June 30, 2025
On June 25, Mesfin Mekonen, Bart Fisher and Wzro Tsigereda, representing Ethiopian-American civic organizations, briefed staffers for six U.S. senators about the crisis in Ethiopia and U.S. policy options.
In opening remarks, Mesfin Mekonen thanked Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) for and his national security adviser Amanda Thorpe for arranging this briefing and for their interest in Ethiopia. Excerpts from his comments follow.
Ethiopia is one Africa’s most populous and influential nations, and for centuries been the home to numerous diverse religious and ethnic populations. Ethiopia is of critical importance to stability in the Horn of Africa, and as a bastion against Islamic terrorism. The crises in the Middle East and Ukraine are dominating the attention of the State Department and the national security community, but ignoring the looming catastrophe in Ethiopia is a mistake.
Statement from Senate Foreign Relations Ranking member Senator Jim Risch:
In a statement released on April 12, Amnesty International called for African and global human rights bodies to “urgently investigate killings of civilians by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) in Merawi town, Amhara region, after fighting with Fano militias on 29 January, as war crimes of murder and extrajudicial executions.” Amnesty said that “Mass killings are becoming shockingly common in Ethiopia.”
In a recent speech, U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin Massinaga, said that “regrettably, many people across Ethiopia, and across the globe, continue to face the same fear that Ethiopians did 87 years ago. Bandits, armed groups, and at times, government security forces, act with impunity in carrying out violations of…life, dignity, and respect” that all people deserve.
The situation in Ethiopia is complex, but the problems that must be resolved are straightforward: a corrupt authoritarian government is standing by while the country descends into civil war and lawlessness. Corruption is so severe the international community cut off life-saving food assistance for months and remains reluctant to meet the needs of desperate people. Economic mismanagement is pushing the nation to the brink of famine. And the government is fomenting deadly conflicts among ethnic groups that have lived in harmony for hundreds of years.
There are many more examples of unprovoked violence against innocent civilians. Because of Ethiopian government censorship and repression of journalists, news reports represent merely the tip of the iceberg.
The world should listen to Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, who warned the global community on October 10, 2023, of the ongoing risk of “genocide and related atrocity crimes” in Ethiopia. The Lemkin Institute has alerted the world to “evidence of an ongoing process of genocide in the country against Amhara citizens.”
The United States and the global community need to support fundamental human rights for all Ethiopians, the rule of law, and democracy. The failure of the Biden administration to condemn crimes being committed on a daily basis by the autocratic regime of Abiy Ahmed encourages its continuing war on the Amhara people, creating needless suffering and the risk of violence that could destabilize the Horn of Africa.
We recommend that the U.S. government undertake a three-part strategy focused on cessation of hostilities, sanctions, and constitutional reform.
First, the United States can and must play a significant role in promoting a settlement of this ever-escalating war against the Amhara and other ethnic groups by the government of Ethiopia. At a minimum, the United States can promote collective efforts of local, regional, and global actors to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities and attacks by the government of Ethiopia against its own people. Lasting peace in Ethiopia requires an urgent and inclusive dialogue and reconciliation.
Second, the White House and State Department should condemn the abuses the Abiy government is undertaking and condoning, and take steps to ameliorate the situation. These steps include the imposition of targeted sanctions on the government officials who are responsible for abuses or who fail to protect the lives of innocent civilians.
Third, the U.S. government should promote the drafting of a new constitution, an essential precondition to lasting peace and prosperity. Article 39 of the 1994 constitution of Ethiopia grants rights for any ethnic group to secede and form a nation. Thus, groups such as the Tigrayans and the Amhara currently have the constitutional right to secede, which of course sparks protracted civil war. The ability of the central government to govern is undermined when every ethnic group has the right to secede. The present constitution has exacerbated ethnic tensions. If not revised, it will lead to the destruction of Ethiopia.
Wzro Tsigereda, Diplomatic committee chair, Global Amhara Coalition who traveled from New York City address the audience she said that we are all witnessing, with great alarm, the current Ethiopian government deliberately and recklessly driving the country towards crisis and fragmentation by fueling inter-ethnic tensions based on systematic marginalization and subjugation. A transformative and systematic fundamental change encompassing the core values, political freedom, economic prosperity, diversity, national unity, peace, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are needed. Such is central to the disillusion of the ethnic-based political machinery and its broad-based defunct institutions of corrupt ethnocentric government.
Therefore, how do we create and cultivate a stable pluralistic democratic system of governance and a strong judiciary and civil society in Ethiopia when the national defense is waging war against its civilian population in the already war-torn, poverty stricken and politically unstable Ethiopia? The fragmentation and stabilization of Ethiopia under the current regime could potentially destabilize the entire region, which is the center of geopolitical strategic importance to the the United States and the rest of the international community.
It must be noted that Fano’s voluntarily armed civilians communities are massed movement made up of students, doctors, farmers, professors, former military officials, businessmen, workers, journalists, women are currently fighting back in self-defense for the survival of Amharas and other communities. Fanos objectives is to instill justice, freedom, equality, fundamental human rights, and respect to the rule of law in Ethiopia against the brutal Abiy Ahmed/PP regime. Those core values of strength, selflessness, commitment, and humanity are why the Ethiopian people are embracing and relying behind Fanos.
Bart Fisher, Council for seven Ethiopian-American civic organizations said the Ethiopian people are experiencing continued repression from the government of Abiy Ahmed, attacks on churches, encouragement of ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, and suppression of independent media. The current victims of the atrocities now taking place in Ethiopia are the Amhara people, a large ethnic group that is being ethnically cleansed.
Ethiopian-American civic organizations recommend that the US government undertake a three-part strategy focused on cessation of hostilities, sanctions, and constitutional reform.
Senate staff asked a number of questions, including the source of drones the Ethiopian military is using to attack civilians. The briefers stated that Ethiopia has purchased drones from Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Staffers also wanted to know if the U.S. government has responded to concerns raised by Ethiopian-American civic organizations. The only public response has been a speech by US Ambassador to Ethiopia Massinga, who spoke about the deteriorated human rights situation. They followed up by asking why the U.S. government has failed to respond to the crisis in Ethiopia. The briefers said that crises in the Middle East and Ukraine are dominating the attention of the State Department and the national security community – and added that ignoring the looming catastrophe in Ethiopia, and failing to act while it is still possible to avoid further instability, is a mistake.
ከ3,000 በላይ የታፈሱ ጨቅላ ሕፃናት በነፃነት ታጋዩ በአማራ ሕዝብ ፋኖ እጅ ገቡ! የወደቀው የዐቢይ መንግሥት ከዚህ በላይ ማስረጃ ማቅረብ አያስፈልግም ፤ ገና መቼ!💪✊#WarOnAmhara #AmharaConcentrationCamps pic.twitter.com/8fyQGn7Yet
— Nile Amhara Ethiopia (@TYinberberu) July 1, 2024
Good job by the reps of the civic association. Keep communication with the members of the congress and make sure to back up your presentation with verifiable facts. We should be composed and intelligible during the discussion. Remember USA has extensive listening posts and observation means throughout the world and thank God for that. You shouldn’t also emotion in your presentation. Kudos!!!
I just read news by Reuters in which it was reported that Turkey is mediating talks between Somalia and Ethiopia about the issues between these two neighbors. I hope both nations’ leaders will regain their senses and solve the senseless squabbles they are having now. Both these two nations have huge potentials only if they are at peace with each other. Somaliland is an issue that Somalia itself brought upon itself and Ethiopia was not the one that created it. It is something our very dear Somali brothers and sisters has to handle between themselves peacefully and only peacefully.
Meanwhile, all those neighboring Ethiopia should come to realize that Ethiopia is now a country of more than 130 million people and growing. Such enormous number of people cannot continue to be suffocated without an outlet to sea. That in itself will be a recipe/cause for future costly conflict. Pundits and politicians in all three countries of Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia should get their act together and work in alliance so their citizens will have the chance to drag themselves out of abject poverty. Stupid sense of baseless vendetta ain’t gonna further the accord for all of them. They have to accept the irrefutable fact that none of them are Arabs, Semitic people or caucasians from Tuscany. They are all ‘niggers’ to the White Citizens Council and Neo-Nazis. Shape up or go belly up!!!
Let’s hope this first talks will bear fruit beneficial to all. Peace y’all!!!
Where ever there is a dead animal at any place a vulture is circling that place .If there is any topic raised in any web site which expose Abiy what he did on the people of Ethiopia for the last six years , the one and only loyal servant of Abiy . ITTU ABA farda is there to defend him .To change the subject he bring unrelated topic .