Latest news with #Getachew
The Star
29-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Ethiopia repatriates over 700 nationals stranded in Myanmar
ADDIS ABABA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government announced Thursday that it has repatriated more than 700 nationals who were stranded in Myanmar. Addressing a press briefing, Nebiat Getachew, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the repatriated Ethiopian nationals "were in dire conditions in Myanmar" after they were deceived by smugglers over false employment opportunities. Highlighting that an additional number of nationals still remain stranded in Myanmar, the spokesperson said that the ministry has tasked its diplomatic mission in New Delhi, India, to assist with the ongoing repatriation efforts. The Ethiopian nationals were misled by illegal brokers promising employment opportunities in Southeast Asia. Upon arrival, they were taken to unauthorized camps in areas bordering Myanmar and Thailand, where conditions were reportedly severe. Getachew urged the public to remain vigilant against the "deceptive propaganda" of human traffickers and to avoid pursuing illegal employment opportunities abroad, especially in countries that lack overseas employment agreements with Ethiopia. According to Getachew, the ongoing large-scale repatriation effort is part of the Ethiopian government's "citizen-centered" diplomatic commitment to bringing home its nationals stranded in difficult situations abroad.
Al-Ahram Weekly
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Ethiopia names Tigray ex-leader as govt minister sparking concerns - Africa
Ethiopia on Friday appointed a former rebel and recently ousted Tigrayan leader as a government minister, a move analysts fear could exacerbate divisions in the increasingly restive northern region. Tigray still suffers from the aftermath of a brutal two-year conflict, ended by a 2022 peace deal that established the interim administration. The war was one of the deadliest in recent decades, claiming roughly 600,000 lives and pitting Tigrayan rebels against federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army. Getachew Reda was ousted as leader of the interim administration, replaced earlier this month by the head of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael, after an internal power struggle. On Friday, Getachew was appointed by Addis Ababa as an "advisor on East African affairs to the Prime Minister with the rank of minister," according to an X post. The 50-year-old previously served as minister of communications until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Getachew's appointment is the "ultimate betrayal and risks increasing polarisation" across the region for both elites and general population, said Mehdi Labzae, an Ethiopia specialist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research. "Getachew Reda has maintained great popularity, he carries weight, we'll see what happens now," he told AFP. Horn of Africa specialist Kjetil Tronvoll agreed, saying the appointment will "accentuate divisions" in a region still devastated by the bloodletting. "Getachew Reda will be accused of showing his true colours by collaborating with the enemy," he told AFP. While peace has mostly returned to the region, a failure to fully implement the terms of the 2022 Pretoria peace deal has fuelled divisions within the Tigrayan political elite. And the TPLF divisions have rekindled fears of a new conflict, with armed men loyal to Debretsion seizing several towns last month and overthrowing mayors appointed by the interim administration. Relations are also strained between Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea, which is accused of supporting Debretsion's faction. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tigray Are Back on a War Footing
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A political crisis in Ethiopia's war-battered Tigray escalated dramatically in March, bringing armed men out onto the streets and raising fears of a fresh conflict in the still-fragile region. At its heart is a power struggle between Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the dominant Tigray People's Liberation Front, or TPLF, party, and Getachew Reda, Tigray's interim regional president and Debretsion's deputy in the TPLF. But in the background lurks a potentially more explosive dynamic: the escalating rivalry between Ethiopia's federal government and Eritrea, which united in the war against Tigray in 2020-2022 but fell out over the peace deal that ended it. More than two years later, tensions between the two are spiking over Ethiopia's quest to end its status as the world's most-populous landlocked country. Last year Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed explored gaining sea access through the breakaway Somali republic of Somaliland, but backtracked after a fierce backlash from Mogadishu. Now he appears to have settled on reclaiming Eritrea's port at Assab, part of the Red Sea coastline Ethiopia lost when Eritrea seceded in 1993—a loss Abiy has termed a 'historical mistake.' Tigray is sandwiched between the rival powers. Its vice president, Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae, has warned that 'war seems inevitable' and that Tigray risks 'becoming a battlefield for Asmara and Addis Ababa.' Former envoys to the Horn of Africa for the U.S. and the European Union describe the tensions in Tigray as 'dry tinder waiting for a match that could ignite an interstate war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.' Meanwhile, Debretsion's rivals allege his TPLF faction has made contact with Eritrean intelligence—allegations it strongly denies. To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter. Debretsion and Getachew, Tigray's two key political players, have long had an uneasy relationship. The roots of the current crisis in Tigray, however, date back to the peace deal with Addis Ababa that Getachew signed on behalf of the TPLF in November 2022 in Pretoria, South Africa. In doing so, Debretsion argues, he unilaterally caved in to the federal government's conditions. 'The other side pushed,' Debretsion said in an interview in February. 'We expected this. But there should have been a collective decision' before Getachew agreed to the final deal, he added. For their part, Getachew's allies say Tigray had little leverage during the negotiations, which took place against the backdrop of fierce fighting and huge battlefield reversals. 'Maybe the war should have ended sooner,' said one. Debretsion insists he's now committed to the peace deal, despite seeing it as flawed, but he adds that there are also 'differences' among the TPLF leadership regarding 'its execution.' Nearly two and a half years after the Pretoria agreement silenced the guns, most of its key parts have not been implemented. Eritrean troops and forces from the Amhara region still occupy some 40 percent of Tigray's districts. This has blocked the return of almost 1 million displaced people, who languish in squalid camps. Ethiopia's military was supposed to take control of Tigray's international borders, but the federal government's presence amounts to little more than a few policemen outside the region's three airports. Efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable have made little headway. Fresh regional elections are yet to be held. And Tigray is still not represented in Ethiopia's federal parliament. It limps on in a state of limbo, unable to access donor funds crucial for its reconstruction. The situation has badly destabilized the region. Debretsion's TPLF faction, which controls the party apparatus, blames it on the incompetence of Getachew's interim administration. Competition is also heating up to control Tigray's lucrative gold deposits and state companies. In August, the TPLF held a congress that expelled Getachew and several members of his Cabinet from the party. Debretsion says they must step down from their positions in the regional government. Getachew's allies maintain the congress was illegal. Things reached a boiling point in early March when Getachew tried to fire three top TPLF generals, who he accused of plotting a 'coup.' Debretsion's TPLF faction then took over several districts across Tigray, including the major city of Adigrat. They also seized the mayor's office and radio station in Mekelle, Tigray's capital. These military movements sparked panic among residents, who rushed to withdraw cash from banks. Air tickets to Addis Ababa sold out. 'Everyone is concerned about war,' said Tesfasellassie Medhin, the Catholic bishop of Adigrat. 'The people do not want more destruction.' The showdown had been brewing for weeks, but its climax came quickly. Apart from a few isolated clashes, it was largely bloodless. Getachew appealed to the federal government to intervene, which could have sparked an armed confrontation and risked sucking in Eritrea, whose leader—long-ruling President Isaias Afwerki—feels he has unfinished business in Tigray. But Abiy declined to do so. Getachew is now on his way out, and Debretsion's faction wants to replace him with Tadesse Werede, the head of Tigray's regional armed forces and another regional vice president. On Wednesday, however, Abiy appeared to block his nomination, announcing he would instead consider public proposals for Tigray's new leader. The TPLF blasted his statement as 'unacceptable,' accusing Abiy's government of engaging in 'provocative, hostile and destabilizing activities that threaten the survival of the deeply wounded people of Tigray' and 'attempting to unilaterally determine' the region's leadership. Meanwhile, tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia linger. Abiy has staked his legacy on regaining sea access. Ethiopia's landlocked status currently eats up $1.6 billion a year in port fees to Djibouti, which handles 90 percent of Ethiopia's trade. Gaining access to the sea would not only save scarce foreign currency but could boost economic growth by 25 percent to 30 percent, according to Abiy. The Ethiopian prime minister is unlikely to drop the issue, although he insists he is committed to resolving it peacefully. 'Ethiopia has no intention to invade Eritrea to gain Red Sea access,' Abiy told parliament last week. 'Our desire is to talk about it under the principle of give and take, in a mutually beneficial manner, and according to commercial law.' But the warning signs are there. In February, Eritrea ordered a nationwide military mobilization. Its reclusive regime has ruled out giving up Assab port under any circumstances, with its information minister last week describing Ethiopia's maritime ambitions as 'misguided and outdated.' According to Western diplomats who spoke off the record, Eritrea is also trying to destabilize Abiy's government by assisting rebels in Ethiopia's Amhara region, where an insurgency is escalating. On March 21, Ethiopia's military claimed it had killed 300 fighters in two days of fighting. The day before, it claimed that a top Tigrayan general had 'encouraged and coordinated' attacks by Amhara rebels, which the TPLF denies. Meanwhile, if Debretsion's TPLF faction does take control of Tigray's regional government, it may feel emboldened to prepare a military strike to reclaim control of western Tigray. This fertile area was seized by Amhara forces during the Tigray war. Its status was supposed to be resolved constitutionally, according to the Pretoria peace agreement. The failure to do so is the main reason for Tigray's ongoing displacement crisis. An offensive could reignite an internationalized conflict involving Eritrean forces. Ethiopia has also been moving tanks, troops and military equipment to its border with Eritrea in the arid Afar region. And its state media is making loud claims over Assab. The deployments are small in scale and might be a show of force, calculated to put pressure on Eritrea, as Abiy can ill afford to stretch his forces any thinner. In addition to Amhara, the federal government is battling an entrenched insurgency in Oromia, Ethiopia's biggest region. That makes the timing bad for a conflict with Eritrea. Yet diplomats fear the consequences of any miscalculation on either side, similar to the skirmishes that inadvertently escalated the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998-2000. An interstate war would be devastating for the Horn of Africa, a region already struggling with internal conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, said Ahmed Soliman at Chatham House. 'Abiy has at least opened the door for some kind of accommodation,' said Soliman. 'There is a possibility to de-escalate.' Hopefully, for Tigray's and the broader region's sake, Abiy will seize it. Fred Harter is a freelance journalist based in Addis Ababa whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times of London, The Independent, VOA and the New Humanitarian. He has covered Ethiopia since March 2021 and traveled extensively in every region affected by the 2020-2022 conflict. The post Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tigray Are Back on a War Footing appeared first on World Politics Review.
Arab News
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Why is Ethiopia's Tigray again on the brink of conflict?
ADDIS ABABA: More than two years after a peace deal ended the devastating war in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a power struggle within the once-dominant TPLF party has sparked fears of renewed conflict. Could these rising tensions lead to violence so soon after one of the century's deadliest conflicts that killed an estimated 600,000 people? The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) ran the whole of Ethiopia for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a non-Tigrayan, took power in 2018. His takeover led to months of tension with the TPLF leadership, eventually leading Abiy to send troops to Tigray in November 2020, accusing their forces of attacking federal army camps. This triggered two years of horrific war between Tigrayan rebels and government forces backed by militias and Eritrean troops. It finally ended with a November 2022 peace treaty, known as the Pretoria Agreement. A new interim administration was created in Tigray with TPLF veteran Getachew Reda in charge, though overseen by the federal government. But divisions have emerged in recent months between Getachew and the TPLF's leader, Debretsion Gebremichael. Getachew faces criticism over delays in implementing the peace deal — particularly the failure to expel Eritrean forces who supported the federal government against the Tigrayans, and return the million people displaced by the war. The Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) had previously stayed neutral in the Getachew-Debretsion dispute. But in January, a dissident group within the TDF accused Getachew's administration of undermining 'the Tigrayan people's national interest and engaging in treason.' One foreign expert, who did not want to be named, estimated around 200 commanders supported the letter. Getachew described it as declaring 'a coup d'etat.' In early March, he attempted to suspend three TDF generals and accused Debretsion's faction of trying to 'take over the whole of Tigray.' This week, Debretsion's forces took control of the municipalities in state capital Mekele and second city Adigrat, putting their own mayors in place. Many residents, already deeply weary of war, are panicking over the threat of renewed conflict with reports of bank runs and sold-out flights. Getachew has asked for assistance from the federal government in Addis Ababa, though he said this should not be military in nature. The federal government has not responded publicly. There is concern in Addis Ababa that Eritrea, its historic rival that gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, will exploit the unrest. Eritrea's rhetoric has been increasingly bellicose. Last month, its information minister accused Ethiopia of 'waging an intense and unacceptable campaign against Eritrea' and committing 'malicious provocations.' A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that armed Ethiopian convoys were heading toward the region of Afar, which borders Eritrea, in recent days. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki's dissatisfaction with the 2022 peace agreement, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ambitions for a Red Sea port and geopolitical interest from the Middle East have fueled the deteriorating tensions, said Kjetil Tronvoll, Oslo University professor specializing in the region. That has left the 'two countries inching closer to a new war,' he said.
Arab News
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Terrified Tigrayans seek to flee renewed tensions in north Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA: Residents sought to flee mounting tensions in the Tigray region of Ethiopia as a political faction confirmed they had seized control of the town hall in the state capital Mekele. Ethiopia's most northerly state, which borders Eritrea, saw a devastating conflict between Tigrayan rebels and the federal government in 2020-22, which claimed up to 600,000 lives, according to some estimates. The tensions come from an internal power struggle within Tigray between Getachew Reda, head of the state's regional administration, and Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the dominant local party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front. 'People are in terror that if armed conflict breaks out, it will be worse than the war they endured,' said Solomon Hagos, a university lecturer in Mekele, who asked for one of his names to be changed for security reasons. Another resident said people were trying to flee. 'We were trapped in Mekele during the previous war, we do not want that to happen again,' said Mihret, 27, who only gave one name. 'We are trying to leave the region, and we went to the airport, but all the flights are full. We are looking for ways to leave the region; we are afraid,' he added. Debretsion's faction seized control of Mekele's town hall on Thursday to reinstate its chosen mayor and the local radio station. A spokesman for Debretsion said: 'The previous elected mayor was fired by Getachew, which was not legal. So now the previous one has been put back in place.' Armed supporters of Debretsion also took over the municipality in Adigrat, Tigray's second-largest town near the Eritrean border, ousting the mayor appointed by Getachew. 'We are afraid of a new siege, of a civil war between Tigrayans,' said Mehari Gebremariam, a civil servant in Adigrat. The tensions threaten to draw in Eritrea, which has a history of war with Ethiopia, adding another layer of fear among locals. A war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1998-2000 resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was lauded for finally reaching a peace agreement with Eritrea when he came to power in 2018 and won the Nobel Peace Prize. But relations have soured since the end of the Tigray conflict in 2022. Eritrea claimed in February that Ethiopia was waging an 'intense campaign' against it. A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that armed Ethiopian convoys were heading toward the region of Afar, which borders Eritrea, in recent days. 'A war between Ethiopia and Eritrea could break out at any moment,' said General Tsadkan Gebretensae, senior strategist for the Tigray forces in Getachew's administration, in remarks published this week. The tensions have led to panic in Mekele. 'People are currently rushing to withdraw from banks because they fear the political tensions could lead to a suspension of basic services,' Hagos told AFP, adding that he had stocked up on food for fear of coming inflation. He said locals could not cope with the idea of another war. 'Our people are exhausted. Our economy is devastated,' he said.
