• Irob people fear communities will be split by demarcation
• No local consultations held over peace offering to Eritrea
• Arena opposition group and others schedule more protests

For many, Ethiopia’s announcement it would implement a 2002 boundary ruling to try and end its festering dispute with Eritrea was an unexpected and overwhelmingly positive development.

Last week’s conciliatory gesture by the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) was welcomed internationally, including by the UK which said the whole region would benefit from a thaw in relations. The frozen two-year conflict led to Eritrea’s isolation and shut off landlocked Ethiopia’s access to seaports in its former province.

However, for the Irob, a minority group in the northeast of Tigray region, the news was unwelcome and many are expressing their dismay at the EPRDF Executive Committee decision which could see part of their territory ceded to Eritrea.

The Irob, who number around 30,000 and cluster around Dawhan town on the rugged escarpment, fear for their future. Border demarcation could mean neighbouring communities find themselves in separate countries, regardless of family and cultural ties. “We were not consulted about it. We had no say in this. It is just a decision by politicians. A great let-down,” 42-year-old Mebrahatu Fissehaye, who is Irob, said. Mebrahatu was in a crowd said to be in the thousands that demonstrated in Dawhan last Thursday against the decision. The protest was authorized by the local woreda even though the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) regional government tried to shift it to another day, according to Dawhan chief administrator, Nigussie Hagos.

“The decision would pose a big threat to the survival of the Irob people. We are not against the peace deal. But peace does not come at the expense of losing sovereignty. We are 100 percent Ethiopians. If our peoples are divided between two countries, our very survival would be in question,” he said.

After a series of economic disputes in the years following secession, in 1998 Eritrean troops moved into contested border areas, triggering a series of battles that cost tens of thousands of lives while destroying trade networks. At the start of the conflict, residents recall, the Irob were taken by surprise and took up arms in order to hinder the advance of Eritrean forces into their lands. The area was beset by conflict and Irob began to seek refuge away from border area. As fighting escalated, people feared reprisals from Eritrean soldiers and more sought routes south into Ethiopia.

With Eritrea weakening, the war ended in December 2000 with the signing of the Algiers Agreement. A UN boundary commission was established and ruled in 2002 that Badme and other disputed areas were Eritrean. But there has been no demarcation as Ethiopia insisted on further negotiations while Eritrea asked for implementation. That could now change, although there has been no response yet from Asmara, and nor has Ethiopia suggested it will withdraw unilaterally, which could be demanded by the autocratic President Isayas Afewerki.

Though the Irob people were at the forefront of events, they remain on the periphery of the state, and their plight was often ignored in a region dominated by Tigrayans. “The idea of separating or dividing Irob people does not make sense to them and there lies their fear. The Irob people feel that their will has always been ignored by the TPLF and this border decision is another betrayal,” says Yodit Fitigu, an Addis Ababa-based development consultant and member of the Irob. “A peace deal is what is needed, but what will happen to the Irob people who have inhabited the disputed border for centuries? Forced relocation? Forced to accept a deal made by politicians? If history is any guide, these folks won’t take being forced by anyone. Peace is a lot more complicated”.

The Irob are a sedentary people who mainly engage in agriculture and cattle rearing.  Their language Saho is Cushitic, as is Somali, Oromo and Afar, but most of them also speak Tigrigna, a semitic tongue, and culturally and socially they are closer to Tigrayans. Other than occasional skirmishes, since 2000 there has been relative stability around Dawhan and Alitena, according to residents.

In a stance that probably has strong support among Tigrayans and within the military, Tigray opposition party Arena dismissed the peace deal and accused the government of already conceding too much land to Eritrea, which became independent in 1993. Last week’s announcement was unjust and ignored nobler principles such as a territorial integrity, spokesman Amdom Gebreselassie told the Ethiopia Observer. He believes the Algiers Agreement became irrelevant in 2008 when Eritrean forces interfered with a 25-kilometer buffer zone, leading to the departure of a UN monitoring mission.

Amdom said it is not only the Irob but also Tigrayans, Kunama and the Bada Afar who would be victims of an unjust demarcation. He said the only way to resolve the conflict is reconciliation and negotiations involving local actors on both side of the border and, if need be, a referendum. “There is no reason why Ethiopia would abide by it. What it needs is to resolve the status of these areas through negotiations and giving people in the area their say. The central government cannot and shouldn’t decide for them,” he said. Arena were involved in a demonstration in Badme today and another is planned in Tigray’s capital, Mekele, on June 16. With the TPLF increasingly being blamed for the regional state’s woes and a loss of Tigrayan influence nationally, Arena and the Irob’s argument may well find plenty of support.

(Main image: Irob women. Photo: Butterfly Foundation, which is engaged in the rehabilitation of water wells in Irob woreda)