☪ The Chios Massacre : The Worst Atrocity Committed by the Ottoman Turks
The Chios massacre of 1822 was perhaps the worst atrocity committed by the Ottomans against Greeks during the Greek War of Independence.
Approximately three-quarters of the population of 120,000 were killed, enslaved, or died of disease after thousands of Turkish troops landed on the eastern Aegean island to end a rebellion against Ottoman rule.
One of history’s most tragic and comprehensive acts of genocide takes place on the island of Chios in 1822. The Greek War of Independence begins in 1821. But the Orthodox population of peaceful and prosperous Chios, lying just off the coast of Turkey, finds itself caught between the competing nationalist ambitions of the old Turkish Ottoman Empire and the fledgling new state of Greece. A year later, during the Massacres around 20,000 islanders are hanged, butchered, starved or tortured to death. Untold thousands more are raped, deported and enslaved. The Greek word katastrofi – also meaning ‘destruction’ and ‘ruin’ – is usually used to describe these events.
The island itself is devastated In addition to setting fires, the troops were ordered to kill all infants under three years old, all males 12 years and older, and all females 40 and older except those willing to convert to Islam.
Those too old or too young to run for cover in the hills are murdered in their homes while about 15,000 Turkish and Samian troops are killed in clashes. Corpses fill the streets and clog the harbor. When they can find no more Christians to kill, any Christian buildings, farms, churches or monasteries are burnt or destroyed.
However, young women, boys and girls are taken alive for their value as slaves and shipped to the mainland.
Around 2,000 women, children and priests seek sanctuary in the Byzantine Nea Moni monastery in the mountains – founded by Constantine Monamacus in 1042-1048. Eventually the doors to Nea Moni burst open and all inside are slaughtered or burnt alive when the building is set on fire – many of their skulls and bones being displayed to this day at the monastery.
Rather than fall into the hands of the Turks, many women commit mass suicide by jumping from the cliffs with infants in their arms.
Tens of thousands of survivors dispersed throughout Europe to become part of what would become known as the Chian Diaspora.
A horrified Europe responds to the atrocity with shock
During the year 1822, European capitals were inundated with reports about a massacre of the Christian population of Chios. The island, a few kilometres from the mainland of Asia Minor in the eastern Aegean, and the supposed birthplace of the ancient poet Homer, had become the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes of the Greek War of Independence. At the time, Greece belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
The massacre shocked Europe, and protesters highlighted the atrocity with many famous artists dedicating works to this heinous event.
One of the greatest works of the great French painter Eugene Delacroix was a depiction of the Massacre of Chios, the purpose of which was to raise awareness throughout Europe of the horrors and atrocities committed by the Ottomans on the island. Furthermore, Victor Hugo’s poem about the massacre also highlights the brutality suffered at the hands of the Ottomans.
👉 Courtesy: Schoebat.com
💭 My Note: This was STATE TERRORISM and the birthplace of democracy destroyed ….. Orthodox Christian Greeks murdered for their faith. Western Edomite Anglo-Saxons and the French didn’t want to help Greek Christians.
And the History repeats itself now. Day by day same Massacre and killings continue. This hideous massacre on Chios is repeating itself in OUR times,,,,
Since November 4, 2020 The Turks Helped the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia to massacre more than 1 million Orthodox Christians
In the middle ages, Christian Europeans were searching for Prester John in Ethiopia, for their spiritual allies across the Ethiopian Ocean aka Indian Ocean, while anti-christian Europeans and the Ottoman Turks were massacring Christians in the Middle East. In the 16th century these Turks and Europeans ound the Gallas/Oromos and Somalis between Indonesia and Madagascar, moved them north – and settled them in the Horn of Africa. Since then Jihad has been waged again and again against non-Galla-Oromos and ancient Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia. They even were able to wipe out 28 idigeneous Ethiopian tribes completely.
500 years ago the Ottoman Turks, together with the Somalis and Oromos of Africa massacred more than three million African Christians of Ethiopia. 300 years later, the Turks slaughtered as many as 1.5 million Armenians in the #ArmenianGenocide. Today, the Turks massacred Armenians in Azeirbajan, they even travelled accross Africa to work together with their natural allies — Somalis and Oromos– and are again bombing and starving to death millions of ancient African Christians of Ethiopia in the # TigrayGenocide.
😈 The USA (USAID) and the World Food Program (WFP፟) stopped food aid to Tigray, Ethiopia. The covert genocide campaign continues, and now they have decided to punish my people through starvation.
So what we predicted two years ago is not happening?! Isn’t the Nobel Peace Prize a license for genocide?! For these barbarians the blood of over a million Christians is not enough, they want more. So, now they are going for a full extermination. Hunger and diseas have always been their stealth weapons, so, by playing out the same old ‘thesis-antithesis-synthesis’ game the evil and merciless Luciferians will continue blaming and accusing each other until they wipe out what is left of drones and bullets. We have already pointed out; Eritrea’s ELF, Tigray’s TPLF, Oromo’s ONL/Prosperity, Amharas ANDM, ANM, Gurage’s EZEMA, etc. are all barbaric servants of the Luciferians. Isaias Afwerki/Abdella Hasan, Debretsion-Seol, Getachew Reda, Gragn Ahmed Ali, Berhanu Nega, Jawar Mohammed are all CIA and NSA recruits. Our eyes are watching!
All international bodies, including the United Nations move and act according to the German philosopher Georg Hegel’s backward diabolical process; 🔥 “Problem-Response-Solution / Bloom” + “Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis”.
The Luciferians are using ELF + TPLF + OLF/ Prosperity as their puppets. They clandestinly tell or advice them: “You play as if you are enemies and improvise the dramatic fight agaubst each other, and massacre the Orthodox Christians this way, reduce your population, we will indirectly support you. Then talk about ‘Peace and reconciliation’ and negotiate as if nothing happend, act like a peacmaker. We will send you the money and the food. In the midst of the Good Cop – Bad Cop / Hide-and-Seek playing, you will continue the game ‘peacefully’ and hide the money and the food, steal it, we will passively react and by more time, we will make another million Christians end up dying in this form; We will once again humiliate Ethiopia by releasing the pictures that show the children of the people of Christendom starving and naked to the world.
Last year’s Nobel Peace Laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali is blocking this year’s Nobel Peace Laureate’s The World Food Program’s (W E P) food relief in Ethiopia.
💭 The Nobel Peace Prize That Paved the Way for War | NYTimes
❖❖❖[Psalm 83:5-8]❖❖❖ “For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have become a help to the children of Lot. Selah.”
What is happening in Ethiopia is a continuation of what happened to ancient Christians in Syria, Iraq and Armenia. It’s Edom + Ishmael vs Jacob. Western Edomites and Eastern Ishmaelites are supporting the cruel Nobel-Winning crypto-Muslim prime minister because they’ve planned to exterminate ancient Christian populations across that region. The Nobel peace prize is now a mark of shame – a license for genocide.
☆ Oslo, 9 October 2020
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 to the World Food Program (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.
☆ Tigray, 3 November 2020
When the evil Oromo Prime Minister of ‘Hijacked-Ethiopia’, Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, he was lauded as a regional peacemaker. Now, he is presiding over a protracted civil war that by many accounts bears the hallmarks of genocide.
In November 2020, Abiy ordered a military offensive in the northern Tigray region and promised that the conflict would be resolved quickly, but until today he uses hunger as a weapon of war. Three years on, the genocidal Jihad has left over a million Orthodox Christians dead, displaced more than 5 million people from their homes, fueled famine and given rise to a wave of atrocities.
☆ Los Angeles, 8 October 2021
💭 It’s The Weeknd! Superstar Singer Becomes World Food Programme Goodwill AmbassadorRecord-breaking vocalist and songwriter inducted into ‘WFP family’ at special ceremony in Los Angeles.
💭 Nobel Laureate WFP Should Immediately Air Drop Aid to Besieged Tigray, Ethiopia
💭 Let’s Connect the dots…the following individuals and bodies had been ‘randomly and coincidentally’ awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee – four years in a row:
☆ 2019 Nobel Peace Prize to evil Abiy Ahmed Ali for a Pact of War vs Orthodox Ethiopia
☆ 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to WFP in anticipation of the following genocidal war (Nov. 2020) against Orthodox Tigray, Ethiopia
☆ 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Dmitry Muratov of Orthodox Russia in anticipation of the coming war (Feb. 2022) between the two orthodox brothers; Russia-Ukraine
☆ 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to Ales Bialiatski from Belarus and the Russian human rights organisation, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties. – in anticipation of the coming nuclear war between the three orthodox brothers; Russia + Ukraine + Belarus
😲 So, isn’t everything clear by now?
💭 Russian Journalist Sells Nobel Medal for $103 Million | ሩሲያዊ ጋዜጠኛ የኖቤል ሽልማቱን በ $103 ሚሊየን ሸጠ | ግራኝስ?
💭 My Note: It’s not by coincidence that Bill Gates and co made Dr. Tedros (who is from Axum, where the ark is located) head of the World Health Organization. So there may be a biological spice that can be added to the Nile river now. After they do this, the people of Egypt will cease to exist, as many biblical prophecies told us. It means that the wild donkey Ishmaelite Arabs and their Edomites allies will open the next and last Jihad against Ethiopian Christians.
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied a central public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation.
Fighters “kicked out all the technicians from the lab… which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO’s representative in Sudan.
He did not say which of the fighting parties had taken over the laboratory.
Abid said he had received a call from the head of the national laboratory in Khartoum on Monday, a day before a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals officially came into effect after 10 days of urban combat.
“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab,” said Abid.
He pointed out that the lab held so-called isolates, or samples, of a range of deadly diseases, including measles, polio and cholera.
The director of the lab had also warned of the danger that “depleting stocks of blood bags risk spoiling due to lack of power,” Abid said.
“In addition to chemical hazards, bio-risk hazards are also very high due to lack of functioning generators,” he said.
The UN health agency also said that it had confirmed 14 attacks on healthcare during the fighting, killing eight and injuring two.
The fighting in Sudan has pitted forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against those of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Sudanese health ministry has put the number of deaths so far at 459, with a further 4,072 wounded, the WHO said Tuesday, adding that it had not be able to verify that number.
The UN refugee agency meanwhile said it was bracing for up to 270,000 people to flee Sudan into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan.
Laura Lo Castro, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Chad, said some 20,000 refugees had arrived there since the fighting began 10 days ago.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video-link, she said the agency expected up to 100,000 “in the worst case scenario”.
Her colleague in South Sudan, Marie-Helene Verney, meanwhile said that around 4,000 of the more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees living in Sudan had returned home since the fighting began.
Looking forward, she told reporters that “the most likely scenario is 125,000 returns of South Sudanese refugees into South Sudan.”
In addition, she said, UNHCR expected up to 45,000 Sudanese to flee as refugees into South Sudan.
💭 Tense moment as Russia’s UN ambassador interrupted a minute of silence for victims of Ukraine war at Security Council.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN broke a minute of silence honoring victims of the Ukraine war.
Nebenzya said the council should honor “all victims of what happened in Ukraine, starting in 2014.”
This comes a day after the UN voted for Russia to withdraw its troops immediately from the country.
No such action, either at the United Nations or the African Union, for over million victims of Ethiopia war. Nothing! Never!
💭 Moral Equivalence To Deny Genocide, Improvised Peace Treaties to Doge Accountability.
UN boss Antonio Gutterez was in Ethiopia last week for the African Union Summit. No minute of silent there for the victims of the #TigrayGenocide. He even didn’t want to travel to the genocide hotspot in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. He went to Ukraine’s war zones several times.
Antonio Gutterez and WHO boss Tedros Adhanom are all part of the genocide team. Tedros Adhanom who is originally from Tigray is a member of the Communist TPLF which, alongside The fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia, the fascist Junta of Eritrea and other local and international groups started the genocidal war to exterminate ancient Christians of Tigray and Northern Ethiopia. Now they all are trying to save themselves and all their evil partners by continuing the defacto siege – and by persuading the UN to stop the independent investigation. ‘Ethiopia seeks to end U.N.-ordered probe into Tigray war abuses‘
No peace without justice and accountability; and neither justice, nor accountability without truth first.
The fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia and TPLF have ignored Amnesty International’s half-heated requests to access Tigray – and to assess the extent of the damage, the scale of the devastation, the genocide, abuses and human rights violations. Why are AI quite on this matter? Why don’t they keep insisting on the need to get permission to enter Tigray?
The fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia which alongside the TPLF is responsible for the death of more than a million Orthodox Christians has been hindering both International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) from conducting independent investigations into crimes and atrocities in Northern Ethiopia.
The genocidal Oromo regime, TPLF and their partners are saying: “In the past two years we have killed enough Christians, now no investigation is needed, let’s forget everything – and reconcile and move on….’
This is something unheard of in world history. This is beyond ridiculous! These are pure demons in human form.
If there is one thing Ethiopia’s two years war is markedly recognized globally for, it is the unimaginable atrocities committed against civilians, ranging from several types of cruelties that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity – such as mass murder, mass sexual violence and sexual slavery – to, by some indicators, a potential genocide upon proper designation.
Atrocity comparisons tend to be odious, but the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has verified 7,199 civilian deaths in Ukraine. The number of combat deaths is in the tens of thousands.
By contrast, the number of casualties in Ethiopia might never be known. The best estimates have been put together by Jan Nyssen, a geographer at Ghent University in Belgium, who has calculated that up to 600,000 non-combatants died during the Tigrayan war between November 2020 and November 2022. Many of them starved to death. If one adds fighters who died in combat, the total number of deaths could approach 1 million.
At the Munich Security Conference a week ago, US Vice-President Kamala Harris accused Russia of committing crimes against humanity. But given the simultaneous near-planetary silence on Tigray, it is safe to conclude that not all crimes against humanity are equal.
According to the Ukrainian government, the U.S. leads all countries with $196 billion in total military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine between Jan. 24, 2022, through Nov. 20, 2022. Germany has sent the second-most funds, with $172 billion sent in that span.
👉 Compare this to what is happening to the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia’s
☆ Since 2020 Genocide in Tigray: Over a million Orthodox Christians Massacred
☆ 200.000 Women, Nuns, Girls Raped in
☆ The Siege ofTigray is Causing mass Starvation for Millions
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, The Lord Jesus Christ will return and balance the books soon! I hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Those who cannot sympathize will be forced to empathize. Be careful when you invalidate someone’s struggle…the shoe may be on the other foot one day. It certainly will.
👉 Anyways, The Ukraine war shows us:
😈 United by their Illuminist-Luciferian-Masonic-Satanist agendas The following Edomite-Ishmaelite entities and bodies are helping the genocidal fascist Oromo regime of evil Abby Ahmed Ali:
☆ The United Nations
☆ The World Health Organization
☆ Antonio Gutterez
☆ Tedros Adhanom
☆ Klaus Schwab
☆ The European Union
☆ The African Union
☆ The United States, Canada & Cuba
☆ Russia
☆ Ukraine
☆ China
☆ Israel
☆ Arab States / Arab League
☆ Southern Ethiopians
☆ Amharas
☆ Eritrea
☆ Djibouti
☆ Kenya
☆ Sudan
☆ Somalia
☆ Egypt
☆ Iran
☆ Pakistan
☆ India
☆ Azerbaijan
☆ Amnesty International
☆ Human Rights Watch
☆ World Food Program (2020 Nobel Peace Laureate)
☆ The Nobel Prize Committee
☆ The World Economic Forum
☆ The World Bank & International Monetary Fund
☆ The Atheists and Animists
☆ The Muslims
☆ The Protestants
☆ The Sodomites
☆ TPLF
💭 Even those nations that are one another enemies, like: ‘Israel vs Iran’, ‘Russia + China vs Ukraine + The West’, ‘Egypt + Sudan vs Iran + Turkey’, ‘India vs Pakistan’ have now become friends – as they are all united in the anti-Christian, anti-Zionist-Ethiopia-Conspiracy. This has never ever happened before it is a very curios phenomenon – a strange unique appearance in world history.
✞ With the Zionist Tigray-Ethiopians are:
❖ The Almighty Egziabher God & His Saints
❖ St. Mary of Zion
❖ The Ark of The Covenant
💭 Due to the leftist and atheistic nature of the TPLF, because of its tiresome, imported and Satan-influenced ideological games of: „Unitarianism vs Multiculturalism“, the Supernatural Force that always stood/stands with the Northern Ethiopian Christians is blocked – and These Celestial Powers are not yet being ‘activated’. Even the the above Edomite and Ishmaelite entities and bodies who in the beginning tried to help them have gradually abandoned them.
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on January 12, 2023
💭 Germany and France are providing armor to the Neo-Nazi regime of Ukraine and advocate for war 24/7 – whereas in Ethiopia, they suddenly style themselves as angels of peace. The attempt of America’s and Europe’s governments to rehabilitate the fascist Oromo regime that massacred more than one million Orthodox Christians, whose evil army brutally raped up to 200.000 Christian women and girls, even monks, is highly irresponsible, heartless and cruel. Where is the humanity left nowadays? Where is the empathy?! This moment in history will never be forgotten!!!
💭 Russian Missile Storm Thunders Kharkiv; Blitz Hours After German Minister Analena Baerbock’s Visit
💭 A barrage of Russian missiles struck the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The onslaught was witnessed just hours after a surprise visit by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to the city. The German Minister’s visit antagonised Russian President Vladimir Putin, resulting in a fusillade. Ukrainian firefighters were seen scrambling as Russian troops rained missiles. Kharkiv has faced heavy bombardment during the war, but the frontline has moved east since a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year retook territory from Russia. Putin’s troops have again launched a massive offensive after the German minister’s visit. Watch this report for further information.
😈 Yesterday Nazi Ukraine – 🐺 Tomorrow Fascist Oromo of Ethiopia
😲 Just Unbelievable – Reel Mockery! What a wicked world?!
After Kharkiv, Ukraine ‘the proud atheist’ German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock will be visiting Ethiopia this Thursday to meet with black Hitlers of the fascist Oromo regime that has massacred over a million Orthodox Christians.
Earlier, in October 2022, the attractive Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted the following message:
After these revelations, she is now ready to meet black Hitler aka Abiy Ahmed Ali in Ethiopia. So, what’s / who’s blocking her from promoting peace in Ukraine? Why doesn’t she travel to Moscow to meet the Russian President Vladimir Putin? Who is worse, Putin who is trying to protect Orthodox Christians — or Abiy Ahmed Ali who has been ‘enabled’ to massacre over a million Orthodox Christians.?”
Today, we are clearly seeing that it is the United Nations, the United States and Europe that prevent the war criminal Eritrean army from leaving Tigray. In the following days, the German and French Jezebel-female foreign ministers are are set to visit Addis Ababa to praise and reward the barbaric Gala-Oromo regime that is blocking, abducting and starving Orthodox Christians of Tigray – who may emigrate to Europe – to death.
These atheist European politicians went to Abuja, Nigeria two weeks ago to reward the ally of the barbaric Jihadist Ahmed Ali, the Islamic Nigerian junta, which is committing genocide against Nigerian Christians.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on January 11, 2023
70% of UN rights council members are non-democracies, says watchdog
UN Watch director says electing genocidal and authoritarian regimes to panel ‘is like naming Al Capone’ to fight organized crime, makes it difficult for body to carry out positive work
The top United Nations human rights body started the year with a majority of its members defined as non-democratic countries and many accused of severe rights violations.
Only 14 members elected to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, are considered “free” countries by the rights group Freedom House, leaving 70 percent of slots occupied by nations designates as “partly free” or “not free.”
“When the world elects regimes like Eritrea, Somalia, China, Cuba, Pakistan, to its highest human rights body, that’s like naming Al Capone and his gang to fight organized crime. It’s a betrayal,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer in an interview with ILTV.
When such states are elected to the panel, “it’s very hard for the world to take it seriously, and it raises the question, how can they even implement mandates that are positive, like the inquiry created on Iran,” Neuer added, referencing a recently formed probe into unrest in the Islamic Republic sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
The Human Rights Council has 47 member states, which are elected to three-year terms by the UN General Assembly through direct and secret ballots.
Neuer noted in a tweet that countries with questionable human rights records such as Eritrea, Somalia,Sudan,Algeria,Qatar, Cuba,China,Vietnam, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Bangladesh are members of the council. All Islamic and Atheist nations.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Nigerian Culture Minister Lai Mohammed pose after signing a declaration to transfer the ownership of the Benin bronzes in Berlin, Germany July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
💭 14 countries were elected to the Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term including Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Algeria and Qatar. These, mainly Islamic, countries are currently involved in the genocide of the Orthodox Christian population of Ethiopia.
☆ 28th of November 2022: UN Internet Forum, Addis Ababa
😈A Horribly Grotesque Mockery – a Force of Pure Evil!
😲 Wow! Can you all see, the Satanic PENTAGRAM without the tricoloed Ethiopian Flag.
Even United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is in Addis Ababa for the 17th edition of the leading ‘Internet Governance’ event. Of course he will shake hands with the genocidal PM of the fascist Oromo regime, evil monster Abiy Ahmed ‘Hitler’ Ali. He will congratulate him for massacring 1000 Axumites and over a million ancient Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia.
❖❖❖ [1 John 5:19] ❖❖❖
“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
The cruelty with which these Luciferians are celebrating the massacre in Axum, Ethiopia is repugnant.
💭 The Genocidal fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia Hosts UN Internet Forum, Amid Tigray Blackout, and exactly on The Second-Year Commemoration of The Massacre of Axum. During the past two years, this evil, monstrous regime and its Arab, Turkish and Iranian allies massacred and starved to death two million Christians of Northern Ethiopia.
On the 28th of November Christians of Tigray, Ethiopia commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the gruesome Axum Massacre.
On this very day, the genocidal fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia is REWARDED, by the genocide-enabler United Nation Organization, with hosting the ‘UN Internet Forum’ amid the government-imposed blackout in the Tigray region that has left six million people without phone or internet access for nearly two years.
The November 28 forum is expected to draw over 2,500 delegates to Addis Ababa, one of the largest international gathering in Ethiopia’s capital in years. With this gathering the UN intends to show a profound disrespect to the memories of the Axum massacre victims, a horribly grotesque mockery.
Ethiopia is hosting the U.N.’s annual Internet Governance Forum, despite an ongoing communications blackout in its war-damaged Tigray region.
Those not able to attend in person will be able to log in virtually to hear sessions dealing with topics such as “connecting all people” and “meaningful access” to the internet.
People living in Tigray will not be tuning in, however. The northern region was subjected to one of the world’s tightest communications blackouts, when war broke out between the federal military and forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF, in November 2020.
A peace deal struck earlier this month commits the federal government to restoring the services, but the blackout is still firmly in place.
As a result, the U.N.’s decision to hold the event in Ethiopia has raised eyebrows. On November 15, Senator Jim Risch, who chairs the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, described the decision as “wrong,” saying the forum should be held in a country that “doesn’t regularly block its citizens’ internet access.”
Felicia Anthonio, a manager at internet rights group Access Now, said the internet forum is an “opportunity” to highlight the blackout affecting Tigray.
“Ethiopia’s government has been responsible for a two-year-long internet blackout and must take urgent steps to restore full intent access in Tigray and all parts of the country,” she said. “The African Union and member states have a clear mandate to promote and protect human rights in Africa, and this is the moment for them to step up and help facilitate an end to this internet blockade.”
November 4, 2022 marks two years of deliberate and sustained internet shutdowns that continue to fracture the lives of approximately six million people in Tigray and millions more. We, the undersigned organizations and individuals from across the globe, are alarmed by the human rights violations carried out during the ongoing conflict in Tigray, and the blatant attempts to conceal them. We are petitioning the African Union and individual member states, as continental leaders, to condemn the Ethiopian government’s prolonged shutdown, and to help reestablish internet access across the region and beyond.
Conflict and shutdowns in Tigray
Since the conflict began in Tigray in November 2020, authorities have used deliberate and sustained internet and telecommunication shutdowns as a weapon of information control and censorship, directly impacting the lives of approximately six million peoplein the region, as well as their networks and communities abroad. Authorities and warring parties also targeted infrastructure and confiscated individuals’ SIM cards, and, as the conflict spread to other parts of Ethiopia, including the Amhara and Afar regions, they shut down internet and telecommunication services and infrastructure in those areas — affecting up to 10 million people total. The deliberate shutdowns interfere with people’s ability to access education, healthcare, businesses, and other services, the long-term effects of which could resonate for years to come. These disruptions deprive people in Tigray and other areas from accessing vital and life-saving information about this conflict and connections to their loved ones, leaving people outside the region without information on the safety of their families and communities back home, while making it extremely hard for journalistsand human rights defenders to document and report on the impacts in real time.
Internet shutdowns cover up human rights violations
As we have seen in other conflict zones, the internet shutdowns in Tigray have restricted information emerging from the region, making it increasingly difficult for journalists, human rights defenders, and activists to corroborate accounts ofhuman rights violations. Yet, there have still been numerous reports of warring parties committing heinous crimes against civilians, including mass rape and sexual violence,mass murder,arrests of journalists, and theabuse of refugees.
The internet, social media platforms, and other telecommunications play a critical role in times of social and political unrest, crises, and conflict. These tools enable communication, public debate, access to information, and documentation of events. They also help identify safe havens during conflict and crises. The ongoing internet shutdowns in Tigray are making it challenging for humanitarian aid and medical services to reach conflict zones and affected populations.
Internet shutdowns violate national and international human rights laws
The two-year-long shutdown in Tigray contravenes Article 29 of Ethiopia’s constitution, which guarantees respect for the “right of thought, opinion and expression” and is a blatant violation of the legally binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR),the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights(ACHPR), and the African Commission’s (The Commission’s)Resolution on the Right to Freedom of Information and Expression on the Internet, as well as the Commission’s Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. Further, to our knowledge, Ethiopia has not notified the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) or ITU member states of the stoppage or suspension of telecommunications in Tigray, as required by Articles 34 and 35 of theITU Constitution.
Experts, international institutions, and high-level officials — including the UN Secretary-General — have repeatedly affirmed that shutdowns and blockings violate international human rights law. Arecent report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted the impact of internet shutdowns on freedom of expression and access to information, and the negative effects they have on economic activities, social welfare, and humanitarian aid delivery. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, through the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, has also expressed concernat the increasing weaponization of internet shutdowns in the region.
It’s time for immediate intervention
To date, the government and other parties involved in the blackouts in Tigray have ignored all calls from local and international organizations urging them to reconnect people. It’s time for the African Union and its individual member states to speak out and condemn the Ethiopian government’s prolonged shutdown.
Cognizant of Article 3(H) of The Constitutive Act of the African Union which provides a clear mandate to AU Organs and institutions to promote and protect human rights in Africa, we call for a firmer approach to the situation in Tigray. We commend the African Union for initiating mediation in an effort to de-escalate the conflict, and further implore you to:
Join the regional and international community in denouncing the two-year-long internet shutdown ravaging lives in and around the Tigray region and the practice of internet shutdowns in Ethiopia;
Hold the Ethiopian government and all parties responsible for the shutdown accountable for immediately restoring full access to the internet and telecommunications platforms, in keeping with their commitments in the AU-mediated truce;
Engage with the Ethiopian government and the Tigray regional authorities to ensure they uphold and protect people’s fundamental rights at all times, especially during crises; and
Engage with authorities in Ethiopia to put an end to the cycle of internet shutdowns in conflict-affected areas and during critical national events in future.
We further urge African Union member states to unilaterally speak out and condemn the government’s restrictions of internet and telecommunication services. We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are confident that your office will take note of the infractions enumerated above and implement our recommendations. You have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to improve and uphold freedom of expression and all human rights in Ethiopia — both online and off.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 