‘Genocidal war’: Peace talks urged in Tigray conflict
An Ethiopian diplomat who quit his post in the US over concerns about atrocities in Tigray is calling for peace talks between the government and the embattled region’s fugitive leaders, The Associated Press reported.
Berhane Kidanemariam served as the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington until early March.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he warned that a protracted war in Tigray is devastating the region’s 6 million people.
“We have to prioritize peaceful settlement and negotiation,” he said.
“Without peaceful settlement and negotiation, peace couldn’t prevail. The only solution is peace talks.”
Between 60,000 and 70,000 people are now believed to have died in the war since November, he said, citing information gleaned from sources inside Ethiopia.
Most of the victims are “civilians, especially the youngsters,” he said, according to The Associated Press.
Ethiopian authorities have not given a death toll in the Tigray war.
Kidanemariam said that Tigrayan fighters “are getting better” in their defenses, increasing the likelihood of a long war in which reported abuses already include massacres, rapes, forced displacement, and the vandalism of priceless cultural sites.
“Anything which the human beings can use” has been destroyed in some way, he said, describing the looting of everything from banks to churches and mosques. “It’s horrible even to explain it.”
Kidanemariam hails from the Tigray region, the base of a party that dominated national politics for decades before the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. But he said his background had not influenced his decision to call it “a genocidal war.”
“I don’t need to be Tigrayan,” Kidanemariam said, referring to his March 10 resignation. “Seeing this kind of horrible, catastrophic war, I couldn’t tolerate it.”
The conflict began in November, when Abiy sent government troops into Tigray after an attack there on federal military facilities.
Fighting persists even as Ethiopian authorities insist the situation there is returning to normal.