Opinion: USAID should end the OTI programme

USAID support for destabilization is no secret to the targeted governments(Dan Beeton – ‘ USAID Subversion in Latin America Not Limited to Cuba’ 04.04.2014).

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) needs to revaluate the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and their role in interference across the globe. The USAID which is directed by the Secretary of State and gives the policy guidance to the organization. The USAID is supposed to be about “development” and “American Generosity” since 1961. The U.S. Organization in-charge of all foreign civilian aid. That sounds all well, right?

However, the OTI Office is what is questionable. As that is not offering humanitarian assistance, aid or programs of development. No, that is an office and agency for “transition” and change of power. Where the USAID are not coming to aid or develop but to change the leadership of a given country. Where the US incites and even participate in coup d’etat’s to get their wanted leader or head of state.

The USAID have been meddling in Latin America, where the OTI offices has interfered in several countries. WikiLeaks leaked a “internal memo” in 2013 detailing the plan to undermine the Chavez regime in Venezuela. This has also been done in Bolivia and Ecuador. The USAID used the agency as a tool to get their puppets in the respective countries.

The USAID should be looked as an honest actor, but that ship has sailed. They are a tool in the machinery of the State Department and the U.S. interests across the globe. The OTI was created in 1994 and worked to do this things all these years.

When the Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled and shutdown USAID in his country last year for alleged attempts to undermine his leftist government, he wasn’t being paranoid after all. As a recent expose by the Associated Press shows USAID’s so-called “democracy promotion programmes” are designed to foment dissent against governments unfriendly to Washington. “In a number of countries, including Venezuela and Bolivia, USAID is acting more as an agency involved in covert action, like the CIA, than as an aid or development agency,” asserted Mark Weisbrot, an economist with a Washington-based think tank, the Centre for Economic and Policy Research” (Linda S. Heard – ‘Beware of aid agencies bearing gifts’ 21.04.2014, Gulf News).

If the USAID wants to be pawn and a useful tool for the State Department and the Pentagon. Than they can use the OTI programme. However, then they are not a directly NGO or a Aid Organization. No, it is then a part of the state machinery to other objectives. Not to fix or develop the nations it is in. Neither is to bring people out of poverty. No, then its about getting American interests and doing the bidding of the CIA. That’s another ball-game than doing aid or humanitarian assistance. To change leaders and incite uprisings for political change. That is not the work of a humanitarian organization.

Unless, USAID wants to be an imperial relic and a warning signs across the world. That if the USAID comes knocking on your doors. They are not coming with bread and water to the ones seeking refugee away from home after living in conflict zones. The OTI is changing the leadership and using various of means to inspire it to happen. To make ensure the Americans have their leaders and not the ones who works against the U.S. interests. This is why the OTI exists and certainly final objective.

If the USAID wants to look like and smell like a humanitarian organization. They better act like one and not be covert operation for the CIA. Because, the OTI is masking that and using the “legitimacy” of USAID to enforce the missions of CIA in any given territory, which is imperialism at its best. Peace.

United Nations – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): Press Statement on Visit to Ethiopia (04.08.2021)

South Sudan: Leek Community Association – Appeals for Humanitarian Assistance for the Flood Victims in Rubkotna County/Leek – Unity State (02.08.2021)

Somalia: Joint Communique – Call to Action for Urgent Live-Saving Assistance to Millions in Somalia (31.07.2021)

Ethiopia: UNICEF – 100,000 Children in Tigray at Risk of Death from Malnutrition (31.07.2021)

UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a UN briefing in Geneva that humanitarians’ worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children have been realized.

NEW YORK, United States of America, July 31, 2021 – More than 100,000 children in Tigray, Ethiopia, could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months, a tenfold jump over average annual levels, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

The development comes as UNICEF announced that it had recently reached areas of Tigray that were previously inaccessible owing to insecurity linked to nearly nine months of conflict between Government forces and those loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.

Worst fears

UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a UN briefing in Geneva that humanitarians’ worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children have been realized.

Assessments also indicate that 47 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, suggesting that they could face more pregnancy-related complications, an increased risk of maternal death during childbirth and the delivery of low-birthweight babies, who are much more prone to sickness and death.

“We need unfettered access into Tigray and across the region, in order to provide support children and women urgently need,” she said, her comments coming as UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths and US aid relief (USAID) head, Samantha Power, reportedly planned to hold talks in Ethiopia this week to push for increased access in Tigray.

Aid convoy approaching

Meanwhile, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri, said that a convoy of more than 200 trucks was on its way to Tigray, but “this is a drop in the ocean.” At least 100 trucks are needed every day “if we are to stand a chance to reverse the catastrophic situation”.

Latest UN data indicates that humanitarian partners have reached nearly 3.7 million people. But the aid response has been slowed by cut-off communications services and widespread power cuts.

A further challenge is the fact that the movement of aid teams and supplies is only possible via one route, through the Afar region, which requires passing through multiple checkpoints, where humanitarian personnel have been interrogated, intimidated and in some instances detained, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Extreme danger

The operating environment in Tigray also remains extremely dangerous, said spokesperson Jens Laerke, noting that at least 12 aid workers had been killed to date, including on 24 June, when three Doctors Without Borders staff were murdered.

Humanitarian funding also remains a major problem, as more than $430 million is still needed to fund the aid response in Tigray until the end of the year.

In an appeal to all parties to the conflict, Mr. Laerke urged them to keep entry routes open to Tigray, to prevent large-scale loss of life, before appealing to the Ethiopian Government to allow humanitarians to bring in additional communications equipment, as well as provide longer visas for NGO staff.

Permissions call 

The UN needs “critical communications equipment and longer-term visas for NGO staff” for its aid operation in Tigray, Mr. Laerke continued.

According to OCHA, 5.2 million people – about 90 per cent of the population – are now in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and hundreds of thousands are facing famine-like conditions.

Mr. Laerke explained that the conflict in Tigray had started in the middle of the harvest season in November 2020, when a quarter of crops had already been ruined by locust swarms.

More than 90 per cent of what was left of the harvest was then looted, burned, or flattened, making it critical that farmers are provided now with the tools, assistance and access they need to sow their crops, he added.

Trauma of survivors

Speaking of her own recent experience in the region, UNICEF’s Ms. Mercado noted that one young female survivor of sexual assault told her that “she watched her grandmother get killed, she was raped by several men and she watched her nine month old baby being tossed around by other men”.

A doctor at a UNICEF supported referral centre in Mekelle, told her that he had been struck by the fact that in many cases it was not the assault itself, but rather the psychological damage it inflicts on children, women and health staff, that was most difficult to bear.

Ethiopia: Tigray-Eritrea Solidarity Forum ተስፋ Tesfa امل – Urgent and unfettered food aid to Tigray needed more than ever (30.07.2021)

Ethiopia: WFP Sends First Humanitarian Passenger Flight into Tigray, as Famine Edges Closer in the Region (22.07.2021)

The UNHAS flights will operate twice a week, facilitating the regular movement of humanitarian personnel into and out of Tigray.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 22, 2021 – The first United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) passenger flight, which is managed by the United Nations World Food Programme, has touched down at Tigray’s Alula Aba Nega International Airport in Mekelle today.

It is the first passenger flight into the region since commercial flights were halted on 24 June and carried more than 30 employees from multiple humanitarian organisations working to deliver urgently needed assistance to conflict-affected communities across Tigray.

“WFP and our fellow emergency responders on the ground in Mekelle are all enormously relieved to see this UNHAS flight arrive today, bringing in colleagues who are all essential in our collective efforts to scale up the humanitarian response and for WFP to reach 2.1 million people with life-saving food assistance,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa.

From today, the UNHAS flights will operate twice a week, facilitating the regular movement of humanitarian personnel into and out of Tigray. However, the humanitarian response in the region continues to be challenged by a lack of sufficient food and other humanitarian supplies, limited communication services and no commercial supply chain.

With conflict escalating in surrounding regions, including Afar, the safe and secure passage for convoys to move humanitarian supplies into Tigray remains a primary concern for WFP and the humanitarian community, particularly after a WFP convoy was attacked on the morning of July 18 while attempting to move essential humanitarian cargo into Tigray.

Another WFP-led convoy of over 200 trucks containing food and other essential humanitarian supplies is currently on standby in Semera and expected to depart for Tigray as soon as security clearances are assured.

“Famine is preventable and the power to avert it is in the hands of all parties concerned. WFP is calling for all parties to agree to a ceasefire so the humanitarian response can be rapidly scaled up and all routes can be used urgently to reach those most in need,” added Dunford.

  • Despite the numerous challenges, WFP has managed to deliver food to over 730,000 people in parts of the south and north west in the past month (under Round 2 distributions). This includes 40,000 people in Zana who were reached with food assistance for the first time.
  • WFP hopes to reach an additional 80,000 people in the north west in the coming days. Once this is completed, food stocks are likely to run out.
  • WFP and its nutrition partners are working together to ensure nutrition supplies are reaching the families most in need. In June, WFP reached over 185,000 people with nutrition support but progress in early July was much slower due to security concerns with 30,000 people reached so far. WFP is now delivering nutrition support in areas previously unreached throughout the conflict, including those with high malnutrition rates.
  • There is currently 7,500 metric tons of food inside Tigray stored in WFP’s warehouses in Mekelle and Shire. WFP recently added an additional 13 trucks to its fleet within the region and plans to move in 30 more as soon as it is guaranteed safe and secure passage to do so.
  • WFP is providing logistics capacity to the Joint Emergency Response (JEOP, a consortium of NGOs funded by the United States) by transporting urgently needed food to those communities which haven’t yet been reached, particularly in rural areas in central zone.
  • The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis in June projected that over 400,000 people would be suffering from catastrophic levels of hunger from July onwards. Across Tigray, 4 million people—70 percent of the population— have high levels of acute food insecurity and need emergency assistance.
  • Across Ethiopia, WFP aims to reach 11.9 million people in 2021 with food, nutrition and cash support and delivering activities to boost communities’ self-reliance and capacity in order to be food secure.
  • WFP needs US$176 million to continue to scale up its response in Tigray to save lives and livelihoods to the end of the year. For all activities under its Country Strategic Plan, WFP has a funding shortfall of US$377 million. Additional funding is vital to allow WFP to keep saving and changing lives in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister – Tigray Region Humanitarian Assistance Update (22.07.2021)

Ethiopia: The Global Society of Tigray Scholars (GSTS) – Open Letter – Call to Stop the Siege of Tigray and the Use of Starvation as a Weapon of War (22.07.2021)

Ethiopia: The newest OCHA Situation Report on the Tigray region states a dire need for more humanitarian assistance [5.2 million people in dire need!]

According to the latest unendorsed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, without urgent and unimpeded food aid, over 400,000 people in Tigray region are projected to face catastrophic food insecurity (IPC 5,Catastrophe); and over 1.8 million people now in Emergency levels of acute food insecurity (IPC 4) in Tigray could slide into starvation” (OCHA, 19.07.2021).

The conflict that started in early November 2020 has now it’s tolls. There been reports of the devastation and destruction of the agricultural sector, as the conflicts continues and warfare persist. The state have blocked access and made very hard to get any humanitarian assistance into the region. That is still an ongoing issue, as the conflict is taking another turn.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “Ethiopia – Tigray Region Humanitarian Update Situation Report, 19 July 2021” is a vital report on the current state of affairs. As the state will say everything is dandy and they are doing everything needed. While not proving anything and blocking humanitarian access or even convoys to cross into the region. That’s why you know the current affairs are bad.

There are reports of betterment, but that is just patching the hurt temporarily and not something sustainable. That is very clear by the wording and the amount of people still in dire need, which has reached 5.2 million civilians who needs humanitarian aid and their basic needs met. That shows how dire this conflict is and how many who are in the crossfire between the Tigray Defence Forces and the allies of the Federal Government.

OCHA reports:

Inside Tigray, aid workers are now able to access areas previously hard-to-reach, with an estimated 75 per cent of people in need of assistance (4 million out of 5.2 million people in need) now in zones where humanitarian operations can take place, compared to 30 per cent in May. However, stocks are rapidly depleting inside Tigray,as road access to the region has been curtailed over the last weeks. Road access to Tigray is now only possible through Semera, in Afar Region, via Abala, with heavy control by regional and federal authorities. The UN Humanitarian Air Service received, on 5 July, approval from the Government of Ethiopia to recommence flights to Tigray, and final arrangements and operational details are now being worked out to resume the service” (OCHA, 19.07.2021).

All of that just shows how hard the authorities and the Federal Government are acting in concern to the Tigray region. They are just blocking roads and ensuring the humanitarian convoy only gets one way in. Secondly, they also have to rely on “dumbo drops” of humanitarian assistance to the region. That says a lot about the unwillingness to open access and opportunities to directly deliver the assistance in the region.

OCHA continues:

In addition to limited humanitarian assistance, access to basic needs—including health care and water and sanitation—remains severely constrained. Lack of banking system and cash, scarcity of fuel, and limited access to commodities, are affecting the ability of the population to cope. Many rural areas still have no electricity and/or communications. Families remain unable to contact missing or separated loved ones due to the communications blackout in large parts of the region, while services and/or supplies that are reliant on electricity are no longer functioning” (OCHA, 19.07.2021).

This here has been reported, but shows the total blockade and that the state has initiated protocol not only to starve, but hurt anyone. They are ensuring the greater public of Tigray doesn’t have access to the basics. Everyone is targeted and there is no one who isn’t touched by the efforts made by the state. That’s why the state has ordered these measures and seeks to punish everyone.

OCHA says:

Although 80 per cent of people in northern Ethiopia depend on subsistence agriculture, so far very little financial support has been allocated to agricultural interventions that can help at-risk families resume productive activity and produce food for themselves and their communities, according to FAO. The current rainy season (June-September) offers a tight window of opportunity for farmers to get a crop in the ground and reboot local food production, but without funding and speedy supply of agricultural inputs, that opportunity could be missed” (OCHA, 19.07.2021).

I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that the Federal Government will supply or help the agricultural sector of Northern Ethiopia or the Tigray region. They have blocked funding of the Regional State Government for months ahead of the conflict and stopped aid organizations for participating in projects and combatting locusts. The Federal Government blocked other measures from humanitarian organizations as well ahead of the November 2020 conflict. So, don’t expect it to anything now. Now that it doesn’t allow or make it hard to access for UN Humanitarian Organizations to even deliver the food or basic necessities to the 5.2 millions in need.

The Prosperity Party and the Federal Government will not indulge funds for the agricultural sector now and has no interest in doing so. Not at this current stage and time. With frozen bank-accounts and locked out of ordinary communication. Neither, can other organizations fill the void and ensure farmers funding to buy seeds or seedlings for another harvest in the middle of the conflict.

Just like the OCHA stated in the beginning 1.8 million people could face starvation and most of the people needs to agricultural sector going to get feed. That’s why the humanitarian assistance needs to go there and reach in time. So, that this season can save and help out a little in this crisis. As there are plenty of people in need.

There is need for change and making things easier for the humanitarian organizations to reach the people in need. As this is only prolonging the agony and the hurt. The Federal Government is doing this deliberately and its tragic. Because so many lives are touched by this. Peace.