Traditional authority and modern hegemony: Peacemaking in the Afar region of Ethiopia

The Afar region during the civil war period, 1975-1991 The pre-eminence of southern clans, with a long history of contact with the Ethiopian state in the structures of the Sultanate, meant that unlike other peripheral groups like the Somali and the Oromo, the Afar were one of the last groups to openly challenge the Ethiopian state (Gamaledin, 1993:45). [...] The alliance between the ANLM and the Derg led to the formation of an Afar militia termed the Ugugumo, which functioned as an important auxiliary of the Derg in its war with the EPLF in Eritrea and the TPLF in Tigray. [...] The Afar region in the post-conflict era In the aftermath of the overthrow of the Derg, the Afar people and region were to undergo a fundamental transformation in terms of their relationship with the Ethiopian state. [...] The fall of the Derg ushered in the arrival of the EPLF and the de facto independence of Eritrea, which effectively meant the separation of the Afar in Eritrea from their Afar kin in Ethiopia. [...] Since under the Ma’ada the notion of responsibility is not conceptualised at the level of the individual but at the level of the collective unit, the likelihood of the conflicts becoming violent is greater.