On November 28, 2020, after nearly four weeks of fighting, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the victory of the army against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the rebel government of the Tigray region, in the north of the country.
The Ethiopian government, which has just regained control of the regional capital Mekele, then claims to have taken all precautions to protect civilians.
Since then, several international reports have revealed massacres during this conflict.
Abuses committed by members of the TPLF as well as by government forces, but also by Eritrean soldiers present on the spot alongside the Ethiopian army.
A particularly embarrassing subject for the Prime Minister who, after fiercely denying the involvement of his neighbor in the war in Tigray, had to resolve to admit, on Tuesday March 23, his participation.
Almost five months "denying the obvious"
On November 5, 2020, when the Ethiopian government announces "to have gone to war" against the dissident region of Tigray, the military objective is then to "maintain law and order" and to "free the Tigray people" from the yoke of TPLF, which the government accuses of having attacked a federal military camp.
Very quickly, testimonies revealed the presence of Eritrean soldiers in this operation, however presented by the government as a national affair.
A particularly sensitive subject, because if a peace agreement was signed in 2018, the last war between the two countries (1998-2000) has left its mark and hostility remains strong.
Le Tigré Aude GENET AFP
The TPLF, which accuses Eritrea of lending a hand to the Ethiopian government, repeatedly launches rockets at its capital, Asmara.
For its part, the Ethiopian authorities formally deny any involvement of Eritrea in the current operation, denouncing "false and unfounded assertions" aimed at making the war in Tigray look like a "regional conflict".
"Despite the accumulation of evidence, and the insistence of the United States and the United Nations in calling for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Tigray, the Ethiopian government has fiercely denied the evidence for nearly five months, denouncing 'fake news '", explains Roland Marchal, researcher at Ceri / Sciences Po, contacted by France 24. Like Ethiopia, Eritrea vigorously denies any involvement.
In March, through her platform Eritrea Embassy Media, she denounced two reports, from the British media BBC and Channel 4, on the exactions of the Eritrean forces in Tigray, affirming, once again, that their soldiers were not there. present.
Press release from Eritrea Embassy Media © France 24
Abiy Ahmed's about-face
On March 23, international pressure finally got the better of the Ethiopian Prime Minister.
He ends up recognizing the military intervention of his neighbor, which he describes as a "favor", without specifying whether or not it intervened at his request.
The Prime Minister also admits that abuses were committed by the soldiers: "The war is destructive, it does a lot of harm. There has been damage in the Tigray region. Despite propaganda and lies, reports indicate that 'there were rapes and looting of properties. "
"The Eritrean soldiers are not the only ones to have committed abuses, but they are particularly brutal and bear a heavy responsibility in the massacres, looting and rape", judge René Lefort, independent researcher specializing in the Horn of Africa.
"A doctor from Mekele hospital said that hospitals in that town and in Adigrat, Tigray's second city, treated more than 500 raped women. Testimonies indicate that rape was used as a weapon of war. "
"Abiy Ahmed was at an impasse in the face of international pressure, analyzes Roland Marchal. He was forced to open up Tigray's access to NGOs. He tried to deny and minimize the facts but in the face of the seriousness of the accusations. , especially those brought against Eritrean soldiers, he was forced to change his version. "
Amnesty International accuses Eritrean soldiers in particular of having carried out the massacre of several hundred civilians in the city of Aksum, in the north of the country, on 28 and 29 November.
According to the NGO, the testimonies collected on the spot "evoke acts constituting crimes against humanity".
Information corroborated in part by the report, released Wednesday, of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), an independent body attached to the Ethiopian government, which reports "more than a hundred dead".
Untenable position
Decorated in 2019 with the Nobel Peace Prize for his action in favor of the reconciliation of Ethiopia with Eritrea, Abiy Ahmed today finds himself in a very bad position, forced to an act of contrition which puts in door- to its neighbor and ally.
"He tries to minimize the involvement of Eritrea by explaining that it protects its border but all this is ludicrous; we know that the two leaders made a pact to demolish the TPLF and that the Eritrean forces were engaged from the start of the fighting ", assures René Lefort.
"With this war, he launched a process that escapes him. Popular resistance remains strong in Tigray. What control does he have over the Eritrean forces present in the North? The situation is all the more delicate as his admission of the Eritrean crimes in Tigray will be seen as a violation of this pact with the government of Asmara. "
"Eritrea's support played an important military role in Abiy Ahmed's war and today it is difficult for him to criticize the neighbor who supported him," said Roland Marchal.
“Of course, his recognition of the Eritrean presence and the atrocities committed sends a positive signal to the international community, but at the same time it bears witness to the world that he has lost all credibility. Until now, he federated an alliance with the Amhara ethnic group and Eritrea around the destruction of the TPLF, the common enemy, but today they no longer have any reason to get along. is very fragile. "
To turn the page on the war in Tigray, the Prime Minister promised to create the conditions for an inclusive national dialogue as well as the holding of legislative elections in June.
On the ground, the situation remains volatile;
the United Nations called on Monday for an immediate end to attacks targeting the civilian population in Tigray, denouncing new cases of rape and looting in the region.
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