Diaspora: Sustain the energy

goEthio

The Ethiopian diaspora community all over the world has reflected a strong unity of purpose in defending their homeland, Ethiopia; their roles that seem to have reached a fever pitch in 2021 was monumentally illuminating the truth.

The community had been fighting against western media’s disinformation, some western governments’ skewed policies towards Ethiopia and was throwing supports behind the Ethiopian people and government in various ways including remitting money through formal channels.

The year, 2021, was a tough time for Ethiopia which is deliberately targeted by the dark forces that have determined to tarnish Ethiopia’s image through intimidation, deception, well-organized media campaign from all sides.

Forces blinded by a geopolitical disease and bent on destroying the ancient civilizations joined forces to orchestrate the demise of Ethiopia but in vain.

The recent disinformation

The year also removed the veil on some international media that were taken as a yardstick of media professionalism and ethics. Take for instance the Economist. This giant media on November 6, 2021, published a headline: ‘Ethiopia’s capital is under threat.’ The deck headline of the story also reads: ‘Tigray’s rebels are on a roll.

Too many people in Addis Ababa who were perplexed by the headline, the giant media’s credibility reduced to dust in their minds. Most had got the opportunity to understand how celebrated media houses cook falsehoods to achieve destructive ends.

The same media outlet before releasing the above hoax story published a story that goes by the headline: “It would be foolish to discount the possibility of fighting on the streets of Addis Ababa-Ethiopia’s war.” The CNN and other western media’s as well alerted their audiences as Addis was bracing for the inevitable fall in the hands of the terrorist force, TPLF. All the dooms they predicted did not materialize. Nor did they ask apology from their audiences for the fake news.

The plotters real ambition was to create hysteria among Ethiopians. And to force government authorities to flee the country taking the fake coverage for granted.

It is very crucial to see into two important unfoldings. First, pseudo-federalists announced alliances in Washington DC to replace the government in Addis Ababa which Reuters streamed live on its official channel on the 5th of November. The nine-member so-called federalist group is chaired by Berhane Gebrekirstos, one of the TPLF representatives abroad. Getachew K. Reda, terrorist TPLF spokesperson admitted that the US and other western countries were advising them to enter Addis as a coalition of federalist forces.

To lay the conspiracy bare, a zoom discussion that involved former US, EU and UK diplomats; Berhane Gebrekirstos himself, former Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) head Eleni Gebremedhin (PhD) made a zoom discussion on how the transitional government they daydreamed to install in Addis operates. All were caught in the excitement that the TPLF will be in charge in Addis soon. Vicki Huddleston, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa and Chargé d’Affaires in Ethiopia was heard saying this: “I hope that you’ll have military success fairly soon.”

In addition to this, one of the biggest social media, TWITTER , even attempted to silence -Ethiopian voices by banning and suspending pro-Ethiopian accounts which unified Ethiopians strongly to fight back by exposing the conspiracy of destabilizing the whole East African region including Ethiopia.

Diaspora’s fight

As the odds worked tirelessly to impose their interest on Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Diaspora community came forward to counter the massive campaign waged against Ethiopia on the world stage. They became a voice for the voiceless that were massacred, raped and evicted by TPLF criminal thugs in Amhara and Afar regions. Hundreds of peaceful protests rocked the cities in the U.S and Europe to tell the truth denied by some western pseudo-scholars, politicians and the so-called human rights activists who gave a deaf ear to the atrocities committed against Ethiopians.

The Ethiopian diaspora fought against the odds by exposing the western media and government officials’ lies and fake ‘humanitarian alerts’ through its’ successful Twitter campaign. Grand campaigns were held in different cities across the United States and Europe. They waved the Ethiopian flag massively as the symbol of freedom and said enough to those who planned intervention and to those who violate the national sovereignty of Ethiopia. Despite the fact that the “#NoMore” tweet became trending, there was a futile attempt to silence the Ethiopian voices on the world stage. Ethiopians and Ethiopians led a successful campaign to tell the world community about the truth on the ground. The Nomore movement, for instance, galvanized support from the Europe, US, Caribbean Islands, Africa, and elsewhere in the world. The Ethiopian diaspora community reignited the engines of pan-Africanism.

In addition to the political stage, the Ethiopia Diaspora showed their unwavering support to their motherland by raising funds for the areas devastated by TPLF invaders.

A new platform called EYEZONE, developed by Chapa Financial Technologies S.C, for collecting funds was launched by the Diaspora community and made a huge success by raising more than 5 million dollars within a short period. [The CBE latest report on its website put the donation to 4.4 mil. USD. ]. This was a direct response from Ethiopians to show their solidarity towards their homeland. By doing so, they have challenged the illegal sanctions imposed on Ethiopia to cripple the economy and cause more Chaos.

Later in December the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency reported that the Ethiopian diaspora remitted over 1.6 billion USD using formal channels in the last five months of the Ethiopian fiscal year.

Responding to the Great Homecoming Challenge of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the diaspora community has come in droves to Ethiopia, despite the doom and gloom long-promoted by some western elements.

The community has further turned the energy into yet another opportunity to support their country. They have brought with themselves, among others, medical equipment ranging from simple to sophisticated ones. The equipment is meant to set the wheels of looted and ransacked health facilities into motion.

Today, Ethiopia has turned its face to rebuilding the destroyed public and private facilities. Also, sustainable development goals are also laid. More than anything else, the National Dialogue which is in the pipeline is one of the decisive endeavors. No shred of doubt, the diaspora community has roles to help the country achieve all its goals.

The fact is that despite the endeavors, Ethiopia’s historic foes never remain idle. It is foolish to expect that the disinformation campaign will not stop sometime soon. The geo-political patients seem not to heel very soon. Hence, the diaspora community’s unity of purpose needs to continue. The energy and synergy recently witnessed among the community in voicing Ethiopia’s concerns almost in all places across the globe ought to be translated into sustainable and meaningful force to advance the all-around interests of the people of Ethiopia.

Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The

BY TAMERAT ABEBE

THE ETHIOPIAN SUNDAY EDITION 9 JANUARY 2022

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