BY MENGESHA AMARE AND ADDISALEM MULAT
Nothing is as evil as recruiting children as soldiers and it leads perpetrators to be accused of committing war crime. However, the terrorist TPLF continues doing it. Yes, the dreadful action the group has been pretending ‘A soldier when it attacks and a civilian when attacked,’ has to be well portrayed to the international community and either the US or Europe have to be well informed about the deceitful action the terrorist group is doing.
It should be well recognized that Ethiopia is always fond of working in collaboration with any country of the world so long as the latter follows a win-win approach. Besides, this peace-loving gesture should be entertained by the international community and Ethiopia’s paths to success and prosperity have to be backed by them instead of blindly supporting the terrorist Junta.
The terrorist TPLF has been endeavoring to destabilize the nation in all directions despite materializing their dreams is tantamount to building castles in the air. As the proverb goes, “Empty can gives more sound,” every so often, the terrorist group talk nineteen to the dozen, they bang the drums of war time and time again. They always come up with fabricated stories and void narratives that perplex the international community and their supporters.
It is to be recalled that the government of Ethiopia accepted the unilateral ceasefire taking an increasing proportion of issues revolving in the Tigray region into account. However, the terrorist TPLF junta embarked on beating the drums of war. Unless the junta is ready to accept the ceasefire, it is useless to clap single-handed. The Ethiopian government almost immediately set in motion to timely deliver the humanitarian support in the right place.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed regarding the ceasefire said, “The Government of Ethiopia has shown to the world its good intentions for the wellbeing of the people of the Tigray Region through the recently declared unilateral humanitarian ceasefire. The Federal Government believed that the ceasefire would cease hostilities and give chances to farmers to employ the rainy season while the people get humanitarian assistance without alleged impediments, according to the info obtained from MoFA.
But true to its form, the TPLF chose violence to peace. It has demonstrated that it cannot survive without engaging in conflict. It has continued using child soldiers by numbing them through drugs.
Given the irresponsible actions of the TPLF that poses a great danger to the sovereignty of the country, the Federal Government, through mobilizing the people of Ethiopia, is determined to curb this threat. We will facilitate the humanitarian works and defend the country from the joint attacks by its domestic and external forces, which are galloping TPLF as Trojan horse.
The TPLF junta was lamenting that the Government of Ethiopia had been using starvation as a weapon of war. However, when the Federal Government declared the unilateral ceasefire, the Junta soon forgets the famine accusations and intensified its military activities.
Presenting factors stall the unilateral ceasefire, State Minister, Ambassador Redwan Hussein said, “It is well known that the Federal government was forced to engage in a Law enforcement operation in the northern part of our Country over the last eight months. As a result, we incurred significant loss of our citizens, resources and damage to our country’s reputation.”
Taking the social, political, and humanitarian crisis into consideration and targeting at avoiding further damages, the Government has declared a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire and withdrew its Federal Army from the conflict area.
The Declaration of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire and the action taken by the Federal Government was also a response at least for Aid agencies that refused to be checked, accompanied, or followed and wished to deliver aid supplies by themselves, for those who have been demanding and pressurizing us to remove checkpoints so that the aid convoys should not be checked as to what or who they are delivering, for those who reiterated that we curb the conflict so that they can easily deliver aid to the impacted areas, as well ensure that the farmers can farm before the farming season is over, for those who threatened and accused us of using famine as a weapon unless we ceasefire
Whatsoever their wishes, objectives and reasons, for those who have been amplifying the aforementioned points, we do believe that the declaration of the Unilateral Humanitarian Ceasefire was a critical and appropriate response.
In the aftermath of our government’s unilateral humanitarian ceasefire, we have observed the following issues and tendencies in the international response. We were able to observe and confirm the scope and magnitude, connectedness and continuity of negative tendencies in the international response.
Following the decision of the government’s withdrawal of its force, the provocative and cynical attacks to prolong the conflict on the ENDF was barely condemned by organizations or bodies, who have been demanding us to stop the conflict, create peace, give a break to the people and deliver aid.
We believe that attempts to circumvent and sabotage the ceasefire by the TPLF would have been condemned by these agencies and organizations had they genuinely been concerned about the humanitarian crisis.
Some organizations have wasted no time to discredit, minimize and undermine the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire decision of the Ethiopian government.
Instead of appreciating the government’s decision of the ceasefire, Western media and some individuals in a power position used their platforms to belittle the process.
On the other hand, when the other party, TPLF, was using child soldiers blatantly, a crime against humanity, the international community and western media completely ignored it. TPLF’s use of children as soldiers should have been condemned in the strongest term possible. Instead of holding TPLF accountable, some of the western mainstream media justified the use of child soldiers as a means to consolidate military.
Nowadays, as learnt from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the past three days, TPLF committed terrorist attacks, blocking the road on 189 trucks carrying food and non-food aid to Tigray via Afar where the vehicles are forced to stop. The attacks took place in Ferentisu Yalo Woreda, zone four of the Afar Region bombarding the road with heavy artillery. Following the ceasefire, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission announced that it has been providing humanitarian assistance for Tigray region.
Some 60 trucks carrying food and non-food items were crossing Afar region to deliver the much needed humanitarian support to Tigray when heavy shelling by the terrorist group TPLF stopped them. Although checkpoints at Serdo and Mille are being readied for inspection to ensure that items transported to Tigray region are food and non-food items, the terrorist group TPLF bombarded members of Zone Four Afar police and special force as well as the community with heavy artillery vowing to block humanitarian assistance from reaching Tigray, sources revealed. As a result, the checkpoint at Serdo is closed.
According to Aljazeera, Tigrayan fighters this week launched a new offensive along the southern border area with the Amhara region to retake territory they say they was seized by Amhara fighters during the ongoing war in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray.
Al Jazeera spoke to Fanta Mandefro, deputy president of the Amhara region, who said additional Amhara Special Forces had been deployed to the borders to defend their land and people.
The Amhara regional government is defending its people against the aggression of terrorist TPLF, which has opened an aggressive war that is targeting civilians with the objective of ethnic cleansing.
In response to this, the Amhara regional government is defending its people and calling upon people to defend themselves in their own villages to stand against the aggressor, not to be victim of such atrocities. The unilateral ceasefire is not broken but that does not mean our regional government will sit simply when our people are displaced and killed. We have never gone a single inch into the Tigray side. We are just defending our own land which was forcefully taken in a bid to expanding territory.
We will defend our people. That’s all. We won’t move our troops an inch into Tigray territory. They have been the subject of mistreatment and inhuman treatment. It should also be the responsibility of the international community to protect civilians from atrocities and children from being recruited as soldiers—it is purely a war crime.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JULY 23/2021
