Red flag raised over possible ‘genocide’ in Ethiopia's Tigray, By FRED OLOUCH

What you need to know:

The war that began in November 2020 between forces of the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has caused great human suffering. It has extended southwards to the Amhara region and eastwards to the Afar region.
A joint investigation by the UN Human Rights Council and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that parties on both sides of the conflict have committed serious human rights abuses
Fifteen African civil society organisations have warned that the ongoing war in Ethiopia could equal the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, unless the United Nations immediately puts the conflict on its agenda.

In a May 18 letter to the UN Security Council, the groups say that besides war crimes and crimes against humanity on both sides of the conflict, words such as “cancer” and “devil” that are used to refer to human beings cast as opponents reflect what preceded the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In Rwanda, the then Hutu-led government referred to the Tutsi population as “cockroaches”, giving the impression that they were parasites that needed to be exterminated.

“Twenty-eight years ago, the Security Council similarly failed to recognize the warning signs of genocide in Rwanda or act to stop it,” says the letter that was spearheaded by Hala Al Karib, a women’s rights activist in the Horn of Africa and Sudan region, and Corlett Letlojane, executive director of the Human Rights Institute of South Africa.

“The United Nations had the means to intervene, but simply did not care enough about Rwanda to intervene appropriately. We are concerned that the situation is repeating itself in Ethiopia today. We call on you to learn the lessons from Rwanda and act now.”

The war that began in November 2020 between forces of the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has caused great human suffering. It has extended southwards to the Amhara region and eastwards to the Afar region.

A joint investigation by the UN Human Rights Council and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that parties on both sides of the conflict have committed serious human rights abuses, including attacks on civilians, unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions, abductions and enforced disappearances and rape and other sexual violence.

The government has sought to use food as a weapon of war, blocking humanitarian assistance as a tool to starve Tigrayans into submission. It has been estimated that half a million people have died, 4.2 million have been displaced and nine million are in need of humanitarian assistance.

A recent joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch based on over 400 interviews conducted over 15 months documents ethnic cleansing in western Tigray. “In this context, there are serious reasons for concern about ongoing ethnic tensions and that violence may rise to the level of genocide,” the letter says.

The groups say that despite the seriousness of the situation, the UN Security Council has failed to formally address the situation in Ethiopia.

“This is a critical moment for the UN to take decisive action that leverages these openings to benefit the people of Ethiopia. This cannot be done, however, without clear leadership from the UN Security Council,” the letter says.

The UN Human Rights Council has taken significant action to bring the human rights violations committed in Ethiopia to light, both through its joint investigation with the EHRC and through the appointment of an international commission of human rights experts.

The group says that the UN Security Council should support these efforts with its diplomatic muscle.

While the announcement of a truce in late March offered an important opening for dialogue, the groups say the UN must take action to ensure that both sides are publicly committed to it, to increase humanitarian aid delivered to Tigray.

“Such action will be vital to assisting the Ethiopian men, women, and children who have been suffering both direct hostilities, associated human rights violations, and obstructed humanitarian aid,” the letter says.

The civil society groups are now demanding that the UN Security Council formally place Ethiopia on its agenda and take several key steps like requesting regular reporting on the situation on the ground in Ethiopia, which will provide the Council with the information that it needs and the forum to monitor how the Ethiopian government and that of the Tigray region comply with their international law obligations.

Other recommendations from the groups include pressing the parties for immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, including access to detention facilities, where civilians are particularly at risk.

They also propose the imposing of an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, with a UN monitoring body to report on the implementation of the embargo, and the disarming of militias that have been at the forefront of grave human rights violations.

Others are a call for a verification mechanism to ensure the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia; support for political mediation in the conflict in cooperation with the African Union; and support for the deployment of an AU-led international peacekeeping force in Western Tigray with the mandate to protect civilians and promote the delivery of humanitarian aid.

They also want those responsible for the most serious violations committed over the last 16 months to be made accountable for their actions, including by supporting the work of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts.

(Source:Nation)

Somali troops committed atrocities in Tigray as new alliance emerged, survivors say, LUCY KASSA SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL PUBLISHED JANUARY 20, 2022

 

Villagers return from a market to Yechila town in south central Tigray walking past scores of burned vehicles, in Tigray, Ethiopia, July 10, 2021.

Accounts of atrocities by Somali soldiers in Ethiopia’s Tigray war are casting a spotlight on an emerging military alliance that has reshaped the Horn of Africa, weakening Western influence in a strategically important region.

The Globe and Mail has obtained eyewitness reports of massacres by Somali troops embedded with Eritrean forces in Tigray in the early months of the war. The new evidence raises disturbing questions about a covert military alliance between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia that has inflicted death and destruction on the rebellious Tigray region in northern Ethiopia.

Officially, the three governments have denied any alliance, and Somalia has denied that its troops were deployed in Tigray. But The Globe’s investigation has provided, for the first time, extensive details of civilian killings committed by Somali soldiers allied with Eritrean forces in the region.

Gebretsadik, a 52-year-old farmer from the village of Zebangedena in northwestern Tigray, said the dusty roads of his village were strewn with the bodies of decapitated clergymen in December, 2020, a few weeks after the beginning of the war.

Some of the priests and monks were people he recognized. Somali soldiers, working alongside Eritrean forces who had captured the village, had targeted churches and killed the clergymen, he said.

“They slaughtered them like chickens,” he told The Globe.

The Somali and Eritrean troops stayed in the village until late February, according to Gebretsadik, who often fled to the bushes and mountains around the village to escape attacks during that time.

The Globe talked to dozens of survivors who had witnessed atrocities in six Tigrayan villages where Somali troops had been stationed between early December, 2020, and late February, 2021. The Globe is not publishing their full names or their current locations because their lives could be in danger.

The survivors said the Somali troops were wearing Eritrean military uniforms, but they were clearly identifiable as Somali because of their language and their physical appearance. Unlike the Eritreans, they could not speak any Tigrinya, the language spoken in Tigray and much of Eritrea. The witnesses said they also heard the Eritrean troops referring to them as Somalis.

Last year, United Nations and U.S. officials said they had received information that Somali troops were present in Tigray, but few details were known. Somali parents held several protests in Mogadishu and other places in Somalia last year, complaining that their sons had been ordered to fight in Tigray after being originally sent to Eritrea for military training. Hundreds of Somali soldiers were reportedly killed in the fighting.Up to 10,000 Somali troops were deployed in Tigray, according to current and former Ethiopian officials who spoke to The Globe. The Globe is not identifying the individuals because they face the threat of reprisals for their comments.

Until now, few details were known about the activities of the Somalis in Tigray. But the survivors told The Globe that the Somali troops had massacred hundreds of civilians in villages controlled by the Eritrean military, often beheading them. No Ethiopian troops were present in the villages, they said.

“They showed no mercy,” said Berket, a 32-year-old farmer in the Tigrayan village of Mai Harmaz. “The Eritreans interrogate you before they kill you. But the Somali troops were full of contempt for that.”

One of his neighbours, a 76-year-old priest, was among those killed by the Somali troops, he said.

Kibrom, a 37-year-old man who fled the village of Hamlo in January, said the beheadings by Somali troops became an “everyday reality” in his village.

“The churches were inhabited by the troops,” he said. “They burned the holy books and sacred objects. Churches became the most unsafe places. Villagers stopped going to churches because the Somali troops would kill anyone they found in churches.”

According to former Ethiopian officials, most of the Somali troops crossed the border from Eritrea into western Tigray in the early weeks of the war. They said the Somali troops, under the command of the Eritrean army, had already been stationed in trenches near the border before the war began.

“They undoubtedly have participated in the war,” said Gebremeskel Kassa, who was chief of staff in the interim administration in Tigray that the Ethiopian government appointed after seizing control of the region in the early months of the war. He later fled abroad, fearing for his safety when Ethiopian officials criticized him for Tigrayan military gains in the region.

Mr. Gebremeskel said he knew about the Somali deployment from his travels in Tigray and his private meetings with top Ethiopian officials and military generals.

“All of us who were top officials had knowledge of that,” he told The Globe. “The Somali troops took training in the Eritrean camp of Sawa as a result of a military deal between the three governments before the war started.”

When the deployment became politically controversial in Somalia, especially after the protests by the parents and questions by parliamentarians, the Somali soldiers were sent back to Eritrea, he said. They completed their withdrawal by March, the officials said.

The unofficial military alliance among Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, which is believed to date back to secret agreements after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in Ethiopia in 2018, is a further blow to the declining influence of Western governments in the Horn of Africa.

Eritrea had already been long isolated on the international stage, but Ethiopia and Somalia had close relations with the United States and other Western governments in the past. Ethiopia’s relations with the West have deteriorated since the Tigray war began, largely as a result of Western pressure to halt the war.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, the authoritarian ruler of his country for nearly three decades, is a key player in the three-country alliance. “He sees this as an opportunity to reshape the whole of the Horn of Africa in his direction,” said Martin Plaut, a British-based Eritrea expert and commentator.

“Getting these Somali troops involved was just the first instalment of this much longer, much more important relationship that he was trying to build in which he would be the king, with allies both in Somalia and Ethiopia,” Mr. Plaut told The Globe.

“He has pursued his ambition of destroying the Tigrayans since the 1970s. To achieve his ends, he would like to establish a transnational relationship in the Horn that allows the individual states to exist, but to support each other, while crushing local movements.”

With a report by Geoffrey York in Johannesburg

Source: The Globe and Mail

The civil war in Ethiopia is stage-managed by Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and other countries from The Arab League

 Ethiopia is involved in a destructive civil war. What seemed a reform appeared to be a well-organized war against Ethiopians. The Ethiopian people were taken by surprise. The ruling party, EPRDF was infiltrated by Eritrea and Eritrea trained Opposition Groups such as Berhanu Nega and Andargatchew Tsige's Patriotic Front.

Colonel Abiy Ahmed Ali, who was Deputy Head of Ethiopia's National Security Agency (INSA) was working with Eritrea and the armed Opposition groups based in Eritrea. Abiy ahmed Ali became prime minister of Ethiopia in 2018 through a coup d'etat. He was not formally elected and has no legal representation for the people of Ethiopia.

The current destructive war in Ethiopia happened with direct intervention of Eritrea and UAE. Somalia, Egypt were also involved. Why The Arabs create wars in Ethiopia is clear: They want to occupy Ethiopia or control it's resources, which is impossible to do as Ethiopia has a population of !20 million and the people are ready to stand up for their country.

To stop the current destructive civil war, we need to protect Ethiopia from Arab imperialism. We need to fight the Arabs under our terms.

The Ethiopia Eritrea Peace Agreement has brought war and was organised by Saudi Arabia. The future belongs to Ethiopia we need to make The Saudi Arabia leaders responsible for the current human suffering in Ethiopia. 

The so-called Ethiopia Eritrea Peace Agreement was a declaration of war on Ethiopia by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan and other member countries of The Arab League

Ethiopia needs to foil this conspiracy, which means declaring war on Sudan and Egypt. Abiy Ahmed's government cannot declare war or protect Ethiopia as it has destroyed Ethiopia by collaborating with Eritrea. Eritrea's main goal could have been to destroy Tigray as a polity. But this is a pipe dream, as Tigray has much more population and resources than Eritrea, which means Tigray in the long run will defeat Eritrea. Eritrea tried to destroy Amhara Regions, but it was met with stiff resistance. Now Eritrean troops are fighting every where in Ethiopia to maintain the status quo, where Eritrea has a say in decision making of the government of Abiy Ahmed and controls the security. Eritrea further controls the Ethiopian army. All this is a plan of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Eritrea being the running dog.

Even though Tigray Regional State is under siege for the last 18 months, Tigray maintains a robust army, fighting Eritrean mercenary army, liberating areas occupied by Amhara militia and fighting Ethiopia's fascist army. Eritrea continues to train Amhara militia and supplies weapons to Amhara fascist armed groups.

In the southern part of Ethiopia , Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been making progress. Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) units have controlled and liberated districts /30 km far from Fin Finne (Addis Abeba).

Gumuz Liberation Front has also been waging war against Amhara fascists and Ethiopian troops.

Up in North Ethiopia, Agew Democratic Movement has liberated large swathes of land from Ethiopian and Amhara fascists.

These sporadic battles show that the government of Ethiopia is weak at the centre as it does not represent the people of Ethiopia. Thus non-Amhara Ethiopians will continue the war until the central government hands over power. We believe democratic forces from the Amhara community should fight the Amhara fascist groups and show solidarity with non-Amhara Ethiopians. However, no democratic Amhara group has come forward that condemned the genocide in Western Tigray or the massacre of Gumuz people.No Amhara political group has condemned the 18-month old siege on Tigray where among other 2000 children were starved to death by Abiy Ahmed Regime.

The main aim of the civil war in Ethiopia is to form a government that represents the people of Ethiopia and provides protection of life of citizens and their property. The armed opposition groups and non-armed opposition groups  should form a coalition or united front to overthrow Abiy Ahmed's government.  There is no declaration from the armed opposition group that they have formed a coalition or united front. We hope to see the formation of a united front that represents all Ethiopia. This coalition of all opposition groups is detrimental to perform effective resistance to Egypt's and Saudi Arabia's war in Ethiopia. Without a central command, the prospects of victory are deem.

With a national leadership fighting against Abiy Ahmed's Regime, which is a stooge of Arab Imperialism, Ethiopia's liberation will be certain. After controlling Ethiopia, we can wage war against Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Sudan.

TPLF or TDF seems less interested to form a united front or a centralized struggle to overthrow Abiy Ahmed's government and resist Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arbia intervention. Our strategy should be to form a centralized resistance and if TPLF is reluctant, then we can form a united front without TDF or TPLF.n my l