Ethiopia

Ethiopia is currently involved in a series of armed conflicts.

• Ethiopia continues to occupy approximately 1,000km of Eritrean territory, in and around the town of Badme. While ownership of this area is disputed, in 2002 the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, established pursuant to the Agreement of 12 December 2000 between the Government of the State of Eritrea and the Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, decided that Badme and the surrounding area formed part of Eritrea, and not Ethiopia. Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, Decision Regarding Delimitation of the Border between the State of Eritrea and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 13 April 2002. The Permanent Court of Arbitration serves as the registry for the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission and all relevant documents are available on its website.
• The Ethiopian central government has been engaging in a non-international armed conflict against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) since November 2020. It has been reported that Eritrean troops are also fighting against the non-state forces. T. M. Kebebew and J. J. Niyo, ‘Instant Non-international Armed Conflict? Classifying the situation in Northern Ethiopia under IHL’, Armed Groups and International Law, 9 December 2020.
• Since 2006, Ethiopia has repeatedly intervened in the non-international armed conflict in Somalia. In January 2014, the Ethiopian armed forces were formally integrated into AMISOM, AMISOM, Ethiopian Forces Formally Integrated into AMISOM, Press Release, 22 January 2014. but Ethiopian troops reportedly also continue to operate outside AMISOM. Insofar as Ethiopian armed forces continue to operate outside AMISOM in Somalia, Ethiopia continues to be a party to the non-international armed conflict in Somalia. In this sense, see also Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict in Somalia, UN doc S/2016/1098, 22 December 2016, §10. Formal authority for the AMISOM mission appears to be with the African Union; only AMISOM, but not the troop contributing countries are a party. See T. Ferraro, ‘The Applicability and Application of International Humanitarian Law to Multinational Forces’, 95 International Review of the Red Cross 891/892 (2013) 591ff. For an overview on questions relating to operations under the auspices of international organisations and the determination of parties to the conflict, see ‘contemporary challenges – intervention by foreign forces, including peacekeeping operations’ and ‘contemporary challenges - multinational forces: who is a party to the conflict’ in our classification section.