If institutions like the UN do not amend their approach to the Tigray crisis, the suffering of millions will continue and likely increase in the coming months.
Ceasefire must be pursued to save lives from engineered famine, but it is not an ultimate solution as the mistrust between parties to the conflict is so severe. A final solution must be to arrange mechanism to allow the Tigrayan people to decide on their destiny.
All of these horrifying acts included in the definition of ethnic cleansing have been committed in Western Tigray.
It has been more than six months since the Ethiopian regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Laureate, declared a full-scale war on the Tigray region, one…
Tigrayans and those who care about the people of Tigray are calling for urgent action to put an end to human rights violations. Above all, the UNSC members must demand Abiy Ahmed to take concrete measures to stop the war before it is too late. He should not be allowed to hide behind “sovereignty and territorial integrity” and continue, unchecked, to violate the human rights of Tigrayans. If he as a head of government cannot protect civilians, someone else should.
But there is no unanimity about what should be done. So, the US and EU must take the lead by joining hands to put a Draconian and punitive measures against the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara thereby press for the complete withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Tigray. This should be an urgent task. Why? Because in the presence of Eritrean troops aid cannot reach for over 4.5 million people who need urgent humanitarian assistance. In the presence of Eritrean troops an independent investigation into the alleged crimes would be very difficult. In the presence of Eritrean troops the atrocities will continue and peace cannot be restored in Tigray, among others.
The dehumanizing language against Tigrayans that has filled the airwaves has rendered Tigrayans as the enemy who exists outside the circle of Ethiopian body politic whose suffering does not deserve a human response.
Alas! All these reforms were short-lived. Most of the released political prisoners are now imprisoned on bogus charges; hundreds of thousands of dissenters are incarcerated; many media organizations are forcibly closed. The internet and telephone services are used to suppress dissenting views, there is a war on all fronts in Ethiopia, and many regions are operating under a state of emergency.
The prime minister is emphatic that he was forced to wage war after the Tigray region launched a surprise attack on the Northern Command. Yet there is a preponderance of evidence that the prime minister ordered an offensive on the Tigray region before the Northern Command incident.
People with NCDs are dying at home due to lack of basic health services and medications such as insulin, antihypertensive, asthma and epilepsy treatment due to the ongoing fighting and insecurity in the region. The following actions must be urgently taken to put an end to this.