Mereja Forum

[sarcasm]

3 February, 2021by Goitom Tsegay

The federal government appears to be indifferent to the mass suffering of Tigrayan people, writes a leading member of Arena Tigray opposition party.

As a result of the war in Tigray, the region is in chaos and suffering a severe humanitarian crisis. Tigrayans are living in fear and suffering en masse.

Although the government has claimed that the conflict ended on 28 November with the capture of Mekele, it is still going on. For instance, there are reports of fighting in mid-January from the UN in Western, North-Western, Central, East, and South-East Tigray zones.

The federal government called the war a “law enforcement operation,” and said that its three objectives are disarming the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional ruling party dubbed a “junta”, replace it with an interim administration (the deputy leader of my party, Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty, Abraha Desta was appointed the social affairs cabinet member), and bring wanted TPLF leaders to justice.

However, information coming out of the region indicates that atrocities with no connection with those objectives have been commonplace: The killing of civilians, looting of properties, destruction of towns, rape, and violent evictions by Amhara groups and Eritrean forces are among the horrors.

The destruction began in the early stages of the war.

Following the entrance of the Ethiopian National Defense Force and Amhara regional forces, there were many such reports. For instance, in Humera, after the city was captured early in the war, banks, hospitals, and private homes were looted, mostly by Amhara forces.

Residents in the capital, Mekelle, have also spoken about widespread looting and vandalism in the city—although some of that was reportedly committed by people released from prison amid the chaotic removal of Tigray’s government.

As a result of the war in Tigray, the region is in chaos and suffering a severe humanitarian crisis. Tigrayans are living in fear and suffering en masse.

According to the witness accounts of Tigrayan refugees in Sudan, members of Fano, the Amhara vigilante youth group, and other Amhara militia played a leading role in this. Among others, there are reports of Amhara militia and Fano members engaging in widespread torture, beating, and killing.

In Rawian, Western Tigray, I received a report in early December from a trusted contact of a girl being taken away from a farm and raped by nine Fano. I have also received a similar report around the same time that 40 civilians were killed in Southern Tigray.

Furthermore, I learned, through that same phone conversation, that a total of 49 civilians have been killed in Ago, Adimesno, and Tsehafti in southern Tigray in December. There were reports suggesting many innocent civilians have been killed around Bisober.

Other innocent civilians were also killed in a gruesome manner.

Some were slain inside their home, such as a man named Berhe Abraha killed in the house of his in-laws in Adiwade. His father-in-law, who was screaming and crying, was also killed in the compound. A priest by the name of Bayra Micheal was murdered inside St. Arsema church in Adikeyh.

Making matters more complicated, for Fano and Amhara groups engaged in the battle, the war is an opening to achieve their irredentist agenda of reclaiming what they consider to be Amhara land. On top of that, a sense of revenge is also driving the Amhara groups.

Continue reading at Ethiopian Insight

[Fiyameta]

It's not a war. It's a massive a$$ kicking that was heard around the world!

[sesame]

Agame,

Get this straight. You are a defeated people. The defeated accept whatever terms the victors impose on them. They have no say in what transpires. The sooner you understand that, the better for your health, both mental and physical. The more you deny the new realities, the more painful it will become for you.