The Russian assault on Ukraine is pushing other global conflicts into the shadows, but the latter keep festering nonetheless. Some of these will also have important geostrategic consequences. One of them is the still ongoing armed conflict in Ethiopia, initiated by the TPLF (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front) with a massive and unprovoked attack the night of November 3, 2020. The United States has not played an enlightening role in the conflict, as it primarily blamed the federal government for the violence…
Politically, U.S. efforts over the past year and a half have been even marked by undue interference and sanctimoniousness. U.S. policy circles have not demonstrated honest understanding of the war, of its context, and of the means to help end it. The State Department as well as USAID (which is self-admittedly an arm of U.S. foreign policy) have rarely sided with Ethiopian government efforts to bring this conflict to an end and seem to have condoned the TPLF—incorrectly equating it with the Tigrayan people.
