Abstract:
Post 1995 Ethiopia has become an era of interstate border disputes between regional states
of the federation over contested lands. These disputes have become a threat to national
cohesion and stability of the country as they are becoming sometimes violent. And, in the last
five years the dispute between the Tigray and Amhara regional states over Raya and Wolkait
lands is a good example for such sort of disputes. Thus, this exploratory study aimed to
investigate how the existing constitutional and institutional frameworks effectively resolve
border conflicts between the Tigray and Amhara Regional States, how internal border
demarcations affect the relationships, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence of the two
communities, how the land/boundary dispute between Tigray and Amhara affects the effective
implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement signed between the TPLF and FDRE
government on November 2, 2022, in South Africa to end the two-year civil war in North
Ethiopia as well as how demobilizing and reintegrating paramilitary forces that play a role
in minimizing the claim of land in dispute. To this end, an a semi-structured interview was
conducted with purposively selected participants as well as secondary sources were
thoroughly referred to collect all necessary data to meet the study objectives.
Moreover, the FDRE Constitution spells out ethnicity and other social values as a baseline to
demarcate the internal border, but there have been some claims and contested lands across
the country throughout the years since 1991. One of the core principles instituted by the
constitution is the formation of states along ethnic lines where states are delimited on the
basis of settlement patterns, language, identity and consent of the concerned people.
The findings of this study showed that the mandated body in the HoF is infective to solve the
Welkait and Raya case with the existing constitutional and institutional frameworks.
Moreover, the question of impartiality and being free from any political influence are another
huge factor which could hamper the case to entertain by the institution independently. In
addition to this, the Pretoria peace agreement and its effective implementation faced an
obstacle by refusing regional forces not to disarm and remain the accord in danger.
Therefore, the current political tension and mistrust among people can be addressed through
public to public discussion and settle their differences in proper way are the way forward of
the study
