAVs to Harar Media air base located near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The deployment of Emirati armed drones to Ethiopia comes amidst an increasingly detoriating security situation throughout the country, with government forces all but capable of stemming the threat from Tigray forces.

The deployment of Emirati UCAVs to Ethiopia is a substantial increase in quality and kalibre of the United Arab Emirates' support to the embattled regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and could signal that the UAE is willing to guarantee the survival of the current government even at exorbitant political and financial costs. Since August 2021, more than 100 cargo flights from the United Arab Emirates to Ethiopia have been identified, most carrying various types of armament onboard, at some point evidently including these drones. [10] Tigray forces might be forced to take note if the UAE's deployment is to resemble anything of the determination and extensive involvement of its past interventions in Yemen and Libya.

Zitat:The Ethiopian government says its forces have recaptured the strategic towns of Dessie and Kombolcha, their latest territorial gains in the battle against fighters from the northern Tigray region.