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On this week's DW News Africa, how conflict in Ethiopia could see global wars converge around the vital Red Sea waterway. Plus, Uganda’s royal rift over the crowning of a new traditional ruler of the Tooro kingdom.
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00:05This is DW News Africa coming up on the program.
00:09Why rising tensions in the Horn of Africa are raising concerns far beyond the region.
00:14A conflict has broken out in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries could be drawn in.
00:19The region sits directly alongside the Red Sea, one of the world's most important trade routes,
00:24causing concern over further disruptions to global oil supplies.
00:30And a former TV newsreader is crowned king in Uganda,
00:34but does his coronation end a royal succession row that's gripped the country?
00:52Hello, I'm Christine Mundua. Welcome.
00:54Has a new war reached Ethiopia's capital?
00:57DW sources have confirmed reports of explosions heard overnight Wednesday in Addis Ababa.
01:03An opposition-linked source claims a new alliance of armed groups carried out several drone strikes,
01:09including some targeting the military's headquarters.
01:12The government is yet to officially comment.
01:15Now, if confirmed, the strikes would mark the first known drone attack by anti-government forces
01:20on the Ethiopian capital, further inflaming fears that renewed fighting in the north of the country could escalate.
01:27So, where are things as we stand?
01:29Well, hostilities resumed in September between Ethiopia's federal government and armed opposition groups,
01:35shattering a four-year peace deal.
01:37This week, the government and their allies claim to have captured a strategically important town in the Tigray region.
01:43That's after Tigrayan rebel forces advanced on federal positions in the state last week.
01:49Now, the Reuters news agency has confirmed the location of this eyewitness video as Alamata in Tigray.
01:56Now, the latest fighting has spread from Tigray into neighbouring Afar and Amhara,
02:02and comes after several opposition groups, including the Tigray People's Liberation Front,
02:08announced that they were joining forces to oust Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
02:13Ethiopia's government has accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of backing the country's armed opposition groups.
02:21Now, all three deny that, raising regional tensions alongside another key flashpoint,
02:27access to the Red Sea, the waterway at the centre of this map.
02:32Now, landlocked Ethiopia had a coastline for decades until Eritrea broke away.
02:38Now, since then, Addis Ababa has repeatedly argued that restoring access to the Red Sea
02:43is vital to its security and prosperity.
02:46Eritrea views that claim as a direct threat to its sovereignty.
02:51Now, the critical trade route is already under pressure from a renewed conflict across the water in Yemen
02:57and the war in Iran, where the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is ongoing.
03:02Now, diplomats have also raised fears for the whole Horn of Africa,
03:06with the potential for individual conflicts and instability to stretch from Sudan to Somalia and the Red Sea,
03:15through which around 14% of global maritime trade currently flows,
03:20and with the narrow Bab Elmendab Strait at the nexus of these regional rivalries and global power plays.
03:26And to provide us insight into the developments in Ethiopia, we've invited Tadali Lema back onto the programme.
03:32She is the founder of the monthly news magazine Addis Standard.
03:37Welcome back, Tadali.
03:38How serious is this latest escalation?
03:44Thanks for having me, Christine.
03:46It is serious enough, not only because this is a conflict that was in the making for almost more than
03:54three years
03:55after a Pretoria peace agreement was signed, but also now there is a coalition of armoured groups
04:01who have signed an agreement or a sort to join forces together against the federal government and its allied forces.
04:10So it is serious.
04:12And in the case of the Tigray, the federal government, it's a continuation of the war that has never ended,
04:20really,
04:20even though there was a session of hostilities agreement.
04:24So for that reason, I consider it to be very serious, Christine.
04:28And who would you say is responsible for this escalation?
04:31Who's provoked it?
04:34You know, it really doesn't matter who provoked it at the last minute, because this has been in the making.
04:40Everybody knew that this conflict was going to happen.
04:43So it is the failures, the cascade of failures that led to the last minute.
04:48So it really doesn't matter.
04:50The federal government says the Tigrayan authorities provoked it.
04:53They are saying they were provoked.
04:55What we have seen is that there was a troop built up by the federal government surrounding Tigray
05:00over the past two to three months.
05:03And this has a clear indication that a conflict was to ignite any minute at any time.
05:08So who started it now doesn't really matter at all.
05:14As you were mentioning earlier, the TPLF in Tigray has now formed an alliance with other rebel groups
05:19from different regions of the country.
05:21They've said their goal is to overthrow Abiy Ahmed's government.
05:25How strong is this alliance?
05:27Is it a serious threat to the government in Addis Ababa?
05:33You know, it's early enough to make a judgment of that.
05:36But as to the seriousness, I think the one thing that I keep saying is that it is not how
05:42fragile this alliance is going to be,
05:44but it is the idea that they have agreed to avoid the horizontal fighting between themselves,
05:50because some of the armed groups have been at odds in the past.
05:56For example, the TPLF and the FANU in the Amhara region were direct participants of the war in 2020-2022.
06:03The FANU were on the side of the federal government.
06:07So there was a risk that this horizontal conflagration of conflict across Ethiopia would be even more serious.
06:15So the fact that they agreed to avoid that is a starting point.
06:18How this is going to develop, it's only been barely a week and a half now.
06:23We are monitoring that very closely.
06:26Now, there are growing fears, Tzedale, of a wider regional war.
06:31The government in Addis Ababa has accused neighbouring Eritrea of backing the TPLF forces in Tigray.
06:39Sudan and Egypt could also be drawn in.
06:42But if we were to focus on Eritrea for the moment, what is its position in this latest escalation?
06:50Yeah, that's true, Christine.
06:51The army general a few days ago clearly accused not only Eritrea, but also Egypt as financing, supporting and pushing
07:02for this war.
07:03In terms of Eritrea, you know, Eritrea, Isaiah Safourke and Abiy Ahmed were on the same side during the war
07:12in the Tigray region.
07:13But the fates have flipped since then, and Eritrea and Ethiopia are at odds now.
07:21And Ethiopia is constantly accusing Eritrea of supporting Tigrayans.
07:27And Tigrayans have created sort of like an alliance.
07:30The details of it is not really too much known as of yet.
07:35But beyond Eritrea, as you say, Ethiopia sits, you know, at the centre of this highly interconnected and already fragile
07:44Horn of Africa.
07:45It's bordered by Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea.
07:50So this renewed war in the northern part of Ethiopia could draw in easily neighbors.
07:58Eritrea can easily be drawn.
08:00In fact, there is an accusation from the Afar regional government given to the Al Jazeera two days ago that
08:05Eritrea is a part already in the conflict in Afar region in the northern Ethiopia.
08:11And so the chance that this is going to draw in foreign countries is high, particularly given the existing tension
08:20between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
08:23And the conflict already raging in Sudan, which Ethiopia is a part through its support for the RSAF, the Hamidist
08:31soldiers, is another dimension that we need to look into.
08:35And I think that's precisely why the African Union itself has warned that the escalation risk is further destabilization of
08:44the region.
08:44I'm quoting the African Union on this one.
08:46So the risks are very high, Christine.
08:50Right.
08:50And if we sort of go beyond the Horn of Africa, you've got the Iran-US conflict and the impact
08:58that it's having on the Strait of Hormuz.
09:02Then you have the war in Yemen escalating, affecting another important transport route for oil and goods.
09:09That's the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
09:13How would a wider war in the Horn of Africa create further global disruption?
09:19Yeah, that's a very good question, Christine.
09:22So this is the wider geopolitical dimension if we need to look into it.
09:26So if you look into the geography of where the fighting is happening today, Ethiopia's northern border is only a
09:33few hundred kilometers from the Red Sea.
09:36Yes, the Red Sea is of Eritrea's coastline, but Ethiopia has about 60 kilometers from the Red Sea.
09:43So while Eritrea and Djibouti sit directly on the approaches to the Bab al-Mandeb, so it's one of the
09:52world's critical maritime chalk points that is seeing a growing crisis recently.
09:58So this maritime chalk point connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.
10:02And so if an Ethiopian conflict becomes entangled with Ethiopia-Eritrea, for example, the existing tension that I said, or
10:11the wider security competition around the Red Sea itself, I think the consequences could extend beyond Africa, even beyond the
10:21Horn of Africa in my assessment.
10:23So this is going to affect maritime security, trade and stability of the route connecting Europe itself, the Middle East
10:31and Asia, not to mention that.
10:33So that's why preventing another full-scale war, everybody is very nervous at the moment.
10:38Every diplomat you talk to or I talk to are nervously monitoring whether this conflict is going to ignite the
10:46entire Horn of Africa and the Red Sea chalk points.
10:51Yeah, Tzedali, you've reported in Ethiopia for years.
10:56And I just wondered if you think that the international community is underestimating the danger of what's happening in the
11:03Horn of Africa.
11:06It is absolutely underestimating it.
11:09We have seen, for example, this conflict in the making for more than three years.
11:14The Pretoria Agreement was unraveling ever since it was signed.
11:19And the Pretoria Agreement not only did not have a guarantor of itself, the actors that facilitated the conflict were
11:27not interested in following through, you know, where the agreement itself was falling apart.
11:32What happened in between?
11:33The African Union did not have any report with regard to, you know, monitoring and verification mechanism, even though the
11:39office was established.
11:42And even though some officers, you know, mandated by the African Union itself were deployed in Tigray to monitor the
11:48disarmament aspect of the Tigrayan fighters and also the co-concurrent exit of foreign forces from the Tigray regional state.
11:58So there has not been any follow-up report that was filed by the international community, by the African Union,
12:04which is sitting there in the heart of the capital city, Addis Ababa.
12:09So I think the international community has been undermining this.
12:12But what is also, you know, sort of like the chicken coming home to roost is the fact that not
12:19only was the Tigray conflict a gateway to this conflagration of conflicts, but also, you know, the inclusion into the
12:27other side of Eritrea.
12:29No one has done anything.
12:31The U.S. has a lot of leverage, but the U.S. is interested in leveraging its diplomacy through commercial
12:37interests.
12:37So the U.S. is cultivating relations both with Eritrea and Ethiopia, uninterested in the diplomacy and the security, but
12:45in the business and commercial aspects of it.
12:47The European Union has not really said anything.
12:51In fact, they were not even a part of the Pretoria Agreement itself.
12:54So I think there is a major issue when it comes to undermining the impact of this conflict from the
13:01international community.
13:04Those insights there from Tidali Lema.
13:06As always, Tidali, thanks very much.
13:08We appreciate you.
13:09Thanks for having me.
13:10Thanks for having me, Christy.
13:17Now, take a look at this man.
13:19He used to read the news in Uganda, and today he's a king.
13:23His coronation as monarch of the Ugandan Torah Kingdom follows a bitter succession route that has divided a royal family
13:30and gripped the country.
13:32As DWS Julius Mugambwa, who was at the regal ceremony, explains.
13:39This is the coronation of a new king of Toro.
13:43His name is Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I.
13:49But to understand what this means, you need to understand what the kings mean to the people here.
13:56This king does not govern Uganda.
13:59He has no executive or political power.
14:01His role is culture.
14:03But the selection of King Edward Nyabongo I was not so straightforward because the royal family went through a series
14:11of disagreements on who should succeed King Oyo.
14:14With the Toro queen mother and the sister of the late King Oyo dismissing Nyabongo's ascension to the throne, claiming
14:22King Oyo had a previously undisclosed biological son who should have been handed the crown instead.
14:29And the king had set this out in his will before he died.
14:32The kingdoms reflect pre-colonial Uganda, where these kingdoms and the chiefdoms offered leadership to the community.
14:43But now Uganda being a republic, they have the influence but do not have the executive powers.
14:48The executive power belongs to the republic.
14:51President Chowere Museveni, who attended the coronation, emphasized why he took a decision to return the kingdoms.
14:59He wanted Ugandans to have their sense of identity not compromised, even when in the past, in the 1960s, these
15:08traditional kingdoms had been abolished.
15:11The problem was the hereditary leaders trying to continue with political power, but I could see that there were very
15:23big areas of society which were not addressed.
15:29It was very dangerous.
15:30More than two million people live in the wider Toro sub-region, and the Omokama is an important symbol of
15:37their shared identity, history and culture.
15:41The people of Toro now have a new king, Edward Rukidi Nyawongo I, who succeeds King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru,
15:53Rukidi IV.
15:55King Oyo ascended to the throne at only the age of three, and for more than three decades he was
16:03the face of Toro,
16:04until last month, when he died of cancer in the United States, where he was receiving treatment.
16:13This is when now his cousin was selected to succeed him.
16:18What is before the new king, Edward Nyawongo, is a big task.
16:23He comes to leadership at the time when his kingdom, more than half the population, are below the age of
16:3030.
16:31That's a very active and young population with a big future.
16:35Himself in the 56th this December.
16:39But he has promised the people of Toro he will unite them, regardless of their age, regardless of their background.
16:48The kingdom will inspire people to work together, because united teeth can break the bone.
16:57And by supporting the kingdom, the kingdom also supports them.
17:03But even if the new king can unite his subjects, winning the support of the entire royal family could prove
17:11to be his greater challenge.
17:13Julius Mugambua filed the report you just saw from the new Toro king's coronation.
17:19He's back in Kampala now, from where he joins me.
17:21Julius, the new king of Toro has been coronated, as we've just seen,
17:26but the late king's mother says he is not the right successor, and that there is a child who is
17:32the rightful heir to the throne.
17:34Tell us more.
17:38Yes, the king's mother is now a happy person.
17:41From having lost her dear son, King Oya, from when the announcement, from when the news was broken that the
17:50king had died,
17:52the information of the king having left a child behind came out.
17:57Actually, the president of Uganda, Yohar Museveni, tweeted that he received the news of the death of King Oya,
18:04but he was told that the king left behind a child.
18:10Now, the royal family back in Toro asked for the child.
18:15They wanted to meet the child, but they also wanted to meet the mother of the child,
18:22because it's very important, according to their customs, in choosing a successor to the king,
18:29they needed to assess the credibility of the candidate.
18:33From the briefing of the royal family in the Toro kingdom,
18:38the officials of Toro kingdom say they have not had the chance,
18:41they have not met the child, they do not know the child,
18:45they do not know the mother of the child, they do not even know the name of the child.
18:50That's what they say.
18:52But the queen mother insists that the late king left a child, left a will,
18:58and that child should take the crown.
19:00But the royal family says, if we do not know this child,
19:04then we cannot make this child a successor.
19:07After all, we do not know the child.
19:11Right. So does the coronation close this chapter,
19:15or is there more to come in this royal succession drama?
19:22I think it will be too early, in one way,
19:25for someone to say that all is closed and done.
19:29Why? It's because there are still open wounds,
19:31there are still people who are still pushing,
19:33that indeed the crown belongs to this sage child who is sage to be in the document,
19:41in the will that we have seen on social media.
19:46The royal family says they do not trust the document,
19:50and they trust the new king that they coronated.
19:54They ticked boxes from their position, from their point of view.
19:58The other side of the sale child should end,
20:02and life continues with the new coronated king.
20:05That is why they went ahead with the formal arrangements,
20:08and on top of their selection, they involved other parties.
20:12They involved the church.
20:14That's why we saw the new king go into charge for his coronation.
20:19Then they handed over power to the king,
20:21and they also, most importantly, involved the state.
20:25For the president to be at this event,
20:28one may conclude to say that the state has already authenticated,
20:33has already endorsed the new king.
20:36And from the traditional point of view,
20:38the fact that he has received all his powers
20:40and is already at the crown,
20:42whoever perhaps will challenge him later,
20:45we'll see that.
20:46But from now, the people of Tauru,
20:48they have been presented a new king.
20:51The church has been presented a new king of Tauru,
20:54and the state has been presented the new king of Tauru,
20:58Edward Nyabongo I.
21:02All right.
21:02That's Julius Mugambwa in Kampala.
21:05Thank you, Julius.
21:12For decades, Kenya has dominated the world of athletics,
21:16producing some of the sport's biggest stars.
21:18Now the country is preparing for what many see
21:20as its greatest sporting challenge yet,
21:23hosting the world athletics championships.
21:27Now, Kenya beat bids from London, Rome and Munich,
21:29but that will also bring renewed scrutiny
21:32of its past doping problems.
21:35Edith Kimani looks at the excitement and the challenges ahead.
21:40Few expected Lillian Odira to be a world champion.
21:45But the underdog stunned the field in Tokyo,
21:48winning the 800-meter gold and breaking a record older than she is.
21:54Now, she's hoping Kenya,
21:56the underdog in the race to hold the world athletics championships,
22:00can deliver a similarly stunning finish
22:02when the championships come to Nairobi in 2029.
22:05As Kenyans, it is a big move.
22:09You know, we've always shown our talent outside other countries.
22:14I think it is the best time now as Kenyans
22:17to raise on home ground.
22:19We feel what other countries have been feeling.
22:21Nairobi beat London and Rome for the hosting rides,
22:24meaning Kenya will be the first African country
22:27to host the athletics championships.
22:29For Lillian, who was part of Kenya's bidding delegation,
22:32the country was the obvious choice.
22:35We deserved it, according to me,
22:37because Kenya, I think we've produced a lot of good athletes
22:42and we're one of the best when it comes to athletics,
22:46not only athletics.
22:47You saw the other time we just hosted, it was Chan,
22:50and it was a nice one, it was a successful one.
22:53And we're hosting AFCON.
22:56Definitely after AFCON, we're hosting the World Champs.
22:58So I think we have a record.
23:01Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala celebrated the announcement,
23:05writing, what a time to be a Kenyan athlete.
23:08Not everyone welcomed the news.
23:10Others raised concerns about the number of Kenyan athletes
23:13currently serving doping bans.
23:15Kenya has faced scrutiny in recent years
23:17with a number of athletes sanctioned for doping.
23:20Now, supporters of the bid argue those cases
23:23should not define a country that has one of the strongest
23:25athletics legacies in the world.
23:28Sports management specialist, Wanjiko Mwenda,
23:31who I spoke to for DW 77% show,
23:33told me those doping figures need to be put into context.
23:37Kenya has a surplus of talents.
23:39We have so many people that monitoring them,
23:43and especially individual games or individual sports like athletics,
23:47sometimes it becomes a problem.
23:48So all of these people,
23:50because they can't all represent the country in competition,
23:53they were not monitored,
23:54they were not followed up,
23:56they end up into doping.
23:57And as a result,
23:58every time the athletics integrity unit
24:01releases a list of dopers,
24:03there's a likelihood that there will be a Kenyan in that list.
24:06In recent years,
24:08Kenyan authorities have increased investment
24:10in anti-doping programs in a bid to address the issue.
24:13But hosting a world championship
24:15takes more than sporting pedigree.
24:18The main stadium, Kasarani,
24:20is currently under construction,
24:21and critics, including some lawmakers,
24:24have questioned whether venues,
24:26transport networks,
24:27and accommodation for thousands of visitors
24:29will be ready on schedule.
24:31The government says the country will be ready.
24:34Despite the event being years away,
24:36excitement is already growing.
24:38Athletics is Kenya's second most popular sport after football.
24:42Supporters point to the country's love affair with the sport
24:45as evidence fans will show up in large numbers.
24:48During the 2017 World Under-18 Championships,
24:53it's a junior competition.
24:56So really, none of the Kenyan athletes were known to anyone.
25:01But guess what?
25:02Kenyans came in crazy huge numbers.
25:05It went down in history
25:07as the most watched edition
25:10of the World Under-18 Championships.
25:14For Odira, Nairobi 2029 is still a long way off.
25:18First comes Beijing in 2027.
25:21If everything goes to plan,
25:23the champion who helped bring the championships to Kenya
25:26could return home to defend her title
25:28in front of a home crowd.
25:30We're so happy that we're hosting the world champs here at home
25:34and we say to all countries
25:37and all the international athletes,
25:38we tell them welcome to Nairobi
25:40and, yeah, it will be a nice one.
25:44For now, preparations continue in Nairobi.
25:47But with the world watching,
25:48the next race for Kenya is against the clock.
25:52That's it for the program.
25:54I'll see you next time.
25:54Bye-bye.
25:55Bye-bye.
25:56Bye-bye.
25:56Bye-bye.
25:56Bye-bye.
25:56Bye-bye.
25:57Bye-bye.
25:57Bye-bye.
25:57Bye-bye.
25:58Bye-bye.
25:59Bye-bye.
25:59Bye-bye.
26:05Bye-bye.
26:07Bye-bye.
26:08Bye-bye.
26:09Bye-bye.
26:10You