By Sewasew Teklemariam

There is something almost tragicomic about watching great powers rediscover Ethiopia every few decades, dusting off the same old script: brave ally, reliable troops, convenient geography. One might be forgiven for thinking that somewhere in Washington, a filing cabinet labelled “Break Glass in Case of Unpopular War” contains a single index card reading: “Try Ethiopia.”

And so here we are again. Seventy-four years after Ethiopian soldiers froze in Korean trenches defending a principle called “collective security,” Addis Ababa finds itself courted once more, this time for Gaza, that graveyard of diplomatic ambition and geopolitical vanity. The Americans, it seems, have run out of takers. The Arabs are squeamish. The Europeans are preoccupied. Enter Ethiopia: loyal, militarily competent, and crucially still returning phone calls.

One almost admires the symmetry.

Let us begin with an uncomfortable fact that tends to disappear from polite diplomatic conversation: Ethiopia earned its stripes as an international actor not through hashtag solidarity or conference-room grandstanding, but by sending young men to die in someone else’s war. Between 1951 and 1954, over 6,000 Ethiopian troops served in Korea under the United Nations Command, personally authorised by Emperor Haile Selassie. The Kagnew Battalions fought at Pork Chop Hill, Old Baldy, and other places whose names now exist only in military histories and fading monuments. They earned a distinction almost quaint by today’s standards: not a single Ethiopian soldier was left behind or captured. Not one (United Nations Command historical records; US Army Center of Military History).

This was not theatre. It was war, and Ethiopia bled for it. The casualty figures, whilst modest by Korean War standards, were significant for a country of Ethiopia’s size and resources. Ethiopian field hospitals treated wounded Americans, Britons, and Turks alongside their own. Ethiopian officers coordinated with UN commanders in conditions that would test any alliance. And when the armistice was signed in 1953, Ethiopia remained in Korea for another year, because that was what collective security demanded.

Why? Because Haile Selassie, having watched the League of Nations abandon his country to Mussolini’s poison gas in 1936, believed, perhaps naively, that multilateralism might actually mean something if smaller nations upheld it. Ethiopia, he reasoned, must defend collective security abroad so that collective security might one day defend Ethiopia. It was a wager on principle over pragmatism, idealism over cynicism, the sort of bet that history tends to punish with exquisite cruelty.

It didn’t, of course. But more on that shortly.

The Korean deployment was not merely military. It was deeply symbolic. Here was an African nation, barely a decade removed from Italian occupation, standing shoulder to shoulder with the West not as a supplicant or protectorate, but as an equal partner in defence of international law. Ethiopian diplomats at the United Nations made much of this. So did American officials, who found Ethiopia’s participation useful for demonstrating that the Korean intervention was a truly international effort, not merely Western imperialism in multilateral drag.

Yet even then, cracks were visible. Ethiopian requests for military aid and modernisation assistance were met with warm words and modest gestures, but nothing approaching the largesse showered on more strategically located allies. The message, subtle but unmistakable, was clear: Ethiopia’s contribution was valued, but not valuable enough to fundamentally alter the transactional calculus of Cold War patronage.

Fast forward to December 2025. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Addis Ababa, all smiles and Memoranda of Understanding. Bilateral relations are elevated to a “Strategic Partnership” that most elastic of diplomatic phrases, meaning everything and nothing simultaneously. There is talk of customs cooperation, digital infrastructure, peacekeeping training, and G20 debt relief (Government of India press briefings; Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs statements). All very modern. All very multilateral. The optics are impeccable: two ancient civilisations, both asserting themselves on the global stage, forging bonds of South-South cooperation untainted by colonial baggage.

Then, almost on cue, the other shoe drops.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the Times of Israel, has asked Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to consider contributing Ethiopian troops to a proposed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza (Times of Israel, 19 December 2025). Not a UN mission, mind you. Not even a particularly coherent coalition. Just a hastily assembled fig leaf for President Trump’s latest ceasefire plan, which Arab and Muslim states are treating like a radioactive briefcase (Reuters, 17 December 2025).

Pakistan has demurred. Indonesia is dodging calls. Saudi Arabia is suddenly very interested in Yemen again. Egypt, despite its own security concerns in Sinai, has made its discomfort plain. Jordan, normally America’s most reliable Arab partner, is keeping a careful distance. Even the Gulf states, usually amenable to American security requests when sufficiently incentivised, have found reasons to be elsewhere.

And so Washington, in its infinite resourcefulness, has turned to Ethiopia: that reliable old warhorse, still standing after everyone else has bolted from the stable. One might call it flattering, if it weren’t so depressingly familiar.

To be fair, Ethiopia is a serious peacekeeping nation. It currently ranks among the top global contributors to UN missions, with troops in Abyei, Darfur, and Somalia (UN Department of Peace Operations data). Ethiopian soldiers are disciplined, experienced, and, unlike certain Western contingents, unlikely to flee at the first whiff of cordite. They have earned respect in some of Africa’s most challenging environments, operating in conditions that would give European defence ministers nightmares and human rights lawyers apoplexy.

But Gaza is not Darfur. And the proposed ISF is not a UN mission.

It is a politically contested, regionally explosive, militarily ambiguous intervention in one of the world’s most volatile theatres. Trump’s ceasefire framework explicitly links stabilisation to Hamas disarmament, a condition that Hamas rejects, Arab states won’t enforce, and no serious analyst believes can be achieved without catastrophic escalation (Reuters; public statements by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, November 2025). The very premise of the mission is contested. The rules of engagement are undefined. The exit strategy is non-existent. The political legitimacy is questionable at best.

In other words, it’s a deathtrap wrapped in a press release. And Ethiopia is being asked to walk into it.

The parallel to Korea is instructive, but not in the way American officials might hope. Korea, whatever its horrors, was a UN-mandated mission with broad international support, clear opposing forces, and a defined military objective. Gaza would be none of these things. It would be an occupation masquerading as stabilisation, a political arrangement imposed by force and sustained by the presence of foreign troops whom neither side particularly wants. Ethiopian soldiers would find themselves policing a ceasefire that nobody believes in, enforcing a disarmament that cannot be achieved, and serving as convenient targets for any faction seeking to demonstrate its resistance credentials.

Then there is Egypt, which watches all of this with the cold attentiveness of a creditor studying a debtor’s new car. Relations between Addis Ababa and Cairo are hardly warm. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam remains a source of existential anxiety for Egypt, which views Ethiopian control over Nile waters the way Britain once viewed German control of the Channel: intolerable.

Ethiopian troops in Gaza, right on Egypt’s doorstep, would be read in Cairo not as burden-sharing, but as triangulation. Ethiopia securing American goodwill in the Middle East whilst remaining immovable on the Nile. Geopolitical judo. Egypt might publicly welcome the assistance, might even offer logistical support and coordinated border security. Privately, it would seethe. And mistrust, once entrenched, is devilishly difficult to dislodge. Every Ethiopian patrol near Rafah would be interpreted through the prism of Nile politics. Every American commendation of Ethiopian reliability would be seen as a subtle rebuke to Egyptian inflexibility on GERD.

The broader Arab world would face similar contradictions. How does one explain to a restive population that African troops are being deployed to stabilise Gaza when Arab armies stood aside? The optics are appalling. The politics worse. Ethiopian participation, however well-intentioned, risks becoming a symbol not of international cooperation but of Arab impotence and Western manipulation.

To understand why many Ethiopians regard these American overtures with the enthusiasm one reserves for unsolicited timeshare presentations, one must confront an inconvenient historical truth: the West has form. The overthrow of Ethiopia’s monarchy in 1974 was not merely a domestic revolution. It was Cold War opportunism dressed in Marxist rhetoric. Haile Selassie, having served as a steadfast American ally, hosting Kagnew Station, America’s largest communications facility in Africa, supporting Western positions at the UN, maintaining open trade and diplomatic channels, found that loyalty evaporated the moment his utility did.

Western powers, suddenly squeamish about imperial anachronism and distracted by Vietnam, Watergate, and oil shocks, stood aside. The Soviets, delighted, moved in with advisors, weapons, and ideological support (Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia; declassified US and Soviet Cold War records). What followed was not liberation, but systematic dismantling. Ethiopia’s historical state structure was replaced by a Derg regime whose brutality matched its incompetence, and then by an ethno-federal system whose long-term consequences are still being violently litigated in Tigray, Oromia, and Amhara.

The lesson? Loyalty rewarded when convenient. Sovereignty negotiable when inconvenient.

Nor did the post-Cold War era offer correction. Instead, Ethiopia became a laboratory for externally endorsed political engineering, celebrated when stable, condemned when fractured. Critics argue, with some justice, that the international community prioritised short-term manageability over long-term cohesion, tolerating governance models that institutionalised division whilst ignoring their destabilising effects. Western donors pumped billions into Ethiopia during the Meles Zenawi years, praising “African Renaissance” and “developmental state” whilst carefully averting their gaze from political repression and ethnic manipulation.

When the system finally collapsed into civil war in 2020, those same donors expressed shock, shocked!that such instability could emerge from a framework they had spent decades endorsing. It is within this historical memory that fears of a “second disintegration” must be understood, not as paranoia, but as pattern recognition.

If Ethiopia commits troops to Gaza without a clear UN mandate, defined rules of engagement, and regional consensus, it risks becoming once again, the geopolitical equivalent of a hired extra: visible in the frame, expendable in the edit. The question is not whether Ethiopia can contribute to global peace. Korea answered that. The question is whether selective internationalism, driven by great-power convenience, will once again leave Ethiopia holding the bag whilst others collect the applause.

There is also the domestic dimension to consider. Ethiopia is hardly in a position of domestic tranquillity from which to project military power abroad. The Tigray conflict may have formally ended, but its political, economic, and humanitarian consequences continue to reverberate. Ethnic tensions remain acute. The economy is strained. The military itself has been stretched thin by years of internal conflict. Deploying thousands of troops to Gaza whilst Amhara and Oromia simmer would be the diplomatic equivalent of reorganising the deck chairs whilst the hull takes on water.

Ethiopia’s history, from Korea to Cold War abandonment, from peacekeeping leadership to domestic fragmentation, offers a lesson that extends beyond Addis Ababa. It is a lesson about the limits of loyalty in an international system that rewards power and punishes principle. Strategic partnerships grounded in development and mutual respect, such as the one recently signed with India, strengthen sovereignty because they assume equality of agency and mutuality of benefit. Security arrangements imposed by geopolitical necessity do not, because they assume hierarchy and instrumentality.

If there is to be another chapter in Ethiopia’s long record of international service, it must be written with historical memory as strategy, not sentiment. The Kagnew Battalions deserve better than to be remembered as a cautionary tale of loyalty unrequited. Ethiopia’s current generation deserves better than to repeat their predecessors’ mistakes in a different desert, under a different flag, for similarly nebulous reasons.

The filing cabinet remains open. The index card remains tempting. But perhaps this time, Ethiopia might politely suggest that someone else take a turn. After all, there are plenty of nations who have benefited from American patronage over the decades. Perhaps it’s their turn to demonstrate that special relationships involve actual reciprocity, not just convenient deployment schedules.

History, as they say, doesn’t repeat itself. But it does rhyme. And Ethiopia has heard this particular verse before.

Key Sources:
United Nations Command & UN Department of Peace Operations historical records; US Army Center of Military History (Korean War archives); Times of Israel, 19 December 2025; Reuters, 17 December 2025; Government of India and Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press releases; Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia

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How a government courting Tehran and BRICS finds itself branded a persecutor in Washington

By E Frashie Ethiopian Tribune columnist

There is a peculiar theatre unfolding around Ethiopia, a split screen of self-perception and international indictment that would be comic if the stakes weren’t measured in mass graves and famine. On one side of the screen: Ethiopian officials touring Tehran’s defence fair, posturing at BRICS summits, invoking anti-colonial rhetoric over the Nile, and dreaming aloud of Red Sea access. On the other: Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter of Georgia introducing a congressional resolution that reads less like diplomacy and more like an indictment, accusing Addis Ababa of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the persecution of Christians specifically the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

The irony is not subtle. A government that presents itself as a bulwark against Western interference, a champion of African sovereignty, and a rising power in the Global South is now being publicly flogged in the US Congress as a violator of religious freedom. Faith, it turns out, is both Ethiopia’s shield and its vulnerability a moral fault line that diaspora activists and American lawmakers are now exploiting with surgical precision.

The congressional resolution is not built on abstractions. Behind its legalese lies a pattern of violence so systematic it defies dismissal as isolated incidents. In Arsi last month, over 30 Orthodox Christians were brutally killed in coordinated attacks. In Horo Guduru Wollega, on 30 November, two Orthodox clergy—Meleake Edom Fr. Dhuguma Uffa, chief executive of the archdiocese, and Fr. Desalegn Nemomsa from Mahibere Kidusan, were abducted whilst returning from the Feast of St Mary celebration at Harreto, near Shambu town. Both were later found dead.

Let that sink in: priests murdered for attending a religious feast. Not in the heat of battle, not as collateral damage in some broader conflict, but abducted on their way home from celebrating the Virgin Mary and executed. The perpetrators remain unidentified. No arrests have been made. No official motive has been disclosed. The families and faithful are left with bodies and silence a combination that breeds both grief and rage.

This is not anomalous. It is algorithmic. Orthodox Christians in regions like Oromia, Wollega, and Arsi have become targets in a campaign that church leaders describe as systematic persecution. Bishops are intimidated. Churches are desecrated or closed. Believers are killed not despite their faith but because of it. His Grace Abune Nikodimos, bishop of the Horo Guduru Wollega Archdiocese, has called the killings “an assault on faith, freedom, and human dignity.” He is not exaggerating.

For context: the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is not a fringe sect. It claims roughly 76 million adherents, making it the largest religious body in Ethiopia and one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world, tracing its roots to the fourth century. When a state allows, or orchestrates, the systematic killing of this community’s clergy and faithful, it is not managing ethnic tensions or fighting insurgency. It is committing cultural erasure.

The resolution didn’t materialise from congressional concern alone. Behind it stands a networked diaspora organisations like the Amhara Association of America and the American-Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC), that have spent years translating Ethiopia’s internal horrors into a language Washington understands: strategic threat, religious persecution, geopolitical liability. This is diaspora diplomacy at its most potent. These groups are not merely lobbying; they are writing the script for US policy. By framing Ethiopia’s repression through the lens of Christian persecution backed by documented atrocities like the Arsi massacre and the Wollega clergy murders, they’ve tapped into a bipartisan moral vocabulary that resonates across the American political spectrum. Evangelical Republicans and human-rights Democrats alike can rally around the image of ancient churches desecrated, bishops intimidated, believers starved, and priests abducted from religious celebrations and killed.

The diaspora’s genius lies in localisation and documentation. They’ve planted roots in swing districts, cultivated relationships with lawmakers like Carter, and ensured that Ethiopia’s crisis is no longer an abstraction but a constituent concern backed by names, dates, and body counts. When a congressman from Georgia tables a resolution citing specific incidents, 30 killed in Arsi, two clergy murdered in Wollega, it signals a shift: Ethiopia’s internal repression has been successfully internationalised, repackaged as a threat not just to Ethiopians but to US interests in the Horn of Africa.

The resolution’s most consequential demand is the deployment of Global Magnitsky Act sanctions targeted measures that bypass the state and strike at individuals. Travel bans. Asset freezes. Public designation as human rights violators. This is not the blunt instrument of comprehensive sanctions; it’s a scalpel designed to isolate elites and make complicity costly. For Ethiopian officials who’ve grown accustomed to impunity at home, Magnitsky sanctions represent a different calculus. Bank accounts in Dubai and London suddenly matter. Children studying in the West become hostages to reputation. The ability to travel, invest, and launder wealth abroad, the perks of power, evaporate.

The question is not whether officials are implicated in atrocities, the pattern is clear. The question is whether anyone will be held accountable. When clergy can be abducted and killed after a religious feast with no arrests, no investigation, no consequences, it signals either state complicity or state collapse. Either way, Magnitsky sanctions would force a reckoning: officials would have to choose between personal wealth abroad and continued impunity at home. The symbolic weight is equally significant. Magnitsky listings are public. They name names. They create a permanent record that follows individuals long after they’ve left office. For a government that prizes its image as a developmental state and continental leader, having its officials branded as war criminals in Washington is a reputational disaster, one that undermines Ethiopia’s BRICS aspirations and Tehran partnerships even as it unfolds.

Yet sanctions are also a gamble. If applied clumsily, they risk entrenching the very authoritarianism they aim to deter, providing Addis Ababa with a convenient nationalist narrative: “The West is punishing us for refusing to bow.” Ethiopia’s leadership has already shown a talent for reframing external pressure as neo-colonial meddling. Magnitsky sanctions could easily become another chapter in that story.

Here is the paradox Ethiopia’s government now inhabits: it seeks legitimacy in Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing whilst facing delegitimisation in Washington, Brussels, and amongst its own diaspora. It projects strength abroad, military posturing over Red Sea access, economic ambitions in BRICS, whilst its internal governance is collapsing under the weight of ethnic violence, famine, and religious repression. The two narratives are colliding. Ethiopia cannot be simultaneously a rising power and a failing state, a defender of sovereignty and a violator of human rights, a partner in Tehran and a pariah in Washington. Yet this is the tightrope Addis Ababa is walking, and the congressional resolution is a signal that the rope is fraying.

What makes this moment particularly volatile is the religious dimension. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is not a minority faith; it is woven into the country’s historical identity, claiming over a third of the population. Allegations that the state is persecuting the Church, backed by documented cases like the 30 November clergy murders and the December Arsi massacre, strike at the heart of Ethiopia’s self-conception as a Christian civilisation. For diaspora activists, this is a potent weapon. For the government, it’s an accusation that’s harder to dismiss as Western propaganda when priests are being killed on their way home from church.

Beneath the congressional rhetoric and diaspora advocacy lies a grimmer truth: Ethiopians are dying. Not metaphorically, not in the abstract language of policy briefs, but literally in Tigray, in Amhara, in Oromia, in Wollega, in Arsi. Famine is being weaponised. Villages are burnt. Churches are desecrated. Clergy are abducted and murdered. Over 30 killed in Arsi last month. Two priests murdered in Wollega in November. These are not statistics; they are names, families, congregations left without shepherds. The lived reality on the ground bears little resemblance to the sanitised language of resolutions and sanctions lists. Fr. Dhuguma Uffa and Fr. Desalegn Nemomsa were real men with congregations who depended on them. The 30 killed in Arsi had families, jobs, dreams. They died not on battlefields but in their communities, targeted for their faith.

This is the danger of spectacle: that Washington’s moral theatre becomes a substitute for meaningful action. A congressional resolution costs nothing. It signals concern without committing resources. Even Magnitsky sanctions, for all their symbolic weight, are only as effective as the political will behind them and Washington’s attention is fickle. Ethiopians watching this unfold know the script. They’ve seen external pressure before: statements of concern, calls for dialogue, aid suspended and then quietly resumed. The question is not whether Rep. Carter’s resolution will pass, it probably won’t, or it will pass and be forgotten, but whether it represents the beginning of sustained US engagement or merely another performance of outrage.

Ethiopia’s government will likely respond to this resolution the way it has responded to previous criticism: with defiance, deflection, and a doubling-down on its non-Western partnerships. Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing do not lecture about human rights. They offer weapons, investments, and diplomatic cover. For a leadership that sees itself under siege, that alternative is appealing. But the split screen remains. Ethiopia cannot escape its geography, its dependence on Western aid, or the fact that its diaspora, now mobilised, organised, and armed with documentation of atrocities like the Wollega clergy murders and Arsi massacre, will continue to shape the narrative abroad. The Magnitsky shadow is long. Once cast, it’s difficult to remove.

The tragedy is that Ethiopia’s people deserve better than this binary: better than a government that courts authoritarians abroad whilst brutalising them at home, and better than a US Congress that offers moral condemnation without sustained commitment. Fr. Dhuguma Uffa and Fr. Desalegn Nemomsa deserved to return home safely from their feast day. The 30 killed in Arsi deserved to practise their faith without fear. The split screen will persist until someone changes the channel, or until the screen itself shatters under the weight of all those bodies it can no longer ignore.

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By Senior Political Correspondent
Ethiopian Tribune, April 26, 2025

The United States Embassy in Addis Ababa has issued a security alert that reflects the complex challenges facing Ethiopia’s fragile security apparatus as the nation continues its difficult transition toward stability. The advisory, released yesterday, warns American citizens about rising crime rates and potential civil unrest, advising vigilance and avoidance of public demonstrations.

While such diplomatic advisories are routine protocol, this latest warning merits deeper examination within Ethiopia’s current sociopolitical context. Security experts and political analysts suggest the alert reveals underlying tensions that continue to shape Ethiopia’s recovery landscape nearly four years after the cessation of active conflict in Tigray.

“The emphasis on spontaneous checkpoints and increased police activity points to security concerns that extend beyond ordinary crime prevention measures,” notes a professor of Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University. “This reflects the ongoing challenges of reintegrating former combatants and addressing unresolved grievances.”

Documentary Evidence Exposes Criminal Networks

The alert coincides with troubling evidence recently released by the Federal Police in a documentary film showing former TPLF fighters engaged in criminal activities in the capital. The footage, which has circulated widely on social media, depicts organized robbery operations targeting civilians in Addis Ababa’s residential areas.

“What we’re witnessing is the consequence of incomplete demobilization processes,” explains who wants to remain anonymous a retired military Colonel currently serving as security analyst with the Ethiopian Policy Institute. “When former combatants aren’t properly reintegrated into civilian life with economic opportunities, some inevitably turn to criminal networks.”

The Federal Police documentary explicitly connects these criminal cells to wider security concerns, suggesting that while the formal conflict has ended, its aftereffects continue to manifest in evolving security challenges across urban centers.

Broader Implications for Ethiopia’s Recovery

For Ethiopia’s diaspora communities and international observers, the embassy’s warning represents more than a routine security precaution. It raises fundamental questions about the sustainability of peace agreements and reconciliation efforts that have shaped Ethiopia’s political landscape since 2022.

“The alert suggests that beneath the veneer of normalcy, significant work remains in building lasting stability,” argues Hiwot director of the Ethiopian Diaspora Association. “For many in our communities abroad, this reinforces concerns about returning or investing in reconstruction efforts.”

Economic factors likely contribute to the security situation, with inflation and unemployment creating conditions where criminal activity flourishes. The World Bank’s recent economic assessment points to a 12% youth unemployment rate in urban areas, with former conflict zones experiencing even higher figures.

Government Response

Government spokesperson acknowledged the security challenges but emphasized the administration’s commitment to addressing them systematically. “We are implementing comprehensive security reforms while balancing the need for reconciliation with accountability,” stated in response to questions about the embassy warning.

Critics, however, argue that the government has been slow to address underlying political grievances that continue to fuel tensions. Opposition leader Berhanu Nega, currently serving as minister of Education called for more inclusive political dialogue, stating that “security cannot be achieved through policing alone when political questions remain unresolved.”

As Ethiopia navigates this delicate period, the international community’s perception of the country’s stability remains crucial for economic recovery and diplomatic relations. The U.S. Embassy alert serves as both a practical warning for American citizens and a symbolic indicator of Ethiopia’s ongoing journey toward sustainable peace.

For Ethiopia’s intellectual class and growing civil society, the challenge remains clear: addressing security concerns while maintaining the democratic opening that has allowed for greater political expression following decades of authoritarian governance.

© 2025 Ethiopian Tribune – Serving global audiences and Ethiopian communities worldwide

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Review: A Compelling Look at Chinese Influence in Eastern Africa

By Murtada Elfadl

Popular on Variety 

Colorful characters and rebel workers collide in directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan’s Ethiopia-focused documentary.

In “Made in Ethiopia,” directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan take the macro issue of China’s influence in Africa and present it provocatively through the micro lens of its effect on a few Chinese and Ethiopian individuals striving for a better life. The film is set at a Chinese industrial complex in Dukem, a small town southeast of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. It follows an ambitious Chinese businesswoman trying to expand the complex with the help of Ethiopian bureaucrats and the consequences this expansion has on a factory worker and a farming family that lives nearby.

The businesswoman is Motto Ma, a delusionally ambitious outsider who says things like, “The industrial complex is a tourist hotspot. We are considering selling tickets.” She makes up the lie, believes and then hypes it. Motto (the film refers to all the subjects with just their first names) is both charming and wily, the type of person who would sing at her company’s function despite not having any talent. At one point, she announces to the camera, “I starved myself to death for two days to fit this dress.” She’s willing to cajole, threaten and push anyone to get what she wants. She thinks she understands what Ethiopians need, but she’s all hubris. All of this makes her the perfect subject for a documentary.

Motto is such a loud and colorful character that she overshadows her Ethiopian counterparts. Contrasting Motto is Betelihem “Beti” Ashenafi, a quiet factoryworker with modest dreams. Motto claims that her work would make Ethiopians realize their dreams within their lifetime. Something unattainable without her industrial complex expansion. But in Beti, we see how wrong and far-fetched those claims are. Despite working hard and trying to elevate herself, she’s stuck in a never-ending circle of thwarted aspirations. However, because Motto dominates most of the film, Beti’s story comes through as an afterthought.

Providing a stronger counterpoint to Motto is Workinesh Chala and her family. They are farmers whose land was taken by the government so the Chinese industrial complex can expand. They were promised replacement land which they never received. As “Made in Ethiopia” unspools, Workinesh and her young daughter Rehoboth give the film its most compelling scenes. As Rehoboth describes the source of her mother’s resilience, “Made in Ethiopia” gets to show the Ethiopian side of this complicated quandary clearly. With this family’s story, the film finally demonstrates how cultural differences and power imbalance can impede even the most generous of intentions.

“Made in Ethiopia” is ostensibly a film about clash and conflict, and it doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Indeed, it presents an epic scene in which some of the Ethiopian factory workers rebel against the hard working conditions. The scene is deepened by focusing on Edae, the factory translator who mediates between the workers and their supervisor. Centering Edae shifts the narrative from a straight David and Goliath story with clear heroes and villains into a complicated morality tale of ever-changing priorities and loyalties.

The film includes many provocative images. While showing the wedding of a Chinese man and an Ethiopian woman, the camera pans to a stash of cash being presented on a silver tray to the bride’s parents. The filmmakers also show Beti and her friends feeding each other and the farmers praying under a huge tree for the rain to come. Since these are traditions and customs of Ethiopian people, in presenting them juxtaposed with a Western gaze, the film ends up exoticizing the same people it claims to realistically depict.

Despite an imbalance in perspectives, “Made in Ethiopia” ends up presenting a compelling narrative about how Chinese influence in Ethiopia impacts both expats and native people. The camera is patient and probing, and the story weaves in political and social context successfully. The film, recently was premiered in London on October 29th 2024. The author of the article sighted that the films was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, should be able to start many conversations about these topical issues.

Source: variety.com

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United States suspends food assistance to Ethiopia’s Tigray region days after similar move by EU

Ethiopian food aid was being diverted, sold on the local market

The United States Agency for International Development suspended all food assistance to the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray “until further notice” while it investigates the theft of humanitarian supplies. The U.N. confirmed earlier reports that it was doing the same.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said Wednesday that her agency “uncovered that food aid, intended for the people of Tigray suffering under famine-like conditions, was being diverted and sold on the local market.”

After discovering food was missing, the agency alerted its inspector general, who launched an investigation.

“Following this review, USAID determined, in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa and our implementing partners, that a temporary pause in food aid was the best course of action,” Power said in a statement.

She added that USAID has raised its concerns with Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray authorities.

Nearly all of Tigray’s 6 million people rely on food aid, after two years of civil war and government-imposed restrictions on humanitarian relief pushed parts of the region to the brink of famine.

The war ended in November with a cease-fire, which also saw aid deliveries resume.

Power told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 26 that the food theft appeared to involve “collusion between parties of both sides of the conflict.”

She did not elaborate on who might be responsible, saying the agency’s investigation was still underway.

Power told the Senate committee that the theft reflected a “systemic failure” by her agency and that much of aid involved was retrieved.

“We know we owe you ample not only accounting for what has happened but also some institution of additional safeguards,” she said.

The theft appeared to have taken place between November and February, after the fighting in Tigray eased, Power said. USAID’s disaster response team was unable to gain access to the region at the time, preventing it from providing oversight, she said.

Last month, The Associated Press reported that the food taken from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro was enough to feed 100,000 people.

The U.N.’s World Food Program in Ethiopia told its partners on April 20 that it had suspended deliveries to Tigray. Late Wednesday, the U.N. agency confirmed the suspension, which was first reported by the AP.

The World Food Program said its relief efforts in Tigray “will not resume until WFP can ensure that vital aid will reach its intended recipients.”

Getachew Reda, the interim president of Tigray, said he had formed a task force “to prevent and investigate crimes committed in relation to humanitarian aid and enforce the supremacy of the law.”

He called the diversions of aid “a double injustice and crime that is being done to children, elderly and disabled (people) who are suffering from starvation and sickness.”

The U.S. is the biggest single humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, providing $1.8 billion in humanitarian assistance to the country in the 2022 fiscal year, according to USAID.

In addition to civil conflict, the country is also struggling with a prolonged drought

Source Associated Press

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A $1.6 billion lawsuit alleges Facebook’s inaction fueled violence in Ethiopia

By Emily Olson

FoxgloveAbrham Amare, one of the plaintiffs named in a new lawsuit filed against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, claims that social media posts directly led to his father’s murder in Ethiopia last year.

Facebook actively fueled ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s civil war by prioritizing hateful and dangerous content, then not moderating that content fast enough, or sometimes at all, says a new lawsuit filed against Meta, the social media giant’s parent company.

Two Ethiopian researchers and a Kenyan constitutional rights group are behind the legal action, which was filed this week in a High Court in Nairobi, Kenya. The city houses Facebook’s East African content moderation hub, which opened in 2019.

The hub was too little, too late for the region, the lawsuit says. Facebook treated users in African countries differently than those in Western countries, fostering a “culture of disregard for human rights” that ultimately led to the murder of one of the plaintiffs’ fathers, the suit alleges.

The plaintiffs are seeking a $1.6 billion victims’ fund and a bigger and better-supported moderation team.

They’re also asking the court to deliver what would be a legal first: forced changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which has long been blamed for not doing enough to limit the reach of incendiary content.

Meta says it has invested “heavily” in moderation improvements

Carl Court / Getty Images

Getty ImagesA person holds an iPhone displaying the Facebook app logo in 2016 in London. The app’s global popularity has grown in tandem with its ability to capture users’ attention.

A spokesperson for Meta said the company has “strict rules” about what’s allowed on its platforms and is continuing to develop its capabilities to catch violating content.

“Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules, and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with NPR.

“Feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia. We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise,” the spokesperson said.

The lawsuit cites language as one key factor in the company’s inadequate moderation. Of the 85 languages spoken in Ethiopia, only three were covered by Facebook’s content moderation practices, the lawsuit says.

The Meta spokesperson declined to say how many moderation staff worked in the African hub, which serves a collective population of over 500 million.

Another lawsuit filed in Kenya this year alleges that the hub created an exploitative and unsafe work environment, exposing moderators to high volumes of traumatic content and paying less than promised.

One plaintiff says Facebook is directly responsible for his father’s murder

Abrham Meareg Amare, one of the plaintiffs, holds Facebook’s algorithm and poor moderation directly responsible for the death of his father, Meareg Amare Abrha.

Court filings say that in October 2021, militants followed Meareg home from work, shot him in the back and leg, and left him to bleed.

Meareg, a well-respected chemistry professor according to the lawsuit, was targeted after Facebook posts spread his name, photo and false allegations that he was associated with a deadly rebel group because of his ethnicity as a Tigrayan, the country’s minority demographic.

“I knew it was a death sentence for my father the moment I saw it,” Abrham said in an interview with NPR.

“Facebook is a big gun in Ethiopia. […] People use Facebook as a reliable source of information because they don’t have trust in state media. Something posted on Facebook is considered a magic bullet — a valid thing.”

Like Abrham, Meareg’s friends and neighbors also warned him of the posts, but the professor chose to return from an overseas trip and was killed within weeks, his son said.

In an affidavit, Abrham says he asked Facebook multiple times to remove posts about his father — both before and after his death. Some posts still remained up as of this week.

In addition to restitution from the victim’s fund, he’s seeking a public apology from Facebook to him and other victims.

“To Facebook, it’s as if we’re idiots; we’re subhuman. […] Our family doesn’t matter if they’re making profits,” he said.

/ Foxglove

FoxgloveFisseha Tekle is a plaintiff in the new lawsuit filed against Facebook.

An Ethiopian national, Abrham is currently living in the U.S. and seeking asylum, he says. Reporting violent posts to Facebook is still a daily ritual.

The other plaintiff is Fisseha Tekle, an Ethiopian legal adviser at Amnesty International whose work — reports into his country’s violence — made him a target for online abuse, according to court filings.

Amnesty International, which is one of seven human rights organizations named in the case as legal support for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Tekle now lives in Kenya out of fears for his family’s safety.

Ethiopia’s civil war has led to death and displacement 

Eduardo Soteras / AFP Via Getty Images

AFP Via Getty ImagesA man stands in front of his destroyed house in the village of Bisober in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, on Dec. 9, 2020.

Fighting between the Ethiopian government and militant groups started in the northern Tigray region in November 2020. The conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 people and displaced millions more.

Researchers say media has played a key role in polarizing the country. Three of the country’s biggest outlets — ESAT, OMN and Tigrai TV — are divided along ethnic lines.

In a 2021 statement, Facebook said Ethiopia was on its list of countries “at the highest risk for conflict” but it was especially challenging to moderate given the number of languages spoken in the country.

“Between May and October 2021, we took action on more than 92,000 pieces of content in Ethiopia on Facebook and Instagram for violations of our Community Standards prohibiting hate speech, about 98% of which was detected before it was reported by people to us,” the company said at the time.

Facebook also said that less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population uses the platform — a low proportion relative to other countries, driven primarily by poor internet access.

Ethiopia has one of the lowest internet use rates in the world, with only 24% of residents logging on regularly, according to 2020 data from The World Bank.

Mercy Mutemi, the lawyer representing the two individual plaintiffs, says that Big Tech has been rapidly, but unethically, expanding in Africa.

“Not investing adequately in the African market has already caused Africans to die from unsafe systems,” she said in a statement shared with NPR by Foxglove, a nonprofit supporting the plaintiffs.

“We know that a better Facebook is possible — because we have seen how preferentially they treat other markets,” Mutemi said.

“African Facebook users deserve better. More importantly, Africans deserve to be protected from the havoc caused by underinvesting in protection of human rights.”

AFP Via Getty ImagesKenyan lawyer Mercy Mutemi (center) speaks to the media in Nairobi on Dec. 14 after filing a lawsuit against Meta accusing Facebook’s parent company of fanning violence and hate speech.

Meta’s oversight board previously recommended a human rights assessment in Ethiopia

Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, reported nearly $40 billion in profits last year.

The lawsuit says that Facebook’s earnings are partially tied to how long users stay on the platform, which leaves the company with little incentive to remove eye-catching violent content. Years of internal and external studies suggest that Facebook’s algorithm, the platform’s engagement engine, spurs extremist beliefs.

In 2018, the United Nations said that Facebook played a key role in fueling violence in Myanmar.

In 2021, leaked documents revealed Facebook did the same in India, its largest market, even as employees spoke out.

The new lawsuit draws a parallel between Meta’s allegedly hands-off role in the Ethiopian conflict and its responsive one in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. For the latter, Facebook implemented a crisis plan to promptly mute inflammatory content. The plaintiffs say that crisis plan could be replicated for conflicts in Africa.

Abrham told NPR that demands like these constitute straightforward ways to treat everyone with dignity, which should be a chief goal of a platform that claims to value human connection.

He said Facebook should start by publicly acknowledging its role in generating hate crimes and disinformation.

“There are hundreds of stories, thousands of people who’ve lost their loved ones because of Facebook,” he said.

“After all that they’ve lost, there is still life. There is a family which is in distress, which has been victimized by arrogant and irresponsible treatment.

“We need to act now or never.”

Source https://www.npr.org.

Emily Olson

Emily Olson is on a three-month assignment as a news writer and live blog editor, helping shape NPR’s digital breaking news strategy.

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Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

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A $1.6 billion lawsuit alleges Facebook’s inaction fueled violence in Ethiopia

By Emily Olson

FoxgloveAbrham Amare, one of the plaintiffs named in a new lawsuit filed against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, claims that social media posts directly led to his father’s murder in Ethiopia last year.

Facebook actively fueled ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s civil war by prioritizing hateful and dangerous content, then not moderating that content fast enough, or sometimes at all, says a new lawsuit filed against Meta, the social media giant’s parent company.

Two Ethiopian researchers and a Kenyan constitutional rights group are behind the legal action, which was filed this week in a High Court in Nairobi, Kenya. The city houses Facebook’s East African content moderation hub, which opened in 2019.

The hub was too little, too late for the region, the lawsuit says. Facebook treated users in African countries differently than those in Western countries, fostering a “culture of disregard for human rights” that ultimately led to the murder of one of the plaintiffs’ fathers, the suit alleges.

The plaintiffs are seeking a $1.6 billion victims’ fund and a bigger and better-supported moderation team.

They’re also asking the court to deliver what would be a legal first: forced changes to Facebook’s algorithm, which has long been blamed for not doing enough to limit the reach of incendiary content.

Meta says it has invested “heavily” in moderation improvements

Carl Court / Getty Images

Getty ImagesA person holds an iPhone displaying the Facebook app logo in 2016 in London. The app’s global popularity has grown in tandem with its ability to capture users’ attention.

A spokesperson for Meta said the company has “strict rules” about what’s allowed on its platforms and is continuing to develop its capabilities to catch violating content.

“Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules, and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with NPR.

“Feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions guides our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia. We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise,” the spokesperson said.

The lawsuit cites language as one key factor in the company’s inadequate moderation. Of the 85 languages spoken in Ethiopia, only three were covered by Facebook’s content moderation practices, the lawsuit says.

The Meta spokesperson declined to say how many moderation staff worked in the African hub, which serves a collective population of over 500 million.

Another lawsuit filed in Kenya this year alleges that the hub created an exploitative and unsafe work environment, exposing moderators to high volumes of traumatic content and paying less than promised.

One plaintiff says Facebook is directly responsible for his father’s murder

Abrham Meareg Amare, one of the plaintiffs, holds Facebook’s algorithm and poor moderation directly responsible for the death of his father, Meareg Amare Abrha.

Court filings say that in October 2021, militants followed Meareg home from work, shot him in the back and leg, and left him to bleed.

Meareg, a well-respected chemistry professor according to the lawsuit, was targeted after Facebook posts spread his name, photo and false allegations that he was associated with a deadly rebel group because of his ethnicity as a Tigrayan, the country’s minority demographic.

“I knew it was a death sentence for my father the moment I saw it,” Abrham said in an interview with NPR.

“Facebook is a big gun in Ethiopia. […] People use Facebook as a reliable source of information because they don’t have trust in state media. Something posted on Facebook is considered a magic bullet — a valid thing.”

Like Abrham, Meareg’s friends and neighbors also warned him of the posts, but the professor chose to return from an overseas trip and was killed within weeks, his son said.

In an affidavit, Abrham says he asked Facebook multiple times to remove posts about his father — both before and after his death. Some posts still remained up as of this week.

In addition to restitution from the victim’s fund, he’s seeking a public apology from Facebook to him and other victims.

“To Facebook, it’s as if we’re idiots; we’re subhuman. […] Our family doesn’t matter if they’re making profits,” he said.

/ Foxglove

FoxgloveFisseha Tekle is a plaintiff in the new lawsuit filed against Facebook.

An Ethiopian national, Abrham is currently living in the U.S. and seeking asylum, he says. Reporting violent posts to Facebook is still a daily ritual.

The other plaintiff is Fisseha Tekle, an Ethiopian legal adviser at Amnesty International whose work — reports into his country’s violence — made him a target for online abuse, according to court filings.

Amnesty International, which is one of seven human rights organizations named in the case as legal support for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Tekle now lives in Kenya out of fears for his family’s safety.

Ethiopia’s civil war has led to death and displacement 

Eduardo Soteras / AFP Via Getty Images

AFP Via Getty ImagesA man stands in front of his destroyed house in the village of Bisober in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, on Dec. 9, 2020.

Fighting between the Ethiopian government and militant groups started in the northern Tigray region in November 2020. The conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 people and displaced millions more.

Researchers say media has played a key role in polarizing the country. Three of the country’s biggest outlets — ESAT, OMN and Tigrai TV — are divided along ethnic lines.

In a 2021 statement, Facebook said Ethiopia was on its list of countries “at the highest risk for conflict” but it was especially challenging to moderate given the number of languages spoken in the country.

“Between May and October 2021, we took action on more than 92,000 pieces of content in Ethiopia on Facebook and Instagram for violations of our Community Standards prohibiting hate speech, about 98% of which was detected before it was reported by people to us,” the company said at the time.

Facebook also said that less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population uses the platform — a low proportion relative to other countries, driven primarily by poor internet access.

Ethiopia has one of the lowest internet use rates in the world, with only 24% of residents logging on regularly, according to 2020 data from The World Bank.

Mercy Mutemi, the lawyer representing the two individual plaintiffs, says that Big Tech has been rapidly, but unethically, expanding in Africa.

“Not investing adequately in the African market has already caused Africans to die from unsafe systems,” she said in a statement shared with NPR by Foxglove, a nonprofit supporting the plaintiffs.

“We know that a better Facebook is possible — because we have seen how preferentially they treat other markets,” Mutemi said.

“African Facebook users deserve better. More importantly, Africans deserve to be protected from the havoc caused by underinvesting in protection of human rights.”

AFP Via Getty ImagesKenyan lawyer Mercy Mutemi (center) speaks to the media in Nairobi on Dec. 14 after filing a lawsuit against Meta accusing Facebook’s parent company of fanning violence and hate speech.

Meta’s oversight board previously recommended a human rights assessment in Ethiopia

Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, reported nearly $40 billion in profits last year.

The lawsuit says that Facebook’s earnings are partially tied to how long users stay on the platform, which leaves the company with little incentive to remove eye-catching violent content. Years of internal and external studies suggest that Facebook’s algorithm, the platform’s engagement engine, spurs extremist beliefs.

In 2018, the United Nations said that Facebook played a key role in fueling violence in Myanmar.

In 2021, leaked documents revealed Facebook did the same in India, its largest market, even as employees spoke out.

The new lawsuit draws a parallel between Meta’s allegedly hands-off role in the Ethiopian conflict and its responsive one in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. For the latter, Facebook implemented a crisis plan to promptly mute inflammatory content. The plaintiffs say that crisis plan could be replicated for conflicts in Africa.

Abrham told NPR that demands like these constitute straightforward ways to treat everyone with dignity, which should be a chief goal of a platform that claims to value human connection.

He said Facebook should start by publicly acknowledging its role in generating hate crimes and disinformation.

“There are hundreds of stories, thousands of people who’ve lost their loved ones because of Facebook,” he said.

“After all that they’ve lost, there is still life. There is a family which is in distress, which has been victimized by arrogant and irresponsible treatment.

“We need to act now or never.”

Source https://www.npr.org.

Emily Olson

Emily Olson is on a three-month assignment as a news writer and live blog editor, helping shape NPR’s digital breaking news strategy.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

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By Thomas Gedle

So much for the American exceptionalism BS. The truth is that the American value is completely out of whack. And the nation’s foreign policy is up for sale to the highest bidder. Africa’s terrorists, dictators and juntas are flocking to the doorsteps of the White House and the US capitol. They are offering millions to buy friendship and unwavering support for their sinster operation againest their own people and duly elected governments.

America’s long-standing enemy, Sudan paid $352 millions to Trump to be removed from state-sponsored terrorists list, and became America’s darling overnight. That is all General Al Burhan needed to turn on Abiy, who ironically brokered a peace deal, months earlier, in his country of Sudan. The General returned the favour by invading Abiy’s Benishangul; against the will of the Sudanese people and his civilian counterpart, for pay off by Egypt. The transgression earns not even a low-profile condemnation by the US.

Egypt’s dictator, Field Marshal Al Sisi, had to overthrow the elected government of Al Morsi, to become America’s “favourite dictator”. Not clear, yet, how much he paid to earn the coveted spot. The full-on televised blessing and backing to bomb GERD must have cost him a lot of money. Who gives a damn about the people of Ethiopia, so long as the price, offered by the dictator, is right. Afterall, African countries are nothing but “shit-holes” in Trump’s view. Remember?

Now that Trump is gone, Dr. Suzan Rice and her buddies are taking over Washington, and offering America’s foreign policy up for sale on retail. Her first customer is none other than the Junta. Comfortable with long-established personal connections, the Junta is offering huge sums of money for America’s help in returning them to power in Ethiopia, or breaking the nation up altogether. Who cares about the size of the payment. It is all stolen from the nation’s treasury. The input for creating the pretext has been completed by America’s Special Envoy, Jeffery Fletman. The sleazeball is, by the way, recommended for the dirty job by his buddy, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, with a powerful backing by Susan Rice.

The Foreign Relation committee of the US Congress met secretly yesterday, in a closed door meeting, to consider the options, recommendation and implementation strategies, under the banner of “Challenges and opportunities in the Horn of Africa, with special focus on Ethiopia”. The world will hear the verdict soon.

The truth is our nation will never become Syria, Libya, Yemen or Yugoslavia. The oldest nation on earth, the origin of mankind, the biblical land of ours will continue to exist as one, as it has for centuries.

The people of Ethiopia must unite. If America can, and is willing to, stand with dictators, terrorists and juntas, , against her strongest ally in Africa, and againest 120 million people, why can’t we stand for peace behind the pride of our nation, Africa’s peacemaker, the winner of the world’s most prestigious peace prize, and the most influential person on the continent.

Though surrounded by enemies, he is standing tall and strong, with a solemn promise to our nation, never to be bamboozled and dictated by the West, charting a new course of history along the way on how the West must deal with the countires of Africa; solely based on mutual respect and benefits; not aid but trade.

Stay engaged.

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Jeff Pearce

This is the draft version of the presentation I gave to the Ethiopiawinnet Zoom conference titled, “The Ramifications of Western Reactions to the Current Crises in Ethiopia” on April 17, 2021. With some very minor impromptu remarks in my delivery, it’s what I told the forum.

Thank you so much for your kind introduction, Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate and for the invitation to participate. And given the credentials and accomplishments of the other speakers, I feel like a gate crasher at a fancy dress ball. I’m out of my league in such esteemed company. But that’s never stopped me from mouthing off before, so to the issue at hand!

We have the War on Terror, which will never formally end, and I think we’ve entered a new phase, where we’re fighting a War on Liars. I wrote on Twitter the other day that there are now two Ethiopias, the real one, and then there’s the Republic of Amnesia, which is where the Western correspondents are based, most of them sitting in a goldfish bowl with the same memory span of its natural resident. They only poke their heads out now and then to go visit this Greek island nearby called Hyperbole. And as we’ve seen, they’ll buy anything.

Don’t get me wrong — this is not quite as new as it seems. The Fascist Italians had a British creep in their pocket, and they paid the man to go around the UK, giving speeches on the civilizing mission in Ethiopia and he even authored a bloody awful book. Check out the history of the Spanish Civil War and compare the accusations running back and forth between the Republicans and the Fascists over who committed what massacre.

But these media battles were sideshows. We now live in an era where all bets are off, and even though the Ethiopian federal army has more or less won its war against a group of terrorist criminal oligarchs, their lobby group has managed to con the world into buying their version of events. And I don’t need to tell the rest of you panelists how frustrating this is. It’s like talking to Flat Earthers. I practically begged a certain correspondent to properly investigate Axum. All he had to do is look at TV footage that clearly shows how the narrative of the massacre is ridiculous. But his arrogance won’t let him think that he might have been conned. We have Alex de Waal who spreads the word of a mango genocide, and a source and I arranged to have a team go out and investigate his nonsense, and still the world keeps inviting Alex de Waal to comment.

There are so many smart people speaking at this forum, and they’re far smarter than me so they know this. That the goal of “talks” and “intervention” isn’t to arrive at peace, it’s to destabilize a nation and give a group of terrorists back some political legitimacy. That can’t be allowed to happen. The problem is what to do about it. I don’t know if I can call these solutions, but I hope those who believe in Ethiopia, who are advocates, will build on these ideas. Please indulge me as I say “we.” I’m not Ethiopian, but I like to think I’m an ally, so forgive me my trespass on this.

First, hardly anyone’s taking on the media full on. I once suggested getting right in their face. Don’t do your march in the public square, stand right in front of the doors of Deutsche Welle, of CBS News, ABC, NBC, BBC, of CNN, so that they can’t ignore you. Come up with eye-catching stunts to get the headlines, to create attention. You could write down the name of every TPLF victim on a wall, if you like, to drive the lesson home. Something, anything better than a simple march to a public square.

Martin Plaut knows this. Say what you like about Martin, and there’s a big part of me that still admires the man’s past achievements in journalism and his personal graciousness towards my own work, he is absolutely a brilliant tactician in terms of PR and propaganda. He steered your enemy towards creative stunts to get attention, towards using the religious community, to playing the media like a fiddle. Ruthlessly efficient. So what does our side do? Instead they make personal attacks on him instead of learning how to beat his game. I have some ideas on that.

When you finally have the media talking to you, ask: What is your BS in which you think some Africans can be trusted, but you won’t trust others? Why are you asking the bloviating fungus on Ethiopian affairs, William Davison, and the TPLF’s main cheerleader Tronvoll — even if they weren’t the most loathsome miscreants, but suppose they were good at what they do — why are you asking them to “interpret” Africa when you can get Africans to interpret current events in Africa? And why do you only go to these men over and over and over?

I said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s the new, liberal-lite white supremacy. Call them out on it. This is why I say Defund, Deplatform, Deport Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Crisis Group. Ask the media: It’s the age of Black Lives Matter, but you have these sanctimonious white people in New York and London deciding the morality of Africa? Get the hell out of there.

It’s the age of Black Lives Matter, so why are there still so many white correspondents writing on Africa? Will Brown, Tom Gardner, Anna Cara, who like to talk to other white people like Alex de Waal and Davison who so clearly don’t give a damn what happens to ordinary Africans beyond their little networks of stooges.

Yes, I am noticeably pale, but the difference is who’s paying the shot? Look at the funding behind Crisis Group or Human Rights Watch and tell me, how are they accountable to Africans?

So here’s an open invitation, folks. Send me through replies on Twitter, send Western media organizations, tag us on both, BURY them in examples — legitimate, factual examples — of what the TPLF did to Ethiopia. To your family. To your friends and neighbors. To the country. Send me, send them verifiable information on the real estate holdings and the finances of the TPLF mafia operating right now in Europe and North America. Somebody out there knows this stuff. Somebody has the receipts.

Rip the lid off of Tigrai Media House. These guys, just like OMN, are probably guilty under Canadian law of hate speech and incitement or other things under U.S. law, only they get away with it because law enforcement doesn’t know the languages. Instead of just spreading it on Twitter, let’s get actual legal cases started, criminal complaints.

Start digging into who funds their lobby outfits. Every damn day we’re told Tigrayans are starving, they’re on the brink of famine. Never mind the fact that USAID does promo videos all the time, plus the Ethiopian government is stepping up, yet somehow diaspora TPLF advocates have money for their comms campaigns and Beltway lobbying, so… Rip the lid off their dirty little operations. Who exactly is giving them money? Is it the Egyptian government? If so, find the proof.

And please don’t play Photoshop designer with fonts and photos. Don’t make memes out of this crap. No editor will look at it, I promise you. It screams propaganda and it’s asinine. Just type it up on a proper Word document and cite your sources — names, dates, details. No embellishment. Facts. The point of all this is to let them know who they’re dealing with. And that they are listening to a combination of terrorist group and crime family.

Next: I am already hearing from sources tips that NGOs and probably some media are just not interested in doing a recovery story. What sells? Africans suffering. Can’t show the Africans rebuilding Mekelle. Can’t show the Africans fixing their airport after TPLF wrecked it. Where’s the sexiness in that? But you know what can work? Outing liars. Reporters, media, love outing liars and playing gotcha. So. Get ordinary Tigrayans to tell their stories of how they are relieved and glad to be rid of these thugs once and for all.

Because I for one find it damn interesting that a Channel 4 correspondent goes to Mekelle and somehow manages to find a safehouse for rape victims on the edge of town, which is all well and good and these stories may well be authentic, we don’t know, and they should be given proper attention, as should the complaining victims… but you’re not interested at all in talking to people in the streets, ordinary folks and asking, What do you think? Are you happy the TPLF are gone? Are you angry at the federal army rolling in? What do you think? Where’s that story?

So change the conversation. If we are going to talk candidly about how the Ethiopian government has failed to build sympathy in the international community, with the purpose of helping it rather than just as an academic exercise, I suggest that we break down what this war is really about. And that is a huge problem. I would say that’s the key problem. I’ve tried my best to respect internal political affairs and not weigh in, but from both a historical perspective and just from a strategic view of winning hearts and minds, the Ethiopian federal government has to make its stand.

What I mean by this is that at least as far as the Western media is concerned, as far as the international community is concerned, you’ve told us what you’re fighting against, and the experts here know its army is fighting a treasonous criminal oligarchy. But that’s not enough. What are you fighting for? To say you are fighting for the nation of Ethiopia isn’t enough, because what does that mean?

This is why I wrote an article, which I was so grateful and proud to see translated into Amharic and read on radio, that I titled, “Ethiopia Without Shame.” And in there, I said these lines:

“A country’s soul is more than its borders, its current government, its debt and exports.

Ethiopia is ancient, bigger than the whispers and the noise, replenished by its own resources and faiths, its people’s remarkable ingenuity and courage, its diversity and its unity.

Ethiopia goes on because its people believe in it.”

But it’s your job, it’s all our jobs, to make other people appreciate and feel that spirit that once swept up folks in 1896 and 1935. Not only Black Americans but white British people and French, people from what’s now the Gold Coast and Morocco, even in South Africa, got carried away in believing Ethiopia was worth fighting for. And while they can’t fight for it today, they can reject the evil that’s threatening to dismantle it now.

Because is there anything more spiritually corrosive than reducing your brother or sister to a category, to a label, to an ethnic classification, which can so easily be turned into a taunt, a slur, a kill order. And what kind of fool takes the bait from the TPLF thugs, and writes up a story claiming, “Oh, my God, they’re erasing their ethnicity from identity cards!” This after such cards were used to identify Amhara in Mai Kadra and slaughter them two days after the November 4 attack. Is there anything more demented than folks defending this kind of system that ensures the hate goes on? It’s so warped that my blood boils.

Ask folks in the Balkans how they liked being referred to in terms of ethnicity. Ask the Rwandans. Ask the Greeks and the Turks about the population exchange of 1923, what the Greeks call “The Catastrophe.”

This war in Tigray didn’t start with any noble purpose, it was forced on the Ethiopian state. I watched the Western media snicker over Abiy’s comparison to the American Civil War, but he seemed to know his history better than the Americans did. And no war is ever fought clean. Americans are fascinated by their own Civil War and like to stun themselves repeatedly in summoning up the images and the statistics of the carnage. But the sensible ones — the ones who are not demented, who are not insane and who don’t want to attack the U.S. Capitol or kidnap a governor, who wouldn’t dream of attacking a military base in the night and murdering soldiers — know that it ultimately was a crusade for something good and true.

And so I urge the Ethiopian state and those of us who believe in Ethiopia to change the conversation into a rallying cry. This war is so that no person in Ethiopia, no citizen, is reduced to just his language and a label.

No Amhara should walk around at risk of getting bludgeoned to death because some idiot who doesn’t know history is carrying on a feud with enemies out of his own imagination and wants to kill his brother or sister. No Tigrayan person should fear reprisal because a bunch of psychopathic criminals launched rockets into Eritrea.

But people in the West, in the U.S., in Canada, in Europe, must understand the rallying cry is Freedom to be Ethiopian. Not to have a selfish few come along and lie and pervert the truth and say, we’re going to hold an entire region for ransom, and we’ll do this right after we shoot up your house.

No. You killed soldiers in the night. You killed your brothers in the night. Why should anyone think your lies and fake, crocodile tears can wash out all the blood on your shirts? This is war for freedom to not be a label, to not be an ethnic group, to be a nation.

Ethiopia must go on because its people believe in it, and they have a right to believe in it. And they don’t need permission from the West to be a nation. But instead of having to defy you, we’d rather have you join us as allies, we’d rather you help us preserve it.

In my humble opinion, that’s the message that needs to go out. Tell them what you’re fighting for. Freedom from labels and ethnic hatred, now and forever after.

Thank you.

source: https://jeffpearce.medium.com

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Greetings,

You are invited to a Zoom webinar organized by Ethiopiawinnet.

Date: Saturday April 17, 2021

Time: 9:00 AM Eastern-US and Canada Time
2:00 PM London Time
4:00 PM Addis Ababa Time

Topic: An International Conference on “The Ramifications of Western Reactions to the Current Crises in Ethiopia”
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_khRVnIlASlq7Ve_MNXfV5Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Some of the presenters and moderators include:
Lij Nebyat Demessie, Dr. Erku Yimer, Dr. Tsehai Berhane-Selassie;
Prof. Berhanu Abegaz, Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Mr. Peter Esmonde;
H.E. Ana Gomes, Mr. Jeff Pearce, Prof. Jan Abbink, Mr. Rob Prince;
Prof. Alemante G. Selassie, Prof. Ann Fitzgerald, Maj. Gen. Gregory Copley, Mr. Lawrence Freeman:
Eng. Hezekiel Eskender, H.E. Amb. Fitsum Arega, Other dignitaries and invited guests and Prof. Demissie Alemayehu.

Also see the attached flyer with the Zoom link imbedded at the bottom.

With best regards,

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