In Tigray, the Catholic Irob minority is in danger of extinction

[africangear]

A Catholic minority in Tigray, exhausted by three and a half years of brutal and violent occupation by the Eritrean army, is at risk of extinction. In the autonomous region of northern Ethiopia – after two years of civil war that have caused at least 600,000 deaths, millions of displaced persons and a famine – the tragedy of the Irob community is unfolding. [The Irob have their own indigenous language called Saho, which is totally different from Tigrinya, yet they consider themselves part of Tigray. The Saho language is an official language in Tigray. All italic notes by JN]

Only the Catholic bishop of Adigrat Tesfaselassie Medhin, their pastor, speaks for them, the last of the last. In the letter to donors written for Easter, which Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians including Catholics celebrate on May 5, the prelate declares himself a witness "throughout Tigray of unspeakable suffering, inequality, hardship and death due to two years of conflict, drought and lack of attention to essential needs." In particular, the Prelate of Adigrat recalls the "marginalized communities of the Irob with their unimaginable suffering."

They are 50 thousand people who have lived for centuries in a rural and mountainous territory on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea occupied by Asmara's [Eritrean] troops in November 2020, in implementation, they say, of the 2001 Treaty of Algiers. Since then, these starving farmers have seen their land turned into an open-air prison from which they cannot even get out for treatment and where everything is lacking. During the years of conflict in Tigray, the Eritreans, which were called in by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to fight along Ethiopian federal troops against the common enemies of the Tigrayan TPLF party, invaded the region.

While a war of extermination of the civilian population was being waged throughout Tigray, the borders in Irob were closed, separating families and preventing access to aid. They then began a process of forced assimilation by imposing the Eritrean language [the Eritrean variant of Tigrinya language] and identity documents in violation of international law, proceeding with forced conscription that lasts in the Asmarino [after Asmara, the capital of Eritrea] army until the age of 50. Those who rebel disappear without trial, as has been the case for a quarter of a century in Eritrea, ruled with an iron fist by the military regime of Isaias Afewerki. Just as in the neighboring barracks state [Eritrea] there are spies everywhere ready to denounce opponents. Catholic priests are in the crosshairs. Asmara believes that the December 2000 Treaty of Algiers, which ended the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrean border war, assigns it the province of Irob. But historically it has never been part of the former [Italian] colony of Eritrea and the inhabitants have always been Ethiopians. The occupation therefore violates the old African rule that the borders of independent states must mirror colonial borders.

"We are victims of ethnic cleansing," denounces Rita Kahsay, director of the Irob Anina Civil Society Association, which defends the rights of a people that not even Italian colonial troops were able to bend in the last century. Our homes have been looted, those who oppose Isaias disappear and nothing more is heard of them. Eritrean officials gather the inhabitants in the towns and villages and tell them that either they agree to change nationality by withdrawing the new documents or they must leave. But this is our land."

The main road that connects Adigrat to Alitena* is blocked, aid comes only through disused Italian military roads in the mountains, which are very dangerous. Young people are fleeing, and the future is bleak. The Irobs are calling for Addis Ababa's intervention before it is too late.

By Jan Nyssen
Em. Senior Full Professor
Department of Geography
Ghent University
Belgium