The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, expressed this Monday his concern about the recent "deterioration" of security in Ethiopia and the creation of the Coalition for the Survival of Ethiopian Popular Forces (CSFPE). This platform, formed by seven political organizations, some of them with armed wings, seeks to remove from power the Prosperity Party of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and establish a broad transitional government.
Its spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, declared from New York that "we are deeply concerned about the deterioration of the security situation and the recent events in Ethiopia, including the formation of a new coalition of armed groups and reports of the persistence of insecurity and drone attacks."
Guterres has urged "all parties" to avoid actions and statements "that could further aggravate the situation" in a scenario marked by "growing tensions" in the country and the region.
The Secretary-General has also called on Ethiopian political actors to "renew their commitment to dialogue," insisting that "military action will not resolve political differences nor address the underlying causes of discontent." He has also reiterated the UN's support for the work of the African Union to "promote the implementation of the Pretoria Agreement" (South Africa), signed four years ago.
These statements come a day after the Amhara National Movement Fano, the Oromo Liberation Army, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Afar National Unity Front, the Benishangul Popular Liberation Movement, and the Gumuz People's Democratic Movement announced the creation of the CSFPE. The new alliance sets as its immediate goal the "expulsion" of the current Executive and the establishment of an interim and inclusive transitional government, regulated by a Transitional Charter aimed at "ending armed conflicts and addressing the security, humanitarian, social, and economic crises" that Ethiopia is experiencing.
The Coalition for Survival blames the Government for not acting in the face of widespread insecurity, armed confrontations, the mass displacement of population, the increase in poverty, and the deterioration of democratic rights and human rights. It accuses the prime minister of leading a "personalist and genocidal dictatorial regime" that has brought to the country "war, genocide, and destruction" and warns of a possible "total disintegration" of the State.
In July, the Executive declared the peace agreement signed in 2022 in Pretoria with the TPLF to be broken, which meant the resumption of a conflict that, between 2020 and 2022, left between 100,000 and 600,000 deceased, according to different estimates.
After the Pretoria pact, Tigray was under a provisional government accepted by the federal authorities until the return of the TPLF to regional leadership at the beginning of May. Since then, this party has repeatedly accused the Ethiopian Government of violating the commitments reached in Pretoria and of keeping the region in a situation of absolute marginalization.
The federal Executive, on the other hand, refuses to recognize the administration restored by the TPLF and maintains that the only legitimate authority in Tigray remains the Provisional Regional Administration of Tigray, created under the Pretoria Agreement and now displaced by the former rebel movement.