How America's shredding of international law enabled the Tigray crisis - Yahoo News
The Tigray region in Ethiopia is suffering the worst famine in the world, and conditions look likely to deteriorate even further soon. Many hundreds of thousands of people are starving — how many is not clear exactly, because the government has refused all access to the province to international monitors.
At a time when a robust international system to adjudicate disputes could not be more necessary or useful, the one we have is in tatters thanks to 20 years of American war. It's an important lesson in the value and fragility of international institutions.
First, let me summarize some background on the Tigray famine. As this Associated Press report explains, it is rooted in a conflict between Tigrayans (who make up about 6 percent of the Ethiopian population) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Tigrayans had dominated the national government for about 30 years after they led an effort to overthrow the Derg regime, and were none too pleased when Ahmed (from the Oromo ethnic group) was elected in 2018. When Tigrayans went ahead with local elections in September 2020 that Ahmed had ordered delayed because of the pandemic, tensions boiled over. It all ended with government troops occupying Tigray along with Eritrean forces, and Ahmed imposing a total communications blackout and blockade on the province. Now international aid organizations cannot deliver food or canvass the population to see how people are doing.
It appears that Ahmed is trying to crush the Tigrayans into submission through starvation, mass rape, and mass murder, and prevent the world from being able to see what is happening. Both sides have been accused of atrocities, but credible reporting has found that Tigrayans have suffered worst, mostly at the hands of Eritrean troops.
Situations like these are supposed to be within the remit of the United Nations. The fact that Eritrea is involved in the conflict makes this an international dispute, and Articles 41 and 42 detail how the U.N. Security Council can levy sanctions or use armed force against nations that commit a "breach of the peace, or act of aggression[.]" Diplomatic pressure, an arms embargo, and other moderate threats would likely cause Ahmed and Eritrea to back down, if not avoid the conflict in the first place.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/americas-shredding-international-law-enabled-093708777.html
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