BY ADDISALEM MULAT
Third world countries heavily rely on developed nations in their quest to earning financial support, technical assistance, security assistance, and other things of similar kind. As most of the continent of Africa is dependent on developed nations’ aid, the latter have been twisting the hands of the former and breaching their sovereignty.
Threatened to have their aids cut and any other punitive acts , African nations do not want to distract the smooth flow of their administration and lose their power, they accept orders from great powers without further ado. The third-world governments do not challenge donor nations and get their people in hot water serving as rubber stamps now and then.
In a fashion similar, as the great powers know the Achilles heel of third world countries, they do want them to act as per instructions given by them. Strictly speaking, this trend has been in Africa since time immemorial. More often than not, the great powers interfere in the internal affairs of poor countries and back the continent of Africa into a corner.
Likewise, the intervention of third-world countries has been turning the lives of the Africans into a living hell. In fact, fueled by external forces and serving as proxy war, some areas of the continent are turning out to be war-torn zones.
This ugly truth has continued with countries trying to meddle in national, regional and continental affairs of others. Among these are the Nile issue where countries like Ethiopia most notably Trump presidency had tried not only to interfere but to impose treaties in Ethiopia.
However, the latter had stood firm in defiance of foreign pressure and unwanted imposition. Unfortunately, these powerful countries have also continued to infringe with Ethiopia’s sovereignty in the recent law enforcement operation in Tigray state, the concerns of these countries are something which Ethiopia understands though.
It is abundantly clear that Ethiopia did not get itself involved in the operation out of nowhere. Despite the government of Ethiopia made an effort to resolve the problem peacefully, the TPLF officials were not that interested to get back on track.
Among other things, they kept on tirelessly subsidizing and training most of their clique residing in various parts of the nation in a bid to halt the ongoing reform taking place all over the country.
On top of that, the TPLF junta officials continued sowing the seeds of hatred and discord amid the various Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples of Ethiopia. Aside from adopting their electoral law, establishing an electoral commission, and other related aspects, they managed to instigate war in the various parts of the nation utilizing various conspiracies.
To be very clear despite Ethiopia’s effort to resolve all differences by peaceful means, the TPLF officials were not in the position to lend their ears. Furthermore, they left no stone unturned to get back to power by unauthorized means every once in a while. Sad as it may sound, the juntas were hiring, guiding, funding, and equipping their cliques residing in various parts of the country.
Even worse, on 4 November 2020, the TPLF junta clique carried out a premeditated and treasonous attack on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense which was positioned in the Northern Tigray for more than two decades.
Against this backdrop, the Ethiopian National Defense Force embarked on taking the law enforcement operation to demilitarize the TPLF junta, reinstating authentic administration, and putting into effect law and order in Tigray.
However, without understanding the ongoing reality in the Tigray regional state, the United States of America issued a statement that did not take into account the prevailing reality on the ground.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it should be noted that the Ethiopian government thus far is covering 70% of the assistance from its resources, while the remaining 30% is shared by development partners and NGOs. So far, the ongoing relief efforts have reached out to more than three million people. Priority is being given to people in vulnerable situations, particularly for women and children.
As per the statement, with the significant improvement in the security situation in the region, the government has now allowed unfettered access to humanitarian actors. It has also put in place an expedited clearance system to remove the bureaucratic hurdles in securing the necessary permits to operate in the region.
Accordingly, the World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley has confirmed the important progress that has been made in the humanitarian response, while also underscoring the need to do more. The international community needs to respond to his urgent appeal for more resources to scale up the ongoing relief operations, instead of continuously lamenting the dire humanitarian situation in the region.
“However, an attempt by the US to make pronouncements on Ethiopia’s internal affairs and specifically, the reference to the Amhara regional forces redeployment in the above-mentioned press statement is regrettable. It should be clear that such matters are the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian government, which as a sovereign nation, is responsible to deploy the necessary security structures and means available in ensuring the rule of law within all corners of its borders,”
The Ethiopian government, like any government of a sovereign nation, has in place various organizing principles in its Federal and Regional structures which are solely accountable only to the Ethiopian people. The Federal Government is mandated by the Constitution to ensure peace and security against any threats to the Constitutional order of the country. It is in the spirit of this responsibility and holding a nation together from treasonous and divisive forces that the Federal government has been undertaking the rule of law operations in Tigray.
The statement emphasized the fact that Ethiopia has an unwavering commitment to honoring its international responsibilities, despite the destabilizing nature of the challenges that ensued due to the high treason of a criminal clique.
Nevertheless, honoring international obligations and responsibilities should not be deemed by any entity as an invitation to dictate a sovereign nation’s internal affairs. With these being the facts, different media outlets have been getting themselves engaged in disseminating fabricated information in various parts of the world working hand in glove with a wide spectrum of media outlets.
EUobserver came up with a certain article under the title Ethiopia war creating new refugee crisis’, EU envoy warns dated 24 February 2021 which was based on a briefing given by the Finnish foreign minister, Mr. Pekka Haavisto, on the current situation in the Tigray region.
This being the case, Hirut Zemene, ambassador of Ethiopia to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the EU institutions gave a swift response to EUobserver.
She said, “It is regrettable that the statement and facts given by Mr. Pekka Haavisto about the situation in Ethiopia do not reflect the reality on the ground and contain unsubstantiated claims. Therefore, the embassy of Ethiopia would like to set the record straight to the esteemed readership by stating the following facts about the situation in Ethiopia, particularly in Tigray,” she added.
She went on to say, “The Finnish foreign minister, during his visit to Ethiopia in mid-February, was accorded the opportunity to be briefed on the situation in Tigray by relevant higher government officials of Ethiopia, including with the prime minister. The government of Ethiopia was also more than willing to facilitate travel to the region for the foreign minister to have a first-hand account of the situation in the Tigray region,”
However, minister Haavisto showed no interest to travel to the region but instead resorted to visit the refugee camp in neighboring Sudan and extrapolate grossly inadequate information to provide unfounded claims that put unnecessary pressure on the government of Ethiopia.
The assertion made by the minister stating that “you have come to a situation which is militarily and human rights-wise, humanitarian-wise very out of control,” does not reflect, by any means whatsoever, the tangible progress being registered thus far.
She stressed that as has been verified by many including humanitarian aid providers on the ground, the fact is that so far 3.1 million people have benefitted from humanitarian aid distributed in 34 woredas/districts out of 36 in the region.
The minister’s inaccurate narrative also does not go along with the testimonies given by officials from different international humanitarian organizations operating in the region.
The Ethiopian Herald March 5/2021
