In Ethiopia, war crimes have continued unabated almost a year after a ceasefire was agreed between the country’s Government and forces from the northern Tigray region, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Monday.
We just recently had a violent clash between pro and anti government protests in Calgary. Can’t imagine how violent things are in the country itself.
I find the diaspora conflicts irritating. Most of them fan killings back in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan then create such a bitter environment in the communities hosting them (like Calgary or Sweden or Germany). Tell these people to go and fight in the Ethiopian fronts and they coil back. But they want the kids of poor farmers to go and die for their abstract ideas (sometimes genuine, but mostly misdirected at the wrong people).
unless the UN invades and actively enforces a ceasefire, this brush war will smolder for decades.
will smolder for decades
@tallwookie maybe. The war in Tigray has many genocidal elements, including a man-made famine caused by destruction of crops, equipment, and water infrastructure.
So if the UN doesn’t do something, Abiy might be able to accomplish genocide in a shorter timeframe than that.
I would rather word that as “a *second* genocide”.
Deliberately killing 10% of the Tigrayan population from Nov 2020 to Nov 2022, by: systematically executing males of teenage age and above, massive systematic sexual violence, looting of most food/agricultural/industrial resources and holding a very tight siege is argued by several researchers as showing intent [1][2]. Clearly that was the #TigrayGenocide .
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_Tigray_War
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_northern_Ethiopia_%282020%E2%80%93present%29
“a second genocide”
At this point it’s a question of do we count waves / phases of genocide as multiple genocides.
The report itself ([3], point 72) finds #CrimesAgainstHumanity (by ENDF + EDF + Amhara/Afar Special Forces + ‘fano’), not #Genocide. Tigrayan forces committed #WarCrimes (not crimes against humanity) (point 71).
@tallwookie No, a “UN invasion” would solve nothing. The question for rich-country outsiders is which local/regional/continental groups/institutions should be supported. African civil society has plenty of ideas and is very active.
@boud Thanks for pointing out that distinction about the report. From what I have seen over the last few years from credible NGO reports, eyewitness testimony, video footage etc I am pretty sure it is a genocide.
I also agree with you that this is something I’d like to see tackled by AU or similar as a first option.
So where are the democrats to condemn these war crimes?
@Armen12 Abiy folded most of the opposition political parties into a “new” party so it is effectively a one party state these days. The big challenges to that came out of Tigray and Amhara.
If you are talking about American politics 🙄 then yes your Biden administration has been placing sanctions on the Ethiopian government because of the human rights situation there.
However it recently lifted the food sanctions. By all means write to your representatives about this.
Sanctions just hurt innocent people in the end, they accomplish nothing
@Armen12 yes, this is definitely the case with food sanctions. After the US and the UN withdrew food aid to Ethiopia earlier this year, there were reports of more people dying because of it.
