I have proudly served my country, Ethiopia, for decades at varying levels of public service. Prior to my current post, it was my great privilege to serve as Consul General of the Ethiopian Mission in Los Angeles. Currently, I am serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Category: War Crimes
global2p: Joint NGO Letter to H.E. Ms. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the US to the UN in New York, on the crisis in Ethiopia
We, the undersigned human rights organizations, would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations in New York. Your appointment comes at a time of unprecedented crisis, with a global pandemic and a multitude of conflict-related crises that demand the attention of the UN Security Council. This includes the worsening situation in Tigray, Ethiopia.
msf: Tigray Crisis: “We are suffering from a lack of medical care
Inside Tigray, Ethiopia, most of the displaced people stay with the host community, while tens of thousands live in informal sites or are still hiding in the bush or the mountains. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation of hundreds of thousands of people who have been deprived of medical care for months and have received little humanitarian assistance.
euobserver: Ethiopia: Time to tell the truth, Ambassador
Ethiopia’s war is being fought not just in a blackout, but also in a fog of lies – and Ethiopia’s envoy to the EU is making matters worse.
Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia’s EU ambassador, recently wrote to EUobserver, accusing Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, of making “erroneous” claims after he visited the region and told press that violence and suffering was “out of control”.
Yahoo: ‘I don’t feel safe’: Survivors allege rape by soldiers in Tigray
Once a day, she says, Ethiopian soldiers would line up outside her cell in a military camp, sometimes as many as 10 men waiting their turn to rape her.
According to Tirhas, the group assaults lasted for two weeks — from the afternoon soldiers picked her up off a street in Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region, until the day they drove her home.
FP: The U.N. Must End the Horrors of Ethiopia’s Tigray War
Recent human rights investigations confirm the atrocities that journalists reported in November. A strong multilateral push can force an Eritrean withdrawal and put the region on the path to peace.
The Guardian: Young men take up arms in northern Ethiopia as atrocities fuel insurgency
Ethiopian troops and their allies in the restive northern province of Tigray face a growing insurgency fuelled by a series of massacres and other violence targeting civilians.
mg: Investigate crimes in Tigray now, or risk a fragmented Ethiopia
I was arrested on the evening of my birthday.
After nearly four months of violent conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the government has admitted that widespread crimes have been committed, including massacres and sexual violence, as well as widespread looting and the destruction of refugee camps. Despite credible reports that members of the Ethiopian armed forces have perpetrated some of this violence, the government has rejected calls for external involvement in investigations, arguing that it is capable of conducting impartial investigations and holding perpetrators to account.
PBS: Thousands flee war-torn Ethiopia as Tigray crisis escalates
More than 60,000 Ethiopians from the northern war-torn Tigray region have fled to Sudan and several thousands are struggling to access basic needs like electricity, water and medical help as the military conflict between the government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front continues to escalate. Stephen Cornish, Director General of Doctors Without Borders-Geneva joins from Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the humanitarian crisis.
dw: Anger and collective trauma scar Ethiopia’s Tigray region
The conflict in Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia, has mostly been unfolding under a media blackout since early November. Thousands of civilians have likely died as a result of the crisis.