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Call your representative: the two-minute script

2 Things and a Quick Heads Up:

  1. Thank you for making time to call on our elected officials at the national level regarding our push for peace in Tigray. During these hectic times, everyone’s effort continues to make a tremendous impact in the cause for peace. Your hard work is not in vain. We will prevail.
  2. The phone script is a living document, not written in stone. As things change in the political landscape within Tigray, feel free to talk about reported information coming out of east Africa. Also, think of the phone script language as a guide; you do not have to follow it word for word. Feel free to speak from your heart (just remember to be respectful of the listener’s time ☺).

Before you dial: find your official

  • United States: Your Representative and both Senators: ask them to raise Tigray with the State Department and support an independent investigation and even-handed sanctions. Find them: house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative · senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
  • Canada: Your Member of Parliament: ask them to raise Tigray with Global Affairs Canada and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Find them: ourcommons.ca/members/en
  • United Kingdom: Your MP: ask them to write to the Foreign Secretary and table or sign a parliamentary question or motion. Find them: members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP · writetothem.com
  • European Union: Your MEPs: ask them to press the EU’s foreign service (EEAS) and support a European Parliament resolution. Find them: europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home
  • Australia: Your federal MP and Senators: ask them to raise Tigray with DFAT and the Foreign Minister. Find them: electorate.aec.gov.au

A Quick Heads Up About what to expect when you call:

  • Most of the offices are working remotely so you may get a voicemail.
  • When you do get through to a live person, you most likely will be talking to a staff member and not the elected official.
  • Most staff members are friendly, and some are not – do not be discouraged if you encounter someone who is not friendly.
  • Staff members are trained to identify constituents so they may ask you a few questions regarding your residence – for example, “what’s your address?”, “what’s your email?”, “do you live in the district/state?”
  • You can politely decline to answer these questions, and instead let them know that you are a concerned United States voter.

The script (about 2 minutes)

Hello, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY / ZIP or POSTCODE]. I’m calling about the renewed war in Tigray, Ethiopia.

Since August this year, Ethiopian federal drone and air strikes have hit a teachers’ housing compound in Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, schools, a camp for displaced people and a truck carrying food aid. Human Rights Watch says the Mekelle strike should be investigated as a possible war crime. Nearly four million people in Tigray needed emergency food aid before this fighting started, and aid was cut off for ten days. Eritrean troops are now reported inside northern Tigray. This comes after a year in which the federal government withheld Tigray’s budget and stopped fuel and medicine deliveries; the 2022 peace agreement was never implemented.

I’m asking [REPRESENTATIVE / SENATOR / MP NAME] to do four things:

  1. Publicly call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure;
  2. Press the Ethiopian government to restore telecommunications, banking, fuel, medicine and budget transfers to Tigray, and to allow unrestricted humanitarian access;
  3. Support an independent international investigation into attacks on civilians by all parties, starting by backing the UN Human Rights Council special session on Ethiopia that 36 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Omna Tigray, requested on 8 October; and
  4. Press for even-handed accountability, including for drone strikes on civilians, for the governments supplying the drones, and for Eritrean forces inside Tigray.

Will [NAME] make a public statement and raise this with [the State Department / Global Affairs Canada / the Foreign Office / the EU’s foreign service / DFAT]? I’d appreciate a reply at [EMAIL]. Thank you.

After you dial

  • Voicemail? Leave the same message with your name and address.
  • Asked for your address? Give it; it confirms you are a constituent and gets the call counted.
  • Keep it short and polite. Staff log the topic and the ask; they rarely debate. If they ask a question you can’t answer, say you’ll follow up by email.
  • Call again next week. Repeat calls on the same issue are what move an office. Ask three friends to call too, and follow up with the email template in Section 5 of the full toolkit.
  • If they ask for sources: Human Rights Watch, 25 Sep 2026 (the Mekelle strike); UN Human Rights Office, 25 Sep 2026 (five schools hit in one day); UN OCHA, 9 Oct 2026 (the first aid convoy); the 36-organization letter to the UN Human Rights Council, 8 Oct 2026. All are linked in Section 12 of the full toolkit.

Questions, testimony, media: contact@omnatigray.org · Full toolkit: omnatigray.org/advocacy-resources · Share freely.