
Ethiopia: Salsay Weyane Tigray – Press Release (18.11.2024)






“Over the past year, alarm has been mounting over the worsening crisis of kidnappings for ransom by armed groups in Ethiopia. Although these crimes are often attributed to non-state actors, reports have also implicated government forces in colluding with various armed groups and sharing in the profits. To make matters worse, a disturbing trend has emerged: state actors are now openly justifying kidnappings for ransom. Amid ongoing civil wars, the government is increasingly relying on forced conscription to fill its ranks. Initially, the primary targets were underprivileged youth, particularly day laborers working far from their home villages. However, the focus has recently shifted to youth from wealthier families. Reports indicate that local security officials are detaining young men as they return from school or social venues and forcibly transporting them to temporary detention facilities. While the captured youth await transportation to training camps, brokers approach their families, offering to secure the release of their sons in exchange for substantial payments. These ransoms range from 100,000 to 500,000 birr, depending on the family’s wealth. Officials and brokers can easily access family income data from banks and tax records, enabling them to assess the targets ability to pay and determine how much to demand. Those without cash on hand have been forced to borrow from friends or raise funds through their afosha (እድር). Scared of being the next victim, many young men have gone into hiding abandoning their studies and jobs. Perhaps driven by its financial incentives, this recent forced conscription is not limited to remote rural villages; families in major cities and towns have now become the primary targets. This is not merely based on reports from across the country—a family I personally know had to pay 300,000 birr to secure their son’s release just a few days ago. Such extortion, at a time when the cost of living has become unbearable, is cruel” (Jawar Mohammed, 12.11.2024).
This here should shake the system. It just shows what is wrong with the political landscape and how the conflicts are enforced. The Prosperity Party and the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali have failed the youth and the future generations.
The current leadership haven’t secured the people or ensuring safety. That’s why militias and government forces can extort and get bribe out the ransom after they kidnap people. This is insecurity and misuse of power. They are doing it because the state allows it and see it as a profitable business. It is a sort of mafia-state and using the monopoly of violence to enforce bribes and extortion. The victims are unlucky targets and people who was to close to the sun.
The story and tale that the Mohammed Jawar is addressing shows the sinister part of the current regime. When this can be so systematic and planned efforts. This is a business and they are securing their “ends” by doing this. That’s what is happening here…
It has to be amplified and told, again and again. The state shouldn’t do this and government forces are behind it. Not only insurgent or rebels. No, this is state actors and people with connection with the state who is behind it. They are all part of the problem and the citizens are in danger as a cause of it. That’s why people are going into hiding and seeking shelter elsewhere.
This is a warning and it shows how the Medemer Terror continues to haunt the population. Peace.


“It is my duty to come to Lake Chad” (…) “For me, it was very important to come there to be alongside the soldiers, understand what happened and take measures. To make decisions, you have to be on the ground” (…) “I know that many of my compatriots are worried about my trip. I am a man of faith, and death is everywhere, whether you are in N’Djamena in your office or in your room, or whether you are here. If the time has come, there is no escaping it” – President Mahamat Idriss Deby aka Gen. Kaka (Ebale ya mozindo, 11.11.2024).
Like father, like son… the dynasty does the same thing, and the leaders of N’Djamena doesn’t learn. A nation of thousands of Generals. A militarised government and a junta one at that. It should have enough militarised advisors and people with knowledge to stop this from happening.
It is posturing in the midst of danger. His father died because he was in the frontline against armed rebels. Now, the current President is on the frontlines against the Boko Haram. That is just endangering the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief. A man that is needed and should be guarded. There is so much power and instruments which is involved. That should be kept safe, and others should be out there in his stead. However, there he is…
His father died of battle wounds on the April 20th 2021 and now in November 2024 the son is willing to do the same. It is taking it so easy and the problematic transition that followed. This is why the elections was held so late and why he consolidated the power in the manner he did. Just to ensure the longevity of the dynasty and the elites surrounding his father.
General Kaka should have seen how FACT was able to wound his father. Now he has should know better, as his on the battlefield and being on the frontline against Boko Haram. Yes, it is populistic and a sign of patriotism. However, this man is willing to die, but not for a good cause. This is all done to show strength and boost his ego. Nevertheless, this isn’t building the nation or securing the future of it.
The General is putting himself in the firing line and we can wonder if he has a transitional plan if it becomes his demise. This is risking the future and possibly giving him wounds that he cannot recover from. A man of this stature shouldn’t risk his life. Especially, when the man can avoid it.
It is reckless and futile. It isn’t a sign of strength, but of weakness. Trying to forge a narrative and look supreme. That’s it… Peace.



“In around 1971, Amin had even destroyed the little gains Uganda had obtained from 1962. When we came in power, we really had a problem to first fix what Amin had destroyed and then also try to do what we wanted in our agenda of socioeconomic transformation. That’s how we created the NRM 10-point program” – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (07.11.2024).
A man who has ruled supreme since January 1986. That man should be able to live on his own achievements and create his own legacy. Alas, that is clearly not the case. As this man has to continue to rewrite history and distort the legacy of the fallen ones before him.
Yes, Idi Amin and his government was terrible. The records of the Amin era was bad. That is on record and the historical documents proves that. So, there is no need to defend Amin or his ways. He was a dangerous man and would use force to get his way. That’s why his enemies was in trouble and his erratic decisions could hurt the stability of the Republic. Meanwhile that doesn’t stop his patriotic acts or trying to make a change too. Therefore, there is still proof of what Amin tried to build and what he wanted to see as a future in the Republic. That’s something the current leadership wants gone and forgotten, which is ironic.
The ills, the destructive and misuse of power during Amin has become main-stay and part of the ordinary usage of both lethal, human rights violations and stopping of assembling of opposition. During Museveni he has made security outfits, organizations and law enforcement that acts within the realm of what Amin did. He just had more years to perfect it and made it part of the status-quo. Therefore, his able to get away with it and it doesn’t cost him anything.
It is just striking that the Museveni government is now going after the cash-crop of Coffee. The Coffee that was vital and the biggest export of the Amin era. That who was giving the government of Amin the ability to run. It gave it forex and foreign funding for selling coffee. This was sold in bulk to America and even done with embargoes towards the Amin government. Which just shows how things was in the 1970s.
Now in 2024, the coffee exports are rising and profitable. That’s why Museveni wants more control over it by dissolving his own 1990s creation of UCDA. The predecessor of the CMB. That’s how Museveni operates and he has to pin blame on others. As his government had previously failed the same industry and agricultural output after taking power. It took them nearly a decade and foreign entities pressuring for liberalization and new methods to ensure a more profitable way of getting the cash-crop to the foreign market. That’s when things started to surge. Now that it’s in a rising market and one of the key crops of the Republic. This is when he plans to take it and get a piece of the pie. That’s what the President does…
The ones believing his mess. They are naive and deluded. Amin’s ghost is haunting President Museveni. The dead are now surrounding him. He see them and is worried about meeting them in the afterlife. His worried that people will deem him as bad as them and will write his legacy. A legacy he has self inflicted and created. The skeletons, the pain and the suffering committed to stay in office. Will forever be imprinted with his name. The golden letters and fanfare of opening institutions will not linger on. When the bodies, the stories and the pain is released. When the full extent of the massacres, the amount of political prisoners and the usage of systematic torture is released. That’s when the truth will come out and it will be a reckoning for anyone who stood by his side.
They knew that he fought dictators and he became a more vicious one. He thought he was clever, but the truth is more sinister. That’s the reality here and he cannot hide from it. This is why the ghost of Amin re-appears and comes to scare him. He don’t want to be an Amin, but deep inside he knows there is no difference between him and himself. Peace.

