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Abiy Ahmed is a pathological liar

Bruck Kebede

Exactly one year since the start of the war in Tigray and more than three years into his tenure as Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the entire world has a much better insight into the character of Abiy Ahmed. The fever of “Abiymania,” which described the hope and enthusiasm for a promised new era that had characterized his first months, and the international support that resulted in him winning the Nobel Prize fizzled out and disappeared completely in the last year as the Nobel Peace Prize winner led the second-most populous country in Africa down the road to brutal civil war.

What has been revealed, without mincing words, is that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is a megalomaniac and a pathological liar. Deceit is the primary tool in his toolbox. Over the past year, he has repeatedly lied about the Tigray war. With the international community’s response mostly characterized by lip service, inaction, and a barrage of statements of concern, the deceit successfully bought him time. Now that Tigrayan and Oromo forces are fast approaching Addis Ababa and he is running out of time, Abiy is turning to incite violence against Tigrayan civilians.

Facebook’s recent removal of a post by Abiy seems to be a recognition of the danger Abiy’s incitement of hate and violence poses. The Ethiopian people and the international community must follow suit by rejecting and abandoning the sinking ship that is Abiy Ahmed’s premiership, which has been characterized by lies, more lies, failure, and bloodshed.

Abiy cannot be trusted. Given my response to Abiy’s February 2021 op-ed on Project Syndicate debunking five of his lies, I will only highlight the lies he has told since the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) left Tigray’s regional capital Mekelle, focusing on military decisions related to the war. In June 2021, The New York Times published a detailed report on how Tigrayan fighters routed Ethiopia’s army. Over six thousand prisoners of war (POW) were seen marching through Tigray to a prison in Mekelle. Tigrayan leaders claimed the ENDF had collapsed. The fact that the ENDF suffered a huge defeat in Tigray could not be disputed.

On its way out of Mekelle, Abiy’s government told a different story. First, it hurriedly declared a unilateral ceasefire, announcing that ENDF withdrew to “enable farmers to till their land.” They claimed the photos showing ENDF POW were, I quote, “photoshopped.” Shortly thereafter, Abiy told an audience of journalists that ENDF withdrew from Tigray because the people of Tigray had betrayed ENDF, and he wanted to give the people of Tigray time to reflect on their actions. In the same speech, Abiy proudly stated that he had paralyzed Tigray from being able to mount resistance by reducing the regional capital Mekelle, its economic center, to the level of his hometown Beshasha. For context, Mekelle’s population is 166 times larger than Beshahsa. “We could re-enter Mekelle in two weeks if we want,” he said. He also boasted, “I could easily recruit one million new fighters.”  This was just four months ago.

The restored Tigray government offered a set of preconditions for a ceasefire and negotiation with Abiy’s government, one of which was unfettered humanitarian access. Abiy’s government refused to negotiate with what it had dubbed a terrorist group. Instead, it repeatedly demanded that Tigrayan forces accept the government’s unilateral ceasefire while it continued to use starvation as a weapon of war. In a July statement translated here, Abiy Ahmed promised that the ENDF had prepared for a mission that would leave Ethiopians astonished with “their hands over their mouths.”

As the Tigray Defense Force advanced into the Amhara and Afar regions, Abiy issued a call in August 2021 for “all eligible civilians to join the armed forces.”  Getachew Reda, TPLF spokesperson, repeatedly implored the Ethiopian people to inquire why Abiy would need to issue a call for civilians if the ENDF had not collapsed, and stated that the Tigray Defense Force would continue its advance to break the siege and man-made famine that has affected millions of Tigrayans.

The megalomaniac Abiy insisted on a military solution. While visiting ENDF soldiers on the May Tsemri front for the 2014 Ethiopian New Year celebrations on September 11, he commended the soldiers for their military miracles during the Tigray war and boasted that Ethiopia is now building a first-of-its-kind military, the best in a hundred years. He added, referring to the Tigray Defense Force, “today’s bandits are our target practice. We will make them our training ground. We will then use this training to build a strong military. No one will dare to touch Ethiopia.”

At the same time, Abiy shopped around for military armaments and drones. Reports by aircraft tracker @Gerjon_  on Twitter indicated that frequent military shipments arrived in Ethiopia from different places, including Iran, China, UAE, and Turkey. On October 22, @Gerjon_ reported that he had identified 75 cargo flights from UAE and Iran over the previous 69 days. In early October, western officials confirmed that Abiy’s government had launched a new offensive on Tigrayan forces. A fresh round of government airstrikes targeted cities and towns in Tigray hitting public and civilian infrastructure like Mesfin Industrial Engineering in Mekelle and Alemda Textile Factory in Adwa, as well as a market, homes, and crops. That did not stop Tigrayan forces from continuing their advance, seizing Dessie and Kombolcha, and now joining hands with the Oromo Liberation Army in Kemisse on their way to Addis Ababa.

Repeated lies could no longer keep Abiy’s military defeats hidden. The only tool now left in Abiy’s wartime toolbox is inciting violence against all Tigrayans. Instead of accepting defeat and suing for peace, Abiy is now blaming the Tigray Defense Force’s successful capture of cities on Tigrayan residents of the captured cities. His government has declared a state of emergency and urged citizens to fight Tigrayan forces with any weapon. Given his continuous portrayal of Tigrayans as a threat to Ethiopia’s existence, the state of emergency makes any Tigrayan a target for genocidal forces. This last resort turn could serve two purposes for Abiy’s government: to use Tigrayan civilians as a bargaining chip by turning the security apparatus and their neighbors against them and to use other civilians in Addis Ababa as cannon fodder with the hope that a lengthy war could weaken Tigrayan forces, as he indicated in his address to his cabinet earlier this week. Both of these are irresponsible, devoid of wisdom, and can only lead to a violent breakup of the country.

To the Ethiopian People,

He has repeatedly lied to you. He told you that it was not war but a law enforcement operation. He told you it would be completed in days. He told you that it was completed in less than three weeks. He condescendingly dismissed the knowledge of Tigrayan military leaders, saying that they were both mentally and physically old and used outdated war strategies. He boasted that TPLF was scattered like flour. He said that he could return to Mekelle in two weeks if he wanted. He said he could easily recruit millions of new fighters. He said that he is building a first-of-its-kind military in a hundred years. In the end, and after all that lying, the war has now reached Addis, and Abiy has declared a national state of emergency. I ask:

What happened to Ethiopia’s professional army?How many lives has Abiy’s failed and reckless leadership cost?What guarantee do you have that he is not being reckless with your life?With the leadership Abiy and his military leadership have demonstrated in the last year, are they capable of winning with handguns borrowed from Addis Ababa’s residents what they could not win with drones and conscripted Eritrean troops?What guarantee do you have that Abiy will not put a target on your back in the future if he is capable of inciting violence on your neighbors now?What guarantee do you have that he would not abandon you and flee the country after asking you to get blood on your hands?Is Abiy Ahmed a leader you trust to protect you and your family?Is your life better today than it was 5 or 10 years ago?

To the International Community,

An attempt to save a despotic regime with blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law – with the unflinching determination to starve millions of people – is a personal affront to every Tigrayan, and it should be a personal affront to any human being. A deceitful leader who has lost the trust of millions of people in Ethiopia and the diplomatic world is not fit for lifting the Ethiopian people out of this civil war. His recent escalation and incitement of violence are likely to lead to further bloodshed and a violent breakup of the country, likely resulting in mass migration. He has refused to take reasonable and rational counsel and continued on a path of catastrophe that has brought an entire country to the brink. It’s time to say no more and not come to the rescue. Instead, facilitate the establishment of a transitional government and the start of an all-inclusive national dialogue. The alternative is having to deal with the repercussions of a failed state with a population of over 110 million people.

Bruck Kebede

Bruck writes solely to be a voice for Tigrayan voices silenced due to the internet blackout in Tigray and targeted ethnic profiling in the rest of Ethiopia. Opinions expressed are solely his own and do not express the views or opinions of his educational institutions or his employers.

 

18 thoughts on “Abiy Ahmed is a pathological liar”

  1. Bruck did not hide his intentions are to support the terror group Tplf and to convince Ethiopian voter to disown Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Problem? Ethiopians overwhelmingly voted to grant Abiy another five years in total contempt for Tplf. For Bruck to think Ethiopian public has forgotten Tplf’s three-decade long abuses and looting of state treasury only goes to show his naiveté. In other words, Tplf is the worst pathological liar, criminal, brutal regime, all rolled into one!

    What is confounding is that Zehabesha following its condemnation without evidence of Prime Minister Abiy is now collaborating with Tplf terror group!

  2. Tesfaye Demmellash

    Okay, we get it: Abiy has been deceitful, untrustworthy, a tribalist pretender to the Ethiopian “throne.” But what about the TPLF? Hasn’t this ethnofascist outfit also been morally depraved and politically fraudulent? In war and peace, hasn’t it committed unspeakable crimes against innocent Ethiopians, particularly the Amhara people? Still, didn’t “the international community” do all it could to help marauding, murderous remnants of the TPLF recapture state power in Ethiopia in the recent war?!

  3. The above commentary is biased and does not serve the interests of neither the Tigrayans or Ethiopians. It tries to blame prime minister Abiy Ahmed for the crisis and war the fascist and racist organization the TPLF has cuased.

  4. What is as disgusting as the fascist politics permeating the Tigray elite is their denial and turning blind eyes to facts and reality. It was decades ago that the fascist TPLF leaders were advised and warned against their fascistic politics divide and rule politics that will lead to conflicts and blood shed. Though the Tigray elites play the political game of victimhood, the current conflict and crisis is the outcome of their politics they pursued while in power. In fact prime minister Abiy Ahmed is the inheritor of the political crisis that TPLF fascists have created. He has in fact extended the olive branch to the TPLF leaders who arrogantly dismissed his gesture for inclusion and peace. The wrong and destructive war the TPLF leaders started has cost tens of thousands of Tigrayan lives and is ruining the economy and well being of the region. Instead of pointing fingers at prime minister Abiy Ahmed, the so called ” voices for silenced Tigrayans” should hold the main culprit, the TPLF responsible and join the campaign for accountability and justice.

  5. Okay, let Abiy go but I want him to be replaced by the Republic of Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, Afar, Somalia and Sidama, The rest should be handed over to Kenya, South Sudan and Sudan. Wait a minute I almost forgot about the Republic of Black Mane Lion, Snot Nosed Shrew, Colobus Monkey and a Special Administration Territory within The Republic of Oromia to be ruled a lawyer in Minnesota, a professor in Virginia and the ones in London and Melbourne with Chief of Staffs from Oslo and Tufts University. Problem solved!!! See how I made it easy for you? Y’all were just wasting your time. You should have consulted me even before Abiy was born! Slackers!!!

  6. Neither one is claiming Abiy s being saint nor many Ethiopians are excited about Abiy’s accomliment at this point after years of amateurish mistakes but what about the chronic failures, lies,abuses and deception of the TPLF throng over 30 years that still manifest itself we speak? It is a big and instinctive questions that deserves rational observation or credible explanation.

  7. Bruck Kebede, you sound like Getachew Reda in your stand to be a voice for the viceless Tigries. Don’t waste your time the UN,WHO, and the West spearheded by the USA are already their mouthpieces. You innumirated the sins of Abiy not mentioning who first instigated rhe bloody war. Did you forget rhat the TPLF uleashed its wrath on the Northern Command. How about the TPLF gang who armed itself with superior military hrdware on the money stollen from the poor Ethiopians. Your analysis is skewed towards TPLF rather than shed somelight to the truth . 99 percent of the Tigrian intellectuals are prisoners of their conscience by blindingly supportting the TPLF despite it benig a terrorizer of the Ethiopian people including Tigrians.

  8. TPLFites, world renowned experts in lying, blaming their student in lying. It is a mockery of fairness and justice when a TPLF cadre with 30 years of experience blames abiy who has lied only for four years.
    TPLFITE Bruck: I know you guys do not know shame, but please be fair and feel ashamed.

  9. Wodi, Bruk Kebede

    Ok Abiy is a pathological Liar! What about your cousin Meles Zenawi and other TPLFs? In this world, Are there pathological liars as close as your cousin Meles and the rest of TPLF members? Hypocrite and Leba! Where have you been when TPLF was committing massacre through out the country?

  10. እዛ ሜንደር ይሉኝቴ የለም ኢሚባለው ሌካ ኢውነት ነው! ቤሳቅ ገዴለኝ ይህ ሴው! ያዴረጉትን ሁሉ የሬሳን መሴለው!

  11. Biruk
    It is the tigryans who started this whole mess by attacking the northern command. Stupid!

    FYI the war did not start yet, it is coming, there is Amara’s blood on your hands.. The price has to be paid and the debt collected. Then will talk about abiy’s lies. But the spineless Tigre started to push the unpushable mountains. Why in in the world tigres want to have genocide on Amara’s? Why do they kill millions of amaras for the last 30 years? And why are they crying now? The truth like I said, they started the unjust war and someone has to finish it. In this game of elimination, we will see who is the winner. Therefore bruk the tigre tegadaly must act like a dying soldier, no amount of begging or sabotaging will save your damned tribe. Because the tigres stared the war, STUPID!
    Sweet revenge, coming soon. Any Amara or Afari who give merci to a woyane should be condemned.

  12. It is amazing how TPLF cadres like Bruck has no shame using the word inclusive with no regard to what the word entails. I hope Bruck is not as fool as the way he presented his piece, because not only Woyane’s ideology was built on promoting exclusivity but also engrained deeply into the minds of each cadre to think in terms of tribe and excluding others. Any fool can criticize the prime minster, we all do that every now and then, but it requires a big heart and understanding to forgive him for his short comings. At the end of the day, he is human and a young idealist who has the country’s best interest at his heart which Bruck and his elk will never understand. I hope the silent majority in Tigray who forcefully conscripted to become cannon fodders to fulfil the delusional ideals of Bruck and et al would speak up and say no more to war, division and tribalism. I hope the proud, generous and wonderful people of Tigray will get a chance, as the rest of their brothers and sisters all over Ethiopia, to say what they think and what they want without some idiots put a gun on their heads. Bruck, you don’t speak for the silent majority Tigrayans, you speak on behalf of the small parasitic TPLFyans who has no shame and mental capacity to go quietly after 27 years of killing, looting and robbing the future of an entire generation.

  13. Biruk is a member and active advocates of Terrorist Tigray People Liberation Front; Zehabesha must not allow such terrorist group to post their opinions.

  14. Don’t waste your time crying on Abey’s lies. Here is how to save yourselves, the Oromo and the country.

    Once again, Amharas hold the MASTER key . How? By opting for confederation.

    Amharas have no choice but to move for confederation simply because federation in the Ethiopian context does not work.

    As a polirized multi-ethnic country, Ethiopia will not have a fair and free election without the opression of one or another ethnic group. Hence, democracy is an illusion that cannot be realized. The way Oromo rose to power and now control the entire country through proxy regional governments is the proof. Tigreans did it for the last thirty years and Oromos have stepped in Tigreans shoes to impose similar one ethnic group rule. With their number and size of their region, Oromo opressive rule will be much worse than Tigrean`s. Give another ten years to Oromo rule, Ethiopia will be the tail of the world by all standards of measure.

    So, it is time for Amharas to exercise their constitutional right to self-determnation and vote on confederation. If they adopt conederation, it will give them the opportunity to attract direct foreign investment since confederation will enable them to have economic diplomats and even have embasies abroad cutting the Oromo controlled foreign ministry diverting foreign investment to Oromia and other favoured regions. Amharas can also have a defense force which will protect them from foreign invaders including ethnic Oromo organizations.

    The Belgian model of confederation which appears to hep advance Amhara interests is something to explore.

    In any event, Ethiopia needs vast decentralization resembling confederation since the federalism the country has adopted is notheing other than unitarism in disguise. Controlled from the centre, it has miserably failed to develop the country let alone prosper and ensure safety and security of its citizens. The chaos we see in the country right now has much to do with lack of development (in all sectors) and security. Both have proven beyond the capacity of the federal government to provide.Change of government at federal level is not the answer for these problems.

    Tigreans have floated the idea of confederation, Amharas must follow. Tigreans know that they will not be fairly treated under Oromo rule; as a result, their choice of confederation appears just. Amharas must seize the opportunity to decide their destiny via self-determination as well without wasting another decade under incompetent Oromo rule. Despite all the atrocities they have committed, Tigreans are being heard and embraced by the Oromo rule since Oromos now feel tobe the savours of Ethiopia.

    Falks! Don’`t be fooled!. Oromos pretend to be “savours” only if they rule the entire country as one piece. Like any other ethnic group that aspire to oppress and dominate , they are after resources. If Amharas want to be heard and embraced as Tigreans, they have to go for confederation. If confederation does not work, they have to say good bye to the Ethiopian state.

    It is outdated for Amharas to hang on “mama ethiopia” cry since nobody in the country is interested in it any more. What Amharas got from this cry is atrocotoes, redicule and shame. All these on Amhara because they gave Oromos and other ethnic groups a country which they are not ready and willing to let go. If Amhara Insist on confederation, Oromos might call the army on it to protect the unity of the country! That will make them a laghing stock since they were in the forefront to weaken the unity of the country. Now they cannot be alllowed to reverse gear.

    Amhara! Wake up and smell the coffee. Tell Oromos that you want confederation – if not confederation then separation. Oromo crack down will soften even disappear as it did for Tigreans if Amara opt for confederation. But the idea is not to see Oromo softening on Amhara, it is to seek real confederation as a wayout from decades long quagmire. Oromo softeneing does not take Amharas anywhere.

    Try it! It will work and catapult Amhara development and growth to the sky and ensure their security. It will eventually liberate Oromos too from their bloody distructive path poised to takie everybody else down with them.

    For us, Oromos, conederation is also the answer.

    1. Shegit,

      Advising Amaras how to win is a misnomer. Don’t you think they know what to do when the time comes. You believe it or not the 3000 years survival Amaras talking about is no joke. Amaras are survivors and they will survive this too. When Amaras pointing fingers toward their enemy, that is when the end arrives. So thanks but no thanks we can’t be confederate to our own country where our ancestors built by their own blood and bone. By the way I want you to notice how things go from now on. Hell freezes before Amaras put down their arms, because every damned tribe want to test Amaras patience by picking left and right. So, forget your confederations, federations what ever you call it. Ain’t gonna happen. Instead when Amaras finish what they start, the bloody woyanes will be dust at the same time the southern dogs also will be history. Then glory to Ethiopia the motherland.where peaceful tribes leave free and together. Chew on that for now. I wonder how simplistic and naïve people can be? Trustworthiness, bravery and reliability are natural gifts for Amaras. No one can match that. It is just a matter of time before the rule low ride over Ethiopia.
      Good day, Madam

  15. It is good that both sides are FREE to express their views. Only when we listen to different points of view can we increase our understanding.
    The Tigray people will be around for 100s of years to come, as will the Amhara. They need to understand each other and seek to settle their differences.

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