✞Coptic Christian Priest Killed in Egypt. Islamic Violence Against Christians Continues
✞The Funeral prayers of the martyr Hegemon Arsanios Wadid
✞Murdered Egyptian Priest Faced Years of Persecution Prior to His Death
Egyptian Coptic priest Arsanious Wadid, who was killed late last week, reportedly faced years of persecution prior to his death. Father Wadid was stabbed several times in the neck by a currently unidentified assailant with unknown motives. The timing of his murder correlates with the Muslim season of Ramadan and the Christian Lenten season of Easter.
In 2000, Father Wadid worked to begin building a new church in Karmouz. Extremists confronted him, attacked his car, and threatened to kill him. They warned him to never return. When Father Wadid first entered the priesthood, he acquired a plot of land in Ragheb and Karmouz, local districts of Alexandria, and began building a church.
Later on in his ministry, the Coptic priest left his home to attend a sunrise mass. A group of extremists were waiting around his car with knives. They put the knives to his neck and ordered him to return home and not visit the church again to pray. Under the pressure of the extremists and to prevent bloodshed and the protection of his congregation waiting for him and the church, Father Wadid returned home that morning. Because it was an unofficial church, not abiding by Egypt’s law on buildings for non-Muslim worship, no action was taken in the aftermath of the incident.
Father Wadid is one of many Egyptian Christians who face persecution for their faith as the minority in the Muslim country. As a priest, he was well acquainted with the discrimination and persecution of his Christian community. His death sparks concern for subsequent attacks during a time of heightened religious tension and observance.
💭 “At least 28 killed in Islamist attack on South Sudanese Christian community,”
At least 28 people were killed and 57 houses burned down in an attack by Islamist extremists against the Christian community of Yith Pabol, Aweil East county, South Sudan, in early January.
Bishop Joseph Mamer Manot said on 6 January that “massive displacement has happened, and the humanitarian situation is alarming as food and other property have been burned down into ashes, leaving survivors with no shelters, no food and no safe drinking water”.
The incident is the latest example of attacks against South Sudanese Christians by Arab Muslims from the Republic of Sudan, along the disputed border between the two countries.
A similar attack the same week in nearby Miodol village left at least four dead, with three others missing and several houses destroyed.
The state security adviser, Joseph Akook Aleu, said Monday that the state government decided to close the road to Sudan because of the ongoing attacks and killing of civilians.
South Sudan is about 60% Christian, mostly Roman Catholic and Anglican. By grace of God and the blessings of His Beatitude Theodore II, the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Metropolitan Narkissos (Gammoh) of Nubia founded the first Orthodox Christian missionary center in South Sudan in 2015.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on November 8, 2021
In both cases, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, the speed of the collapse of government forces was (and is) remarkable. The reasons for this are complex, with differences between the two situations, along with some similarities.
👉 Two events stand out for me this year.
The first was on 18 June when I visited Mekelle, the capital of the Ethiopian province of Tigray. Ethiopian Airlines had resumed a scheduled flight service after the rebels of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had retreated into the hills in the face of an invasion by the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) at midnight on 3/4 November 2020.
The war came after months of simmering tensions between the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy and the TPLF, which refused to join his new Prosperity Party, a successor to the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which had ruled Ethiopia since the collapse of the Marxist Derg regime in 1991.
I took a (very) battered taxi around Mekelle, which had to be bump-started, the driver always positioning it carefully on a slope whenever we stopped. “No parts”, he said of the ancient Toyota, though no money was a more likely reason, given its state. The driver filled up from small bottles of petrol bought on the side of the road, two litres at a time, literally a hand-to-carburettor existence.
My meetings with the UN humanitarian office and the university done and dusted, and having successfully stayed out of the way of the ultra-aggressive ENDF patrols, I made my way back to the airport for the return to Addis. There I stopped at a small kiosk selling Tigrayan trinkets. Business had been “very slow”, said the assistant, “since the war”. Having bought something which I explained was for my daughters, he thrust two small wooden crucifixes into my hand. “These are for your children,” he insisted, “since you have been kind to me. Thank you.”
Prime Minister Abiy had declared the war against Tigray to be over on 28 November with the fall of Mekelle to his ENDF, working in conjunction with Amhara “special forces” militia and, though denied at the time, Eritrean troops.
Just 10 days after I was in Mekelle, the rebel Tigray Defence Force (TDF) retook the city and advanced across the Tigrayan borders into the Amhara and Afar regions. Since then, TDF military gains have increased in tempo from steady to rapid.
In spite of Abiy’s latest attempt to launch an offensive against the TDF this October, today the rebels are less than 350km from Addis Ababa, threatening to cut the capital’s trade lifeline with the port of Djibouti to its northeast. This led Abiy to declare the State of Emergency this week, calling on residents to take up arms to defend the city against the rebels’ advance which was, he said, “pushing the country to its demise”.
In early July, I was in the province of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. I went there to meet the governor and to film near the Buddha statues which were infamously blown up by the Taliban in 2001 after declaring that they were unacceptable “idols”. I was working in the Arg, the Presidency, as part of an attempt to determine a fast-track method for regional peace — an effort best summarised as “too little, too late”.
In Afghanistan, just the following month, the 400,000-strong armed forces and police collapsed in the face of a Taliban advance. Between 9 July, when we left Kabul, the Taliban’s control of districts was at 90 out of 398; by 16 August, all bar seven districts were under Taliban authority. By 31 August, it was all over; the US and its allies had left, and the Taliban was in charge.
In both cases, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, the speed of the collapse of government forces was (and is) remarkable. The reasons for this are complex, with differences between the two situations, along with some similarities.
In Afghanistan, despite the numbers of government forces, at least on paper, much of the fighting was done by a small number of special forces, around 10% of the total. A combination of their exhaustion, malign regional actors (if for different reasons) in both Iran and Pakistan, an inability to manage Afghan materiel resupply by air, and the suddenness of the US pullout (the nadir of which was the departure from Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night on 2 July without informing their Afghan allies), reinforced a self-fulfilling prophecy of collapse, as one district after another folded.
In the end, the Taliban won the psychological war as much as the military contest.
In Ethiopia, Abiy’s attempts to bolster his forces by employing Eritreans along with Amharic militia and, latterly, fresh recruits from among the youth and retired soldiers, have served to demonstrate his weakness while scarcely adding to his military capability. Addis Ababa’s military reliance on the national arch-enemy in Eritrea at critical moments has hardly elevated Abiy’s popularity. In Afghanistan, of course, the regime was dependent on external support in the US; when that went away, it collapsed, spectacularly.
The presence of the US also turned the struggle into a regional religious jihad. But the post-Taliban project after 2001 suffered from the strength of the pull of tribal and religious identities over Afghan nationalism.
Ethiopia has faced the same challenges, where internal peace has been rare and the history between different ethnic groups — the Oromo, Amhara, Somalis and Tigrayans among them — less a source of unity than division. One group’s national hero is another’s imperialist conqueror and land grabber.
While government efforts have endeavoured to promote the functioning of a central, federal state through state-led infrastructure and a growing economy, the absence of a national cause at least as coherent (or as existential) as that of the Tigrayans has indubitably shaped their political direction as much as their relative martial prowess. The cause of Ethiopian nationalism has not been helped by widespread inequalities along ethnic, urban-rural and religious lines, frictions heightened by social media. Economic contraction and rising unemployment haven’t helped, now over 29%, with inflation touching 27%.
While both countries have been brutalised by their experiences, the psychological war is also important. Abiy has lost this battle, just as President Ashraf Ghani did in Afghanistan. In the last major towns to fall, Kombolcha and Dessie, just 350km to the north of Addis Ababa, the ENDF gave up without a fight, getting into their (and other people’s) vehicles and fleeing south. This is partly because the TPLF has proven to be so much better at the media battle, but also because Abiy has not enjoyed a good relationship with the press, not least given the government’s tendency to turn the internet on and off to suit its ends, which has backfired badly. His increasingly belligerent rhetoric, which includes calling on citizens to“bury” the rebels, has undermined his credibility internationally, a perception worsened, ironically, by his award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.
For Ethiopia, as Afghanistan, the components of a negotiated peace include the realisation by the conflicting parties that they have more to gain by ending fighting than continuing with it, that the international community pushes them to the table, and method, timing and leadership.
Both countries have faced a restive region. Kabul’s problems related directly to Pakistan’s support of the Taliban and that was rooted in Islamabad’s relationship with India and with its own domestic tapestry inside Pakistan. Iran had its own interests, centring on the removal of the US at whatever cost.
Ethiopia is in the centre of a particularly difficult and increasingly complex region. Sudan has just suffered a military coup (again), where the military component of a joint government removed its civilian counterparts from power, a putsch supposedly supported, inter alia, by Egypt. Both allegedly support the TDF against Addis, not least given mutual fears about Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile. Eritrea’s role is well known, in part because of historical enmities between the Tigrayans and President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara, while Ethiopian troops have reportedly used weapons supplied by China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, among others, to strike Tigrayan targets.
And there is the question of leadership failures and frailties.
Ghani failed to consolidate his military forces and give them reason to keep fighting. Abiy has relied on increasingly belligerent rhetoric to inspire dramatic acts of heroism and bravery against the advancing TPLF, one so far unmatched by military training, discipline and, it seems, motivation.
In between bouts of intellectual pomposity, Ghani tried to get a peace process going, but was let down by his US allies, who made peace with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020 while excluding Kabul. Abiy has been far less willing, talking up war rather than peace, not least since any acceptance of a negotiation process would involve tacit acceptance of the status of the opposition, weakening his legitimacy and credibility as the government in place.
The role of the international community in Ethiopia is different, though the country receives more than $5-billion in annual aid. It is not overwhelmingly dependent, as Afghanistan was, on one external actor (in the US), or vulnerable to one malign neighbour (Pakistan). But this does not entirely discount the role to be played by outsiders in urging both parties to the negotiating table through a measure of carrot and stick, including sanctions, and in placing their weight behind African mediation efforts. For instance, if Abiy does not play ball, mention of the rescinding of his Nobel Peace Prize might help to focus his mind.
Abiy so far has lacked strategic nous, reacting to events rather than having a grand plan for peace. Like Ghani, he is a reluctant peacemaker, making concessions only under duress. Both leaders’ handling of the military has been chaotic and amateurish. Abiy’s ethnic profiling of Tigrayans in business, in airport queues and in carrying out atrocities has not only undermined his cause, but ensured deep-seated enmities.
It is said that competent people choose to have smart, challenging folk around them. The Arg became a notorious echo chamber of ideas, Ghani surrounding himself with kinsmen and acolytes, some of whom were notorious for seeking rent through government connections. From all accounts, Abiy lacks the feedback loops that make leaders sensitive to events and receptive to good ideas. But he does not lack for messianic certainty.
Still, it’s difficult to negotiate a peace settlement from a position of weakness, no matter the level of confidence on the part of leadership. This is a lesson for Abiy as much as it was for President Ghani.
A military stalemate in Ethiopia would now require a stiffening of ENDF resolve and a consolidation of forces hitherto unseen. But it would be necessary if a peace process is to take root, since victorious armies generally don’t see the point in making peace when they are advancing — as the Taliban showed.
The way forward for peace in Ethiopia has to centre, first, on acceptance of a ceasefire by all sides in exchange for various confidence-building measures including the restoration of humanitarian access and services such as banking and electricity to Tigray. Getting to this point, however, demands mediators being allowed to freely travel to Tigray to shop these suggestions, which until now Abiy has been reluctant to do, out of fear of undermining his own position.
Thereafter there is a need for a settlement. Whether this allows Abiy to remain in office is one key question, one that is increasingly unlikely given the brutality of the occupation of Tigray. Any deal will also have to involve Oromia opposition groups, which have linked up with the TDF. This has to entail opening further lines of communication with plausible Oromo intermediaries, some of whom are in jail. Thus, releasing political prisoners would be another confidence-building measure.
Finally, all this would have to be thrashed out at some sort of national dialogue, implicit in which is an acceptance by the government that it is prepared to accept and facilitate a peaceful handover. Most likely this would have to be based on a Tigrayan acceptance of a subordinate role that would leave the TPLF in control of Tigray itself, but without major strength in the federal government.
Such a peace process will depend on a coordinated international effort in getting behind an indigenous process, involvement that is willing to hold Ethiopian feet to the fire.
Ghani missed several opportunities to make peace with the Taliban. The most notable was after the 2019 national election, when he was elected with less than 10% of nearly ten million registered voters. If he had used that moment to reset national politics, and to form an inclusive government, how different things might have been.
Abiy, like Ghani, fears that negotiation means equivalence of the cause of the national government with the rebels. So far, his favoured approach to nation-building has only worsened the political crisis, in so doing never failing to miss an opportunity.
Like Ghani, Abiy risks making himself dispensable to the interests of peace.
“Coded microchips implanted in every person in the country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!”
ይቀጥልና…
“The tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.”
በመጨረሻም፡
“All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on November 8, 2021
💭 As Taliban took over Afghanistan presidential palace after president Aschraf Ghani Ahmadsai has fled to Dubai – in Ethiopia, the Oromo Taliban CRIME MINISTER Abiy Ahmed will also soon be deposed by Tigrayan Zionists and forced to leave the Arat Kilo palace forever. This evil and monstrous war criminal will be brought to justice. His dream of creating an „Oromo Islamic Emirate„ will remain a dream.
The Taliban declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
Convicted rapist who was deported from US in 2017 is arrested at Washington’s Dulles International Airport after catching Ethiopian Airlines evacuation flight out of Kabul
Ghader Heydari, 47, boarded evacuee flight but was flagged by border officials
How he got on flight unclear because it’s ‘unlikely’ he had Special Immigrant Visa
Man whose name matches pleaded guilty to rape in Ada County, Idaho, in 2010 A convicted rapist who was deported from the US in 2017 has been arrested at Washington’s Dulles International Airport after catching Ethiopian Airlines evacuation flight out of Kabul.
Ghader Heydari, 47, boarded a flight for evacuees but was flagged by border officials upon arrival into Washington.
He was being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, according to DailyWire, after his criminal and immigration history was pointed that.
He was released in December 2015, according to state records, and was deported from the country in 2017.
When Heydari arrived in the US on the evacuation flight, officials tried to persuade him to cancel his request to enter but he appears to have refused.
The U.S. evacuated 13,400 people from Kabul last Thursday, taking the evacuees to bases in Qatar, Bahrain or Germany before they return to the states.
They flew 5,100 people out of Kabul on US military planes. Another 8,300 were saved by coalition flights. The total – 13,400 – was drastically less than the 19,000 rescued the previous day.
Senator Ted Cruz responded to the situation on Twitter, “Biden’s evacuation from Afghanistan has been chaos. He’s bringing TENS OF THOUSANDS of people into America without thorough vetting. We have a moral obligation to get Afghans who fought with us out of harm’s way. But all unvetted evacuees should be housed in safe 3rd countries.”
“Coded microchips implanted in every person in the country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!”
ይቀጥልና…
“The tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.”
በመጨረሻም፡
“All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine.”
(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
(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.
What Happened? What Did ‘they’ Do? What Is Tigray Asking The International Community To Know And Do
106 years ago, estimated 1.5 million Armenians(more than 90% of the total Armenian population, by then) perished in the state-sponsored genocide by the Ottoman Turks.
Three decades later, between 1941 and 1945, 6 million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators across German-occupied Europe in the Holocaust. Around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population were exterminated.
And in 1994, the world saw another tragedy in Rwanda. In just 100 days between between April 7 and July 15, members of the Tutsi ethnic group and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered by armed Hutu militias. The world acted as a ‘bystander’, reluctant to act on time and stop the Genocide before its devastation plagued the nation. March 25, 1998, President Bill Clinton expressed “a deep regret” for failing to act on time and stop it.
After all these horrors, the international community renewed its “Never Again” motto. Many of us hoped that such horrors wouldn’t happen again; unfortunately, the international community continues to fail, and the horrors continue to recur.
The world is witnessing another genocide, this time in Tigray.
The Genocide in the Tigray, a genocide that I have witnessed with my own eyes, could be even worse than the tragedies the world has ever seen so far.
For close to a year, Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, Amhara forces (Amhara Special forces, Amhara militias, Amhara Fano-an armed youth squad) have been committing a well-planned campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Tigrayans people, and yet, the international community did nothing tangible to stop it, except for the “we are deeply concerned” statements.
How did we come to this- the metamorphosis;
First, Ethiopia and Amhara blocked roads to and from Tigray, since 2018
Ethiopia blocked investment to Tigray;
Ethiopia started ethnic profiling of Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia; they fired, suspended Tigrayans from their jobs; they harassed Tigrayans for who they are; they confiscated Tigrayan properties;
Tigray conducted Regional election in defiance to the Federal government’s decision to postpone it; the tense situation then escalated;
Ethiopia cut Tigray’s share of the national budget; (AJE, Oct. 7, 2020 )
Ethiopia blocked supplies of essential drugs, food, industrial raw materials;
Ethiopia also cut Telecommunication and electric services;
Then the invasion and state-sponsored genocide came.
By September 2020, Tigray was encircled in all directions.
Ethiopia had already invited 42 Divisions of Eritrea’s soldiers (estimated 240,000-300,000); Ethiopia also invited 4000-8000 Somali(Mogadishu) Soldiers, Amhara militia, Amhara Special Forces, other Ethiopian Regional state special forces; UAE’s drones too were invited to join the campaign of genocide on Tigray.
The full-fledged war was launched on November 4- deliberately early November- a harvest time for agrarian Tigray.
The invading forces mercilessly massacred tens of thousands of innocent civilian Tigrayans. Between November 2020 and March 2021, more than 150 mass massacre sites have been identified by a team at the University of Ghent in Belgium. There have been numerous additional massacres since this study was conducted. Between70,000-150,000 innocent Tigrayans are estimated to have been exterminated in these mass murders. The most notable massacres are as follows:
The Mai-Kadra massacre which according to a report by Amnesty International, took more than 600 lives( Amnesty International; 12 November 2020)
Axum massacre tallying more than 800 civilian deaths, according to AP’s Feb 17 report of witness accounts. (AP , Feb 17, 2020)
Dengelet Massacre (a March 22nd report by the CNN put the figure at more than 100 casualties; Europe External Programme with Africa put the figure at 150; my witnesses put the figure to be 165)
Mahbere-Dego (a leaked graphic Video and witness accounts collected by CNN and BBC Africa suggest 39-73 young men to have been killed between Jan 15 and 16; my witnesses estimated 193 civilians to have been killed, including on the subsequent days)
Abi Adi- an April 7th report by The Telegraph shows that 182 civilians were killed on February 10 alone
The Zalambessa massacre, killing 56-72 civilians, according to reports by Tigray Television, Tghat.com, and Jan Naysen.
Sheraro, Humera Dansha, Maykinetal, Selekleka, Irob, Debre-Abay, Idaga-hamus, Adwa, Shire Idaga-Arbi, Adigrat, Hawzen, Edaga-Berhe, Miriena, Seglamen, Hagere-selam, Hitsats, Samre, Gijjet, Hiwane, Nebelet, Wukro,Workamba, Killele, Azeba, Bizet, Wukro, Teka Tesfay are few of the sites of worst massacres. Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Amhara armies systematically slaughtered civilians of all age groups (as young as 1 month of age, up to 93 years old) in these massacres.
Not only did they massacre civilians but they also burn their burn their bodies, or threw it off the cliffs.
They used rape as a weapon of war. Thousands of women and underage girls (as young as 6 years old) in Tigray have been gang-raped, in an intentional use of rape as a weapon of war; in some cases the rapists burn the victims genitalia and uterus with hot iron rods, and insert foreign objects in to thier genitals to make them infertile(Here)
Tens of thousands of Tigrayan members of Ethiopian Defense forces are disarmed and detained arbitrarily in various unknown concentration camps. Many among them are feared to have been executed. Likewise, Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia are profiled and indiscriminately arrested for months; Tigrayan civil servants in Federal government bureaus have been fired from their jobs; Tigrayan businesses have been shut. Tigrayans in Ethiopia are enduring all kinds of humiliation and harassment for who they are. On April 29th, the Associated Press released a report detailing this ethnic profiling, arbitrary detention, and purging of Tigrayans.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the ethnic profiling, arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, closure of businesses of Tigrayans.
The invaders have destroyed health facilities, clean water infrastructure, and water pumps so that greater numbers of Tigrayans will die of water-borne illnesses and other communicable diseases, gun inflicted injuries, and non-communicable diseases; this is a damage maximization strategy to decimate the Tigrayan Civilian Population(MSF).
To induce mass starvation and destitution of Tigray, the invaders have burnt crops, seeds, cutting trees, destroyed agricultural tools, burnt grasses (food for the cattle), killed livestock, especially targeting oxen and donkeys, as well as destroying small dams and irrigation canals in a systematic campaign of crippling the agricultural sector. The World Peace Foundation has compiled a 58-page comprehensive report about the deliberate and systematic campaign of starving Tigray.
According to reports by UN agencies and Tigray’s interim government, currently, more than 2.3 people in Tigray are internally displaced and 5.2 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Hundreds have already died of hunger;
For 11 months, they[Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara governments) did everything in their capacity to block humanitarian aid. The intention has always been decimating the entire Tigrayan population- using either bullets, hunger, or diseases. They clearly are utilizing starvation as a weapon of war. Due to these concerted efforts of starving Tigray, 900,000 people in Tigray are already in famine; UNICEF says 300,000 children are at imminent risk of dying of hunger. The UN has declared famine in Tigray; there is no doubt that this famine is man-made[state-sponsored].
Unfortunately, the UN boss remains reluctant to bring wouldn’t the hunger crime to the attention of the UN Security Council in accordance with UN Resolution 2417[2018].
Tigray was put in the dark when they occupied Tigray, with electricity and telecommunication services cut; banking services stopped; roads blocked; with much of these grave atrocities on humanity hidden from the world.
The criminal trio (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Amhara) looted everything in our houses; they burnt down our hidmos(traditional houses in Tigray) in our villages; they burnt down entire villages, residential districts in small towns; they erased villages and small towns; they destroyed our schools, universities, irrigation canals, micro dams; they took our machineries, household utensils; our medical equipments, our vehicles-everything that they could took; and burnt down to ashes what they couldn’t take; they destroyed every private and state owned factories, industrial installation, every micro enterprise Tigray had.
The trio destroyed Al-Nejashi, Debre-Damo and many other places of huge historical and spiritual significance; they looted 1200 churches in Tigray, overall. They even forced 900 monks from Waldeba monastery out, and killed many among them.
The trio have committed ethnic cleansing and Genocide in Western Tigray. Estimated 1 million Tigrayans who used to live in Western Tigray are literally are today either killed, forcibly displaced or kept in concentration camps. Some 700,000 among them are now sheltered in many towns in Tigray and in Sudan. Tens of thousands are feared to be dying in concentration camps there. Their prosperities, their lands, their houses are confiscated by the Amhara regional forces.
After committing 100% Ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans in Western Tigray(which US government also confirmed), the Amhara have brought hundreds of thousands of their people from Gojjam and Gonder to make the heartland of Tigray, Western Tigray a “homogeneously Amhara” land. Men are not spared no matter what; thousands of women and under 7 children are forced to take the Amhara identity in order to remain in their homes. The women must be willing to be a concubine to an Amhara militia, though. Tigrayan traces have been erased. Recently the Amhara Regional Government has started officially leasing Tigrayan farms to Amhara newcomers.
[N.B: The 1994 Housing and Population Census showed that 96.3-98.1 % of people in the various districts in Western Tigray spoke Tigrigna, so were Tigrayans; the 1978’s ‘Nationalities in Northern Ethiopia’ map also show these areas to be “Tigrigna speakers”.]
Today’s genocide against Tigray is the same as the hundred-year-old genocide against Armenia; 80 years ago against the Jews; and 27 years ago against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
By now, the international community shall not have any confusion about the intentions and the actions of the Ethiopian government and allies, for they are clearly genocidal, designed to completely destroy the Tigrayan population and erase Tigray altogether.
Tigrayans had bled for close to a year by the viciousness of their enemies with genocidal goals and the failure of the international mechanisms to do something tangible to avert the situation.
At this point in time, Tigrayans do not think a solution will come from the UN Security Council given China’s transactional politics and Russia’s soft heart for dictators. Over 6 million people in Tigray are in imminent danger of extinction due to a paralyzed international mechanism to deal with it.
They Rather look into you, the free world you lead, and the institutions of the free world for a decisive action to stop it.
What shall be done? What is that Tigray is asking?
The International community shall be bold enough to categorize the atrocities in Tigray “Genocide”; though there are ample evidences, enough to label the atrocities in Tigray “genocide”, an investigation commission composed of the experts that studied genocides including that of Armenia, Rwanda, Darfur may be set and deployed in Tigray
America shall mobilize the Western world to use all the leverage and the existing diplomatic, economic, and military machineries at its disposal to put palpable necessary pressure on Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to put a stop to the ongoing Genocide on Tigray.
The United States government, and western allies including the European Union, the UK government, the governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, shall put tough military, economic, Visa sanctions on the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea for the atrocities they continue to commit.
America and other western powers shall press on the United Nations with all the leverage they have to put Tigray under a UN-mandated international interim civil and security administration (Using the Kosovo model). We know its likelihood is less.
It is time for NATO to militarily intervene (by triggering Art 5) in Tigray; this is where Tigray’s hopes are greater. The purposes:
A. To provide rapid, unconditional, unfettered, and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and items essential to survival, including establishing a “lifeline humanitarian corridor” from Sudan to Tigray under a demilitarized route designated for safe passage of humanitarian supplies.
B. To ensure immediate and verifiable negotiated cessation of all forms of hostilities;
C. Ensure total withdrawal of all internal and external forces, including Eritrean armed forces and Amhara Forces and militia from all Tigray parts to their deployment lines before 4th November, 2020.
D. Launch a NATO-led peace-keeping mission in Tigray.
6. An immediate joint UN-USA-EU independent investigation in the war crimes and grave crimes against humanity in Tigray; and for the perpetrators to be held accountable. A Party in the crime, EHRC has to be excluded!
7. ICC shall initiate criminal investigation in to the war crimes and crimes against humanity Ethiopia’s, Eritrea’s, and Amhara’s governments committed in Tigray;
8. If ICC couldn’t do that due to UN Security Council’s paralysis, countries should independently set their own courts to conduct criminal investigations
9. America and other great powers need to force the government break the siege on Tigray, and scale up the humanitarian aid to a point that is necessary to avert the impending humanitarian catastrophe.
10. UN Secretary General shall immediately bring the hunger crime the governments of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Amhara continue to wield on Tigray to the attention of the UN Security council in accordance with UN Resolution 2417[Artile 12].
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