US doesn’t need Ethiopia in its war on terror, says Ethiopian scholar

SAT News (May 5, 2017)

The Trump administration would be wise to delink its counterterrorism strategy from the Ethiopian regime, which barely clings to power by a state of emergency decree, says an Ethiopian scholar in a weekly op ed.

“Ethiopia’s involvement in the domestic affairs of Somalia has made the military and political situation in Somalia worse, and resulted in documented large-scale war crimes and human rights violations,” Alemayehu Gebremariam, who also goes by Al Mariam, said in an article published on “THE HILL.”

“Ethiopia’s involvement is arguably the principal galvanizing cause for the radicalization of large numbers of Somali youth flocking into the of al-Shabaab and other militant Islamic groups,” Al Mariam argued.

The Ethiopian regime, Al mariam said, has long been a beneficiary of U.S. aid largesse for its counterterrorism cooperation. But its counterterrorism role has been “more self-serving.”  If not, he asks, “why haven’t we won?”   

Ethiopian troops set their foot on Somalia soil in December 2006, but has been leaving key posts in recent years citing lack of funding by the international community.

Alemayehu Gebremariam is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino and a