In my 30yrs humanitarian work in brutalised places eg Darfur Rwanda Afghanistan Bosnia, I’ve never come across situation like
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
where military deliberately sets out to occupy/destroy most health facilities. World record in human degradation
"You have been heard", concluded the chair of the Canadian Parliament
@HoCCommittees
Human Rights Committee
#SDIR
after hearings on
#Tigray
,
#Ethiopia
,
#Eritrea
. My full witness statement below on why it is important to recognise the
#genocide
in Tigray
Lifting the state of emergency in
#Ethiopia
may be just smoke and mirrors to create impression of progress for foreign audiences. Humanitarian blockade of
#Tigray
continues and tens of thousands remain in detention under abusive conditions.
#Insulin
and other
#diabetes
meds for
#Tigray
have been blocked by
#Ethiopia
since last summer. Some 25000 diabetics in
#Tigray
are now reaching the end: illustrates that modern genocidal conflict is waged not just by direct violence but indirectly on weak
No one anywhere in the world voluntarily flees their homes and hearths unless there is existentialist threat: the refugees fleeing
#Tigray
and their desperate testimonies of brutality and loss are fundamental evidence of the overwhelming evil that has visited their land
#Ethiopia
“I am 70 years old and I have been displaced three times in my life’.
More than 60,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s
#Tigray
region to seek refuge in
#Sudan
. Via
@BBCAfrica
No surprise as, with some honourable exceptions around the world,
@UN
staff often the first to leave and last to arrive in a conflict crisis as they have low pain threshold. Same is obviously true
@UNEthiopia
which is already broken & unfit for purpose.
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
What a strange endorsement for a representative of the regime
#Ethiopia
that is responsible for using hunger as a weapon of war
#Tigray
. Such remarks just encourage the perps even further
Powerful remarks from Ethiopia’s UN Ambassador
@TayeAtske
at today’s
@UNOCHA
event on the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa:
"There is no greater agony than begging for food."
"We are faced with the reality that we take food from the hungry and give it to the starving."
What type of cowardly men are these to fight their wars thru the bodies of women? What kind of perverted cause can only be advanced by inflicting unspeakable sexual brutality on women? What kind of degraded nation allows the industrial-scale rape of its women?
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
These executions by
#Ethiopia
army in
#Tigray
show war crimes aren’t random tragic happenings in fog of war. They are planned pre-meditated & show strong intent to eliminate specific group on grounds of identity as young
#Tigray
people. Thus they appear genocidal
@nimaelbagir
Investigation
@BBCRealityCheck
indicates
#Tigray
forces aren’t misusing aid trucks as per
#Ethiopia
gov propaganda &
@UNEthiopia
admits that it’s fuel and cash blockade + harassment of Tigrayan drivers that’s preventing trucks to return for convoy duty
A combination of famine and withdrawal of lifesaving medical care is a potent accelerator of the genocide in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
. These end games always start - as with Hitler’s Nazis - by snuffing out most vulnerable first -logical as this requires least effort by killers
The daily horror for care providers!
Kibrom, a medical doctor at Ayder referral hospital
#Tigray
, shows painful regret for not being able to prevent the continuing deaths of his kidney dialysis patients due to lack of medicines & reagents from the siege by fascist
#AbiyAhmed
.
Does sovereignty mean murdering your own people, raping your own wives, sisters, daughters, taking the milk out of the mouths of your own babies, inviting your neighbour in to burn your own fields and pillage your own homes? That is not soveriegnty. It is shame.
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
#Ethiopia
: Deputy PM Says “We`ll not Bow to External Pressures on our Sovereignty” “It’s a testament to the fact that we will never be submissive to the unjust external pressure,”
@DemekeHasen
“Massacre all of them in cruellest way”. This is the purest form of incitement to genocide that I have heard so far in this
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
#Amhara
war. If Ethiopians hiding behind foreign passports doing this, their naturalised countries need to prosecute as they did in
#Syria
Borderless limitless cruelty: Deported from third countries, arbitrarily incarcerated & disappeared by ethnic profiling, abused & subjected to gross inhumanities by
#Ethiopia
authorities - the terrible lot of
#Tigray
people
Of course,
#Ethiopia
’s sense of impunity has been reinforced by recent events as
#Tigray
genocide remains un-addressed & so it’s bound to go for end game by all means it can buy incl drones. But history of wars suggest these are rarely won from the air
I have myself seen the noble work of
#Ethiopia
military
@UN
pecekeeping in many countries bringing peace & protecting vulnerable. So it’s a shame to their uniform & country when hearing of their involvement in the dirty war of ethnic cleansing in
#Tigray
Authentication is very important as done here by
@BBCWorld
during the poisonous information war that seeks to confuse the utterly brutal physical war in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
. Sadly confirms the worst being reported about atrocities being committed
IMPORTANT: Dont downplay
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
happenings by term ethnic cleansing. It has no legal meaning. See this, one of many expert articles. Instead be accurate: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes. Accountability & justice require accuracy!
Many, many, many, many Russians here “contra la guerre” in
#Ukraine
. Unfortunately I have not seen many non-Tigrayan Ethiopians standing up to protest against the genocide in
#Tigray
. Where are they?
Access restrictions by
#Ethiopia
to provide supplies into
#Tigray
are the problem. Nothing else - not war, not insecurity, not lack of resources, but simply the humanitarian blockade that is bringing slow painful death to millions
The irony of this is stunning: UN chief Guterres asks
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
to observe Olympic Truce as the
#GenocideOlympics
in Beijing kick off...and China fuels the war with drones & other supplies.
The world’s worst kept secret is officially out as
@UN
investigations confirm crimes against humanity by
#Ethiopia
and using starvation as weapon of war on
#Tigray
. To me it stinks of
#genocide
, but what’s in a name? We are still far from action even as world leaders meet
#UNGA
Something more nasty may be afoot right now in
#Tigray
. Messages suggest that several busloads of Amhara special forces trained in Eritrea currently en route “vowing” to wipe out Tigrayans in “final war”.This was somewhat previewed by the
#Ethiopia
general who spoke recently.
With involvement of
#Eritrea
forces in
#Tigray
, vicious conflict in
#Ethiopia
isn't just a domestic matter but an internationalised war with war crimes & crimes against humanity. Requires UN Security Council action that China, Russia, India shdnt obstruct
Any credible inquiry into
#Tigray
atrocities musn't just be impartial and independent but seen to be so. Will this really be the case here, if done 'jointly' with
#Ethiopia
institutions that aren't trusted? A compromised inquiry risks adding fuel to fire
The
#Ethiopia
govt was obviously reckless in bombing near Mekelle airport at the same time as having given permission for the UN plane from Addis to land there. Possibly it was also deliberate intimidationto further reduce humanitarian access
#Tigray
MUST WATCH | A forceful rebuke from
@WFPChief
on the situation in
#Tigray
:
▶️"No way that the people are surviving there."
▶️
@WFP
is out of fuel, out of cash, trucks blocked.
▶️
#Ethiopia
bombed
#Mekelle
as
@UN
plane was landing - landing aborted.
Let there be marches in every capital city in the world - outside parliaments and offices of heads of state and government. Let the voices ring out clear and loud to wake tne dead
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
Of course General
#AbiyAhmed
has every right to sacrifice himself in pursuit of his foolish objective but not to sacrifice the children of others
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
All genocides anywhere are connected across time and space - which is not surprising as these are crimes against universal humanity and feed from each other. Yes,
#Ethiopia
gov is following same path in
#Tigray
as Serb authorities did in Bosnia
I dont think world gets it - this is a
#genocidal
campaign by
#Ethiopia
against
#Tigray
. Thus bleating about humanitarian aid completely misses the point that only a forceful response will work because genocides are not stopped any other way
@PamelaFalk
Access is the lifeblood of any humanitarian response.
@WHO
& partners gained access to deliver health care in the most trying of settings in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan & elsewhere.
The int'l community seeks the same in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
.
We need health for peace & peace for health
More & more stories are emerging from
#Ethiopia
outside of
#Tigray
on a progrom targeting Tigrayans - arrests, disappearances, and worse. If true, this would constitute ethnic cleansing - alarming escalation of the intent that appears to be a driver in this genocidal civil war
A ceasefire is meanigless if one side’s boot is on the neck of the other. These
#Tigray
conditions for a mutually agreed ceasefire.
#Ethiopia
should accept as basis for negotiation if it wants the Federation to survive.
@UN
#UNSC
should support
No humanitarian aid trucks entered
#Tigray
since mid December as UN reports record number of civilians killed in airstrikes and famine stalks the land. What happened to the ceasefire efforts?
#Ethiopia
If
#Tigray
forces have taken control of strategically important
#Dessie
, this is a game changer. One hopes that it brings the
#Ethiopia
govt, especially PM
#AbiyAhmed
to his senses. If not, then we may see a considerable widening of this war, with Addis itself at risk
Drones are precision instruments that can be precisely managed by their human controllers. Hence these deliberately targeted killings are crimes against humanity and war crimes on
#Tigray
perpetrated by
#Eritrea
and
#Ethiopia
#AbiyAhmed
&
#Isaias
’ air forces conducted a horrific drone attack in
#AdiDaero
today targeting
#IDPs
from
#WesternTigray
. Dozens of children and elderly killed &many more wounded. What makes this particularly outrageous is the victims had been in IDP shelters in Adiyabo before
Thanks to modern technology & communications + documentation by courageous journos & citizens we live at a time when those committing crimes against humanity cant hide their evil deeds any more. Challenge now is bringing accountability
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
No - the fighters of
#Ethiopia
and
#Eritrea
in
#Tigray
are not animals. Animals don’t rape their own kind, take food out of the mouths of their own young, inflict gratuitous cruelties unknown in nature on their own species. Animals are much better than what humans doing here
Real sincerity test of of any ceasefire is whether
#Ethiopia
allows immediate humanitarian access to
#Tigray
. This is precursor test of faith or confidence in any potential peace talks, not a consequence: many other examples of peace talks show this
After
#genocide
, the sad task of next generation is to build memorials & wonder why and how it happened? This pic is from my return to
#Rwanda
: With medical knowhow I could see from each skull the unique way s/he died amidst the anonymous butchery of thousands.
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
#Tigray
hospitals are deliberately targetted by
#Ethiopia
as part of its war strategy. That that violates all human rights and humanitarian norms and the fundamental essence of all humanity and all civilisation is beyond the ken of these cruellest people
I dont condone violence anywhere but when a people face genocidal extinction, it is their fundamental right to resist in order to live: recognised under customary international law. Actually, it’s a moral duty to resist evil in every way you can
#Tigray
A ceasefire is meanigless if one side’s boot is on the neck of the other. These
#Tigray
conditions for a mutually agreed ceasefire.
#Ethiopia
should accept as basis for negotiation if it wants the Federation to survive.
@UN
#UNSC
should support
BREAKING:
Government of Tigray releases a 7-point condition for ceasefire, among them withdrawal of Amhara from all land seized from Tigray, UN probe into war crimes, restoration of basic services; most importantly, the Ethiopian Constitution as basis for a negotiated settlement
Peace is always the better option but not if it is not a just peace because without that sense of justice, any peace is not sustainable.
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
| The Elephant
I thought
#AbiyAhmed
had already been leading his
#Ethiopia
troops for several months: his great leadership has been so successful in the camapign of rape and pillage in
#Tigray
. Doubtless as great a general as he has been as PM. Emperorship surely beckons
A new week begins but will there be anything new? On past trends, some 5000 more people could die unnecessarily this week in
#Tigray
if humanitarian aid incl food, medicine does not resume promptly. The ink on the papers signed in Pretoria & Nairobi must be dry now
#Ethiopia
Many trolls deny genocidal acts in
#Tigray
war saying the joint UN Human Rights &
#Ethiopia
EHRC didn’t say so. They are mis-representing the flawed report. The so-clled joint investigation was not mandated nor looked into question of genocide. And expressed no conclusion on it
The deliberate, near universal destruction of education facilities as unnecessary war tactic in
#Tigray
pointed towards explicit genocidal intent of
#Ethiopia
aggressors. After all, what’s the point of educating a future generation when the objective was to snuff them out?
It was back in June that people in
#Tigray
were said to be on brink of starvation. Since then, only nominal food aid has gone in, on haphazard basis. The situation must be far worse now even as
#Ethiopia
denies it and resumes its genocidal assaults with
#Eritrea
help.
🚨Our partners on the ground cont sounding the alarm telling the world so called humanitarian access to
#Tigray
is not enough, has never been enough.
@WFP
reports on trucks allowed into region but negligently fails to inform amount of aid actually reaching the ppl.
#EndTigraySiege
Once embarked on a genocidal route- usually seen as a ‘final solution’ (as Hitler said + Al Bashir’s official told me on
#Darfur
), logic is to complete it as half-a-genocide is militarily risky for perps. So
#hatespeech
ramps up as tactic to drive mass killings
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
Genocidal Statements
Amhara Pres,
@AgegnehuT
, on Tv today
"This people (Tigrayans) are an enemy to all Ethiopian people. This people are the enemy of the Oromo people, this people are the enemy of Afar people, they are the enemy of Gambela, they are the enemy of Somali" 1/n
Today is
@UN
Internatl Day of Reflection on 1994
#Rwanda
genocide. I can still smell the thousands of freshly killed bodies I saw at first hand & as below witnessing the million person exodus. But best way to commemorate past victims is to prevent new ones today
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
Necessity and desperation is the mother of invention: How
#Tigray
food experts introduce common plants as food to prevent death by
#Ethiopia
govt induced starvation
It seems
#Ethiopia
promises of
#humanitarian
access to
#Tigray
still not in effect, according to reports. Why the delay? With so many already at threshold of death, every hour that passes with no relief means scores more actually perish. Raising & dashing hope is form of torture
Today’s genocides as in
#Tigray
aren’t done Nazi or Rwanda style. Those who think genocide is typified by mass graves have seriously outdated understanding. They shd refresh their knowledge of Genocide Convention which doesn’t talk of piles of bodies but of types of acts & intent
An urgent arms embargo on
#Ethiopia
is a minimum. Any country or company selling weaponry there or to
#Eritrea
is effectively murdering the people of
#Tigray
themselves
The situation in Tigray province,
#Ethiopia
is worsening every day. Reports of sexual violence, mass killings and the use of child soldiers mean we cannot look away - especially when two million are also facing starvation.
#YesterdayInParliament
I called for an arms embargo.
The pattern of
#Ethiopia
behaviour since beginning of the
#Tigray
war indicates very high degree of pre-meditation, advance planning & orchestration. It also indicates its intention to win regardless of human costs on all sides and, as such, does not bode well for peace-seeking
👇🏾the timing is key. This was as Ethiopian officials were arguing that it was wrong to revoke AGOA trade access, of which Ethiopian Airlines was a key - supposedly civilian - beneficiary.
… with thousands more being killed indirectly through denial of food and medical care. In the past, the world would have acted to stop such gross inhumanities. But now it seems that the world has lost the will to act
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
Having lost many lives, hearts and minds at home by its ill-considered
#Tigray
conduct
#Ethiopia
hires lobbying firm in Washingon DC. It will be surprising if grave crimes against humanity can be cleaned-up thru such a cheap deal at just $45,000/month
Indeed, the
#NobelPeacePrize
for
#AbiyAhmed
was a distraction that blinded the world allowing immense crimes against humanity being committed when we were not looking. Never again to be fooled that way
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
“A lot of [Abiy Ahmed’s] rhetoric around the law and order operation in Tigray was very racialised and veering towards hate speech. We were very slow to pick up on that because this was a Nobel Peace prize winner.”
–
@nimaelbagir
However it is an open secret that the staffing of UN
#Ethiopia
Country Team is either heavily penetrated by host government agents or/and incompetently led. Either way, a betrayal of the United Nations principles and values and not to be trusted
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
will do everything to distract on the global stage away from its horrible crimes in
#Tigray
that are an insult to humanity. It will not stop people of conviction such as
@DrTedros
and bodies eg
@WHO
to honour their mandate to defend humanity
Is the withdrawal of
#Eritrea
troops being verified? Also is there confirmation of
#Ethiopia
claims as per this report that there is full humanitarian access in
#Tigray
?
When trolls say that I only speak on
#Tigray
they must understand that
#genocide
is only being committed against them - not
#Amhara
nor
#Afar
or any other in
#Ethiopia
even as they & all also suffer pain & suffering . My stand is clear: fight if you must but NO NEVER to genocide
The next bloody chapter is about to start
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
#Amhara
civil war: Thousands of troops assemble on highway to front line in bloody conflict
The world’s biggest active war: Appeal for
#Tigray
,
#Ethiopia
by 110+ scholars and researchers from 21+ countries: lifting the humanitarian blockade is a prerequisite for a negotiated peace.
2021 began and ends in genocide as “
#Tigray
got the words and Abiy the weapons”. A year that turned
#Ethiopia
into a beggar, failing, client state of the world’s dictators and tool of
#Eritrea
. But unable to crush the resistance to its immoral policies
Modern genocides aren’t done Nazis style. Cheap, stealthy, smart way to do it is by starving, pillaging, raping, displacing. World then automatically demands humanitarian aid which will come but always little & late-allowing ethnic cleansers to finish job first
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
After months of
#Ethiopia
blocking aid to
#Tigray
, UN says new assessments show "very high proportion of kids under 5 affected by acute malnutrition" & "proportion of Global Acute Malnutrition based on ... Arm Circumference exceeds emergency thresholds"
At least five fold increase in continued mortality in
#Tigray
due to direct & indirect impacts of civil war on top of immediate deaths running into thousands extra. Consequence of way
#Ethiopia
waged war & assistance withheld. Longer term demographic impact considerable
No access to any preventive, curative, palliative healthcare now in
#Tigray
. Mental dysfunction compounds the physical problems and
#COVID19
testing and masks are just a theoretical concept
@HPN4Tigray
Gang rape, Repeated rape, Rape of pregnant women, Rape of grandmothers... in some places hardly any woman left untouched - military elements in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
& from
#Eritrea
continue to descend to most evil depths - as
@UN
Security Council &
@_AfricanUnion
remain paralysed
Even when civil war in
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
ends - a dream at present - its physical and mental legacy will be permanent. At least, it will continue to extract severe human costs - for a long time. In that sense a genocide, even when over, has a huge lengthy tail of impacts. Prepare
Will
#Tigray
get its needs-related share of generous
@USAID
aid even as all
#Ethiopia
suffering need help. What happened to hundreds millions by US and EU donors? Who ate & drank it? Any accountability?
@SamanthaJPower
This statement says nothing about the massive crimes in
#TIgray
nor the unholy alliance with a marauding
#Eritrea
. This is no longer an internal matter for
#Ethiopia
because under international laws, crimes against humanity anywhere become a matter for all countries everywhere
This language being used. Y the
#Ethiopia
PM about rooting out the weed of
#Tigray
is similar to the genocide incitement language of the Hutus against the Tutsi - cockroaches and insecrs - in
#Rwanda
. Perhaps He has made aclose study of that and the
#Darfur
genocide
Ethiopian PM uses genocidal language to describe TPLF. He calls them "invasive weed" that must be destroyed and not allowed to "bud again".
The reality is that war no longer targeted at TPLF, it aims at annihilating Tigrayans
Remember Hutu radio ref to Tutsis as "cockroaches"?
An air strike in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray killed 56 people and wounded at least 30 in a camp for the internally displaced, two aid workers told Reuters on Saturday, citing local authorities and eyewitness accounts
#Tigray
’s mothers, grandmothers, wives, daughters, sisters are the real heroes. Their bodies are the battlefield of the worst inhumanities devised, their suffering is beyond what others can imagine and yet it is in them that, literally, the future is vested. We cant let them down
These are the mothers of Tigray. They have been torn from their homes. They have watched their children killed and brutalized. They are hungry. They are cold. They are traumatized. They are forgotten.
#TigrayMothers
#TigrayCantWait
@PowerUSAID
@19thnews
Re-setting internal boundaries “by default” of contrived force majeure amidst a bitter civil war in
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
is tantamount to administrative ratification of ethnic cleansing. Reminds me of what genocide-indicted Bashir of Sudan also did in
#Darfur
The cheapest and most cowardly way to conduct a war is to attack healthcare, directly and indirectly. It is also often a mark of a genocidal strategy because it makes sense in context of a total elimination strategy.
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
#Ethiopia
govt can bluster & bluff but its extreme brutal policies on
#Tigray
violate every human convention. Obviously it's also bullying & threatening international duty bearers who have the responsibility to speak up. It wont work.
@TheNationalNews
The longer an independent enquiry takes to start investigating crimes against humanity in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
, more the time given to perpetrators to clean up the crime scene i.e. sanitise ground zero & degrade evidence collection. As I saw happen in
#Darfur
"When international journalists are expelled while local members of the press face the threat of arrest, the message is clear:
#Ethiopia
authorities will not tolerate critical journalism or dissenting opinions
#Tigray
@TheEconomist
via
@news24
A just cause is eventually unstoppable. In case of
#Tigray
, just cause is crystal clear: counter genocidal atrocities by
#Ethiopia
#Eritrea
troops. This isn’t about taking partisan sides: in saving humanity there is only one side and a duty to do right
Pity
@UN
chief
@antonioguterres
didn't speak up publicly weeks before as
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
crisis went from bad to worse to catastrophe. Perhaps coz of his re-election interest. Protesting now to return few staff pointless without any new meaningful action
Solutions to
#Ethiopia
#Tigray
civil war require not just disengagement of forces but full and unfettered humanitarian access as well as accountability for the massive crimes against humanity. Otherwise any ceasefire will be temporary - a pause to regroup
"500 cases of rape recorded from just 5 health centres" Likely number much greater. Puzzling why the PM of
#Ethiopia
contracted out the worst of the human rights abuses to inflict on his
#Tigray
citizens to his
#Eritrea
military allies.
@France24_en
With understandable saturation media coverage on
#Ukraine
, good other situations of gross inhumanities not being overlooked
@guardian
. The situation in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
continues to decline rapidly with little prospect of solution except through more war
With
#Tigray
under a blockade that is killing thousands, and various groups excluded, how can a so-called "national dialogue" work? This is an exercise in monstrous cynicism by the
#Ethiopia
government (
@newhumanitarian
)
Turning citizen upon citizen is what Gestapo did in Nazi Germany, KGB did in Soviet Union,
#CCP
does in China, and not surprised if an increasingly police state in
#Ethiopia
is doing also in relation to ethnic
#Tigray
people. After that they will do to other ethnic groups
Kiya Negash, was one of the attendees at today's meeting at the
#Ethiopia
|n Embassy in
#Italy
.
She said “The government should organize
#AddisAbeba
residents to spy, and provide advice on what should be done against ethnic Tigrayan business communities in a Kebelle level.’
Step in now to stop
#Rwanda
-scale genocide in
#Tigray
UN Secretary-General urged. However, it is not
@UN
that is in a position to respond here as also it didn't in Rwanda and Darfur cases till late coz policy and action are decided by Security Council
Of course African Union is biased as shown over past year. It was same when AU tried to mediate some years ago in
#Sudan
on
#Darfur
issue when they supported genocidal President Al Bashir. Mediation good but needs an impartial mediator
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
Most revealing but sad to see this being confirmed here what I know from personal experience of how the realpolitik of the international community works, including esp UN, AU enabling
#Ethiopia
#Eriteria
to pursue genocidal war on
#Tigray
with impunity
Tigrayans at the outside of Gotera temporary concentration camp for Tigrayans. They bring food, water and other necessities for their detained families. They said access is a matter of lottery. You can spend a whole day there and go back home with your food.