Born Betrayer—Must Go

First things first, Abiy was preparing for war before November 4, 2020. TPLF were preparing too. Abiy knew TPLF were about to take preemptive strike. Unless he was accomplice to TPLF’ plan, or utterly stupid, he must have been aware of the preemptive strike and be prepared accordingly. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he would have taken actions such as that alerting military leaders in the North Command about the looming danger. Unfortunately, he failed to do that. Besides his dubious involvement in that horror, he was busy in building his own personality cult.

Then, on November 4, 2020, the TPLF took the expected preemptive strike whence horribly mowed down the unaware troops at night. Now, out of his negligence or complicity, Abiy led the army into an onslaught. Whether we call it treason or negligence it does not really matter. What matters most is the fact that he is the first person to be held accountable. The TPLF only comes next. TPLF were then a band of despotic regional leaders. Abiy was the commander of the armed forces and Ethiopia’s prime minister. This apparently makes the two parties unequally burdened in matters of carrying responsibilities. The party with more powers at their disposal is left with more responsibility. For one, TPLF are accountable for the brutally murdered soldiers, and the act is none other than treason. And that treason happened at the plain sights of the commander of the armed forces. This makes Abiy the primary bearer of accountability.

Now the debate comes as not who is treasonous, but which party made more treason. The scale, when the greater burden of responsibility is added into the calculation, therefore, weighs Abiy as a more treasonous figure. This was the time Abiy should have been prosecuted. This was the time Abiy must have stepped down. This was the time the Ethiopian people should have held him accountable. The people, however, took this act as an innocent mistake and granted him forgiveness. Abiy learnt this public forgiveness in another, more saboteur, more brutal betraying way. Unaccounted for his major offense, his majesty kept on pilling a debris of innocents’ suffering with an uproar for justice that reached the doors of the heavens.

Second, Abiy and his minions kept the entire Ethiopia in darkness of what was happening in Tigray for 9 months starting from December 2020. They were engaged in massive disinformation campaign, one of which was that they repeatedly told the public they completely annihilated TPLF, to use their word, “TPLF duket honual.” Facts on the ground were, however, different. TPLF were not only reorganizing but also, by taking advantage of the weak leadership, they were scoring victories. With that, they captured significant amount of armament from the morally degraded, leaderless Ethiopian army.

As said above, the whole Ethiopia did not know anything about the developments in Tigray. People were expecting post TPLF era in which peace will finally prevail in Tigray and the notation move to normalization.

However, true to his customs, in June 2021, Abiy suddenly announced that he withdrew the military from Tigray and called it “a unilateral ceasefire.” The decision was astounding for many. Because the people did not know the real picture, they tended to take it as a calculated response to the external pressure. In contrast, TPLF called it a “sick joke.” In few days that followed, the fogs cleared quickly, and information emerged that many untold things happened in Tigray. And we then knew why TPLF mocked the so-called unilateral ceasefire as a sick joke was due to a military victory they recently gained. When Abiy declared the withdrawal, the military was almost defeated in Tigray. That said, the survivors were in a relatively good condition for retreat had they had a responsible leader. Finally, the public learned the full truth when TPLF, without spending any time, chased the haphazardly retreating troops to the Amhara and Afar borders and expanded their positions deeper into these regions.

At this point in time, most unfortunate was the military which had to deal with a second-round betrayal from their commander-in-chief. For one, Abiy announced the withdrawal with no prior preparation. Later he tried to fool the people by telling evacuation has begun a week or so ago. But that was a blatant lie. What happened was a reckless 11th hour call, typical recklessness of the man. For another, TPLF took this advantage and made many of the soldiers as prisoners of war. The rest perished in Tigray mountains en route to Amhara and Afar regions. Few lucky made it out of Tigray.

In the middle of that, ambassador Redwan Hussein appeared on public hinting that certain foreign countries transferred the government’s information which states that the army was about to leave Tigray. As a result, the ambassador went on to say, TPLF ambushed the retreating military by utilizing that information feed. What caught us in a nerve-wreaking surprise was not the fact that foreign countries provided that military information to TPLF. The unbelievable surprise was that knowing from the ambassador’s statement it was the government that fed that information to foreign countries. Who else other than Abiy’s Ethiopia discloses its military plans to foreign countries? That fatally risked the military. Many died en route while tens of thousands fell in the hands of TPLF which made a mockery film about them. That Abiy, the reckless commander-in-chief, unforgivably betrayed the army and made them victims of brutal TPLF.

The next victims were Amhara and Afar civilians. Not knowing TPLF got stronger in the nine months of “operation law enforcement” as they were blinded by Abiy’s disinformation campaign, the Amhara and Afar civilians easily fell prey to TPLF’ swift aggression that resulted in untold brutality, including sexual violence, summary execution, and an apocalyptic destruction of properties. TPLF razed to the ground North Gondar, parts of South Gondar, North Wollo, South Wollo, North and West Afar, and North Shewa areas. The Amhara regional government concluded TPLF’ full swing of destruction costed hundreds of billions of dollars that sent the region’s rebuilding capacity back by 30 to 40 years. Tragically, TPLF’ actions can only be paralleled by hellish rainfall on earth. Had Abiy made aware the people about the development in Tigray, there could have been made a better preparation, and consequently, a minimized destruction. Alas! It was not a concern to his majesty.

In the fight against TPLF aggression, as much as innocents suffered, the ill-trained new recruits from all over Ethiopia were sent to the battle fields, paid with ultimate sacrifice. The Amhara and Afar militias, with little or no training as well as lacking weapons, marched to the battlefield in great numbers. These ill-trained, or untrained, less equipped fighters had to face with the well-trained and well-armed TPLF forces. As a result, the casualty was beyond imagination. With incalculable scarification the Amhara and Afar forces and ENDF paid, the government gained a sizable victory over TPLF which resulted in the latter’s retreat to Tigray. If not for these forces, Abiy would have been unseated by now. Government officials and intellectuals affiliated with Abiy’s administration are now disclosing that they planned to move to Gondar to continue the struggle had Addis Ababa fell into the hands of TPLF. This shows the severity of situation when TPLF were at the doors of Debre Birhan. The fate of Abiy was near end. But the said forces saved him. Also, he leveraged the #NoMoremovement and seemed to have helped him to stay alive in that diplomatic suffocation he was in.

Abiy’s surprise of betrayal never ends. Now, at the moment the Ethiopian people reverted TPLF aggression with huge cost, Abiy came up with the news that disappointed many, and perhaps, set a timer for the beginning of his own end. While the TPLF are preparing for a major offensive onto Wolqait front, and in fact, trying to break into the hinterlands of Amhara and Afar on a daily basis, Abiy suddenly announced yesterday that he gave amnesty to TPLF war criminals. In so doing, Abiy has proven that he is playing the role he characterized himself with his own self-image of a nostalgic king. A king jails and releases. Abiy knows this from fable and does so far more than his mythical kings did. Like his mythical kings, and the character he craved for himself, Abiy jails for no apparent reason and releases upon no one’s request. No due process of law is necessary for him to do whatever he finds pleasing to his eyes.

In fact, Abiy never showed any sensible gesture to the concept of the rule of law. Instead, he has become the law himself. Now, Abiy is the judge. He does what pleases him. For example, the arrest of Eskindir Nega and his colleagues, Tamirat Negera, and Meaza Mohamed has no earthly reason whatsoever. But he jailed them because they dared to say words against him. As a result, he found that jailing them pleases him. And he did it. That is it!

Note be made also, whether he personally killed them or not time will tell, Abiy is the leader of the country that denied justice to the bloods of Engineer Simegnew Bekele, President Ambachew Mekonnen, General Asaminew Ttsige, Migbaru Kebede, Ezez Wasie, General Se’are Mekonnen, and many others. The bloods of these victims still plead unto God because Abiy’s government denied them justice. If not for the sake of time, we could add more to the list that Abiy denied justice. To mention but a few, innocents suffered, murdered, and vandalized in Burayu, Shashemene, Zeway, Gedeo, Wellega, and Benishangul Gumz. In places such as Benishangul Gumuz, the collective burial place for victims of Amhara genocide had to be dug by bulldoze, otherwise it was not possible to dig for hundreds of bodies by using manual labor. Abiy’s government never dared to serve justice for all of these atrocious incidents.

Now, by giving amnesty to the very persons who masterminded the onslaught of the Northern Command army members, Abiy backstabbed the military for a third time. You can imagine what the surviving comrades would feel right now. He showed us betrayal in its worst form. Betrayal not once, but twice, and thrice—by one person, by one commander-in-chief of armed forces. He, in fact, betrayed the whole nation. All that loss of human life and destruction of property was for nothing!

At this point, one needs to take note that whatever Abiy does, TPLF’ behavior would never change. We do not miss that. TPLF were ready to do whatever they did. Abiy was not the cause for that. The point is, Abiy betrayed the very army members he commanded and made them TPLF’ preys. Second, he made them leave Tigray disorderly, by disclosing security information to other countries as they admitted it, that trapped them in a nightmare. As a result, the soldiers barely made it to the borders of Amhara and Afar. Third, Abiy gave amnesty to those who murdered the soldiers. With his action, he declared himself as he is above the law and has overridden the court. To make things worse. the civilians paid too much due to this mistake/betrayal from Abiy. Again, ill-trained local militias perished in the battlefields following Abiy’s call, named, “Kitet.” Above all, the military paid huge price starting from the attack on the Northern Command bases to the present day but to only see in their wide-open eyes the release of their predators.

In a related circle of suffering, Amhara civilians are still killed every day in Wollega agreeably using Abiy’s Oromo Prosperity Party infrastructure. That area for Amhara is as horrible as Amhara and Afar areas under TPLF occupation. But Abiy is Abiy. He never dared to condemn it. He never called it out. He never condoled it. Maybe the death and destruction of innocent Amhara in Wollega is also found to please his majesty. What else could we say? He did not say a word when Shene destroyed an entire town called Ataye. Besides razing this town into the ground, they committed widespread atrocities in adjacent areas. Once again, the survivors are facing another round of attack from Shene—a couple of days ago more than a hundred innocents were killed. Abiy never said a word about it.

Why, after all, Abiy never condoled any destruction happened to Amhara or other groups for that matter? Some might say he does not do so usually, and that is how he handles crises. But men with memory remember how fast he was to denounce the Motta Mosque attack. We remember how he frantically removed Abdi Ile of Somali Region. He was also so quick to show his crocodile tears following the tragic murder of singer Hachalu.

But one should wonder what happens to him when it comes to Amhara? Indeed, Amhara were prime victims prior, during, and after Italian invasion for their resistance against the colonials. Amhara were main targets of the Derg regime under the pretext of ruling classes. Amhara were victims of mass murder in all of the country throughout TPLF’ 26 years of power under the name of oppressor nation. But, with no exaggeration, the number of Amhara killed since Abiy came to power outnumber all these combined. But still, Abiy appears to have never heard of it. For God’s sake we never saw on his face a sad man’s emotionality. None! We know leaders are also humans who at times cry, at least to pretend, or they might genuinely feel sad and cry. But Abiy’s facial expressions use to cast confusion as if some emotionless robot is out there in Arat Killo palace minding humans’ business.

Okay, he might not be a robot. Let us say he is a human being. But not the kind of human we know. He rather sounds more of an open book of some distant, depressing, ancient personality. That is to say we read the complete textual pattern of Machiavelli in Abiy Ahmed. His majesty is, in simple terms, a blood soaked narcistic who shall not be allowed to be a leader. He is drowning the nation with him. We lost hundreds of thousands of souls due to him. He is a disloyal, inefficient, and brutal figure who must go sooner than later. And the only hope for the nation at its disposal is Abiy’s quick resignation.

Mesganaw Andualem4