Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 14, 2021
There Has Been Little To No Action Taken To Address The Ethiopian Government’s Ethnically-Based Expulsion And Arrest Of Tigrayan Peacekeepers.
When Tigrayan members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces. ENDF were deployed to UN peacekeeping missions, they did so under the banner of “Together for Peace”.
Respecting and honouring the brave few who put their own lives at risk in the service of their country and for the cause of world peace is a cherished norm. However, Tigrayan members of UN peacekeeping missions are getting the opposite treatment.
When the Ethiopian government launched an armed offensive against the Tigray region in November 2020, it withdrew troops from international peacekeeping missions to bolster its offensive. Citing fears over their loyalty to the federal government and ENDF, Tigrayan members of this contingent were also purged from their ranks without cause. Other Tigrayans were left with no choice but to seek asylum in order to escape abduction and internment.
Evidence of this purge was first attested to in a leaked video published by The Associated Press in which an Ethiopian military leader speaks of the need to ‘clean out our insides’ in a reference to the removal of Tigrayan service members.
Soon after, an article published in Foreign Policy on 23 November revealed an internal UN document that detailed concerns that these troops were likely to face torture or execution.
The UN’s fears were confirmed after it was revealed that military tribunals are being held to sentence Tigrayan security officers to death. The Ethiopian government is seemingly using the judicial system to make a show of passing judgment on defendants who were in fact criminalised by virtue of ethnic profiling alone. The risk to the lives of these service members, including those who served under the auspices of the UN peacekeeping missions, is real.
In such a context, where identity is being used as evidence of guilt, Tigrayans require protection and open legal proceedings that are monitored and corroborated by independent organisations. The international community’s inaction and silence regarding the horrible reality of these Tigrayans have allowed the Ethiopian government to prolong their suffering.
This same government expelled seven UN officials who were operating in Ethiopia, accusing them of ‘meddling’, and arbitrarily arrested 16 local UN staff members.
The UN Secretary-General stated that “Ethiopia has no legal right to expel” the UN officials. However, the institution has not taken any steps to protect its representatives, who are crucial to address the enormous humanitarian needs in northern Ethiopia.
The UN entrusts peacekeepers to uphold its broader mission of maintaining peace and security around the world, and, in return, these servicemen and women bravely put their lives on the line for this noble cause. Accordingly, the UN has a contractual and moral obligation to protect these brave men and women. However, when it comes to Tigrayan peacekeepers, the UN and the rest of the international community have turned a blind eye.
The UN’s unwillingness to address the imminent threat faced by Tigrayans who served in peacekeeping missions – and lack of persistence in demanding protection for humanitarian workers and respect for international humanitarian law – is emboldening Ethiopia’s violations.
To the honourable men and women inside of the UN peacekeeping apparatus, as well as those in donor and member countries, I ask: If you are unable to protect the bravest who have worn the uniform to promote world peace, then how can you ever realise the dream of standing “Together for Peace”?
While silence or disengagement is to be expected at a certain level from diplomatic actors and entities, given their prerogative to not fuel further division in a space as polarized as Ethiopia’s, the case of Tigrayan peacekeepers exceeds the demands of neutrality and political sensitivity.
Their silence is even more worrying as the decision of the Ethiopian government has created a security vacuum in those areas where they were deployed, such as Darfur and Abyei in Sudan and Somalia, undermining the peacekeeping efforts. These actions also overstretched the capacity of UN peacekeeping troops that are present in these areas, leaving vulnerable communities at risk of immediate violence.
Moreover, since most peacekeeping troops operate under UN contracts, their treatment is a direct violation of the UN’s policy and commitment to world peace. The UN’s inaction may cause other countries to lose trust in future missions, given that there is no guarantee for the safety of their soldiers. Any atrocity committed against Tigrayan peacekeeping troops due to an internal political conflict is, by extension, an attack against peacekeepers around the world.
How the UN handles the case of Tigrayan peacekeepers in Ethiopia – many of whom have been incommunicado for over a year – will be a testament to how much the intergovernmental organisation values those it entrusts to uphold its mission.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 14, 2021
💭 My Note: In other words, Mr. Borrell is telling us: “As long as war criminals Abiy Ahmed Ali, Isaias Afewerki, the Oromo & Amhara special forces continue blocking Tigrayans (potential migrants to Europe heading for EU) from crossing the Ethio-Sudanese border in whatever possible form: By rounding them up, mutilating & dismembering — at the border within Africa – and throwing their dead bodies to the Tekeze river across the border, EU won’t issue sanctions against Abiy Ahmed, Isaias Afewerki and their partners in crime. The are doing a good job in preventing undesired ancient Christian Ethiopian migrants (We saw that when the UN The US and EU all blocked ancient Christians of Syria. Read this: No Christians Allowed: Muslim UN Officials Block Syrian Christian Refugees from Getting Help.
Mr. Borrell said it clearly, albeit concerning Belarus and Ukraine: “We cut the flowing of migrants to Europe…for me this is a source of satisfaction”
May be now The EU is giving money to the dictators of Ethiopia and Eritrea as a reward, instead of sanctioning them?!
After all, EU countries have awarded and honored to those evil monsters with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and just two months ago, one of the enablers of the #TigrayGenocide, Daniel Bekele with the German Africa Prize. Just unbelievably cruel – the world upside down, isn’t it?!
💭 EU top diplomat Josep Borrell criticised EU member states on Monday (13 December) for failing to agree on sanctions against those suspected of war crimes in Ethiopia’s civil war, expressing frustration over Europe’s failure to give an effective policy response to “large scale human rights violations” there.
The EU’s response to the civil war in Ethiopia was “one of my biggest frustrations” of the year, said Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs high representative. He said the EU had not been able to stop “mass rapes using sexual violence as a war aim, killings and concentration camps based on ethnic belonging,” pointing to the lack of unanimity among EU governments.
It is understood that Germany is one of the leading countries reluctant to impose sanctions, though Borrell told reporters that “many countries felt that it (sanctions) wasn’t an adequate solution.”
While the Biden administration in the United States has imposed sanctions under its human rights Magnitsky Act, the EU has not followed suit beyond freezing $107 million in budget support to Ethiopia.
Last month, EU officials told EURACTIV that sanctions were being discussed within the context of the bloc’s Human Rights Sanctions regime, but little progress has been made.
EU prepared to issue sanctions over Tigray war, officials confirm
The European Union is prepared to issue sanctions against those responsible for the war and humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray province, EU officials confirmed to EURACTIV on Thursday (5 November).
In the meantime, the EU has continued to supply humanitarian aid, despite continued difficulties in aid reaching those in need. Aid experts in Ethiopia say that only around 10% of aid reaches those who need it most.
Borrell acknowledged that while sanctions would not have halted the conflict, they “would have, in my view, influenced the behaviour of the actors.”
Alongside multiple reports of human rights abuses by both sides in the conflict, the fighting has had devastating humanitarian consequences. According to the UN’s World Food Programme, more than 400,000 people are estimated to be living in famine conditions in Tigray. Around 9.4 million people in Ethiopia are now in dire need of food aid, it said.
The war has derailed the economic and political reform agenda, which had earned wide international praise to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The civil war started last November when federal forces entered the country’s northern province after rebels from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front launched an attack on a government military base.
The Abiy government subsequently cracked down mercilessly on the insurgents and ignored all demands by the international community for a ceasefire and peace settlement with the TPLF. Instead, Abiy has stated that nothing short of total military victory will be sufficient.
African Union mediator Olesegun Obasanjo and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta have been leading regional efforts to broker peace.
Earlier this week, local media reported that TPLF forces had retaken the historic town of Lalibela, in the neighbouring Amhara province, though government forces are also reported to have recaptured towns in Tigray in recent weeks.
Slovenia, in its capacity as head of the EU’s Council presidency, on Monday requested a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Ethiopia.
More than 50 countries supported the call, Slovenia’s Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva announced.
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Friday on the “grave” situation in Ethiopia at the request of the EU, according to a UN statement issued on Monday.
The Ethiopian government has reacted furiously to the calling of the special session, and described it as an “unjust and counterproductive attempt by some to exert political pressure”.
The UN Council had ignored calls to investigate human rights violations and atrocities by the TPLF in Amhara and Afar province, said Ethiopia’s foreign ministry.
(27 Jun 1994) As the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) intensified its drive to take control of Kigali on Monday (27/6), the Hutu-dominated government army was training more men to combat
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on July 14, 2021
💭 My Note: – Like the great Renaissance dam – Tigrayans built and modernized Addis Ababa – now anti-Tigrayan-Ethiopian Pogroms – mob violence occur against them in the Oromo & Amhara dominated City? Wow! This all begun a long, long time ago. Oromara Emperors Menelik ll, Haile Sleassie did it, Evil Mengistu Haile Mariam did it. I’ve relatives who during the 1st Oromo fascist Derg regime of Mengistu Hailemariam. have been denied career opportunities and internal promotion – some were even blocked from getting higher education and scholarship opportunities because of their Tigrayan ethnic identity. I don’t know how they were able to tolerate all those injustices for a very long time (130 years) The Oromos were not supposed to come to power – history has taught us that they don’t recognize or appreciate the value of Integrity, liberty, dignity, equality and justice we see it now with the monster Abiy Ahmed Ali. The TPLF made a big mistake three years ago when it carelessly handed the power to these evil fascists. A very big mistake! Now, they are obliged – and it’s only up to them to lead the people of Tigray and rectify their mistake to accomplish the task of overthrowing this evil enemy regime 😈 – the sooner the better!
As hate speech and targeting of Tigrayans escalates in Addis Ababa, many are terrified and some are planning to flee.
Yared* has not left his apartment in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa for days. “I don’t feel safe here,” the 29-year-old says. “I’m scared to go outside. They [Ethiopian police] are going around the whole city and detaining people from restaurants, bars, cafeterias, and even their homes.”
Yared is from Tigray and, about two weeks ago, celebrations broke out in the regional state capital Mekelle after the Tigray Defence Forces, led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), retook the city. This was the latest dramatic turn of events in Ethiopia’s devastating eight month-long civil war, which has been marred by serious human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, mass killings, and brutal sexual violence.
Despite Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed withdrawing federal troops from Mekelle and declaring a unilateral ceasefire on 28 June, Tigray has remained under siege on all sides. Up to 900,000 people are facing famine, and humanitarian supplies are restricted due to a lack of fuel and a shutdown of telecommunications and electricity.
Nonetheless, Mekelle’s residents embraced the temporary reprieve from war, cheering and setting alight fireworks, as Tigray regional fighters were met with hugs and kisses. Tigrayans living elsewhere in Ethiopia, however, sunk into terror.
Since November 2020, Tigrayans in Ethiopian cities, especially the capital Addis Ababa, have been arrested by the thousands, had bank accounts temporarily frozen, been purged from their jobs, and had businesses shuttered. Tigrayans, a minority ethnic group who make up about 6% of the Ethiopian population, have also been prevented from traveling abroad.
Now, Tigrayan residents in Addis Ababa tell African Arguments this racial profiling has escalated to an alarming degree since the TPLF regained ground, with many Tigrayans too fearful to leave their homes. Mass arrests have resumed, along with scores of Tigrayan businesses being forcibly closed by Ethiopian authorities.
“Next they will kill us”
Yared’s 42-year-old brother, a father of three, was detained by Ethiopian security forces soon after the war erupted. He was held for a week and interrogated about his relationship with the TPLF despite not having any connections with the group. Soon after the TPLF took over Mekelle, he was detained once again by plain-clothed police officers while eating lunch at his home in Addis Ababa, Yared explains.
Yared says he and his brother’s wife followed behind the vehicle to the Akaki Kality police station. “There were over two hundred Tigrayans there demanding information about their loved ones who were detained,” he recounts. Yared was informed a week ago that his brother had been moved to an undisclosed location. Yared’s uncle, who was an officer in the Ethiopian army, was also detained when the war broke out in November and has not been heard from since.
There have been widespread reports over the last two weeks of scores of Tigrayans being detained and transported to detention centres. At least 15 Ethiopian journalists and media workers were also arrested in the crackdown.
“It’s very concerning,” said Fisseha Tekle, a researcher for Ethiopia at Amnesty International. “It’s clear racial profiling. People are getting arrested after police check their IDs and see that they’re Tigrayan. They are not taken to court. It’s a clear human rights violation and a violation of their rights to due process.”
Dawit was just released from the Semit police station in Addis Ababa on Sunday night after being arrested that morning from Feven Shiro, a local Tigrayan-owned restaurant in the city, where he was eating breakfast with three non-Tigrayan friends.
“About seven [uniformed] police officers came in and checked everyone’s IDs,” Dawit told African Arguments. “I was one of four Tigrayans in the restaurant and they detained us. They accused us of celebrating the TPLF’s control of Mekelle. They were pushing us around and insulting us.” The police also confiscated their mobile phones.
Dawit, along with the three other Tigrayans, were brought to the police station and placed in a large holding compound, where Dawit estimates at least a thousand other Tigrayans were being held. “There were a lot of girls there and they were crying and the boys looked so sad,” Dawit explains. “Even myself, I was shaking and feeling so sad. I had heard about Tigrayans being arrested, but when it happened to me I felt so heartbroken.”
Dawit says the Tigrayans were being held for about three days and then transferred to Awash Arba, a military camp located about 221 km from Addis Ababa. Yared says he heard that his brother was also transferred there. According to Dawit, the Tigrayans in the compound at Semit station are fed one piece of bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and do not have access to water. They are forced to sleep on the cold ground.
Dawit was released after about ten hours after paying 10,000 birr ($228); one of his non-Tigrayan friends had connections with the police commissioner. Dawit, who was born in Addis Ababa, owns a bar in the city, which was also shut down by Ethiopian authorities.
Tekle from Amnesty International says there have also been cases of arbitrary arrests in Dire Dawa, a city in eastern Ethiopia, and that these people have not been heard from since their arrest.
According to Dawit, there are checkpoints in Addis Ababa every two or three kilometers where police check IDs. “If someone is Tigrayan, the police will take their phone, tell them to open their social media and their messages. If there’s even a flag of Tigray or anything related to Tigray, they will be arrested,” he says.
Fresh out of the jail, Dawit says he will leave to Tigray after three days. Despite the siege, Tigrayans are finding a way to access Tigray through the Afar region, which borders it to the east, in order to seek refuge.
“I was raised as an Ethiopian,” Dawit told African Arguments. “But now I want to go to Tigray and I will join the resistance and fight for freedom. This is the only option we have now. Today they are arresting us and tomorrow they will kill us. It’s better to go and fight then to just die here in Addis.”
Dawit wanted his full name published because he is leaving for Tigray and he “just doesn’t care anymore”. We decided to keep him anonymous to protect his well-being.
African Arguments reached out to the Ethiopian government for comment, but did not receive a response.
“Full of hate”
Sara*, 27, moved with her husband from Mekelle to Addis Ababa a few weeks before the war broke out. She says her guesthouse in Addis Ababa was forcibly closed by police about a week ago. “The police came in and told everyone they had to leave,” she says. “They shut it down with no explanation. Our neighbours’ shops were also closed”, all of which are Tigrayan-owned. Her husband’s relative who was at the guesthouse at the time was detained and interrogated for days.
“We feel very unwanted here,” Sara explains. “We can’t speak Tigrinya on the streets anymore because someone could just call you ‘junta’ [Abiy’s preferred term for the TPLF] and security forces will come and take you, no questions asked.”
Sara and her husband’s bank account, which was opened in Tigray, has also been frozen, along with all other bank accounts opened in Tigray. “It’s very hard to live now,” she says. “We’re using the money we have right now. But when we run out we don’t know what we will do.”
All those who African Arguments spoke to pointed to Abiy’s recent speech after the TPLF’s advancement as the source of escalating targeting and hate speech against Tigrayans. In his first remarks since he pulled federal troops out of Mekelle, Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, denied that his military was defeated by the TPLF and went on to allege that Tigrayan civilians had attacked the Ethiopian army and helped the TPLF.
“Our army sometimes stayed for four or five days without water when continuous fighting was going on, while the junta was busy drinking bottled water,” he said, adding that Tigrayan priests had called for people to fight the army and that “most of the churches” were used for hiding weapons.
In last month’s elections, Abiy’s Prosperity Party won 95% of seats. This suggests he enjoys significant support, though the legitimacy of the process has been questioned due to its timing during a brutal civil war, the fact that Tigray region was not permitted to participate, that some of the most prominent Oromo politicians continue to be imprisoned, and that many opposition parties boycotted the vote.
Abraha*, a former Tigrayan law professor in Amhara state, says that since Abiy came to power, he and his support base, much of which originates from Addis Ababa and the Amhara region, have “blamed Tigrayans for everything that’s happening in the country”. But “up until recently, he was mostly blaming the TPLF, not civilian Tigrayans,” Abraha explains. Now, however, “because of Abiy’s recent statement, people are claiming all Tigrayans are traitors and it has fuelled the process of racial profiling that already existed.”
“I’ve been receiving threats for months, but now the death threats have become much more serious,” he says. “And this is not just some random social media users. Even my own former students have threatened me.”
“It feels very different now,” Abraha adds. “As a researcher I’ve always feared the government, the intelligence and the police. But now I’m scared of everyone, even my students and colleagues. Everyone is now expressing their hatred of Tigrayans, from the politician to the yoga teacher.”
In a recent interview, Dagnachew Assefa, an advisor of Abiy, publicly suggested the registration and possible deportation of Tigrayans. Seyoum Teshome, a prominent social media activist with hundreds of thousands of followers, recently stated: “since each and every Tigrayan youth… has been raised with the same Woyane [Tigrayan rebellion] mentality… If you want to defeat them, you have to eliminate all the youth in Tigray.”
Amhara journalists have also called on citizens to spy on their Tigrayan neighbours. “These statements and these anti-Tigrayan campaigns can spread like wildfire because of social media,” says Abraha. “My fear is that if this continues, and the Ethiopian army continues to be defeated or humiliated, that all Tigrayans living in all parts of Ethiopia will be in danger.”
According to Amnesty researcher Tekle, this is not yet “people attacking people”. “This is the government machinery that is targeting them,” he says. “We haven’t seen any actions by civilians against Tigrayans, at least in Addis.” On Sunday, though, reports emerged of at least three Tigrayan civilians allegedly being killed by a mob in the town of Wereta in Amhara region.
Aaron*, a 34-year-old father born and raised in Addis Ababa, says he has never identified with his Tigrayan roots. “I honestly thought I was Amhara up until two weeks ago,” he says. “All my friends are Amhara and I don’t even know any Tigrayans in the city…I always saw myself as Ethiopian and all my friends as just Ethiopians. I have an Amhara name and so none of my friends in Addis actually know I’m Tigrayan.”
He is concerned now, however, as “the hate is escalating a lot”. “I’ve been hearing about many Tigrayans being arrested and even my friends who are usually politically neutral are openly talking about Tigrayans as traitors and how they hope Tigrayans are killed or deported. These are my colleagues, employees, and childhood friends saying these things.”
“I’m terrified they will find out I’m Tigrayan,” says Aaron, adding that he has started learning Tigrinya, along with others in Addis, in fear that they could be expelled to Tigray. Aaron has also attempted to make connections with other Tigrayans on social media forums, but is viewed as suspicious because he cannot speak the language.
“Everyone is so full of hate here and hate for Tigrayans is growing all over the country. I feel like I’m around full-scale fascism,” he adds. “The ethnic cleansing has already been happening, but I’m scared the worst is yet to come. I’m worried we will become the next Rwanda.”
“I have a family in Addis so I cannot run away to Europe or the United States if something happens…For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m living on foreign soil. I used to be Ethiopian, but now I have no idea where I belong.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on July 14, 2021
😈 Nobel Peace Laureate Abiy Ahmed Ali’s hate speech against Tigrayans:
“Our army sometimes stayed for four or five days without water when continuous fighting was going on, while the junta was busy drinking bottled water. Tigrayan Orthodox Priests had called for people to fight the army & most of the churches were used for hiding weapons.”
Right after Nobel Peace Laureate Abiy Ahmed’s hate speech against Tigrayans:
“There are checkpoints in Addis Ababa every two or three kilometers where police check IDs. “If someone is Tigrayan, the police will take their phone, tell them to open their social media and their messages. If there’s anything related
to Tigray, they will be arrested & sent to concentration
camps, such as this”
It is now certain that it’s evil Abiy Ahmed Ali is the one who recently communicated that genocidal wishful thought against Tigrayans to the EU envoy.
💭 The EU Envoy to Ethiopia, Finland Foreign Minster Pekka Haavisto attested as follows:
“..when I met the Ethiopian Leadership😈 in February they used this kind of language, that they are going to destroy the Tigrayans, they are going to wipe out..” Finland FM Haavisto.
#TogogaMassacre | Abiy Ahmed Repeated What His Oromo Father Mengistu Did on the Very day of June 22
💭 My Note: History repeats itself:
🔥 Amhara & Oromos (Oromara) bombing Tigray, Using Rape, Hunger & Forced Resettlement (Mengistu did it back then, Abiy Ahmed is doing the same now) as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
😈 Menelik ll: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Haile Selassie: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Mengistu Hailemariam: Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
😈 Abiy Ahmed Ali ´= Half Oromo + Half Amhara = Oromo (Crypto-Muslim / Man of the flesh)
The great famine is estimated to have caused 3.5 million deaths. During Emperor Menelik’s Reign, Tigray was split into two regions, one of which he sold to the Italians who later named it Eritrea. Only two months after the death of Emperor Yohaness lV , Menelik signed the Wuchale treaty of 2 May 1889 conceding Eritrea to the Italians. It was not only Eritrea that Menelik gave away, he also had a hand in letting Djibouti be part of the French protectorate when he agreed the border demarcation with the French in 1887. Some huge parts of Tigray were put under Gonder. The Southern part, places like present day Alamata, Kobo etc were put under Wello Amhara administration.
👉 2. Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975)
In 1943, at the request of the Emperor Haile Selassie, the Royal British Airforce bombed two towns – Mekelle and Corbetta. Thousands of defenseless civilians lost their lives as a result of aerial bombardment. It is recorded that ‘on 14th October [1943] 54 bombs dropped in Mekelle, 6th October 14 bombs followed by another 16 bombs on 9thOctober in Hintalo, 7th/9th October 32 bombs in Corbetta’.
Between 2 and 5 million’ people died between 1958 and 1977 as a cumulative result. Haile Selassie, who was emperor at the time, refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to the province of Tigray,
👉 3. Mengistu Hailemariam (1937 – )
1979 – 1985 + 1987
Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died from this famine. Mengistu & his Children still alive & ‘well’ while Tigrayans starving again.
👉 4. Abiy Ahmed Ali (1976 – )
2018 – Until today: probably up to 500.000 already dead. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢 Unlike the past famine there is no natural or man-made drought, rather, Abiy simply uses war and hunger as a weapon. Abiy Ahmed sent his kids to America for safety, while bombing & starving Tigrayan kids!
[Galatians 5:19-21]
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on July 12, 2021
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday urged member states to consider imposing sanctions over the crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray, as the bloc looks to increase aid deliveries to the region.
“We should be ready to use restrictive measures where we believe they are justified,” Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Tigray is plunging towards a cataclysmic humanitarian crisis as a brutal war between the government and rebels from the region has left hundreds of thousands of people facing famine.
Borrell said the EU wants to see a ceasefire declared by the government implemented on the ground, but warned that Tigray was instead being “cut off from the rest of the world.”
“The situation in the Tigray region has never been as bad,” Borrell said.
“In spite of the ceasefire announced by the government of Ethiopia, what we are seeing in Tigray, what we are afraid Tigray is going to suffer is a serious humanitarian crisis.”
Borrell said that Brussels was now looking to organize an “air bridge” to help bring aid to the region, but conceded it would not reach the vast number of people in need.
Tigray has been the scene of fighting since Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the army in early November to topple dissident regional authorities.
The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner accused them of orchestrating attacks on Ethiopian military bases.
After early successes and a premature declaration of victory, government forces were bogged down in a vicious and months-long battle with the Tigray Defense Forces, or TDF. The Ethiopian army was backed by troops from the neighboring Amhara region and the army of Eritrea, which borders Tigray.
In late June, the TDF recaptured the capital Mekele, which had held by the Ethiopian army since November 28.
💭 When I asked the EU Envoy, Finland Foreign Minster Pekka Haavisto about Abiy AhmedAli + IsaiasAfewerki committing War Crimes in Tigray, he replied:
“..when I met the Ethiopian Leadership😈 in February they used this kind of language, that they are going to destroy the Tigrayans, they are going to wipe out..”
👉 I Thank you, FM Haavisto for proving my observations correct. Now, from this fascist Oromo regime, the usual denials, lies and condemnations will follow you. Denial is detrimental to peace, reconciliation, and justice. I like Finns and Estonians – they are the most honest and sincere Europeans.
👉 You’re right, Mr. FM. This is a hundred + year Oromo/Amhara mission to wage War and Genocide against ancient Christian Tigrayans (Tigray + Eritrea):
💭 History repeats itself:
🔥 Amhara & Oromos bombing Tigray, Using Rape, Hunger & forced resettlement (Mengistu did it back then, Ahmed will do the same now) as a Weapon against People in Tigray for the past 130 years:-
The great famine is estimated to have caused 3.5 million deaths. During Emperor Menlik’s Reign, Tigray was split into two regions, one of which he sold to the Italians who later named it Eritrea. Only two months after the death of Emperor Yohaness lV , Menelik signed the Wuchale treaty of 2 May 1889 conceding Eritrea to the Italians. It was not only Eritrea that Menelik gave away, he also had a hand in letting Djibouti be part of the French protectorate when he agreed the border demarcation with the French in 1887. Some huge parts of Tigray were put under Gonder. The Southern part, places like present day Alamata, Kobo etc were put under Wello Amhara administration.
👉 2. Haile Selassie (1892 – 1975)
In 1943, at the request of the Emperor Haile Selassie, the Royal British Airforce bombed two towns – Mekelle and Corbetta. Thousands of defenseless civilians lost their lives as a result of aerial bombardment. It is recorded that ‘on 14th October [1943] 54 bombs dropped in Mekelle, 6th October 14 bombs followed by another 16 bombs on 9thOctober in Hintalo, 7th/9th October 32 bombs in Corbetta’.
Between 2 and 5 million’ people died between 1958 and 1977 as a cumulative result. Haile Selassie, who was emperor at the time, refused to send any significant basic emergency food aid to the province of Tigray,
👉 3. Mengistu Hailemariam (1937 – )
1979 – 1985 + 1987
Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2 million people died from this famine. Mengistu & his Children still alive & ‘well’ while Tigrayans starving again.
👉 4. Abiy Ahmed Ali (1976 – )
2018 – Until today: probably up to 500.000 already dead. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢 Unlike the past famine there is no natural or man-made drought, rather, Abiy simply uses war and hunger as a weapon. Abiy Ahmed sent his kids to America for safety, while bombing & starving Tigrayan kids!
In the past, and at present, the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front/ OLA) works together with Isaias Afewerkis’ ELF, TPLF, PP, ANM, EZEMA etc. So, are they all conspiring together against the ancient Christian people of Tigray so that they could be able to replace Ethiopia and create an Antichrist Islamic ‘Cush’ Caliphate of Oromia?
[Deuteronomy 4:9-10] “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.”
The European Union says it is getting consistent reports of ethnic-targeted killings and possible war crimes in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray.
The defence forces entered Tigray early in November to oust the region’s ruling party after its troops had captured federal military bases.
The government declared victory by the end of that month, but the EU says the situation remains dire.
The conflict threatens the stability of the entire region, the European Union says.
“The situation on the ground goes well beyond a purely internal ‘law and order’ operation,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
“We receive consistent reports of ethnic-targeted violence, killings, massive looting, rapes, forceful returns of refugees [to Eritrea] and possible war crimes,” he said.
With more than two million forced to flee their homes, people in Tigray were in desperate need of aid but access to the region remains limited, he added.
How does the crisis involve Ethiopia’s neighbours?
Mr Borrell said that Eritrean troops were involved in military operations in Tigray, something both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments deny.
They are accused of forcibly taking back Eritrean refugees who lived in the UN-run camps in Tigray, before the conflict there broke out.
Nearly 100,000 Eritreans lived in four camps in Tigray after fleeing political persecution and military conscription in the one-party state.
His comments come a day after UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the UNHCR had not been given access to the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps since early November.
“Reports of additional military incursions over the last 10 days are consistent with open source satellite imagery showing new fires burning and other fresh signs of destruction at the two camps,” he said.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 