Ethiopia: the fighting continues, the Tigrayan rebels progress in the Afar region

An Afar militiaman in Shewa Robit, Ethiopia, in December 2021. AFP - AMANUEL SILESHI

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1 min

Peace initiatives continue in Ethiopia to end the civil war.

The most advanced is that of the African Union and the envoy for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Yet the fighting continues and has even intensified in recent weeks.

The Tigrayan rebels have advanced in the east of the country, in the Afar region, near the Djibouti border.

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With our correspondent in Addis Ababa,

While the diplomatic community is working on talks, northern Ethiopia is still in the throes of war.

The Tigrayan Defense Forces have been invading part of Afar territory for more than two weeks now.

Facing them, simple Afar militiamen, lightly armed and frustrated by the lack of support from the Ethiopian federal army.

This Tigrayan breakthrough in Afar raises questions.

What are the real intentions of the Tigrayan rebels, who nevertheless demanded a ceasefire at the end of December?

Are they trying, as they claim, to hunt fighters from Eritrea?

Are they trying to approach the strategic road that links Addis Ababa to Djibouti?

Or more likely, are they consolidating defensive positions? 

Still, these fights have three direct consequences.

First, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of individuals through Afar.

The region puts the figure at 300,000. The clashes are also blocking the delivery of humanitarian and food aid to Tigray.

Finally, and more generally, it calls into question the confidence on which any future peace process must be based.

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• Ethiopia