Act now to avert a bloodbath in Ethiopia

THE NAMETPLF of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa (New Flower), belies its frequent violent changes of government in recent decades. The Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown and later strangled. Mengistu Haile Mariam, a Marxist despot, shot his way to power, imposed a “red terror” and was later ousted by a rebel coalition led by Tigrayans. Now history is rhyming.Once more the federal government is fighting rebels from Tigray. Once more it has deliberately blocked food and medicine from entering this northern region, where 400,000 people are now starving and millions are at risk. Once more the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front () is marching on Addis Ababa. In a rapid offensive it has captured towns straddling the roads north of the capital. An allied band, which claims to represent the Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, threatens to cut roads leading to the city from the south. It says it, too, is .