👉 Back in 2015 the Canadian Crew was there not only for adventure, but somehow also to live and witness the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo faith, to discover the central element of Orthodox Christian belief and theology — The Love of Christ, The Love of Jesus Christ for humanity, The Love of Christians for Jesus Christ, and The Love of Christians for others. These aspects are distinct in Orthodox Christian teachings—the love for Christ is a reflection of his love for all. That’s what these Canadian Television crew members got climbing on a rope to reach the top of Mount Zion where this marvelous 6th century Debre Damo / St. Abuna Aregewai Monastery is located.
This made the devil mad. We know Satan hates love, and gets angry when good things happen – so a coalition Army of Satan consisting of the Gog/Magog armies of the Muslim-Protestant Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali (ENDF), Eritrean Army (EDF), Amhara Militias, Somali Soldiers and army of drones from the United Arab Emirates decided to blow up this 6th-century Christian Monastery. We still don’t know regarding loss and damage. Until today, medias and teams who try to investigate the bombardment of the Monastery were denied entry. But, in this Jihad some Monks were killed and injured.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 26, 2021
Days after the United States announced financial sanctions and visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, eyewitnesses told CNN that hundreds of young men were rounded up from displaced peoples camps in Shire, a town in Tigray, late Monday evening.
Witnesses speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity described how Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers invaded at least two IDP centers where they beat and harassed Tigrayans displaced by a conflict that is believed to have killed thousands of civilians since November 2020. The soldiers then took hundreds of people away, the witnesses said
Four military vehicles first encircled the Adi Wenfito and Tsehay camps, witnesses said, before soldiers began rounding up young men, forcing them onto buses and taking them to a location believed to be on the outskirts of Shire. As the soldiers broke into an abandoned school housing the refugees, witnesses said they shouted, “we’ll see if America will save you now!”
“They forced open the door, the men didn’t even get a chance to put their shoes on. The soldiers had their guns locked, [ready to shoot],” one witness said.
One woman said two of her sons — aged 19 and 24 — were dragged from their home at around 9:30 p.m. that night. “They didn’t say why they were taking them, they just rounded them up, beat them and took them away,” she told CNN, adding that she was too afraid of what would be done to her sons to ask any questions.
Several of the men who were rounded up were released late afternoon on Tuesday, after they identified themselves as aid workers. They told CNN hundreds of young men continue to be detained at the Guna distribution center, an aid and foodstuff storage facility which has now been converted into a military camp.
One man described hours of beatings by Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers. “Many of us are young but there are people there who are much older who won’t be able to withstand the beatings much longer,” he said.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel denied the reports and dismissed previous CNN reporting, saying, “For how long will you continue to believe at face value any and all ‘witness statements’ … We have heard so many planted or false stories.”
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights previously called for an independent investigation into human rights violations in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, following CNN reporting on a massacre perpetrated against civilians there.
Elisabeth Haslund, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency that works with displaced people, told CNN, “we have also received very disturbing reports that Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers entered IDP sites taking a number of youths into several vehicles. The reports of how many vary from a few hundred up to 700 youths.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a statement on Wednesday that corroborated the eyewitnesses accounts given to CNN. “On Monday night, scores of people were forcibly taken by military from camps where internally displaced people are seeking refuge in Shire,” MSF East Africa tweeted.
200 days of violence
The conflict in Tigray has now raged for over 200 days pitting Tigray’s regional leaders, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), against the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Eritrean soldiers and Amhara ethnic militia. From the start of the conflict last year civilians have been targeted by Ethiopian government forces and allied Eritrean and militia forces.
This latest incident, however, is a significant escalation in what is described by humanitarian workers and witnesses in Shire as an ongoing, extrajudicial campaign targeting young men perceived to be of “fighting age.”
Aid agencies estimate the town of Shire has tripled in size, hosting up to 800,000 Tigrayans forced out of their homes in the far west of the region in actions by Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara ethnic militia forces described by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as “ethnic cleansing.”
Humanitarian workers told CNN Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers have been blocking a key aid route to Shire for months, restricting supplies even as displaced persons continue to flow into the town.
One aid worker told CNN tens of vehicles carrying aid to Shire were turned back on Saturday alone. A CNN team in the region in April was able to capture on camera Eritrean soldiers obstructing aid along this route.
CNN has reached out to the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office and the Eritrean Minister for Information for comment but has not received a response.
US sanctions
The United States late Sunday evening announced “far reaching” financial sanctions and visa restrictions against Ethiopian, Eritrean, Amhara and TPLF officials it finds to be “complicit” in abuses or obstructing the resolution of the crisis. A State Department spokesperson told CNN the sanctions would be enforced as a “unilateral action” by the US. CNN has sought comment from the State Department on the latest reports from Shire.
In a statement the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the US sanctions. Many witnesses see this latest uptick in violence as a statement of defiance in the face of growing international censure.
In videos sent to CNN on Tuesday morning, which were secretly filmed, desperate parents can be seen gathering in the compound of the local UNHCR office. In one video Ethiopian soldiers can be seen addressing the parents inside the compound.
CNN was able to geolocate the videos to a location in the center of Shire by examining the metadata in the raw files and matching key landmarks in the footage to the surroundings, such as the Kholafaa e Rashedeen mosque. The metadata also revealed the date and time the videos were filmed — May 25, 2021 at around 7:45am local time — which fits with the direction of the sunlight and the lengths of the shadows in the video, a CNN analysis shows. One of the videos also features an UNHCR logo supporting the accounts.
The audio in the video is indistinct but witnesses say parents were told: “We could kill you right here and the UN would do nothing to help but take pictures of you.”
💭 Der Krieg in Tigray sei vorbei, sagt Äthiopiens Regierung. Auf einer Reise durch die Provinz erlebt das Weltspiegel-Team etwas anderes: Eritreas Armee ist weiter präsent, Vergewaltigungen sind an der Tagesordnung – und auf dem Land leiden die Menschen unter Hunger. Äthiopische Streitkräfte mit ihren Verbündeten aus Eritrea kontrollieren vor allem die Hauptverkehrsachsen im Osten und Zentrum Tigrays. In den unwegsamen Gebieten jenseits der Straßen wird aber heftig weiter gekämpft. Dort kämpfen Mitglieder der “Tigray Defence Forces” (TDF) – der militärische Arm der früheren, abtrünnigen Volksbefreiungsfront von Tigray (TPLF).
💭 The war in Tigray is over, says Ethiopia’s government. On a trip through the province, the ARD ‘Weltspiegel’ team experienced something different: Eritrea’s army is still present, rape is the order of the day – and people in the countryside suffer from hunger. Ethiopian armed forces with their allies from Eritrea mainly control the main traffic axes in the east and center of Tigray. In the impassable areas beyond the roads, however, the fighting continues. Members of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) – the military arm of the former, renegade Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – are fighting there.
Ethiopian soldiers armed with machine guns, sniper rifles and grenades raided a hospital in Ethiopia’s war-torn northern Tigray region earlier this week in retribution, doctors say, for a CNN investigation that revealed Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were blocking humanitarian aid to patients there.
Medical staff at the University Teaching and Referral Hospital in the besieged city of Axum, in Tigray’s central zone, said that the soldiers stormed the hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning, raiding the student dormitory, doctors and patient wards, contaminating the operating room and stopping all surgical operations.
The troops returned again on Monday, after some medical staff and patients fled, searching for people they accused of “tarnishing the country’s image” in news reports, doctors speaking on condition of anonymity told CNN. The soldiers demanded a “list of the names of doctors who will not cooperate with the military’s investigation into the hospital.”
The international medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) confirmed the incident to CNN, saying that several soldiers went “ward by ward looking for patients, intimidating caretakers and threatening health staff.”
In spite of the threats, medical staff said they don’t regret speaking out. “I feel like I’m living on an isolated planet, with no law or order. The world must open its eyes that people in Tigray are living in anarchy,” staff at Axum University Teaching and Referral Hospital said in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
In April, a CNN team reporting from Tigray with the permission of Ethiopian authorities witnessed Eritrean soldiers — some disguising themselves in old Ethiopian military uniforms — blocking aid to desperate populations more than a month after Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize winning leader Abiy Ahmed pledged to the international community that they would leave.
On April 21, after being thwarted repeatedly by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops, the team traveled from the regional capital Mekelle to the historic city of Axum, two weeks after it had been sealed off by the military. An aid convoy also made the seven-hour journey.
Inside the Axum University Teaching and Referral Hospital, CNN interviewed medical workers who detailed the disastrous effects of the blockade — essential supplies were so perilously low that some staff had begun donating blood. They asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, but requested that CNN identify the hospital so that people in the region knew they were still operating.
At the time, CNN also witnessed gun-toting troops roaming the corridors of the hospital, dropping off wounded soldiers and threatening medical staff, who were trying to treat a grim array of trauma from shrapnel, bullets, stabbings and rapes.
On Tuesday, after 48 hours of raids by Ethiopian soldiers, only a few patients — those who were unable to move — remained in their beds.
One doctor, who is still at the hospital, told CNN over text message they are living in fear of what will happen when the soldiers next return.
“Everyone in the hospital is now helpless, with either detention or death looming at any point in the future from now.”
The United Nations on Thursday confirmed that “blockades by military forces” had severely impeded the ability for assistance to reach rural areas of Tigray where the humanitarian crisis is worst. The report has also triggered condemnation in recent days from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and ratcheted up a bi-partisan push for the Biden administration to enact sanctions.
In a rare public statement on their activities in Tigray, Mari Carmen Viñoles, head of the emergency unit of MSF, told CNN the organization was “very concerned about the frequent violations of the neutrality of the medical mission by armed groups.”
👉 Selected Comments from CNN channel:
💭 Rebecca Mæd
“Even the stones cry out for their painful sorrows. Why must humans create such horrors? 😞 “
💭 Kristi Stevens
“May the ancestors and Gods help these people. Our hearts are with them.”
💭 Stanley Glover
„Thank you for bringing Ethiopia’s callous blood letting to our screens . My heart aches for these poor, defenseless , old and children being deliberately murdered by the evil regimes in Addis Ababa and Massawa😩😭”
💭 M Anderson
“This type of horrible crimes towards innocent people make you wonder just how awful human beings can be to one another. And why???“
💭 Redacted
„This is madness, one can only imagine the suffering off camera. Miss Elbagir and her team demonstrated bravery and empathy in the face of death; Exemplary journalists of the past would be proud.“
💭 Kristi Stevens
“Is there any way to help that girl? I would proudly foster her or any of the kids. How can we help????”
💭 SA Doherty
“You are one extraordinarily brave lady Nima, as well as your team–totally courageous, all of you. Massive props to all of you!!
And my God, the inhumanity is just brutal, devastating and absolutely heartbreaking. I pray for the Ethiopian people and victims of this cruel and murderous force. May they get what they deserve!!”
💭 Bb Sen
“Thank you for reporting this heartbreaking story for the whole world.”
💭 Daniel Hostetler
“The cruelty of man is limitless…truly heartbreaking! The World must respond!”
💭 Sylvia Carmichael
“Sorry for your losses my heart is with these people, I don’t understand how humans could do this to others, they are the ones who don’t deserve to exist.”
💭 Simon
“This piece deserves an Emmy!”
💭 Brook Tu
“The reporter, Nima Elbagir, is an incredibly brave woman. So calm, and polite, in the face of danger.
That’s one tough lady. And the story she presents is, both, enlightening and heart-breaking. She should get an award, even if it’s only ‘Employee of the Month’.”
💭 Gods Vibes
“God Please Send Heavenly Support to These People 💟, Your Children Heavenly Father. Remove the Anger from my Heart towards these Evil Men. I Send the Parents and Children My Unconditional Love.
Mankind will never learn what Love is until we love all people on the planet.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 13, 2021
Congressional leaders have called for sanctions to be put in place to pressure Ethiopian and Eritrean forces to withdraw from Tigray.
US congressmen specifically hammered Ethiopia and Eritrea for failing to live up to their March agreement to remove Eritrean forces from Tigray.
The US Congress is pressuring the Biden administration to place sanctions on human rights abusers in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, pointing to the continued failure of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces to withdraw from the region.
“We understand that the Biden administration is reviewing all options, but nothing has been announced or finalised, which is why we are pushing them on this,” a congressional aide told The National on Wednesday. “It has been over six months since the conflict started.”
The Democratic chairman and top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee – Gregory Meeks of New York and Mike McCaul of Texas – are leading the bipartisan push to convince the Biden administration to use its authorities under the Global Magnitsky Act to levy sanctions on those violating human rights in the Tigray conflict.
“The administration has ample authority from Congress to impose sanctions and other means of financial pressure – they just need to do it,” said the congressional staffer.
Mr Meeks and Mr McCaul doubled down on the issue earlier this week with a joint statement urging the Biden administration to “use all available tools, including sanctions and other restrictive measures, to hold all perpetrators accountable and bring an end to this conflict”.
They specifically hammered Ethiopia and Eritrea for failing to live up to their March agreement to remove Eritrean forces from Tigray.
“We are deeply concerned by the failure of the government of Ethiopia and the government of the state of Eritrea to honour their public commitments to withdraw Eritrean forces from Ethiopia,” they said in the statement. “The continued presence of Eritrean forces, who have been credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights in Tigray, is a major impediment to resolving this conflict.”
The congressmen referred to “mounting reports of atrocities against civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence, at the hands of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and other armed groups”.
Jeffrey Feltman, the US envoy for the Horn of Africa, is in the region this week to mediate the Tigray crisis as well as Ethiopia’s dispute with Sudan and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has said that “ethnic cleansing” is taking place in Tigray, personally called on Ethiopian and Eritrean forces to withdraw from the region during a phone call with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed earlier this month.
The State Department did not reply to The National’s repeated requests for comment on its Tigray sanctions review.
Mr Meeks and Mr McCaul first raised the prospect of sanctions over the Tigrayconflict in a letter to Mr Blinken in March.
“We urge the administration to utilise all available tools, including Global Magnitsky authorities and other targeted sanctions, to hold parties accountable for their actions to bring an end to this crisis,” the congressmen wrote at the time.