🛑 The use of starvation of civilian populations as a method of warfare is prohibited by international law. But,Indeed shame on the international community There is no other situation in which 6+ million people have been kept under siege for over two years like in Tigray, where STARVATION and RAPE are used .
💭 Tigray Debate, Lord Alton, House of Lords 15. November 2022
Eritrean government response to the Minister of State for Development’s call for Eritrean soldiers to leave Tigray Province in Ethiopia, and the reinstatement of a truce and the beginning of peace talks.
💭 Congressman Brad Sherman‘s (D-CA) remarks during a House Foreign Affairs Hearing Assessing the Biden Administration’s U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa.
💭 ‘Nobel Jihad’ on Orthodox Christian Nations? | ‘ኖቤል ጂሃድ‘ በኦርቶዶክስ ክርስቲያኖች ላይ?
💭 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
💭 Florida (FL) – ADI rolf = ADI Daero (E) – ADOLF + ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front ‘Jebha’)
Eritrean war planes bombed ADI Dearo. ELF is a Jihadist group created by Arabs. USA + Canada + Europe + Israel + Russia + Ukraine + China supported UAE + Iran + Turkey drones massacring Orthodox Christians in Tigray, Ethiopia.
The DAY after the ADI Daero (The region of Ethiopia where The Ark of The Covenant is preserved) Massacre – this tragedy in Florida – ADI rolf = ADI Daero
💭 Catastrophic Destruction Leaving Hundreds Dead In Florida Hurricane Aftermath. Hurricane Ian ravaged the area and collapsed part of the Sanibel Causeway
💭 The Conspiracy of Silence: The world and its media outlets are of course silent on this story: Ethiopia: Christians Carpet Bombed by The Nobel Peace Laureate & His Foreign Mercenaries – over 50 children massacred.
💭 Residents in the Northern Ethiopian city of Adi Daero, in Tigray scream in agony while searching for their families in the ash and trying to rescue people trapped under a rubble. A mother is heard shouting loudly “my son, my son, I lost him…”
The unEthiopian fascist Oromo regime’s and Eritrean air forces bombarded many towns in Tigray including Shire, Adi Daero and Mekelle.
Adi Daero Massacre, in Tigray Ethiopia, 27 September 2022
This barbaric act was carried out on 27 September 2022 – on the very day Christians celebrated the annual Christian festival of the Meskel (which means “CROSS” in Ethiopic), marking the finding of the “True Cross” on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The festival is one of the major religious celebrations of the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on January 25, 2022
🤯 In this video, at 6:09, Mrs. Merit Reiss-Anderesen named the evil monster first as ‘Prime Minister’ Abiy and then as ‘President’ Abiy Ahmed. She obviously gave another Nobel to him!
💭 When asked the Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, if giving Abiy Ahmed a Nobel Peace Prize, was a mistake, Merit Reiss-Anderesen answered:
“It’s an unprecedented situation that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate is involved in warfare.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 7, 2021
This video reflects the severe humanitarian situation in Tigray with supplies of food aid running out and the United Nations warning that a de facto blockade is bringing millions to the brink of famine. Video by WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME via REUTERS
💭 Ethiopia’s Tigray Crisis: Tplf Says 150 Have Died of Starvation
About 150 people died of starvation in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region in August, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has said.
These are the first hunger-related deaths that the TPLF has reported since its fighters recaptured most of the region from federal forces in June.
There is no independent confirmation of its statement.
The UN previously said that about 400,000 were already living in famine-like conditions in Tigray.
The government has not responded the to the TPLF statement.
About 5.2 million people – or 90% of Tigray’s population – urgently needed aid “to avert the world’s worst famine situation in decades”, the UN said last week.
The TPLF and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were once allies in the government, but fell out over his political reforms, triggering the war that has killed thousands and displaced millions since November.
TPLF recaptured most of the region, including the capital, Mekelle, in June after losing control of most of it early in the war.
The TPLF says it is the legitimate government of Tigray, having won regional elections in 2020. The Ethiopian government denounced the poll as illegal. It regards the TPLF as a terrorist organisation.
Dying ‘in front of our eyes’
In a statement on Monday, the TPLF said there was a “complete depletion of food stocks” in Tigray.
People living in camps after being displaced by conflict were receiving “no aid” and host communities were running out of food, it said.
The TPLF said the 150 deaths were recorded in the central, southern and eastern zones of Tigray, as well in camps in the city of Shire – the birthplace of the group’s leader Debretsion Gebremichael.
“One million people are at risk of fatal famine if they are prohibited from receiving life-saving aid within the next few days,” it added.
In a BBC Tigrinya interview, TPLF agriculture chief Atinkut Mezgebo said that people were dying “in front of our eyes”.
“In the villages and towns, there is a shortage of food and medicine, and the crisis might be bigger than what we know,” he said.
Dr Atinkut said that women and children were the main victims of hunger.
“Previously, people shared what they had, but now they don’t have anything to eat,” he added.
It is hard to confirm details of what is happening in Tigray as telephone and internet communications have been cut.
The BBC has asked the federal government for a reaction to the TPLF statement but has so far not got a response. But in a statement on Monday, the foreign ministry said the TPLF had exacerbated the humanitarian problems by invading neighbouring regions and looting aid supplies.
Last week, the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia, Grant Leaity, called on the Ethiopian government to allow the unimpeded entry of aid to Tigray.
On Sunday, the World Food Programme said that more than 100 trucks of its aid had reached Mekelle for the first time in a fortnight.
In the past, the government has denied that it is blocking aid but has said it is concerned about security.
On Saturday, it announced that 500 trucks carrying supplies had entered the region, with 152 arriving in the last two days.
“When Kidanemariam, who is from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, approached the dais to introduce his longtime friend and colleague to the crowd, he said he was greeted with heckles from members of the audience: “Get out of the podium Tigrayan, get out of the podium Woyane,” and other ethnic slurs. He expected Abiy, who preached a political philosophy of inclusion, to chide the crowd, but he said nothing. Later, over lunch, when Kidanemariam asked why, he said Abiy told him: “There was nothing to correct.“”
“Abiy’s early advocates and supporters say he not only misled the world, but his own people — and they are now paying a steep price.
In his open letter announcing he was leaving his post, Kidanemariam wrote of Abiy: “Instead of fulfilling his initial promise, he has led Ethiopia down a dark path toward destruction and disintegration.””
“Abiy, Abiy,” the crowd chanted, waving Ethiopia’s tricolor flag and cheering as the country’s new prime minister, dressed in a white blazer with gold trim and smiling broadly, waved to a packed basketball arena at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, part of a whirlwind three-city tour of the United States to woo the diaspora.
It was July 2018, just three months after Abiy Ahmed had been appointed leader of Africa’s second-most populous country, and his star was rising both at home and abroad. Excitement was surging into an almost religious fervor around the young politician, who promised to bring peace, prosperity and reconciliation to a troubled corner of Africa and a nation on the brink of crisis.
But even in those early, optimistic days of Abiy’s premiership, as he kickstarted a flurry of ambitious reforms — freeing thousands of political prisoners, lifting restrictions on the press, welcoming back exiles and banned opposition parties, appointing women to positions in his cabinet, opening up the country’s tightly-controlled economy to new investment and negotiating peace with neighboring Eritrea — Berhane Kidanemariam had his doubts.
The Ethiopian diplomat has known the prime minister for almost 20 years, forging a friendship when he worked for the governing coalition’s communications team and, later, as CEO of two state-run news organizations, while Abiy was in military intelligence and then heading Ethiopia’s cybersecurity agency, INSA. Before working for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kidanemariam ran the country’s national broadcaster, the EBC, and he said Abiy sat on its board of directors.
In a recent phone interview, Kidanemariam said he, like many Ethiopians, had hoped Abiy could transform the nation’s fractious politics and usher in genuine democratic change. But he struggled to square his understanding of the man he’d first met in 2004 — who he described as power-hungry intelligence officer obsessed by fame and fortune — with the portrait emerging of a visionary peacemaker from humble beginnings.
In 2018, Kidanemariam was serving as Ethiopia’s consul general in Los Angeles and said he helped organize Abiy’s visit.
When Kidanemariam, who is from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, approached the dais to introduce his longtime friend and colleague to the crowd, he said he was greeted with heckles from members of the audience: “Get out of the podium Tigrayan, get out of the podium Woyane,” and other ethnic slurs. He expected Abiy, who preached a political philosophy of inclusion, to chide the crowd, but he said nothing. Later, over lunch, when Kidanemariam asked why, he said Abiy told him: “There was nothing to correct.”
“One of the ironies of a prime minister who came to office promising unity is that he has deliberately exacerbated hatred between different groups,” Kidanemariam wrote in an open letter in March, announcing that he was quitting his post as the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, DC, in protest over Abiy’s monthslong war in Tigray, which has spurred a refugee crisis, atrocities and famine.
Kidanemariam said to CNN he believed Abiy’s focus had never been about “reform or democracy or human rights or freedom of the press. It is simply consolidating power for himself, and getting money out of it … We may call it authoritarianism or dictatorship, but he is really getting to be a king.”
“By the way,” he added, “the problem is not only for Tigrayans. It’s for all Ethiopians. Everybody is suffering everywhere.”
In an email to CNN, Abiy’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, described Kidanemariam’s characterization of the prime minister as “baseless” and a “reflection.”
‘The epitome of hell’
Much has changed since Abiy accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in November 2019, telling an audience in Oslo, Norway, that “war is the epitome of hell.”
In less than two years, Abiy has gone from darling of the international community to pariah, condemned for his role in presiding over a protracted civil war that, by many accounts, bears the hallmarks of genocide and has the potential to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region.
The 45-year-old’s fall from grace has confounded many observers, who wonder how they could have gotten him so wrong. But diplomats, analysts, independent Ethiopian journalists, acquaintances and others who have followed his career closely say that even at the height of “Abiymania,” there were warning signs.
Critics say that by blessing Abiy with an array of international endorsements, the West not only failed to see — or willfully ignored — those signals, but gave him a blank check and then turned a blind eye.
“Soon after Abiy was crowned with that Nobel Peace Prize, he lost an appetite in pursuing domestic reform,” Tsedale Lemma, founder and editor-in-chief of Addis Standard, an independent monthly news magazine based in Ethiopia, told CNN on a Skype call. “He considered it a blanket pass to do as he wishes.”
The war in Tigray is not the first time he’s used that pass, she said, adding that since Abiy came to power on the platform of unifying Ethiopia’s people and in its state, he has ruthlessly consolidated control and alienated critical regional players.
Lemma has covered Abiy’s rise for the Addis Standard — which was briefly suspended by Ethiopia’s media regulator in July — and was an early critic of his government when few were sounding the alarm. Days after Abiy was awarded the Nobel Prize, she wrote an editorial warning that the initiatives he had been recognized for — the peace process with Eritrea and political reforms in Ethiopia — had sidelined a key stakeholder, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and were in serious jeopardy.
The TPLF had governed Ethiopia with an iron grip for decades, overseeing a period of stability and economic growth at the cost of basic civil and political rights. The party’s authoritarian rule provoked a popular uprising that ultimately forced Abiy’s predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign. Abiy was appointed by the ruling class to bring change, without upending the old political order. But almost as soon as he came to power, Abiy announced the rearrangement of the ruling coalition that the TPLF had founded — the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front, or EPRDF, which was composed of four parties — into a single, new Prosperity Party, ostracizing the TPLF in the process.
Abiy’s appointment had been intended to quell tensions. Instead, his drive for a new pan-Ethiopian political party sparked fears in some regions that the country’s federal system, which guarantees significant autonomy to ethnically-defined states, such as Tigray, was under threat.
The Tigrayans weren’t the only ones who were worried. In Abiy’s home region, Oromia, and other administrative zones, people began to demand self-rule. Soon, the government began backsliding into the authoritarian practices Abiy had once renounced: Violent crackdowns on protesters, the jailing of journalists and opposition politicians, and twice postponing elections.
Ahmed Soliman, a research fellow at Chatham House and an expert on the Horn of Africa, said Abiy’s reform plan also increased expectations among constituencies with conflicting agendas, further heightening tensions.
“Abiy and his government have rightly been blamed for implementing uneven reforms and for insecurity increasing throughout the country, but to an extent, some of that was inherited. These simmering ethnic and political divisions that exist in the country have very deep roots,” he said.
Tensions reached a boiling point last September, when the Tigrayans defied Abiy by holding a vote which had been delayed due to the pandemic, setting off a tit-for-tat series of recriminations that spilled into open conflict in November 2020.
This July, in the midst of the war, Abiy and his party won a landslide victory in a general election that was boycotted by opposition parties, marred by logistical issues and excluded many voters, including all those in Tigray — a crushing disappointment to many who had high hopes that the democratic transition Abiy promised three years ago would be realized.
“He sees himself as a Messiah, as chosen, as someone who’s destined to ‘Make Ethiopia Great Again,’ but this country is collapsing,” Lemma said, adding that the international community’s folly was falling for the picture Abiy painted of himself — “a post-ethnic, contemporary capitalist” — in their desperation for a dazzling success story.
‘A monumental failure of analysis’
Still, many Ethiopians are reluctant to lay the blame for the country’s unravelling at Abiy’s feet. Ahead of the election in June, residents in Addis Ababa told CNN they felt Abiy had inherited a mess from the previous regime and had always faced an uphill battle pushing reforms forward — an assessment shared by some regional experts.
“Lots of people were hopeful that the liberalizing changes, after those years of anti-government protests and all of the state violence in response, […] marked a moment where Ethiopia would start to conduct its politics more peacefully. But that thinking glossed over some of the major problems and contradictions in Ethiopia,” said William Davidson, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group.
“There was always a massive challenge ahead for Abiy, and for everyone. Just the promise of a more pluralistic political system did nothing necessarily to resolve the clashing nationalisms, opposing visions, and bitter political rivalries.”
In recent months, Abiy has tried to dodge international condemnation by pledging to protect civilians, open up humanitarian access to stave off famine and kick out Eritrean troops, who have supported Ethiopian forces in the conflict and stand accused of some of the most horrifying of the many atrocities in Tigray — pledges that American officials say he has not delivered on. After the United States issued sanctions in May, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry accused it of meddling in the country’s internal affairs and misunderstanding the significant challenges on the ground.
As the tide of international opinion has turned against Abiy, the prime minister’s office has maintained he is not concerned about his deteriorating reputation; his supporters have increasingly blamed the West for the crisis unfolding in the country. “The prime minister need not be a darling of the west, east, south or north,” Abiy’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum told reporters in June. “It is sufficient that he stands for the people of Ethiopia and the development of the nation.”
But it is difficult to reconcile the government’s narrative with reality. Setting to one side the staggering loss of life and destruction inside Tigray, the war has eroded Abiy’s aggressive development plans and derailed the country’s economic trajectory, experts say. Ethiopia’s economy had grown at nearly 10% for the last decade, before slowing in 2020, dragged down by a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, debt and conflict. The war has also drained national coffers, decimated a large slice of the country’s industry and eroded its reputation among foreign investors and financial institutions.
“From where I sit, I think there was a monumental failure of analysis, internationally,” Rashid Abdi, a Kenya-based analyst and researcher who specializes in the Horn of Africa, said, including himself in that group. “I think people failed to apprehend the complex nature of Ethiopia’s transition, especially they failed to appreciate also the complex side of Abiy, that he was not all this sunny, smiling guy. That beneath was a much more calculating, and even Machiavellian figure, who eventually will I think push the country towards a much more dangerous path.”
“We should have begun to take notice of some of the red flags quite quickly. A lot of complacency is what got us here,” he added.
The seventh king of Ethiopia
During his inaugural address to parliament in 2018, Abiy made a point of thanking his mother, a Christian from the Amhara region, who he said had told him at the age of seven that, despite his modest background, he would one day be the seventh king of Ethiopia. The remark was met with a round of laughter from his cabinet members, but Abiy’s belief in his mother’s prophecy was no joke.
“In the initial stages of the war, actually, he spoke openly about how this was God’s plan, and that this was a kind of divine mission for him. This is a man who early in the morning, instead of meeting his top advisors, would meet with some of his spiritual advisers, these are pastors who are very powerful now in a sort of ‘kitchen cabinet,'” Abdi said.
But the most glaring of warning signs, by many accounts, was Abiy’s surprise allegiance with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, for which he ultimately won the Nobel Prize.
Abiy’s critics say that what cemented his status as a peacemaker on the world stage was based on a farce, and that the alignment with Eritrea was yet another effort to consolidate his power, paving the way for the two sides to wage war against their mutual enemy, the TPLF. Soon after the Eritrea-Ethiopia border reopened in 2018, reuniting families after 20 years, it closed again. Three years on, Eritrean troops are operating with impunity in Tigray, and there is little sign of a durable peace.
In response, Abiy’s spokeswoman rejected this assertion, calling it a “toxic narrative.”
Mehari Taddele Maru, a professor of governance and migration at the European University Institute, who was skeptical of the peace deal early on — a deeply unpopular view at the time — believes the Nobel Committee’s endorsement of Abiy has contributed to the current conflict.
“I am of the strongest opinion that the Nobel Prize Committee is responsible for what is happening in Ethiopia, at least partially. They had reliable information; many experts sounded their early warning,” Mehari, who is from Tigray, told CNN.
“The Committee was basing its decision on a peace deal that we flagged for a false start, a peace that is not only achieved but perhaps unachievable and an agreement that was not meant for peace but actually for war. What he [Abiy] did with Isaias was not meant to bring peace. He knew that, Isaias knew that. They were working, basically, to execute a war, to sandwich Tigray from South and North carefully by ostracizing one political party first.”
The most palpable and lasting impact of the award, according to several analysts and observers, was a chilling effect on any criticism of Abiy.
The persona he cultivated, cemented in part through his many early accolades — being named African of the Year in 2018, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers in 2019 — captivated the imagination of Ethiopians, the country’s large diaspora and the world. Many now feel betrayed, having lost any optimism about the future of the country, but others are still intent on retaining that glittering image of Abiy, reluctant to see the writing on the wall.
“By the time the war started in November, the international community was extremely committed to the idea of Abiy Ahmed as a reformer still, and they didn’t want to give up on that,” said Goitom Gebreluel, a Horn of Africa researcher from Tigray, who was in Addis Ababa at the start of the conflict.
“I had meetings with various diplomats before the war and it was obvious that the war was coming, and what they were saying was, ‘you know, he still has this project, we have to let him realize his political vision,'” he said. “To this day, I think not everyone is convinced that this is an autocrat.”
Now, with Ethiopia facing a “man-made” famine and a war apparently without end, Abiy stands alone, largely isolated from the international community and with a shrinking cadre of allies.
Abiy’s early advocates and supporters say he not only misled the world, but his own people — and they are now paying a steep price.
In his open letter announcing he was leaving his post, Kidanemariam wrote of Abiy: “Instead of fulfilling his initial promise, he has led Ethiopia down a dark path toward destruction and disintegration.”
“Like so many others who thought the prime minister had the potential to lead Ethiopia to a bright future, I am filled with despair and anguish at the direction he is taking our country.”
Government Must Take Action To Highlight Plight Of Tigray Region Of Ethiopia – John Brady TD
“We are at a stage now that countless appeals to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have proven useless.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady TD has called on the Irish government to take strong and vocal action to mobilise both the EU and the UN, in order to address the emerging threat of famine and bring to an end the violence in Ethiopia.
The Wicklow TD said:
“We are five months into an emergency in the Tigray area of Ethiopia, where the list of ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities reads like a catalogue of horror.
“The Irish government needs to show leadership, by using its position on the UN Security Council to bring the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia to the consciousness of the international community to the degree that they can no longer ignore the horror of what is occurring on the ground there.
“Having contended with five months of mass killings, mass rapes, and widespread abuses, the civilian population of the Tigray region are facing huge food shortages.
“The World Peace Foundation has issued a warning that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated to the point that the Tigray region is facing into a pending famine.
“Alongside mass rape, starvation crimes are being committed on a large scale.
“To date the cacophony of international criticism has achieved little other than prompting the primary antagonists in the conflict to intensify their military offensive – before the international community acts.
“We are at a stage now that countless appeals to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have proven useless.
“Ireland must use the international standing that secured our country a position on the UNSC to become the voice that it promised to be for those who suffer.
“The government must make the international community sit up, listen, and act to end the suffering of the people of the Tigray region of Ethiopia.”
More than 150,000 people have now died. Essential infrastructure – schools, hospitals, universities, factories – has been decimated. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢
💭 Ethiopia, Where The Past Is Threatening The Present
Every year for centuries, the festival of Mariam Tsion, Mary of Zion, has been held in Ackssum, the capital of an ancient kingdom of the same name. Worshippers, dressed in white robes, and accompanied by chanting and drumming, celebrate the saint day of the Holy Mother, the most important celebration of their faith, Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.
On 28 November last year, over a thousand gathered inside the church of Mariam Tsion after spending the previous night in prayer. They were aware that conflict had broken out in their region, Tigray, on 4 November, but they gathered nevertheless – and their prayers were soon interrupted by gunshots. Eritrean troops drove them outside and, in chaotic scenes, shot over 700 of them dead. Relatives were forbidden to bury the bodies, many of which became food for hyenas.
The celebrations are usually broadcast live on Ethiopian Televistion E T V. But this time, unsurprisingly, a recording of the previous year’s celebrations was aired.
Civilians have borne the brunt of hostilities in this war against Tigray. The massacre in Ackssum is one of many that have gone largely unnoticed in this age of social media – because, in the very early hours of 4 November, the Ethiopian government severed Tigray’s communication networks, and electricity and water supplies, before launching a military offensive. Communications were restored to the region’s capital Mekelle some weeks later, but the rest of Tigray is still without telecoms and basic utilities. Banks are still closed, most ransacked and robbed.
The incidence of rape in Tigray, very often gang rape, is off the scale. According to estimates, Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have so far raped 10,500 Tigrayan women and girls, but the UNFPA is currently recruiting sexual health workers for what it estimates will be 52,500 victims in a region with a population of six million. On 8 April, the US awarded additional humanitarian assistance of $152 million to Tigray, a good portion of which is designated for “safe houses and psychosocial support” for women and girls, some as young as eight, who have been raped, mutilated or tortured. A video shows a surgeon removing nails and other metal objects from the vagina of one victim who was raped by 23 Eritrean soldiers. A mother saw soldiers shoot her 12-year-old boy and was then raped. Eritrean soldiers say their orders are to “kill all men and boys above seven years old”.
Why such visceral cruelty? We can guess at an answer from what the perpetrators tell their victims: “You are worthless.” “We are here for revenge.” And, in the case of the Amhara militia, from the region of the same name to the south, “We are purifying your bloodline.” When the abused women are not killed, the aim seems to be to Amharise their offspring.
Western Tigray has already been handed over to the Amhara region. When Anthony Blinken, US secretary of state, designated the violence as ethnic cleansing, the central Ethiopian government hotly denied it. The government had likely promised Amhara expansionists that western Tigray would be handed over to them, just as, along the northern border, swathes of land have been handed over to the Eritrean government. The latter is already issuing Eritrean ID cards to Tigrayans and other ethnic groups such as the Kunama and Irob in eastern Tigray.
These are old enmities. There is widespread conflict across Ethiopia, but it is at its most extreme in the Tigray region – where it is, in part, about the ancient rivalry between the Amhara and Tigrayans, who have both furnished Ethiopia with emperors throughout the country’s long history. The Amharic culture and language has long been dominant across Ethiopia, but excludes the majority of Ethiopians.
The Eritrean government to the north – led by the unelected president of 30 years, Isaias Afwerki, who despises the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – creates an additional danger. The TPLF led the government of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which, with its then allies the Eritreans, ousted Ethiopia’s despotic Derg regime in 1991, facilitating independence from Ethiopia for Eritrea in 1994.
Hostilities erupted when Eritrean tanks invaded northern Tigray in May 1998, following a dispute over currencies. Around 100,000 people died in the resulting war. In the years since, training at Eritrea’s infamous Sawa Military Camp has brutalised recruits, breeding in them a deep hatred of Tigray.
Around the same time, Ethiopia, once a highly centralised state, became a federal democratic republic, with power devolved to the regions – a system highly suited to a vast country with religious, cultural, ethnic, linguistic and economic diversity. Multi-party elections were held in 1995, and the EPRDF won outright. The numerous nationalities were at last governed and taught in their own languages. This continued for 27 years.
What we are witnessing now is an attempt to reverse this process. The past is threatening the present.
During the EPRDF’s tenure, under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the country achieved double-digit economic growth; massively increased access to health and education services; and expanded agricultural production, industrialisation and state infrastructure. The country was often mooted as a role model for the rest of Africa.
But from 2014, angered by political and economic marginalisation, students from the Oromo ethnic group launched protests that spread to other regions and eventually led to Abiy Ahmed becoming Prime Minister on 2 April 2018.
Abiy negotiated a peace agreement with Eritrea which was popular domestically and eventually earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He launched a series of reforms and released political prisoners. Exiled leaders were invited to return. On a wave of popular support, on 1 December 2019, Abiy Ahmed dissolved the EPRDF coalition and merged its parties into the new Prosperity Party. The TPLF disapproved and withdrew to Tigray.
As prime minister, Abiy was a member of the Oromo section of the EPRDF. Oromos, who make up 40 per cent of the population, felt that they had at last found a champion. But the door was slammed in their face when the PM declared his intention to “return to the old glory of Ethiopia” – meaning Amhara domination and re-centralisation.
Abiy also began demonising Tigrayans, calling them “day-time hyenas”, scapegoating them for much that had gone wrong in Ethiopia. As a result, from mid-2018 many thousands of Tigrayans were attacked and even killed. Prominent Tigrayans were assassinated, as was the president of the Amhara region, who was then replaced by an ally of the prime minister. Hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans were dismissed from their jobs and the army and then placed in custody, many in camps.
In June 2020, the assassination of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular Oromo singer, triggered violent demonstrations. Officials from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) were detained and its leader, Dawud Ibsa, is still in custody, along with most other opposition party leaders. A full military campaign began against the Oromo and, in Wollega and Guji provinces, the internet was cut off for six months to conceal the atrocities. People were burnt to death in their houses, their crops destroyed, women and children were raped – both Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were responsible, a precursor of what has happened since in Tigray.
And so it was that the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea began their joint military assault on Tigray on 4 November. Their troops were already making their way to Tigray when, on 2 November, Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, called for “de-escalation”. The TPLF’s taking over of an Ethiopian army headquarters in Mekelle, often cited as the catalyst for hostilities, was instead a pre-emptive strike when the region was already threatened by large-scale troop advancements. Armed drones bombed Tigray from the UAE’s military base in Assab, Eritrea, destroying much of the TPLF’s heavy artillery, and mercenaries from Farmajo’s Somalia also joined the conflict.
For its part, the African Union, the continental body that groups 55 countries, has been powerless to intervene. Its offer to chair peace talks was accepted by Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopia’s president, in November last year, only for the proposal to be rejected by Prime Minister Abiy.
The UN Security Council has only discussed the conflict as a footnote and, in any case, any effective action is likely to be thwarted, given that Russia and China will block any vote. The Security Council has not even activated its resolution “condemning the starving of civilians as a weapon of war”.
Of course, the Trump administration turned a blind eye to what was happening in Tigray, despite copious evidence of war crimes. The election of Joe Biden has brought a change in US policy and demands are now being made for Eritrean forces to be withdrawn and for humanitarian aid workers to be given access.
The EU, to its credit, has withheld aid until access to the starving is allowed, but unless firmer action is taken many more will perish. Famine is looming. Will the world stand by and facilitate a repeat of 1984?
More than 150,000 people have now died. Essential infrastructure – schools, hospitals, universities, factories – has been decimated. The government expected that the intervention in Tigray would take “a few days, two weeks at the most,” but Abiy recently had to admit that Ethiopian troops are now fighting on eight separate fronts in Tigray alone and that he is “grateful to Eritrea” for all the military assistance it has given. Ethiopia’s army has a significant casualty toll of its own, so it is difficult to see how Eritrea can leave.
Ethiopian elections are slated for 5 June this year. In the circumstances, with the Electoral Board saying that five out of ten regions are not ready, there seems little prospect of any contests being free and fair. The vote would be improved, of course, if opposition party leaders and members were released from prison, and if the tens of thousands of other prisoners were also released, but that still wouldn’t leave much time for proper campaigning. Another postponement of the election may be the best option.
Besides, a different type of national conversation is more necessary at this point: all parties should come together and decide the future not just of Tigray and Oromia, but of the whole country. One Oromo commentator suggests that a referendum could be a central part of that dialogue – to help bring about a clear outcome. The people must decide, as they did during the writing of Ethiopia’s constitution in the early 1990s, when 36,000 groups debated what they wanted to be included.
One Amhara region resident, considering the possibility of Tigray becoming independent last month, stated simply, “But it cannot, it is the beginning of Ethiopia.” This demonstrates the pride that many Ethiopians have in their history, but it is also counsel for those who defend the old ways of dominance and subjugation. Ethiopia flourished in recent decades when the potential of all its peoples was allowed to unfold.
In any case, Ethiopia cannot go back to the past. Even if one side now “wins”, it is a victory that will leave a country scarred and thousands of people angry and bereaved – which is to say, not a victory at all.
👉 “The anti-igray alliance of Abiy Ahmed, Isias Afewerki and Amharas brought unspeakable misery to the region, which Abiy tried to cover up with innumerable lies”
👉 “Das anti-Tigray Bündnis von Abiy Ahmed, Isias Afewerki und Amharas brachte unsägliches Elend über die Region, das Abiy durch unzählige Lügen zu verschleiern suchte.„
👉 „La alianza anti-Tigray de Abiy Ahmed, Isias Afewerki y Amharas trajo una miseria indescriptible a la región, que Abiy trató de encubrir con innumerables mentiras.„
Äthiopiens Premier Abiy Ahmed ist ein Beispiel, warum einem Menschen der Friedensnobelpreis aberkannt werden müsste.
Es ist noch nie passiert und wird wohl auch künftig nicht vorkommen: Dass einem Friedensnobelpreisträger seine Auszeichnung aberkannt wird. Dagegen spricht schon, dass das Preiskomitee einen Fehler einräumen müsste – und dass die Aberkennung noch umstrittener als die Anerkennung werden könnte. Vor eineinhalb Jahren war die Auszeichnung nicht einmal umstritten. Äthiopiens Premier Abiy Ahmed schien ein ausgezeichneter Kandidat zu sein: Er hatte ein unterdrückerisches Regime zerlegt und mit den eritreischen Nachbarn Frieden geschlossen. Dass er gleich zu Beginn seiner Amtszeit ausgezeichnet wurde, schien ein weiterer Bonus zu sein: So wurde dem fortschrittlichen Regierungschef noch Wind in die Segel geblasen.
Inzwischen sind wir eines Schlechteren belehrt. Der Ex-Geheimdienstoffizier suchte den Frieden mit der benachbarten Diktatur offensichtlich nur, um besser gegen den gemeinsamen Erzfeind – die Bevölkerung der Tigrai-Provinz – vorgehen zu können. Das anti-Tigray Bündnis von Abiy Ahmed, Isias Afewerki und Amharas brachte unsägliches Elend über die Region, das Abiy durch unzählige Lügen zu verschleiern suchte. Auch wenn Äthiopiens Mr. Hyde seinen Preis aus den bekannten Gründen wohl nie zurückgeben muss: In unsere Annalen wird er als Kriegstreiber und nicht als Friedensnobelpreisträger eingehen.
💭 A comment by The German daily newspaper FrankfurterRundschau
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is an example of why someone should be deprived of the Nobel Peace Prize. The comment.
It has never happened and probably will not happen in the future: that a Nobel Peace Prize winner is stripped of his award. Against this, the fact that the award committee would have to admit a mistake – and that the withdrawal could become even more controversial than the recognition. A year and a half ago, the award wasn’t even controversial. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared to be an excellent candidate: he had dismantled an oppressive regime and made peace with his Eritrean neighbors. The fact that he was honored at the beginning of his term in office seemed to be another bonus: The progressive head of government was blown by the wind in the sails.
In the meantime we have learned worse. The ex-secret service officer was obviously only looking for peace with the neighboring dictatorship in order to be able to take better action against the common arch enemy the population of the Tigraii province. The alliance brought unspeakable misery to the region, which Abiy tried to cover up with innumerable lies. Even if Ethiopia’s Mr. Hyde never has to return his award for the well-known reasons: He will go down in our annals as a warmonger and not as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
🔥 Español – Belicista Abiy Ahmed
💭 Comentario de Frankfurter Rundschau
El primer ministro de Etiopía, Abiy Ahmed, es un ejemplo de por qué alguien debería ser privado del Premio Nobel de la Paz. El comentario.
Nunca ha sucedido y probablemente no sucederá en el futuro: que un premio Nobel de la Paz sea despojado de su galardón. En contra de esto, el hecho de que el comité de adjudicación tendría que admitir un error y que el retiro podría volverse aún más controvertido que el reconocimiento. Hace año y medio, el premio ni siquiera era controvertido. El primer ministro de Etiopía, Abiy Ahmed, parecía ser un excelente candidato: había desmantelado un régimen opresivo y había hecho las paces con sus vecinos eritreos. El hecho de que se le honrara justo al comienzo de su mandato parecía ser otra ventaja: el jefe de gobierno progresista fue arrastrado por los aires.
Mientras tanto, hemos aprendido cosas peores. El ex oficial de inteligencia obviamente solo buscaba la paz con la dictadura vecina para poder tomar mejores medidas contra el archienemigo común: la población de la provincia de Tigraii. La alianza trajo una miseria indescriptible a la región, que Abiy trató de encubrir con innumerables mentiras. Incluso si Mr. Hyde de Etiopía nunca tiene que devolver su premio por las razones bien conocidas: pasará a nuestros anales como un belicista y no como un premio Nobel de la Paz.
❖ 70,000 Tigrayan Christians Massacred by Jihadist Gragn Abiy Ahmed Ali
🔥 Critical Ethiopian Diplomat urges peace talks in Tigray war
An Ethiopian diplomat who quit his post in the United States over concerns about atrocities in Tigray is calling for peace talks between the government and the embattled region’s fugitive leaders.
Berhane Kidanemariam served as the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington until early March. In an interview with The Associated Press late Thursday, he warned that a protracted war in Tigray is devastating the region’s 6 million people.
“We have to prioritize peaceful settlement and negotiation,” he said. “Without peaceful settlement and negotiation, peace couldn’t prevail. The only solution is peace talks.”
Between 60,000 and 70,000 people are now believed to have died in the war since November, he said, citing information gleaned from sources inside Ethiopia. Most of the victims are “civilians, especially the youngsters,” he said.
Ethiopian authorities have not given a death toll in the Tigray war.
Kidanemariam said that Tigrayan fighters “are getting better” in their defenses, increasing the likelihood of a long war in which reported abuses already include massacres, rapes, forced displacement, and the vandalism of priceless cultural sites.
“Anything which the human beings can use” has been destroyed in some way, he said, describing the looting of everything from banks to churches and mosques. “It’s horrible even to explain it.”
Kidanemariam hails from the Tigray region, the base of a party that dominated national politics for decades before the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. But he said his background had not influenced his decision to call it “a genocidal war.”
“I don´t need to be Tigrayan,” Kidanemariam said, referring to his March 10 resignation. “Seeing this kind of horrible, catastrophic war, I couldn´t tolerate it.”
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