The World Needs to Head Off the Worst in Ethiopia
Allowing fighting between the government and the rebellious Tigray region to drag on could have catastrophic consequences.
Thousands are fleeing each day.
Photographer: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images
Less than a year ago, while accepting the Nobel Prize for his role in bringing peace to the Horn of Africa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed offered a reminder to his audience: “War makes for bitter men. Heartless and savage men.” He should need no further reason to call off the war he has started in his own country.
The offensive that Abiy launched on Nov. 4 against the rebellious northern Tigray region is pushing his nation, Africa’s second-largest, toward disaster. Tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing the fighting. There are fears of ethnic massacres (at least one appears to have taken place already) and of spreading famine. The spiraling hostilities threaten to draw in other ethnic groups and even neighboring countries.