Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister – Federal Council of Ministers declares State of Emergency in Tigray Region (04.11.2020)

Ethiopia: Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association – OLLA Condems the Killings in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia (03.11.2020)

Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister – TPLF attacks Ethiopian National Defense Forces Base in Tigray (04.11.2020)

Ethiopia: Global Security of Tigrai Scholars (GSTS) – Urgent call for an immediate cessation of all form of hostilities and commence all-inclusive national dialogue (04.11.2020)

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC): Wollega Zone: Masscre of Civilians (02.11.2020)

Ethiopia: The Drums of War will only lead to more deaths…

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia doesn’t need a civil war. No, republic in existence needs that. It’s an action only leading to more hurt, pain and suffering for innocent civilians. The political elites survives and the big-men will walk-it off. However, the peasants and the farmers in rural areas are the ones touched, torched and killed in the middle of the battlefield they once called home.

That Tigrai Regional Government and Tigrai People’s Liberation Party leader Debretsion Gebremichael have no gathered a special force to defend his government. This is the sound of war-drums. Especially, considering the implications of gathering a group of soldiers this way and sending the message across to the general public.

Yes, the Federal Government have used soldiers against its own. They have blamed the citizens and the dissenting opposition for it. Like it has done with the murders and clashes within Oromia over recent year. Also, with the clashes and murders within Amhara too. Therefore, we know the soldiers and armed personnel have no issues killings, arresting and destroying anyone in their path. The Federal Government forces are using all means to get rid of the ones opposing the Prosperity Party. While the opposition leaders are lingering in jail together with outspoken journalists.

This is why we know Prime Minister Ahmed Ali Abiy will not back down. He might came in peace into office, but he has brutal in his reign. There been little to no mercy, shaken the hands, but later given the same folks the bracelets. Therefore, the PM and his party is easily pulling the trigger and getting people silenced. They do it, if they need it.

Abiy is already sending forces to kills scores of people in Amhara and in Oromia. There is no stopping him. So, he could easily send the same army to Tigrai as well. He has no issues sending deadly force towards citizens and using despicable means. While hoping the numbers and no reporting on the matter. When over 200 civilians can die in Western Oromia and not call out any outrage. While the Oromia President Shimelish Abdisa says it’s TPLF behind it, alas others claimed Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) was behind it. Meanwhile, the Federal Government says its “rouge elements” within the federal armed forces. Clearly, they are political motivated to say all of this. Just to incite more.

The Federal Government is already committing murders on a mass scale. They are trying to pin the opposition while doing so. This is a deliberate act. Therefore, the TPLF is playing into their hands. As they have already ceased co-operations and work together. The House of Federation, the Prime Minister and the Federal Government isn’t serving the Tigrai. Neither is the Tigrai accepting any tokens from the Federal Government either.

Therefore, the situation is already stale and harsh. The actions made by all parties is getting this way. The Tigrai leadership is signalling their troops and their citizens of their strengths. In the meanwhile, the Federal Government is already skirmishing in Oromia. Therefore, they are prepared for whatever coming.

That PM Abiy is blaming the TPLF for what is happening in Oromia is even more striking. As he should know the facts and does this just have an excuse to wage war. The same time the Tigrai is saying they are prepared. The steel is being polished and ready to used. The ones dying is innocent civilians in the Republic. The big-men will survive and the elites will eat.

The sounds of war-drums isn’t any good. The signs of civil war is bleak and dangerous. The smell of flesh and blood should make you vomit. This isn’t the prosperous future or the reforms that was promised. This is the continued consolidation of power by the gun. A tyrants way of taking all control. Not the moves of a man wanting to generate peace or prosperity.

War only brings destruction, devastation and suffering. War never have any real victor, only one man who lost a little less. There is no sure winners, but only a lot of losers. There is already enough death in the Republic as it is. To many clashes, skirmishes and assassinations to count. Innocent civilians are already dying.

The state doesn’t need to be involved in even more mayhem. They should send their top diplomates to Mekelle and figure this one out. They should negotiate and talk. Show some grace and humility. However, that is the sort of man the PM is. He rather act eruptly and with publicity stunts, than actually doing anything sincere. Peace.

Ethiopia: 3 billion birr to be wasted on the ‘useless’ Ministry of Peace

On the 16th October 2018 the Prosperity Party and Prime Minister Ahmed Ali Abiy established the Ministry of Peace and appointed Muferiat Kamil to be the Minister of it. The intention and the mandate is fine and dandy. Which was to sustain the reforms and perform peace-building measures within the Federal Republic. However, what has happened ever since has been less of peace.

The state has sent the army, the police and all its authorities to silence dissidents and all opposition. That is why the state has such a vast amount of political prisoners and arrests of activists across the Republic. The mass amounts of deaths in Amhara, Oromia and in Ogaden is all a result of the extra judicial killings supported by the Central Government.

The House of Federation haven’t tried to work in peace with the ones its representing. Neither is the Prime Minister working in the interests of dialogue. He first made peace with them, but later betrayed them all. By going even further than previous Prime Minister’s. That being arresting civilians, killing protesters and using COVID-19 as a reason to postpone elections.

This is why the government is illegitimate and unconstitutional for the very moment. They have an illegal 6th Year of the HoF. The Prosperity Party doesn’t have a mandate to be a legitimate government at the moment.

However, the PM and the PP act like they can do whatever and get away with it. It can order soldiers to the provinces, it can destroy villages, burn houses and use schools as prisons. That is what happening and is done at a grand scale.

The PM isn’t a man of peace. That was only done to make an impression internationally. However, at home is burning bridges. The PM is destroying families and misusing his power. A unelected man is acting as a emperor.

That is why he has established an Ministry, which is pointless. When there are gatherings of political prisoners. The main opposition is behind bars. The journalists and the activists daring to speak out. Will eventually get caught up with the law too. There is assassinations and arbitrary arrests.

If the government really worked for peace. It wouldn’t put shackles on their opposition and forge charges on them. If the government believed in the mandate of the Ministry of Peace. It wouldn’t use soldiers against peaceful civilians. All of that is a mockery of common sense.

The PM wants the praise and the glory. However, the true story is much more bleak than the stories the state is telling. The murders, the deaths and the ones lingering in the jails. Are not a sign of peace, but of war against their own. Instead of using your ears to listen to the ones oppressed. The state is using their mouth to be a voice-over the ones suffering. Not willing to listen, but instead screaming over the needs of the public.

The PM prefers shallow PR exercises that makes him look like a saint, while part of him is the angel of death. If he believed in peace and in dialogue. He wouldn’t act like this and accept the aggression against his own. However, that is what he does.

This is why the state is using 3 billion birrs this upcoming budget year on a wasted Ministry. It would be better to burn the bank-notes in front of the statute at Menelik II Square in Addis Ababa. At least it would give a little heat and make a spectacle. Because, at this very moment. Every coin is wasted and could have been used to help the general public.

Since, the Ministry of Peace is useless. It has nothing to give. When the PP and PM is using force against their own. There will be no peace, when you are ordering soldiers to peoples homes and villages. Peace.

Ethiopia: Vision Ethiopia – Press Release on National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) – (27.10.2020)

Ethiopia: A new generation of desert locusts, flooding and COVID-19 threaten food security in Ethiopia (28.10.2020)

The Afar region has faced an unprecedented locust invasion since August this year.

AFAR, Ethiopia, October 28, 2020 – Mohammed Ali, 30, a pastoralist, is visibly tired, but relentlessly searching for pasture for his cattle under scorching sunshine. He leads over 400 head of cattle from Ewa to Asayta Woreda in the Afar region. Although pastoralists like Mohammed are accustomed to making the annual 200 km trek in January when the rains stop, they were compelled to make the journey in October – three months early.

“Desert locusts destroyed all the natural pasture including green vegetation cover. Our livestock would starve to death if we did not move,” he said.

According to Ayalew Shumet, the Afar region’s coordinator of desert locust operations, about 10 million head of livestock in the region are currently affected by the scarcity of natural pasture. Because pastoralists rely on the weather and environment to secure livestock feed for their livestock, they are heavily impacted by the damage desert locusts have caused on pasture.

Desert locusts have also destroyed entire crop fields leaving farmers, and local authorities worried. Hussein Hundolpe vividly remembers the day locusts invaded his six-hectare maize field in Afambo Woreda with sadness.

“My family and I worked hard to clear the field. I bought an irrigation pump and fuel and ensured that my maize crop received enough water. When the plants were about one meter tall, locusts devoured everything in a few hours”, he said.

Recounting the incident, Ahmed’s neighbor, Fatouma, said a large swarm covered their village’s sky.

“We threw objects at them, but nothing helped. Although the government moved swiftly to spray the swarm, the damage was already done. Every single farmer in our village lost all their maize and sorghum crop”, she said.

The Afar region has faced an unprecedented locust invasion since August this year. Despite ongoing control efforts, numerous hopper bands have caused immense damage in 33 out of 34 Woredas of the region.

“Farmers need urgent support to re-plant their crops and pastoralists require emergency feed supply otherwise, the food security in the region is at risk,” said Wogris Hafa, the Head of the Livestock, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Office of Chifra Woreda.

Ethiopia has been battling locusts since June 2019. Up to October 21, 2020, over 607 000 hectares of land had been sprayed through aerial and ground operations. Despite these efforts, the desert locust threat prevails due to cross-border movements and prevailing conducive breeding conditions in the country. Numerous immature adult groups and swarms are still moving in the Amhara/Tigray highlands and Somali region (Desert Locust situation update: 19 October 2020).

Floods exacerbate the risk

Between June and September 2020, heavy and prolonged rains led to flooding in the Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Gambella, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP)’, Sidama, and Somali regions, affecting over one million people, with about 350 000 displaced.

In Aysaqita Woreda in the Afar region, Medina Solea recounts how floodwaters overflowing from the Awash River washed away all her household property, livestock, and crops.

“We ran to the mountains from where we were rescued by a helicopter.”

Now living in an Internally Displaced Persons Camp with her family of 10, Madina says, “We have nothing to start with.”

Although the Awash River frequently floods in August/September following heavy rains in the eastern highland and escarpment areas, this year’s flooding is unmatched, according to Aydahis Yasin, the Early Warning and Emergency Response Director, Afar Region.

“Over 46 000 hectares of cropland and 26 000 hectares of pasture in Afar were destroyed by floods, “he said.

Food security at stake

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, about 6.7 million people (in seven regions) are expected to be highly food insecure, in Crisis (IPC Phase 3), or worse between October and December 2020.

However, the new wave of desert locusts, exacerbated by economic hardships resulting from COVID-19 restrictions, and flooding will likely amplify food insecurity unless urgent action is taken, to assist the affected communities.

FAO’s response

Alongside efforts to control desert locusts, FAO is implementing a programme to safeguard productive assets and livelihoods of the affected population in Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somalia, SNNP, and Tigray regions. The Organization is supporting over 70 000 households with agricultural inputs (seeds, tools, livestock feed, and veterinary drugs), cash transfers, training, and extension support. These interventions were informed by the May-December 2020 funding Appeal of $79 million, which is now 60 percent funded.

“With the growing humanitarian needs, we require more funds to support additional households”, said Fatouma Seid, the FAO Representative in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia: TPLF President Debretsion Gebremichael letter to the International Community (26.10.2020)