As Ethiopia reforms, ethnic violence spreads

File Photo: Sahle-Work Zewde (AFP)

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia yesterday appointed a woman to the largely ceremonial position of president for the first time, further increasing female representation in the government of Africa's second most populous nation. In a unanimous vote, Ethiopian lawmakers picked career diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde, 68, to replace Mulatu Teshome who resigned in unclear circumstances. Ethiopia's reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week appointed a slimline 20-person cabinet in which half the posts are held by women. They include defense minister Aisha Mohammed and Muferiat Kamil who leads the newly-created Ministry of Peace, responsible for police and domestic intelligence agencies.

"If the current change in Ethiopia is headed equally by both men and women, it can sustain its momentum and realise a prosperous Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic and gender discrimination," Sahle-Work said yesterday. Sahle-Work, who was born in the capital Addis Ababa and attended university in France, has been Ethiopia's ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal and the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Just prior to her appointment as president she was the UN's top official at the African Union. She is fluent in English and French as well as Amharic, Ethiopia's main language. As president she is expected to serve two six-year terms.

Symbolism and influence

"Mulatu has shown us the way for change and hope, he has shown life continues before and after leaving power. I call on others to heed his example and be ready for change," said Sahle-Work in a speech to parliament. Political power in Ethiopia is wielded by the prime minister with the president's role restricted to attending ceremonies and functions. Nevertheless, Sahle-Work's position carries important symbolic weight and social influence. "Government and opposition parties have to understand we are living in a common house and focus on things that unite us, not what divides us, to create a country and generation that will make all of us proud," she said.

"The absence of peace victimizes firstly women, so during my tenure I will emphasise women's roles in ensuring peace and the dividends of peace for women." Sahle-Work becomes Africa's only serving female head of state, albeit in a ceremonial role. A handful of African countries have in the recent past been led by female presidents with executive powers, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia (2006-18) and Joyce Banda in Malawi (2012-14). Banda was elevated to the presidency following the death in office of Bingu wa Mutharika, while Sirleaf won two elections before standing down earlier this year at the end of her constitutionally mandated terms.

Ethnic violence spreads

Two decades ago, Ethiopia's leaders took a gamble: give the country's many ethnicities their own autonomous regions in the hope greater prosperity would forge national unity. For a time it worked, but now simmering inter-communal disputes have erupted into bloodshed, with violence displacing 1.4 million people this year, the most globally, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The rise in violence contrasts sharply with the global praise for Ethiopia's young, reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has forged peace with neighboring Eritrea, vowed to overhaul state companies and reached out to dissidents at home. Analysts see no single cause for the killing that has stretched from the countryside to the capital and left scores of Ethiopians dead.

But they say Abiy, who inherited a vast, ethnically diverse nation used to the iron-fisted rule of his predecessors, has his work cut out for him as he seeks to impose his leadership without tipping into authoritarianism. "My belief is that is there will be no re-establishment of law and order without strong leadership," said long-time independent Ethiopia researcher Rene Lefort. He said the centralized decision-making behind the reforms has led to paralysis in the regions, creating fertile ground for discontent, violence and score-settling. Under Abiy, he said, "there is a deep power vacuum."

Regional tension

The 1995 constitution, written by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) after it unseated the Derg military junta in 1991, puts ethnicity front and centre. Africa's second-most populous country is partitioned into nine regions with borders that follow ethnic lines. The constitution is one of few in the world to allow not only self-governance, but the option of secession. The intention was to address demands for local empowerment that the Derg tried to stifle, said Zemelak Ayele, director of the Centre for Federalism and Governance Studies at Addis Ababa University. "It was necessary to create an institutional mechanism so that peoples' culture was respected," he said.

The EPRDF also pursued economic expansion, hoping that if Ethiopia's deep poverty lessened, ethnic identity would fall away in favour of national unity, Zemelak said. That has not happened and ethnicity remains pronounced despite the country's surging GDP. That is due to the tendency of the EPRDF, which many saw as dominated by the Tigrayan ethnic minority before Abiy's rise, to overrule the will of the regions and their peoples, Zemelak said. "They wanted to create this idea that every community is included," he said. "At the same time, they wanted to create a mechanism so that the regions wouldn't undermine the centre."

Setting an example

Abiy took office in April following more than two years of anti-government protests by his Oromo people and also the Amhara, Ethiopia's second biggest ethnicity. Both groups charged they had been marginalized by the EPRDF, and their uprisings led to hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands of arrests and the shock February resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

While the anti-government unrest dissipated after Abiy took power, ethnic fighting flared almost immediately, and has continued despite Abiy announcing popular reforms, including a reshuffle of security chiefs, while warning security forces against rights abuses. Nearly one million people have fled their homes in the coffee-growing south amid clashes between the Gedeo ethnic minority and the Oromos, while fighting in September between the Oromos and other ethnic groups in and around the capital Addis Ababa killed up to 65 people.

Many of the rivalries that fuelled the violence have simmered for decades, and analysts differ as to why they flared now. Awol Allo, an Ethiopian commentator who teaches law in Britain called the clashes "the boiling-over of frustrations" resulting from the EPRDF's absolute rule. But Harry Verhoeven of Georgetown University Qatar said the perception that demonstrations undermined Hailemariam sent a message that "violence pays". "One can't underestimate the power of example here," he said.

Power vacuum

The EPRDF has grown increasingly divided since the 2012 death of Meles Zenawi, a powerful prime minister known for forging consensus among the four parties that make up the governing coalition. "At this moment, it seems the central government is at its weakest point," Zemelak said. "The central government being weak means regions can do what they want." The violence risks tipping Abiy's administration back to authoritarianism, Awol warned.

"Governments usually become authoritarian when they're forced into situations. They make mistakes and then to cover-up for that mistake, they double down," he said, pointing to Meles, who was a strongman ruler, and his predecessor Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Derg's bloody dictator. "I hope, this time, both the opposition and the government will choose different paths," Awol said.- Agencies