At a symposium in Istanbul, African experts and researchers discuss the conflict in Ethiopia

Istanbul

- African experts and political researchers have recommended finding radical solutions to the conflict in Ethiopia, warning of the consequences of continuing the fighting there and its repercussions on the internal situation in the country on the one hand, and on the neighboring countries and the African and Arab surroundings on the other.

The participants in a symposium organized by the African Center for Research and Policy Studies "Afropolis" in Istanbul, Turkey, today, Wednesday, stressed the depth of mutual influence between the Arabian Peninsula region and Ethiopia, where the two countries' shores meet on the Red Sea.

The participants in the symposium - which was moderated by researcher Mohamed Zakaria - attributed the crisis in the country to the failure of the federal system, which began in operation since the fall of the Mengistu regime in 1991, and is based on granting the regions freedom of ethnic rule under the authority of the strong central system managed by the four main ethnicities in Ethiopia .

between central and federal

In a working paper entitled "Centralization and Federalism... The Dialectic of Recurring Conflicts in Ethiopia", the researcher in African affairs, Mohamed Taher, stressed that federalism failed due to the contradiction in the constitution's definition of the nation, nationalism, and a people who are not homogeneous ethnically, linguistically or religiously, which makes their assembly impossible except on the basis of Rights and duties, as he put it.

Ethiopia consists of 10 regions and is inhabited by a mixture of Christians from several sects as well as Sunni Muslims, while its population is distributed over more than 100 ethnicities and speaks about 90 languages. her religion.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Taher believed that what is required to overcome Ethiopia's crises is to achieve justice and equality in governance through a constitution that guarantees freedoms and rights for all residents, and the conviction of the Amharic and Tigrinya elites and leaders that the country no longer accommodates the continuation of the conflict over governance between the two ethnicities.

He also called for an end to the problem of the disputed borders between the regions of the state, which were used as cards to ignite conflict from time to time by all parties, and to reconsider the distribution of natural resources whose distribution of ethnic bias was no less dangerous than the bias in the distribution of political powers.

international dimensions

For his part, the Director of the African Center for Research and Policy Studies, Mohamed Saleh, explained that the Horn of Africa region acquires special importance for a number of factors, foremost of which is the geopolitical factor, thanks to the region’s control of important waterways for security, military and economic control, and for its geographical, political and religious depth for many international powers. As well as being the largest population bloc that controls the sources of the Nile River.

In a paper entitled "International Dimensions in the Ethiopian Conflicts", Saleh explained that the main main forces that are fighting in Ethiopia are America, Russia, China and Israel, explaining that each of these forces has strategic goals related to achieving its interests on the one hand, and on the other hand depriving its opponents of benefiting from The depth of the Ethiopian politically, economically, security and militarily.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Saleh indicated that the contemporary power struggles in Ethiopia represent an extension of the great powers' struggle for domination over Africa at the end of the 19th century, stressing that the "Afropolis" Center seeks to raise the level of awareness among politicians and elites about the conditions of Africa and the ongoing conflicts in it over resources and energy. .

Ethiopia's future

For his part, academic and university lecturer Khairy Omar said that there are a number of challenges facing the return of the Tigrayans to the rule of Ethiopia from Addis Ababa, stressing that at the forefront of these challenges is the absence of consensus between the components of the political community on leadership and the transitional phase, and the absence of vision towards the ethnic issue whose ideas have been completely consumed, such as Federal ideas in the past decades, according to him.

He said in a working paper entitled "The future of Ethiopia in light of the conflict between the federal government and the Tigray region" that the absence of an intellectual framework for the distribution of power and wealth represents a renewed challenge in the next stage, and places the opposition, whether it arrived through negotiations or through fighting in Addis Ababa, in front of two options, which are the development of a formula Coexistence or the start of another cycle of civil war.