The Eritrean president (Isaias Afwerki) appeared in a joint news conference with the Kenyan president in Nairobi, making a rare appearance in international media. He deflected questions about Eritrean troops that “may or may not” still be residing in Ethiopia’s Tigray region despite the peace treaty established between the two in November of 2022. The troops had been sent to assist the Ethiopian military in dealing with rebellious Tigrayan forces, but have been widely accused by locals of numerous human rights crimes and abuses (killings, rapes, etc). Eritrea has denied all accusations. The peace treaty agreed on “the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from every part of Ethiopian and Tigrayan territory, under international monitoring, to positions in which they can no longer pose any threat to us.” Both residents and foreign diplomats have claimed that Eritrean troops still reside in the Tigray region. Afwerki deflected questions about the troops, claiming it “nonsense” and questioning why anyone is bothered about whether the troops are there or not.
The war itself was caused by ethnic divides in Ethiopia, and ended up being a conflict between two of the four ethnically based parties that make up the Ethiopian government, the most prominent party being the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. When the Tigrayan prime minister stepped down in 2018, the Oromo ethnic group gained dominance and began repairing relations with Eritrea. Tigrayan residents were resentful of this, as Eritrea had committed killings of Tigrayan people in a previous Ethiopian civil war. Then, the Oromo Prime Minister merged ethnic groups into one government (rather than four collaborating sections), but Tigray refused to join. They decided to govern their own region but frequently clashed with the federal government. Tensions escalated into the Tigray war in 2020. With the conclusion of the war in 2022, it would make sense that one of the negotiated points be the removal of Eritrean troops. The lack of transparency from Afwerki is also unsurprising, as admittance of the act would be a clear violation of the treaty and considering his (lack of) history in the media.
In class, we learned about shatterbelts and conflict caused by ethnic divides of such geographically diverse regions. Prior to the Tigray war, Ethiopia had been amidst a violent civil war as a result of such ethnic divides a decade before, and tensions across the country between the federal government and ethnic Tigray region developed into a new war. Ethiopia’s situation directly mirrors the analogy we used in class; if a teacher has to teach students in different classrooms throughout the school at the same time, it is difficult to maintain stability within all of the classes. Furthermore, using Eritrean troops for support was like rubbing salt in the wound due to the history of fighting and divisions.