Category: Articles

Abiymania is the term recently coined to describe the personality cult that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has cultivated to consolidate his power using the people of Ethiopia as a stepping stone.

To begin the conversation on Abiymania, it is important to compare the behaviors of some known cult leaders to Abiy’s actions to describe the personality cult observed herein. Below is a short video with information on famous cult leaders whose cults were covered in documentaries and docuseries so that you may understand the ideas presented here. Note that the speaker in the video is not the one writing this.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoVHyuYVBY

There are different tactics Abiy has used to cultivate his personality cult. I will list them one by one. Keep in mind that the tactics I discuss are not an exhaustive list of the tactics Abiy has used to date.

To begin with, Abiy claims his political goal is to unify Ethiopians by erasing the politically permitted rights and freedoms of the many nationalities of Ethiopia, uniting them under one banner. He aims to break down Ethiopia’s many nations by removing their sense of self, individuality, and autonomy. This “unifying” project”  makes it easier for Abiy, and any other person who succeeds him under Abiy’s political structure, to better guide all Ethiopians on how to think, rationalize, act, understand, and even feel. This reach and hold on the Ethiopian population that the federal government has far exceeds the norm. To make matters worse, much like autocratic regimes around the world, Abiy wants to create an Ethiopian social media platform to further lead the people of Ethiopia towards a single narrative, one that is favorable to him. When the people give in to this idea, they do not see it as having given up everything for the cult leader. Instead, they believe the message proliferated by the cult and its leader.

Another hallmark of cults is the active cultivation of hatred towards any “other”. By any other, I mean anyone or any group that either does not agree with or even holds a neutral position towards the cult leader. In essence, this serves the purpose of keeping all cult members attached to the cult leader and away from those seeking to deprogram them (deprogram means removing the programming put in place by the cult leader). In the case of Abiy, there is a very clear inside and outside group. The inside group is anyone in league with Abiy and the outside group is anyone that does not support Abiy, with a particular emphasis on the people of Tigray, who Abiy sees as the largest threat to his hold on the Ethiopian people. Both sides have been very open about their disdain of the other side, but the group defending Abiy has particularly acted like they are a part of a cult in their reactions towards any criticism with regards to their beliefs, which by the way, is being perpetrated by the cult leader. Intensely indoctrinated people have accepted Abiy’s narrative of what is happening in Ethiopia and are satisfied even when Abiy limits discussion and information regarding the recent civil war and genocide. For example, the Ethiopian regime in November 2021 issued an official statement that forbade unofficial dissemination of information on military maneuvers, war front updates, and results via any medium. This restriction reinforced the official government narrative, and there was little public criticism of the further silencing of the press.

What outsiders would think is unbelievable as to Abiy’s easily refutable claims about the genocidal war, those intensely indoctrinated take what Abiy says as reality; in fact, it is just another day for them. Even if some Ethiopians are not strict believers of Abiy, they get caught up in the rhythm of the cult and know that if they think or say otherwise, they will be ostracized and/or persecuted.

I would like to move on to a third hallmark of cult leaders. Cult leaders have to appeal to their audiences, and they do so by using different tactics, one of which is self-deprecation. Abiy is well known for the many photo ops he has participated in showcasing him as a blue-collar worker. His followers and some uninformed observers might see these photo ops as humanizing and him being a man of the people, but that is obviously not the case. His time spent coordinating and participating in photo ops and his manufactured image are at odds with the time and commitment required to be a Prime Minister. This suggests that Abiy’s self-deprecation is more about helping him grow as a cult leader, as other cult leaders have done before him. Like past cult leaders, he made himself appear extremely humble, self-deprecating, as a means of strengthening his position as a leader only to start making extreme demands down the line.

The similarities between Abiy’s actions and those of past cult leaders do not end here. Past cult leaders have used high profile people to sell their story and vision. This is known as Ethos, when the one selling an idea (or even a product) uses a high-profile individual to make the public trust the speaker. There is a misconception that high profile individuals cannot fall into a cult, but that is simply not true as is illustrated by the many high-profile individuals who have been indoctrinated in the past.

Cult leaders have often offered a panacea to sell their ideas, and have used a scapegoat to explain away anything that does not fit or make sense in their narrative or contradicts the listeners experience. This serves several purposes: the panacea works to keep the people subservient to the cult leader and his message, and the scapegoat works to explain away anything that does not make sense to listeners and to keep the listeners away from those seeking to deprogram them. In the case of Abiy and his followers, the panacea is Abiy’s version of national unity, and the scapegoats are the people of Tigray.

Within cults, social proof, or the feedback that the people rely on from those around them to understand what is real, what to do, and how to react, is engineered and controlled by the cult in addition to being proliferated by the cult and the people taken in by them. It is a false social proof, but it is very powerful. The restriction of information is one way that the cult leader helps engineer that false social proof: keep people away from or make people hate any information that is against the cult, and the group will only behave as the cult leader would want. Those around the people taken in by the cult will have their social proof be according to the cult and those around them will find their social proof to be in line with the cult leader.

Abiy has been angry at those who question him and has refused to promote an open dialogue to discuss his policies and actions. This is in line with other cult leaders in the past who avoided answering questions about their claims through various tactics such as evasion or anger. If Abiy or his group ask you to do anything either directly or indirectly, you have the responsibility and should have the right to question his request and message before doing anything.

Abiy’s supporters have made it clear that leaving Abiy is like turning your back on God. Two examples come to mind. One is how an Abune (a Father) once said that he preferred to be conquered by satan than to be conquered by the Junta (referring to Tigrayan fighters) because he believed that Tigray fighters were the real enemy and were worse than satan. The second example is of a militia recruiter who implied that Tigrayan fighters are sinners while Ethiopia is a country of many faithful that should not be conquered by the Junta, again referring to Tigrayan fighters. In short, many Abiy supporters believe or try to proliferate the idea that going against Abiy is the same as going against God. Abiy is not God, and it is natural for people to have different opinions on different matters; people should not feel guilty for going against something that tries to revoke their very selves. In adding the religious aspect, Abiy’s cult is trying to make it as hard as possible for people to remove themselves from the cult. In addition, it is trying to enforce its ideas by trying to convince people that they must commit to the cult without question. Never mind the lack of logic in trying to unify people through war in the name of love of country and God.

Finally, I want to discuss a method Abiy used to gather so many effective cult followers. When he first came to power, he tried to look like someone who could meet the needs of all the country’s nations and nationalities. This, in addition to the message of democracy, love, tolerance, and forgiveness he was spreading, left many people mesmerized. He decided to travel both nationally and internationally to gather more followers. In traveling around the country and world, he could discern how devoted his followers were. In addition, the technique allowed him to connect to his followers emotionally. When he finished his tour, enough people felt that he had connected to them deeply on a human and emotional level. Those who felt an emotional pull towards him as he toured around the world felt that they had all the proof they needed to follow him. That emotional pull will be their validation, and no horror could possibly take that feeling of bliss away from them. And unfortunately, horrors did happen.

People need to be educated on what a cult is. It does not have to be only about satan worship or overt abuse to be a cult. People do not even have to live together to form a cult. Cults prey on our humanity, our need to belong and to love each other, our capacity for cognitive dissonance, our love of patterns, as well as our devotion to the greater good. Abiy and other cult leaders have been adept at manipulating these basic human needs and emotions to their ends. Remember that there is no such thing as love through hate, and that love will always triumph in the end. It is vital to be wary of this new cult since it has produced many horrors, and it is still gathering strength. Even if you disagree with me, keep in mind the tactics used by cult leaders because knowing those tactics could one day save your life in this cult or another.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article, or other articles posted at Omna Tigray, do not represent the official position of Omna Tigray.

A lingua franca is a language which is commonly used by people with various mother tongues as means of communication. The relationship of Amharic to marginalized nations and nationalities in Ethiopia is one that parallels the language of colonizers in former colonies; a language enforced on a people as an instrument of domination. Thus, the role of Amharic as a lingua franca in the Orthodox Church, judiciary system, educational institutions, commerce, and military is emblematic of a larger problem with the nature of the Ethiopian empire state.

Attempting to create a nation out of an empire state, there has been a concerted effort to centralise power and create a national identity using force in Ethiopia – any subnational group to stand against this ideology was deemed an enemy of the state that must be forced to assimilate or be eliminated. As such, in a brutal nation building process across hundreds of years, anything that strayed from the Amharic speaking-Orthodox norm was seen as a direct threat to the cohesive ‘national identity.’

The establishment of Amharic as a lingua franca can be traced to the end of the 13^th century, when King Yäkuno Amlak, a prince from Bete Amhara, overthrew the ruling Zagwe dynasty and restored what many in today’s Amhara region believe to be the Solomonic dynasty. Although depicted in the kebra negast “glory of the kings,” a 14th century written account that is considered to hold the genealogy of the Solomonic dynasty, King Yäkuno Amlak’s claim to originate from the Solomonic Dynasty is incorrect; it is a political fiction designed to legitimize Shewa-Amhara rule.

The Aksumite kingdom as the genuine beginning of the Solomonic dynasty is therefore delegitimized by the creation of a divine right of kings’ doctrine. Following King Yäkuno’s accession, Amharic was designated as the lәsanä nәgus “king’s language,” acting as the Ethiopian court’s spoken lingua franca.

King Teweodros II, who reigned from 1855 to 1868, was the first king of the Ethiopian empire to establish Amharic as the country’s literary language, ensuring that his royal chronicles were written in Amharic rather than Ge’ez, which previous rulers had done. His successor, Emperor Yohannes IV, although Tigrayan, used Amharic in his dealings with regional monarchs with the belief that Amharic would aid in the Ethiopian empire’s unification.

The subsequent reign of Emperor Menelik II  was largely marked by the formation of modern day Finfinne, Addis Ababa, and the expansion of the Ethiopian empire to its current borders. Amharic-speaking officials administered the annexed territories in newly built towns, as a result Amharic was given a de-facto official status as the national lingua franca.

Although previous rulers advanced Amharic to varying degrees, Emperor Haile Selassie declared Amharic the official language of Ethiopia in 1955 as a ploy to unify nations and nationalities under one Ethiopian identity. Following the establishment of the printing press in the city of Dire Dawa and later in the capital city, Finfinne at the end of the 19^th century, Amharic became the main language of printed materials like journals, novels, and books for educational purposes. Emperor Haile Selassie established a legal framework and policy to ease navigating the empire’s myriad of linguistic groups. While his predecessor focused on using Amharic as the mode of communication among elites, Emperor Haile Selassie targeted the general population; Amharic was the only language used in schools and government. Other languages and cultures, particularly Afan Oromo, were disregarded. Under Haile Selassie, Tigrigna was not considered its own language, rather a dialect of Amharic.

During its tenure from 1974 to 1991, the military junta, known as the Derg, modified the language policy; the linguistic rights of marginalized Ethiopian nationalities were formally recognised. Under the Derg, the policy of literacy included Amharic, Tigrigna, Afan Oromo, Somali and Afar. However, in reality Amharic remained the main administrative language. Amharic remained the only official language and medium of teaching in primary school. Between 1974 and 1984, the number of elementary schools more than doubled, accelerating the development of Amharic and its usage in inter-ethnic dialogue.

The doctrine behind the policy to enforce Amharic in the social and political sphere intends to create a homogenous state with the Amharic language at the center as a symbol of unity and tool of forced assimilation.

The change in the status of Amharic as the national language of Ethiopia was only in 1991, when the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) formed a coalition government and introduced a multinational federalist system, giving all Ethiopian languages equal influence. Article 5 of the constitution outlined that all Ethiopian languages should enjoy equal recognition although Amharic shall be the working language of the federal government.  Despite EPRDF’s efforts to encourage nations and nationalities to instate their own languages in federal states and districts, Amharic remained the country’s de facto lingua franca, given how widespread it had become prior to the appointment of the coalition government.

The role of Amharic in the social and political sphere is an extension of Amhara domination in Ethiopian history and culture. Thus, the brutality used to enforce Amharic as a lingua franca is part of a coordinated effort to erase or hijack the multinational history and contribution of various ethnic groups in Ethiopia, much like King Yäkuno Amlak’s claim to be from the Solomonic dynasty.

The formation of modern-day Ethiopia during Emperor Menelik II’s reign used violence to destroy the autonomy of nations and nationalities in order to assimilate to a distorted Ethiopian identity. The legacy of an inherently imperialist empire, combined with attempts of numerous leaders to differentiate Amharic from other Ethiopian languages has resulted in the Amhara hegemony that subsequently birthed several liberation fronts and arguably the fragmentation still seen in present day Ethiopia.

Following the outbreak of a genocidal war in Tigray in November 2020, the region’s healthcare system has completely collapsed leaving Tigray in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Prior to the war, Tigray was reported to have one of the best healthcare systems in Ethiopia. Tigray possessed many well-equipped and well-functioning hospitals as well as referral systems and community health posts and workers. However, since November 2020, with the health facilities across the region having been looted, vandalized, and some completely destroyed by the Eritrean and Ethiopian forces, the healthcare system struggles to offer even the most basic services at its tertiary hospitals.

According to estimates published in The Lancet in December 2020, 85% to 95% of health centers in Tigray are non-functional. Other health centers are hardly accessible due to the looting, theft, and destruction of ambulances. Ninety percent of ambulances, which were majorly used to transport women in labor, have been looted and/or turned into military vehicles by the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. In its work between December 2020 and March 2021, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was able to visit 106 health facilities, 70% of which were looted and 13% of which were functioning normally.

Another contributing factor to Tigray’s medical crisis is the lack of healthcare providers as a consequence of the war. In similar circumstances as the rest of the Tigrayan population,  healthcare providers have been forced to abandon their posts and flee their cities to seek refuge. As of May 2021, a total of 2,000 healthcare providers were reportedly registered in internally displaced people camps in Tigray’s capital city of Mekelle.

In April 2021, MSF’s Emergency Manager emphasized the extent of the destruction: “I’ve been doing this work for a long time and  I’ve never seen the complete collapse of a healthcare system as in Tigray. It’s shocking,”

Unfortunately, the situation has only worsened since these estimates were calculated as Tigray has been under siege since the end of June 2021. Little to no humanitarian aid has entered Tigray and medicine and medical supplies are prohibited to enter the region. In addition, humanitarian organizations have had to drastically scale back their operations due to safety concerns. MSF was forced to suspend its operations in Tigray and leave the region. Because of these drastic restrictions, there is incredible sparsity of health data, as the Tigray government and its defense forces attempt to break that siege that has left 6.8 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

“Later, back at the health centre it feels like we are barely making a dent. By 1 p.m., there are still about 250 people waiting. But the medics are hard at it. No food. No breaks. Military curfew is at 7 p.m. in Shire so we have to use every minute. It’s the same everywhere; the needs are overwhelming. We need to do more; we need more people, more cars and more medicines. And still it can’t possibly be enough. It’s so inadequate. It’s something though.” — Joe Belliveau, MSF Executive Director, in Tigray in March and April 2021

Children and Women at the Forefront of the Medical Crisis in Tigray

Although the region’s collapsed health system has had an impact on the population as a whole, some of the most affected groups include children, women, and chronically-ill individuals.  Caused by the shortage of food supplies and clean water, the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition is increasing at an alarming rate, making it difficult for the partly functional health facilities to deal with all of the health implications from acute malnutrition. In January 2021, UNICEF reported that the level of acutely malnourished children in Tigray was three times the global WHO emergency threshold, putting over 70,000 children at risk. In its most recent report, Tigray’s External Affairs Office reported results from the screening of 28,000 children under five in Tigray. They found that 2.8% were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, over the 2% globally recognized emergency threshold. An additional 20% of children were suffering from moderate acute malnutrition. In their screening of 18,800 pregnant and lactating mothers, a staggering 69% were diagnosed with malnutrition.

The earlier mentioned shortage of medical supplies has also led to a shortage of vaccines, increasing child mortality rates as well as the likelihood of future outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera, measles, malaria, and Covid-19. In August 2020, the Tigray government reported that around 195,000 children had yet to be vaccinated.

Many children are also in dire need of medical and psychological attention considering the increasing number of orphaned and unaccompanied internally displaced children.

Another extremely vulnerable group is survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). The women and girls of Tigray have been subjected to weaponized SGBV, which invading forces have used as a weapon of war, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. As reported by several media outlets and humanitarian organizations in the past few months, the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, along with Amhara regional forces and militia, have deployed weaponized rape against the women and girls of Tigray. According to UN OCHA, the most conservative estimate in June 2021 indicated that at least 22,500 survivors of sexual violence would seek clinical care in Tigray, although the number of those affected is likely much higher because of stigma, broken reporting mechanisms, and security concerns.

Weaponized SGBV in Tigray is characterized by extreme brutality. Women have been subjected to gang rape by as many as 20 soldiers for days or even weeks, most times in torturous manners, using nails, rocks, knives, and burning hot metals, inflicting debilitating and sometimes irreversible injury on survivors.

With the destruction of Tigray’s medical infrastructure by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and the complete blockage and siege of Tigray, survivors of weaponized SGBV have not had access to the immediate medical care they need. Health services such as abortions and contraception that would have been readily available prior to the conflict are practically nonexistent. Hence, Tigrayan women and girls have been stripped of their autonomy to choose to get an abortion. As a result of a lack of medical and psychosocial support, survivors of weaponized SGBV have been left to carry their pregnancies resulting from rape to term to their psychological detriment. There have been reports of survivors committing suicide because of the trauma of these pregnancies.

Further, the lack of access to medical facilities and medical professionals has had a huge toll on women as the number of mothers dying during childbirth is alarmingly increasing.

As opposed to 73% prior to the war, there are now no women benefiting from a skilled delivery. With the shortage of ambulances, night-time curfews, and rampant insecurity on the roads many women are forced to deliver their babies in unhygienic conditions and informal displacement camps, receiving little to no antenatal or postnatal care.

Additionally, with the siege of Tigray, many women and girls in Tigray have little to no access to sanitary pads and are left vulnerable to UTIs, fungal infections, reproductive tract infections, and other major health complications.

Chronically-ill Tigrayans Left to Die

Chronically-ill individuals have tremendously suffered from the lack of medication and food supply during the war on Tigray. With over 180,000 patients with chronic non-communicable diseases having missed treatment for months, there are reports of large numbers of patients with chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes, asthma or HIV/AIDS dying at home and in hospitals because of the currently dismantled health system in Tigray.

Requiring continuous medical attention and/or a supply of life-sustaining medication, these patients have been jeopardized by the lack of medical supplies and electricity to maintain the necessary conditions for drugs requiring cold storage conditions, such as insulin, throughout Tigray’s hospitals and pharmacies.

Additionally, with the growing widespread famine and shelters housing thousands of internally displaced Tigrayans not being able to provide the needed dietary supplements as well nutritionally diverse food for the patients, chronically-ill individuals have been unable to meet their nutritional needs.

The Spread of Other Diseases

With most internally displaced person (IDP) shelters having a scarce supply of clean water and food, they are also unable to provide the sanitary conditions required to maintain the health of those with compromised immune systems.

The crowded conditions alone increase the risk of transmission of infectious diseases in non-immunocompromised individuals, among them children who may not be vaccinated against highly infectious childhood diseases.

The spread of infectious diseases has peaked with watery diarrhea, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and Covid-19 cases being at the top of the list. The unhygienic and overcrowded conditions of informal camps and the lack of clean water have led to diarrhea being the overall second-biggest medical problem in these sites. Its transmission and severity enhanced by malnutrition, diarrhea is especially concerning as it is a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality.

Next on the list being sexually transmitted infections, the aforementioned abhorrent number of SGBV cases are causing the rise of those contracting STIs (including HIV), most of which are receiving no medical attention. With this, the demands for abortions and emergency contraceptives are also rapidly increasing, but are again, usually not provided due to the lack of required supplies and drugs.

Additionally, considering the ongoing worldwide pandemic, the appropriate Covid-19 precautions are not possible, endangering vulnerable individuals. The lack of diagnostics also results in the exposure of potentially Covid-19 infected individuals to immunocompromised patients with pre-existing respiratory illnesses. This can especially be observed in the overcrowded and unhygienic shelters where millions of displaced Tigrayans currently reside.

Conclusion

The looting and vandalism of health facilities, the theft of ambulances, the lack of access to medication, the absence of dependable electricity, and the scarce supply of food and clean water will lead to long-term public health concerns for the region.

Considering that the deliberate and cruel destruction of Tigray’s healthcare system has and will continue to result in the suffering and deaths of Tigrayan civilians for years to come, the international community should urge the Ethiopian government to immediately allow unfettered humanitarian access to all of Tigray, restore Tigray’s destroyed infrastructure (e.g. roads and hospitals), restore the health facilities throughout Tigray by funding the return of medical staff, replacing destroyed medical equipment, providing sufficient medicine, returning/replacing ambulances, providing electricity, water, and other necessary resources for the proper functioning of health facilities, and finally to secure the transportation of food to inaccessible parts of Tigray in order to alleviate the famine.

“Medical work is, of course, our core work, but it’s not the only reason for coming to all these villages across Tigray. People repeatedly tell us our just being here means something. They say it helps them feel less forgotten, like someone cares, a little bit safer.” — Joe Belliveau, MSF Executive Director, in Tigray in March and April 2021

My name is Michael Minassie. I was an interpreter/translator for the joint Ethiopian Human Rights Commission – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (EHRC-OHCHR) investigation into the reported human rights violations in Tigray. After ten days of employment, I was forced to resign from my original interpreter/translator position and was instead offered the task of monitoring the human rights situation in Tigray. From my discussions with the OHCHR team, I have come to understand that my removal from the joint investigation team was solely due to the EHRC’s undue interference in the OHCHR’s internal processes.

In this brief, I would like to address three major issues. First, I provide details of why I was forced to resign from the joint investigation. Second, I also give an account of what I witnessed during my short but eventful time as member of the EHRC-OHCHR joint investigation team during the preparations and early days of the joint investigation. Third and most importantly, I discuss why the joint investigation fails to meet the minimum standard of an independent and comprehensive inquiry under United Nations (UN) guidelines.

Spanning three decades, my professional experience in journalism, communications, and public information includes work with the UN Mission in South Sudan/Sudan (UNMISS+UNMIS), where I served as Radio Producer and Programmes Coach. I have previously held roles at the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and Internews. For more than 15 years, I worked at Ethiopian Television, a national TV station with the largest reach in Ethiopia. Chief among the prominent programmes I produced was ‘Worento’ – an investigative programme focusing on human rights violations, abuse of power, corruption, and accountability. I was also the producer and host of a popular interview show in the English language, ‘Mekelle Foresight,’ broadcast by Tigray TV. ‘Mekelle Foresight’ focused on Ethiopia’s politics, human rights, tensions, and how to avert war in Ethiopia. I hosted over 40 high-profile current affairs interviews and documentaries. The show was disrupted a couple of weeks after the declaration of war on Tigray on November 4, 2020. With the imminent takeover of Mekelle by Ethiopia’s and Eritrea’s combined forces, I, along with other journalists who feared for our lives, went into hiding outside Tigray’s capital. On December 25, 2020, I decided to return to Mekelle city, and eventually moved to Addis Ababa, where I kept a low profile.

Although I had a Schengen visa at hand, it was difficult for me and many other ethnic Tigrayans to exit Ethiopia after the war on Tigray started. In early May 2021, I began seeking income sources for my family while concealing myself from the watchful eyes of the government and local informants. An opportunity presented itself for me in this dire situation. It all started when I received a call from an acquaintance who I knew during my assignment with the UN Mission in Sudan and South Sudan. He intimated to me of a forthcoming UN job opening and recommended that I apply. 

After applying for the job in mid-May 2021, I was successfully recruited by the OHCHR to serve as an interpreter/translator for the joint (EHRC-OHCHR) investigation into the reported human rights abuses in Tigray. I thought this internationally sanctioned assignment would provide me with some immunity, at least as long as it were to last, which I was told was for three months. Tracking and investigating the widespread persecution, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement and summary dismissals from jobs meted out against Tigrayans throughout the country, I should have known better. I accepted the position, and that is how, on May 16, 2021, I went back to Mekelle. My first day on the job began with a half-day induction on May 17, 2021 when investigators and interpreters of the joint investigation were briefed on the assignment and met with one another. During that meeting, participants who spoke, like myself, made our commitment clear to abide by the rules and remain impartial.

What happened afterwards, however, is strange, to say the least. We were told that the EHRC objected to the involvement of two interpreters, myself included, hired by the UN and demanded that we get removed from our positions. The EHRC team apparently argued with the UN team that we lacked the impartiality required for the task – I say apparently because the discussions happened in the absence of the two of us implicated by the accusation. We only came to know about it from a briefing by the UN team. The accusation that I lacked impartiality was based on my prior work with Tigray TV. For my colleague, it was because of his Facebook profile picture. So, we were not given the opportunity to defend our position. We were informed by the OHCHR Addis Ababa Office that the EHRC opposed our recruitment and that the OHCHR had no other option but to remove us from the joint investigation. In that briefing, we were told the OHCHR tried to defend us against the unjust and discriminatory stand of the EHRC. I would also like to believe that the UN side stood against the EHRC’s undue effort to impose its will on the UN, a body with global legitimacy and an equal partner in the task at hand. To my surprise, the EHRC offered to hire interpreters for the investigation, which the UN apparently refused.

Having been unjustly removed by way of resignation from the joint-investigation team as Tigrayans, the UN eventually offered us, the aggrieved, another job as human rights violations monitors in Tigray. I personally was aware of the pressure the UN side had to endure and understood its caution to avoid being bogged down with wrangling from the start. Despite understanding the difficult situation the UN found itself in, questions still remained as to how and why this situation came to be; the OHCHR did not clearly communicate with us here. So, aggravated by my experience, I started investigating to get to the bottom of our dismissal. Moreover, I also started to gather information informally – informally because we were not issued UN IDs yet and wanted to be as discreet as possible so as not to attract the ire of the security personnel – and look into the human rights issues from sources in the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and others affected by the war.

Almost all circumstantial evidence I gathered appears to point to one main reason for our dismissal. It relates to EHRC’s decision to control the probe and steer its outcome in a certain direction. In the course of my research, I found out that the EHRC had ulterior motives to hide or skew critical issues in the human rights investigation in Tigray. The ulterior motive of the EHRC became evident when the joint teams started their investigation work in the IDP camps in Mekelle. For instance, when investigating the atrocities that happened in Mai Kadra, they showed reluctance in uncovering the truth from the Tigrayan victims and survivors, who are still alive and sheltered in IDP camps in Mekelle and Shire or have crossed the border to Sudan. The rest have been evicted from their land due to Amhara forces’ ethnic cleansing campaign against Tigrayans. Instead of going into the investigations without preconceived notions about the atrocities and the identity of the perpetrators, the EHRC was biased from the start–clinging to the findings of the methodologically flawed Mai Kadra report. 

The lead investigator in the November 2020 Mai Kadra investigation, Albab Tesfaye, was also a member of the joint investigation team. And despite Daniel Bekele, Chief Commissioner of the EHRC, having to admit that Tigrayans were victims in Mai Kadra in June 2021, the joint investigation team came in with preconceived notions based on accounts of the events that were proven false by accounts from Tigrayan refugees in Sudan who recounted their experience of the brutal massacres against Tigrayans in Mai Kadra.

The investigators seem to have made up their mind as to what to expect from the IDPs before having interviewed them. During the half-day induction, one of the EHRC investigators who facilitated the presentation on the code of conduct of interpreters cautioned us that we would come across people who would tell us lies about things that never happened. As a member of the investigation team, he was supposed to be open-minded and not second-guess the response of the victims even before he met them. In essence, he told us to not just interpret word for word what the victims were saying, but instead selectively choose what to translate–something which is not the job of an interpreter. It is up to the investigator to find ways of fact-checking the claim, not the interpreter.

From the information I received from the IDP camp authorities, some EHRC investigators acted like police interrogating alleged criminals. This is incredibly worrying as, according to the sources, the EHRC investigators did not take into account the victims’ traumatic experiences during this period. For instance, when an IDP who fled for his life gives testimony about how his family members and friends were killed after they remained in their areas, one would find it in the investigator’s mandate to try to learn how he came to learn of the killing, record his response, and check the veracity of the testimony through multiple sourcing. Instead, they engaged in arguments trying to corner victims through rigorous cross-questioning and derogating his or her claim. That is overstepping the professional bounds. Their tone, according to the sources, was also intimidating and demeaning. My sources went on to say that anyone appearing on the scene in the middle of the interview would know whether the investigator was part of the EHRC or OHCHR from the interview techniques the respective partners employ.

Even when they faced IDPs in Mekelle, the investigators focused many of their questions on humanitarian aid and the situation in the camps, instead of focusing on reported human rights violations and war crimes. The purpose of this strategy was two-pronged: firstly, it is to deprive the victims of enough time to testify about cases of acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, widespread and systematic rape and other gross human rights violations, which should have been the team’s major preoccupation as per the mandate of the investigation. Secondly, by prodding the IDPs to complain about humanitarian relief and camp management, the EHRC team wanted the blame to be shifted to the international community. It is interesting to note that one of the EHRC investigators criticized the international community for not matching their calls for the Tigray government to allow uninhibited humanitarian access, and in doing so was parroting a narrative that trickled down all the way from the Ethiopian Government. In fact, the lack of humanitarian access has been widely attributed to the Ethiopian government as reported by aid organizations on the ground and credible international media outlets.

Indicative of the power imbalance of the joint investigation, the dismissal of my colleague and myself illustrates just how much power the EHRC has to dictate terms in its work with the independent work of the OHCHR. The OHCHR recruited me and the other interpreter-translator according to the UN’s rules and regulations in line with the standard for staffing investigations. That despite the protest from the OHCHR, the EHRC was allowed, and able to rid of even those recruited by the UN is indicative of a much more dangerous state of affairs and sinister desire to determine the findings of the investigation in a certain way. The crisis of independence and impartiality of the joint investigation can also be corroborated by the fact that the composition of the investigators lacks the diversity of professionals drawn from different parts of the country. Not only was the selection process shrouded in secrecy, but it is also widely believed that key investigators of a desired ethnicity dominated the EHRC team. Some of the remaining interpreters-translators are currently facing illegal interference and pressure from EHRC to resign from their role. The EHRC’s key investigators are intensifying pressure on interpreters/translators that are still working. This also indicates OHCHR intensifying failure to shield itself from unwarranted interference.

In its desperate effort to keep its partnership with EHRC and the Ethiopian Government, the OHCHR has permitted the EHRC to interfere in its staff members’ internal recruitment and retention. Our forced resignations and the composition of key investigators indicate the problems at the core of the joint investigation. OHCHR has sacrificed the independence and impartiality of the investigation for the sake of keeping a partnership with EHRC.

Though short, my exposure to the internal workings of the joint investigation has convinced me that the joint investigation fails to meet the minimum standard of an independent and comprehensive investigation as stipulated under the UN guidelines. 

My observations and my ongoing conversations with those contacted for interviews indicate that confidentiality and anonymity of the victims interviewed may not be ensured. The EHRC and its investigators are appointed to operate under the strict purview and control of the Ethiopian government, which in turn has interfered with the OHCHR’s internal functioning. Because of the highly sophisticated Ethiopian and Eritrean security apparatus, victims and witnesses did not feel safe in telling their stories. They are afraid, reluctant, and unsure about answering questions.

After my forced resignation, I faced more pressure and the threat of persecution. With the reported round-ups of Tigrayans in Addis Ababa and travel bans on some who tried to fly out of the country, I started to look for ways to relocate outside of the country. It is horrifying to note that all this time, the EHRC, after depriving us of our right to work based on false accusation and discrimination, did not stop at that. It continued to harass us. I have reason to believe that  the EHRC team leader was working with government security forces, putting us under their strict surveillance. Speaking for myself, I have tangible tips from those concerned about my security that I was closely followed and could have been exposed to some form of harm as a result. Afraid for my safety, I decided to leave my consolation job and fly out of the country. I was lucky to have made it through the airport with its numerous security checkpoints. 

Additionally, I have recently learned that the EHRC team has asked another interpreter to “resign or face the consequences.” This is yet another indication that the EHRC team has continued to flaunt its discrimination and obstruction at whim. The architect of the botched Mai Kadra investigation is again at the centre of all these injustices. The OHCHR has allowed the EHRC to dictate the process of investigation.

The joint EHRC-OHCHR investigation has not established an impartial and independent account of the atrocities in Tigray. There are many reasons for this, but the main ones are the involvement of the EHRC as a proxy for the Ethiopian and Amhara governments and the OHCHR’s decision to succumb to the pressure from the Ethiopian government. The EHRC and its leadership are publicly and broadly perceived as siding with Abiy’s administration among the Tigray populace. The involvement of the EHRC has been counterproductive, as people have decided to not cooperate with the investigations. Tigrayans expect the inquiry to be conducted independently by an UN-mandated body.

So, this is far beyond an attack on my person, a trampling of my right to work. It is about the victims’ right to justice and effective remedies. It is about establishing truth and facts for the sake of dialogue and reconciliation in the country.

The joint investigation has not offered an independent, impartial and credible international report on the egregious violations of fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law committed against the people of Tigray. An independent, UN-mandated commission of inquiry is essential in finding the path of peace making in Ethiopia.

An endless nightmare. People caught in a gruesome seemingly never ending nightmare. A wave of violence as far as the eye can see. Villages under fire, desperate shouts for help from all directions. Soldiers wearing different uniforms flocking the main streets and the outskirts of towns showing nothing but rage and shooting at any passerby indiscriminately. Properties looted or destroyed. Fear stricken women and girls trying to escape from multiple abusers — some successful but many other falling victim to gang rape and physical abuse. Traumatized children crying near the dead bodies of their parents, utterly confused as to why these cruel invaders were destroying their modest but peaceful lives.

This has been the story of Tigray for more than one year. People have been brutalized for no other reason than their Tigrayan identity. Although most of Tigray was liberated by its brave children, significant parts of western and north-eastern Tigray are still under the control of brutal Amhara expansionists and Eritrean forces who are continuing their genocide machinery with impunity. 

Ethnically targeted attacks on Tigrayans have been prevalent since the rise of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the declaration of ethnically targeted measures by the genocidal alliance between Abiy, the Amhara regional government, and Eritrea’s dictator Isaias Afewerki.

The multifaceted attack on Tigray started shortly after Abiy and Isaias signed the pseudo “peace agreement” in July 2019 with the assistance of the governments of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Most likely masterminded and sponsored by Isaias and the Arab leaders, the content of the so called “peace agreement,” only known to the signatories and their patrons, was in fact a declaration of will between the two leaders to subjugate the people of Tigray.

For more than three years, roads through the Amhara region linking Tigray to the rest of Ethiopia were closed as an Amhara regional state organized youth group called “Fano” started vandalizing and looting every truck carrying supplies destined to Tigray. The federal government turned a blind eye to such criminal activities, indirectly encouraging the isolation and weakening of Tigray. The only open and accessible road connecting Tigray to the supply chain was the road through the Afar region. The semi-siege and Ethiopian government officials’ multiple hate incitement speeches, including statements from Prime Minister himself and propagated by state owned media, were clear signs of a bigger plan that came to fruition following the Ethiopian government’s declaration of a genocidal war on Tigray.

The devastating war on Tigray was planned meticulously long before its start and executed with unthinkable brutality in a bid to weaken Tigrayan society and bring the people of Tigray to their knees by any means necessary. There is simply nothing that can justify the barbaric acts unleashed on Tigray by the genocidal alliance over the last 13 months. The people of Tigray, irrespective of age, gender and religious affiliation, have had the ill-fate of living through a gruesome nightmare simply because of their identity.

Tigrayans are suffering all over Tigray and across Ethiopia. Those living inside the liberated part of Tigray are subjected to man-made famine at the hands of the Ethiopian government, which is using famine as a tool of genocide. Moreover, airstrikes and drone attacks continue to cause human casualties and destruction of private and public property and infrastructure in Tigray. The fascist leader of a collapsing state is utilizing every tool of war it can get its hands on from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran, and any other ally it can manufacture. The brutal Amhara expansionists, who still control vast areas of Western Tigray, continue to round up Tigrayans, taking them to undisclosed concentration camps where the are tortured and brutally executed.

Outside Tigray, people of all ages are being arrested, detained, and interned in various concentration camps without any due process, often crammed in overcrowded rooms with no chance to sleep or sit. Many of them, who are dependent on medication for chronic illness, are dying a slow death.

This level of human suffering is unfolding in front of a complaisant global community, and the perpetrators vow to do more irreperable harm as if they were given carte blanche to conduct genocide. Yet, the majority of Ethiopians have stayed quiet during the war on Tigray, most going as far as supporting Abiy’s ever changing narrative regarding the war on Tigray. Some have gone as far as signing the death warrants of their Tigrayan neighbors.

This nightmare has gotten progressively worse, but every nightmare has to end and we can only hope we awaken as soon as possible. When we awaken, we must take every measure necessary to never live through it again. Every Tigrayan deserves to live in a free society, able to decide his/her destiny, without fear of foreign occupation, bombardments, massacres, and discrimination. 

Since Abiy Ahmed took office in April 2018, we have witnessed an unprecedented amount of bloodshed and destruction throughout Ethiopia. Among other characteristics of a failed society and national unity, hate, polarization, division, and self-conceit have become the main attributes most Ethiopians are characterized by. Despite all the division, many pro-Abiy Ethiopians have come to a consensus on one thing: their all consuming hate for Tigray’s elected leaders and Tigrayan ideologies for self-determination.

There has always been an unobtrusive resentment towards Tigrayans. In the past few years, marginalization and demonization of Tigrayans became the priority in state politics and propaganda promoting the need to invade, destroy, and exterminate Tigrayans, accusing them of being the sole cause of “27 years of darkness” and wanting to destroy all that is Ethiopian. This flagrant hate and grudge reached its boiling point when the autocrat Abiy Ahmed waged a full-fledged international war against Tigrayans on November 4, 2020. In response to Tigray’s desire for self-determination and an election held by the Tigray government in which 2.8 million Tigrayans participated, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), Eritrean Defense Force (EDF), Amhara special forces and militia, Somali soldiers and UAE drones encircled Tigray with the intent to destroy by Abiy Ahmed and the Ethiopian government.

When the war broke out, Tigray was put under a total communication blackout. Cut off from the world, Tigray was inaccessible even for Tigrayans living across Ethiopia. But soon after, when international organizations and media started to assess the situation and some communication was restored in a few places, horrific stories started to emerge. 

What has emerged over the last year is evidence of the complete destruction of Tigray. A region-state once at peace  and having made advances since the last civil war in the 70s and 80s has been destroyed, degraded, pillaged, and ravaged. Till this day, Tigrayans are being massacred, raped, displaced, and starved to death by invading forces, including Amhara militia, ENDF and EDF. As the United Nations and international agencies have reported, appalling and unspeakable atrocities have been committed against the people of Tigray beyond moral comprehension, making Tigrayans wonder about the very nature of evil.

In one of its countless deplorable acts, the Ethiopian government and its supporters have been completely denying these investigated and confirmed atrocities, even denying the presence of the Eritrean army within Tigray.

In what seems like a fictitious but damaging alternate reality, the Ethiopian government and its nonstop state propaganda machinery media has tried to “normalize” the situation in Tigray. The prime minister and his cronies have made multiple genocidal remarks, extremely inappropriate and derogatory sarcastic comments about the suffering of Tigrayans and the horrendous crimes that have been committed.

Upon initial reflections, it would seem unjust to condemn and judge the masses for the poor choices of few; one  must rather look to see how the masses responded to rectify the unfortunate predicaments created by few; and yet most Ethiopians didn’t disappoint their genocidal and egomaniac government. In the same fashion as their government, swaths of the Ethiopian population, especially those in Addis Ababa, have denied the carnage and destruction that unfolded in our home. Masses flocked to the streets to celebrate the massacres and mass rape of those who should have been their brothers and sisters. Our closest and trusted friends not only denied but also endorsed the killings and rapes that our brothers and sisters endured.

In a brainwashed-like manner, against all the forthcoming evidence and in defiance to logic, a significant number of Ethiopians choose to believe an egomaniac prime minister over their once loved and trusted Tigrayans friends and neighbors. Some ordinary Ethiopians, so blinded and driven by hate, went as far as killing their own people by the very gun rounds they fired in celebration of the death and destruction of Tigrayans and Tigray. Hellbent on witnessing the decimation of Tigray, most cheered for their leaders marginalizing Tigrayans and depicting them as “backstabbing” and “snakes.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century, contemplated the nature of evil, stemming from her attempt to understand and evaluate the horrors of the Nazi death camps. In the Origins of Totalitarianism (published in 1951), Arendt used the word ‘radical evil’ to describe the evil of the Holocaust. Arendt applies the term to denote a form of wrongdoing which cannot be captured by other moral concepts. For Arendt, radical evil involves making human beings as human beings superfluous. This is accomplished when human beings are made into living corpses who lack any spontaneity or freedom. According to Arendt, a distinctive feature of radical evil is that it isn’t done for humanly understandable motives such as self-interest, but merely to reinforce totalitarian control and the idea that everything is possible. Arendt’s analysis of evil focuses on evils which result from systems put in place by totalitarian regimes. In her analysis on the character and culpability of individuals who take part in the perpetration of evil, she argues that “desk murderers,” as she referred to some Nazi functionary, were not motivated by demonic or monstrous motives. Instead, “It was sheer thoughtlessness — something by no means identical with stupidity — that predisposed them to become one of the greatest criminals of that period.”

In this sense, according to Hannah Arendt, it is safe to say most pro-Abiy Ethiopians have been made into living corpses who lack any spontaneity or freedom and are doomed to echo the delusional idiosyncrasy their leaders narrate. Evil in the form of utter and complete hate has enslaved the masses, so much so they cannot even differentiate reality from illusion. So blinded by hate and ignorance, they cannot even recognize how they have shattered their values and moral principles. Fueled by sheer thoughtlessness and ignorance, they have damaged the Ethiopia they dream of beyond repair and the saddest part is they do not even realize it.

Tigrayans have been counting the days since the autocratic Ethiopian Prime Minister declared war on Tigray on November 4, 2020, hoping each day would be the last. For Tigrayans inside Tigray, who struggle to survive every minute, the time since November 2020 has felt like an eternity. People in Tigray are dying due to a lack of basic necessities, such as food and medicine, with each passing day and survival has become a race against the clock.

For the last year in Tigray, the Ethiopian federal government has orchestrated an electricity and telecommunications blackout, banks have not been fully functional, and humanitarian aid has been restricted into and within the region. The healthcare system has collapsed due to systematic destruction and looting of facilities by the Ethiopian military, Eritrean troops, and Amhara militia. Furthermore, massacres, extrajudicial killings, rampant sexual and gender-based violence, and torturous executions by these forces have contributed to the genocidal campaign against Tigrayans. The over 7 million residents of Tigray have been suffering in unlivable conditions over the last year, and Tigrayans throughout the rest of the country have been forcibly disappeared, mass arrested, and harassed due to their ethnicity.

Prior to the Tigray genocide, the quality of life in the region was steadily improving. The education system had made significant progress. With support from the diaspora, digital learning had become more accessible, and Tigray’s education bureau was preparing to incorporate the ancient Ge’ez language from which Tigrigna originates into the region’s education curriculum to preserve Tigray’s culture, language, and history. The ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaign against the Tigrayan people by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces has compromised this educational and cultural preservation effort. Further, children have been unable to attend school due to attacks and occupation of schools by the genocidal invading forces. This intentional violation of the international human right to education is a deliberate attack on life itself and an attack on the future of Tigray — schools must be  preserved as a safe-zone in armed conflict. Unsurprisingly, Ethiopia has not endorsed the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) Safe School Declaration, a commitment to protect education rights during armed conflict.

In addition to the improving education system in Tigray preceding the genocide, the healthcare system was rather efficient. Health facilities and services were increasingly available, including in rural areas. Around 90% of pregnant women in Tigray were receiving prenatal care, an impressive number, especially when compared to the national average of about 62%. Furthermore, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tigray implemented several measures to prevent and mitigate the spread of the virus. On March 26, 2020, Tigray declared a region-wide state of emergency which included travel restrictions, mask mandates, and social distancing. Public health efforts and information campaigns were carried out to ensure the public was well-informed about the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

However, in the last year, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara genocidal forces have systematically destroyed Tigray’s health system. In a recent interview, Dr. Hagos Godefay, head of Tigray’s Health Bureau, details the destruction of the health system in Tigray. “It is unacceptable by any moral standard,” he states. Due to restricted access to medicine and healthcare, people in Tigray are dying from minor, easily treatable diseases and infections such as diabetes and urinary tract infections due to restricted access to medicine. Women are giving birth alone in the dark, and people are dying preventable deaths at home. In addition, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence are not receiving adequate medical or psychosociological care. They are left to deal with the trauma and aftereffects of rape on their own — that includes not having access to abortion services or medicine for sexually transmitted infections, let alone receive psychological support. These services would have been readily available in Tigray before November 2020.

Out of all the atrocities Tigray and Tigrayans have faced, the man-made famine in Tigray is the most imminent threat to survival.  An increasing number of people die from starvation-related deaths in the region each day. The Ethiopian government, along with its military forces and Eritrean troops, has deliberately starved Tigray over the last year. “They set our crops on fire, then they started burning the homes,” said Gebru Habtom, a farmer from Debre Harmaz. “Then they said they’d burn me next, so I fled for my life.” Another farmer said his crops, enough to feed his family of 7 for nearly a year, were also burned by military forces. The systematic destruction of the agricultural system by means of burning farms, looting tools, stealing seeds, and killing livestock has contributed to the grave food insecurity status in Tigray over the last year.

In an extensive account of the dire need for food aid in Tigray, one humanitarian group wrote, “People’s skin color was beginning to change due to hunger; they looked emaciated with protruding skeletal bones.” For many Tigrayans, this is reminiscent of the 1984 famine, when people would collect the bodies of their starved neighbors and family members who died the night before and conduct a mass burial the next day. Decades after one of the worst famine occurrences in the world, Tigray is being starved once again. The death toll of the Tigray famine is increasing exponentially, and food experts predict the worst for the future unless unfettered humanitarian aid is allowed immediately.

In just one year, the Ethiopian government and its allies have made sure to stagnate and reverse the progress Tigray had made in the last 30 years.

In Tigray and among the Tigrayan diaspora, the gift of time has become a curse, as a year of genocide has passed with disappointing, minimal action from the international community. Seventy years ago, the United Nations drafted and enacted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to ensure that people would “never again” face the horror of genocide; however, “never again” has been happening in Tigray over the last year under the watch of the United Nations and other actors. The Ethiopian government has failed to protect its citizens by conducting a genocide fueled by hate speech categorizing Tigrayans as cancers, weeds, and hyenas. Furthermore, the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments have not fulfilled their false promise to the international community to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray in March 2021. War crimes against Tigrayans continue to take place one year into the genocide, as recent airstrikes are indiscriminately dropped on civilians once again in Tigray’s capital city, Mekelle. Actions against the Ethiopian government and its allies must be taken swiftly to mitigate further damages from the Tigray genocide.

Lastly, life for Tigrayans in Tigray and the diaspora has completely transformed since November 2020. In one year of genocide, entire identities have shifted, and Tigrayan communities worldwide have become galvanized once again. The pain and trauma of the last year have become a fortifying catalyst for the mobilization of Tigrayan communities committed to ensuring Tigray will prevail for thousands of more years, as it did for the preceding thousands of years.

As Major General Teklebrhan Woldearegay stated, “We Tigrayans are like a phoenix bird. Resurrection is on its way.”

“A political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable,” George Orwell. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, described war accurately in his acceptance speech. He said, “War is the epitome of hell.” With the instability he has caused in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa, it is clear that his speech was only for media consumption.

Assassinations, Violence, and Chaos

Since the start of his premiership in April 2018, local and international news have covered the widespread killings, instability, and potential fragmentation of the Ethiopian state. To cover the ugly reality that has been coming to light, Abiy hosted  fancy dinners at the palace and spent an untraceable amount of money building recreational parks. To see beyond this thinly-veiled facade and to avoid conspiracy theories, I believe there needs to be an independent and thorough investigation as to who is directly responsible for certain action and inaction. But we can all be sure about one thing, all these atrocities and disinformation about atrocities, seem calculated. 

In June 2018, Abiy threw himself a celebratory rally of sorts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Millions of Ethiopians attended, as did high officials of Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Shortly after the day’s events began, a bomb went off, leaving multiple people wounded by the stampede. Abiy fired the chief of federal police and invited the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to identify who was behind the bombing. We are still waiting for the report from the FBI.

The death of the controversial Nile dam project’s lead engineer Simegnew Bekelle (ethnic Agew) in July 2018 shocked the nation. Simegnew is known to have represented the country’s ambitions and unity. The Ethiopian federal police were quick to conclude that this iconic individual took his own life. Many with connections to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) were arrested on corruption charges, including those in METEC, a state owned arms and machinery industry complex working on the GERD. Later in 2019, Ethiopia announced a reduction in the number of turbines decreasing the capacity of the dam.

In a similar crackdown, Tigrayan former intelligence officers were arrested without charges. The lucky ones were freed after a few months in prison. At this point, it was clear that Abiy was establishing a new order, but unclear if it was for the justice and security of the country or to consolidate power. 

Under the pretext of justice and law enforcement, Abiy took his first shot at the Somali region in August 2018, countless people were killed, lives disrupted, citizens traumatized when Abiy arrested the regional leader Abdi Iley. 

Then, the chaos moved to the Amhara region in June 2019, where Abiy’s administration eliminated prominent Amhara political leaders who opposed Abiy’s political ideologies in a dramatic shootout. On the same day, Ethiopian Chief of General Staff Seare Mekonen and General Gizae Aberra, both ethnic Tigrayans, were murdered. 

The Oromos were also not immune to the new chaos. With the return of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to the political arena following Abiy’s invitation, an anti-Abiy Oromo Liberation Army emerged from the OLF. As a result,  Abiy cut off Wollega in Western Oromia region from telecommunication and launched several airstrikes. Additionally, the irresponsible and unwarranted attempt to apprehend or kill a major Oromo political activist, Jawar Mohammed, resulted in multiple protests, civilian deaths, and destruction. 

The oppression and assassinations did not stop with key politicians who opposed Abiy. National idols, activists, and celebrities who stood for the rights of their people were also not safe.

In June 2020, the unexplained murder of a prominent Oromo activist and singer Hachalu Hundessa led to countless more deaths and conflict across Oromia. Following Hachalu’s death, Abiy’s administration went after other prominent Oromo and Ethiopian leaders who did not agree with his ideologies. The Abiy administration charged Jawar with terrorism and he has been under arrest since June 2020. Countless protests have taken place in Oromia opposing Jawar’s arrest to which the Ethiopian government has responded with violence and communication blackouts. Abiy also arrested Eskinder Nega of Balderas party and many others who did not align with his leadership.

Further, many Ethiopian ethnic groups – Gedio, Gurage, Benshangul Gumuz, Kaffa, Qemant, Agew – were displaced because of internal violence that took place across the country. Many university students were killed because of their ethnicity, Tigrayan university students being the main target across the country. None of these nameless, faceless individuals received justice, just lives taken in the name of “reform” or “a bright future.” Abiy’s administration typically found ways to attribute the violence to Tigrigna and Oromifa speakers.

To this day, news of violence and death continues to come out of most parts of the country; mostly with no ownership or responsibility, just pure propaganda for more war. Those with access to social media share their opinions about the origins of the violence in the country, mostly targeting those they see as enemies of their own ethnic group. 

Abiy’s failure to protect civilians either demonstrates that he is unfit to lead a complicated country like Ethiopia or he is deliberately capitalizing on chaos to gain support as he pursues his authoritarian ambitions. 

By July 2020, all regional governments, except Tigray’s, were replaced by individuals who were deemed to be loyal to Abiy and his administration. Abiy called it weeding out, others called it consolidation of power. Every display of his ignorance, plagiarism and fascism was met with an even louder cheer from his followers. His lies are portrayed as facts. 

Sadly, justice is denied to all of the innocent victims who lost their lives. Ethiopia is left with one man in charge that turns everything upside down, reversing decades worth of development and any potential for political progress. 

Calculated Attacks on Tigray 

Tigray’s elected government, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), was solely blamed for the crimes of the former political front that had ruled Ethiopia for three decades, the EPRDF, of which Abiy Ahmed was a senior member. Local media played their part in dehumanizing Tigrigna speakers, absolving the non-Tigrayan leadership of the EPRDF from any responsibility. The EPRDF’s 27 years of internationally recognized leadership and stability quickly became portrayed as 27 years of pain, suffering and war. I am not defending the TPLF’s role in EPRDF nor denying pain caused by the government; but unless one is being deliberately obtuse, key personnel who are now leading the country with Abiy held some of the highest positions of power within the EPRDF.  

As an ordinary Tigrayan, I used to joke about how the dissolution of the EPRDF would be a great reality show about divorce between power houses who do not want to share the blame for a failed marriage. Sadly, this is no longer a joke I can tell when talking about Ethiopian politics. This also is not the drama I had imagined. The stakeholders are not merciful. This is now more like a horror story, a hunt for the ideologue TPLF and long awaited collective punishment of  Tigrayans.  

The war on Tigray started on November 4, 2020, when the world was distracted by the U.S. elections. A full-on war was quickly labeled as a “law enforcement operation.” Abiy’s lies and fascism skyrocketed. News reports that Eritrean troops were in Ethiopia and murdering civilians in Tigray were denied by the Abiy administration and the Eritrean government. The involvement of Eritrea and its forces complicates the conflict even more, due to unresolved border issues between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Abiy went as far as producing conspiracies for the public, claiming that “Tigrayans are the ones wearing Eritrean uniforms”. The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres took Abiy’s words as facts, without concrete actions that guaranteed the safety of citizens and refugees stuck in the conflict zone. Meanwhile, the Eritrean troops were butchering not only Tigrayans, but also Eritrean refugees.  

Abiy’s “law enforcement operation” deployed every force, including its air force. As the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) advanced inside Tigray, ENDF officers  threatened to shell Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. The ENDF saw Tigrayans as combatants, killing civilians on the way to completing their so-called law enforcement operation. After the federal troops invaded Mekelle, Abiy told the Ethiopian parliament that, “no civilians were hurt in the process;” again, another lie. He stated that the majority of Tigrayans that took refuge in Sudan were combatants,  a lie. Abiy assured Ethiopians and the international community the war would be over in a matter of weeks and all would be forgotten. 

Nothing Abiy claimed about the war could be further than the truth. There is a method to Abiy’s war on Tigray: deny every accusation until they give you no choice; if cornered, admit the facts and fabricate politically acceptable reasons for your actions. 

Such a pattern carried on for months, months of famine, pain and suffering for the people of Tigray. The mass arrests and forced disappearance of Tigrayans in other parts of Ethiopia and the plight of the diaspora continued. Yet, this human suffering at unimaginable levels was met with inaction from the international community.

Meanwhile, Abiy continued the indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes on Tigrayan cities and villages. In June 2021, yet another airstrike hit Togoga, a marketplace, on market day. The Ethiopian government denied the airstrikes at first but later confirmed them, denying the  targeting of civilians. For the ENDF that is deliberately blocking aid from the people, tomatoes were considered weapons. Tigrayans are all seen as combatants, irrespective of age. Targets whether they carry spinach or a machine gun. 

As the genocidal war continued, so did Abiy’s fallacies. He made a mockery of the international community by stating that he declared a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds but blocked humanitarian access to Tigray and later expelled UN officials. To this day, Abiy is launching airstrikes in cities with no military presence. The government first denied and later admitted to the airstrikes. 

Since the war began, genocidal intent has become clearer. The Finnish Foreign Minister and European Union (EU) Special Envoy to Ethiopia Mr. Pekka Haavisto confirmed that Ethiopian officials openly admitted to him that their goal is to exterminate Tigrayans for 100 years. Abiy, his advisors and regional presidents have made dangerous statements vowing that Tigrayans were the enemy and that they need to be erased from history and memory.  

The United Nations has expressed concerns about a potential genocide, but has not acted to protect those who are on the verge of extermination. Some United Nations Ethiopia officials made an absolute joke of the human suffering in Tigray by denying the extent of the atrocities and displayed their impartiality, calling Tigrayans vicious. The minority groups inside Tigray, the Kunama and Irob, are ignored in the face of an existential threat like no other. The atrocities and ethnic cleansing in Western Tigray by Amhara regional special forces is traumatizing and unforgivable. 

For the record, the government of Tigray shared its willingness for peaceful negotiations, but Abiy rejected this offer. The Amhara regional president affirmed his dedication to war by posting he would rather commit suicide than have Western Tigray, currently occupied and annexed by Amhara, returned to Tigray. Tigrayans have no other choice but to fight a more powerful enemy that is trying to subjugate and eliminate them. The only aggressor in this conflict is Abiy and his allies. 

Tigrayans’ View of the War

As the egregious war crimes continue, so too does the circus that is the Ethiopian government. It describes its blunders in the most ironic of ways–with the Ministry of Peace advocating and allocating resources for war, which is textbook Orwellian. In today’s Ethiopia, led by a Nobel Peace Prize Winner Prime Minister, war is peace. Tigrayans now understand the meanings behind the terms the Ethiopian government uses to communicate. Here are a few definitions of key terms as per the government: 

“Sovereignty” – The right to exterminate one’s own citizens in peace, even going as far as involving another country if need be. 

“Law enforcement operation” – a genocidal war on a region that is home to over 7 million citizens by using every resource available in the Horn of Africa (as evidenced by troops being recruited from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia) and also blocking aid. 

“Humanitarian ceasefire” – declared as a result of advances by the TDF and heavy losses in battle, leading to a withdrawal of troops and continued genocide by blocking access to aid, communication services, and transportation.  

“Territorial integrity” – a pretext for genocide, to attack people who fight against state terrorism, even though the Ethiopian constitution allows regions to secede from the federation. 

“Concern, condemn…” – It looks like you are dealing with a difficult situation, we will talk to the Prime Minister to keep it under the radar, and please no influx of refugees into our countries.

“Rebels” –  forces currently fighting against subjugation and extermination. Forces defending the elected government of Tigray.

These are but a few painful definitions that Tigrayans deal with on a daily basis. It spikes my anxiety to know the people of Tigray are fighting against the fascist government of Ethiopia, a power supported by Canada, Eritrea, Somalia, the UAE, Turkey, Israel, China and Iran; each one of these powers with their own agenda. 

It is all by design. Abiy’s “prosperity” party can only preserve itself through chaos. The chaos that has followed his inauguration can only be explained as being strategic. The fueling of a polarization so great that it successfully broke the social fabric of the country. Distracted by consistent chaos, the privatization of corporations like Ethiotelecom and the reduction of turbines for the GERD, METEC, slipped through the cracks and was drowned out in the public’s memory. And if the TPLF an ideologue gets eradicated in the process, then Abiy will be crowned king in front of the world. 

The Ethiopian empire is complicated, it has layers and layers of trauma, revision of history, dehumanization of certain groups at certain times. What a journey it has been for Tigrayans, a reality check on the rules of the game. Winner takes all, it seems. 

It is reminiscent of David and Goliath. The Tigrayans, a minority in Ethiopia, are fighting for their right to administer themselves, for their right to own their history, to own their civilization, and most significantly, they are fighting for their right to live and exist. The world is operating on technicalities, reading between the lines, and human suffering is considered collateral damage to a more divine goal of nation building. “Ethiopia is built on the blood of our ancestors” does not sound as glorious now when you understand this blood was the blood of your ancestors being slaughtered to bend the knee.

One year on, David is still fighting back.

Eternal peace to our brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers taken from us in this horrible war.  

Dedicated to the women of Tigray. 

A magician who turns pain into bravery 

She who turns anger into empathy 

A mother of nature,

A woman of truth, 

A mother to freedom fighters

Ado Tigrawyeti, A warrior