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African Arguments: The Situation in Ethiopia is a Unique War and the African Union Has a Legal Duty to Silence the Guns

Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

Ethiopians seek refuge at the Sudan border

The onset of a shooting war between Ethiopia’s National Defense Force (ENDF) and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which began on 4 November 2020, was predictable. The surprise so far has been the reluctance of Ethiopia’s leadership under Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali, to accommodate appeals for de-escalation. On 25 November, the Prime Minister took to his twitter-feed to urge “the international community, to refrain from any acts of unwelcome or unlawful interference and respect the fundamental principles of non-intervention under international law.” In an appeal garnished with generous references to Charter of the United Nations, the Constitutive Act of the African Union and to case law of the International Court of Justice, the Prime Minister argued that “the measures we have taken against those who have taken up arms against the federation are in accordance with the spirit and objectives of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, which prohibits unconstitutional change of government and promotes democratic governance.”

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