Ethiopia’s Army Chief Promises ‘Wisdom and Restraint’ in Tigray, and Blames Eritrea

The two words the Ethiopian army chose this week were “wisdom and restraint.” Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, the chief of staff of the federal military, used them to describe how his forces are responding to what he called provocations from the Tigray front — his first public comments on the recent military developments in the country’s north, delivered as fears grow that Ethiopia is sliding toward another civil war.

The restraint he described is being exercised in a country where war has, in effect, already been declared. Days after Washington lifted its arms embargo on Ethiopia, Tigrayan forces seized three airports and a rebel alliance announced it was at war with the federal government, rews reported this week. The rising tension Berhanu spoke of is not prospective; it is here.

The field marshal also pointed north, past Tigray. Eritrea, he said, is funding and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia, and he described the “Tsimdo” alliance of armed groups as an extension of that effort, according to reports of his remarks. No evidence was offered alongside the accusation, and Asmara has not responded to it in the reporting so far.

What hangs over the exchange is the agreement that was supposed to have settled this. Fighting in the northern region of Tigray has raised fears that the peace deal which ended a devastating two-year war in 2022 could now collapse, Al Jazeera reported. The first war’s front lines have reappeared in nearly the same places.

The alliance arrayed against Addis Ababa is itself a fragile instrument — seven rebel armies, several of them former enemies of one another, bound by a common foe and no agreed plan for what follows, as rews noted. A pact like that can seize airports quickly; holding anything after that is a harder question.

For now, the federal army’s position rests on a promise made in the passive tense — provocations met with wisdom and restraint — uttered days into a confrontation in which the other side has already used the word war. It took the chief of staff this long to say anything at all.