💭“አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለማስጠበቅ ልዩ ቀውስ ያስፈልጋል።…አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለመጠበቅ የመንግስት ያልሆኑ ተዋናዮችን እና ስልጣን የተሰጣቸውን ግለሰቦችን ማስወገድ ግድ ነው”። “Extraordinary Crisis Needed to Preserve New World Order….The elimination of non-state actors and empowered individuals “must be done” in order to preserve the new world order.
💭 The Washington Post has analyzed photos of shrapnel and satellite imagery and cross-referenced video to confirm that Ethiopia used a Turkish drone in January in an attack that killed at least 59 civilians sheltering in a school in Tigray, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing an analysis by the paper published on Monday.
On January 7, a school was struck by a drone-delivered bomb, killing at least 59 people and gravely injuring dozens more, according to aid workers whose organizations worked at the camp for internally displaced people in Dedebit, located in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray.
According to The Washington Post, more than 300 civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes since September, including more than 100 since the start of this year.
Weapon remnants recovered from the site of the strike by aid workers showed internal components and screw configurations that matched images of Turkish-made MAM-L munitions released by the weapons manufacturer. The MAM-L pairs exclusively with the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drone.
Military experts from the Dutch nongovernmental organization PAX and Amnesty International also identified the weapon used as a MAM-L bomb that is fitted to a TB2 drone, Politico earlier reported.
The attacks have drawn criticism from US President Joe Biden and a warning from the United Nations that they may constitute a grave violation of international law, Politico said.
Drones are rapidly turning into the decisive weapon of the conflict and have helped Ethiopian government forces turn the tide against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed the country for nearly three decades before 2018.
Turkey has exported Bayraktar armed drones manufactured by defense contractor Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Baykar), which is run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar. Ukraine, Poland, Qatar, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Azerbaijan have all taken delivery of the armed drones.
According to Turkey’s 2021 export figures announced by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in early December, Turkey’s arms sales reached a record level, with the biggest increase to African countries.
In the first 11 months of 2021, Turkey exported $2.793 billion worth of defense products, an increase of 39.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The Turkish defense industry, which set an export record of $2.7 billion in 2019, is preparing to set a new record by closing this year with exports of more than $3 billion. For the first time the defense sector had a 1.8 percent share of Turkey’s total exports in November 2021.
“All sides to the year-long conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have committed violations that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on January 9, 2022
💭 Another callous drone attack by evil Abiy Ahmed in an IDP [internally displaced persons] camp in Dedebit, Tigray has claimed the lives of 56 Christians so far. The drones are supplied and operated by Turkish, Iranian, UAE and China Mercenaries – and with the permission of the USA, Russia and Europe.
At least 56 people have been killed in an air strike at a camp for internally displaced people in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, according to Reuters.
There were at least 30 others injured, two aid workers told the news agency, citing local authorities and eyewitness accounts.
The workers sent Reuters pictures of people wounded in hospital, including many children,
The government has been accused of targeting civilians in the 14-month conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces – which it has previously denied.
Military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesman Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The aid workers, who asked not to be named because they did not have permission to speak to the press, said the number of casualties was confirmed by local authorities.
The camp that was hit by the strike is in the town of Daedaebeet in the northwest of the region, near the border with Eritrea, they said.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 15, 2021
The UAE is running a huge airlift arming an Ethiopian regime committing mass atrocities in Tigray. That inhumane adventurism is a strategic problem for Israel, too
The Abraham Accords gave Israel new leverage across the Arab world. Israel has new allies, notably the United Arab Emirates. It’s now vital to examine what these allies might be doing — especially when they contradict the founding values of the State of Israel.
Genocide scholars are sounding the alarm over Ethiopia, where the UAE is arming the government. Emirati-supplied weapons are encouraging Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to go all out for a military solution, which risks mass ethnically-targeted violence.
Israel should stop its new ally before a blunder becomes a crime.
The war in Ethiopia broke out last year, pitting the Ethiopian government and its allies—Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Amhara regional state—against the Tigray region. All sides share responsibility for the war. Once it began, the Ethiopian government chose to fight with unspeakable brutality against Tigrayan civilians.
I receive daily calls from Tigrayans. My instinctive greeting, by now, is to offer condolences. Every single caller has lost a family member, often in one of the 260 documented massacres. I don’t ask about the daughters, sisters and mothers who have been raped. I hear about deaths from disease, of people who cannot get medicine because the hospitals were ransacked. I hear about children and their mothers perishing from hunger, because food was looted and plow oxen slaughtered.
This suffering is unseen. Journalists are forbidden from travelling to Tigray. The few aid workers let in work under a rigidly enforced code of silence.
Faced with imminent annihilation, Tigrayans rallied and fought back. Last June, they defeated the Ethiopian army and reoccupied their region. The government imposed a starvation siege: only about ten percent of the needed emergency aid has been allowed to get through.
Today the Tigrayan people are facing an even greater threat. Abiy Ahmed has rallied his supporters around a campaign of blatant ethnic hostility. They portray the Tigrayans as a “cancer,” “weeds,” “daylight hyenas” and “rats.” One of Abiy’s leading supporters was videotaped saying that they should be destroyed with the “utmost cruelty.”
Local militia and vigilantes are mobilized to the front line. They also instructed to patrol their own neighborhoods, far from the front line, to identify “enemies”—in practice, any Tigrayan. At least 40,000 Tigrayan civilians are believed to be held in internment camps and police stations in and around the Ethiopian capital.
Anyone who speaks of peace is hounded. A singer, Tariku Gankisi, was asked to perform at a rally, and he deviated from the script, telling the crowd, “This is no time for singing, there is nothing to sing about.” He called for peace. His microphone was shut off and the official media rounded on him, trying to force him to grovel and apologize.
Prominent elders of the peacemaking community, academics and businesspeople have also been targeted for online vilificationand real life intimidation for standing for peace or reaching out for dialogue with the opposition.
Among Tigrayans, I hear the sentiment that Ethiopia no longer wants them, and in turn they no longer want to be part of Ethiopia.
International efforts to negotiate a political solution are getting no traction. Efforts by the African Union, Kenya and the United States have been rebuffed. The Tigrayans say that they cannot trust Abiy. For his part, Abiy promises he will crush Tigray.
Abiy is emboldened by the weapons he has obtained on a global arms-buying spree. His supplies include the usual suspects—China, Russia, Ukraine and eastern European countries that manufacture small arms—and also Turkey and Iran. His most significant supplier has been the UAE, which is running a massive airlift of lethal equipment, including drones.
The UAE is a newcomer to the Horn of Africa. It sees opportunities for investment in agriculture and ports, and wants to make Ethiopia part of its security perimeter in the western Indian Ocean. Abu Dhabi was the sponsor of the peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2018, which won Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel committee didn’t give Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki a share in the award, because he is a totalitarian despot who runs his country like a personal fiefdom. Isaias didn’t mind. He got what he wanted, which was a security pact against Tigray — whose leaders had run Ethiopia for the previous quarter century and had fought a war against him.
It seems that when Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed hosted Isaias and Abiy, he promised them ongoing financial and military support. He is certainly fulfilling that promise to Abiy, even though in doing so he is defying the U.S. policy of trying to de-escalate the Ethiopian war in favor of a negotiated peace.
The UAE belatedly reconsidered its support for proxies and its air campaigns in the wars in Libya and Yemen, but not before irreparable damage had been done to those countries. It should not have to re-learn this lesson at the expense of Ethiopia. With 110 million people, characterized by significant ethnic and religious diversity, the collapse of the country would be a calamity of surpassing size.
Israel should be worried. It has ties to Ethiopia dating back to the time of Emperor Haile Selassie. It has a deep connection to the country’s historic Jewish community, the Beta Israel. It has a security interest in a country strategically positioned at the southern end of the Red Sea arena, neighboring Muslim-majority countries.
Over the years Israel has cut deals to secure its strategic interests, and to get Ethiopia to allow its Jews to emigrate. Thirty years ago, during the last months of the communist military regime, Israel reportedly supplied munitions to the Ethiopian air force in return for expediting Operation Solomon which airlifted out 39,000 Beta Israel. Recently, as the Red Sea arena has become a theater of strategic rivalries and turmoil, Israel has kept a close eye on possible threats in the region, including militant groups.
And with the Abraham Accords, Israel is becoming a partner to bin Zayed’s adventurism. In Washington DC and European capitals, Israeli and Emirati diplomats work hand in glove. The allies are building a new security architecture for the region — which is also giving the Emiratis a free pass when they go rogue.
Emirati arms may save Abiy Ahmed’s government, but, as we have seen from Libya and Yemen, saving a government may come at the cost of losing a functioning state. That could destabilize the Horn of Africa for an entire generation.
Worse still, knowingly or not, the UAE is abetting an Ethiopian regime committing mass atrocities that are escalating by the day. The warning sirens of genocide are blaring, loudly.
Israel took a moral stand against genocide in Rwanda and Darfur. It must act now when Tigrayans face that hideous prospect. It should tell its new-found ally in Abu Dhabi to stop, now, in the name of humanity.
🏁 Amanal Petros after his record race: “I dedicate my successes to the people of Tigray”
Amanal Petros broke a German age-old record in Valencia on Sunday: In the half marathon, the runner of the TV Wattenscheid increased to 60:09 minutes, undercutting the mark of Carsten Eich, who had run 60:34 in Berlin in 1993.
The 26-year-old, who fled Eritrea to Germany about ten years ago, became the first German runner to hold the national men’s records in the half marathon and marathon at the same time. In December 2020, he had also screwed the German marathon best time at 2:07:18 hours in Valencia.
Amanal Petros gave this interview after his half marathon race:
You have achieved a novelty with your half marathon record, because never before did a German runner hold the records in the half marathon and marathon.
Amanal Petros: Yes, that’s true and I’m really very proud of that. Because I always think about where I came from and how I started. I’ll never forget that. It’s madness, I’m super happy that I’ve done all this. And I also know: I can achieve much more.
They have repeatedly pointed out the devastating situation in the Ethiopian Tigray region, where conditions of war continue to prevail. Your mother lives there with your two sisters. Do you now have contact again and what is the current situation?
Amanal Petros: It is still very difficult and currently I have no contact with my family. In the meantime, I had indirectly received a few messages via third parties. This is very bad and sad for me. For a year, people have been living there in war, children and families are dying. But no one seems to be interested in what really happens. Unfortunately, the situation is hardly reported in the media. I am constantly thinking of the people of Tigray and dedicating my successes to those who are threatened there.
🏁 Amanal Petros nach seinem Rekordrennen: „Ich widme meine Erfolge den Menschen in Tigray“
Amanal Petros hat am Sonntag in Valencia einen deutschen Uralt-Rekord gebrochen: Im Halbmarathon steigerte sich der Läufer des TV Wattenscheid auf 60:09 Minuten und unterbot damit die Marke von Carsten Eich, der 1993 in Berlin 60:34 gelaufen war.
Der 26-Jährige, der vor rund zehn Jahren aus Eritrea nach Deutschland geflüchtet war, avancierte somit zum ersten deutschen Läufer, der die nationalen Männer-Rekorde im Halbmarathon und Marathon zeitgleich hält. Im Dezember 2020 hatte er ebenfalls in Valencia die deutsche Marathon-Bestzeit auf 2:07:18 Stunden geschraubt.
Amanal Petros gab nach seinem Halbmarathon-Rennen dieses Interview:
Sie haben mit Ihrem Halbmarathon-Rekord ein Novum erreicht, denn noch nie hielt ein deutscher Läufer zeitgleich die Rekorde im Halbmarathon und Marathon.
Amanal Petros: Ja, das stimmt und darauf bin ich wirklich sehr stolz. Denn ich denke dabei auch immer daran, wo ich hergekommen bin und wie ich angefangen habe. Das werde ich nie vergessen. Es ist der Wahnsinn, ich bin super happy, dass ich das alles so geschafft habe. Und ich weiß auch: ich kann noch viel mehr erreichen.
Sie haben immer wieder auf die verheerende Situation in der äthiopischen Tigray-Region hingewiesen, in der weiterhin kriegerische Zustände herrschen. Dort lebt Ihre Mutter mit Ihren beiden Schwestern. Haben Sie inzwischen wieder Kontakt und wie ist die aktuelle Situation?
Amanal Petros: Es ist nach wie vor sehr schwierig und zurzeit habe ich gar keinen Kontakt zu meiner Familie. Zwischenzeitlich hatte ich über Dritte indirekt ein paar Nachrichten bekommen. Das ist sehr schlimm und stimmt mich traurig. Seit einem Jahr leben die Menschen dort im Krieg, Kinder und Familien sterben. Es scheint aber niemanden mehr zu interessieren, was wirklich passiert. In den Medien wird leider kaum noch über die Situation berichtet. Ich denke ständig an die Menschen in Tigray und widme meine Erfolge jenen, die dort bedroht sind.
💭 LETESENBET GIDEY PULVERIZA EL RECORD MUNDIAL DE MEDIA MARATÓN. RESUMEN MEDIA MARATÓN DE VALENCIA 2021
💭 Ethiopia’s Gidey smashes women’s half-marathon world record
Letesenbet Gidey pulverised the women’s half-marathon world record Sunday, slicing more than a minute off the previous mark when she won in Valencia.
Running in bright sunshine, it was the first half-marathon the 23-year-old Ethiopian had raced in and she added the record to her 5000m and 10,000m world records.
Gidey timed 1hr 02min 52sec to better the previous time of 1hr 04min 02sec set by Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya in April 2021.
Valencia was also the scene of Gidey’s 5000m record in October 2020.
“Gracias Valencia,” Gidey said at the finish line. “I’m so happy,” she said, holding a sign saying “First woman in history under 63 minutes”.
She ran the first 10km in 29min 45sec and then got even faster over the final section of the race.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on October 20, 2021
💭 A regional conflict is now becoming a national crisis which the country’s leaders seem unable to solve, and the lives of millions of Ethiopians are at stake.
➡ „Crow (Oromo) Making Two Cats (Northerners: Tigrayan & Ahmara & Afar) Fight„