💭 Westminster Abbey, which is directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction, currently refuses to return the Holy Tablet
George Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, has told The Art Newspaper that he is “astonished and saddened” that Westminster Abbey is refusing to return a sacred Tabot to Ethiopia. For the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a Tabot is a holy tablet that symbolically represents the Ark of the Covenant.
London’s Westminster Abbey is what is known as a Royal Peculiar, which puts it directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction. This means that returning the Tabot might well require the blessing of the monarch, the supreme governor of the Church of England.
In July 2018 The Art Newspaper revealed that the Ethiopian government was calling for the restitution of the abbey’s Tabot. Although King Charles III will now be dealing with a myriad of pressing issues, he is known to be sympathetic towards the Eastern Churches. More than 150 years after its acquisition, an appeal to the new king for the return of the Tabot might finally prove successful.
Westminster Abbey’s Tabot was looted at the battle of Maqdala (Magdala) in 1868, when British troops attacked the forces of emperor Tewodros. The Tabot was then acquired by Captain George Arbuthnot of the Royal Artillery.
Arbuthnot donated the Tabot to the abbey. Two years later a new altar was commissioned for the Henry VII Lady Chapel. The dean inserted the Tabot into the back of the altar, where it remained visible, along with two other sacred objects: fragments from the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral and the leading Greek Orthodox church in Damascus.
The Ethiopian Church has a strict belief that Tabot should not be seen, other than by priests. In 2010 the abbey therefore added a covering so that its Tabot is no longer visible behind the altar. Today a ghost-like rectangle where the front of the tablet could once be viewed can just be made out.
An abbey spokesperson said last month that “there are no current plans [for its return], but the future of the Tabot is kept under review”.
Carey, who served as archbishop from 1991 to 2002, told us just before the Queen’s death that he is disturbed that the Church of England “has not returned a sacred object belonging to another faith and country”.
💭 British Museum considers loan of ‘invisible’ objects back to Ethiopia
The British Museum holds 11 Tabot, the largest collection in the UK. To reflect the prohibition on them being seen, they are kept in an underground store that even the museum’s staff cannot enter.
The pressure group Returning Heritage last month submitted a Freedom of Information request to the British Museum, asking for details of claims for the Tabot since 1990. The group argues that the museum would legally be able to deaccession, under an exemption which allows it to dispose of objects that are “unfit to be retained”. Since the Tabot cannot be seen, the pressure group argues that there is no point in them remaining in the museum’s collection—and they should be returned to Ethiopia.
Since the summer of 2021, as part of its efforts to bridge cultures, The Scheherazade Foundation has been campaigning behind the scenes for the British Museum to repatriate eleven highly sacred Ethiopian altar tablets looted by British forces at the Battle of Maqdala in 1868. So sacred are these ‘Tabot’ to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, that in some 150 years the Museum has never put them on display nor allowed them to be studied, copied or even photographed. They therefore have no value to the Museum and should be returned to their rightful owners – a point made to the Museum Trustees in a letter sent by the Scheherazade Foundation last September and backed up by an opinion by Samantha Knights QC. Among the signatories to the Foundation letter were the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, Lord Foster of the Liberal Democrats, and former Labour minister Lord Boateng. The British Museum answered that letter only last month, refusing to engage in any way with the comprehensive legal arguments that the Foundation had put forward for the Tabot’s return. Yesterday in the House of Lords, Lord Carey tabled an oral question on the matter, sparking a lively debate in which Lords Foster and Boateng, along with the Bishop of Worcester and Lord Bassam of the Labour Party also intervened to support the Foundation’s position. Here is the relevant clip from the debate.
✞✞✞[2 Corinthians 10:4-6]✞✞✞
“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.”
💭 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.”
☆ Increasingly, Abiy’s vitriol toward the TPLF appears to be a projection or his own mindset, and not rooted in reality.
☆ Abby treats anyone who does not agree completely with him as an enemy. Here, he repeats the experience of Erdogan, Turkey’s president.
☆ Rather than engage professionally, the Abby regime prefers to rely on trolls. Such tactics always backfire.
☆ That Abiy appears to have blessed a foreign invasion of Ethiopia is treasonous on its face.
☆ Abby embraces the attitude, l’état, c’est moi, but he is wrong. Ethiopia is a great nation. It is not a single man. Abby’s campaign in Tigray has been a disaster. It should mark the end of Abby’s rule, but that does not mean an end to Ethiopia – unless Ethiopians continue to follow Abiy on his suicide mission.
It has now been almost three years since the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Abiy Ahmed as the recipient of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation.” Abiy received international plaudits. CNN called him a “modern day African leader.” Other African leaders congratulatedhim on twitter.
Terrence Lyons, a professor of conflict resolution at the Carter School, praised other aspects of Ethiopia’s tremendous progress under Abiy. He released political prisoners and opened political space. “Political prisoners were released, the repressive civil society law scrapped, and independent media rebounded. Exiled movements that had been labeled as terrorists – such as Ginbot 7, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the Ogaden National Liberation Front – agreed to end their armed struggles and returned to Ethiopia and registered as political parties,” Lyons explained. He continued to report that Abiy had strengthened civil society and laid the groundwork for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explore the abuses of previous regimes. As important, Ethiopia began to meet its economic potential as an African giant.
From Promise to Pariah
Today, that promise is gone. The Nobel Committee may not be able to revoke its prize, but it chastised Abiy in a way that exceeded admonishments of other recipients whose commitmentto peace eventually waned.
Abiy and his partisans believe such criticism is unfair. He and his supporters grow frustrated that the international community largely discounts their narrative surrounding the start of the Tigray War and its conduct. Too often, this frustration manifests itself in either personal attacks or conspiracy theories, both of which exacerbate Abiy’s relationship with the broader international community. It may be satisfying to blame others, but it is immature. If Abiy wants to know how he lost the world, he need only consider his own actions.
Alas, he is unwilling to do this. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit in on a conversation with an Ethiopian Cabinet-level official and ask him what lessons the Abiy government had learned from the past two years of civil war. After all, there are two major parties to the conflict, and to suggest the fault rests solely with Abiy’s enemies is not realistic. Even if Abiy believes truth is fully on his side, responsible political and military leadership should constantly assess and adjust tactics. Abiy’s does not, for the simple reason they do not acknowledge mistakes.
This could suggest many dynamics, none of which is good for Ethiopia. First, Abiy may truly be unable to recognize the error of his ways. He may have a messiah complex and believe that he can do no wrong. Second, Abiy may so terrorize those around him that they either self-censor or fear contradicting their boss. In a sense, this was the dynamic at play when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly ordered the murder of Washington Post columnist and Muslim Brotherhood activist Jamal Khashoggi. That many long-time visitors to Ethiopia report public fear approaching what Ethiopia experienced under the Derg should raise alarms.
Volume over Substance
Also contributing to the collapse of Abiy’s reputation has been the Ethiopian government’s over-the-top response to criticism and its ineffective diplomacy. Too often, Abiy and his regime substitute volume for substantive engagement. The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. is a non-entity. Its diplomats are less active than those of countries a fraction of Ethiopia’s size.
Rather than engage professionally, the Abiy regime prefers to rely on trolls. Such tactics always backfire. They did not work for Somalia’s Mohamed Farmajo or Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rather, online polemics became self-defeating as the leaders themselves began to confuse paid and imaginary courtiers with legitimate opinions. Trolls seldom change the opinion of policymakers for the simple reason that the latter do not spend their time online, let alone on a platform prone to manipulation and dominated by anonymous persons.
For the Ethiopian government to use trolls to punish opinions it dislikes also backfires because it antagonizes rather than changes minds. If Abiy’s government believed in the justice of its cause, it should be able to use facts to cajole and convince rather than simply lob insults. Perhaps Abiy believed he could use trolls to attack diplomats, foreign analysts, and academics, and then conduct business as usual through official channels. This fools no one. When government-paid trolls throw fireballs, it reflects on all serving Ethiopian diplomats and ministers. It disqualifies them in the court of normal relations.
Perhaps one of the reasons for Abiy’s slash-and-burn diplomatic strategy is a mindset that exaggerates Ethiopia’s importance to non-Ethiopians. At its core, Abiy treats anyone who does not agree completely with him as an enemy. Here, he repeats the experience of Erdogan, Turkey’s president. The West once saw Erdogan as a moderate and a bridge-builder. But years of dismissing even mild criticism as evidence of affiliation with terrorist groups backfired. Rather than being silenced, Abiy’s critics, diplomats, and even his earlier cheerleaders began to question his grip on reality. He antagonized so many figures at home and abroad that today he can rely only on his own family.
It is also incorrect to adopt the “with us or against us” mindset for domestic politics. When Abiy supporters suggest criticism of his conduct of the Tigray war means affinity for the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), he appears paranoid if not a loon. That his supporters suggest criticism of Abiy and partiality toward the Tigryans is racist does Abiy no favors. It makes as much sense as suggesting that support for Ukraine over Russia is motivated by anti-white sentiment.
Confusing Propaganda with Reality
Abiy may be frustrated that the world in general and Washington, in particular, do not share his conclusions about the TPLF as a terrorist group. Arguments that the TPLF is to Addis Ababa what al Qaeda is to Washington are ridiculous. The TPLF was the dominant party in Ethiopia’s governing coalition from 1991 to 2018. While Abiy is correct that the TPLF committed human rights abuses during its rule – one in which he participated both as director-general of the Information Network Security Agency and later as a minister – simply reclassifying political rivals as a terrorist group and then growing angry when the international community does not follow suit is self-defeating. Even if the TPLF was a terror group, there is no justification for the collective punishment and mass starvation that Abiy has directed. Increasingly, Abiy’s vitriol toward the TPLF appears to be a projection or his own mindset, and not rooted in reality.
Abiy’s arguments fail to resonate in other ways. His supporters say the TPLF fired the first shots on Nov. 3, 2020, when Tigrayan forces attacked the Northern Command headquarters. But the speed and scale of the Ethiopian reaction suggest prior planning on Abiy’s part. This in turn leads foreign analysts to interpret Tigrayan action as pre-emption rather than aggression.
Allies also matter. To make peace with Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki is one thing; to collaborate actively with him is another. That Abiy appears to have blessed a foreign invasion of Ethiopia is treasonous on its face. Abiy’s alliance with former Somalian President Mohamed Farmajo, a man who collaborated with Al-Shabaab and sought to extend his own term illegally, is almost as stigmatizing. Friends matter. Simply put, Abiy’s hatred led him to the disqualifying embrace of rogues. He may blame the outside world, but he took that journey of his own accord.
The Problem is Abiy, not Ethiopia
Abiy embraces the attitude, l’état, c’est moi, but he is wrong. Ethiopia is a great nation. It is not a single man. Abiy’s campaign in Tigray has been a disaster. It should mark the end of Abiy’s rule, but that does not mean an end to Ethiopia – unless Ethiopians continue to follow Abiy on his suicide mission. Here, an Iraq analogy is useful. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein slaughtered the Iraqi Kurds in the Anfal genocide. Rather than divorce Iraq completely, Iraqi Kurds still mark Iraqi Army Day each year on Jan. 6. To date, they realize Saddam was the problem, but see the Iraqi Army as an institution to respect.
A year ago, Abiy might have used external diplomacy to shield himself from accountability for his own actions. Today it is too late. He has condemned himself and Ethiopia to pariah status, and has become an impediment to both peace and to Ethiopia’s efforts to secure an influence commensurate with its size, history, and economic potential.
Abiy may persevere as Robert Mugabe did, but Ethiopia will pay the price, just as Zimbabwe did. The simple reality is the United States, European Union, and many African countries no longer see Abiy as redeemable. For peace and prosperity in Ethiopia, the only course of action is Abiy’s exit. If, when, and how that happens will be a question for Ethiopians only. The lone certainty is that Abiy’s legacy will be shaped less by his Nobel Prize and more by the revelations of a future Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
💭 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…”
Yesterday, ‘unEthiopian’ fascist Oromo regime’s and Eritrean air forces bombarded many towns in Tigray including Shire, Adi Daero and Mekelle.
This barbaric act was carried out yesterday, 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.
👹 Evil Jihadist Abiy Ahmed Ali Blessed A Foreign Invasion of Ethiopia is Treasonous on its Face
It’s tragic that the ‘PEACE PACT’ – actually a WAR PACT — that earned evil Galla-Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize allowed him to borrow Eritrean soldiers, U the Eritrean army UAE + Turkey + Iran drones, to conduct this genocidal war against Christian Tigray, Ethiopia„
👹 Kosovo 2.0 in the making. This is the evil did of Ahmed’s PP Oromos, Isaias’s EPLF, Debre Tsions’ TPLF and Amhara PP/ Fano.
👉 19 + 2 = 21 = 911 Call = Sep. 11 = Ethiopian New Year’s Day, according to the Ethiopian calendar Hidar 21 (November 30) = Annual feast of St. Mary of Zion
☆ TExas
☆ TEgray (Tigray)
☆ TEdros (Tigray Native)
❖ Children of Tigray
💭 A Fourteen-year-old Girl killed, at least 18 people injured in rare bombardment after two months of relative peace.
Eritrean forces shelled a town in north Ethiopia over the weekend, according to internal U.N. documents and regional forces, in a rare bombardment after two months of relative peace in the Tigray conflict.
Bulletins from the United Nations seen by Reuters cited information from humanitarian organizations in Shiraro saying at least 23 rounds were fired, some hitting a school housing displaced families.
A 14-year-old girl was killed, at least 18 people were injured and 12 houses were damaged, one of the documents said.
Late on Monday, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls most of Tigray region, accused Eritrean forces of attacking its troops on Saturday and Sunday in Shiraro, about seven miles from the Eritrea-Ethiopia border.
“As part of their desperate attempt to escalate the tension and drag us into more action, they shelled Sheraro on the 28th and 29th of May,” TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda tweeted.
Eritrean information minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters was unable to independently verify those numbers or the attack.
Ethiopia’s military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesman Legesse Tulu did not return messages seeking comment.
Eritrea has supported Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal forces in its war since late 2020 with the TPLF.
The TPLF said its forces had killed four Eritrean commanders and more than 300 Eritrean soldiers in the weekend flare-up.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters was unable to independently verify those numbers or the attack.
Tigray’s communication network has been down for a year.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 20, 2021
💭 UPDATE:
Fresh Ethiopia Air Raids Target Civilians In #Tigray Today, the #Ethiopia|n Air Force has conducted multiple drone and air strikes in Maychew, Korem and, the regional capital, Mekelle. So far eighteen civilians have been reported killed and eleven more injured.
💭 The Tragic drama continues: The Fascist Oromo Army’s Airstrike in Mekelle, today December 20, 2021
❖ [Jeremiah 6:14]❖
“All they ever offer to my deeply wounded people are empty hopes for peace.”
❖ [Ezekiel 13:10]❖
“Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar.„
💭 Ethiopia’s Tigray forces announce retreat with view to possible ceasefire
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said the decision could be a ‘decisive opening for peace’
Tigrayan forces fighting the Ethiopian government have announced their withdrawal from two key regions in the north of the country, a step towards a possible ceasefire after 13 months of brutal war.
“We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace,” wrote Debretsion Gebremichael, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party controlling most of the northern region of Tigray.
His letter on Monday to the United Nations called for a no-fly zone for hostile aircraft over Tigray, imposing arms embargos on Ethiopia and its ally Eritrea, and a UN mechanism to verify that external armed forces had withdrawn from Tigray.
Mr Debretsion said he hoped the Tigrayan withdrawal, from the regions of Afar and Amhara, would force the international community to ensure that food aid could enter Tigray. The UN has previously accused the government of operating a de facto blockade – a charge the government has denied.
“We hope that by (us) withdrawing, the international community will do something about the situation in Tigray as they can no longer use as an excuse that our forces are invading Amhara and Afar,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on November 3, 2021
The Biden administration is ending Ethiopia’s special trade status under U.S. law — the latest penalty imposed on the Ethiopian government amid its ongoing war with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the regional force that once controlled the federal government.
The decision, announced Tuesday by the White House, comes amid an expansion in the conflict, which has its anniversary Wednesday. The U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa warned it could spill out into a wider civil war, threatening even more suffering for the Ethiopian people and more instability in the region.
To halt that expansion and push both sides to negotiate, the administration has prepared targeted U.S. sanctions against figures on all sides, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
The State Department has also prepared a declaration that the Ethiopian government’s atrocities against Tigrayans constitute a genocide, both sources said, although it’s unclear whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken will sign it and when.
While those first sanctions could come soon, it’s the suspension of Ethiopia’s trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act on Tuesday that marked a new step. In a message to Congress, President Joe Biden said Ethiopia’s “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” made it ineligible for AGOA under the law.
The suspension is required under U.S. law, but it is also seen as another warning shot across Abiy’s bow — with a potentially strong economic impact on the country, which exports between $100 million and $200 million to the U.S. each year, according to various estimates.
But it won’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2022, so Ethiopia can still reverse the decision before its implementation, according to Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa.
“It’s not too late to retrace our steps toward the path not taken, but the change in direction must occur in days, not weeks,” he said Tuesday.
Events on the ground, however, show the war is heading in the opposite direction. Abiy’s government declared a national state of emergency Tuesday amid concern that the Tigrayan Defense Forces may move on the capital Addis Ababa after seizing towns just 160 miles to the northeast, according to the Associated Press.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration criticized the Biden administration’s decision, saying that it was “extremely disappointed” and that the move will “reverse significant economic gains in our country and unfairly impact and harm women and children.”
“We urge the United States to support our ongoing efforts to restore peace and the rule of law — not punish our people for confronting an insurgent force that is attempting to bring down our democratically elected government,” it added in a statement.
But Feltman made clear the U.S. sees Abiy’s government as part of the problem here, in particular because its “unconscionable” blockade on the Tigray region since June has led to shortages of food, medicine, fuel,\ and cash. Some 900,000 people are facing famine-like conditions in the region, according to U.S. estimates.
The United Nations has estimated that 2,000 trucks of aid are needed per month to deal with the humanitarian crisis, but just 1,100 trucks have entered in total since the beginning of July — 13% of what’s required — per Feltman.
“Without question, the most serious obstacles are intentional government delays and denials,” he added during remarks at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “This unfortunately suggests an intentional effort by the authorities to deprive Ethiopians who are suffering of life-saving assistance. … No government should be adopting policies or allowing practices that result in mass starvation of its citizens.”
Feltman was also quick, however, to condemn the TPLF, especially for its “unacceptable” offensives into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions that have worsened the humanitarian situation. He urged them not to march on Addis, too.
💭 My Note: Yeah! That’s why we are „Addis Ethiopia/ አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ” = New Ethiopia
💭 One year after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent in troops who committed unspeakable atrocities in an attempt to crush the rebellious Tigray region, the army that he sought to vanquish is heading down the highway towards Addis Ababa. The fate of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s regime now hangs in a precarious balance
Over the weekend, fighters from the Tigrayan Defence Force seized control of parts of Dessie, a city 400km from Addis Ababa, and captured Kembolcha, with its major airport.
Abiy gambled everything on a massive offensive that he launched on 9 October, throwing tens of thousands of poorly trained and poorly equipped rookies into the fight and bragging that it would take 10 days to recapture Mekelle, the Tigray capital.
That offensive has collapsed.
Over the weekend, fighters from the Tigrayan Defence Force (TDF) seized control of parts of Dessie, a city 400km from Addis Ababa, and captured Kembolcha, with its major airport. The French analyst René Lefort wrote that in 1991 when the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) overthrew Mengistu Haile Mariam’s military junta (the Derg), it took them only a few days to travel from Dessie to Addis.
Some of the TDF military leaders were among those who liberated Addis that day, among them General Tsadkan Gebretensae, the TDF commander and military strategist who is credited with outplaying and outfoxing Abiy’s forces. No one knows the geography of the country or the road into Addis better than he does.
Having failed with the ground attack, the Ethiopian air force has repeatedly bombed Mekelle over the past fortnight, killing many civilians. The Amhara ethno-nationalists have resorted to ever more extreme language, with calls for the extermination of the Tigrayans that were reminiscent of Rwanda in 1994.
How was this setback possible, with Abiy holding such a huge advantage in numbers against a largely guerrilla force from a landlocked province, without an air force or international support? Why have the sophisticated weaponry and drones from Iran, Turkey and China proved no match for this low-tech army of footsoldiers?
“PM Abiy threw an ill-trained peasant army against a battle-hardened, formidable army with an iron will to fight and expected to win,” explained Rashid Abdi, the Kenyan expert on the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country with a long history of inter-ethnic conflict, violence and resentment. The country has 80 ethnic groups, but the top five — Oromo, Amhara, Tigrayan, Afar and Somali — represent 85% of the population.
The political system that kept these tensions in check has been breaking down for decades and the forces of violent ethno-nationalism have grown.
The immediate trigger for the military conflict was Tigray’s decision to hold an unauthorised election in 2020 after Abiy postponed the country’s elections, citing Covid-19 as a pretext.
On 4 November 2020, Abiy sent a combination of ENDF troops, the Eritrean military and Amhara militias into Tigray, claiming he was responding to an attack by the Tigray military on a federal military camp.
Abiy sought to exploit the anti-Tigrayan resentment of the Amhara ethno-nationalists to crush the Tigrayans, who had been dominant in the country’s political system during the authoritarian rule of Meles Zenawi between 1991 and 2012. After Abiy’s succession to power in 2015, they remained a significant check on his power.
The ensuing conflict has been particularly violent, with upwards of several hundred thousand dead — but these are just estimates; no one seems to be counting and few independent reporters have been near the battlefields. Reports of atrocities have been random and episodic.
After the November invasion drove the TDF into the mountains, the Amhara fighters were accused of ethnic cleansing of Tigrayan villages and Amnesty International claimed that troops from Eritrea massacred hundreds of unarmed Tigrayan civilians in the town of Axum.
The turning point in the war came in June, when the TDF routed the ENDF and recaptured Mekelle. Since then, it has been a slow march to the south and the east, a war on several fronts, while Abiy tried to rebuild his army; he also signed military cooperation agreements with Russia and Turkey.
Abiy has attempted to starve the encircled Tigray into submission by blocking food aid convoys from reaching up to a million people, mostly women and children, who are near starvation. UN officials who complained of this use of hunger as a weapon — a war crime — were expelled from the country.
Abiy’s incitement of ethnic hatred in a combustible world further undermined the standing of this former hero of progressives worldwide, who won the Nobel Peace Prize a short two years ago.
His legacy, if he falls, will be a shattered country and ruined economy. With the destruction of the ENDF, and the Eritreans staying out of the recent fighting, the conflict could be entering a new phase between the Tigrayans and the Amhara that will go on even after Abiy has fallen. The more extreme Amhara faction has launched a “call to arms”.
The Tigrayans are mindful of the fact that they represent less than 5% of the country’s population and cannot rule Ethiopia alone, so they have been building alliances with other ethnic groups and political movements.
Their victories this weekend coincided with Abiy’s recent losses on other fronts to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), now allied with the Tigrayans. There are reports that the Tigrayans have agreed to let the OLA be the ones to march into Addis, an important symbolic gesture — but the OLA do not have the same firepower as the TDF.
😈 The Oromo should be the big winners, but they are divided between those in opposition and those in Abiy’s Prosperity Party. Abiy himself is Oromo, but his support within that group is mixed.
Further ethnic conflict will cause broader turmoil in the Horn of Africa that was highlighted this past week with a military coup in Sudan.
The brutality and hatred that has been aroused by the war have cast doubt on the very survival of Ethiopia. But Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country and dismembering it, similar to what happened to Yugoslavia in the 1990s, might precipitate a level of death and suffering that is unimaginable.
The only alternative is a national conference, an attempt to forge a viable compact, one that, unlike the EPRDF victory in 1991, opens itself to the many voices and groups in Ethiopia. Echoing South Africa’s Codesa process of the early 1990s, the call has gone out for a “new Ethiopia”.
The response of the international community, including the African Union, to the crisis in Ethiopia, has ranged from negligent to complicit. It has so far failed to construct any kind of useful framework for peace. We can only hope that in the months ahead, with a potential changing of the guard in Addis, that will change.
💭 My Note: This was exactly my thought when I heard this news, and saw the Satanic Crescent moon & star aka „Red Crescent„. Those deadly UAE drone that massacred thousands of Tigrayans is not enough. Dr. Liya Tadesse, Minister of Health is even dressed in green to thank her Emirati ‘ambulance’ deliverer. During the crusades, Islamic soldiers wore green to identify themselves.
👉 I wrote a few months earlier this:
💭Connecting the dots:
According to this new report rightly described as “horrifying”, Ethiopian Airlines is transporting weapons to Tigray via its commercial flight. Using commercial flight to transport weapons is prohibited worldwide.
It is very curious; preparing for The #TigrayGenocide evil Abiy Ahmed and his luciferian overlords brought Tigrayans to occupy key positions nationally and internationally:
The number of cargo flights between the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia has left little doubt that the U A E has taken an active role in supporting the Ethiopian military in its fight against Tigray forces in the northern parts of Ethiopia. In two months, some 70 Il-76 cargo aircraft flying out of the U A E landed in Ethiopia. While some of the large cargo aircraft appear to have landed at Addis Ababa international airport, in most other cases they landed at Harar Meda air base, undoubtedly to unload their military cargo away from prying eyes and cameras.
Still, relatively little is known about the types of weaponry and other military equipment that the U A E has supplied to the Ethiopian National Defence Force ENDF. What is known is that the Ethiopian military is deploying a large VTOL type unmanned combat aerial vehicle UCAV armed with two mortar rounds supplied by the U A E, while Ethiopia’s Republican Guard makes use of at least three types of Emirati-supplied carbines and sniper rifles. It is likely only a matter of time before more U A E-supplied weaponry starts showing up in footage from the war in Tigray.
In the meantime, the Ethiopian government made a rare acknowledgement regarding some of the equipment received from the U A E. But rather than consisting of guns or ammunition, the donated cargo on this occasion instead consisted of 50 Toyota Land Cruiser ambulances equipped for basic emergency services. The delivery of 50 ambulances would account for the cargo content of seventeen out of 68 confirmed flights by Il-76s to Ethiopia. This means that the content of 51 Il-76 cargo aircraft is unaccounted for, likely consisting of various types of armament that have yet to make their public debut in Ethiopia.
Although one might argue that the delivery of ambulances to Ethiopia’s health sector is completely unrelated to the conflict in the Tigray Region, the U A E’s decision to supply Ethiopia with Toyota Land Cruisers as ambulances strongly suggests that most of these vehicles will immediately be pressed into service with the Ethiopian military in the Tigray Region instead. The excellent off-road capabilities of the Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 and the fact that the vehicles appear to have been drawn from military stocks, judging by their khaki paintjob certainly hints that this is indeed their intended use.
At least part of the contents carried aboard the U A E air bridge between Ethiopia and the U A E has meanwhile been identified. Their ostensibly civilian status set aside, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that many of these ambulances will end up being used on the frontline to transport wounded Ethiopian soldiers to hospitals. If this indeed is the case, it will be just one more facet of a conflict that is still growing in its totality, forcing its unwilling participants to commit ever greater amounts of manpower and equipment lest they eventually succumb to the pressures of war.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 