Faced with the advance of the rebels, the evacuations of French people are accelerating

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Tuesday, November 23, France asked its nationals to leave “without delay“; more than 200 people packed and left Addis Ababa on commercial flights, where seats had been reserved and paid for by the foreign ministry.
But that was insufficient to evacuate the approximately 1,000 French present in the country. A charter flight was therefore urgently chartered that night, to bring everyone back to Paris.

Authorities cannot guarantee that another flight will take place before the rebels arrive in Addis Ababa.

If the evacuations are accelerating, it is because the fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (name of a northern province that wants to secede), at war for over a year against government forces, have made a dazzling breakthrough in recent days. They would be less than 200 kilometers from the capital.

France is not the only one, the other countries also evacuate their nationals: Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States especially, which has 30,000 people on the spot. They are the ones who set the pace. They began the evacuations and deployed on the nearby Djibouti base about fifteen jumbo jets who were on standby.

In Israel, the government gave the green light on Sunday November 28 for the departure of 3,000 Ethiopians whose relatives live in Israel. Announcement welcomed by the Minister of Immigration, herself of Ethiopian origin. On the other hand, China, which is very established in the country with about 15,000 nationals, has so far given no instructions. We are not yet in a scenario similar to what happened in Afghanistan this summer, when the Taliban took Kabul by surprise and Western countries evacuated their nationals in general panic.

But the situation is very tense, especially vis-à-vis expatriates. Pro-government protesters gathered outside the US and UK embassies last week, accusing the two countries of disinformation, accusing them of deliberately causing panic by leaving the country.

It is forbidden today to give an account of the conflict apart from the official word. And the official word is that of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, ex-Nobel Peace Prize 2019 converted into warlord.

Friday, November 26, four days after promising to go to the front himself, he shows up in the field, in the Afar region, in camouflage uniform and sunglasses, radio in hand. On television footage from the Oromo region (his native region), he is seen leading a section that inspects the bush. Face camera, Abiy Ahmed ensures the communication operation: the advance of the Tigray rebels, he says, is exaggerated. “We are confident we will win. The people are behind us“.

The announcement this week of his departure to the front lines to carry out military operations in particular drew support from artists and athletes, including legendary marathoner Haile Gebreselassie, who took part in a ceremony in Addis Ababa on Saturday. “You are completely destroying the enemy, there is no turning back without victory“Mr. Abiy told the military, in a 34-minute video posted on Twitter by the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday.”We will win, the enemy is dispersed. (…) Until we destroy it there will be no rest“.

The power as a whole continues to denounce sensationalist media coverage, even as journalists and NGOs are unwanted in the country and communications on the combat zones are cut. This civil war which extends beyond the region of Tigray and which has precipitated several hundred thousand people into famine is a war without images.

Diplomats are also targeted: at the end of September, seven UN officials were expelled for “interference“alleged in the country’s affairs. Last week it was the turn of four Irish diplomats, only because their country had given its support to the UN Security Council’s call for a ceasefire.

In recent weeks, diplomatic efforts by the international community have intensified in an attempt to reach an agreement. The African Union envoy for the Horn of Africa and his American counterpart have once again visited Ethiopia. “Without a political solution“, warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the ethnic mosaic of 110 million inhabitants that is Ethiopia is in danger of becoming established”to implode“.


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