Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on May 8, 2021.Ben Curtis/The Associated Press
Canada is resuming its military co-operation with Ethiopia, just months after the African country’s armed forces were accused of genocide and other crimes in the war in Tigray region.
The federal government suspended its defence collaboration with Ethiopia three years ago because of the Tigray war in the north of the country, where the Ethiopian military was widely reported to have killed thousands of civilians.
Now it is reviving the relationship, bringing Ethiopia back into Canada’s Military Training and Co-operation Program (MTCP). Independent human-rights experts are questioning why Canada would restore its links to an army that continues to be implicated in the killing of civilians with drone attacks and artillery bombardments.
More than 60 countries participate in Canada’s military co-operation program, which is aimed at building military capacity in countries that don’t belong to NATO.
An internal memo by a senior Canadian diplomat, seen by The Globe and Mail, said the revived collaboration was disclosed last month in a meeting between Canadian officials and Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed. It said Canada will focus on “non-lethal” co-operation.
Canada believes Ethiopia has made “initial progress” on peace initiatives, human-rights accountability and transitional justice for atrocities in Tigray and in current conflicts in the Amhara and Oromia regions, the memo said.
Ottawa suspended defence collaboration with Ethiopia three years ago because of the Tigray war in the north of the country, but it is now restoring military co-operation and bringing the country back into Canada’s Military Training and Co-operation Program. A Canadian soldier on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia monitors the redeployment of Ethiopian tanks leaving from an Eritrean on Feb. 20, 2001.PEDRO UGARTE/Getty Images
By restoring military co-operation, Canada would have a new entry point for engaging Ethiopia on human-rights issues, while also boosting its military influence in a country that remains a key geopolitical player in the region, the memo said.
But it also describes Canadian concerns about the continuing civilian casualties from Ethiopian air strikes in Amhara and Oromia. Even as the Canadian officials were meeting the Ethiopian Defence Minister last month, there were reports of a drone strike in Amhara that killed 16 civilians, including several children, the memo said. The air strikes in the region have declined in recent months but remain persistent, it said.
In addition to the air strikes, Ethiopia’s military has killed and injured civilians in Amhara with indiscriminate fire from artillery guns, according to an investigation by The Globe, published in December.
Another concern is a potential looming war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, with the Ethiopian military reportedly moving a significant number of troops and heavy weapons toward the Eritrean border in recent days.
Andrée-Anne Poulin, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence, said Canada is offering only “small-scale training activities” to Ethiopia for the time being. “It was our assessment that reintegration into the MTCP would be more likely to encourage and support progress and improvement within Ethiopian Armed Forces than continued exclusion from the program,” she told The Globe in response to questions.
“Canada regularly assesses compliance with the Program’s terms and conditions and reserves the right to suspend engagement with countries that cease to meet the membership criteria of its Program.”
Former Canadian justice minister Allan Rock, who contributed to a report last June that found strong evidence of the Ethiopian military’s involvement in acts of genocide against Tigrayans, criticized the Canadian decision to resume military co-operation with Ethiopia.
It is “offensive and completely unacceptable” for Canada to revive its defence collaboration without insisting on accountability for past crimes and evidence that the atrocities have stopped, Mr. Rock told The Globe.
“How are we to know that Ethiopia’s military, strengthened by its collaboration with Canada, will not simply resume its aggressive and unlawful harassment and abuses against its Tigrayan population?” he asked.
“We should be before the International Court of Justice seeking a declaration that the Ethiopian government failed in its legal obligation to prevent a genocide in Tigray,” said Mr. Rock, who is also a former law professor at the University of Ottawa.
A girl carries her belongings on her flees battles between the Ethiopian National Defence Force and pro-Tigray People Libration Front rebels, in Zarima, Ethiopia, on Sept. 16, 2021.AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP/Getty Images
He was among dozens of scholars who contributed to a 120-page report by the U.S.-based New Lines Institute last June, accusing Ethiopia of targeting civilians with mass killings and starvation tactics during the Tigray war, which began in 2020 and ended with a peace agreement two years later.
The report cited estimates by researchers that the Tigray war caused the deaths of more than 400,000 soldiers and up to 300,000 civilians, making it the deadliest war of the 21st century.
Sarah Teich, a lawyer specializing in international criminal and human-rights law who has advised a Canadian Tigrayan association on seeking justice for atrocity crimes, said any resumption of Canada’s military co-operation with Ethiopia would be “a disturbing development.”
Recent reports show that Ethiopia’s military is continuing to commit human-rights abuses and international crimes in Tigray and elsewhere, she told The Globe.
“Justice and accountability have been virtually non-existent,” she said. “Even if the Ethiopian government has made initial progress, which would be news to me, not nearly enough has been done to justify Canada’s resumption of military co-operation.”
Kyle Matthews, executive director of the Montreal Institute for Global Security, said Canada should be cautious about co-operating with the Ethiopian military. “Ethiopia has multiple conflicts going on within it, where we have documented proof of civilians being targeted by the Ethiopian military,” he told The Globe.
“No one has faced justice for this, no one has been held accountable. Any training, if it does take place, should focus on respecting international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions and the protection of civilians.”