The problems of Tigray are not to be found in former fighters awaiting a sustainable return to civilian life; nor in the internally displaced people awaiting the chance to return to their homes; nor in the hopes for recovery of war shattered communities; nor even in the fact [...]
Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) can be both a mechanical process of transforming former fighters into civilian roles; and a strategic process to help create stability and prosperity in a post-conflict society. In Tigray, this strategic outcome would also contribute to Ethiopian national stability and security, as [...]
Tigray has suffered a civil war of devastating proportions. The fighting is now over, but the challenge of re-building a fractured society still remains. One of these challenges is the question of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR). But that challenge does not stand in isolation – Tigray [...]
More questions than answers on the way forward for Tigray. But hope is not a good basis for strategic planning and wishing that the problem would go away is pointless. In such a context, results cannot be bought - rather grown over time. But the humanitarian clock [...]
Ethiopia is caught in the eye of a storm. It is managing a number of transitions, all at the same time. And it is doing so against the ticking of a number of clocks. Time is against a guarantee of stable and peaceful change in [...]
Ethiopia is changing. Not always in the right direction; and not always smoothly. But it is changing. The population is growing; getting younger; is increasingly urbanised; but is stubbornly unequal in the distribution of wealth and access to services. And internal political tensions and politics pose an increasing [...]
I used to live and work in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. The nature of a state… Ethiopia is a strong state, reasonably sure of its identity and sovereignty. Even so, for an outsider it poses a number of challenges. Language, culture, physical geography, history, food, etc. But it [...]