Tigray, A Humanitarian Crisis

 In November 2020, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed sends troops into Southern Tigray, in response to an attack on a Ethiopian military base. The attacks on Ethiopian forces were a result of the postponement of the scheduled parliamentary elections because of the Covid 19 pandemic. Eritrea in alliance with Ethiopia would begin its assault from the North. During the first phase of the war the capital of Tigray was captured by the allied forces of Eritrea and Ethiopia.  during the struggle the capital was recaptured, and a long and very violent struggle began between the two forces. During this struggle the Tigray People’s Liberation Front joined forces with the Omoro Liberation Army, together they threatened to march on to Addis Ababa and overthrow the Prime Minister and his government. The war escalated and during the war many atrocities occurred. Both sides practiced a form of war rape.  Soldiers would publicly rape women whose ages would range from 8 to 72 years of age. These rapes would often occur in front of their families. Because of the ensuing violence, food, water, and electricity were cut off causing the malnourishment of children, disease and death of thousands.   According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director -General of WHO “As a result, the people of Tigray are facing multiple outbreaks of malaria, anthrax, cholera, diarrhea and more”. It is estimated that millions have been wounded or killed. The war has displaced over 2 million. Over 9 million face food shortages and other humanitarian problems. There have been stories of rapes occurring on civilians who are held while in detention camps.  The pain is of this brutal shame is that Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister is the winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. The situation is so bad that the UN believes that peace is the only way out from this conflict. Justice cannot result from this war. Only peace can end the travesties that have been brought on by this war. 

         The Prime Minister has made a peace offer but with his troops making territorial gains it is believed that his peace offer is a mere rouse to purchase time until his ultimate victory. His release of important opposition figures is viewed as nothing but theatrics and a publicity stunt by his opponents.  Especially considering the bombings by air that have recently killed at least 50 children in a refugee shelter. However, the Ethiopian government states it is sincere in supporting a humanitarian truce.  This truce declared in March has eased the fighting in the area. However, the crisis, has not subsided and according to the WHO Director the reason the crisis has gone on for so long is because of blatant racism. Ukraine has shown that the reason no one even cares about the crisis in Tigray is because of the color of skin. It is in his opinion the only reason the UN and the western powers have been slow to aid in ending the crisis. The crisis hits home deeply as one journalist, Lucy Kassa described the mental anguish she has gone through in reporting the facts, about the war. She recalls the gang rape of one civilian woman by 15 Ethiopian soldiers. This took place in a camp that was used as a place for sex slavery. She describes the lack of food, water and electricity and the emaciated bodies of starving children. The killing of over 250 individuals in a Tigrayan village. According to her recount, the Ethiopian soldiers went from house to house systematically killing the Tigrayan people. However, the problem becomes even more personal when the attacks involve loved ones and close relatives. During an Al Jazeera interview a Tigrayan relief organizer stated that her aunt was killed, orphaning a family of five. Another report from the United States, Adey Hagos, an Oakland restaurant owner, and a Tigray immigrant, states “People have no electricity. They have no food There is no salt. They have typhoid. There is no clean water. Hagos, 40 was opening her restaurant, Café Romanat, as she said,” I don’t want to open Telegram sometimes because I just want to have a good day with my kids. But I do it.” Many are forced to struggle with the day-to-day realities of being cut off from loved ones who are in serious need of help. The humanitarian aid is beginning once again because of the truce but it is a mere trickle of what is needed.  The bombing must stop. If the Russians were allowed to do to the Ukrainians what the Ethiopians had done to the Tigrayans. She would have been allowed to use her Su-35 multirole bombers against Warsaw or whatever Polish town that sits near the Ukraine border. This is unthinkable. Where hear of Bucha, Ukraine but no one can seem to feel or hear of the pain, suffering or depravations in Tigray. But it does not matter to the world because they are merely Africans. After the Middle Passage this is something, the world has accepted as normal. We owe it to ourselves to say we are owed more. We are human. Black or white an atrocity is an atrocity. In addition, we need to stand up and beg that the forces doing the fighting have to understand who they are and what their names mean, Tigray Liberation Peoples Front, means it is a liberation peoples front, Omoro Liberation Army, means it is an army for the liberation of humanity. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the liberation group that once comprised all these forces means revolutionary democratic, not just for Tigray, Ethiopia, Eritrea but liberation for the entire people of Africa and the entire world. This is what Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Touré and W.E.B. Dubois would have understood. This I believe is what they, if they were still alive, would have demanded.