Conflict In Ethiopia Research Articles

Political Culture and Cyclical Conflict in Ethiopia: Exploring the Generative Dynamics of Political Crisis in the 2020s

Ethiopia is frequently facing serious political–communal conflict. Prevailing narratives attempting to identify causes often focus on presumed ‘ethnic’ groups and inequalities – a perspective crystallized especially in the past ca. 30 years. While Ethiopia as a socio-political domain existed for ages before the Emperor Menilik period (1889–1913) of incorporation of adjacent territories, the question emerges whether the ‘roots’ of recent armed conflicts are as much contemporary-political as historical, and related to an established political culture, based on resilient authoritarian values among both elites and the wider population. Ethiopia’s current unresolved conflict dynamics need a renewed analysis of not only history and ‘political economy’ but also of recent constitutional features and group politics, which strongly impacted on its political culture. On the basis of document study and interviews, I examine crucial features of such recent processes so as to re-evaluate the specific articulations of ethno-regionally based governance in Ethiopia in recent years to find causal elements fuelling the repetitive cycles of conflict.

Role of Emotional Intelligence in Managing Interpersonal Conflicts in Ethiopia

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the role of emotional intelligence in managing interpersonal conflicts in Ethiopia. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: In Ethiopia, emotional intelligence is pivotal in managing interpersonal conflicts by enhancing individuals' ability to understand and navigate emotions effectively. Individuals with high emotional intelligence are better at recognizing and empathizing with others' perspectives, which leads to more constructive conflict resolution. These individuals can maintain composure, employ effective communication strategies, and foster a collaborative environment. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Emotional intelligence theory, social and emotional learning (SEL) theory & conflict resolution theory may be used to anchor future studies on the role of emotional intelligence in managing interpersonal conflicts in Ethiopia. Organizations should implement targeted training programs to enhance employees' emotional intelligence skills, focusing on areas such as empathy, emotional regulation, and communication. Policymakers should promote and support the integration of emotional intelligence into workplace policies and practices. Policies should encourage the inclusion of EI development programs as part of professional development initiatives and performance management systems.

Political Conflict in Ethiopia and its Dynamics: Ethnic Classification by Politics

Political Conflict in Ethiopia and its Dynamics: Ethnic Classification by Politics

Organized violence 1989–2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups

This article examines trends in organized violence based on new data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP). In 2023, fatalities from organized violence decreased for the first time since the rapid increase observed in 2020, dropping from 310,000 in 2022 to 154,000 in 2023. Despite this decline, these figures represent some of the highest fatality rates recorded since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, surpassed only by those of 2022 and 2021. The decrease was primarily attributed to the end of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which accounted for about 60% of battle-related deaths in both 2022 and 2021. Despite this positive development, the number of active state-based armed conflicts increased by three in 2023, reaching the highest level ever recorded by the UCDP, totaling 59. Non-state conflicts and one-sided violence decreased in 2023 when compared to 2022, evident in both the reduction of the active conflicts/actors and the decrease in fatalities attributed to these forms of violence. However, despite this overall decrease, fatalities resulting from non-state conflicts remained at historically high levels in 2023. Analysis of non-state conflict data spanning the past decade reveals that it comprises the ten most violent years on record. Organized crime groups have predominantly fueled this escalation. Unlike rebel groups, organized crime groups typically lack political goals and are primarily motivated by economic gain. Conflicts between these groups tend to intensify around drug smuggling routes and in urban areas, driven by shifts in alliances and leadership dynamics among the actors.

More Conflicts, More Deaths—Everyone Talks about Winning the War, but No One Talks About Achieving Peace

This article examines the multifaceted challenges posed by the current global conflict landscape, emphasizing the interconnectedness of development, security, and peace. Firstly, the article highlights the increase in both state and non state conflicts, with fatalities nearly doubling from 2021 to 2022. This escalation is marked by significant conflicts like the Russia–Ukraine war and the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia, contributing to the deterioration of global security. The analysis also touches on the failure of regional and international organizations such as the African Union, ASEAN, and the United Nations in effectively managing these conflicts and maintaining peace. Secondly, the article delves into the evolving nature of warfare, including the rise of digital attacks and hybrid warfare, which blend conventional and unconventional tactics. This section underscores the need for a new, comprehensive peace architecture to address the array of modern threats, including climate change and pandemics, which extend beyond traditional military concerns. Finally, the article discusses the concerning decline of anti-war movements in the West, particularly in light of recent conflicts like the Ukraine war. This decline is attributed to various factors, including the perception of Western military actions as inherently benevolent and the shift in activism focus to issues like climate change and social justice. The article argues that this decline has profound implications for democratic processes and the global pursuit of peace.

Unraveling the Persistence of Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: Examining Causes

Unraveling the Persistence of Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: Examining Causes

ETHIOPIA: ETHNIC CONFLICT AND TRAGEDY. A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE HAMAR, KORO, AND ARBORE COMMUNITIES

Ethnic conflict is a prevalent issue in numerous countries worldwide, including Ethiopia. One common challenge faced by multi-ethnic federal states is the emergence of nation alism among ethnic-regional communities. Nevertheless, I contend that ethnic diversity alone is not typically the primary cause of ethnic conflict in Ethiopia. Considering these factors, the study centered on ethnic conflict among the semi-pastoral communities of Hamar, Karo, and Arbore. This study adopted a qualitative research approach and used informant interviews and survey methods to collect primary data and examine relevant literature from secondary sources. As a result, the study found that the desire for self-determination, competition for resources, arms smuggling and marginalization, lack of good governance, poor cultural traditions, and political interests are the factors driving destructive ethnic conflicts in the study area. Keywords: Conflict, Ethiopia, federalism, Karo, resources.

The Role of Regional Multi-Actor Mediators: The Case of IGAD in the Ethiopia-Tigray Conflict

ABSTRACT Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a regional organization with institutional experience in active conflict mediation, accumulated over many years. The emerging conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray – and specifically the fact that the conflict involved Ethiopia, considered to be one of the most significant powers in East Africa and a prominent member of IGAD – posed new challenges to the organization’s mediation efforts. As such, it is important to ask what the role of regional mediation is, or how effective can such mediation be when a significant regional power is involved in an intrastate conflict with major potential regional implications. This article addresses this question considering the conflict that has engulfed Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray since November 2020 and argues that IGAD’s late response and hesitant stand on its role as mediator in this conflict, which was related to Ethiopia’s status in the organization and the region, was a lesson that IGAD should learn regarding its involvement in current and future conflicts. Furthermore, the specific timing of the Ethiopia-Tigray crisis, which coincided with an acute climate crisis in the region, underscores the fact that IGAD must move beyond a mediation role and propose more viable ways of coping with the devastating interwoven consequences of human-made conflicts and climate hazards, especially in view of IGAD member states’ common vulnerabilities based on its experience in conflict mediation, both in relation to the Ethiopia-Tigray conflict and in other conflicts.

The leading role of expert safety knowledge in supporting the mission of caring for patients during man-made and natural disasters: state of emergency medicine in Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Ukraine

Preparedness to endure extreme situations such as natural disasters or military conflicts is not commonplace in healthcare training programs. Moreover, multidisciplinary teams in health services rarely (if ever) include experts in security. However, when emergency situations occur, prevailing healthcare demands do not cease to exist, and unexpected demands often surge due to the shortage of other services and supplies or as a consequence of the emergency condition itself.With services in 45 countries, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has operated in several conflict zones, facing broad and challenging security demands. Since 2017 AHF has implemented the Global Department of Safety and Security (GDSS), a dedicated intelligence and safety program that had a key role in the security monitoring, preparedness, and defense responses, assisting staff members and clients during recent conflicts.In this manuscript, we describe the experience of AHF’s GDSS in three recent military conflicts in Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Ukraine, and provide insights into steps that can be taken to assure staff safety and support the mission of caring for patients throughout catastrophic events.

Conflict Prevention in Sub-Regional Institutions: The Case Study of IGAD in Ethiopia from 2015-2020

Conflict prevention is the primary objective of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Despite efforts made by the institution, it has, however, not succeeded in preventing conflict in Ethiopia. IGAD, like other sub-regional institutions in Africa, has established an early warning early response mechanism and a Mediation Support Unit that is aimed at preventing conflicts. The study examines the legal and institutional framework of IGAD for conflict prevention. A qualitative case study research design was employed in this study. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select eighteen informants for the study, and data was collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews, document reviews, and literature reviews. Five themes have been identified for data analysis. The findings show that the legal and institutional framework of IGAD is relevant for preventing conflict, however, it has identified several limitations within and beyond the scope of the legal and institutional framework.

Federalism as state form to overcome violent conflict in Ethiopia

Federalism as state form to overcome violent conflict in Ethiopia

The Protracted Civil and Armed Conflicts in Ethiopia Fueling the COVID-19-Related Health Crisis: Perspective on Building a Resilient Health System to Shocks.

Prior to the intensified civil and armed conflicts in Ethiopia, remarkable progress was made in the health sector, which has persuaded the Ministry of Health to give special focus on building a responsive and resilient health system in the second five-year health sector transformation plan (HSTP II 2021-2025). However, the years-long civil and armed conflicts have been fueling the COVID-19 crisis and have caused multi-sectoral infrastructure damage, human life loss, and economic crisis. In 2021 alone, the conflict causes more than five million internal displacements of persons (IDP) and thousands civilian deaths. Review of reported government data has shown that 3,508 health posts, 750 health centers, and 76 hospitals were partially or completely damaged in four regions. Looting of medical equipment and facilities for amenities was devastating. More than 19 million people were affected by the armed and civil conflicts between 2020 and 2021. Unless peace is ensured across the nation the sooner possible, it is foreseen that the devastation may further worsen, and recovery may be a far-fetched possibility. Therefore, in addition to restoration of the disrupted health services, it is the right time for the Ministry of Health to incorporate the humanitarian-development nexus as a joint strategy with the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) to ensure a resilient health system for similar multifaceted conflict-related health crisis, disasters, and infectious outbreaks.

Ethno-Federalism and Subnational Conflicts in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Ethiopia is unique in its extreme version of ethno-federalism as it constitutionally grants unconditional rights of self-determination and secession to all ethnic communities. The defacto practices of power in governing multiple contesting groups, however, creates regime priorities. The post-2018 politics generated violent opportunities to make viable claims on control, representation, and authority. Further, conflicts at the local, regional and national level increased because of the new regime’s need to co-opt and placate subnational elites. This suggests that ethno-federal systems incentivize distinct, co-occurring forms of political violence. Such a system provides the context for violence, but regime politics provides the spark.

The perceived credibility of the Ethiopian private, federal and regional television channels

The detaining, arresting and holding of journalists for more than half a year without formal charges in addition to the war and conflict in Ethiopia between different ethnicities and regional states motivated these authors to explore rising issues of perceptions of media credibility in Ethiopia. The main focus of this study was to assess the audiences’ perceived credibility of the Ethiopian federal, regional and private television channels. The participants of this study were people living in two regional states and one capital city of Ethiopia (i.e. Amhara, Oromia and Addis Ababa). A total of 600 participants were chosen from the three places included in the survey, using snowball and convenience sampling techniques. The data were collected through the survey and analysed using non parametric statistics (Mann Whitney U Test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, Kruskal Wallis Test and Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test) using SPSS version 26. Results indicated that the federal and private television channels enjoy more news and medium credibility than the regional television channels. However, the audiences’ perception of the credibility of journalists from the television channels of the federal, private and regional states showed no statistically significant difference. The results of the study suggest that the television organizations, journalists and policy designers need to work harder to bring credibility to the regional states television channels in addition to ensuring credibility to the federal and private television channels.

Evaluating the Pretoria Agreement: the limitations of presentist analysis of conflicts in Ethiopia

SUMMARY This debate piece contains an assessment of the debate on the ‘Pretoria Agreement’ (or Cessation of Hostilities Agreement) concluded on 2 November 2022 regarding the armed conflict in Ethiopia. On the basis of a critical discussion of a paper by F. Gebresenbet and Y. Tariku (2023) published in the Spring issue of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE), the author here contests the short-term analysis of the authors, who miss essential points of the wider context of political conflict in Ethiopia and also scholastically misrepresent some other authors in the debate.

Ethnic Identity and Conflict: The Case of Ethiopia

In this essay, I argue that the current conflict in Ethiopia is the result of the adoption of an ethnic federal system in the 1990s. Though there are certainly more proximate causes, the effects of the system of ethnic federalism are critical in understanding the nature of the conflict that threatens to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region. First, ethnic federalism has framed the fundamental political debate in the country, which has been reduced to questions about the balance of power between the ethnically based regions and the central state. Secondly, ethnic federalism has led to ethnification of identity in Ethiopia's population at large.

Editors' Note

Editors' Note Daria Farman-Farmaian and Mikael Pir-Budagyan Dear Reader, Whereas identities may previously have been independent of one another because of geographic isolationism, our increasingly globalized world challenges these norms of homogeneity. Today, people all over the world are forced to contend with changing personal, national, state, ethnic, economic, and political affiliations. For better or for worse, identity is inherently disordered but exists at every level of our world. It merges, erases, changes, and coexists in distinct forms and environments. It does not disappear in international relations; instead, often, it is brought to the fore, making the global order infinitely more complex and challenging to predict. And though some identities are blatant, most remain unobservable, disrupting the clarity of our everyday world. As a source of both conflict and unity, identity is no less important in international relations than issues such as international law, economic development, armed conflict, global health, or sustainability policy. In fact, we believe identity is at the core of all these topics. The field of international affairs faces an unprecedented and diverse set of challenges and opportunities. Across the climate crisis, a globalizing world, democratic advancement and backsliding, or the war in Ukraine, identity remains a central part of the debate. Whether forged on the battlefield or transformed by technological innovation, identities transgress the linear perception of global developments and deserve the utmost attention from academics and practitioners. The question is not if we address identity in international relations but when and how. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs Edition 24, Volume I is a bold attempt to bring identity center stage and explore its implications globally. In pursuing this goal, we lead with a few questions: How do global forces bring us together or tear us apart? What are the dangers and opportunities of increased identity polarization or homogeneity? How do identities intersect, conflict, and coexist on a global scale? We are grateful for the insight of this volume's contributing scholars and practitioners who have sought to probe such questions. Because of their expertise, we have had the opportunity to explore issues such as digital identity and inclusion, ethnonationalist conflicts in Ethiopia, and Armenian identity in the face of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Editing the works of these authors has made clear to us that a conversation about identity on a global scale is long overdue. This volume of the 24th edition would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of each graduate and undergraduate student member of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. The Journal's high publication and professional standards are safeguarded by the hard work and dedication of our organization's Editorial Assistants, Section Editors, Development Team, and the rest of our Board. It has been an enriching experience for both of us, and we look forward to you, Reader, discovering the insights this volume presents. Daria Farman-Farmaian, SFS '23 Mikael Pir-Budagyan, MAERES'24 GJIA Print Editor's in Chief [End Page 1] Copyright © 2023 Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University

The Challenges of Women Housed in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps During an Armed Conflict in Ethiopia

The outbreak of an ethnically and politically motivated armed warfare in Tigray in 2020, spread to the Amhara and Afar regions in Ethiopia, wreaking havoc on civilians. This armed conflict has had a significant impact on the lives of women who have been uprooted from their homes and are now living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges faced by women living in two IDP camps in Dabat and Debark, Ethiopia. In-depth interviews were used to gather data from 13 participants. Challenges emerged that relate to three major themes: systemic (gender-based violence, family separation/disintegration, human trafficking, and genocide); psychological (trauma and stress; loss of home/personal belongings); and social (lack of social security and stability, reintegration and resettlement problems, unmet basic needs [physiological and physical health], and maladministration of supplies. The results of the study suggest that internally displaced women in Ethiopia are a group of targeted and victimized civilians suffering from a wide range of atrocities that are rooted in their gender identity, marginalized status, and extreme vulnerability. Lawmakers, politicians, advocacy groups, social work practitioners and women's activists must all advocate for stronger sanctions for those who perpetrate violence against women.

ETHIOPIA: FEDERALISM, PARTY MERGER AND CONFLICTS

This article has a twin mission: examining the impact of party merger on the federal arrangement and its association with the current conflicts in Ethiopia. The 1995 federal constitution of Ethiopia devolves powers to regional states. Since then, each regional state was fused with its distinct ruling party that created a coalition at the federal level. This state-party fused federal arrangement faced serious challenges with the rise of intra coalition disagreements since 2016 following the protest movements in the country, which further plunged Ethiopia into a devastating civil war since November 2020. This article asks what caused the conflicts. While recognizing the multidimensional roots of the conflicts, this article uses a political party-driven theory of federalism in order to identify the political processes that led to the conflicts. It argues that in a multiethnic federation such as Ethiopia where there is state-party fusion, a ruling party’s metamorphosis from a coalition to a union may not only centralize power but could also result in both de facto merger of that fragile federation and conflicts. Delinking the state from the party through inclusive national negotiations and democratic elections within a federal arrangement might help transition Ethiopia to a stable country. Keywords: Civil war, conflicts, political parties, Ethiopian federalism, Prosperity Party, power centralization, Abiy Ahmed.

Beyond land rights registration: understanding the mundane elements of land conflict in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT While land registration may increase the sense of security amongst landholders and provide a mechanism for resolving boundary disputes, its interaction with social, political-economic and ecological dynamics can actually generate conflicts by creating new opportunities by which some actors can assert claims or expand their landholdings, often at the expense of others. Conflicts over land cannot be understood without understanding the local dynamics with which they are intertwined. Drawing from case studies in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, this paper shows that, despite land registration and certification, there are widespread conflicts within and between households and state authorities regarding the usufruct of individual and communal lands. The paper argues that conflicts over land are complex and political and are linked to and embedded in the processes of commercialization, as well as in local social processes and power relations. These, in turn, influence and are shaped by the political economy of local governance and land administration processes, particularly in relation to the implementation of land registration. The paper highlights that land conflicts are attributed to a range of issues, including not only the challenges of governance in land registration but also population growth, commercialization, urbanization, inheritance and gender inequality, all of which intersect with corrupt land administration systems .