You will recall that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed and promised us that he will transition Ethiopia to a better, inclusive, fair, just and democratic system free of nepotism, bribery and corruption. His ruling party that is in tatters proved to be more corrupt, conflict prone, warmongering and more repressive than the government it replaced.
In this short note, I ask Abiy’s military “Who and for what they are fighting? Who are you dying for? Is not the military serving the party and personal interests of a single ethno-nationalist and extremist party and in the behest of a tyrant who is working and undermining his own promises to the Ethiopian people? Aren’t thousands of soldiers abandoning the military and joining Fano, saying that neither the Amhara population nor Fano are enemies of the Oromo or any other ethnic group?
By his actions over the past 5 years, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has demonstrated that he is revengeful, cruel, extremist and ethno nationalist. He believes that the path to total dominance of Ethiopia and its 120 million people is through war, ethnic conflict, massive incarceration of dissidents and the destruction of local and regional economies.
Sadly, the West succumbed by not holding Abiy Ahmed and others accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity. crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide.This sense of impunity allows Abiy and the Prosperity Party he leads to do more damage and degrade Ethiopia’s international status, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Abiy and his Prosperity Party seem to have calculated and determined that the deaths and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands, and maybe a million lives is worth the cherished prize of total reconfiguration, deconstruction, dominance and formation of a “New Ethiopia.” This is the reason for unfettered use of drones, tanks and mortars to slaughter Amhara civilians throughout Ethiopia.
Below is my latest interview with Hibre Radio on the current situation in Ethiopia. Please share widely.
Aklog Birara, PhD
While we are understandably preoccupied with what is going on in country that produced us all, we should now pay attention with the latest violence in the Middle East. A state of war has now existed between Hamas and Israel where hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives on both sides. Accusations on both sides have been flying and the latest one is blaming Iran for helping Hamas arm, plan and carry out the unprecedented assault on Israel. This conflict can go out of control at any moment unless EU, USA and Egypt get involved so that will not happen. I bet you the other group of gangsters, Hezbollah, is itching to get into the action. The all-out war in which Iran is involved can bring the entire region to a standstill since both and Israel and Iran have nuclear bomb capabilities. Our old country can be a bystander victim in such atomic mayhem. Let’s pray for the rapid de-escalation of this war while it is still at its early stage.