Ethiopia's Tigray rebels accuse African Union of bias

Northern group rejects bloc's appointment of former Nigerian president as mediator to end conflict

A fighter of the Tigray People's Liberation Front guards a post outside the town of Hawzen in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray. AP Photo

Rebels from Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region on Sunday accused the African Union of bias, days after the bloc appointed former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo as a mediator in a months-long conflict.

Tigray People's Liberation Front spokesman Getachew Reda accused the AU of “partiality” towards the Ethiopian government and said it would be “naive to expect this mission to work".

Northern Ethiopia has been wracked by violence since November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the regional ruling party, saying the move was a response to attacks on army camps.

He promised a swift victory but the war has dragged on for months, triggering a humanitarian crisis in Tigray, while the rebels have pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.

Mr Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, rejected appeals from the AU to hold talks with Tigrayan leaders, saying the conflict was a limited “law and order” operation.

The AU announced Mr Obasanjo's appointment as a high representative for the Horn of Africa on Thursday, saying it was part of a “drive to promote peace, security, stability and political dialogue".

But on Sunday, Mr Getachew dismissed the initiative, saying: “We are hard pressed to know ... how people would reasonably expect a constructive role from an institution that has given partiality a very bad name.”

“Solving a crisis at the very least requires acknowledging the existence, let alone the magnitude, of the problem,” he wrote on Twitter.

The war has proved to be a sensitive subject for the AU, which has its headquarters in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Although the US has been openly critical of Mr Abiy's handling of the war, African members of the UN Security Council have backed Ethiopia in opposing formal discussion of the situation in Tigray at the world body.

According to the members, whose stance is backed by Russia and China, the conflict is Ethiopia's internal affair and any international efforts should go through African leaders or via the AU.

As the conflict has deepened, the humanitarian toll has risen.

The UN says aid workers are struggling to reach cut-off populations and 400,000 people facing famine-like conditions in Tigray.

Mr Obasanjo previously headed the AU's election observer mission during Ethiopia's polls last June, which Mr Abiy won in a landslide.

But a fifth of the country's constituencies, including in Tigray, were unable to vote because of ethnic violence and logistical problems.