At the beginning of his first trip outside Europe in almost a year, ÖVP Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg warned against the worsening humanitarian situation in Ethiopia.
The East African country has experienced a „tsunami of crises“ – Covid-19, droughts, plagues of locusts, floods – and the conflict in Tigray in particular could trigger a „devastating domino effect“ in the entire region, said Schallenberg in Addis Ababa.
The trip to Ethiopia, which has been a priority country for Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) for almost 30 years, is therefore “no coincidence”, he said. So far, the country with around 110 million inhabitants and its over 80 different ethnic groups has been an anchor of stability in the otherwise rather unstable Horn of Africa.
Earthquakes „beyond national borders“ possible
In November, however, the conflict between the central government and the People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the northern region of Tigray escalated with a military operation by government troops and fueled international concerns about a spread to other regions of Ethiopia and its neighboring countries.
In Ethiopia, ethnic fault lines would run across the country. As with tectonic plates, a jolt at one point could trigger an earthquake elsewhere – “even beyond national borders”, said Schallenberg.
The conflict in Tigray led to a dramatic deterioration in the humanitarian situation: According to the latest surveys, around 4.5 million – almost the entire population of Tigray – are acutely dependent on food aid and millions have been displaced. Austria will therefore support Ethiopia with an additional three million euros from the Foreign Disaster Fund (AKF).
In the long term, however, the Austrian chief diplomat sees the solution only in dialogue; the Federal Government also wants to support this, for example by working with the Ethiopian Commission for Reconciliation and training mediators at the Schlaining Castle. „If you always focus on the hurts and wounds of the past, you won’t be able to build a future here,“ said Schallenberg.
