A Misplaced Moral Clarity: The World Should be Inspired by Tigray Too!
Source: Globe News Net
March 2, 2022
One may argue that it is ‘geography’; others may argue that it is difference in the color of the skins; I disagree. It is misplaced moral clarity within the collective subconscious instead.
Tigray’s Debretsion Gebremichael may not be a ‘comedian turned a President’; Tigray may not be a nation well connected with the powerful but a small region, a small David, that is fighting against Goliaths for its very survival.
As much as the world showeredVolodymyr Zelenskyy with a well-deserved accolade for his resolve and courage, Tigray’s Debretsion deserved equal accolade and support [if not more], but the world opted for a split screened image instead.
Again, Ethiopia may not be Russia and Tigray may not be Ukraine, but the difference doesn’t end there when Tigray made the unthinkable possible with no external succor whatsoever- not even a collective diplomatic support or a lip-service- when Ethiopia was thrusted with it instead.
What’s more, in protest to the Russian invasion, diplomats walked out of the UN hall when the Russian Foreign Minister appeared on the zoom screen to make a speech, but the same diplomats sat in the entire speech when the Ethiopian diplomat at the UN delivered heap of lies when Ethiopia and Eritrea invaded Tigray.
In the meantime, in the same hall, Tigray couldn’t defend herself- not even by a proxy – when the world opted to remain indifferent. The venal and useless AU as well turned its back on Tigray when it gave a diplomatic support to Abiy Ahmed the aggressor when the former knew well that the “Law and Order Operation” was a naked ruse.
Tigray refused to be broken and relegated to the footnotes of history, nonetheless. Instead, her Generals, in an extraordinary courage stood right back up after as they put it, licked the dirt on the precarious ground.
The Tigrayan Generals depended on the just cause and on the people of Tigray including on the receptive and strategic mountains of Tigray when the aggressor and invader rolled his tanks, bomber jets in tandem with the huge savage Eritrean army, Somali mercenaries and Amhara special forces as well and Tigray, the giant in spirit—armed with an extraordinary valor and courage destroyed them all. The world refused to notice much less inspired.
The blockade went on, the blackout went on, food aid including essential medicines were made out of reach in a bid to starve Tigray to death and the world refused to notice; instead, the international community remained concerned lest Abiy Ahmed’s Ethiopia breaks apart and moral standing was replaced with political expediency. The travesty of justice lasted for almost sixteen months and counting when the world chose to be inspired with selected sense of judgment instead.
The first chapters of history begin with the narratives of the powerful, they say, but the last chapters are always written by those who are armed with a just cause and steeled determination to defend what is close to their courageous and brave heart. That is the story of our own private Tigray. The world refuses to notice and gets inspired. Tigray certainly doesn’t crave for recognition for her time will come for time as they say is the hidden factor.
Background of the war on Tigray:
The war began in November 2020 when Ethiopia’s army backed by Eritrean and Somalia national armies and troops from Ethiopian regional states moved to oust a TPLF-led regional government in Tigray after long-standing political hostilities between Abiy’s ruling party and TPLF.
The other dimension of the war was a genocidal campaign that has been brewing by elites from Amhara and Eritrean government, culminating in the November 2020 ‘war-of-annihilation’ on Tigrayans.
The more than 15-month-old war was marked by extreme brutality, including the use of rape and hunger as weapons of war, massacres and ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans. As a result, the conflict has left thousands dead and forced many others to flee their homes with hundreds of thousands driven to the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations.
Since June, Tigray has been put under a total humanitarian blockade by the Ethiopian government, with only less than 10 %of the needed essential aid allowed to enter the region and no aid reached the region since December 15, 2021. This has resulted in man-made famine to more than 900,000 people in the region and more than 5400 deaths as a result.
The World Health Organization on Tuesday called for “unfettered access” into war-wracked Tigray, saying its first delivery of life-saving medical supplies since July last year had stalled due to lack of fuel.
Nearly 40 percentof people in Tigray, a region of six million people, face “an extreme lack of food”, the UN said last month. The dire assessment published by the World Food Programme (WFP) came as humanitarian groups increasingly curtail activities because of fuel and supply shortages.
An estimated 9.4 million people in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Millions more are also suffering from severe food shortages, acute malnutrition is rising, disease and chronic illnesses are going untreated.
