More than a week after the fall of the regional capital Tigray, Mekele, the military situation in the province is still uncertain. Part of the territory is still at war and Western diplomacy is trying to prevent it from spreading beyond regional borders. The United States and the European Union have intensified their efforts in this regard over the past 24 hours.
The US Secretary of State and the Ethiopian Prime Minister spoke by telephone on Tuesday as relations between the two countries remain strained. And if Ethiopia did not comment after the exchange, Antony Blinken urged the warlords to “commit to an immediate and indefinite negotiated ceasefire”, which is particularly aimed at the Tigrayans, who are currently refusing to do so.
Like the UN Security Council, the head of US diplomacy has also called for a “complete withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara forces from Tigray”. to unlimited humanitarian access, to a “transparent process” to punish the perpetrators of crime, to a “political dialogue” to stop the dissolution of the federation. But he, too, and this is new, argued that “neither Ethiopia’s internal nor external borders” should be “changed by force or in violation of the Constitution,” which is true. Address there also to the old revolt against Tigray, tempted by secessionism.
In Brussels, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic used a similar language at the ceasefire. But for him, the emergency is first and foremost humanitarian. Before the European Parliament, he accused Ethiopia of “using hunger as a weapon of war”. “This is not a ceasefire,” he exclaimed, “it is a besieged state.”
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