Ethiopian peace deal must be bolstered to prevent further slaughter and war atrocities

I have had the misfortune to witness the worst of humanity. In 1994, as a journalist for the Ugandan newspaper The Monitor, I arrived in Rwanda a few days after the plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira — the president of Burundi — was brought down in Kigali.  

Over the next months of genocide, I was horrorstruck by the dead bodies littering paths, hilltops, gardens and rivers.  

In a village in Nyamagana, we found a six-month-old baby whose mother had died two days earlier. The little girl was still suckling her dead mother's breast. Flies had taken over her entire body. We picked her up and bathed her.  

The tales of the Rwanda genocide are more than this article can easily detail. The experience changed me. I knew I could never be satisfied with counting bodies and empathising with the dead. I needed to prevent atrocities from ever happening. 

Like many, I was uplifted by the news that the African Union (AU) had brokered a permanent cessation of hostilities agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in Pretoria in November 2022.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Warring Ethiopian parties silence the guns by signing historic peace agreement in Pretoria”  

Political tension in the country was roiled by the two-year war, which was centred in northern Ethiopia and served as a spur to other conflicts elsewhere in Ethiopia. More than half a million civilians have died. And yet the world’s media and politicians haven’t paid attention. The war in Tigray was a hidden conflict, cloaked behind an internet, telecommunications and banking blackout that is only now lifting.  

Ethiopia is important for all Africans. It is the home of the AU, the political organisation we trust to advance Africa’s aspirations for continental development and equal participation in global affairs. As such, it is our home, too. African voices and actors have a crucial role to play in supporting and helping Ethiopians find peace. The deal reached in Pretoria is a cause for optimism. But we cannot ignore its gaps.  

It is now incumbent on us all to do what we can to prevent a worsening of the slaughter. The public and social media space in Ethiopia and its diaspora is riven by angry debates that often rise to the level of hate speech. We are all called upon to avoid antagonistic, overly politicised, and simplistic positions. 

More signatories needed