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THE SULTANATE OF AFAR
Official Statement
“This Is Not Our War”
By Ahmed Alimirah Hanfare ANFET Official Reproduction — Republished Without Modification
This Is Not Our War
This is not our war. Once again, ordinary Afars are sent to fight and die for the political gains of others. The Afars are the most disadvantaged and economically neglected ethnic group in Ethiopia. They should not be sent, nor should they go to a war they have no part of.
No one wins this war. Yesterday’s enemies become today’s allies; and new alliances are formed, but the graves of our people remain. Atrocities of previous wars do not vanish simply because the political wind changes. Yesterday’s agony cannot be rewritten as today’s forgotten history, nor should the blood of Afar civilians be traded for the shifting convenience of temporary alliances. The war crimes committed and those responsible have yet to face justice.
For our people, the cycle remains unbroken; we bury our dead in new graves right beside the old. Conflict only bleeds economies dry, shatters infrastructure, and destroys innocent lives. Turning the Afar homeland into a proxy battlefield and a military corridor for others’ power struggles only accelerates this catastrophe, ensuring everyone loses.
Our geography carries a bitter irony. Ethiopia’s import and export trade depends overwhelmingly on the Addis Ababa to Djibouti corridor; more than 95 percent of the country’s trade by volume moves through this route, much of it cutting directly through the Afar Region. This makes our homeland an economic lifeline for Ethiopia, yet that strategic importance has consistently come at a high cost. Afars have repeatedly paid the price for wars we did not start. Today, as fighting once again enters the Afar Region, our people face yet another catastrophe: homes abandoned, livestock lost, lives cut short, and another generation scarred by war.
The most strategic region in Ethiopia remains one of its most neglected and underdeveloped. While vital goods and fuel flow through our homeland along the corridor, sustaining Ethiopia’s economy and helping build the glittering skyscrapers of Addis Ababa, too many Afars are left watching prosperity pass them by from the sidelines, struggling for even the basic necessities of life.
Warmongers speak loudly… they intend to conquer, but never of who will bury the dead. They do not tell us who will care for the soldier returning without a leg, the mother mourning her son, or the children left without a father. Nor do they answer for the pastoral families stripped of their livestock and their way of life.
Signature
Ahmed Alimirah Hanfare — The Sultanate of Afar
