Category: Op-Ed

Black History Month should be a time of reflection, celebration, and—above all—a call to action. It is a moment to honor the immense resilience, groundbreaking achievements, and agonizing struggles of Black people across the world. But let’s be clear: as we commemorate this month, we must not turn a blind eye to the ongoing horrors that continue to ravage Black lives. Among the most pressing and urgent crises is the genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray, Ethiopia—an atrocity that the global community, and the Black diaspora, have largely ignored. This silence is not just deafening; it is a moral failure of the highest order.

For over four years, Tigrayans have been subjected to unspeakable atrocities—ethnic cleansing, systematic famine, rampant sexual violence, and mass displacement–part and parcel of genocide. Over four years, yet the world remains shamefully indifferent. Where is the global movement that condemned apartheid and marched for George Floyd? Why does the suffering of millions in Tigray barely register on the global conscience? The refusal to act, to speak out, is not just a failure of governments and international organizations—it is a collective failure of humanity, and it is especially a betrayal of the Black community, which has historically been at the forefront of global struggles for justice and human rights.

Black History Month should not just be about remembering past pain—it must be about confronting the pain that continues to unfold in real-time. The same systems of oppression that have enslaved, brutalized, and disenfranchised Black people in the Americas, Europe, and Africa are at work in Tigray. Colonialism, racism, and global indifference continue to dictate whose lives are deemed worthy of protection and whose suffering is erased. If we truly believe that Black lives matter—all Black lives—then the lives of Tigrayans, who are enduring the worst forms of violence and persecution today, must matter too.

The fight for justice is not selective. We cannot proudly stand in solidarity with Black liberation movements while ignoring a genocide that is happening right now against Black people in Africa. The call to action could not be clearer: we must demand an end to the atrocities, accountability, humanitarian aid, and justice for Tigray. And the Black community, which has fought against oppression and injustice for generations, must not remain passive in the face of this crisis. We cannot afford to be complicit in silence. Our struggle for liberation is not an isolated one. From the civil rights movement to the anti-apartheid struggle, we have seen that only through collective resistance can we dismantle even the most entrenched systems of oppression.

It is not enough to simply commemorate resilience—we must embody it. Resilience should not be used as an excuse for inaction or apathy. We owe it to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to future generations to stand up for all oppressed people, regardless of where they live. This includes the Tigrayans who are fighting for their right to live, their dignity, and their humanity in a world that has turned its back on them. Justice is not justice if it is selective or if it is contingent on which lives are more worth saving.

The time for silence is over. The time for action is now. We cannot, and must not, ignore the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Tigray any longer. Black History Month must be a time not only to remember but to act—to act for the liberation of all Black people, wherever they may be. The Black community must answer the call for solidarity with Tigray. The liberation of black individuals around the world is tied to the liberation and freedom of Tigrayans. If Tigray is not free, then as Black people, we will never truly know freedom. 

The tragic reality in Tigray has been going on for almost one year. Since the war began, Tigrayans have been deprived of the very basic necessities that are essential for survival. Although the full story has not been told yet, various international news outlets have reported about the gruesome atrocities perpetrated on Tigrayans, their loved ones, their property, and their cultural and religious heritage. The killings of people of all ages,  the rape of girls as young as five years old and elderly women as old as seventy, the looting and destruction of public and private property — all of these crimes against humanity have been committed and reported on many times by various mainstream media and humanitarian actors. 

International organizations and NGOs have warned of the grave consequences, but no appropriate measure is yet to be taken to stop the atrocities and war crimes. Using the lousy and unjustified excuse that Ethiopia is a sovereign country, the UN and the international community, with the exception of a few NGOs, have declined to intervene, watching from a safe distance the brutal war crimes and genocide being committed against Tigrayans.

Is the sovereignty of a country not about the sovereignty of the people living in it? How can the international community talk about the sovereignty of a country when a narcissistic dictator ethnically targets a specific ethnic group of his own country with a clear goal to wipe them out to the extent that they can’t exist with dignity in their own homeland? As the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) so importantly describes but has failed to enact, sovereignty means nothing when the state does not assure their citizens’ right to live.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has shown his intention to harm the people of Tigray repeatedly in words and actions. Abiy has often used hate-inciting words against Tigrayans. His master plan of ethnically targeting the people of Tigray includes consistently blackmailing and associating them with evil deeds and dubious crimes whose perpetrators couldn’t be identified by law so that the rest of Ethiopians develop fear and hate against Tigrayans.

Abiy has invited the Eritrean Army of brutes to help him vandalize, loot, gang rape, and spread fear amongst the people of Tigray. He has reportedly used chemical weapons to cause so much death and suffering. Abiy has conspired with his Amhara expansionists and Eritrean partners in crime to destroy and loot the livelihoods of Tigrayans. After successfully destroying their livelihoods the evil troika’s next move was to encircle Tigray and make sure that nothing goes into the region while they sealed all borders to prevent people from fleeing for their life with the greater aim to starve as many people as possible to death. All these devilish crimes against humanity, leaving Tigrayans in dehumanizing and dire circumstances, have been observed by international media and humanitarian actors, who continue to warn of the grave consequences if immediate action to stop the blockade is not taken.

The war against Tigray has been given so many names by its masterminds, starting with the infamous law enforcement operation, to a fight against terrorists, to a fight for survival, and to a military training. Whatever the name, the intention is clear: to weaken the people of Tigray to the extent that they can’t claim their human rights, to weaken their self defense capacity, to diminish their morale, and subjugate them once and for all, paving the way to their ultimate subjugation and theft of their motherland.

For Amhara expansionists land grab is at the top of their agenda, while Abiy aspires to stay in power for decades. For the psychopathic Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerki, it is just about exacting revenge for his humiliating defeat in the 1998 Ethio-Eritrean border war and the fact that the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) kept him successfully away from meddling in Ethiopian internal affairs.

The methods applied to subjugate the people of Tigray are systematic destruction of livelihoods and infrastructure, systematic gender-based violence on women and girls to humiliate and create long term stigma, as well as mass killings of young people to weaken Tigray’s defense capacity. The potentially most fatal move of the genocidal master plan is to encircle Tigray, making sure no one gets out of the region, and keeping the people in the dark without power, telecom, banking services — all while preventing aid from reaching them.

History tells us that all genocidal crimes start with spreading unfounded hate speech against the target group; what has been happening in Tigray is exactly that. Far before the start of the genocidal war, Ethiopian government officials started inciting hate against Tigrayans, referring to them as hyenas, criminals, evils, etc. The hate propaganda was followed by this dehumanizing war.

Having said that, how much more damage must be inflicted to Tigrayans, how many more innocent lives must be sacrificed, before the international community can call the situation for what it is namely a genocide and act accordingly to avert another Rwanda in East Africa?  

The heinous scale of the war crimes committed on Tigarayans has shocked the international society, yet the UN and other responsible bodies have failed take decisive measures to stop the genocide and hold the perpetrators accountable. Unless the international community intervenes to break the tripartite alliance of evil and make it unmistakably clear that Eritrean forces need to immediately withdraw and that the Amhara expansionists need to leave Western Tigray, retreating to their pre-war borders, in more than empty words, a peaceful end of this senseless war is far from happening. The war criminals will continue to massacre innocent civilians with impunity while keeping the whole region under siege.

The international community’s intervention is overdue. The UN and the international criminal court should act swiftly if the lives of millions of Tigrayans means anything to them. Failing to do so, they will be remembered as the passive enablers of a brutal genocide.

Abiy has manipulated the mischaracterization of the TPLF to gain support for the war in Tigray and fracture what was once the fastest-growing economy on the African continent.

Before Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, Ethiopia was considered a relatively stable country with economic potential. It had one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, and by 2018 had the fastest growing economy on the continent. The success of Ethiopia’s relative stability and economic growth in the 2000s was often praised by the international community. This stability and growth happened under the rule of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

The EPRDF was formed in 1988 by a coalition of multi-ethnic parties, including the Tigray’s People Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). During the 30 years of EPRDF’s rule, the front was often criticized for political oppression and for not quickly transitioning the country into a democratic state. Although the TPLF was not the only party at fault for EPRDF’s oppressive actions across the country, critics of the EPRDF have put sole blame on the TPLF over the years. That said, one cannot deny the TPLF’s role in helping form the EPRDF and ensuring its success during the last three decades.

The question of the TPLF’s dominance within the EPRDF was the main talking point for quite some time and helped rally opposition blocks against the EPRDF. The conflation  of the TPLF as the EPRDF is not new. Even before the TPLF assumed political power in Addis Ababa as a member of  the EPRDF, the Derg had successfully created a narrative and image of the TPLF as traitors to the country’s unity.

Despite such a narrative, the TPLF succeeded in bringing together different regional parties in an effort to end centuries of cultural and political subordination experienced by more than 80 ethnic groups. With the foundation of the federalist constitution instituted by the EPRDF, tangible economic development was brought to the country as was the potential for real democratic and political representation and self-administration for historically marginalized nations and nationalities. Ironically, the TPLF is now labeled as a terrorist group by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was once a key member of the EPRDF himself.

There are several misconceptions and disinformation about the TPLF’s role in Ethiopia and under the EPRDF. In this article, we will focus on three — the misconception that the TPLF was created to serve the interest of Tigrayan elites, the misconception that the TPLF aimed to disintegrate Ethiopia, and the misconception that the TPLF stole from Ethiopia.

There is a misconception that the TPLF was created to serve the interest of Tigrayan elites. That is simply not the case, however. Like most of its peer political movements in Ethiopia during the 1970s and 1980s, the TPLF emerged as a viable option that was entrusted to end the plight of its people. Tigrayans,  like many of the minorities usurped by the Ethiopian empire, had suffered under the Ethiopian empire for hundreds of years, more recently under Menelik II, Haile Selassie, and the Derg.

Following the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime in 1974, Tigrayans hoped that a new government would address the plight of Tigrayans, but such expectations were soon dashed as the Derg military regime continued Ethiopia’s authoritarian leadership. The Derg regarded Ethiopia as a monolithic society, thereby declaring any ethno-nationalist grievance or demand for self-determination contrary to Ethiopian unity and interests. The Derg’s hard line was in opposition to the the beliefs of  many Tigrayan ethno-nationalist groups that were determined to assert their rights to self-determination and self-administration through the “barrel of the gun.” Marxism-Leninism appealed to the founders of the TPLF group, most of whom were college students, teachers, and civil servants.

After fierce debates held in Tigray as to the fate of the struggle once the TPLF managed to free Tigray, the consensus was to help the rest of Ethiopia get rid of the brutal regime and establish an Ethiopia that is democratic and representative of the rights and interests of all nations and nationalities. Here inlies the irony of hailing the TPLF as the culmination of all evil for Ethiopia, as it went beyond its mandate to support the liberation of the rest of Ethiopia, at the expense of thousands of Tigrayan lives.

When Abiy Ahmed waged his “law-and-order operation” against the TPLF on November 4, 2020, he attempted to make the war on Tigray appear as a war on a corrupt, elitist party that did not represent the Tigray population. Nevertheless, the TPLF has been the officially elected party of the Tigray region since the 1990s.

Although often criticized by Tigrayan youth and intellectuals for not having done enough to democratize Tigray and help the region’s economic growth, the TPLF was seen as a safe choice during the September 2020 elections in Tigray given the circumstances and rising tensions at the time. Despite over 98 percent of the 2.6 million people voting for the TPLF during that election, Abiy deemed the election unconstitutional and labeled the TPLF as a corrupt, elitist party that did not represent the Tigray population.

Secondly, despite a propagated image of the TPLF being responsible for dividing the country, the TPLF was key in helping create a sustainable Ethiopian state in which nations and nationalities were represented during a critical period in Ethiopia’s history after the Derg was defeated.

In opposition to all false narratives and misconceptions, the TPLF was a staunch advocate for Ethiopian unity, and one cannot equate the nationalism of the TPLF and its sacrifices for the country of Ethiopia to that of the current unitarist authoritarian government.

Many of the TPLF leadership believed in the possibility and potential of Ethiopia, including the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi and former Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin. Meles Zenawi is often praised for leading Ethiopia’s economic development during his rule, while Seyoum Mesfin was a renowned diplomat who tirelessly advocated for Ethiopia’s unity and role in the international sphere. These leaders often spoke of alleviating poverty and putting Ethiopia on the map during their time under the EPRDF.

Under Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s GDP grew from 3.8 percent in the ’90s to double digits until his death in 2012. Many of the major cities in the country enjoyed significant infrastructure transformations, and universities and colleges were opened for the first time in many parts of the country.

As described by Alex De Waal in his Memoriam to Seyoum Mesfin, Seyoum’s contribution to the Ethiopian state and regional stability was significant: “Under Seyoum’s guiding hand, Ethiopia became admired as Africa’s biggest contributor to peace and security, a reliable contributor of high-quality troops to peacekeeping operations, and a partner in conflict resolution.”

Despite these facts of history, there is a culture of  distrust and annihilation in Ethiopian politics that is still persistent in Ethiopia’s contemporary political landscape. One byproduct of this ugly culture is the use of misinformation and blatant lies as a tool to defame competing political parties. The TPLF, more than any other party in the country, has been subjected to this defamation technique since Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.

Third, the TPLF is often blamed for the widespread corruption during the EPRDF rule. Upon securing victory against the Derg and with an intent to be representatives of nations and nationalities, parties were established in each region, and coalitions were formed by four of the ten regions. 

As the drive for representation outweighed other criteria, little to no attention was given to quality. As a result of this discrepancy, the EPRDF became a magnet for inefficiency and corruption, attracting people to their government who would parrot what came from the top.

Additionally, since the day that the TPLF set foot in Addis Ababa, TPLF leadership received a cold welcome and were even told to go back to Tigray. Without assessing their policies and strategies, the Amhara elite began defaming them—painting them as “uncivilized” leaders who do not belong in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Misinformation and deliberate disinformation started circulating about their intentions for Ethiopia. It was rumored that the TPLF was dismantling factories to take them to Tigray, and no one even bothered to look for evidence to prove such allegations. 

To the dismay of many Tigrayans, the TPLF did not bother to disprove or respond to these false allegations. Consequently, the scope and the breadth of lies continued to grow and gained a stronghold of the general public’s perceptions of the TPLF. This began to impact the TPLF, and in an attempt to appease their opposition they focused on, and invested in, the development of the rest of the country at the neglect of Tigray. 

The allegations against the TPLF then started to expand in breadth and depth, and they continued unabated. The disinformation shifted from the TPLF onto the people of Tigray as well. Many believed, for example, that Tigrayan university students were receiving pocket money from government funds or that Tigrayan women used TPLF funds for their personal shopping. The success of Tigrayans was often associated with the TPLF—no Tigrayan could be wealthy, educated, or happy without Ethiopians questioning where this wealth, education, or happiness came from.  

Ethiopia’s economic growth during the 2000s allowed ambitious entrepreneurs to reap the benefits of Ethiopia’s economic potential, yet there is simply no evidence or data to demonstrate that Tigrayans benefited from the EPRDF system more than any other ethnic group, nor is there evidence for TPLF leaders to have stolen money from the country. 

This is not to ignore the level of corruption that existed and still exists in Ethiopia today. However, those who stole money from Ethiopia were not aligned to one ethnic group or political party.

Turning Ethiopians against Tigrayans

Abiy has used this rhetoric to turn Ethiopians against the TPLF, and Tigrayans as a whole. He has used derogatory terms to refer to TPLF leadership since coming to power, including calling Tigrayans “day-time-hyenas.” 

He has now successfully painted a picture of Ethiopia, where the TPLF, and Tigrayans by association, were the corrupt ones that stole from the motherland, while others lived in poverty. Although those who have visited Tigray realize this is far from the truth, the majority of the Ethiopian population has accepted this as a fact.

Since the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) have gained the upper hand militarily and the elected Tigrayan government was reinstated, rhetoric against the Tigrayan “enemies” has escalated and intensified by both the Ethiopian government and the Amhara regional government. 

Most recently, Abiy has called his “enemy” and the “junta” the “cancer of Ethiopia,” vowing to “crush the weeds of Tigray.” Furthermore, in July 2021, the President of the Amhara regional state proclaimed: “These people [Tigrayans] are an enemy to all Ethiopians. These people are the enemy of the Oromo people, these people are the enemy of Afar people, they are the enemy of Gambela, they are the enemy of Somali.” These strong words against the people of Tigray demonstrate the complete solidification of misconceptions about the TPLF transferred onto the people of Tigray.

Despite Abiy being a member of the EPRDF for most of his professional life, serving in multiple agencies and roles, he fueled and used the hate that had been stirring against the TPLF to wage a genocidal war on Tigray in November 2020, two years after coming to power. Abiy himself did not believe these misconceptions when he came to power—he is quoted praising the role of Tigrayans in the Ethiopian state and TPLF’s ambition to serve its people. However, he quickly used these misconceptions to his advantage soon after realizing that the TPLF would not support his ambition to consolidate power in forming a unitarian state. 

These misconceptions have cost Tigrayans their Ethiopian identity, livelihood, and lives during the genocidal war on Tigray.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article do not represent the official position of Omna Tigray. This article is not intended to advocate for the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), nor is it in support of the TPLF.

State-orchestrated genocide is a one-move game: keep doing it. 

Ten months into the genocidal war, there is considerable and credible evidence that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of genocide have been committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), the Eritrean military, and forces allied to Abiy’s regime. It has also become increasingly clear that there is no military solution, a negotiated ceasefire being the only way to avoid all out catastrophe. But Abiy and his allies are not budging. Instead, the Ethiopian government has doubled down on its efforts to increase the bloodshed, portraying the conflict initially as a quick “law enforcement operation” and later as a war for the country’s survival.

Portraying the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as the enemy of the Ethiopian state and people, Abiy has gone as far as labeling the elected regional party as a terrorist organization, “junta,” and “cancers.” Pro-government media are abuzz with genocidal propaganda. 

While doing this, Abiy continues to promise a more unified Ethiopia and a better tomorrow to the masses after these enemies are destroyed. He is using every method, including fear, to brainwash and force Ethiopian youth to die for a tomorrow that will never come. As the war continues and Abiy desperately holds to power, Abiy and his regional supporters, such as Amhara president Agegnehu Teshager, have gone as far as calling high school and college students to take arms against the TPLF. 

As far as Abiy is concerned, the day Ethiopia’s citizens have the space to think about what happened is a day that should be avoided at any cost. More war and blood has become the only strategy to stay in power and avoid accountability — all leading to more fascism and totalitarianism.

Since the war began, institutionalized impunity for the genocide has taken root. Abiy has declined independent investigations into the war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war on Tigray. Instead, Abiy agreed to allow the Ethiopian Human Rights Commision, a state funded entity, to partner with international organizations to “investigate” crimes in Tigray. There are serious concerns with the validity of such investigations.

Extortion and exploitation have become norms. Since Abiy waged war against the people of Tigray, which has seen many atrocities against Tigrayan civilians, people of Tigrayan ethnicity have been forced out of state organizations, such as Ethiopian Airlines, government agencies, and NGOs. Tigrayan houses have been arbitrarily searched and bank accounts suspended. Many Tigrayans in Addis Ababa are being unjustly detained, forcibly disappeared, and taken to concentration camps without court hearings or formal charges.

Transactionalism has dominated public service and international affairs. Abiy’s administration is more concerned about the support it has for its involvement in a genocidal war than it is about respecting and abiding by international laws and norms. Abiy has blately declined calls for negotiation and peace from concerned neighbors, civil society groups, and respected international actors and/or individuals. Instead, the administration has doubled its efforts to strengthen ties with those that can provide military assistance during the war on Tigray, including Eritrea and Turkey. 

Social and economic development only happens on state television. Ethiopia’s economy has been decimated. Prior to the war, Ethiopia’s economy was one of the fastest-growing in the region, expanding at an average of 10% a year in the last decade until 2019. The war has made the country almost unlivable. Today, Ethiopia is relying on its war-allies and the diaspora community to fund the war and pay for its expenses. 

All of that will continue, until such a day when the genocidal regime collapses, more often than not in a violent way. 

This is how almost every state-sponsored genocide in history has unfolded. And Ethiopia’s ongoing genocide is following the same path.

Ethiopia, a nation often remembered for the famine it experienced in the 1980s and for a border war with its neighbor Eritrea between 1998 and 2000, is back to making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after a period of relative peace for the past 20 years. 

By now, people in the West might have heard about the #TigrayGenocide or watched CNN’s reports of the atrocities committed in the northernmost Ethiopian state of Tigray. Here is a brief timeline of how we got here.

The New Political Order

In order to have a full understanding of the conflict in Tigray, one would have to look back to 1991 when a coalition of opposition groups overthrew the then ruling Marxist military junta known as “the Derg.”

Those opposition forces were formed along ethnic lines in a country that is home to over 83 different ethnic groups. The most prominent of these groups were the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) who took on the task of liberating the Tigrayan and Eritrean peoples respectively.

While the word “liberation” had different meanings to the different ethnically based opposition groups, the overwhelming consensus amongst members of the EPLF and indeed the Eritrean people was that it meant total independence from Ethiopia. And this was proven in an independence referendum carried out in 1993 after the fall of the Derg in which over 99% of the voters opted for Eritrea’s independence.

As for the TPLF and the other groups, their consensus was to turn Ethiopia into a federal parliamentary democracy in which each major ethnic group in the country enjoyed relative autonomy from the center and had its own regional state. A coalition of four major parties, including the TPLF, established the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In essence, each major ethnic group was organized under a political party and established its own state to run within the framework of a parliamentary democracy. 

Although Eritrea’s independence was overwhelmingly supported by the Eritrean people and accepted by the TPLF, it was not free of points of contention. This later led to the 1998 conflict that would erupt into a full blown war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. 

The 1998 Ethio-Eritrean War

The points of contention laying the foundation for conflict were Eritrea’s introduction of a new currency to replace the Ethiopian Birr, which the two countries couldn’t agree on how to manage, and longstanding border demarcation issues that were still unresolved by the time of Eritrea’s independence. 

These issues amplified smearing personal feuds between the leaders of the TPLF and EPLF. The leader of the latter group who is also the first and only president of Eritrea is a man named Isaias Afwerki.  Remember his name because he will show up in this story again.

Those personal feuds lead to war in 1998, ostensibly over a small town on the border between Tigray and Eritrea called Badme. That brutal war ended in 2000 with Eritrea’s defeat and Ethiopia keeping control of the town despite a 2002 ruling by a Hague boundary commission that awarded the town to Eritrea. This resulted in a state of no-peace and no-war between the two countries that lasted for two decades.

TPLF Steps Away

Fast forward to 2018 and the TPLF is no longer the prominent ruling party in Ethiopia due to a wave of popular protests in the Oromia and Amhara states, which constitute the two largest ethnic groups in the Ethiopian federation, and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on the TPLF to reform Ethiopia’s politics.

The Tigrayan people are a minority in Ethiopia, making up only approximately 6 percent of a population of 110 million people. Yet, the TPLF was the most organized and dedicated of the opposition groups during the fight to overthrow the Derg, and as such enjoyed an unbalanced influence in Ethiopian politics.  

TPLF was thus accused of undemocratic practices, such as rigging elections, jailing opponents, and a heavy handed crackdown on protests in the country alongside an accusation that it favored Tigray for developmental projects, though there was no evidence presented for the last of the accusations.

While the TPLF was only one party in a ruling coalition that included three other political parties that were former opposition groups, a common perception held that the other parties in the coalition were mere satellite parties, and as such the TPLF took the bulk of the blame for everything that ever went wrong in the country.

The Tigrayan people unjustly shared in that blame because the common belief in the country was that Tigrayans were unfairly benefiting from the TPLF’s status as the dominant political force. Tigayans were often perceived to be economic beneficiaries of the regime when the reality on the ground showed otherwise; Tigrayans were no richer or better off than their countrymen in other parts of Ethiopia. 

Abiy Comes to Power

In 2018, EPRDF leaders agreed to the proposed political reforms, and a new Prime Minister named Abiy Ahmed was appointed to be the first Oromo leader of Ethiopia.

Abiy’s selection was down to the United States’ preference and a decision made by the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) to make him their new leader, and by extension the new Ethiopian Prime Minister. The OPDO alone controlled the most seats in the parliament because Oromia is the largest state in the federation. 

Upon his appointment to the premiership, Abiy embarked on a number of reforms that were widely welcomed by the local and international community. These included releasing political prisoners, inviting opposition groups to negotiate with the government, and most notably signing a so-called “peace deal” with the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki, in which Abiy abdicated the contested town of Badme to Eritrea as well as other contested areas, including one third of Tigray’s Irob region. Abiy was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2019 for his deal with Isaias Afwerki that brought the 18-year-old military standoff at the border to an end.

This is when the latest chapter in this story started. 

The Abiy-Isaias Pact and Abiy’s New Party

Having made peace with Abiy and seeing how marginalized the TPLF had become within Ethiopia, Isaias encouraged Abiy to take an increasingly hostile attitude towards the TPLF who by now were limited to ruling just Tigray. They had been systematically ostracized from political life, and it was becoming clear that Abiy’s loyalties were not with the TPLF. 

The TPLF found itself sandwiched between a hostile Ethiopian government and an old foe who was itching to avenge his humiliating loss in the 1998-2000 Ethio-Eritrean War.

After becoming friends with the Eritrean dictator, Abiy started turning Ethiopia into a unitary state instead of a multi-party ethnic federation. He and his new friend reckoned it would be easier to control Ethiopians if ethnic differences were suppressed. To this effect, he dissolved all the ethnic political parties in his coalition and merged them into one party, which he named the Prosperity Party (PP).

As seen in Yugoslavia, suppression is not how you deal with diversity, but Abiy is not much of a history buff. 

The TPLF refused to join this new party, angering Abiy.

Circumstances reached a boiling point in September of 2020 when the TPLF went ahead with a scheduled election that had Abiy wanted to postpone until he had eliminated all of his opposition, but the TPLF did not want to wait as they rightly assessed the premier’s mandate to be over. Any attempt to postpone the election was a clear effort to eliminate opposition groups, which was mainly down to the TPLF by this point.

The Genocidal War on Tigray

Abiy and Isaias started actively showing their hostility towards the TPLF and the Tigrayan people by amassing their troops on the border. On November 4, 2020,  as the Trump administration was busy with the U.S. elections, Eritrean and Ethiopian troops attacked Tigray, prompting the TPLF to defensively disarm an Ethiopian military base inside Tigray, which Abiy used as an excuse to justify his war on Tigray.

Once the war started, the fighting and atrocities committed by the Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces happened under a media blackout, so Abiy could control the narrative and announce the TPLF attack on the Ethiopian military base first, thus enabling him to claim self-defense. In fact, he described the fighting in Tigray as a “law enforcement operation” against a criminal junta that attacked a military base.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. By the time the TPLF had taken over the stated military base, troops from Eritrea (north of Tigray) and special forces from Ethiopia’s region of Amhara (south of Tigray) were already inside Tigray preparing to invade all of Tigray and attack Tigray’s government in Tigray’s capital city of Mekelle.

Thus, as Eritrean and Amhara forces had already begun their journey to invade Tigray from different directions, it was actually the Tigrayans who were defending themselves.

Over the next months, Ethiopian and Eritrean troops alongside militias from the Amhara state that borders Tigray committed a slew of horrendous crimes against the civilian populace. These crimes included massacres, the use of rape as a weapon of war, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, systemic looting, and wanton murder of civilians by the invading forces.

The atrocities happened under a media blackout, so most of them wouldn’t be known, but those that became known were horrendous; for example, in Axum, a holy city in Tigray, church goers and the city’s citizens were gunned down in the streets by the Eritreans resulting in a death toll ranging from 345 to 800. The exact number was hard to verify as Tigray had remained a combat zone all those months.

In the meantime, the TPLF had been ousted from its regional capital and had been forced to retreat to the mountains and draw on its generational guerilla fighting knowledge. A new military force named the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) was formed by TPLF and other Tigrayan parties who were united by the genocide being committed against their people. 

The Fight for Liberation

In June of 2021, that insurgency bore fruit when the Ethiopian army was defeated in a series of military battles and forced to retreat from the regional capital and most of Tigray, while Amhara militias and Isaias Afwerki’s forces remained in control of some parts of Tigray. This is why the TDF has continued its struggle — it is fighting to remove all the invading forces from all of Tigray. Meanwhile, Abiy’s administration has blocked aid from entering Tigray, where over 5.2 million Tigrayans are at risk of starvation. 

The war has bankrupted Abiy’s government and destroyed the Ethiopian military, forcing Abiy to resort to recruiting peasant militias. 

Ethiopia is in disarray today because of Abiy’s bet on Isaias Afwerki.

The Tigrayan people’s fight for liberation continues.

Daniel Solomon – Omna Tigray External Contributor, August 2021

The current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, who is actively committing crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, was a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner. During the Nobel award ceremony, Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, presented Abiy with the award and a regrettably ironic speech considering what has become of Abiy today. He stated, “Prime Minister Abiy, the award bestowed upon you today rests on three major achievements. First, your crucial role in creating peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Second, your efforts to build democracy in Ethiopia by strengthening civil liberties and developing institutions. And third, but not least, the award is given to you for your contribution to peace and reconciliation processes in East and North East Africa.”

Leading up to Abiy’s Nobel Peace Prize award, Abiy pushed for multiple political, social, and economic reforms to build his “reformist” image. He successfully re-established bilateral relations with Ethiopia’s long-time foe, Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki, agreeing to give up the disputed border town of Badme. He lifted the ban on opposition groups, pardoned one of the country’s most high-profile political prisoners, and granted equal representation to women in the government’s ministerial roles. He swiftly apologized for the killings of protesters by the Ethiopian government and lifted the state of emergency that had been put in place following social and political unrest in previous years. All of these “reforms” did not go unnoticed by the international community.  A year after being in power, Abiy was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reconcile peace with Eritrea and his efforts to democratize the country. 

Unfortunately, Abiy’s promises and “reforms” were short-lived and quickly overturned. Ethiopia now finds itself in an unprecedented level of violence, instability, and chaos.

On November 4, 2020, Abiy accused the elected party representing the Tigray region, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of initiating war by attacking the Northern Command located in Tigray. However, political analysts and diplomats in the region have confirmed that there were evident signs of preparations to attack Tigray prior to November 2020, hence the need for the region to defend itself and disarm the Northern Command. Furthermore, prior to November 2020, Abiy allowed road blockades restricting access to Tigray, reduced Tigray’s budget, and hindered the fight against locust infestation. The isolation, weakening, and attack on Tigray by the Ethiopian state began long before November 2020, shortly after Abiy was appointed interim Prime Minister in 2018. 

Abiy had initially called the war on Tigray a domestic “law-and-order operation” that would not last more than 5 days, but it involved large deployments of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Eritrean forces, Amhara militia, and aerial bombardments. Although there have been regional and international efforts to call for dialogue, Abiy has rejected any form of political and national dialogue that would forge an intent alliance with the TPLF. With over 70,000 Tigrayans fleeing into Sudan, over 2 million Tigrayans internally displaced, and over 5 million Tigrayans at the risk of starvation, it is clear that Abiy has tragically failed in his promised intentions. He has sent the country into war against its people and committed countless atrocities qualifying as war crimes, human rights violations, and acts of genocide. 

After eight months of committing such atrocities, the ENDF and Eritrean forces withdrew from the majority of Tigray following continued successful offensives by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). On June 28, 2021, TDF regained control of Tigray’s capital city of Mekelle. 

To avoid the humiliation of the defeat, the Ethiopian government declared an immediate and unilateral ceasefire after Tigrayan troops retook Mekelle. While the ENDF fled Mekelle, they attempted to damage and loot as much as they could. They ransacked aid compounds, cleared out the banks, and stole communication equipment and food supplies. 

Although the forces that had been committing crimes on Tigrayans have left most of Tigray, the humanitarian corridor remains blocked and restricted. The region is also still under a telecommunication blackout, and there is no access to banks. This retreat was just the start of a shift in war strategy, and the ceasefire was a delay tactic until the ENDF could regroup. This “humanitarian ceasefire” was in fact just a complete siege of Tigray, as the Ethiopia government once again completely cut off the region, as over 900,000 people are in famine conditions. 

Further, aid agencies who realize the grave humanitarian crisis in Tigray continue to face many challenges, as Ethiopian and Amhara militia block roads to Tigray and target humanitarian workers traveling to Tigray.

Following his military defeat on the ground, Abiy has shifted the blame to Tigrayans as a whole, by stating that his army units had been ambushed and ‘massacred’ while passing through villages [in Tigray]. As a Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader, his actions and rhetoric have fueled more chaos and instability in the country. In continuing his genocidal war against Tigray, Abiy has intensified his rhetoric against Tigrayans, categorizing them as ‘internal enemies,” incapable of rest and peace. Most recently, in reference to his war on Tigray, he called his enemies “weeds,” “cancer,” and “disease.”  

Despite some international pressure and responsibility assigned to the Abiy administration, Abiy has failed to acknowledge the crimes being committed by the Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces who have massacred civilians, bombed cities and towns, and raped young girls and women. Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces have also destroyed and looted Tigray’s infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, markets, religious places, and government offices. 

Meanwhile, Abiy’s administration continues to deny the extent of the humanitarian crisis in Tigay, as it works to continue covering up the crimes it has already committed. Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen claimed to diplomats that, “[they] have been exerting every possible effort to rebuild damaged infrastructure and restore electricity, telecoms, internet and banking services in Tigray.” With over 900,000 people in Tigray in famine conditions, ‘possible efforts’ have not been sufficient enough to reduce starvation numbers, nor rebuild Tigray. 

Abiy continues to refer to the TPLF as “rebels,” a “terrorist organization,” and “criminal junta,” suggesting no form of equal agreement could be met by both parties. Ethiopia’s diminishing image in the international community, Abiy has continued to dehumanize Tigrayans across the country, revealing his ultimate goal of subjugating those who associate themselves with his perceived enemy—the TPLF.  

The war on Tigray demonstrates Abiy’s failure to keep his promises to Ethiopia. Abiy’s administration continues to deny the atrocities committed in Tigray, thereby refusing accountability and true leadership. Abiy still has the time to allow humanitarian aid to enter the whole region of Tigray, regardless of his beliefs or polarity towards the TPLF. Abiy must decide where the future of Ethiopia rests, in the disintegration of Ethiopia in his attempt to destroy Tigray, or allow humanitarian aid access and come to the negotiating table with the government of Tigray.

Rodas – Omna Tigray Contributor, August 2021