Addis Abeba, November 16/2020 – The Benishangul Gumuz regional state peace and security bureau head Gashu Dugaz said some 20 people who are alleged to have committed the killing of at least 34 civilians over the weekend were “eliminated” after a coordinated military measure between the federal army, the federal police and regional security forces.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia Insider reported that three more people were injured in a fresh attack this morning mounted by what the regional communication bureau said was “anti-peace elements.”

On Saturday Nov. 14, the regional state said civilians were killed after attacks by armed men in Dibate district of Metekel Zone in an attack carried out on a public transport vehicle on the Wombera-Bulen-Dibate-Chagni route. The regional state communication bureau alleged that the attack were perpetrated by “anti-peace agents backed by TPLF.” Among the injured include Dibate Wereda administrator Debeli Belgafo.

In a statement released yesterday, Danile Bekele (PhD), Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said: “The latest attack is a grim addition to the human cost which we bear collectively.”

The EHRC further said it was “saddened to learn of gruesome attack on passenger bus heading from Wonbera to Chagni in Benishangul-Gumuz on Nov 14.”

According to the rights Commission the “estimated number of casualties, currently at 34, is likely to rise as there are reports of similar attacks in other woredas (Wubgish, Yamp and Kidoh) of the region and of persons who have fled to seek shelter.”

Several other reports indicate that the victims of the attack on the bus are mainly members of the Oromo and Sinasha communities living in the area.

According to the BBC, “Police in the state said the 16 attackers were “messengers” of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – the main political organization in the country’s Tigray region. But they didn’t present any evidence linking the bus attackers to TPLF.

AS

The post Authorities in Benishangul Gumuz say culprits who killed at least 34 civilians in ‘gruesome’ bus attack “eliminated”; fresh attack leaves three more injured. Benishangul Gumuz regional state appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

Alemayehu G. Mariam
November 16, 2020

“The very idea of negotiating with the TPLF is simply laughable. It is like hyenas negotiating with antelopes about dinner. Zero sum negotiation game. Total win for hyenas, total loss for antelopes.

As I argued in my 2009 commentary, for the TPLF negotiation means playing a “zero-sum game”. They win all the time, everybody else loses every time. They have two negotiating strategies: “Might makes right. My way or the highway, jail or death!”

The T-TPLF will negotiate in earnest only and only if they are guaranteed they will remain the only dominant political and economic force in the country.”  Alemayehu G Mariam

Author’s Note: This commentary is an excerpt from my July 2, 2017 commentary “The Zero-Sum Negotiation Games of the TPLF”.

In that commentary, I used principles of “game theory” to examine the negotiation of strategies of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in a historical perspective and the futility and impossibility of negotiating with the TPLF. Negotiating with the TPLF is negotiating with the Devil. All who have negotiated with the TPLF have lost their lives, liberties and properties.

Those who urge PM Abiy Ahmed to negotiate with the TPLF should consider the evidence I presented in July 2017.

An excellent summary of that commentary in Amharic has been prepared by FetaDaily, forward clip to 7min. 56 seconds.

I invite my readers to read the full commentaries here and here.

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Excerpt

…..

I see the T-TPLF on its last legs.

I am reminded of a poignant remark by Teddy Roosevelt in a speech (a worthwhile read) he gave on Labor Day in 1903: “The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.”

So, it has rung for the TPLF and its special class of apartheid government beneficiaries.

In November 2020, it is apocalypse, doomsday now for the TPLF.

In the lyrics of my song for the TPLF:

TPLF, the end is near
It is simple and clear
You have a choice to surrender
Or go six feet under!

 The “zero-sum” negotiating strategy of the TPLF

Fighting in the bush decades ago, the TPLF leaders perfected their negotiation strategy: Weaponize “negotiations” to annihilate your enemies.

In the bush, the TPLF would invite leaders of opposition elements, dissidents within its ranks and others it suspects of disloyalty to a “negotiation”, wine and dine them and literally slaughter them overnight.

On November 4, 2020, that is exactly what the TPLF did to the leadership of the Ethiopian Northern Command. They invited them to a discussion over dinner and overnight slaughtered them.

Hours before the slaughter in the Northern Command headquarters, TPLF junta leader Debretsion Gebremichael negotiated with PM Abiy Ahmed to send money to the region. When PM Abiy airlifted 1.2 billion birr to Makele Airport, Debretsion had already launched is attack.

Few seem to appreciate the TPLF used “negotiations” to seize and remain in power for 27 years!

In 1991, the TPLF used “negotiations” in London to swiftly install itself in power.

What a “negotiation that was!

The TPLF hoodwinked Herman Cohen, then Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, at the negotiating table into announcing “the rebel leadership has assured us that they plan for a broadly based provisional government leading to a democratic constitution for Ethiopia.”

That plan proved to be an apartheid state totally dominated by the TPLF.

For decades, every time the TPLF found its rear end in the ringer and boxed in, it cries out, “We are ready to negotiate! We are ready to talk!”

For the TPLF, negotiations, discussions, elections, etc. are all games.

Deadly games.

Zero-sum games.

That means the TPLF always wins 100 percent of the time and everybody else loses 100 percent of the time.

Here is the evidence.

In 1984-85, when Tigray was undergoing severe famine, TPLF set up a scam organization called “Relief Society of Tigray” (REST) and negotiated with international NGOs for food distribution. TPLF leaders diverted $95 million of that aid for weapons purchases and other activities unrelated to famine relief.

In 2000, the TPLF negotiated to settle the dispute over Badme in a “final and binding” international arbitration. When Badme was awarded to Eritrea, the TPLF reneged and demanded further negotiations.

In 2006, TPLF leader Zenawi negotiated in “a hand shake” with US General John Abizaid to wipe out Al Shabaab in Somalia. That handshake led to billons of dollars in U.S. military and other aid to Ethiopia. What is less known is the fact that Zenawi had also negotiated with Al Shabaab to continue minimal military presence so that Zenawi could use them as a boogeyman to milk the U.S. aid cash cow.

In 2008, in “elections for regional parliaments”, the TPLF won 1,903 of 1,904 seats. The TPLF won by 99.999 percent.

In May 2010, the TPLF “won” all the seats in “parliament” by 99.6 percent.

In May 2015, the TPLF “won” 100 percent of the seats in “parliament”.

Such total and complete zero-sum electoral “victory” occurred in a country where there are 79 registered opposition political parties.

In August 2007, the late TPLF leader Meles Zenawi “pardoned” 38 opposition political leaders to “give impetus to political negotiations in Ethiopia after more than two years’ crisis and stalemate.”

In October 2007,  “in spite of continuing negotiations between the government and the opposition, the political environment continued to deteriorate.”

In the 2007 “negotiations”, the TPLF had a double zero-sum game “win”. It validated the 38 railroaded opposition leaders were actually criminals because they accepted a “pardon”, and 2) forced them publicly to “admit” crimes they never committed to receive a pardon.

In 2009, the T-TPLF engaged in “negotiations” for the release of political prisoners, only after the political prisoners “had signed a paper admitting they tried to overthrow the government in an ‘unconstitutional’ manner.” Double zero-sum game win for the TPLF again.

In 2009, Zenawi led the African climate change negotiators to the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen and delivered a zero-sum ultimatum: Fork over $40 billion or we will “delegitimize you!”,  Zenawi blustered. They ignored him.

In 2010, the TPLF negotiated for the release of Birtukan Midekssa, the first female Ethiopian political party leader and current head of the Ethiopian Elections Commission, after she “apologized for denying being granted a pardon in 2007” and “imploring the prime minister to grant her a second pardon for her to be able to see her aging mother and child.”

In 2010, the TPLF engaged donors in “negotiations” to allow them to send election observers and called their election report “useless trash that deserves to be thrown in the garbage”.

In 2013,  TPLF head honcho and current leader of the attack on the Northern Command Debretsion Gebremichael said, “Ethnic federalism is equality. TPLF supremacy is nothing but a conspiracy. To say Tigreans are supreme (everywhere), that is not the reality. That is a zero. Zero.”

True. It is a zero.

It’s all a zero-sum game for the TPLF played in an apartheid state.

In 2016, after the Addis Ababa Masterplan faced popular opposition, the TPLF said they wanted to negotiate the plan. Not a chance.

In 2016, when the first state of emergency failed to control the popular uprising,  the TPLF again said they want to negotiate. No one was interested.

In October 2016, the TPLF showed their entire negotiating strategy when they massacred 800 plus people celebrating the Irrecha Festival in the town of Bishoftu, some 45 miles southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.

In 2017, when the second state of emergency failed to control the popular uprising, the TPLF pleaded they want to negotiate. Too late.

Whenever the TPLF talked about negotiations, it also always tightened its political grip and continued its massacres, mass arrests, mass detentions and mass torture of innocent citizens.

Why does the TPLF always talk about negotiations when it faces stiff opposition?

For the TPLF, negotiation is an elaborate game. It is political drama as well as a deadly strategy that has enabled them to destroy their opposition time and again.

The TPLF has weaponized the word “negotiation” to seize power and keep it for 27 years.

The TPLF has used negotiations as a strategy to:

divide and make a separate peace with Oromos, Amharas and other ethnic groups to keep itself in power.

wage a war of attrition against their opposition.

neutralize and delegitimize their opposition and publicly make them their lackeys.

stall for time until they can cook up new tricks.

hoodwink the donors and loaners because the word “negotiation” perks up their ears.

blunt legislative efforts in the U.S. House and Senate aimed at sanctioning them.

bring the international community and opinion to their side.

Clean up their international image put on a kinder and gentler face and conceal their blood-soaked hands in a white glove.
Remain in power for one more day. One more week. One more month. One more year.

And NOW, to weasle their way out of criminal prosecution for treason, crimes against humanity, war crimes and a host of other charges.

The TPLF does not believe in a non-zero-sum, win game in negotiations. They must win 100 percent of the time.

They sneer at good faith bargaining, negotiation, compromise and conciliation. Negotiation for the TPLF is about one-upmanship. It is about hoodwinking and crushing their adversaries.

The real problem with the TPLF is that they negotiate with zero-think mindset.

They see anyone else winning in any matter small or big (political or economic) as a devastating loss to them.

They have a mindset of losers with a deeply ingrained conviction in their collective psyche that political opponents committed to democratic principles are mortal enemies, not merely political competitors.

TPLF’s 11 doctrines of negotiations 

Negotiate without negotiating. For the TPLF, negotiations are essentially elaborate public relations games. That means window dressing negotiations and going through the motions of negotiations. The TPLF’s cardinal negotiation tactic is: Negotiate without negotiating and bargain without bargaining.  In other words, pretend to be negotiating and bargaining but in the end take everything and give nothing.

NEVER engage in real negotiations, only make-believe ones. For the TPLF, negotiation is a game of attrition and a process of wearing down the opponent and frustrating them to walk away. Then the TPLF will blame the breakdown of negotiations on them.

Negotiations should be used to bait and trap. The TPLF’s history of negotiations shows that it likes to use a prolonged process of enticing, delaying and stringing along the opposition until the moment the trap is sprung on them. The TPLF uses negotiations as one would bait a mouse with cheese into the trap. The TPLF will make all sorts of cheesy promises, commitments, assurances, etc., to attract the opposition to the “negotiating table” only to slam shut the trap on them in the end.

Throw crumbs at the opposition and watch them fight like dogs. In negotiations, the TPLF will use ethnic politics, sectarianism, regionalism, etc. to divide and conquer their opposition. The TPLF will throw crumbs to the various ethnic opposition leaders and watch them fight and tear each other up. It is like the master throwing a bone to a bunch of hungry dogs.

Negotiations are weapons of mass public distraction and confusion. By talking “negotiations”, the TPLF hopes to create an atmosphere of hope and optimism of a negotiated settlement of disputes. They use negotiations to hoodwink the people into believing that this time it is for real and will make the hard choices and make things right. The people’s hopes are always dashed.

Negotiations are for suckers (fools). The TPLF slicksters believe they can outsmart, outmaneuver, out-trick and out-finesse their opposition any day of the week. They believe they are invincible. They think of their opposition as a bunch of cowards, fools and idiots. Susan Rice captured the essential attitude of the T-TPLF leaders in her eulogy of Meles in 2012 when she said Meles “liked to call” his opposition “fools or idiots”. The TPLF guys believe that they are negotiating with fools and idiots when they sit down with the opposition.

Negotiation is a competitive blood sport. For the TPLF, that means take the easy way first to bring pressure on the opposition to negotiate a deal.  If the “opposition” wants to play hardball, offer them rewards, money, jobs, business opportunities. If that does not work, threaten or slam them in jail for violating the “anti-terrorism law”.  Alternatively, torture and kill them.

The purpose of negotiation is to cut down your opponent, not to cut a deal. That is the essence of the TPLF’s zero-sum game. The late Zenawi once said of the opposition, “We will crush them with our full force; they will all vegetate like Birtukan (Midekssa) in jail forever.” The T-TPLF will crush anyone who is foolish enough to sit down and negotiate with them.

In negotiations, use them and lose them. The TPLF will use and lose their opposition as soon as they feel assured the opposition has served their purposes and their grip on power is not threatened.

Always, always negotiate from a position of strength and victory is assured. For the past 27 years, the TPLF has been able to do that because controlled and owned everything: the political process, the economy, the civil service and the military.

What is there for the Ethiopian government to negotiate with the TPLF now?

Knowing the history of TPLF “negotiations”, what is there for the Ethiopian Government to negotiate?

The TPLF now wants to negotiate for one and only one purpose: Cut a deal that will absolve them of all the crimes against humanity and war crimes they have committed since they came to power in 1991.

The TPLF knows they are militarily defeated.

They are losing battles on all fronts. Ethiopian Defense Forces are tracking down and hunting them down. TPLF special forces and dragooned militia are fleeing the battle space.

PM Abiy Ahmed has set three preconditions for negotiations with the TPLF: 1) Release all hostages including federal troops, abducted citizens and other illegally held prisoners. 2) Turn over all weapons and implements of stolen from the Northern Command. 3) Apprehension and arrest of the junta leadership, some of whom decorate the “Most Wanted” list, and their supporters who are presently fugitives from justice.

Only a Faustian bargain to be gained in a TPLF negotiation

My views on negotiations and bargaining with the TPLF are well-known.

In my 2009 commentary, “Loan Sharking Ethiopia’s Future!”, I warned, “Don’t make a pact with the TPLF devil!”

I expounded on that theme in my August 2016 commentary, “Ethiopia: Beyond the Politics of Hate”. I reminded, “It is unfair to condemn the ordinary people of Tigray for the sins and transgressions of the TPLF Devils.”

The T-TPLF is willing, able and ready to make a Faustian deal with anyone, at any time and in any place!

Goethe’s Dr. Faust made a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for wealth, success, worldly pleasures and power.

The TPLF will also promise and deliver wealth, success, worldly pleasures and power to anyone, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc., who is prepared to sell his soul.

The TPLF does not give a damn who you are and will make a deal with you at any cost provided, in the end, it gets your soul.

Now, it is the TPLF’s soul that is headed straight to HELL! HELL! HELL!

My advice to anyone who is even thinking about negotiations: “The devil is in the TPLF details…”

TPLF: ZERO-SUM GAME OVER!

The post Negotiating With the TPLF is Negotiating With the Devil: I Told You So in 2017! appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

Alemayehu G. Mariam
November 18, 2020

Special Author’s Note: I ask all who read this commentary to TAKE ACTION to ensure Tedros Adhanom is held accountable for his flagrant violation of Ethiopia’s sovereignty and direct interference in its internal affairs on behalf of a registered and certified terrorist organization known as the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) while serving as World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General and related breach of the WHO ethical rules.

First, I ask my readers to file a formal ethics rules violations complaint against Adhanom using this link which offer multiple options including mail, free telephone and online form: https://www.who.int/about/ethics/integrity-hotline

Details of WHO ethics violations and how to file a confidential and anonymous complaint are provided at the end of this commentary.

Second, I ask my readers to reach out and educate WHO employees on how Adhanom is hyper-politicizing WHO damaging its credibility and undermining global confidence in the institution by secretly using the resources and prestige of the WHO to shield and promote a registered and certified terrorist organization from legal accountability in Ethiopia.

Please use the following links which contain emails, social media accounts and other information to educate WHO employees and leadership:

WHO Twitter: https://twitter.com/who

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WHO

By mail, email, telephone, feedback, media pages by using links below:

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/contact/en/

http://www.who.int/about/contact_form/en/

http://www.who.int/suggestions/feedback/en/

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/contacts/dgo/en/

Third, I ask my readers to contact the WHO Board and demand a swift and open investigation into Adhanom’s abuse of power and office of the Director-General in clear violation of WHO ethics rules at this link: https://apps.who.int/gb/gov/en/composition-of-the-board_en.html

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Tedros Adhanom, WHO Director-General caught red-handed lobbying the international community for the TPLF terrorist organization

It is now established that Tedros Adhanom, the current Director-General of the World Health Organization is using his international network to provide military support and to bring diplomatic pressure on PM Abiy Ahmed to negotiate with the junta leadership of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front.

A “top Ethiopian official” has confirmed Adhanom is

fully engaged in soliciting diplomatic and military support for the TPLF and has been lobbying the UN agencies to exert pressure on the Ethiopian government to unconditionally stop its military action against the TPLF. He has been relentlessly demonizing us. He has allied himself with Egypt, which had been bent on destabilizing Ethiopia for decades and aborting construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), is tantamount to treason. He repeatedly called top officials of many neighboring nations and pressured them to provide military and diplomatic support to the TPLF. Those countries, which we cannot name, told us they declined Tedros’s requests, saying the conflict was an internal Ethiopian affair and they stand with us. Tedros is serving as a full-time diplomat of the TPLF, breaching the duties of the director-general of the WHO. We are readying a protest note to the WHO and other relevant bodies.

Adhanom’s frantic not-so-secret mission to save the TPLF or himself?

Why is Adhanom frantically calling his friends in the U.N., the African Union, the European Union and what have you to stop the Ethiopian federal government’s police action in Tigray region?

Is he trying to save his doomed TPLF comrades or his own skin?

The answer is simple. Adhanom can read the writing on the wall.

Once the federal police action in Tigray is completed and the TPLF terrorist junta criminals are apprehended and taken into custody, Adhanom, Berhane Gebrechristos and few other stragglers who are outside Ethiopia will be the last TPLF men left standing (not cooling their heels in jail).

Adhanom knows once his TPLF comrades are in the can, he is FINISHED!

The long arm of the law will be reaching out for him.

His name and photo will be added to “Ethiopia’s Most Wanted List”, which now has over one hundred TPLF leaders.

So, Adhanom wants to negotiate and make a deal while making arrangements for arms delivery to the TPLF.

Adhanom is lobbying the international community to pressure PM Abiy to accept the following terms:

1) Immediately stop the federal government’s police action in Tigray region;

2) Agree to an international mediation effort to resolve differences between the TPLF junta leadership and the Ethiopian federal government;

3) Guarantee the leadership of the TPLF junta immunity from prosecution for any crimes they have committed during their nearly three-decade rule; defer prosecution

4) Refrain from taking any further legal, military, civil or administrative action against the TPLF junta and dissolve the temporary Tigray administration appointed by parliament.

5) The federal police action represents ethnic persecution.

6) Failure to negotiate with the TPLF will plunge the country into civil war.

7) Let bygones be bygones.

8) Take no action that will endanger his position as WHO Director-General.

Adhanom masterminded the continental effort to get African countries out of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

What Adhanom is doing today on behalf of the TPLF is exactly what he did for  Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Vice President William Ruto indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

In 2013, Adhanom ,as foreign minister, orchestrated a fierce defense of Bashir, Kenyatta and Ruto to avoid prosecution in the ICC.

In October 2011, the ICC indicted Kenyatta and Ruto on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the communal post-election violence between supporters of presidential candidates Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki in 2008. The U.N. reported some 1,200 people died in Kenya in weeks of unrest between December 2007 and February 2008, and 600,000 people were forcibly displaced.

Adhanom left no stones unturned to make sure Kenyatta and Ruto will not face justice in the ICC.

Just as Adhanom today is frantically trying to save his TPLF partners in crimes against humanity, in 2013 Adhanom frantically pulled the race card and called a “special summit of the African Union to discuss mass withdrawal from the International Criminal Court” unless the ICC criminal cases against Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto at the ICC were dropped.

Just like Adhanom is today demanding immunity from prosecution for his TPLF comrades, in 2013 he demanded, “sitting heads of state and governments should not be prosecuted while in office.”

Adhanom’s argument then was race-based as his argument today is ethnic based.

In the ICC cases, Adhanom made the racist argument that white judges and prosecutors in The Hague were hunting down black African leaders like safari animals and charging them with crimes against humanity. The fact of the matter was that the ICC chief prosecutor was a Gambian woman named Fatou B. Bensouda and one-half of the 19 ICC judges were from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe

Today, Adhanom makes the argument that the police action taken against the TPLF junta members is an ethnic-based huntdown down of his comrades.

Adhanom game plan to end-run the ICC was based on strategically galvanizing  the 34 African signatory states to turn their backs on the Rome Statute (treaty) which allows for crimes against humanity and related offenses to be prosecuted in the ICC when national courts are unable or unwilling to take legal action on their own.

Adhanom’s current arguments to negotiate a deal for his TPLF comrades eerily echoes his arguments to shield Bashir, Kenyatta and Ruto from ICC prosecution.

In capsule form, Adhanom’s argument to shield Kenyatta, Ruto and Bashir were based on the following points:

1) “Sitting Heads of State and Government should not be prosecuted while in office and their “immunities cannot be taken lightly”.

2) Let bygones be bygones. There is a need in the continent to “balance justice and reconciliation in complex conflict situations”.

3) The ICC is a “political instrument targeting Africa and Africans.”

4)  The 34 African states that signed the Rome Statute were snookered because they “joined the ICC perhaps fully concerned that the organization would promote the cause of justice with a sense of impartiality and justice. The practice so far however leaves so much to be desired.”

5) The ICC prosecution of Kenyatta, Ruto and Bashir will upset the “reconciliation process.”

6) The ICC and the U.N. Security Council use a “double standard of justice”– a harsh and unfair one for African suspects and something else for others.

7) “We should not allow the ICC to continue to treat Africa and Africans in a condescending manner.”

8) Investigating and prosecuting heads of states “has wider ramifications for Kenya and Africa as a whole. We do not want this simplistic suspect/victim approach to destabilize Kenya and our region.”

9) Prosecution of Kenyatta and Ruto “in an international court infringes on the sovereignty of Kenya and undermines the progress achieved thus far in the country’s reconciliations and reform process.”

10) The “search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardize efforts aimed at promoting lasting peace.”

Give African criminals against humanity and the the TPLF junta “get out of jail free card”

Adhanom today in his efforts to pressure PM Abiy to the negotiating table is making the same argument.

Investigating, arresting and prosecuting leaders of the TPLF junta “has wider ramifications for Ethiopia and Africa as a whole. We do not want this simplistic suspect/victim approach to destabilize Ethiopia and our region.”

The prosecution of the TPLF junta will prevent a reconciliation process.

The Ethiopian federal government is ethnically targeting Tigreans.

Prosecution of the TPLF junta will undermines the progress achieved thus far in the country’s reconciliation and reform process.

Let bygones be bygones and start fresh at the negotiating table.

Such are the arguments Adhanom is  making to convince his friends in the international community to pressure PM Abiy.

Adhanom is trying to save his own skin above all else because he was the third in command of the TPLF regime and is a prime suspect in crimes against humanity

As health minister, Adhanom turned a blind eye to torture victims and political prisoners. 

Since coming to power in 1991, the TPLF has widely practiced torture in prisons and detention facilities. A 2008 study commissioned by Adhanom’s regime reported subhuman health conditions in Ethiopia’s prisons.

Prisoners in TPLF jails were routinely denied health care.

Recently, a former political prisoner documented the shocking torture he suffered and the denial of medical care he experienced in one of TPLF’s atrocious prisons. Another prominent political prisoner has also provided details on how she was denied medical care for her breast cancer.

The U.S. State Department in 2012 reported “nearly 62 percent of inmates in various jails across the country suffered from mental health problems as a result of solitary confinement, overcrowding, and lack of adequate health care facilities and services.”  The report concluded, “The deliberate physical, psychological, and sexual mistreatment of inmates by prison officials is also a persistent and pervasive issue of concern.”

Torture is a major human rights issue that implicates health. Torture, genocide, arbitrary detentions  are critical public health issues. Unsanitary and overcrowded prisons holding hundreds of thousands of political and other prisoners present major health issues.

Adhanom was health minster when these crimes against humanity were occurring in the prisons. He was fully aware of them and it was his responsibility to address them.

What has Adhanom done to stop or mitigate torture in T-TPLF prisons and jails?

What has Adhanom done to improve or provide the most minimal health care for the hundreds of thousands of political and other prisoners in T-TPLF jails?

The Ethiopian Government should issue an international arrest warrant for Tedros Adhanom as a fugitive from justice and lodge a formal protest with the WHO Board

Tedros Adhanom can now be legitimately classified as “enemy combatant diplomat” for abusing his position and power as WHO Director-General by mobilizing diplomatic support for the TPLF and making arrangements for delivery of weapons to TPLF terrorists.

There is evidence to indicate that as health and foreign minister Adhanom has engaged in serious financial crimes against the state.

Currently, the Ethiopian attorney General has issued dozens of arrest warrants have been issued against TPLF junta leaders and their partners in crimes against humanity, reason and other crimes.

It is high time for Ethiopia’s Attorney General to issue an international arrest warrant for Tedros Adhanom.

Exactly a year ago today, the Attorney General issued an arrest warrant for the notorious former security chief Getachew Assefa suspected of gross human rights violations including torture. His deputy was arrested a few days go.

In 2018, Jurgen Stock, Secretary-General of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) assured officials that it “would arrest fugitives wherever they are and handover to Ethiopia to face justice.”

It is time to notify Interpol and gain their cooperation in the arrest and rendition of Tedros Adhanom to Ethiopia for justice.

It is also high time for the Government of Ethiopia to lodge a formal protest with the WHO Board detailing its allegations of flagrant breach of Ethiopian sovereignty and  gunrunning for the TPLF.

How to file a complaint against Adhanom using WHO’s Integrity Hotline

The WHO has an Integrity Hotline that allows anyone with information on violation of WHO ethical rules.

The Integrity Hotline is available at this link:  https://www.who.int/about/ethics/integrity-hotline

Reports can be made confidentially or anonymously by phone (free), by email or through an online form.

Use the Integrity Hotline and demand an investigation into Adhanom’s abuse of office and power as WHO Director-General serving as a TPLF diplomat

WHO has five basic ethics rules which must be observed by all WHO employees.

Adhanom has flagrantly violated all of them.

“Integrity: Observe national and local laws at all times. Avoid any action that could be perceived as an abuse of privileges and immunities.”

Adhanom has abused the privileges and immunities of his office to serve as a diplomat for the TPLF, an organization registered as a “terrorist’ in the Global Terrorism Database.

Accountability: Record all transactions and prepare accurate and complete records, in accordance with established procedures.”

Adhanom has failed to record his lobbying transactions with international organizations on behalf of the TPLF terrorist organization.

Independence and Impartiality: Exercise discretion at all times in their personal political activities and in expressing their personal opinions and beliefs. Conduct oneself with the interests of WHO only in view and under the sole authority of the Director-General, and to ensure that personal views and convictions do not compromise ethical principles, official duties or the interests of WHO. Refrain from seeking or obtaining, under any circumstance, instructions or undue assistance from any government official or from any other authority external to the Organization.

Adhanom has violated his duty to “conduct oneself with the interests of WHO only” by lobbying and advocating the interests of the TPLF above WHO’s. He has also sought “undue assistance from any government official or from any other authority external to the Organization” on behalf of the TPLF flagrantly violating his ethical duty of independence and impartiality..

Respect: Maintain a professional environment characterized by good working relations and an atmosphere of courtesy and mutual respect.

Adhanom has violated the rule on respect by destroying good working relations between Ethiopia and WHO and created an atmosphere of suspicion, distrust and recrimination.

Professional Commitment: Demonstrate a high level of professionalism and loyalty to the Organization, its mandate and objectives.

Adhanom has violated his duty of professional commitment by showing loyalty to the TPLF at the great detriment of the WHO.

TAKE ACTION, DON’T SIT AROUND AND COMPLAIN. TAKE ACTION!

For whom the bell of justice tolls

Tedors Adhanom:
Send not to know
For whom the bell of justice tolls,
It tolls for thee!

TO BE CONTINUED….

The post Why Tedros Adhanom is Working Like Hell to Save the TPLF and Himself From Going to Hell in a Handbasket! appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

ADDIS ABABA/GENEVA (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s military accused the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday of supporting and trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for Tigray state’s dominant political party, which is fighting federal forces.

“He himself is a member of that group and he is a criminal,” army chief of staff General Birhanu Jula said in a televised statement, before calling for him to be removed. Birhanu did not offer any evidence to support his accusations.

There was no immediate WHO comment on the allegation against Tedros, who is Ethiopian of Tigrayan ethnicity.

The accusations came at a time when the WHO is under considerable strain trying to coordinate global efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, its biggest donor, froze funding over a spat involving China. Cases and deaths are rising again in many countries around the world.

Tedros served as Ethiopia’s health minister and foreign minister from 2005-2016 in a ruling coalition led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF effectively ruled Ethiopia for decades as the most powerful part of the coalition, until Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy took office in 2018.

Abiy has since folded the other three regional parties into his own national party, but the TPLF refused to join.

Birhanu accused Tedros of using his international platform to try to get diplomatic support and weapons for the TPLF.

“He has been doing everything to support them, he has campaigned to get the neighbouring countries to condemn the war. He has worked to facilitate weapons for them (the TPLF),” he said in a televised news conference.

“He tried to lobby people by using his international profile and mission to get support for the TPLF junta.”

Birhanu did not give further specifics.

The post Ethiopia accuses WHO chief Tedros of backing Tigray rebels appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

Alemayehu G. Mariam
November 22, 2020

Author’s Note: I have locked horns with Susan Rice for nearly a decade. As I have demonstrated in my numerous commentaries, I believe Rice to be the paragon of the soulless, cutthroat, ruthless and calculating politician-cum-political appointee in recent American history. She long ago sold her soul to the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). She was the primo TPLF apologist, champion and co-conspirator in untold crimes committed in Ethiopia.

Today, Rice sheds crocodile tears for the “humanitarian crises” in Ethiopia. For well over 27 years, Rice fed the Ethiopian people to the TPLF crocodiles.

When it comes to the TPLF, Rice “sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil” because the dEVIL Meles Zenawi was her best friend for life, almost until death do us part.

Pray tell, what is more evil than Rice’s unqualified endorsement of the 2015 “election” as “democratic” after the TPLF claimed winning 100 percent of the seats in the Ethiopian parliament.

Today, Rice pontificates about preventing a humanitarian disaster created by her own TPLF and cries her eyes out for her TPLF buddies preparing to meet their Maker by special arrangement of the victorious Ethiopian National Defense Force.

Oh! Susan Rice, you laughed your behind off at the Ethiopian people in 2015, but don’t you cry for the TPLF now!

Oh! Susanna, now don’t you cry for me
I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee
I’m going to Louisiana, my true love for to see.

Oh! Susan-a Rice,
Don’t you cry for the TPLF
Their end is near, my dear
Hear, hear!
Drones overhead striking fear
It is so simple and clear
Don’t shed the TPLF no tear
They can (negotiate to) surrender
Or surely go six feet under!
Just wait till the TPLF is dead and buried
Oh! Susan-a, then you can weep and cry
Oh! Susan-a, then you can cry them a river of tears!

Susan Rice, TPLF’s “Sugar Mommy” is crying out her eyes

Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Advisor, is tweeting her eyes out as the TPLF counts its last moments in its death knell.

On November 14, Rice tweeted:

On November 18, Rice tweeted:

“Principled leadership on this” and “Please fast”?

Do emogees of index fingers pointing down mean “Word up”?

The Shevil quotes scripture of humanitarian crisis, ethnic violence, peace and security 

In the Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare speaking through Antonio, the influential and powerful nobleman of Venice, intoned:

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

The influential and powerful Dame Susan Rice speaks of “principles”, “humanitarian crisis”, “peace” and “security” and pleas “please”.

Susan Rice is a Shakespearean villain with a smiling cheek, rotten at the heart and filled with falsehood in the mind.

“Please” or SOS, Susan?

Rice tweeted holy witness when she hectored Assistant Secretary of State Tabor Nagy, “We need principled leadership on this and fast.”

“Fast” as in “the TPLF is getting hammered by the Ethiopian National Defense Force and therefore SOS (Save Our Souls)”?

Nagy had no sympathy for Rice’s TPLF: “The TPLF seeks to internationalize the conflict. The TPLF leadership has admitted responsibility for the November 13 missile launches at airports in Bahir Dar and Gondar, in the Amhara region, and the November 14 attack in Eritrea.”

Nagy was demonstrably principled. No U.S. support for terrorists!

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unequivocally declared, “The United States stands with the people of Ethiopia and will work with all who are committed to peace, prosperity, democracy, and the rule of law.”

Peace, prosperity, democracy, and the rule of law are the four pillars of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Government.

The only principles Susan Rice has ever practiced are hypocrisy, mendacity, duplicity and venality.

Why is Susan “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil about TPLF” Rice silent on the TPLF war crimes in the Mai Kadra massacres on November 9, 2020?

Where was Rice when her bosom friend Meles Zenawi massacred hundreds of people after the 2005 elections?

Where was Susan Rice when the TPLF tortured political prisoners, decimated opposition parties, jailed and exiled journalists and human-rights activists?

Where was Rice when the TPLF leaders declared they had won parliamentary elections with 99.6 percent of the vote in 2010?

When TPLF leader Zenawi died in 2012, Rice scurried to Addis Ababa to deliver a eulogy, or more accurately a beatification and canonization rolled into one.

She described Zenawi as “an uncommon leader, a rare visionary, and a true friend to me and many.” She said he “was disarmingly regular, unpretentious, and direct. He was selfless, tireless and totally dedicated to his work and family.” She said, Zenawi was “uncommonly wise,” “brilliant” and “selfless.” Rice even reminisced about her close familial ties and deep friendship with Zenawi. She concluded, “I suspect we all feel it deeply unfair, to lose such a talented and vital leader so soon, when he still had so much more to give.”

The fact is Meles Zenawi was a ruthless thug who murdered as he smiled and smiled as he murdered, to borrow a line from Shakespeare.

By the same token, Susan Rice is a villain who laughs as she murders democracy and murders democracy as she laughs!

The S.O.B. Meles Zenawi and his TPLF gangsters have been a scourge, a plague on Ethiopia for decades.

But damn it! For Rice, they were her S.O.Bs.

Of course, Rice never met an African dictator she did not like.

Rice has shielded and coddled many African dictators and criminals against humanity from accountability as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs:

As the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo escalated in 2012 and as two U.N. reports provided extensive evidence of official Rwandan and Ugandan support for the M23 rebel group, Rice’s delegation blocked any mention of the conflict’s most important state actors in a Security Council statement. And in June, the U.S. attempted to delay the release of a UN Group of Experts report alleging ties between Rwanda and M23.

While we are talking about Rwanda, in April 1994, Rice was fretting about the political consequences of calling the Rwandan tragedy a “genocide” or something else as hundreds of thousands faced extermination.

In a monument to utter moral depravity and conscience-bending callous indifference, Rice casually inquired of her colleagues, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”  This was confirmed by Samantha Power who became U.S. Ambassador to the UN in the Obama administration.

Rice cared more about U.S.  congressional elections than the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans.

Trump would have written them off as roadkill in a “shithole” African country. Rice proved it in deed, in action!

Rice later shed crocodile tears for the genocide victims and President Bill Clinton went to Rwanda and apologized.

Susan Rice and the Ethiopian- Eritrean War of 1998
I accuse Susan Rice as Meles Zenawi’s co-conspirator in the carnage that occurred in the 1998 Ethiopian-Eritrean border war in which an estimated 80 thousand plus people on both sides died.

Peter Rosenblum, the respected human rights lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School in 2002 wrote:

The United States dispatched Rice and Smith to the region soon after fighting began. [Mediation] talks broke down quickly. What is publicly known is that Rice announced the terms of a plan agreed to by Ethiopia, suggesting that Eritrea would have to accept it before Isaias had given his approval. He responded angrily, rejecting the plan and heaping abuse on Rice. Soon afterward, Ethiopia bombed the capital of Eritrea, and Eritrea dropped cluster bombs on Ethiopia. Isaias later accused the United States of complicity in the bombing of his capital. (Italics added.)

If Susan Rice had not tried to force an agreement she concocted with Zenawi upon President Isaias Afwerki and treated him with condescension and disrespect, it is very likely he may have taken the extra mile and exhausted all avenues of peace before resorting to war.

Rice became Zenawi’s enabler, consigliere, champion, spokesperson and indeed diplomat in that war.

Rice was supposed to “mediate” fairly in the dispute, not as server of ultimatums.

But she proved to be but nothing more than Zenawi’s henchwoman trying to do a number on President Isaias. No wonder he felt insulted and threw her out on her tail outraged.

Here is the hard truth!

But for Susan Rice’s incompetence and undying loyalty to the TPLF (and not U.S. regional interests or peace and stability in the Horn), the Ethiopian-Eritrean border dispute could have been resolved amicably through negotiations.

In fact, it ended through binding arbitration in 2002.

In 2018, after 20 years of tears and no war, no peace, through the goodwill and good faith of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afeworki, Ethiopia and Eritrea finally made peace.

As written in the Book of Isaiah, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

In the happiest and proudest moment in my life, I was present and a witness when PM Abi and President Isaias opened the border between the two countries at Zalambessa and Bure.

How I wanted to sing, “Oh! When the saints come marching in”.

But for Susan Rice’s calamitous and criminal blunder, the Ethio-Eritrean War could have been peacefully resolved and untold needless deaths and destruction could have been prevented.

Yes! Susan Rice has the blood of 80 thousand Ethiopian and Eritreans on her hands!

Pulitzer Prize winner Bret Stephens best described Susan Rice: “She has been a sycophant to despots. She has been inept in her diplomacy. She has played politics with human rights and played realpolitik with the truth.”

As Susan Rice bleats out her tweets now, that is exactly what she is trying to do: Protect her murderous TPLF gangsters while gambling away the lives of Ethiopians.

They say the apple does not fall from the tree. Unless of course the apple tree is rotten.

John David Rice-Cameron, Susan E. Rice’s son is a flaming supporter of Donald Trump.

Yes, the same Donald Trump who described Africa as a continent of “shithole countries” and the American people fired on November 3, 2020.

How sad to see the sweet apple fritter fall from the frying pan straight into the fire!

Tough love is what the TPLF is getting now, Susan!

In October 2019, Rice, hawking her book “Tough Love” on a talk show indignantly protested, “For the first time I can remember, our democracy is under assault. Our country is in effect under attack. That attack is coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue….

In June 2019, Susan Rice told a reporter, “They [Trump and his people] don’t care. They don’t seem to care about the integrity of our elections, the integrity of our democracy and what makes us Americans…”

Guess what, Susan Rice! I got news for you!

For the first time I can remember, our budding democracy in Ethiopia based on a solid foundation of the principle of rule of law is under assault. Our Ethiopia is under military attack. That attack is directed by YOUR TPLF friends holed up in the Axum Hotel and bunkers in the City of Mekele.

Susan Rice, you do not care about the integrity of Ethiopia, the integrity of Ethiopia’s budding democracy and you certainly do not give a rat’s behind about what makes Ethiopians, Ethiopians. Spare us your crocodile tears!

Never Trump, Never Susan Rice, Stop Susan Rice!

Never Trump!
Now, never Susan Rice
Trump is now history
Let’s make sure Susan Rice is history!

For me, Donald Trump and Susan Rice are peas in a pod when it comes to Africa policy.

Trump hated the “shithole countries” of Africa. He wondered why “Nigerian immigrants do not go back to their huts” instead of invading America.

Rice loves the dictators, criminal and corrupt thugs-cum-African leaders who created a “shithole” Africa and forced millions of Africa’s best and brightest into exile.

Trump declared war on Ethiopia as a proxy for Egypt.

Rice declared war on Ethiopia when she called the TPLF’s claimed 100 percent election victory in 2015 “democratic” and literally laughed like a hyena at the people of Ethiopia as a nation of fools.

Trump called Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi “my favorite dictator”.

For Rice, Meles Zenawi was her favorite dictator.

Trump cut off nearly $300 million in aid because Ethiopia refused the offer he made Ethiopia to sell its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam down the Abay (Nile) River.

Rice now tweets a veiled threat that if the Ethiopian government does not negotiate with her beloved TPLF, they should be prepared for the “Wrath of Susan” when she becomes a top official in the Biden administration.

Will anyone stand up to stop Susan Rice from being Biden’s Secretary of State?

Republican US Senator Tom Cotton (AK) appears to promise a knock-down-drag-out fight if Susan Rice nominated as Secretary of State.

In 2012, when Obama was floating the idea of Rice as Secretary of State, I resolutely opposed her nomination.

I argued that if a confirmation hearing were to be held, “Rice will be exposed for what she really is — a grand obfuscator of the truth, an artful dodger and a masterful artist of political expediency and intrigue.” Under intense scrutiny for her role in the Bengazi affair, Rice withdrew her name from consideration.

I shall steadfastly oppose Susan Rice if she is appointed to any position that will allow her to meddle and mess up Ethiopia or the African continent.

Return of the Axis of Shevil

When Biden takes office, I expect the Axis of Shevil to come back with a vengeance.

Gail Smith, Obama’s US AID Administrator, and Susan Rice’s BFF, will be jockeying for a top spot.

Smith is a special “confidante particularly close to the Tigraean leadership of Ethiopia. In 1982 she coauthored The Hidden Revolution, a highly complementary book about rebel administration in zones occupied by the Tigraean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the future leaders of Ethiopia.”

Smith was “particularly close to Meles Zenawi, who led the Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front.”

Indeed, it is rumored she is a “darling” of the TPLF in more than one way.

I opposed Smith’s nomination in The Hill during her Senate confirmation hearing.

In March 2016, I held Smith accountable as a “famine denier” in Ethiopia and she had to explain her position to me in a letter.

Wendy Sherman, “Obama’s Chief Negotiator in Iran Nuclear Talks Plans to Depart After Deadline for Deal” will likely slither back to office.

Sherman is another notorious TPLF enabler.

Sherman is so reprehensible the Washington Post blasted her in an editorial:

Wendy Sherman, declared during a visit to Addis Ababa on April 16 that ‘Ethiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair and credible….’ Ms. Sherman’s lavish praise was particularly unjustified given Ethiopia’s record on press freedom…

So, the work is cut out for all Ethiopians who have the guts to stand up for Ethiopia in America!

The battle against the TPLF in Ethiopia will continue.

So will the battle against TPLF henchmen and henchwomen, lackeys, stooges and sycophants in America!

Y’all! Saddle up and giddy up to meet the Axis of Shevil on The Hill!

Love song for Humpty Dumpty TPLF 

Susan Rice: We know you are chillin’ out with Tedros Adhanom, TPLF junta leader-cum-W.H.O. Director General recently accused by the Ethiopian government of aiding and abetting the TPLF terrorists.

We know you are hangin’ out with TPLF Underboss Berhane Gebrechristos, longest serving TPLF diplomat.

I understand you gotta do something for old time’s sake. You know, like the good old golden times when gold literally flowed like molten lead.

I get it.

A woman gotta do what she gotta do for her TPLF men!

But dig this Sister: It is GAME OVER for the TPLF!

YOUR TPLF is getting “Tough Love” today at the hands of our victorious Ethiopian National Defense Force.

So, deal with it.

But don’t you cry no more!

Remember!

Humpty Dumpty TPLF sat on a crumbling wall, (“kilil”)
Humpty Dumpty TPLF had a great fall (when it attacked the Northern Command)
All Queen Susan’s horses and all the TPLF king’s men
Won’t be able to put Humpty Dumpty TPLF together again.

GAME OVER, TPLF!

A luta continua; vitória é certa. (“The struggle continues; victory is certain”.)

The post Oh! Susan-a Rice, Don’t You Cry for the TPLF!! appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

BY MAHLET FASIL @MAHLETFASIL

Addis Abeba, November 23/2020 – Dozens of civilians were killed and more than 94, 000 displaced from various localities in the Konso Zone of Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regional state (SNNPRS) in sustained attacks by armed men.

For the past week, Addis Standard has been following the troubling reports closely after receiving several calls from residents trapped in the middle of the ongoing attacks especially in Megala-Digaya kebelle, in Garcha Kebelle, in Turo village of Aylotta Dokatu Kebelle of Konso zone as well as in Gato Kebelle & in Derashe zone. Similar violence is also reported in various localities located in Segen Area People’s Zone.

The Segen Area People’s Zone underwent a restructuring  in November 2018, after nearly four years of protest by Konso community, resulting in the split of the Konso zone from Segen Area People’s Zone, where Konso wereda, along with Derashe, Amaro, and Burji made up the Segen Area People Zone since 2011.

There has been intermittent violence since then, which are attributed largely to armed groups who opposed the decision of splitting the Konso zone, residents who spoke to Addis Standard say. Two years after the restructuring of the zone, violence keeps on ravaging the area.

The latest round of violence involves the Konso zone and Ale woreda and was ignited by a boundary dispute between individuals since July 2020. “We didn’t think a dispute between two people would proceed to engulfing the whole area” one eye witness from Konso zone said, adding “The attacks that started with assaulting us with sticks and stones have now converted into shooting at us with heavy arms.”

Several residents who reached out at Addis Standard spoke of days-long attacks on the members of the Konso community by armed groups. The security vacuum created as a result of the federal forces evacuating the area in recent weeks has contributed in intensifying the attacks. Addis Standard has also received several pictures of victims and burned villages that need to be verified. These heavily armed groups have inundated the regional and federal security forces to the point of making them seek protection in the Gumayde woreda administration compound as stated in witness accounts.

ACCORDING TO KEBEDE KASUSSA, HEAD OF THE KONSO ZONE AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES BUREAU, THE LATEST NUMBER OF DISPLACED CIVILIANS STOOD AT 94, 586 AND WAS INCREASING BY THE DAY

Hassen Welalo, head of the peace and security  bureau of the Konso zone, confirmed that the attacks by armed men have been going on for over 5 months. According to him since then the areas being targeted by armed men have increased to cover several villages and have resulted in the death so far of around 70 people including one member of the national defense forces, one regional special police force and one from the federal police.

According to Kebede Kasussa, head of the Konso zone agriculture and natural resources bureau, the latest number of displaced civilians stood at 94, 586 and was increasing by the day. Hassen Wellalo on his part says nearly 1000 houses were burned in Ariba Gelala, Kalanigo, Garicha, Kebeles, Osiko woreda and seven villages in Gelabo and Fuchicha woredas.

No arrests have been made in direct connection to the attacks, Hassan said, further explaining that the number of federal and special police forces deployed was disproportionately lower than the wide range of the areas where the attacks are taking place. Hassan called upon the government to step up its efforts to rescue the people of Konso from additional attacks.

On the other hand, the head of  the Peace and Security Bureau of the SNNPRS Alemayehu Bawde indicated that former members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and members of the regional regional police force who defected their unites were behind the violence. According to him the members of the ENDF include those who were relieved of their duties two years ago for descending upon Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s palace. He also said some 14 political leaders and Woreda administrators have been arrested so far in connection with the violence.

Ale Special Woreda on its part stated the presence of repeated violence claiming the lives of civilians and causing property destruction in areas bordering Konso and Ale, and said authorities from both Woredas were working after establishing a joint task force to identify the root causes of the problems, according to the head of the joint task force Tadelle W/Michael. Three Woreda officials from each Woredas affected by the violence were drawn to coordinate security together with regional security forces in order to bring the perpetrators to face justice.

AS

The post Dozens of civilians killed in sustained Konso zone violence, more than 94, 000 displaced appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTFANA

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

The post Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: Debretsion Gebremichael vows to fight on appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

REUTERS

ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopian federal forces were encircling the Tigray region’s capital from around 50 km (30 miles) on Monday, the government said, after giving the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) a 72-hour surrender ultimatum.

The post Ethiopia Says Tigray Capital Encircled After Surrender Ultimatum appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

By FAY ABUELGASIM and NARIMAN EL-MOFTY

UMM RAKOUBA, Sudan (AP) — The baby was born on the run from war. Her first bath was in a puddle. Now she cries all night in a country that is not her own.

Wrapped in borrowed clothing, the child is one of the newest and most fragile refugees among more than 40,000 who have fled the Ethiopian government’s offensive in the defiant Tigray region.

They have hurried into Sudan, often under gunfire, sometimes so quickly they had to leave family behind. There is not enough to feed them in this remote area, and very little shelter. Some drink from the river that separates the countries, and more cross it every day.

“We walked in the desert. We slept in the desert,” said one refugee, Blaines Alfao Eileen, who is eight months pregnant and has befriended Lemlem Haylo Rada, the mother of the newborn. One woman is ethnic Tigrayan, the other ethnic Amhara. The conflict could have turned them against each other, but motherhood intervened.

That, and tragedy. “I do not know where my husband is and whether he’s alive,” Eileen said.

Her journey took four days. “I slept on this scarf that I am holding,” she said, “and I would wake up and do it again.”

Almost half the refugees are children under 18. Around 700 women are currently pregnant, the United Nations says. At least nine have given birth in Sudan.

It has been three weeks since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent federal troops into Tigray after accusing the region’s forces of attacking a military base. Abiy’s government and the regional one each view the other as illegitimate, and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister on Sunday warned that a final assault to take Tigray’s capital is imminent.

Civilians are caught in the middle of what some experts describe as a conflict akin to an inter-state war, so heavily armed is each side.

Many people barely know why they had to flee. Now, people of all classes, from bankers to subsistence farmers, spend up to two weeks in so-called transit centers, waiting in makeshift shelters in arid, almost treeless surroundings just over the border in Sudan; it used to be just two or three days.

Some refugees have little to protect them from the heat and sun and curl under possessions as meager as umbrellas. Men have begun weaving dried grass into temporary homes.

COVID-19 could be passing through the crowds, but the people’s focus is elsewhere. More wear crosses around their necks than face masks.

The local Sudanese villagers have been praised for their generosity, but they have little to give.

More permanent camps for the refugees are a drive of several hours away, and there is sometimes not even enough fuel to transport them there. The threat of hostilities remains while they wait so close to the border.

Some overworked humanitarians have used the bare floor of a local building as a makeshift hospital, treating wounds that refugees say were inflicted with machetes as Ethiopia’s long pent-up ethnic tensions were unleashed.

Authorities are trying to keep ethnic Tigrayan refugees separate from ethnic Amhara ones, out of concern about possible clashes.

“We don’t know who is fighting us. We don’t know who is with us or who is not with us. We don’t know. When the war came, we just ran,” said Aret Abraham.

There is little comfort to be found, even a hot meal. The refugees can wait several hours to receive food. Sometimes they get none.

“I have been here 14 days and have not received anything,” one said. “I have no clothes to wear.” But everyone wears the new plastic bracelet of a refugee, handed out by the U.N. as they are registered.

The U.N. refugee agency has provided food and care to some 300 malnourished Ethiopian children and pregnant and nursing women in Sudan, according to spokesperson Babar Baloch.

People sit and wait, and wait. One small girl, frustrated, twisted the head of a plastic doll until the head popped free.

A man wept into the crook of his arm as he held up a tiny photo of his 12-year-old son. The boy was shot dead, he said.

The more permanent camps were last used in the 1980s for Ethiopians fleeing a famine worsened by a yearslong civil war.

For a long time, those images of starving people were seared onto Ethiopia’s reputation. It took decades to turn the country into one of Africa’s biggest success stories, with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But behind the boom, political repression kept hostilities among ethnic groups in check.

“We felt like we’d made it, and we were happy,” recalled Menas Hgoos, who now finds herself fleeing to Sudan a second time. “And now Abiy Ahmed is attacking us, we just left with only the clothes on our backs.”

Many of the new refugees are too young to remember past miseries. They are suddenly too burdened with their own — and with worries for those who did not make it out.

“There are also a lot of people who live there who can’t escape here,” said Haftoun Berha, pausing to think of loved ones who are now impossible to reach. “That is so more sad.”

The post Ethiopians fleeing war find little relief appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission

24 November 2020

Introduction

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC/The Commission) deployed a team of  human rights experts to Maikadra, in Tigray Region’s Western Zone, for a rapid investigation  into purported mass killings of civilians and related human rights violations.

Between November 14th, 2020 and November 19th, 2020, the EHRC team travelled between  Maikadra, Abrhajira, Sanja, Gondar, Dansha and Humera and gathered testimonies and other  evidences from victims, eye witnesses, families of victims, first responders, military personnel  and various other sources including government authorities who were present at the time of  EHRC’s visit. The team also visited hospitals and health facilities and talked to survivors and  other relevant authorities.

This report presents the mission’s key preliminary findings along with highlights of ongoing human rights concerns and recommendations. The full report will follow with additional  detailed and verified evidence.

Preliminary findings

Brief description of Maikadra

Maikadra is a rural town located in Western Zone, Hafta Humera Woreda of Tigray Region. It is situated 30 kilometers south of Humera and 60 kilometers north of Midre Genet (also known  as Abdurafi). An estimated 40,000 to 45,000 people of Tigrayan, Amhara, ’Wolkait’ and other  ethnic origin reside there. Wolkait is the local name for people of Amhara descent who were  born or have long resided in Wolkait Woreda.

Seasonal workers, mainly from Amhara Region but also from a few other areas, go to Maikadra  for seasonal work on large sesame and millet farms on the outskirts of the town, locally known  as ‘desert plains’, and live in one designated neighborhood with groups of up to 12 people  sharing a single house. As in every other year, these seasonal laborers, also known as ‘saluks’,  have been in Maikadra since September for the season’s harvest.

Preparation leading up to and start of the attack

People of non-Tigrayan ethnic origin, and especially of Amhara and Wolkait origin, have been  subjected to great fear and pressure from the day the conflict between the Federal and the  Tigray regional governments broke out on November 4th, 2020. The seasonal labourers, in  particular, were altogether prohibited from moving freely in the town, from going to work and  even from returning to their usual place of residence.

A few days before the attack, when the Ethiopian Defence Forces were said to be nearing the  town, the local administration police and militia forces shut all the exit points from Maikadra. (Militia refers to armed community security personnel who are not part of the regular police  force but are set up by regional/local administration within the structure of, as applicable,  either the Regional Peace and Security Bureau or the Regional Police Commissions. They are  therefore part of the government security apparatus. In rural towns and villages with no regular  police, in particular, militia serve as first security responders.)

Some of the Maikadra residents who attempted to escape to the ’desert plains’ or the nearby  Sudanese town of Berehet, fearing attacks by a defeated and retreating Tigrayan militia and  special force, were forced back home by the local militia. Around the same time, members of  “Samri” – an informal Tigrayan youth group -set up and manned checkpoints at all of the town’s  four main exits.

On November 9, 2020, the day of the attack, from around 11:00 AM onwards, the town police started checking identity cards to differentiate people of non-Tigray origin from the rest and  raided all the houses/huts, stretching from the neighbourhood known as “Genb Sefer” up to the  area called Wolkait Bole (Kebele 1 Ketena 1) which is largely resided by ethnic Amharas. They detained up to 60 people they profiled as Amhara and Wolkait and who were said to use  Sudanese SIM cards on their mobile phones and destroyed said SIM cards. Ethiopian SIM cards had already stopped working by then and the motive for confiscating and destroying the  Sudanese SIM cards was to prevent any communications or call for help during the attack,  according to testimony of the people in the area. Women and children of Tigrayan ethnic origin  were made to leave the town a few hours ahead of the attack.

On the same day (November 9th, 2020), around 3:00 P.M., the local police, militia and the  informal Tigray youth group called “Samri” returned to “Genb Sefer” where the majority of  people of Amhara ethnic origin live and began the attack against civilians.

According to eyewitnesses and families of victims who spoke with EHRC, the first act committed by the perpetrators was to execute an ethnic Amhara former soldier called Abiy  Tsegaye in front of his family and outside his house and set the house on fire. Afterwards, they threw his body into the fire. Residents said Abiy Tsegaye was a former soldier and militia member who had declined a request to re-join the militia as tensions began to rise. They surmise  that this might be why he was targeted. The victim’s wife and eyewitnesses have given a  detailed account of how the group of perpetrators forced Abiy Tsegaye out of his house and  had him shot in front of his family by a local militia and former colleague called Shambel  Kahsay, before throwing his body into the raging fire that engulfed their house. The EHRC  team also visited said house, still smouldering, and the area around it, still heavy with burned  body smoke.

How the massacre of civilians unfolded

Immediately after the attack on Abiy Tsegaye’s house, members of Samri, with the help of the local police and militia, moving from house to house and from street to street, began a cruel  and atrocious rampage on people they pre-identified/profiled as Amharas and Wolkaits. They  killed hundreds of people, beating them with batons/sticks, stabbing them with knives,  machetes and hatchets and strangling them with ropes. They also looted and destroyed  properties.

While Samri, comprised of several groups consisting of 20 to 30 youth, each accompanied by  an estimated 3 to 4 armed police and militia, carried out the massacre, police and militia – strategically posted at street junctions – aided and directly participated in the carnage by  shooting at those who attempted to escape.

It has been made apparent that the attack was ethnicity based and specifically targeted men the  attackers profiled through, amongst other things, identification cards, as Amharas and  Wolkaits; but a certain number of people from other ethnic groups have also been killed.  Moreover, it was men who were the specific targets in the attacks. While it can be verified that  women and children were spared, some women, including mothers who have tried to shield  their families, have suffered physical and mental injuries. Eyewitnesses also said women  received threats from the perpetrators that “tomorrow, they will come after the women. It will  be their turn”.

EHRC spoke with victims who suffered grave physical and mental injuries, including people whose bodies were maimed by sharp objects or severely bludgeoned, as well as others who  were dragged on the ground with their necks tied to a rope. The team also talked to survivors  who describe how the attackers tied them to other people before attacking and of being the only  ones to come out alive. The fact that the main target of the attack, the neighborhood of Genb  Sefer is an area where, as mentioned earlier, laborers live together in large numbers, made it  possible for the perpetrators to attack between 10 and 15 people at once in a single house;

thereby aggravating the heavy toll.

While it is not possible yet to verify the exact numbers of the dead, the physically injured and/or  those who suffered property damage, the members of the Burial Committee, set up after the  attack, eyewitnesses and other local sources, estimate a minimum of 600 have been killed and  say the number is likely to be higher still. A mismatch between the large number of bodies and  limited burial capacity meant that burial took three days. EHRC has visited one mass burial  site and seen bodies still scattered on streets. Locals also said that the bodies the perpetrators  dragged to and hid in the bushes and “desert plains” outside the town were not picked up yet  and were therefore not included in the estimates. During the visit, the Commission’s team also  noted that the pungent smell of decaying bodies still lingered in the air.

Survivors told EHRC that they managed to escape by hiding inside roof openings, pretending  to be dead after severe beatings, fleeing to and hiding in the “desert plains” and, for a few of  them, by hiding inside the nearby Abune Aregawi Church. The attack which began on  November 9th at around 3:00 p.m. went on throughout the night until the perpetrators left in the  early hours of November 10th. The entry into the city of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces  at around 10:00 a.m. made it possible to start the process of getting medical help to victims.

The Commission visited victims with grave physical injuries as they received treatment in  hospitals in Abrhajira, Sanja and Gondar.

Humane acts in the midst of inhumanity

Victims have also explained to EHRC that even though this atrocious massacre was carried out  by Samri, a Tigrayan youth group, other residents, who were Tigrayan themselves, helped  several of them survive by shielding them in their homes, in churches and in farms.

An exemplary instance is the case of a Tigrayan woman who hid 13 people in her house first, before leading them to a nearby farm. She went as far as staying with them the whole night in  case the group came back in search of them. Another is also of a Tigrayan woman who was  hit on the arm with a machete while trying to wrestle a man away from attackers who set him  on fire.

Atrocity Crimes against Civilians

The overall conduct and the results thereof, all point to the fact that the Maikadra attack is not  a simple criminal act but is rather a premeditated and carefully coordinated grave violation of  human rights. More specifically,

• The perpetrators killed hundreds of people with full intent, a plan and preparation,

• The conduct was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed  against a civilian population,

• The perpetrators knew that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part  of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population,

• The conduct took place in the context of an armed conflict between the Federal  Government’s National Defence Forces and the Tigray Regional Government’s  security forces while the latter were retreating following a defeat; and perpetrators targeted civilian residents of Maikadra they profiled based on their ethnic origin,

• During the conduct, the local security apparatus in charge helped and collaborated with  the group known as Samri, responsible for the attacks while the former aided and  participated in the attacks instead of protecting civilians from harm.

From the above, EHRC is of the view that what transpired in Maikadra on November 9th, 2020  including the killings, bodily and mental injury, as well as the destruction that went on  throughout night and morning, the overall conduct and results thereof, strongly indicate the  commission of grave human rights violations which may amount to crimes against humanity  and war crimes. The full extent of the evidence and elements of the crime will be examined in  detail in the full report.

When such grave human rights violations occur, all direct and indirect perpetrators at all levels  must be duly investigated and held to account before the law.

Ongoing human rights concerns that require urgent attention and recommendations

• EHRC has learned that at least up to November 14th, 2020, people who have escaped from  or were injured by the attacks were still in hiding in the “desert plains” around Maikadra  or had sought shelter in the towns nearby. Among them are also ethnic Tigrayans who fear  retaliatory measures. While EHRC has learned that some of them are returning to Maikadra  over these last few weeks of the month of November, the safety of those who remain in  hiding is of concern. It is therefore imperative to return these displaced persons. Similarly,  the damage caused needs to be documented in a more systematic manner (Those who have  lost their lives and those who have suffered physical injury and/or property damage need  to be identified and the information gathered appropriately recorded. )

• The residents of Maikadra are in complete shock, grief and psychological trauma from the  attack and the destruction and the separation of family members that followed. When the  EHRC team visited the town, the streets were still lined with bodies yet to be buried. The  psychological and health impacts on the residents is of concern.

• Because the attack specifically targeted men and most of the victims are heads of  households/breadwinners for their families, a shortage of basic necessities has arisen. The  need for basic necessities, in particular of women, children, and breast-feeding mothers, is  increasing by the day. Moreover, if the harvest is not carried out soon, it might add to the  humanitarian crisis. It is, therefore, essential to invite humanitarian organisations into the affected area and to provide the support necessary to allow return and  recovery/rehabilitation/redress of residents.

• Maikadra Residents of Tigrayan ethnic origin who fear for their safety, including women  and children, have been assembled in a temporary shelter under the protection of  government security forces. Residents told EHRC that some perpetrators of the attacks may  have also taken refuge among the people in the shelter but EHRC could not independently  verify this information. While it is appropriate, in such unstable security situations, to  provide protection to groups especially vulnerable to various kinds of threats, assembling  them in one location, might, on the contrary, expose them further to discriminatory  treatment. It is therefore urgent to identify perpetrators, if any, hiding in there and close the  said shelter.

• The continued interruption of telecommunications, water and electricity supplies has  prevented the delivery of basic necessities, and the reunification of separated families. It  has also made provision of health and related services difficult. It requires urgent attention.

• The media and influencers must ensure that the information they share regarding the  Maikadra attacks, is sensitive to the psychological pressure this puts on survivors

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Ethiopia human rights Commission: At least 600 killed in Tigray massacre – BBC News

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NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia’s prime minister is rejecting growing international consensus for dialogue and a halt to deadly fighting in the Tigray region as “unwelcome,” saying his country will handle the conflict on its own as a 72-hour surrender ultimatum runs out on Wednesday.

The Tigray regional capital, Mekele, remained quiet but tense as sunset approached. But a statement this week from a civil society representative in the region, seen by The Associated Press, described heavy bombardment of communities elsewhere that had kept many residents from fleeing. It pleaded for a safe corridor to ship in aid as food runs out.

However, the international community should “stand by” until Ethiopia’s government asks for assistance, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said in a statement as government forces were reportedly positioned well outside Mekele with tanks. “We respectfully urge the international community to refrain from any unwelcome and unlawful acts of interference,” it added.

The government led by Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, has warned Mekele’s half-million residents to move away from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front leaders or there will be “no mercy” — language that the United Nations human rights chief and others have warned could lead to “further violations of international humanitarian law.”

But communications remain almost completely severed to the Tigray region of some 6 million people, and is not clear how many people in Mekele are aware of the warnings and the threat of artillery fire.

“Warnings alone do not absolve the government of its duty to take constant care to protect civilians when carrying out military operations in urban areas that are home to thousands of people who may not be able to reach more secure areas,” Human Rights Watch’s Horn of Africa director Laetitia Bader said in a statement.

Diplomats said U.N. Security Council members in a closed-door meeting Tuesday expressed support for an African Union-led effort to deploy three high-level envoys to Ethiopia. But Ethiopia has said the envoys cannot meet with the TPLF leaders.

“This conflict is already seriously destabilizing the region,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday after meeting with Ethiopia’s foreign minister.

“Both sides should immediately begin dialogue facilitated by the AU,” the national security adviser for U.S. president-elect Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, tweeted.

The Tigray regional leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, could not immediately be reached.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s government for more than a quarter-century, but was sidelined after Abiy took office in 2018 and sought to centralize power. The TPLF opted out when Abiy dissolved the ruling coalition, then infuriated the federal government by holding an election in September after national elections were postponed by COVID-19. Each side now regards the other as illegal.

One Ethiopian military official claimed that more than 10,000 “junta forces” have been “destroyed” since the fighting began on Nov. 4, when Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a military base. Col. Abate Nigatu told the Amhara Mass Media Agency that more than 15,000 heavy weapons and small arms had been seized.

The international community has urgently called for communications to be restored to the Tigray region so such claims can be investigated, and for immediate humanitarian access. The U.N. says it has been unable to send supplies into Tigray and that people there are “terrified.”

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have been killed in three weeks of fighting. More than 40,000 refugees have fled into Sudan. And nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees at camps in northern Tigray have come close to the line of fire.

Misery continues for the refugees in Sudan, with little food, little medicine, little shelter, little funding and little or no contact with loved ones left behind in Tigray. “We are absolutely not ready,” said Suleiman Ali Mousa, the governor of Qadarif province.

“Help us so that we don’t die,” said one refugee, Terhas Adiso. “We came from war. We were scared we were going to die from the war and we came here, we don’t want to die of hunger, disease. If they are going to help us they need to help us quickly. That’s all I am going to say.”

Meanwhile, reports continued of alleged targeting of ethnic Tigrayans, even outside Ethiopia. Three soldiers serving with the U.N. peacekeeping force in South Sudan were ordered home over the weekend, the force said in a statement. The AP has confirmed the repatriated soldiers are Tigrayan.

“If personnel are discriminated against because of their ethnicity or any other reason, this could involve a human rights violation under international law,” the statement said.

Abiy’s government has said it aims to protect civilians, including Tigrayans, but reports continue of arrests, discrimination, house-to-house searches and frozen bank accounts.

Fay Abuelgasim in Umm Rakouba contributed.

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By CARA ANNA/AP
November 17, 2020

Ethiopia’s prime minister on Tuesday declared “the final and crucial” military operation will launch in the coming days against the government of the country’s rebellious Tigray region, while the United Nations warned of a “full-scale humanitarian crisis” with refugees fleeing and people in Tigray starting to go hungry.

In a warning to Americans still in the Tigray region, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia said those who can’t leave safely “are advised to shelter in place.” More than 1,000 citizens of various foreign countries are estimated to be trapped.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said a three-day deadline given to the Tigray region’s leaders and special forces “has expired today.”

Now, “we are marching to Mekele to capture those criminal elements,” Ethiopia’s minister in charge of democratization, Zadig Abraha, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “This will be a very brief operation.” Mekele, he said, will be the final stage.

Some 4,000 refugees keep arriving every day, a “very rapid” rate, U.N. refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva. “It’s a huge number in a matter of days … It overwhelms the whole system,” he said, adding that the remote part of Sudan hasn’t seen such an influx in two decades.

Inside the Tigray region, cut off from the world with roads and airports closed, food and fuel and medical supplies are running desperately short.

“Our partners warn that supplies will soon be exhausted, putting millions at risk of food insecurity and disease,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Alarmed African neighbors including Uganda and Kenya are calling for a peaceful resolution, but Abiy’s government regards the Tigray regional government as illegal after it defiantly held a local election in September. The Tigray regional government objects to the postponement of national elections until next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers Abiy’s federal government illegal, saying its mandate has expired.

Ethiopia’s federal government on Tuesday also confirmed carrying out new airstrikes outside Mekele, calling them “precision-led and surgical” and denying the Tigray government’s assertion that civilians had been killed.

Tigray TV showed what appeared to be a bombed-out residential area, with damaged roofs and craters in the ground.

“I heard a sound of some explosions. Boom, boom, boom, as I entered the house,” the station quoted a resident as saying. “When I got out later, I saw all this destruction. Two people have been injured. One of the injured is the landlord, and the other is a tenant just like us.”

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Addis Ababa, November 27, 2020 (FBC) – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received at his office this morning former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano, and former President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe – the designated Special Envoys of Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and Chairperson of the African Union.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expressed his profound gratitude to the African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa for the utmost concern and understanding shared in Ethiopia’s efforts to end impunity and bring the TPLF criminal clique to justice.

According to Prime Minister Office, the premier also appreciated the Special Envoys for their visit to Ethiopia, in elderly concern, reiterating the well-meaning endeavors of African brothers and sisters who are equally hopeful for a prosperous and stable Ethiopia.

Ethiopia appreciates this gesture and for the steadfast commitment this demonstrates to the principle of African solution to African problems, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed noted.

During the discussions, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed briefed the Special Envoys on the background to Ethiopia’s rule of law operations currently underway in the Tigray region.

The Prime Minister discussed at length the patience with which his government handled the provocations and destabilization agenda the TPLF orchestrated for more than two years. Recounting the numerous attempts by the federal government to engage peacefully, he reiterated that the premeditated attack on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, which constitutes high treason under the Criminal Code of Ethiopia, was the final straw which forced the federal government to act in protection of the constitutional order of the country.

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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed again ruled out dialogue with the leaders of the defiant Tigray region Friday, but said he was willing to speak to representatives “operating legally” there during a meeting with African Union special envoys trying to end the deadly conflict between federal troops and the region’s forces.

The meeting came as the Ethiopian News Agency reported the military’s capture of several key towns around the Tigray capital, Mekelle, as more people fled the city ahead of a promised “final phase” of the offensive.

The conflict has threatened to spill over to Ethiopia’s neighbouring countries, with an exodus of civilians crossing the border into Sudan to flee the fighting.

On Friday night, at least one rocket fired from Tigray region targeted neighbouring Eritrea in the second such attack since the conflict broke out, according to regional diplomats.

“There was one rocket coming from Tigray that seems to have landed south of [the Eritrean capital] Asmara,” a diplomat told AFP, noting there was no immediate information available on casualties or damages.

A second diplomat said there were reports of another rocket striking a neighbourhood in Asmara, but this remained unconfirmed.

Ethiopian forces capture Tigrayan town

The Ethiopian military on Friday said it had seized control of the town of Wikro, 50km (30 miles) north of Mekelle a day after the government said it was beginning the “final phase” of an offensive in the northern region.

Federal forces have captured Wikro “and will control Mekelle in a few days”, Lieutenant-General Hassan Ibrahim said in a statement. Government troops had also taken control of several other towns, he added.

Claims by all sides in the three-week-old conflict between government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces however have been impossible to verify because phone and internet connections to the region are down and access to the area is tightly controlled.

On Sunday, the government gave the TPLF until Wednesday to lay down arms or face an assault on Mekelle, a city of 500,000 people, raising fears among aid groups of extensive civilian casualties.

Abiy accuses Tigrayan leaders of starting the war by attacking federal troops at a base in Tigray on November 4. The TPLF says the attack was a pre-emptive strike.

Abiy meets AU envoys

The Ethiopian prime minister received at his office in Addis Ababa on Friday three African ex-leaders – Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa – dispatched this week by the AU as mediators.

In a statement issued after their meeting, Abiy said he appreciated “this gesture and… the steadfast commitment this demonstrates to the principle of African solutions to African problems”.

Even so, the government has a “constitutionally mandated responsibility to enforce rule of law in the region and across the country”, he said.

Many attempts, he added, had been made to negotiate with the TPLF before military action was ordered on November 4.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

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Breaking News: Ethiopia military now controls the Tigray capital

Breaking News: Ethiopia military now controls the Tigray capital

https://youtu.be/aAY5_9XsSOs
 

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Ethiopia says it has completed and ceased military operations in the Tigray region after claiming its capital, but it’s unclear if fighting will immediately end.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says military operations in the country’s northern Tigray region are “completed” after the army claimed control of the regional capital, declaring victory in a three-week-old conflict that has left thousands dead.

“I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the #Tigray region,” Mr Abiy said in a Twitter post Saturday night.

Mr Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced on 4 November he had ordered military operations against leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional ruling party that dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before he came to power in 2018.

Tigray has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it impossible to know the full toll of fierce fighting that has included multiple rounds of air strikes and at least one massacre that killed hundreds of civilians.

After securing control of western Tigray and giving TPLF leaders a 72-hour ultimatum to surrender, Mr Abiy announced on Thursday he had ordered a “final offensive” against pro-TPLF forces in the regional capital, Mekele, a city of half a million.

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Alemayehu G. Mariam
November 29, 2020

TPLF, You Can’t Hide and Can’t Run on Clay Feet from the Ethiopian National Defense Force!

When the federal government issued the 72-hour surrender time, it had two objectives: 1) Demonstrate that the intention of our operations is to enforce the rule of law per the laws of the land. 2) Provide protection for those that finally understand the criminality of the TPLF clique and distance themselves for the group.” PM Abiy Ahmed’s Final Warning to the TPLF, November 26, 2020.

Scripture teaches that ‘He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.’  Meles and his worshippers have profoundly troubled the Ethiopian house and they shall inherit the wind!” Alemayehu G. Mariam, February 3, 2013

I believe the TPLF to be that evil Beast with feet of clay. When gazed upon, the TPLF appears awesome, formidable and infinitely powerful. It has guns, tanks, rockets, planes and bombs. Though the TPLF has legs of iron, its feet are made of clay. When the Beast is confronted by people power, the Beast backs down, stands down and in the end is run down.” Alemayehu G. Mariam, February 7, 2016

Hail to the Ethiopian National Defense Force. Hail to the Commander in Chief of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. Hail to the Commanding Officers of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Thank you!!!

The TPLF Beast with feet of clay in the end was run down!

I am no prophet.

But on November 25, 2019, I predicted exactly how the end of the Tigrean People’s Liberation would come about.

I wrote, “The TPLF and its 27-year rule of oppression, corruption, human right violation will come to an end suddenly, not with a bang but a whimper.”

On November 28, 2020, the TPLF’s end came in Mekelle City not with a bang but a whimper.

The victorious Ethiopian National Defense Force captured Mekelle with minimal resistance from TPLF forces.

There is no such thing as a cakewalk in war, but if there ever was one, the capture of Mekelle would be it.

In my January 4, 2015 commentary, I wondered wistfully, “What is the likely end of the “hollow men” of the TPLF?”

By December 2015, I had written the  “end of the story of the T-TPLF in Ethiopia.”

There was no question in my mind then the TPLF was done. Game over!

The only question for me then was whether the TPLF story will end with a bang or a whimper.

Two months later in February 2016, I knew without a doubt the TPLF’s end would come not with a bang but a whimper because the TPLF  Beast had feet of clay.

When gazed upon, the TPLF appears awesome, formidable and infinitely powerful. It has guns, tanks, rockets, planes and bombs. Though the TPLF has legs of iron, its feet are made of clay.

That was not all.

In August 2018, I warned the TPLF not to mistake Abiy Ahmed’s patience, tolerance and pursuit of peace for weakness and cowardice. His critics said he is a fainthearted leader who only likes to talk about love, peace and reconciliation. He is afraid to face and confront those who are putting the country’s peace, stability and integrity at risk.

In the week preceding my commentary, everyone had ganged up on PM Abiy hectoring, lecturing and exhorting him to “uphold the rule of law”.

What his critics meant by the “rule of law” was simply that PM Abiy should crackdown and kick butt.

Of course, if he had cracked down hard, they would have been howling how he has become a tyrant and dictator.

The call for enforcing the rule of law came from all sectors — opposition leaders, civil society and human rights activists, local and foreign journalists, the man and woman in the streets, and most surprisingly, a gathering of top interdenominational religious leaders in the country.

In an unprecedented action in the country’s history, on August 13, 2018, prominent religious leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and Ethiopian Kalehiwot Church issued a statement  demanding “the government uphold the rule of law and to take all the necessary steps to stop the violence in different parts of the country.”

I knew better.

I warned those flouting the rule of law, especially the TPLF, to be careful, very careful. Inside the velvet glove Abiy Ahmed wears in public is a solid iron fist.

It is said, “Vox populi, vox dei [‘The voice of the people is the voice of God.]’”

“What should PM Abiy make of the plaintive voice of our faith leaders”, I wondered.

Even the TPLF joined the chorus demanding PM Abiy take measures to uphold the rule of law. Their rallying cry was, “Lawlessness is taking root in the country. The Constitution is being violated.”

The TPLF (LF in TPLF stands for Lie Factory) continued to run their fake news rumor mill in high gear everyday proclaiming the country is going to hell in a hand basket because PM Abiy was not upholding the rule of law.

Of course, the invisible hand in the trashing of the rule of law and the Constitution in Ethiopia was the TPLF.

Abdi Illey, the now-jailed president of Somali region in his in his public confession fingered and named exactly who is responsible for the violence, death and destruction in Eastern region of Ethiopia. The TPLF!

The TPLF’s plan has always been to create chaos and strife in Ethiopia and in the confusion get back into the saddle of power.

PM Abiy was quick to throw down the gauntlet at a military graduation on August 18, 2019.

Flanked by the Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, General Saere Mekonen clad in battle fatigues, PM Abiy issued a thinly-veiled “don’t push me” last warning to the TPLF which is using “shiftas” (bandits) to spread anarchy, death and destruction throughout the country.  

He gave the shiftas and their sponsors two choices which could be summarized as follows. “Stop your violence, death and destruction now or our defense forces will drop the sledgehammer on your head hard!”

PM Abiy said (author’s translation):

… Those who confuse freedom with anarchy and engage in lawlessness, disregard the rule of law and due process must stop their street politics of mob justice (rule) must stop. If we weaken the rule of law, tolerate mob rule and allow vigilante justice, we would be adding insult to injury which will result in (social and political) bankruptcy for our blossoming peaceful (democratic) transition. It is the obligation of each and every citizen to know, preserve and uphold the law. In this regard, our defense forces have a double obligation.

The absence of rule of law and a government that tolerates anarchic insurrection will nullify (gravely harm) our country. It must be our daily mission to keep our national unity in a manner consistent with the rule of law. To be modern is to respect the rule of law. Those who refuse to uphold the rule of law will invite dictators who rule with an iron fist, but they will never be victorious.

When I say “Enedemer” (count up/let’s stand together), let us and reconcile and build one (united) country, it does not mean we go into anarchy, disregard the rule of law or allow the proliferation of (shiftas) thugs in the streets.

The aim of our reconciliation is to regain (the freedom) what we have lost and not to destroy what we have preserved. It is the daily obligation of every citizen to love and support our military sacrificing their lives for low pay…

On November 26, 2020, PM Abiy gave the TPLF his final warning: Resistance to the rule of law is futile:

When the federal government issued the 72-hour surrender time, it had two objectives. On the one hand, it was to demonstrate that the intention of our operations is to enforce the rule of law per the laws of the land. If the criminal TPLF clique chose to peacefully surrender, the campaign would be finalized with the least amount of damage. To this end, we have provided the opportunity for peaceful surrender on numerous occasions in the past weeks. The second goal was to provide protection for those that finally understand the criminality of the TPLF clique and distance themselves for the group.

Let there be no mistake!

PM Abiy left no stone unturned to seek a peaceful resolution of disputes with the TPLF. There is a full record of these effort.

But there can be no negotiation with those who seek to use negotiations to trash the rule of law.

Abiy Ahmed is all about the rule of law.

He has proved it time and again. No one is above the law. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. When there is no rule of law, there will be rule of lawless thugs.

When Abiy Ahmed came to office, he emptied the prisons of political prisoners because he knew they were imprisoned arbitrarily and without due process of law.

When Abiy Ahmed came to office, he opened up the media and let out jailed  journalists because the actions taken against them is contrary to the rule of law. In 2018, Ethiopia was ranked 150/178 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. In 2020, Ethiopia ranks, 99/178.

When Abiy Ahmed came to office, he let in diaspora opposition leaders deemed terrorists by the TPLF and invited them to peacefully participate in the political process because he knew their conviction under the so-called anti-terrorism law was contrary to the rule of law.

He shut down “Maekelawi”, the notorious prison associated for decades with torture and police brutality.

He officially accepted the decision of the binding international arbitration decision in the Ethio-Eritrean dispute because pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be observed or a deal is a deal, can’t back out once you make the deal) is a sub-principle of the rule of law.

As I have said many times before, Abiy Ahmed says what he means and means what he says.

Cross him at your own risk!

The TPLF Pity Party Gab Fest: The only thing TPLF jive talkers are good at is shooting off their mouths (ወያኔ ጉራ ብቻ !)

For years and in after the federal law enforcement action in Tigray, the TPLF threatened the  ENDF that if they dared to attack, they will be faced with the “crash of guns, the rattle of musketry and hear nothing but the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield”, to paraphrase General Douglas Macarthur.

The TPLF promised to shoot and bury every ENDF soldier who dared to enter Tigray.

The TPLF promised Mekelle will be the final burial ground of the ENDF.

In the end, the TPLF took off the battlefield like a bat out of hell shooting off nothing but their big mouths.

The TP (L)ie (F)actory windbags talk loud and say nothing (ወያኔ ጉራ ብቻ !)

Paraphrasing the lyrics of the Godfather of Soul:

The TPLF is like a dull knife
Just ain’t cutting
Just talking loud
Then saying nothing.

Today, hiding under the same rock from which they emerged some three decades ago, they keep on shooting off their mouths and saying nothing:

Abiy’s government can capture Mekelle but will never govern Tigray.

We will begin guerilla warfare and fight in the mountains.

We have destroyed several divisions of the ENDF.

Blah, blah, blah…

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

TPLF, shut the **** up and turn yourselves in.

As I told you recently in My Special Poetic Message:

TPLF, I done told you the end was near
Now you can see it bright and clear
Man up and surrender
I sincerely don’t want to see you go six feet under!

It is said, “Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

I say, “Those who  refuse to abide by the rule of law will be forced to live by the rule of the sword.”

The TPLF has now made the choice irrevocably to live by the rule of the sword!

Remember TPLF what I told you in February 2016:

The T-TPLF Beast will soon be carried away and ‘become like chaff from the summer threshing floors.’ The TPLF will be ‘carried in the wind so that no trace of them is found’ and those who have troubled the Ethiopia House ‘shall inherit the wind.’ It is so written!

The prophesy has come to pass!

The TPLF is gone with the wind!

RESISATNCE TO THE RULE OF LAW IS FUTILE!

The theme of my next commentary following an African proverb: “When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”  

The post TPLF, You Can’t Hide and Can’t Run on Clay Feet From the Ethiopian National Defense Force! appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.

November 30, 2020 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopia has dismissed as “fake news” reports that the South Sudanese ambassador to the country, James Pitia Morgan has been expelled.

South Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia, James Pitia Morgan (Ethiopian Herald photo)

“We have also confirmed that the South Sudanese Ambassador or any other diplomat is not expelled from Ethiopia,” partly reads a statement from Ethiopian Embassy in Juba on Twitter on Monday.

There were widely circulated reports that the Horn of Africa nation allegedly expelled the South Sudanese ambassador, a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited to Juba on Saturday.

The diplomat was allegedly given only 72 hours to leave Ethiopia.

However, South Sudan’s deputy foreign affairs minister, Deng Dau Deng dismissed reports on alleged expulsion the diplomat as untrue.

“This report is untrue. I can assure you our ambassador is in Addis Ababa going about his duties and attending diplomatic briefings with colleagues in the office of the Prime Minister,” he explained.

During his visit to Juba, the Egyptian president and his South Sudanese counterpart discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – a huge hydro scheme that Ethiopia has been building since 2011 on the Nile River. Ethiopia contributes 85% of waters to the Nile.

The Ethiopian government says it intends to fund the entire cost of the dam in order to prevent relying on foreign countries that may be brought under pressure by Egypt to withdraw their support.

Egypt and Sudan, which are heavily dependent on Nile water from Ethiopia, have tried in vain for years to forge a deal on how quickly the dam’s reservoir should be filled.

(ST)

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Addis Abeba, December 02/2020 – Number of people killed in recent violence in Konso reaches 66; 39 people are injured and more than 130, 000 people are internally displaced, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State (SNNPRS), peace and security bureau said.

Alemayehu Bawde, head of the regional peace and security bureau, said that 66 people were killed in clashes covering 17 kebeles. He also said that 39 people were injured and more than 130,000 were displaced.
According to Alemayehu at least 137 people who are suspected of instigating the violence have been arrested.

The attacks in recent weeks affected Konso Zone, Amaro, Derashe, and Ale districts of the SNNP regional state.

The regional government is providing emergency relief aid to the victims and the displaced. Four teams have also been set up to investigate and enforce the rule of law in the area, Alemayehu said.

The Segen Area People’s Zone of the SNNPRS had underwent a restructuring  in November 2018, after nearly four years of protest by Konso community, resulting in the split of the Konso zone from Segen Area People’s Zone, where Konso wereda, along with Derashe, Amaro, and Burji made up the Segen Area People Zone since 2011.

There has been intermittent violence since then, which are attributed largely to armed groups who opposed the decision of splitting the Konso zone, residents who spoke to Addis Standard say. Two years after the restructuring of the zone, violence keeps on ravaging the area.

However Alemayehu said that the residents don’t have disputes amongst themselves and instead attributed the violence as a result of forces who are trying to manipulate the people’s long standing political demands. He also blamed the attack on “TPLF and OLF(shanee)”, the later, a term government officials use to refer to members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

AS

The post Number of civilians killed in recent violence in #Konso reaches 66; 39 injured and more than 130,000 displaced appeared first on Satenaw Ethiopian News/Breaking News/.