The war on Tigray is a genocide

Even before the breakout of the war, there were many signs and indications that indicate the profiling of Tigrayans in government offices and positions in cities outside Tigray; many civil federal servants were laid off and almost every member of the federal army who is Tigrayan by ethnicity or name ordered to stay home or was sent to prison. Since Abiy came to power, the interstate road along Woldiya and Gondar, which connect Tigray with the capital Addis Ababa, were blocked by the Amhara militias, but the prime minister Abiy didn’t even speak or tried to take action against this blockade indicating his complicity. Nevertheless, Abiy has stopped foreign investors who were heading to Tigray at the Bole International Airport; moreover, he recently blocked chemical spraying drones which were bought by Tigrayan diaspora for the purpose of combating locust invasion in Tigray. All these and others were some of the indicators he was discriminating against Tigrayans in every possible way he can.

Recently, Abiy was mobilizing his armies around Tigray while there were enough soldiers in the Northern Command in Tigray. Next, under the pretext of attack on Northern Command by the Tigray government, Abiy declared a full scale war on Tigray. This is, for many reasons, not a war to maintain ‘law and order’ as he claims, but to destroy Tigray and commit genocide on its people. Among the many reasons which show this are presented below.

1. This invading army doesn’t represent us (Tigrayans) since all the Tigrayan personnel in the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) are laid off and sent to concentration camps. No one knows their whereabouts, whether they are alive or dead. Even those Tigrayans who were in a peacekeeping mission under the UN supervision in different countries are called back by Abiy and are detained in unknown prisons. The Abiy government even went to the extent of requesting the UN office to hand him over the list of Tigrayan personnel working for the UN.
2. There was no peace and order problem in Tigray; in fact, Tigray was the most peaceful state before the war broke out on 04 November 2020. Of course, it ran a peaceful and successful election despite the other states of Ethiopia which postponed their elections, forcefully denied by the dictatorial government of Abiy. He rejected the votes of millions of the Tigrayann calling it ‘null and invalid’. He kept postponing the elections many times ignoring the constitution which clearly stipulates elections should be held every five year.
3. The Abiy government can’t fight for the good of the Tigray people while at the same time it cuts budget, banking, electricity, telecommunication, and other services from the Tigrayan people, leaving them in a complete blackout and blockade. The budget cut and the closure of all banks in Tigray is exposing millions people to starvation and eventually to death from hunger. Moreover, the farmers’ crops are either burnt on the field or looted from their house by the Amhara militias and Eritrean armies. One incident can be mentioned as a touching story: A Tigrian farmer watched while his house was being looted by Eritreans who were taking everything in his house and he had to remind them: “my sons, I think you forgot this bottle of salt; you can take it too to help you salt your stew.” and they took it. Similarly, the electricity and telecom services blackout for a month is intentionally designed so that war crimes committed on civilians cannot be exposed; lack of electricity makes people not to be able to charge their cell phones and thus take photos and record videos of the war crimes being committed on the scene and also it enables the ENDF, Amhara Militia, Eritrean forces to commit the heinous crimes in darkness. The shutdown of telecom services also shows the intention of the dictatorial government to block any information leak out of Tigray to the rest of the world.

4. The EDF is conducting the genocidal war in combination with foreign forces from Eritrea and by using United Arab Emirates’ war jets and unmanned drones. This is treason against the constitution and humanitarian law. You can’t bomb civilians by denying access to everything, including blocking them from fleeing to a neighboring country. Abiy framing this war as an internal matter is mocking the international community. This is an international war on the Tigrayan people and Tigray According to the interviewees who fled to Sudan, they have seen and narrowly escaped the horrors of manslaughter indiscriminately; they saw women and children being hacked by axes, knives, machetes by the Amhara militias. The Amhara militias are conducting ethnic cleansing of Tigrayan in Wolkait and Humera in the Western Tigray and Alamata in South Tigray making sure it is cleared off any Tigrayan. Similarly, Eritrea has annexed to its territories Adiabo and Sheraro in west Tigray. Dictator Isayas of Eritrea has razed the town of Humera to the ground with heavy artillery without giving the residents warning to evacuate. Many are dead from these bombardments, many more are believed to be buried beneath the rubbles, and the rest have fled to where they believe there is safety. The ENDF has blocked the border with Sudan and any escapee is shot to death, but many are choosing to flee to Sudan because they feel certain that if they stay inside they would be slaughtered or gunned down. One Tigrayan person, who was hiding in a bush near the border of Sudan, said he is the only survivor of 12 escapees, and he was wounded and wasn’t sure if he would make it to Sudan.
5. Tigrayan cities and towns are being bombed and shelled both from air and ground day and night indiscriminately and intensively causing mayhem and mass casualties. Many of the towns and cities are razed to the ground. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine when cities are bombed by drones and jets by night under darkness where there is no electricity; no one feels safe since it’s not known which civilian house would be the next target. The mass casualties are beyond numbers, dead and wounded (amputated arms and head injuries), and what makes it worse is hospitals are running out of medicine to take care of the wounds and regular patients.

6. The butcher dictator Abiy has banned any national and international media or humanitarian agencies, not just for fear of their personal safety, but he doesn’t want the genocide he is committing to be exposed to the outside world. Besides, it is part of the scheme that he has been doing since he came to power, subjugation by starvation.
7. Tigrayans outside Tigray including in Addis Ababa are being fired and sent into concentration camps. Until now there are 37,000 civilian Tigrayans sent to concentration camps away from Addis Ababa. Tigrayans elsewhere in Ethiopia are not also allowed to fly outside Ethiopia, nor do they get a refund for their ticket fare. Thousands are fired from their job; it is hard to imagine how public servants look at your name and label and send you to prison if you have Tigrayan name in your family tree. TPLF/Tigray government is our elected government; any ethnic group of Ethiopia are living in Tigray while the reverse is not true for Tigrayans elsewhere in Ethiopia. Thus, the terrorist and war criminal is the Abiy government which was vowing to kill more than half a million residents of Mekelle City, capital of Tigray, with tanks with no mercy. The Mai-kadra massacre is done by the Amhara militias and special forces on Tigrayans; it is confirmed by BBC as per the interviewees (survivors of the genocide) who escaped to Sudan.

This is the worst combination of civil war (with neighboring militia and special forces) led by federal military (which excluded Tigrayans from it), 41 divisions of foreign armies from Eritrea, UAE’s state of the art unmanned war drones and fighter jets; it’s a war of annihilation or ethnic cleansing being committed in darkness and blockade on the people of Tigray. It is being by unelected government with an army that does not have our representation and in cooperation with foreign forces. Tigrayans view the Abiy government not only as illegitimate, but also as criminal enemy for it has cut budget electric, banking and telecom services. We view the army as an invading force which is committing atrocities of genocidal actions which include but not limited to door-to-door mass killings including newly born babies, hacking the belly of pregnant women, beheading or severing of civilian bodies, rape and more. In short the ENDF is committing ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans.

The world needs to understand that THE WAR ON TIGRAY IS NOT ABOUT RESPECTING LAW AND ORDER BUT COMMITTING PURE GENOCIDE! STOP GENOCIDE ON TIGRAY PEOPLE!