Eritrean troops have poured into Tigray in great numbers and their ranks have seemingly been given carte blanche to let loose an avalanche of terror on the civilian population. The rapaciousness with which Afwerki’s armies have prosecuted his bloody intervention in Tigray stands in stark contrast with the hopes for peace that followed a July 2018 agreement signed between Afwerki and Ahmed, formally ending a two-decade border conflict between Eritrea and the then TPLF-led Ethiopia.
What was then perceived by many Eritreans as the inauguration of a new political dispensation gradually proved to be illusory; war and devastation would soon follow. The repercussions of Afwerki’s actions in Tigray can generally be broken down into three categories of failure: 1) national security, 2) economic, and 3) moral. It is to these actions and their consequences that I now turn.
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Moral Crisis: What’s been Done in Our Name
Oxford defines a total war as “a war which is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the accepted rules of war are disregarded.” Perhaps the most horrifying manifestation of this type of war occurred during World War II, when the armies of the Third Reich launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union.
The devotion and scale with which Hitler’s armies exterminated entire populations as they invaded and engaged in a deliberate campaign of terror in the conquered territories knows no parallel in the annals of modern warfare. It shocks the conscience of this writer to witness Eritrean troops become party to a similar campaign, albeit on a smaller scale, in Tigray.
Multiple international organizations such as Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the United Nations (UN) have reported mass killings, rapes, and indiscriminate mass looting. These reports strongly implicate the Eritrean army in war crimes. Similar accusations have been lodged against Ethiopian forces. Ahmed, to his credit, has had the political tact to publicly respond to these accusations by committing to investigate those responsible for crimes. In May, his government went so far as to point the finger at Eritrea for the infamous Axum massacre.
Neither Afwerki nor any of his inner circle has issued a formal statement regarding these serious charges, or indicated an interest in investigating the conduct of the Eritrean army. Such silence has a sound, the sound of the criminal. The Eritrean people are therefore confronted with a moral crisis that most of them did not help create but one which they will be saddled with long after the guns fall silent in Tigray. Among many of history’s cruel ironies is the frequency with which the victims of terror become the purveyors of that same terror. Sadly, Eritrea has not escaped this tragic pattern.
Eritrea’s military in particular bears a unique guilt. It evolved from the Eritrean People’s Liberation Army (EPLA), a guerrilla army whose membership grew exponentially during the liberation war against Ethiopia due to the same types of atrocities now being exacted on the people of Tigray.
During that war the EPLA developed an international reputation for the humane treatment of civilians and, although it was not a signatory to any international convention related to their treatment, they still pursued a policy of returning POWs through the auspices of the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC).
This legacy would become one of the moral wellsprings of the nascent Eritrean army and a source of pride for the Eritrean people. It’s unfortunate that such a rich heritage has become a casualty of the current conflict.
Conclusion
Amidst the cruelty and collision of physical forces lies the crude accounting all peoples make when a leader commits the nation to war. Under any measure of success, Afwerki’s intervention in Tigray has failed to subdue the TPLF and extricate Eritrea from the economic and security quagmire his policies have placed the country in.
On the contrary, it appears his actions have exacerbated these underlying problems and shut the small window of opportunity there was for peace that appeared in 2018. The war continues unabated, and it has reached a level of such merciless brutality that I do not believe a negotiated settlement is possible between the parties. It has indeed become a war of annihilation.
For Eritreans, therefore, Afwerki’s gambit has risked the very existence of the state they fought so hard to create.
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