Ethiopia-A Race To The Bottom!

 

A Race to the Bottom

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopian rebel forces advanced toward the capital, Addis Ababa, this week, marking a turning point in a civil war that began a year ago, CNBC reported Monday.

Ethiopia has been plagued by a civil conflict in the Tigray region between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Federal forces initially succeeded in overthrowing the TPLF but the tide turned in June when Tigrayan fighters took back the regional capital.

Over the weekend, nine anti-government groups announced an alliance called the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces with the goal of overthrowing the government. The alliance also includes the TPLF.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has issued a six-month state of emergency and instituted a draft.

Some have expressed concern that authorities have been arresting Tigrayans in the capital, sparking fears of ethnically motivated violence, Reuters reported.

The tense situation risks plunging Africa’s second-most populous nation into chaos, and has prompted regional and international powers to press for negotiations between the warring parties. The hostilities have forced the United States and Canada to withdraw their non-essential diplomatic staff in Ethiopia.

The conflict in Tigray has killed thousands, displaced more than two million and left 400,000 people in the region facing famine.

United Nation officials and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released a joint report last week saying that “all parties to the conflict in Tigray have, to varying degrees, committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The US has threatened to impose more sanctions on the country if the violence continues. Even so, tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched in the capital Sunday to denounce the US and support Abiy.