While no one questions the plight and suffering of the Tigrayan population, the displaced northern Afar communities can literally watch aid trucks drive past them and through their region, to hand over aid to the very leaders who are destroying their lives.  Humanitarianism should not discriminate across ethnicity. The Afar, shaken by the same lack of basic services as Tigray but, at the same time, suffering grave atrocities, destruction of their assets and displacement from their lands, still wait for their turn – both from national and international institutions – of receiving greater help. Selective outrage is outrageous indeed. 

Ethiopians have now been in pain as this war and the destruction it caused continue to linger. And it is very painful for all to watch. Moreover, TPLF’s history of corruption and divisive rule, recent atrocious actions, pro-war rhetoric, and political vision show that what it is attempting is not take over Ethiopia. Because its elites already understand that an Ethiopia that accepts its second coming is nonexistent. But its objective is to dismantle the Ethiopian state as we know it, which in turn takes the Horn of Africa towards unchartered territories of violence, displacements, and even potential war of all against all.

The adoption of unilateral coercive economic measures by the US is a flagrant breach of the fundamental principle of sovereign equality in international law and violates the basic norms of international relations as enshrined in the UN Charter, countless UN General Assembly resolutions, charters of various regional organizations, such as the Charter of the Organization of American States and the Constitutive Act of the African Union, and numerous international treaties, including the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

No wonder that the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, had to go out of the constitution and resort to dictatorial methods to protect his power and prevent the country from falling apart. Equally unsurprising is the fact that the refusal to generate a collective being, a general will by transcending ethnic distinctions turns any officeholder, including the Prime Minister, into a representative of an ethnic group.

In comparison to the Aswad dam, GERD construction began after appropriate site suitability studies, and relevant testing was conducted for its geology and geomorphology, by a reputable engineering firm. Also, the structural or engineering materials with optimal strength to withstand the horizontal hydraulic thrust was selected with the application of the advanced technologies of the 21st century. The whole project is contracted by WeBuild-Salini, a European company, with rich experience in building more than 200 Dams around the world.

The current position taken by the US administration is very  dangerous and  emboldening the remnants of the terrorist group and further fueling the conflict and the suffering of the people in Northern Ethiopia. It is also promoting unending inter-ethnic conflicts between Tigray and the rest of Ethiopia with devastating and unfathomable consequences for the subregion.

S foreign policy for the Horn has been entirely dominated by TPLF sympathizers who are working for successive US administration at the White House, State Department, and the United Nations. The TPLF led regime had repeatedly used its involvement in the counter terrorism strategy in the Horn of Africa to cheat and cement its importance to the western powers.

Sudan and Egypt’s cynical attempts to pressurize Ethiopia using different tactics to relinquish its dream of completing the GERD is unacceptable. It is high time that Egypt and Sudan realize that Africans in the continent and the diaspora are cautiously monitoring their disrespect to AU-led negotiation processes. If they do not refrain from their belligerent acts, they will risk significant sociopolitical crisis and ultimately Africans may come to terms with the reality that they indeed stand against anti-development aspirations of the continent’s poor states.

“Those who have wrecked Libya and turned it into an anarchic nightmare are trying to put to practice their dark art on Ethiopia. The African Union and all who value peace and stability in the horn of Africa should stand with Ethiopia in resisting the neocolonial machinations of some western actors and the teorrrism of TPLF.”

Notes by the editor: On July 6th, 2021, Ethiopia notified its Egyptian and Sudanese counterparts on the start of the second filling of the massive hydroelectric power project known as Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). While Egypt has “categorically rejected” Ethiopia’s move, the latter has insisted that such infrastructure project is designed to benefit majority Ethiopians without access to electricity and being constructed in good faith; therefore, it will not be affecting future water flow and sharing to the lower riparian states. The issue is now tabled for discussion at the UNSC in an extraordinary meeting called by Sudan. Many independent observers contend that the UN body has no mandate or expertise to host a meeting of this nature.

They were several  indicators that something was wrong with the interim government in Tigray set up to administer, rebuild and rehabilitate Tigray region. It is clear from the recent outcome that the interim government failed to live up to its mandate. There were sabotages by significant elements of the Interim administration of Tigray.

It’s up to the Ethiopian people and government to safeguard the nation’s integrity and national interest from being sacrificed on the altar of the US’s newly articulated strategic objective, by holding firm the principle of independence and non-interference of others in the conduct of the nation’s affairs. 

Currently the country is under great stress and in distress as the result of pressure from outside actors working hand in gloves with their counterparts from inside. They all seem to be determined and have unleashed all their resources from their military hardware to social media to render the forthcoming election a fiasco. The situation has some similarity with the one we had experienced following the Ethiopian Revolution in the 1970’s. This unholy alliance ought to be defeated at all costs.

Indeed, a closer look at the formation of the ruling Prosperity Party reveals the thinking behind the restructuration of the EPRDF. The latter was a coalition of ethnic parties held together by the hegemonic position of the TPLF.  The restructuring of the coalition into one Prosperity Party was obviously meant to lessen the ethnic divisions and make way for a pan-Ethiopian party. Where a united party tops or crowns regional divisions, it dilutes their political impact and likens them to administrative distinctions. Since the top is where everything converges and integrates, the regional divisions appear as ramifications of one single

The Adwa test for national reconciliation is a perspective for aligning how ought we to treat each other as fellow citizens. Should we approach social reconciliation from the perspective of division and enmity, instead of as people whose destiny is inseparably tied, we’d then fail the ancestors in whose name we fight.

Ethiopia and Sudan find themselves in a similar situation: the flawed calculations of one side leads to a war that neither side really wants. As Friedrich Engels said speaking of the manner history unfolds, “there are innumerable intersecting forces, an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant — the historical event.”

By its own definition, the AU did not utter a word. It did not reject Sudanese violation of Ethiopia’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.” In other words, the Arab League triumphed over the African Union. Black African nations, including Ethiopia are essentially treated as second class nations.

The government’s reluctance and delay in providing access to credible international investigators has contributed to the frenzy of vicious propaganda by local and foreign bottom feeders. The Ethiopian government must provide unfettered access to respected and respectable international human rights agencies and media outlets.

As the United Nations is major global institution that is presumably neutral, it cannot depend on unreliable, unattributable information. It has the obligation to get information from all parties and analyse them adequately before taking sides. Biased information erodes its credibility and hurts the people it alludes to help. The UN must be impartial.

A democratic territorial-based federalism would ensure that individual and group rights are conferred based on residency and not ethnicity. In fact, this arrangement would be the best model to advance inclusive, equitable, and sustainable socio economic growth, democratization, and good governance; while at the same time, enhancing the stability and security of Ethiopians and the Ethiopian State.

Nearly three decades of its implementation has amply demonstrated that the Ethiopian Constitution has not bode well for our country. Its weakness has been made worse by its inbuilt mechanism of blocking amendments. A nation of over a hundred million people ought not be taken captive by a document put in place by an unscrupulous group, i.e., the TPLF and its accomplices.

If Ethiopia is going to have a decent post-conflict economic recovery, this mixing of business with politics, the ethnically centered enterprise empire-building, and few family-controlled conglomerates need to be reformed. The opportunity should not be missed.

Sadly, the world has different standards for Africa. There is a widespread doubt about whether the people of Africa are ready for democracy. A milieu of explanations has been put forward. Chief among them are that democratic norms and institutions have not developed and the majority of the populace is uneducated and apathetic about who is in power.

Africa has many opportunities to grow more food on less land while safeguarding the environment, therefore protecting millions of its citizens from going hungry. But for this to come to fruition, African governments need to be open to new, scientifically proven technologies including bioengineered crops, and use them appropriately.

Ultimately, for neutral observers, it is important to note that TPLF’s accusation of Eritrea’s involvement was not corroborated by actual evidence. Hence, the allegation is most likely nothing but a failed disinformation campaign by the TPLF.

Kenya and Ethiopia signed an agreement for preferential access aimed at fostering economic co-operation in 2012, emphasising on trade, investment, infrastructure, food security and sustainable livelihoods.

Another potential challenge is that the use of any of these vaccines by national immunisation programmes will need to be informed by high quality and timely evidence that takes local context into consideration. This means national policy makers must urgently and meticulously consider the merits and demerits of each of the vaccines prior to deciding which one to use

One of the many crimes of EPRDF, is that it forced those like me to spend way too much energy defending at all costs the ideas that a nation exists, that a nation has been imagined and achieved, that Ethiopia is larger than its ethnic components; when in fact, those like myself should not have wasted this much time on it at all.

After Mussolini’s revenge invasion in 1936, Ethiopians were tormented for five years by aggressive fascist Italy. The city of Addis Ababa still shows memorial landmarks of several massacres, executions of national patriots, religious leaders, imprisonment and exile of aristocrats and citizens.

As Ethiopia hopes for peaceful days ahead, everyone should contribute towards constructive engagement.

Thus, it is also high time that the ethno-nationalist camp stop the divisive rhetoric and replace it with calls for dialogue, forward looking reconciliation, and peaceful co-existence.

For Ethiopia to be at peace and prosper and for Ethiopians to co-exist in peace and harmony, a closer look at the current constitution, attempt to understand the perennial challenges or questions concerning the citizenry of the country and an effort to address the Eritrean territorial demand for once and for all is important.

Today’s Ethiopian generations must also take up these challenges, help the government and all stakeholders that work to stabilize the Tigray and other violence prone regions and work to make Ethiopia a peaceful and prosperous country. Then, this generation will be remembered for its role in the transformation of Ethiopia for good.

A political settlement through dialogue and negotiation could be a solution to the conflict. However, at this point, the likelihood of a negotiated settlement seems unlikely given the fact that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front admitted to firing rockets into the neighboring Amhara region, further enraging federal authorities.

Tsigereda Meleskachew (BA, MPH) TPLF’s attack against ENDF’s Northern Command, which overwhelming majority of Ethiopians considered an act of betrayal,

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