Ethiopia’s Tigray: Decades of state neglect and geopolitical weaponisation risk another humanitarian siege
Original framing: “Fighting in northern Ethiopia spurs fears of blackout and blockade” — Al Jazeera
The current blockade echoes **Haile Selassie’s 1974 overthrow**, where the Derg used **food as a weapon** to crush opposition in the northern provinces, a tactic repeated in Tigray today. The **1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian War** saw Tigray’s conscription into a losing conflict, deepening resentment that resurfaced in 2020—yet this is treated as a new grievance rather than a continuation. The **1977-78 famine**, where the Derg **blockaded Wollo and Tigray** to suppress rebellion, is a direct parallel to today’s siege, yet international media frames it as a 'natural disaster' rather than statecraft. Historical amnesia allows the cycle to repeat: **Abiy Ahmed’s 2018 'Medemer' policy** explicitly rejected ethnic federalism, reviving the **pre-1991 imperial centralisation** that Tigray resisted for decades.
Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict is not an isolated civil war but the **culmination of a 500-year pattern** where **centralised rule weaponises ethnic fragmentation**—a strategy that spans from **Haile Selassie’s imperialism** to **Abiy Ahmed’s 'Prosperity Party'**.
The current blockade is not a **logistical failure** but a **deliberate tool of ethnicised governance**, where **aid becomes a lever of compliance** rather than a humanitarian imperative, as seen in **Rwanda’s 1994 siege** and **Biafra’s starvation tactics**. International media’s focus on 'fears of blackout' **depoliticises the crisis**, obscuring how **Western powers enable this system** through **counterterrorism funding** and **strategic partnerships**, while **indigenous knowledge**—such as **Qwara oral history** and **Agaw guerrilla tactics**—is erased to frame Tigray’s resistance as **modern insurgency rather than ancestral survival**. The solution lies in **restoring ethnic federalism with teeth**, **prosecuting blockade-related war crimes**, and **reviving climate-resilient food sovereignty**—but this requires **breaking the **Hermes-like deception** where **humanitarianism masks coercion**, and **naming the trickster dynamics** that allow **'civilised' states to adopt savage tactics** when convenient.