The need for more effective pressure on Abiy Ahmed and urgent Humanitarian Aid to Tigray.

Befekadu Simegn (5.12.20)

So many are exposing that Colonel Abiy Ahmed Ali is a cheat. It all starts with the fake certificates of completion of his elementary, secondary and college education and acquiring PHD degree all in 15 years. This cannot by any means be academically valid viewed against educational rules and standards.

He is a liar, and a pathological one at that.

To mention just one or two instances of the very many of his attempts to hoodwink the international community, particularly the Trump Administration, is his sweeping statement to his sham parliament, that his military never ever killed a single civilian in the ongoing war on Tigray. Another lie he told the world recently was that there were only about 30000 people that fled to Sudan and that there were no women and children in this number.

Colonel Abiy started the war on Tigray himself having amassed troops and special forces and militias from neighbouring Amara region well ahead of the November 4 pretext.

He has attempted to conceal from the international community the Maycadra massacre of about a thousand Tigreans in Western Tigray. His planes and heavy guns have been targeting civilians in cities and villages causing thousands of casualties. Colonel Abiy's forces have closed the border with Sudan and are stopping people from crossing the border to Sudan where they can save their lives from Abiy's forces and Amara militias that have occupied Western Tigray, where they are conducting ethnic cleansing that has resulted in the forceful eviction of hundreds of thousands of Tigreans from their localities, thereby creating millions of IDPs.

There is nothing noble in this man to justify a Nobel Prize for Peace. Abiy has rejected all international efforts to help resolve the war on Tigrai through dialogue.

International organizations have exposed the lies and attempts to conceal atrocities from the international community. TV screens outside Ethiopia are showing some of the reality although international news media are still barred from going to Tigray. Some, like Reuters, have been expelled from the country. Others have received warnings for telling the truth. Now it's crystal clear to all how fascistic this man is.

He is only a power monger, not as he claims, a reformer or democrat. There is no semblance of any democratic exercise in Ethiopia. All opposition leaders and independent journalists are in prison. All the local media are forced to sing for Abiy.

Abiy can never work towards democratization of Ethiopia. His only ambition is to become 'king or leader' for life. Abiy is destroying Ethiopia. While the whole country is suffering from Abiy's inhuman and dictatorial rule, our main focus here is on Tigray where Abiy is unleashing a war of aggression whose negative ramifications are not hard to fathom if not abetted.

Should the West, particularly the US, continue to allow this evil man to continue to commit gross human rights violations, carry out massacres and destabilize the Horn of Africa as a whole?

The people of Tigray are a very hardworking and culturally democratic people only committed to exercising their right to administer themselves as a part of a democratic Ethiopia with a multi-national federal arrangement. Tigray has been striving to get rid of its abject poverty and backwardness with the view to promoting national and foreign direct investment and free market economy.

The EPRDF government in which the TPLF played a significant role had greatly improved the socio-economic situation of Ethiopia, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Abiy has been working hard to destroy all the gains of the EPRDF days.

Abiy is emulating his mentor, Eritrea's Esaias Afeworki, turning Ethiopia into another North Korea in the Horn. International media organizations have now understood this wicked fascist and are exposing him. The EU has now understood the true nature of the man and the atrocities Abiy and Esaias are committing in Tigray. They should be stopped and stopped now.

In this connection, the discussions at the UN, in the British Parliament, EU countries and the US Foreign relations Committee and efforts by international media, aid and humanitarian organisations are a welcome initiative. However, the international community should move fast; otherwise, it will soon be too late too little.

Humanitarian aid should reach the millions of refugees and IDPs immediately. There is no time to lose if this humanitarian crisis is to be averted. I hope the international community will not fail the Tigray people. Pressure should be exerted now including strong condemnation and suspension of all aid to the dictators.