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1. RELIGION, ETHNICITY, AND CHARGES OF EXTREMISM: THE DYNAMICS OF INTER-COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN ETHIOPIA

Author:
Terje Østebø, Jörg Haustein, Fasika Gedif, Muhammad Jemal Kadir, Kedir Jemal, and Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Institute of Peace (EIP)
Abstract:
In recent months, the conflict in Tigray has dominated most analyses of Ethiopian politics. The scale of that crisis makes this understandable, but it remains important to keep analysing the inter-communal tensions and conflicts lines that had already emerged all over the country before the fighting in Tigray and continue to persist in parallel. This report addresses in particular the question of religiously motivated violence and its relationship with ethnic conflict. It analyses in detail two specific instances of inter-communal conflict that occurred in Mota (Amhara region) in December 2019 and in Shashemene (Oromia region) in July 2020. Both incidents might be seen as archetypical cases for inter-communal tensions and conflict motivated by religious (Mota) and ethnic (Shashemene) difference. Yet as the report will go on to show, these two aspects of collective identity formation are not clearly separate in Ethiopia but overlap and interact with one another in complex ways. This renders moot all mono-dimensional analyses of inter-communal conflict in Ethiopia, especially as different narratives compete in the interpretation of violence and its causes. Socio-economic variables undoubtedly play a role in defining the wider context, but the formation of communities, the genesis of conflict, and the circulation of interpretative narratives typically rest on references to ethnicity and religion. Given the current emphasis on ethnicity in Ethiopian politics, the role of religious affiliation is often overlooked, yet it is here that the accusation of “extremism” is most frequently and most consequentially raised. The report engages critically with such accusations and the corollary notion of rising religious extremism in Ethiopia. It will show, moreover, how the mere expectation or accusation of extremism has sufficed to generate inter-communal violence and deepened a climate of mistrust.
Topic:
Race, Violent Extremism, Ethnicity, Violence, and Countering Violent Extremism
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

2. Inter-Communal Tensions, Violence and Conflicts in the Time of a Pandemic in Ethiopia

Author:
Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye, Fasika Gedif, Kedir Jemal, and Meseret Asefa
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Institute of Peace (EIP)
Abstract:
The ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia−in the Tigray region and adjacent Amhara and Afar zones−has controlled the last twelve months discussions and analyses of Ethiopian politics. The magnitude of the conflict, associated humanitarian crisis, and the news about the crisis (sometimes with deliberate circulations of misinformation) have made this the most significant political challenge of the nation since the 1998 Ethio-Eritrea war. However, recent political developments in Ethiopia feed into each other, and it remains imperative to keep examining continued inter-communal tensions, violence and conflicts in Ethiopia and analysing the ramification of the Covid-19 pandemic on outstanding and novel inter-communal tensions and conflicts in the country. As this report shows, political developments are, directly or indirectly, linked with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has escalated hitherto mostly localised inter-communal tensions and fueled armed conflicts in Ethiopia. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Ethiopia’s political situation and inter-communal tensions, violence, and extremism. By taking cases from the Metekel zone in Benishangul-Gumuz region, from the central and west Gondar zone (largely the Chilga district) in the Amhara region, and the east Hararghe zone in the Oromia region, this report discusses what occurred during incidents since the onset of the pandemic, how sources attribute the causes of these incidents, and how the narratives of sources, directly or indirectly, implicate the pandemic in triggering or aggravating these incidents.
Topic:
Conflict, Violence, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Communal Areas
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia