Open Letter To Professor Patrick L. O. Lumumba: IGAD and AU Engaged in Fake Peace Deals In Ethiopia
By Dr. Yohannes Tadele
Dear Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, I am a concerned child of African origin from Ethiopia, writing to bring an important issue to your attention. First, I would like to congratulate you on being awarded the prestigious rank of Senior Counsel by President William Samoei Ruto of Kenya. I wish you continued success in your engagement for the well-being of the continent. As you are earnestly and fervently engaged in the affairs of our continent—particularly in relation to institutions such as the African Union (AU), The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa, and others—I believe that raising this matter with you may receive the serious attention and understanding it deserves. The issue concerns the manner in which the AU and IGAD have been manipulated by the Ethiopian ruling group (in image iv), which has systematically hijacked the state and is now actively destabilizing the country to the verge of collapse. Beyond Ethiopia, this destabilization, there is a pattern of ambitions to affect the neighboring peoples and countries, including Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, and Eritrea.
The gross failures of the AU and IGAD have been displayed in broad daylight. Many Ethiopians have openly ridiculed officials from these institutions, in the context of the events in the images (i), (iii) and (v). These incidents raise troubling questions: How unskilled and unprofessional can representatives of such continental institutions be? Who is behind these apparent dramas and scandals? Were these actions taken knowingly, or out of negligence? I respectfully ask whether you could investigate these matters in your own way. These questions require genuine engagement if institutions like the AU, IGAD and others are to be preserved and function meaningfully on our continent. We often hear you talking about unity. But how can unity be achieved when institutions meant to uphold African dignity and solidarity are performing below the standards of even street vendors?
The engagement of IGAD and AU officials in a fake peace deal
The immediate incident that caused me to write this letter is the engagement of IGAD and AU officials in a fake peace deal involving the Amhara regional administration’s puppet leader, Arega Kebede (1 in the image i and ii), the cousin of Temesgen Tiruneh (the Vice Prime Minister, 2 in image ii) and a former Fano figure named Maserati Sete (3 in the image i and ii), who is also a cousin of Arega Kebede. The fact is that Masresha was an insider from the beginning, working for the government. He has been an active and staunch partner of the government against the Tigray forces during the Tigray war. From the start he was embedded within the Fano forces to spy on them and if possible, to divide them. When he could no longer continue that role, and when his handlers assigned him a new task, he emerged claiming to be a Fano leader signing a peace deal with the government.
The entire context and this staged drama are well known to the Ethiopian people. This individual was not leading any armed force of the size he now claims right before surrendering. He shows up alone. The whole affair is a setup by the government. The most troubling part is seeing two officials from the AU and IGAD standing there—either foolishly unaware, lacking proper knowledge, or deliberately deceived by the state-capturing group led by the current Prime Minister. This is the same leader who received a Nobel Peace Prize yet has waged multiple wars in Tigray and Amhara over the past five years, resulting in the deaths of more than one and a half million people so far. Abiy Ahmed through the current leader of IGAD, Workneh Gebeyehu, part of the few OPDO gangs who hijacked the state, but who serves as the executive secretary, the organization’s chief executive and spokesperson, has managed to undermine the institution to lower-level activity.
This so-called peace deal will not materialize on the ground for several reasons:
(i) Masresha Sete was not leading any armed force at the time of his surrender.
(ii) He was a member of the Amhara Fano People’s Organization (AFPO), serving as Head of the Foreign Affairs Department and Commander-in-Chief of the Amhara Fano People’s Force, Gojjam Command. However, AFPO has no meaningful presence in Gojjam; its forces likely constitute less than 2% of the total Fano forces in the area.(iii) He had been banned from AFPO leadership and membership.
(iv) The Amhara Fano National Force (AFNF) is the dominant force in Gojjam, and the vast majority of Fano forces across the Amhara region are organized under AFNF. Any meaningful peace agreement that has nothing to do with AFNF is meaningless, just following the facts on the ground. Facts are stubborn. As a result, even after this staged peace agreement, clashes continued, with several confrontations in which hundreds of government forces were ambushed, wounded and surrendered through guerrilla fighting tactics in multiple locations. Just today, several hundred casualties of the army were reported in the Metema Gondar area.
General pattern of this government’s fake peace deal engagements
Dear Professor, as you know, one has to engage in sustainable peace agreement by considering several key principles and actions: inclusive participation, address root causes of conflict, commitment and political will, trust-building measures, clear and realistic agreements, strong implementation mechanisms, justice and reconciliation, and long-term support and development. Ethiopia is being led by incompetent people, and they failed several times to understand what a peace agreement is and what it takes to sustain it. Dear Professor, let me add evidence how the government undermines the peace process and uses it for its process.
(i) The dramatized peace agreement between the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the government. Negotiations were held in Tanzania between Ethiopia’s government and a rebel group OLA several times and it failed. Instead, the government went its own way and made a huge drama. They made a deal with one of the ‘leaders’ called Jaal Segni Negasa, accepted the government’s call for peace and signed the peace agreement with the Oromia Regional Government. He came with his forces to Addis Ababa. Now he is given some position in the Oromia region, but it is rumored that most of the forces have either gone back or been killed or imprisoned. While the main OLA leadership and forces are across the Oromia region still fighting with the government forces. So that peace was a fake one too. Just show up for the international community.
(ii) The Hijacking Pretoria agreement the Pretoria- Nairobi peace deal – making the peace deal irrelevant
The two-year war in Tigray culminated in a peace agreement in Pretoria, which silenced the guns in Tigray—an outcome that is good for the Tigray people, at least for the moment. However, the process was not inclusive. The parties to the agreement were the Tigray-based TPLF leadership and the new Oromo ethnic-based ruling group in the country. They deliberately avoided including other major forces involved in the conflict, such as the Afar and Amhara special forces, not to mention the Eritrean forces, which were invited into the war by the federal government itself. This peace deal is on the verge of collapse. The government and the forces in Tigray have effectively returned to their prewar positions. War could break out at any time. The implementation of the so-called peace agreement was aborted by Abiy Ahmed, who hijacked the peace process in a way that suited his own interests. He has now managed to co-opt Getachew Reda and General Tsadkan, who signed the agreement on behalf of the TPLF, and has drawn them to his side. At present, he is engaged in active prewar preparations. As you know, Professor Lumumba, the African Union was deeply involved in this peace process and must be held accountable for this failure.
The government uses peace deal as a strategy to survive
In fact, the government used the Pretoria peace agreement as a launching pad to start a new war in the Amhara region, which has entered its third year. This is due to the inferiority complex coined in the life of these state hijackers, as they are not a competent group of people, who does not represent the vast majority peaceful Oromo people, but they claim and profess that they are from Oromo and they are building the Cushitic empire. Of course, Professor, as you might guess, foreign forces are supporting them —not only the usual ones that dominate the world, but also new players such as the UAE, which seeks to control many aspects of life in Africa. This is one reason why this deadly war is not being properly reported. The silence and their choice to look the other way regarding genocidal acts speak volumes about those forces’ involvement in this tragedy.
Every day, the government uses drones against civilians, as the Fano resistance enjoys broad popular support among the more than 30 million people in the Amhara region. Abiy is not governing most of the region—over 80 percent, according to reports. He is present only in major cities, operating from command posts. This means the region is under a military command-based form of governance, sustained largely by the people’s consciousness, strong self-regulation, and God-fearing way of life. Otherwise, the situation could have been far worse. Abiy has exploited this situation to his advantage, even as he loses tens of thousands of soldiers in a single year. He has decided to recruit one million youths each year in order to stay in power. How long this can be sustained remains to be seen. However, it appears inevitable that he will fall in the near future.
Professor, this letter is to inform you that it is time to speak out against this incompetent leader, who is working daily to destroy the country and destabilize the entire region. As I mentioned, the purpose of this letter is to show that even the widely known Pretoria-Nairobi peace agreement has been used to launch other wars. The AU and IGAD participate in these peace agreements but have no real control; they do not oversee or enforce their implementation. It is no wonder that, as I write this, we have heard news that Eritrea has withdrawn from IGAD. To be honest, let alone IGAD, the AU has become a largely ineffective organization for Africans. It needs to be revitalized. As world powers continue to struggle for dominance and control, it is time for Africans to have a genuine conversation and stop engaging in such fake and shameful agreements, as evidenced by the three examples mentioned above.
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
__
Support Borkena : https://borkena.com/subscribe-borkena/
Join our Telegram Channel : t.me/borkena
Like borkena on Facebook
Borkena Ethiopian News Youtube Channel
To submit Press Release, send submission to info@borkena.com
Add your business to Ethiopian Business Listing / Ethiopian Business Directory
Join the conversation. Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter) @zborkena to get the latest Ethiopian News updates regularly.