10/12/2021
How Ethiopia is fighting an African War against the Neo-Colonialism
— December 9, 2021 comments off
Currently, Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia, both at home and abroad are loudly condemning the ill- advised and unjust interference of the US and some Western countries in the Ethiopian domestic affairs. The scope of the campaign is expanding indefinitely in Ethiopia and spreading to various African countries. Accordingly, the # No More Movement which can be the most trending campaign is spreading across the continent. This paper scrutinizes how Ethiopia is fighting the external intervention and this particular case can be widely taken as the African war against the emerging threat of Neo- colonialism in Africa.
Track records of the Western led meddling in Africa
Following the establishment of the unipolar political arrangement, the Western world mainly led by the US has intervened in various countries under the aim of expanding the liberal international order through like-minded regimes. This project was imposed either through direct military intervention or humanitarian assistance. Though African countries have been liberated from colonial rule, they are still being heavily influenced by the emerging form of neo- colonialism. This influence is attributed to the creation of a patron government, control of economic resources and political pressure. As a result, many countries have lost their full-fledged independence. The West, led by the US, has played a destructive role in meddling in the internal affairs of various African countries. Although the pretext is the promotion of democracy, humanitarian aid and so on, there are clear indications that the main goal is to promote the sole interest of creating client regimes in Africa.
The first failed attempt of the US in Africa was occurred in Somalia. In October 1993, the US forces faced dreadful confrontation from the Somalia warlords and 18 US soldiers were killed in the capital Mogadishu. The military intervention didn’t achieve its mission and exacerbated the security situation even worse than before. The country failed in the hands of various clan leaders and the situation created the increasing proliferation of Islamic militant groups in the country as well as in the Horn of African region. Since the time of the US withdrawal in 1995, Somalia continued to be safe haven for fundamentalist groups and center of proxy war in the region.
Moreover, the ex- colonial powers mainly French and British exerted larger pressure and interference in different African countries. This heavy dominance created deep resentment in most of the Western and central part of Africa. Particularly, citizens in this part of Africa are beginning to say that they are still under pressure from ex- colonial powers and their right should be respected. Besides, there have been long- established protests to gain economic independence and the rights to use natural resources.
The third illustration is during the Arab Spring, the Western led intervention mainly via the forces of NATO was intervened in overthrowing the Gaddafi led government in Libya. However, this direct military intervention turned the country into stateless situation. The former US President Barack Obama has confessed that the failure of preparing for the aftermath of the ousting of Libyan leader Gaddafi was the worst mistake of his presidency.
Therefore, all the above illustrations indicated that the Western led intervention has adverse impacts in African context. The situation created lesser accountability of the governments to their people, creation of larger dependency on aid and economic exploitation. As a result, a new movement against neo- colonialism was launched around the continent. Therefore, it is a historic moment to discuss the issue among the African elites and establish how the current movement in Ethiopia can reflect the emerging African demands in fighting the Western led meddling in the Africa.
Ethiopia’s position in the fight against aggression and external interference
Ethiopia is a symbol of African unity. This statement has historical and political justifications. The major historical evidence for this is the Ethiopia’s heroic victory over White supremacists and colonialists in the 19th century. As a result, Ethiopia is seen as a unifying symbol in the struggle of black people for freedom and equality. It is a clear fact that black movement activists and political leaders such as Marx Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah and others have repeatedly affirmed the legacy of Ethiopia in the fight against colonialism. This incredible historical incident served as the moral capacity to unify other black people.
In the current global setting, Ethiopians are reviving the struggle against a new form of colonialism which expressed by the Western led intervention in terms of imposing a client governments states in various countries. This struggle that Ethiopia has been waging is taking on a new spirit and inspiration.
As a second populous country in Africa, the hub of various continental and international organizations, its historical significance, for most of the Super powers and emerging powers Ethiopia is considered as the ideal gateway to Africa. Besides, as a host of the African Union (AU), Ethiopia comparatively has a diplomatic channel to portray the African interests. It is due to these reasons that Ethiopians boldly rejected the increasing interference of the Western powers and rallying against the ill- disposed intervention. Therefore, in many parts of the world, in addition to Ethiopians many Africans, and to some extent other Westerners who support the cause of the struggle, have publicly condemned the misguided policies of the West.
Illustrations of the foreign interference in Ethiopia
Nowadays, the nature and dynamics of colonial interests remerged as the geo- political interests to control African resources and political dominance. In order to achieve this goal, the Western governments seek to impose client states. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ethiopia, the US and some of the Western countries are following in misguided and biased policy direction. The fundamental failure of the West concerning the ongoing conflict is deliberate misconception of the root of the problem and the inability to grasp why Ethiopia is in a conflict. This is a war against the terrorist group within Ethiopia, not a war between two legitimate entities. The earlier failed attempts of Western countries led by the US particularly in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria have failed due to lack of understanding the root cause and basic realities of each country.
In the same fashion, Ethiopia became wrongly portrayed by the Western world and became target of the misguided policy of interference. Accordingly, the US imposed repeated economic sanctions. The unilateral imposition of sanctions on Ethiopia is unjustified for a number of reasons.
Above all, treating the legitimate government of Ethiopia with the rebel group, disregard of the basic responsibility of the Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia to safeguard national unity and security of its own people from aggression, its unilateral nature, its direct target to the people, rather than supporting the peace making process it impedes any peace initiatives, and ultimately, the sanction used as a threat rather than compromised diplomacy. As part of economic sanctions the US government decided to stop the AGOWA which privileged developing countries to get benefit from tariff free export trade with US. Though, the US government said its target is to influence the political leadership, the public became the major target of the economic sanctions in opposition to the statement of targeting leaders of the government and opposition group. Such economic sanctions directly affect hundreds of thousands of citizens, but the US has imposed it based on miscalculated policy directions.
The other sanction as part of targeting the political leadership is travel restrictions imposed on September 2021 against the former and current leadership of Ethiopian government as well as the TPLF leaders. However, imposing travel restrictions on a legally imposed government hampered the legitimacy of the government rather than facilitating the peace process.
Though the world is at the time when there are various global security agendas, but the UN Security Council has discussed Ethiopian internal affairs more than 11 times within a year. Instead of ending the conflict, the talks focused on giving international content and even greater recognition to the terrorist group. There were also calls for sanctions against the legitimate and sovereign government. Prior to the Security Council meeting, global media outlets such as CNN reported on the fabrication of the news, and later some member states took a position based on biased media reports.
Misguided media campaigns as instrument of regime change in Ethiopia
Since the outbreak of the conflict, various international medias are playing detrimental role either in the form spreading fake news, misinforming the global community, serving the interest of the rebel groups or they are deliberately focused on defamation of the Ethiopian legitimate government. The following illustrations showed that the misguided media narratives showed how Ethiopia is misperceived in the international community and fighting the African war besides the ongoing domestic conflict.
The intentionally approach of some of the giant media was showing sympathy to the rebel groups. The typical illustration is the Reuters displayed the picture of child soldiers of the TPLF to show determination in the conflict. Moreover, the most inhumane war crime committed by the rebel groups have been deliberately denied media coverage. Instead of reporting the plain facts, there has been a lot of pressure to make repeated allegations against the government based on false information. In this regard, Sudanese born CNN journalist, Nima Elbagir received information directly from TPLF sources without cross checking them and even acting as a mouthpiece of the rebel group.
Under the aim of weakening the country’s economic resources the CNN focused on tarnishing the image of Ethiopian Airlines, which is becoming a hallmark of Africa.
The other deliberate media campaign against Ethiopia is the integrated message for expats to leave the country. Particularly, the US embassy in Addis Ababa repetitively warned its citizens to leave Ethiopia despite most of them are reluctant to leave. In addition, the British, French, and other countries agitate their citizens to follow the instruction. While these countries spread such kinds of warnings, Russian, Chinese, Indian and most of the countries do not follow the similar fashion. The conspiracy behind the campaign of leaving Addis Ababa under the false narrative of the international media is to create further threat and create pressure against the legitimate government. These countries were threating to evacuate their citizens, knowing that the Federal government forces were liberating several cities from the terrorist group. Besides, Media outlets such as France 24 also deliberately reported that the OLF was about to enter Addis Ababa while most of the rebel forces were defeated by the Federal led forces in Amhara and Afar regions.
Moreover, one of the intentional stories of the giant media was magnifying the advancement of the rebel groups while intentionally ignoring the governments’ move towards defeating their move. Western media have repeatedly covered the small advancement of the rebel groups while they intentionally neglect the victories of the government forces, when a large number of people, both inside and in the diaspora, protest the foreign intervention, they either ignore it or misreported the demonstrations. Media outlets such as Reuters provided live coverage of the meeting of some individuals in the Diaspora who were trying to overthrow the government.
In addition to the giant media, some of the social media outlets also played a negative role in this conflict. Twitter company seeks to suppress the voices of the # No More Movement and regrettably decided to block some well-known accounts of the leaders. This clearly indicates that the West can go so far as to suppress the voices instead of respecting the freedom of expression. In addition, companies such as YouTube, which have a strong following in Ethiopia and focus on national unity and are fighting the TPLF terrorist group, have also been shut down. Under the guise of fighting hate speech, Facebook company distorted government officials wording tough there message is legally based on the law enforcement operation and they used the misinterpreted words for further media reporting. Ironically, these companies have deliberately ignored the most dangerous rhetoric used by the leaders of the terrorist group. Generally, these all misguided media approaches have focused on arm-twisting the legitimate government and imposed on their interests.
How will today’s Ethiopia be tomorrow’s Africa?
The above mentioned ill- advised approach of the Western intervention can be an African case in various ways. This is a proxy war against the people who have moral cause in protecting themselves from aggression. Besides, today’s Ethiopian’s struggle is the need for establishing a regime that can represent their own will and aspirations.
They are fighting the neo- colonial interests to safeguard their national unity and integrity. Thus, today’s Ethiopia could be tomorrow’s African reality. Following the # No More campaign emerged from Ethiopia; other African countries mainly from the Western Africa such as Niger, Mali, Guinea and other are marching against the foreign interference.
Besides, various social media influencers have begun to share the voices of Ethiopia and taking their part in the anti- interference campaign. Such kinds of alliances would enhance the pan- African sentiments and the culture of mutual interdependence for the African shared interest. In Niger the French dominance is high and killed 2 people and injured 18. Niger as the fourth largest producer of uranium, most of the Uranium companies are owned by the French companies. Tough French is the dominant investor in this industry; the people faced severe problems such as the 89 percent of the Niger do not have access of electricity. In the name of democracy and provision of humanitarian aid the US and some of the Western allies focused on a regime change agenda in various countries in the continent.
Furthermore, in many African countries, there are compelling reasons to fight the newly emerging neo- colonial interests in a collective manner. Now more than ever, it is time for Africans to unite against the misguided Western intervention. Standing on the truths of Ethiopia today is also a matter of fighting the interference that may come tomorrow in each African country.
There are many implications for African countries to join the anti- Neo- colonialism struggle. The main advantage is that the emerging demands are being heard collectively to form common agendas. It strengthens mutual cooperation; it helps Africa to see its own interests in the face of the current global power struggle. Besides, it will help the global powers to adjust their misconceptions about Africa and the developing economies.
The need for creating African narratives and enhancing shared interests
Since the colonial independence period, Africa has not developed its own institutional leverage to represent shared interests. There is no viable instrument to foster the African reality at the global stage. To represent the African perspective, the continent needs its own institutional arrangement. The Western dominated media mainly narrate the conflicting narratives rather than telling the African all- sided realities. Therefore, to foster the collectivist approach, Africa needs its own institutional leverage.
What to do?
To strengthen the struggle against neo- colonialism, the African Union should stand together with the people of Ethiopia and support the voices of the oppressed people. The African elites should join the movement. The hybrid warfare against Ethiopia today has repercussions in different parts of the continent in the future. The pressure on Ethiopia today has already been felt in many countries before. Some countries have been changed to rubble by foreign intervention. Now is the critical time for all African elites and political leaders to stand together to prevent this new form of colonialism from happening again. Therefore, continental institutions such as the AU and other sub- regional institutions should work together in a spirit of cooperation and paly and coordinated role in solving African problems in an African spirit. The role and importance of such institutions will be meaningless if they do not focus on representing African voices.
Generally, the unjustified pressure on Ethiopia is a clear indication of Neo- colonial interests in Africa. The failed meddling records in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan could not be repeated in the Ethiopia case. It is a mystery that Ethiopia’s legitimate and constitutional struggle to bring rebel groups into the political arena has invited foreign intervention. With the help of the spirit of internal national unity that has just begun, Ethiopia will continue to be a resilient African model for the West after the country subdue and bring the militants to justice. It will also be taught that a government in Ethiopia can never be externally imposed and that a legitimate government should only be formed on the basis of the free will of Ethiopians. Above all, it will be a historic moment when Ethiopian’s anti- neo- colonialism struggle will be witnessed again.
Editor’s Note: Biruk Kedir is a PhD Candidate at School of International Relations, University of International Business and Economics.
BY BIRUK KEDIR
Source THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD DECEMBER 9/2021
