The brutal civil war in northern Ethiopia has reached a new level, as Ethiopian troops successfully captured one of the largest cities in the Tigray region. The captured city, Shire, was home to over 100,000 residents, and served as a key connection hub due to its airport and prime location in relation to the Tigrayan capitol. This capture is one of the largest inroads made by federal troops ever since violence re-erupted in August following a months-long period of peace. It also comes as peace talks spearheaded by the African Union have faltered, recently being postponed due to logistical issues. With the capture of Shire, Ethiopian troops now stand just mere miles away from Tigray’s main highway, which leads directly to the capitol city, Mekelle.
As Ethiopian troops continue to push farther into Tigray, the international community’s greatest concerns, primarily humanitarian, are worsening. Tigrayan citizens, fearful of federal control and reciprocal violence, have opted to continue fleeing deeper into the region, drastically worsening an already horrible food and resource crisis. Due to Tigray being surrounded on all sides by enemies (Ethiopia to the south, Eritrea to the north) they have been unable to get any food or other resources from allies or the international community, and such the nearly 7 million people living in the region are at serious risk of starvation. Tigray’s only hope in resolving this issue is to fast track a peace agreement if the negotiations actually are held, or to appeal to Ethiopia for humanitarian aid, which is unlikely to happen.
An interesting aspect of the civil war in Tigray is the utter lack of involvement of anyone on an international level; the closet to this is the African Union facilitating peace talks. The mixture of humanitarian crisis and committed atrocities has created a situation that would generally lead to involvement from some sort of international organization, such as the UN sending in humanitarian aid or peacekeeping troops. Nothing like that has happened however, serving as a grim reminder that regardless of how bad a situation may get, or demands for the international community to intervene, because of the sheer lack of importance the conflict has to countries like the United States, nothing will be done.
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