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Ethiopia says Abiy at war frontline, taking charge

Ethiopia

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has traveled to the battlefront to take charge of the war strategy, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands in a year. A war that started because of a political rift between two sides who could not find common ground, but the question is, did they really try? As reported by the AP:

The Tigray forces have said they want Abiy out, and  Abiy’s government wants the Tigray forces to withdraw to their region

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s government said Wednesday that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has gone to the battlefront to take charge in a yearlong war and left the daily work of running the country to his deputy as rival fighters approach the capital, Addis Ababa.

FILE – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks behind bulletproof glass at his inauguration ceremony, after he was sworn in for a second five-year term, in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. Ethiopia’s prime minister says he will lead his country’s army “from the battlefront” beginning Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, a dramatic new step by the Nobel Peace Prize-winner in a devastating yearlong war. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)

The 45-year-old prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former soldier, arrived at the front on Tuesday, government spokesman Legesse Tulu told reporters without giving details on the location, and state media did not show images of him. Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen is handling day-to-day government activities, Legesse said.

The war in Africa’s second-most populous nation has killed an estimated tens of thousands of people, and countries including France, Germany and Turkey have told their citizens to leave immediately as rival fighters from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region advance.

U.S. envoy Jeffrey Feltman on Tuesday told reporters he fears that “nascent” progress in mediation efforts with the warring sides could be outpaced by the “alarming” military developments. The Tigray forces dominated the previous national government for 27 years before Abiy took office in 2018, and a growing political rift turned to war in November 2020.

FILE – People are seen in front of clouds of black smoke from fires in the aftermath at the scene of an airstrike in Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on Oct. 20, 2021. A year after war began there, the findings of the only human rights investigation allowed in Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region will be released Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. (AP Photo, File)

“Unless there is some kind of divine intervention, I don’t see any chance for a peaceful resolution through dialogue because the positions are highly polarized,” said Kassahun Berhanu, professor of political science at Addis Ababa University, who added he believed Abiy’s decision to go to the front is “aimed at boosting popular morale.”

The Tigray forces have said they want Abiy out. Abiy’s government wants the Tigray forces, which it has designated as a terrorist group, to withdraw to their region.

The prime minister this week not only announced he would go to the battlefront but also invited Ethiopians to join him, the latest call for every able citizen in the country of more than 110 million people to join the fight. Hurried military trainings and allegations of forced conscription have occurred in recent months, while analysts have warned of the growing presence of ethnic-based militias as the military was said to be weakened.

In this image made from video, an injured person is carried towards an ambulance in Mekele, Ethiopia, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. Residents say new airstrikes have hit the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region as exclusive video shows injured people with bloodied faces being carried into ambulances. Ethiopia’s government says it targeted facilities for making and repairing weapons, while a Tigray spokesman denies it. (AP Photo)

Millions of civilians are trapped and going hungry because of the war. Ethiopia’s government has blockaded the Tigray region for several months, fearing that humanitarian aid will end up in the hands of fighters, while hundreds of thousands of people in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions are beyond the reach of significant aid after the Tigray forces retook their region in June and began fighting their way toward the capital.

Another target of the Tigray forces appears to be the supply line from neighboring Djibouti to Ethiopia’s capital, and the U.S. envoy on Tuesday in remarks to reporters warned the fighters against cutting off the road to Djibouti or entering Addis Ababa.

That could be “catastrophic” for the country, Feltman said.

African Union envoy Olesegun Obasanjo also has been mediating but has not spoken publicly about his work in recent days.

Source AP

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