BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
Last week was a turning point in the ongoing crisis in north Ethiopia, triggered by the warmongering terrorist rebel group, TPLF. It was the time when the Ethiopian armed forces began making significant progress in their defensive endeavors to foil the barbaric aggressions by the TPLF rebels invading the Amhara and Afar regions. The gallant Ethiopian forces freed and secured such strategic locations as Gashena and Deber-zebit, which have considerable military significance.
Interestingly enough, a few hours after the news of the defensive victory of the Ethiopian forces began trickling in, the unrelenting noises from overseas calling for immediate ceasefire and negotiation started gaining volume. On the same day, we heard statements from the UN Secretary-General, the Russian government, and USAID expressing concern over the crisis in northern Ethiopia. Even though their timing is concurrent, the calls have different tones and suggestions.
The first statement was that of the USAID chief. It is usual for Americans and the West to make big noise, whenever the Ethiopian forces get the upper hand on the battlefields. The accusation made by Samantha Power against Ethiopian authorities stands totally contrary to the reality on the ground. In her Twitter message she wrote on 20 august last week, she made no mention of TPLF, the party that caused the bottle in the sufficient delivery of food aid to the Tigray people
TPLF’s disinformation campaign run by a well-greased network around the globe is now no more a surprising fact to the international community. So does the fact that several aid agencies active in the Tigray region are deliberate supporters of the TPLF rebels and/or mislead by the disinformation campaign of the junta to make erroneous impressions, reports, and statements on the situation in North Ethiopia. USAID, one of the aid agencies that are the avid cheerleaders of TPLF, has accused the Ethiopian government of blocking the supply of humanitarian aid to the needy in the Tigray region.
However, the reality on the ground proves TPLF is the responsible party causing the impediment of humanitarian supplies to the region, as it wages atrocious violence against the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. Apart from the loss of innocent lives, pillage, and destruction of properties, the terrorist acts of TPLF have impeded smooth and safe transportation aid from Djibouti port to Tigray via the Afar region, which is now one of the war fronts created by TPLF.
If TPLF really cared about the people of Tigray, it would have respected the unilateral ceasefire declared by the federal government and could have focused on expediting the delivery of food to the needy. Instead of this, the warmonger terrorists did not waste time to force the hungry Tigray people to be its tools of the violence it is committing against the Amhara and Afar people. The warmongering actions of TPLF did not only create an impediment to the safe passage of humanitarian aid. It also caused much of the farmland in Tigray to be left uncultivated in the rainy season.
A satellite image taken by a European firm confirms that most of the farm fields in Tigray are devoid of crop cover. The Tigrayan farmers are being forced by TPLF to the war fields, instead of staying at the farm field. The majority of Tigray people will continue to be expectant food handouts for at least until the next one and a half years. The aid agencies, including the USAID, know all this chain of problems and who is behind them, but they choose to ignore it.
The seizure of USAID delivered food parcels inside the pocket of TPLF fighters captured by the Ethiopian Forces raises serious questions that Samantha Power needs to address. It may be out of shame and guilt that she wrote a tweet on Aug 22 that directly points to TPLF: “The US continues to call on the TPLF to de-escalate, withdraw from Afar and Amhara, and negotiate. The TPLF’s offensive will only prolong this conflict and the suffering of the Ethiopian people.”
Almost a week after the news unraveling the hidden actions of the USAID, its officials had admitted that the food aid indeed reached the TPLF rebels, but they did not want to take the responsibility. Nevertheless, the serious questions still remained unanswered. Why did USAID fail to announce earlier that its food aid is diverted to the TPLF fighters? Why did USAID stay quiet about the issue, the whistle blown by the Ethiopian media? How could a food parcel donated by USAID has been diverted from its target, the hungry Tigrayan children, and end up being a ration for invading TPLF rebels?
After all, what is the point of planning to send up to 100 aid delivery trucks a day to Tigray, if the limited aid supply is not effectively reaching the hungry and malnourished? It is like trying to fill a leaking tanker. How sad is it the food supplied by a humanitarian organization end up being a ration for a rebel group that kills and displaces civilians from their homes and villages? So Samantha and her colleagues have a lot of explaining to do.
The other big noise that we are hearing since last week concerning the Ethiopian situation comes from the UN. After staying silent as the dead during the last one and half months, when TPLF invaders committed war crimes and genocides in Galicoma, Agamsa, Debra- tabor, and other places, the UN Chief suddenly broke his silence last week to lecture us about the need for an immediate ceasefire.
He did not bother to acknowledge the unilateral ceasefire initiative made by the Ethiopian government several weeks earlier. He did not condemn the barbaric savagery of TPLF against unarmed civilians, including women and children. He did not send his condolences to the grief-stricken pregnant woman, who lost her husband and her elder son, and now sleeping in a makeshift tent in Dessie with her two children after she fled from her home in Woldia in fear of the gang rapist TPLF invaders. He did not imagine the heartache of a man who instantly lost five members of his immediate family when the TPLF mortar shell fell on his house in Debre-Tabor town.
The UN is making an impractical proposal for Ethiopians to sit for peace talks with a terrorist group that does not understand the ‘language of peace’, and is determined to destroy Ethiopia. Did the UN ever urge the Western powers to negotiate with al-Qaida and ISIS? Did the UN or US ever urge the Somalian government to sit at the round table with the al-Shabaab? TPLF has proved itself the Ethiopian equivalent of al- Qaida. As one analyst puts it, the TPLF has already conducted the Ethiopian 9/11 on Nov 4, 2020, when it killed thousands of ENDF soldiers stationed in the North Command. And everybody knows how ISIS and al-Qaida have been dealt with.
The peace call of the UN Chief came as a prelude to the UN Security Council meeting initiated by the western countries to discuss the Ethiopian situation for the eighth time. Whatever the outcome of the council meeting may be, the ultimate determiners of Ethiopia’s fate are the Ethiopian people themselves. The foreign powers may help or disturb Ethiopians efforts to defend their country and save it from survival threats. But they will never be the determining factor. History has taught Ethiopians not to expect justice from the so-called international community. All they depend on are standing united under the national flag, determination to fight for sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the nation until the bitter end.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD AUGUST 26/ 2021
