Ethiopia conflict stirs regional tensions

0:00Hello there and welcome to Focus on Africa, I am in K.C. O'Buenna. Forces aligned to the Ethiopian army have taken control of Mekele. Tigris capital amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan. When you sever the diplomatic ties, it is the worst form of relations barring short of direct war. Now when you stop communications, there is a risk of elevation and mass calculations. So now governments are not talking to each other, even if tensions are bad, governments try and maintain or shoot at least maintain some kind of open communication so there's no mass communication. And from the forest of Madagascar to the world's grand opera houses, an unlikely connection has emerged. Scientists studying injury lemmails have discovered similarities between the way the primates sing and the techniques used by trained vocalists.

1:02So they use the song to communicate to other like groups saying, you know, this territory is ours, we are here today, we will be here tomorrow, don't come here, and then the other group replies, oh yeah, also this territory is ours, so please don't come here, these are our resources. It's Monday, October 5th. Let's begin in Ethiopia where over the weekend, forces aligned to the National Army took control of Mekele, the capital of the Northern Tigray region. What you're hearing is residents of the city, clapping and cheering, as fighters drove in pickup trucks around the city in a show of force. This came after the Tigray people's liberation front, TPLF, with drew its troops from the capital, where they had seized control of the main airport. Mobile and banking services appear to have resumed in parts of the city.

2:05Earlier on, the BBC's Rob Young, presenter of the Newstay program, spoke to Duke Bubbridge, an American doctor with the Health Professionals Network for Tigray. Duke started by painting a picture of life in Mekele, following the government takeover. Everybody was out on the streets yesterday in the restaurants, as soon as the banking came back on. Everybody was in the restaurants and the markets, they were just enjoying the fact that there were cell phones were back on, the mobile banking was back on, and there was loud music deep into the night. People are still a little nervous with the new security forces that are here, but people are enjoying the fact that their lives are going on. Has there been any fighting in or close to the city that you've heard or witnessed? Two days ago, when the TPLF left and the local police and law enforcement left, there was a lot of looting. It appears that, a nearby prison, the inmates were released, and I believe they came to the town and started looting the place. Two nights ago, it was very bad.

3:08Explosions, gunfire, a couple of places got looted. The regional government offices, some humanitarian sites got looted. But last night was relatively calm. There were a couple of instances of gunfire and that sort of thing, but it was much calmer. Right now, the forces that appear to be in charge are the Tigray Peace Forces, which is a splinter group of what used to be the Tigray Defense Forces that align themselves with the government, and they are visible on the streets now. There must be very unnerving times, very frightening times for people, given that it's unclear what's going to happen in the coming days. Yeah, people are very worried. They're hearing about fighting in Adirat, in Adwa, and places north of here. There was certainly a lot of fighting south of here. People have been very anxious about everything that's happened, but the people in Makele, they've been through a lot over the past six years. They've been through brutal conflict,

4:09siege warfare, and it's been remarkable to see how much people are coming together as a community to take care of one another. Duke Babridge, an American doctor with the health professionals network fatigue, speaking with the BBC's Rob Young. Now, the conflict in Ethiopia has recently taken a regional angle. A diplomatic tension has been simmering among Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan. Ethiopia accuses these countries of supporting an anti-government rebellion within its borders, allegations they have all denied. Last week, Ethiopia announced it was closing its embassy in the Eritrean capital Asmara, and expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats. Eritrea responded by reciprocating in kind and severing all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, one of quote, negative corollaries from the move. Cairo also expelled an Ethiopian embassy consolo and gave him 48 hours to leave the country after Ethiopia expelled an Egyptian diplomat.

5:15Ethiopia and Egypt have been embroiled in a longer dispute over the grand Ethiopian Renaissance built on the river now, which Cairo fears could reduce its share of water from the river. At a summit attended by the leaders of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia held in the coastal city of El Alamin on Sunday, Egypt's foreign minister, Badre Abdullahti, denied any involvement in the conflict in Ethiopia. We are not partied with the domestic crisis facing Ethiopia now. It has nothing to do with us. It's a domestic crisis and they have to take care of their own problems. As for us, it's a long-standing issue since this unilateral action in 2011, the construction of this dam without consulting with the downstream countries, namely Sudan and Egypt, and this is an important issue. Now, to give us a wider perspective on the diplomatic tensions between Ethiopia and its neighbors, I spoke to Jeremy Nidu. He is a senior political economist

6:22at Oxford Economics, specializing in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. What's his reaction to the latest events in Mekele? So, this would be a positive short term win for Prime Minister Ameh Ahmed's government and Ethiopian government and its allied forces, obviously on September 23rd, the TPLF had taken control of three major airports in Mekele, Aksham and Shia. So, this is a good win for the government, but this doesn't necessarily mean the conflict is over. Could you just put this in perspective for us? Why has this conflict in Ethiopia seemed to have taken a diplomatic turn? The main diplomatic turn would be obviously we've seen the severing of ties, but it's been a steady decay. So, the diplomatic tensions and the conflict has been decaying over the last four to five years. Now, the Arabians and the Ethiopians have long-standing tensions over the border. Ethiopia lost access to the sea and they've been pushing for access to the sea via Aswab. So, the Arabians see this as a trade on sovereignty. The Egyptians and

7:26Ethiopians have long-standing tensions over the Kurd and the impact that's declared in the Ethiopian Renaissance them. Now, the Egyptians believe that the Kurds, particularly this year, will impact the flow of the Nile and Egypt is a water-skate country, so water security is very important to them. And on top of that, you have alleged supporting of different rebel groups. Now, with basic diplomatic channels now breaking down, how does this affect the conflicts and the risk of wider regional escalation? I think the main thing for our lessons to take away, your lessons to take away is that first of all breaking down diplomatic ties, I think, for the laymen just to understand is that when you sever diplomatic ties or that is the worst form of relations foreign short of direct war. Now, when you stop communications, there is a risk of elevation and mass calculations. So, now, governments are not talking to each other, even if tensions are being, governments trying to maintain or should at least maintain some kind of open communication, so there's no mass communication. Now, it could easily be that the Ethiopians, let's say, the

8:27federal government decide they're going to move groups towards the western border in Tigres or close to the town of Sharina where there's been fighting. That's right on the border of the Sudanese. Now, the Sudanese also are very baptized with the Ethiopians. They could judge that, for example, as possibility of the Ethiopian government backing the rebels, there's allegations that the Ethiopians backed the Arabic government back the RSF, then you could have a spillover conflict. Now, you were mentioned, Jeremy, that Ethiopia lost access to the Red Sea and has been pushing for the longest to have access to it, and that has also strained regional relations. Now, how important is that issue to the current tensions? It's very, very important. So, for example, Ethiopia is the largest landlocked country in the world in terms of population that doesn't have access to the sea. Now, currently, 95 to 96 percent, that's our estimate, say, at our forecast, it's also that they try to go through Djibouti and they pay something like $1 billion in estimates on tariffs. So, it's a very expensive process for them to get goods and services coming from the

9:29border. Now, it's a matter of national security. The problem is, Ameh Ahmed's posturing, in my opinion, over the last two to three years has been a bit of a mix signal. He's been very aggressive about it and the neighbors are perceiving it as a direct threat on security. And also the fact that Ameh Ahmed's government signed an agreement with Somali and Somali and he's a breakaway state of Somali claims that it's an independence data. Somalis don't like that. They're heightened tension. So, the fact that access to the sea is a national security goal. Remember, also, if Ethiopia has set up a naval presence also in the Red Sea. So, there's also heightened all of the tension. So, it's a real major contributing factor. And, you know, Egyptian President Abdel Fattel-Ci hosted the leaders of Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia in his country over the weekend. What does this tell us? That summit ended yesterday. They announced a declaration with a few key demands. They don't explicitly name Ethiopia, but given what they address, Red Sea access conflict supporting

10:33armed groups, it's definitely a counterweight to Ethiopia as a little politic projections in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. The African Union has called for restraints and dialogue. Now, if they're unable to mediate, who else is best positioned to bring this parties together? The one group that could bring some kind of mediation would be IJET or the EIC, the East African community. East African community functions very well as a block. So, it might be a good opportunity for them. The UN obviously is obviously a big one. But also, originally Turkey is a big play within the region. The Turkey is a middle power. I've always trying to push for sort of, you know, mediating in this conflict. So, you always have that as well as the Qataris. But if we really need some form of de-escalation, but I will just caveat, I don't think a broad war is realistic or happening soon because it's going to cost all those countries too much. Many thanks to Jeremy Nidil, senior political economist at Oxford Economics, specializing in East Africa and the Honour of Africa. This is focus in Africa from the BBC World Service.

11:45You might be wondering what the sound is. Well, that's a sound made by Indri Lemus, a fluffy black and white primate commonly found high up in the trees of Madagascar. They usually have big round eyes and long legs. The sound is a signature tune that echoes through the forest as a mark of territorial dominance. But what if some of the techniques used by these primates are same techniques used by opera singers? The role of the modern heart of the world, the world of the world. Scientists from the University of Warwick, the University of Tyrin and Madagascar have spent several years studying the species. The study found that Indri Lemus appeared to use a technique like trained human singers when producing their distinctive calls. The researchers filmed 19 wild injuries and analyzed 83 recordings, looking closely at how the animals moved their mouth

12:49as they sang. They found that as the peach of a song rose, the Lemus opened their mouth wider, a technique known as formant tuning, which can help project sound. And that raises some fascinating questions. Why would a Lemu need to sing in this way? And what might study the way these animals communicate tell us about the much bigger question of how vocal communication and perhaps even music evolved? I have been speaking with Dr. Chiara Di Groguiro, an honorary research fellow, University of Warwick, one of the researchers behind this study, should be done by telling me about what inspired this research. So I've been studying Indri's for a few years now, and of course, one of the first time I was in the forest in Madagascar, and I heard them like live. Inside the forest, what struck me was how loud they were, because when you're like close to them, it's almost like

13:51break your ears. And so we wanted to understand a little bit more about this technique of singing. And so what we did, we wanted to understand if these animals would use this trick that it's known in human singer, which is a type of way of projecting the voice, so that everyone can hear you right at opera singing and theater. They don't use microphone. So what we did was to record the song of these animals for a couple of years, and then we used some algorithm to try to understand if they were moving their mouth in a way that would do the same trick that soprano singers use. Okay, so Dr. Cera at this point we're going to do a test. So don't laugh on me, don't worry. So don't let me do. Do I sound like an Indri Lemus? In a way, I would say in a way, it's a very nice performance. Thank you.

14:58Yeah, they would sound, I would say especially if you hear them in a forest, right, because most of the time maybe also people that listen now to the sound, listen it through the radio. And what misses here is the way in which this sound echoes in the forest. So hearing it like at close distance is a thing, but hearing it from like a couple of kilometers apart, you will just hear this like melancholic sound that that resonates in the trees and it's a totally different experience. Hmm, and what exactly is the similarity between how I sound and how they sound? So what we know in general, so Indri are singing primates, means that Indri are primates like us, they are like lemus, but no, there are other primates that use song to communicate. So they make these songs that are composed of different notes that are like harmonics in sound, and they have different like pitch, and they are not just emitted randomly, right, but they follow

16:03like specific pattern, exactly as our own music, right, it's not just a bunch of sounds emitted randomly. So this qualifies them as singing animals. And as similar to us, they are able to, you know, let's say move the vocal tract in a way that helps them be more intense when they sing. And this is something that we do that like opera singers do because we have a sound that is produced by our vocal chords and is the first like the source of the sound of our voice. And then we can move our mouth and of the vocal tract to modify this song. If we want to try it together, you can do a with, you know, your mouth open. But if you want to do all, you're like changing the shape of your mouth, right? So you're modifying the sound with the shape of the mouth. And this is what also animals do. And there is a specific type of shape modification that is

17:05called vocal tract tuning. So they tune the vocal tract. So the sound is way more intense than it will be without this adjustment. And this is what injuries do. And what like opera singers do. Sounds very technical. The shape of the mouth, I believe that's what's called Ombochor. Is that correct? Not sure on the percent as like my expertise is more in the minimum primary that actually like opera. I like opera a lot bit. But no. So that's pretty much that. Okay. But do they sing to each other? And when they do, what do they say to each other? So they sing both, let's say, four other animals in the group, but also for other groups. So they use this vocalization, which is a long distance call, right? They use this trick that opera use because they want to be heard like quite far away. And they use these songs because they are territorial animals. So they have like this small family group. They live in a part of the forest. They feed off

18:10you know the leaves or fruits that are in that territory. So the territory ownership is very important because they live off the things that are inside the territory. So they use the song to communicate to other like groups saying, you know, this territory is ours. We are here today. We will be here tomorrow. Don't come here. And then the other group replies. Oh yeah. Also this territory is ours. So please don't come here. These are our resources. So they use this song every day to remind the neighbors every day that they still are there. And so they don't have to come there, right? Interesting. What a way to ward off your enemies. Goodbye singing to them. Exactly. And were you surprised by how sophisticated these vocal abilities are? And what does it tell us about the evolution of vocal communication? So I must say that when I first started studying these lemurs, yeah, I was amazed because we found so many interesting things that these songs do. For example, they have combinatorial chapter. They use different kinds of combination. They can

19:13be more valuable or not like the females are more like a desi and the maize tend to be more pop more repetitive. It was very fun. But then I would say that studying these animals for almost ten years, every time we found like something so interesting and major, let's say, discover. I'm like, of course, they do, right? At some point I'm stopping like being surprised because I now have the idea that the more we study these animals, but also animals in general, the more interesting things we found. And you know, sometimes I keep not being so I am amazed, let's say, but not not surprise. And to answer to your second question, also, it's important to notice that all these things we find that are maybe parallel with human way of communication start really make sense. So probably here we have what we call convergent evolution, meaning that some traits evolve because they have a purpose and a function for a specific, let's say, problem. And in this case, the problem that Indri has and

20:15the problem that maybe human have is to reach person or animals that are far away. So when opera was invented, there was no microphone, we will have these theaters that are quite big and people who are on the stage and have to, you know, sing on top of their lungs. So people in the back will hear that and they develop this trick. And this trick was already developed like many millions of years ago from animals that had the same problem and found the same solution to a similar problem. Dr. Chira, have they found anywhere else on the continent or overseas? No, they are only in Madagascar. So they are a specific group of primates that lives there among all the lemurs that are like hundreds of species of lemurs. They are the only one that sings but they do not survive in captivity. So if you want to see an Indri, you have to go to Madagascar in the forest because those animals are quite like delicate. They have tried to keep them in

21:15captivity, like to make them reproduce because they are critically endangered. So they are like on the brink of extinction, basically. Right. And so in line with that endangement, does this research give us any new insights that could help with their conservation? I would say in a indirect way. I think the more people maybe know that they even exist because of course you cannot see them even in Jews in captivity. So being able to tell this story and to make people see how similar they to us, I think it's a very important starting point to let the world know that they are there, they are precious and they are endangered. Many thanks to Dr. Chira DiGri Goriou, honorary research fellow University of Warwick. And that's it on Focus on Africa today. If you would like to give us feedback about the program or even suggest stories we should cover, our email address is focus on Africa at bbc.co.uk. You can also send us a message on WhatsApp. The number is plus 254-791-269-243 or find me on

22:24socials with the handle at I am in Kachitina and that's with Dublin. Now this episode was produced by Victor Chegey and Ki Gansai Shumba in Nairobi. Ayuba Ilia and blessing Adderogba put in efforts from Lagos. Harba's Masua was the technical producer while Charles Gitonga was the senior journalist in charge. Our editors are Daniel Dazie and Mariam Abdullah. I am in Kachitina, and I'll speak to you again soon.