



Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister – Statement on the Tigray Region Rule of Law Operation (03.03.2021)









Falls Church, Virginia (3/2/2021)—The Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association (OLLAA) applauds the German government’s March 1 announcement that it has recalled its ambassador to Myanmar following the military government’s unlawful killing of peaceful protestors. “Such deadly violence against peaceful demonstrators can not be justified,” said German Foreign Ministry spokesman Steffan Seibert, “We summoned Myanmar’s ambassador today to make this position clear.”
OLLAA commends Germany’s commitment to democratic norms and urges the government to similarly signal its support for Ethiopian civilians, who are suffering gross violations of their human rights to life and freedom from unlawful arrest.
The atrocities in the Tigray region are part of an overarching pattern of human rights abuses committed by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
According to a report by Australian human rights monitoring NGO the Oromia Support Group (OSG), at least 1,342 civilians have been killed by Ethiopian security forces since October 2018. For example, nearly 350 civilians died in extrajudicial killings in the Western Oromia region alone. A 2020 report by Amnesty International documents dozens of horrific extrajudicial killings, including a father of three who was murdered by Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF) at a town-wide meeting because his mobile phone rang in the middle of proceedings. In another case, the Oromia Police Special Force targeted and killed a 10th-grade student while he drank coffee at a local cafe.
Aside from the Ethiopian government’s abhorrent and illegal executions of civilians, the state has carried out a campaign of mass arrest and arbitrary detention for the past two years.
Between January and September 2019, Amnesty International reported that at least 10,000 people were known to be imprisoned in a wave of mass detention that targeted anyone believed to be even remotely associated with opposition political parties.
More recently in 2020, amidst the covid pandemic, the Ethiopian government arrested and imprisoned at least 5,000 people, many of whom were journalists, politicians, and student activists critical of the government according to Amnesty international. While the government postponed democratic elections, ostensibly due to covid transmission concerns, state security forces simultaneously placed thousands at high risk of the virus due to “punitive” conditions inside detention centers.
On the same day as Germany’s announcement, a BBC journalist was arrested and reportedly taken to a military detention camp.
OLLAA urges the German government to undertake the following actions:
For more information about the Oromo hunger strike, visit OLLAA.org/hungerstrike.




More than three months into the crisis, MSF is very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Tigray. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes after fighting broke out in early November, 2020, according to OCHA. As of mid-February, more than 60,000 people have crossed to Sudan as refugees, while many others are displaced within the region, staying in towns, remote areas or trapped between localised outbreaks of fighting.
In the areas MSF teams have been able to access, displaced people and conflict-affected communities have very limited access to basic services, like food, clean water and shelter. Shortages of food and supplies and the interruption of essential services like electricity are having a devastating impact on the population and affecting access to medical care and livelihoods.
Most of the health facilities our teams visited in the towns and peripheral areas of Tigray visited so far were non-functional. It is crucial to restore essential life-saving services, including medical care, in Tigray to meet the population’s basic needs
We are particularly worried about the food situation, which was already bad before the fighting broke out. The fighting started at harvest time in a region where crops were already badly damaged by desert locusts, leaving food in short supply.
The scale of humanitarian needs is alarming and the response on the ground is still extremely limited. Access remains challenging, but is possible in some areas. MSF is scaling up medical activities in Adigrat, Adwa, Abyi Addi, Axum, Adwa, Dansha, Hiwane, Humera, West Tigray and Shire and Shiraro areas and we see huge needs requiring an urgent scale up of principled and humanitarian assistance.
Safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance and population’s access to services needs to be ensured in all areas of Tigray. There are still large parts of the region where MSF teams and other humanitarian organizations have not been able to gain meaningful access.
MSF response in the context of the Tigray crisis:
MSF teams have been providing medical care to some of the most affected people in the Tigray region since mid-December 2020 by providing basic primary healthcare to the displaced people and fighting-affected communities, as well as facilitating referral of critically-ill patients to secondary level of care facilities. Our teams also donated emergency and essential supplies such as medications, oxygen and food for patients, and rehabilitated key services of badly damaged health structures in all those areas we could access so far.
As of the end of February 2021, MSF teams are supporting 5 hospitals. We are also supporting health centres and are running mobile clinics in over 25 locations. Note: the number of locations with mobile clinics keeps changing constantly as teams are expanding outreach activities to new locations on a weekly basis.




“The way to put an end to this is to deal with it like fish… you will not able to gather all the fish of the Atlantic and Pacific ocean, to completely get rid of them, you will need to dry the oceans” – Fikadu Tessema, Head of Oromia Prosperity Party in yesterdays Oromia State Council meeting
It has been 31 days of hunger strikes of the Oromo leaders detained indefinitely. As there are reports of 50,000 political prisoners in Oromia alone. This being the leaders of Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). The leaders have been lingering in jail for so long without any substantial trial for the Oromo leaders. They are just persisting keeping them in prison without any evidence and reasons for the charges.
We know that Tessema is an trusted ally of Abiy. As he took over the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and his now the leader of Prosperity Party in Oromia. He seems to follow the orders and ideals of the Prime Minister Abiy.
He said this in Kenya in December 2020:
“Because peace is a foundation for everything that we are aspiring to transform the life of our people if we could eliminate Al Shabab and OLF from this region you can see how this people can be transformed into one family, one country and one people” – Prime Minister Ahmed Ali Abiy in Kenya on the 9th December 2020.
Abiy and Tessema seems to plan this and working together to destroy and get rid the Oromo dissidents. They are clearly using the opportunity ahead of the elections to silence them all. This is not new. Since the Prosperity Party have gone after the Oromo leadership steadily. They only made peace for a hot minute to take them down later.
Tessema really wants to go after them and strike them down hard. He will nobody behind. There seems to be no redeeming factor here. The state is willing to take them all. This is the means of their game. If they speak of democracy and tolerance. It is all lies, as they are willing to “empty oceans” to get rid of the fish. That is the sort of play the state does now.
The Prosperity Party and its leadership will answer things with furious fury. We should worry and be worried. As this state is relentless and when it strikes. It doesn’t do it smoothly or soft, but with fierce force and fatalities.
If Tessema gets his way. There will be a bloodshed and the OLF/OFC will be in danger. They will be hit so hard and the state with ruthlessly search for anyone involved or active in these parties. Just to take them down and never let them go.
That is what we can expect and anticipate. We have seen how the state have acted in Tigray and before in Oromia. So, the signs on the horizon is a bloody red moon. It is dangerous times ahead and it will horrific. To think otherwise is naive. As this state and Prime Minister rather get rid of their enemies, than talking to them.
And when allies of him propose these sorts of methods. We should be not cautious, but be alarmed. Because, there is no ending of warfare, conflict and usage of arms towards civilians in the Republic. That will be targeting the parties of Oromia. Even if they have already done so for a long while.
Now will they will strike even harder and that should worry. There is no end to this tyranny. They are just using new means to get rid of the ones who dissent to PP and the PM. Peace.

Since the 4th November 2021 there have been little to no eyes on the conflict in the Tigray Region. The Federal Government have blocked access to both humanitarian organizations and media houses. This week they have allowed humanitarian access to the region, but also 7 international media houses.
So, to keep in line with the black-out the state is continuing that. Even as the international media is trying to set their feet in their region. The Law Enforcement Operation is persisting and the military is still using force on civilians to gain control of the region. They have allies in the Eritrean army and Amhara Para-Military Group called Fano. Therefore, the unknown atrocities, massacres and violations of the Geneva convention is only mere speculation. As there are only small glimpses of the actions made in Tigray.
Just like the state constantly debunks and dismiss the little articles and reports that comes out. As it never them or allies who are doing the war-crimes, but always TPLF. Even if the TPLF was supposed to be practically “dead” at the end of November 2020. We are supposed to forget that fact as the conflict is on its 4th Month.
We know the Prosperity Party and the regime wants to keep things at bay and only have their propaganda to the world. As the ones that could help the foreign reports to get stories and fix things for them was arrested yesterday.
These are:
Fitsum Berhane (working for AFP) and Alula Akalu (working for Financial Times) professional translators arrested in Mekell.
Tamirat Yemane (contributor to Aiga Forum), local journalist arrested in Mekelle.
These three was picked up by soldiers, beaten and taken to a unknown location.
Two friends of Akalu was arrested as well: Biniam Abraha and Yohannes Haftom. All of them has beaten and arrested by the soldiers. Also, taken to unknown location and without warrants.
We don’t know what charges the state has for all of these gentlemen, but we know the reason why they were arrested. As the state is “preparing” for the “access” so that they can ensure favourable reporting and only the one the state wants out from the warfare.
If they really believed in free press and have “access”. These folks wouldn’t be arrested for no other reason. That they are connected to media and could help the foreigners to get a deep cover, insights and understanding of everything that’s happening. Instead of eating of the hands of the government and peddling their narrative. Which is easier to do, when they are in the hands of the authorities and not getting outsider help.
This is deliberate and done with purpose. They allow them in and doing so as long as they print what the government likes. Only to ensure that the foreign journalists doesn’t get proper stories or ability to translate interviews. They are doing this with purpose and done to silence the media still.
It’s like you allow someone to enter, but they will not get whole context or situation, because no one locally will be able to tell or translate for them. They only have to go by the words of public officials and state agents, which in the end has an agenda and interests to serve. Not civilians who just got an eye-witness account, which will differ with the interests of the state. The state which happens to have soldiers on the ground and using force to take total control. Peace.