A North African Bishop some 1,600 years ago would write about how and when Christians have the right under their faith to battle in war. He later lived in Rome while it was under constant threat of attack by pagan tribes in the 5th century AD. Saint Augustine of Hippo has been widely recognized by Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians as one of the main influences in Christian thinking . He wrote about the ideal society in The City of God where he created the term jus ad bellum meaning just war.
The Sixth Commandment given by Moses had said “do not kill”. Apart from complete pacifism there seemed to many Christians no other alternative response to violence or the threat of violence to a population. Augustine stated that the wrongdoing of the aggravating party was the initiator of war not the responder to the threat. The reason to respond to this violence or threat of violence was to achieve peace.
In fighting a just war the use of force should only be that necessary to reach the peace and also that it is directed to the combatants. Augustine’s criteria were latter clarified by Saint Thomas Aquinas to include the war needed to waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, have the right intentions, have a reasonable chance of success, and be proportional to the force applied by the enemy.
The Tigray have agreed to peace talks to end the conflict but the Ethiopian government has refused saying that they are doing a law enforcement action. Law enforcement actions under international law cannot be directed to endanger innocent civilians. The parties must agree to seek peace when one offers it realistically. The Ethiopian offer of a temporary truce to allow planting while the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces stopped farmers from planting was a false pretense as noted by the Abiy Ahmed appointed interim administration during Tigray occupation.
Let us examine this criteria with respect to the Ethiopian Tigray Conflict
Application of Use of Force to Combatants not Noncombatants
A. In the “fog of war” injury to civilians must be avoided as much as possible. Intentional starvation, withdrawal of health care, livelihood (banking, communication, education) of civilians and children at the approval and command of Ethiopian and Eritrean authorities grossly violates this mandate.
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Clear, professional analysis on the war in Tigray by the federal republic Ethiopian government and government of Eritrea 🇪🇷 . The federal government need to come out and admit instigating the war since @AbiyAhmed came to power by delayed budget, blocked 🚫 roads to Tigray and displaced Tigrian ethinic groups from Ethiopia 🇪🇹 states, imprisoning innocent federal Tigrian soliders because of their ethinic identity, blame Tigray people for their own failures the last 27years, so the northern command was used as excuse to start the attach for doing the election in Tigray, so AbiyAhmed ✋ lying get #AmharaMilitiaOutofTigray
#Eritreansoldiers out of Tigray
#AllowAccessToTigray
#TigrianLivesMatter