Gedion Timothewos: Is Ethiopia sliding into civil war?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia’s Attorney General, Gedion Timothewos. Ethiopia’s federal armed forces have launched the final phase of their assault on Tigrayan rebels in the north of the country. International observers have voiced deep concern about possibly devastating humanitarian consequences. This after many hundreds have already been killed, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee three weeks of fighting. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pledged to bring the country together - why has it gone so horribly wrong?
(Photo: Gedion Timothewos appears via videolink on Hardtalk)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka. |
| 0:04.2 | When my guest today, Gedion Timotewas joined the new Ethiopian government led by Prime Minister |
| 0:11.1 | Abhi Ahmed in 2018, there was much optimistic talk of a country embracing new freedoms and a new sense of unity. |
| 0:20.4 | So much for those high hopes. Mr. Timotewas has since been |
| 0:25.0 | promoted to Attorney General, but the political climate in Ethiopia has deteriorated dramatically. |
| 0:31.8 | Right now, the country's federal armed forces are mounting what they call the final phase of |
| 0:37.2 | their military assault on rebels |
| 0:39.2 | in the northern Tigray region. Already, many hundreds have been killed in three weeks of fighting |
| 0:45.1 | and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced. 40,000 are currently sheltering in Sudan. |
| 0:52.6 | International observers have expressed concern about possible war crimes, |
| 0:57.2 | a looming humanitarian disaster and the danger of wider regional instability. All of this has happened |
| 1:04.8 | just a year after Prime Minister Abiyahmad was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Why have things gone so wrong, |
| 1:13.1 | so fast in Ethiopia? Well, Gedi on Timotewas joins me now from Addis Ababa. Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:21.6 | Thanks for having me. Are we about to see a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of your Prime Minister's decision to launch a |
| 1:31.1 | final offensive on the Tigrayan regional capital of Miquale? |
| 1:35.8 | We have to understand that this crisis is something that has been forced upon this |
| 1:40.5 | administration and the Prime Minister. It was not by choice. |
| 1:44.8 | Our forces in the Northern Command, based in the Tigray Regional State, were attacked. |
| 1:49.8 | It was a perforious and treasonous attack. |
| 1:53.3 | The objective of the TPA left of brass was to take over the armaments of the Northern Command |
| 1:58.9 | and to overthrow this government. |
| 2:02.6 | So the Prime Minister and this administration were left with no option, but to respond with force. |
... |
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