User:Eks 295/Ethnic Politics of the Tigray War

Tigrayan Discrimination
During the Tigray War that started in November 2020, ethnic profiling against Tigrayans occurred, with Ethiopians of Tigrayan ethnicity being put on indefinite leave from Ethiopian Airlines or refused permission to board, prevented from overseas travel, and an "order of identifying ethnic Tigrayans from all government agencies and NGOs" being used by federal police to request a list of ethnic Tigrayans from an office of the World Food Programme. Tigrayans' houses were arbitrarily searched and Tigrayan bank accounts were suspended. During the conflict, many Tigrayans were racially profiled both professionally and socially, with many fired or called names when out in public as a result of the conflict, such as Tigrayan military members having their weapons confiscated or dismissed from duty. Origins of discrimination against Tigrays in Ethiopia stem from as early as the 1960s in which liberation groups which preceded the Tigray People's Liberation Front, like the Tigray National Organization, advocated for self determination of the Tigray people in mainly urban areas. Tigrayan discrimination also occurred towards travelers, as many leaving Ethiopia who were from Tigray were prevented from doing so; the cause, speculated by some, as being a carrier of a Tirgayan name. A hotspot for this form of profiling took place in Addis Ababa, including disappearances of major Ethiopian officials and arrests of Tigray people on the grounds that they supported the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which "Ethiopia’s parliament designated as a terrorist group in May", according to the Human Rights Watch in 2021. Large quantities of Tigray people live in Addis Ababa and are considered the elite, so part of the discrimination which contributed to economic racism. Ethnic Tigrayan members of Ethiopian components of United Nations peacekeeping missions were disarmed and some forcibly flown back to Ethiopia, at the risk of torture or execution, according to United Nations officials. On 31 January 2021, Semhal Meles, daughter of former prime minister Meles Zenawi, stated that she had been blocked from boarding a flight leaving Addis Ababa despite having valid documents. She stated that she was "illegally and unlawfully profiled." Semhal stated that in 2020, she had been detained by 20 armed police in Mekelle and held for 48 hours without access to a lawyer and without being informed of the reason for her detention. She was threatened with decapitation by one police officer. Semhal interpreted the arrest as being for the "dual crime, it seems, [of] being born into a political family with a Tigrayan identity.

The validity of elections in the Tigray region has been brought into question by Oromian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed due to the prevalence of the Tigray People's Liberation Front in the region. Ahmed replaced Tigray People's Liberation Front leader Meles Zenawi, who was a Tigrayan who held the position of prime minister before Ahmed since 1991. Following the September 9 elections in 2020, Ahmed did not respect the regional election results in the Tigray region in which 98% of the population voted for the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Ahmed also removed Tigray leaders from office, where many were arrested. Specifically in regards to the Tigray War, the systematic methodology which allowed for the persecution of the Tigray people was largely instituted by the government, as the Tigray people in Eritrea have especially felt this burden since the early stages of the war in the 1980s, in which those who have moved to Eritrea to flee Ethiopia have been targets for harassment by both locals and the military, specifically for being immigrants.

Multiple ethnic groups of Ethiopia have founded liberation groups, including the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), but the discrimination between these different groups are different, as the 1991 collapse of the Mengitsu regime led to a dominant Tigray party, which partially contributed to elevated Oromo nationalism and to Tigray discrimination in the 2010s. In 2017, dozens of Oromo killings were attributed to the Tigray People's Liberation Front which furthered tensions between the group ahead of the election of current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018.

Ethnic disparities between access to health care due to the war has affected Tigrayans disproportionately, as only 27.5% of hospitals in the Tigray region have been operational since the beginning of the conflict in 2020. Due to the blockade on the Tigray region by the Ethiopian government, health care for Tigrayans has suffered, with child malnutrition overwhelming hospitals at triple the rates seen before the combined effects of the conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. Internally displaced peoples are among the most affected, with a population of over two million, putting stress on the health care infrastructure which remains in the region, which is estimated to be at about 30% of pre-war capacity.