The Scramble for Tigray - Will Ethiopia Revive

Berhanu Beqele                   December 10, 2020

It has been 35 days since an ugly war of attrition and genocide has been leashed against the people of Tigray.  Anyone that tries to justify that this is a war to bring ‘criminals’ to justice is either an accomplice to the atrocities or a completely uninformed or misinformed class of people bordering idiocy. Otherwise, how is it that a country that boasts one of the strongest militaries in Africa uses so much arsenal and over half a million soldiers to capture at most thirty “criminals”? If anyone guessed that this war would have taken the current shape it took, he or she must be a genius.  For the vast majority of us, we never dreamt that a ‘central’ government would wage a fascistic war of annihilation on its own people.  Now it has become apparent that these evil men with a historic parallel to Hitler are out to destroy this historic region called Tigray. Thus, it has become clear to Tigrians that their liberation from forces that have congregated to wipe them out can only be guaranteed through a persistent struggle.  A long-drawn war in all its forms in waiting. The scramble for Tigray has already started.  The Eritrean mafias are setting up their own ‘colonial’ administrators from the North, The Amhara expansionists and fascists are doing same from South and West.  People are being hacked and killed left and right.  The Scramble for Tigray has started in earnest. I expect that Abiy Ahmed and Isaias, whose common factor is a deep-seated hatred on the people of Tigray for the earlier and TPLF for the later, to divide Tigray into smaller parts and rearrange the region to suite their interest.  Isaias will claim the northern part of Tigray and Abiy will deliver the western part and southern part of Tigray as a war booty to the Amhara chauvinists who are myopic and incorrigibly hateful. For this mad man Abiy, war has become a video game.  He seems to gloat at the death of Tigrians, destruction of Tigray resources, and the incarceration of Tigrians wherever they are. He will sacrifice poor, unsuspecting Ethiopians as long as he is in the position of power. My hope is the rest of Ethiopians, especially the Amhara’s realize, sooner than later, that they are being used as sacrificial lambs by Abiy Ahmed, the psychopath. He has fulfilled one of his long-held dream of destroying the historic relationship of Tigrians and Amharas and instilled enmity and suspicion between them. The Amharas who are devoid of rational leaders have been forced to enter into a never-ending war with one of their historic allies.  Hate mongers are having the field day. .  Defeat is something that the people of Tigray are not in a position to contemplate.  This war must be won by the people who are currently under the yoke of this fascistic group. These are emotional times for us Tigrians.  Deep down I am hurt.  Even at this time when my people are at the verge of destruction, I am putting a brave face and refuse to succumb to hate.  But I empathize with many of Tigrian compatriots who are consumed by rage due to what is happening in Tigray. I have never heard of a country that denies financial services by freezing the bank accounts of 8 to 10 million citizens. Millions of people are under the specter of looming hunger due to this action. I know of no country that shuts off any communication system and electricity to particular ethnic group of a given country.  I have never heard of a country that forbids its citizens not to travel outside the country solely based on ethnicity.  Of course, no one can give me an example of a country that purges its military and federal institutions a member of a given ethnic group. This is the current state of Ethiopia.  It is very important the world becomes aware of this situation and intervene to save the country from further disintegration.  Those who are now in power, a group that is being propelled by hateful Amhara political elites must be checked.  It (the elite) is obsessively blinded by its hate towards Tigrians that survival of the country as a united entity has become a second choice to it. How could one in his right mind, not withstanding the fact that over 2.7 million Tigrians voted in the current leaders , accept the fact that the whole population be subject to collective punishment so that 10 or 20 people are arrested?