☪ Jihadist Ilhan in Asmara, in front of St. Mary Church
☪ ጅሃዳዊት ኢልሀን በአስመራ ቅድስት ማርያም ቤተ ክርስቲያን ፊት ለፊት
Jihadist Ilhan Omar was in Asmara, Eritrea one year before The massacre at Saint Mary of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia. Somali + Oromo + Eritrean Ben Amir tribe Muslim Jihadist massacred over 1000 Orthodox Christians on on 28 and 29 November 2020.
💭 We May Never Know The Full Truth About The Axum Massacre/ ስለ አክሱም ጭፍጨፋ ሙሉ እውነቱን ላናውቅ እንችላለን፤
💭 New Revelations፡ Somali Troops Committed Atrocities in Tigray as New Alliance Emerged, Survivors Say: https://wp.me/piMJL-7OJ
New revelations about atrocities by Somali soldiers in Ethiopia’s Tigray war are casting a spotlight on an emerging military alliance that has reshaped the Horn of Africa, weakening Western influence in a strategically important region.
The Globe and Mail has obtained eyewitness accounts of massacres by Somali troops embedded with Eritrean forces in Tigray in the early months of the war. The new evidence raises disturbing questions about a covert military alliance between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia that has inflicted death and destruction on the rebellious Tigrayregion in northern Ethiopia.
Some of the priests and monks were people he recognized. Somali soldiers, working alongside Eritrean forces who had captured the village, had targeted churches and killed the clergymen, he said.
“They slaughtered them like chickens,” he told The Globe.
Officially, the three governments have denied any alliance, and Somalia has denied that its troops were deployed in Tigray. But The Globe’s investigation has provided, for the first time, extensive details of civilian killings committed by Somali soldiers allied with Eritrean forces in the region.
Gebretsadik, a 52-year-old farmer from the village of Zebangedena in northwestern Tigray, said the dusty roads of his village were strewn with the bodies of decapitated clergymen in December, 2020, a few weeks after the beginning of the war.
Some of the priests and monks were people he recognized. Somali soldiers, working alongside Eritrean forces who had captured the village, had targeted churches and killed the clergymen, he said.
“They slaughtered them like chickens,” he told The Globe.
The Somali and Eritrean troops stayed in the village until late February, according to Gebretsadik, who often fled to the bushes and mountains around the village to escape attacks during that time.
The Globe talked to dozens of survivors who had witnessed atrocities in six Tigrayan villages where Somali troops had been stationed between early December, 2020 and late February, 2021. The Globe is not publishing their full names or their current locations because their lives could be in danger.
The survivors said the Somali troops were wearing Eritrean military uniforms, but they were clearly identifiable as Somali because of their language and their physical appearance. Unlike the Eritreans, they could not speak any Tigrinya, the language spoken in Tigray and much of Eritrea. The witnesses said they also heard the Eritrean troops referring to them as Somalis.
💭 The origin of Somali & Oromo hatred of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians goes back at least 500 years.
In 1531, Ottoman Turkey Agent Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi invaded Ethiopia, ending Emperor Lebna Dengel’s ability to resist at the Battle of Amba Sel on October 28.
The Imam, known to Somalis as “Axmed gurey” was seen as avenging Ethiopian repression.
The army of Imam Ahmad then marched northward to loot the island monastery of Lake Hayq and the stone churches of Lalibela.
When the Imam entered the province of Tigray, he defeated an Ethiopian army that confronted him there. On reaching Axum, he destroyed the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in which the Ethiopian emperors had for centuries been crowned.
The Ethiopians were forced to ask for help from the Portuguese, who landed at the port of Massawa on 10 February 1541.
The Imam too turned to foreign allies, bringing 2000 musketeers from Arabia, as well as artillery and 900 Ottoman troops.
Iman Ahmad was only finally defeated on 21 February 1543 in when 9,000 Portuguese troops managed to vanquish the 15,000 soldiers under Imam Ahmad, who was killed in the battle.
Paul Henze maintains that the damage inflicted by the Imam’s troops have never been forgotten by Ethiopians.
Abiy was formerly a member of the TPLF-led coalition regime, serving as a minister of technology and before that as a military intelligence officer. While studying for his MBA at the private Ashland university in Ohio. It is believed that he was recruited by the CIA. His later work as a government minister establishing national security surveillance systems under the tutelage of U.S. spy agencies would have given him immense political powers and leverage over rivals.