Ethiopia’s Looming Catastrophe
Averting famine comes first. Then the task is broader reconciliation.
More aid is desperately needed.
Photographer: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed erred disastrously last November in launching a war against his own people in the northern Tigray region. He has a chance to reverse his mistake, and he needs to seize it.
From the moment Abiy sent federal troops into Tigray, vowing to arrest local leaders who’d defied his authority, it was clear the region would not be easily subdued. Fighters from Eritrea and the neighboring Amhara region joined in the offensive, raping, looting and killing. The ranks of Tigrayan insurgents swelled. Last week a successful counterattack drove Abiy to withdraw his forces and declare a unilateral, two-month cease-fire.