BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
ADDIS ABABA – The sheer lies about Ethiopia with regard to the northern conflict are truly eye-opening experience for the Horn of Africa (HoA), according to an independent journalist.
Speaking to international media, Ethiopian-American independent journalist Hermela Aregawi stated that all the unfounded allegations of mass killing, rape, and others against the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments and their soldiers have been done overnight with no access to the Tigray state.
She added that, in many cases, their sources are Terrorist TPLF activists in the Diaspora as well as the main T-TPLF leaders like Getachew Reda. And also, the way the conflict has been handled by some international organizations, including media outlets and UN agencies is eye-opening for Ethiopians, Eritreans, including the people in the region.
The fake news that has been circulated by these mainstream media is inaccurate, malicious, and intentional, according to Hermela. She also indicated that the Horn has about 200 million people just in that land alone and then a lot of people that live all over the United States and elsewhere. Many people including her have the perception
that the international media outlets were at least trying to tell the truth about different conflicts around the world. “But there were exceptions to that in terms of what we already knew like what happened in Iraq, Libya, and other countries,” she added.
The journalist restated that, in November 2020, the T-TPLF attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) which was in the Tigray, and the group took a lot of arms and killed a lot of soldiers. However, she added, a lot of the mainstream media outlets obscured the fact that the Ethiopian government took an offensive, which was a defensive response to that brutal attack.
As to her, all the international media outlets that have no reporters that work for these outlets are all saying something that is not completely true. “It is hard to believe that. That is how the world works if you were not aware of it before.”
She further explained that when the war started, the mainstream media was saying that the Ethiopian government was trying to kill off ethnic-Tigrayans which did not line up with her experience and with the experience of a lot of people including those who eventually became T-TPLF activists.
The terrorist group was ousted from power in 2018 after six years of the struggle of the people, and the officials of the group had retreated to Tigray where they had originated and started galvanizing the people saying ‘we are going to war for the survival of Tigray’, she also indicated.
However, Hermela added, the people of Tigray have been largely poor, and officials of the T-TPLF never cared about these people where they originated from, but now they felt the need to get back into power.
The Ethiopian Herald October 2/2022
