PM Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s Afwerki were dragged into the Tigray genocide
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ADDIS ABEBA – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki should take full responsibility for the ongoing massacre in the Tigray region, a doctor working in the war-torn area has suggested amid the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. .
Goitom Aregawi, also known as activist Ztseat, who is a doctor at Mekelle University Hospital and president of the Seb-Hidri Civil Society, Tigray, took a swipe at the two leaders and accused them of mastering the war, which has left thousands dead despite denials from Ethiopia.
The war started in November 2020 after Addis Ababa accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front [TPLF] to address the ENDF Northern Command. Later, the ENDF joined Eritrean troops who later refused to leave Tigray despite calls from international partners.
In a statement written by the doctor, a first eyewitness of the war against the Elephant, he noted that many people are starving due to blockades imposed by both Ethiopian and Eritrean troops working in the separatist region of Ethiopia.
“But most of the Tigray is still inaccessible to outsiders and communication is severely limited, so the vast majority of these crimes are unknown and undocumented,” he says. “As a doctor from Tigray who served in the regional capital of Mekelle during the first four months of the genocide before fleeing my country a month ago, I have seen this violence develop with my own eyes and I testify both personally and professionally. “
According to him, the massacre was instigated by Abiy Ahmed, an Oromia who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and Afwerki, a strongman in the Horn of Africa, who has not yet faced competition since 1993. Eritrea has traditionally had a grudge against the Tigray region, which is historic.
The doctor claims that Afwerki and Abiy Ahmed are anxious to exterminate the Tigrayan people through famine, which could trigger a serious humanitarian crisis in the country. Tigray is found in northern Ethiopia and borders Eritrea.
“Mass murder is not enough for the brains of the atrocities in Tigray, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki,” he said. “Their armed forces and allied militias are trying to eradicate the Tigrayan people by causing mass starvation. They are burning crops and seeds, cutting down trees, destroying agricultural implements, killing animals and destroying small ponds and irrigation canals to paralyze the agricultural sector.”
Reports from UN agencies and Tigray’s interim administration claim that more than 2.3 million people in the region are internally displaced and 5.2 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. According to UNICEF, the number of severely malnourished children in Tigray has increased by almost 90 percent in the past week.
Countless people have already died of starvation. But the Ethiopian government, the Eritrean army and the Amhara forces are determined to block humanitarian efforts, obstruct and impede access from aid organizations. At least eight aid workers have been killed in the past six months. The coordinated ethnic
US President Joe Biden issued a bold statement on the raging crisis in Ethiopia, warning of escalating violence and the hardening of regional and ethnic divisions, including “large-scale human rights abuses” and “widespread sexual violence” taking place in Tigray. But he ended up calling the terrible atrocities in Tigray by its real name: genocide, Goitom Aregawi noted.
“President Biden and other world leaders have a moral and legal obligation to call this evil in Tigray by its real name, genocide, and to identify and prosecute those who are ultimately responsible for this most heinous crime – Abiy Ahmed and Isaiah Afwerki. And then to act with ruthless efficiency and determination to end the genocide, he said.
In a warning, the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, UNFPA, said it was aware of “serious violations”, including gender-based violence in the war-torn north.
“The situation for women and teenage girls in Tigray and the border areas of Amhara and Afar remains dire,” said Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director. “We are seeing alarming levels of sexual violence and thousands of women are lacking access to health care.”
Abiy Ahmed has often denied allegations that thousands have been killed in Tigray, arguing that troops have targeted TPLF fighters in the country. But on several occasions he has admitted that Eritrean troops are in the country and even promised to get them out, a promise he has yet to fulfill according to reports.
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