BY HENOK TIBEBU
Ethiopia which is home for more than eighty nations and nationalities has been going through several socioeconomic and political challenges over the past fifty years. Poverty, drought, famine and civil war have been testing the strength and unity of its peoples. The country had also faced invasion from colonial fascist and neighborhood troops, even if these external enemies were defeated by the united defensive struggle of the nations and nationalities.
However, the majority of its people agree with the fact they had never suffered like the past three or four decades from the blood spilling two regimes of Derg and the TPLF-dominated EPRDF. Both regimes had ruled the people with respective unilateral ideologies as the Derg stuck with its failed communism and the TPLF dominated EPRDF with its divisive ethnic-based politics.
When the people got sick and tired of the consecutive seventeen years of war between the TPLF and the Derg they acceped the TPLF to take over the leadership of the country. But their divisive-based politics full of orchestrated historical fallacy and hatred brought the country to the situation that the nation is dealing with bloodshed.
The TPLF dominated EPRDF ruled for the past twenty seven years with its divisive-ethnic -based politics cheating the global community with its tricky developmental agendas that its elite group has financially benefited a lot from the debt in which they buried the country deep. They have become filthy rich from the loan they received from the partners in the name of the poor country. They built lower standard roads and railways with foreign contractors of lower standards A prime minister would launch or inaugurate a mega projects but one cannot see the fruits of that projects. It was only a matter of time for the Ethiopian people to find out about the stolen seven billion birr from the national sugar projects by the TPLF elite groups.
The money allocated for the mechanical work which METEC took over was siphoned by the elites. The money also allocated for clearing the area where the water lays behind the GERD was also stolen. When journalist asked the military officials of METEC about the project’s money some decorated TPLF general would call and order the media to stop talking about the issue.
They exploited the country like this for the past twenty seven years but they are not done still. After they lost power and retreated to Mekelle the capital of Tigray state the fact that they are forgiven by the people of Ethiopia and the new administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) was so bitter. Thus they went on airing false stories on the media based in Mekelle claiming that the new administration is illegal.
They kept on intensifying allegations of ethnic offense on the people of Tigray. When Ethiopians from all directions gave them a deaf ear and pressed ahead working on their national reconciliation, the TPLF elites went on acting like a wounded beast.
Miss reading the prolonged patience and wise resolutions for peace as a weakness they started sharpening war rhetoric by confusing the global community with their cowardly stories conveying that they are under a threat of attack by the legal government of Ethiopia.
However, their insanity showed up clearly when they attacked the northern command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) last year. They killed many of the soldiers who spent some twenty years protecting the Tigraian people. They even slaughtered female soldiers and boasted about their treasonous act as one of the world’s most effective operation executed in forty five minutes.
That forced the Ethiopian government to launch the law-enforcement operation. After the Ethiopian defense force defeated the terrorist force and controlled Tigray, the government of Ethiopia decided a unilateral ceasefire and the defense force left out of Tigray.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s (PhD) administration has to go through different lampoonings from the media and social activists for its ceasefire decision that was meant to give a chance for the people of Tigray consider the situations and decide what is better for them.
The TPLF elites again went insane and invaded the Amhara and Afar states. The terrorist force committed genocide.
It troops as well raped teenage girls, pregnant and elderly women in front of their families. They killed civilians in mass. When all this savage things were done on the people of Afar and Amhara, the western media like CNN, BBC, Reuters, New York Times,….. were covering up the reality and airing the terrorist group’s false propaganda.
To date the government defense force, the Militia, Special Force and Fano of Amhara as well as the special force of Afar have fought bravely and kicked the terrorist group out of the two regions with the practical leadership of the premier at the battlefront. But the nation is still challenged by the false propaganda warfare of the TPLF terrorist being supported by the western media.
The diaspora community of Ethiopia on the other hand has been doing a commendable job with its #nomore movement in Europe and U.S. demonstrating “Handoff Ethiopia, Africa”. The call for national home coming of million Ethiopian diaspora has also gained a wonderful response when the nation celebrated Christmas and the UNESCO registered Ethiopian epiphany. The diaspora community has contributed a lot to support the national economy with foreign exchange and the displaced people in Amhara and Afar states.
Now a national dialogue is taking place in every part of the country. Despite the arguments on some issues of concerns the national dialogue is expected to go smoothly and bring about new insights and productive ideologies that will strengthen the nation’s unity which is the only option to realize its prosperity. It should also have come up with a result which clearly reveals for the global community that the counter offensive is unleashed only against the terrorist group and not with the people of Tigray.
The government should also look deep inside its structure in every level be it in the military or the civic institutions and go through a new reform. It is a practical truth that the TPLF terrorist leaders are still stuck with their twisted insane thought of ethnic-based and separatist ideology of hatred. Thus, emerging unionist political parties of the Tigray people must set their routs so deep and contribute on the efforts to set the region and its peoples free from the suppression of TPLF terrorist.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The
The February 3/2022
