Media Blame Failed Ethiopia Coup on the Country’s Ethnic Divisions

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An attempt­ed coup in Ethiopia on June 22 con­tin­ues to make head­line news

Con­fu­sion remains fol­low­ing what media around the world have described as an attempt to seize pow­er in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, as well as in the country’s cap­i­tal, Addis Aba­ba on Sat­ur­day, June 22. It is still a con­fus­ing sit­u­a­tion as many peo­ple have been dis­placed by mil­i­tary activ­i­ty and arrests con­tin­ue in a gov­ern­ment effort to quell tensions.

News sto­ries from the fol­low­ing online pub­li­ca­tions; Al Jazeera, the British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC), the British Tele­graph, Reuters News Agency, as well as The New York Times, all point to eth­nic ten­sions as a fac­tor in the attempt to seize pow­er in Ethiopia.

Accord­ing to Al Jazeera online, “Ethiopi­ans have been in shock since two sep­a­rate attacks on Sat­ur­day in Amhara’s region­al cap­i­tal of Bahir Dar and Addis Aba­ba killed the region’s pres­i­dent, the nation­al army chief of staff and sev­er­al oth­er senior officials.”

The gov­ern­ment of Prime Min­is­ter Abiy Ahmed cast respon­si­bil­i­ty for the insur­rec­tion on for­mer army Gen­er­al Tsige Asam­new. He was killed two days lat­er by secu­ri­ty forces. Asam­new had been released from prison in an amnesty after Ahmed became Prime Min­is­ter in April 2018. Asam­new was sub­se­quent­ly hired as region­al secu­ri­ty chief in September.

Prime Min­is­ter Ahmed, 43, who became the coun­try’s leader fol­low­ing the res­ig­na­tion of Hail­mari­am Desalegn, has been under­tak­ing reforms, which ana­lysts say may have angered some of the country’s eth­nic groups.

In this analy­sis of the sit­u­a­tion, the BBC’s Africa Edi­tor, Fer­gan Keane, writ­ing online states that ris­ing eth­nic ten­sions may be to blame for the desta­bi­liz­ing events. While he was seen as a reformer, and even tout­ed his own achieve­ments, accord­ing to the BBC sto­ry, the cul­mi­na­tion of eth­nic ten­sions, years in the mak­ing, boiled over.

“Now after an alleged coup attempt against the Amhara region­al gov­ern­ment which killed his army chief of staff and close ally, Gen­er­al Seare Mekon­nen, Mr Abiy’s posi­tion and the future of his reforms look much less secure.”

Keane con­tin­ues, “The alleged insti­ga­tor of the coup was shot dead and a wave of arrests fol­lowed. But nobody with any knowl­edge of Ethiopia believes this is the end of the matter.”

It may not be the end of the sto­ry after the coup was foiled, mean­ing, with eth­nic rival­ry still a fac­tor in the coun­try, chal­lenges to the lead­er­ship in Ethiopia may return in full force.

Elias Gebre­sel­lasie of Al Jazeera writes, “Despite the appar­ent fail­ure of the coup attempt, ana­lysts say Abiy’s gov­ern­ment will like­ly find it dif­fi­cult to con­trol eth­nona­tion­al forces in the coun­try ahead of nation­al elec­tions next year.”

He says “More than 250 peo­ple in Amhara and Addis Aba­ba held over sus­pect­ed links to recent failed pow­er-grab attempt.”

On June 30 the British Tele­graph mean­while sees what is tak­ing place as a Balkan-style eth­nic con­fla­gra­tion that may unrav­el and desta­bi­lize the coun­try. The publication’s Africa cor­re­spon­dent, Adri­an Blom­field issues a “Warn­ings over ‘Africa’s Yugoslavia’ as Ethiopia coup attempt height­ens the risk of vio­lent Balkan-style split”

In this Reuters report, pub­lished by The New York Times on June 24, the pub­li­ca­tion, like many oth­ers, sees eth­nic divi­sions as a big fac­tor in the country’s politics:

“He has won wide­spread inter­na­tion­al praise for his efforts, but his shake-ups of the mil­i­tary and intel­li­gence ser­vices have earned him pow­er­ful ene­mies. At the same time, his gov­ern­ment is strug­gling to con­tain pow­er­ful fig­ures in Ethiopia’s myr­i­ad eth­nic groups who are fight­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and each oth­er for greater influ­ence and resources.”