Professor Tony Magana, Author at Professor Tony Magaña

Abiy Ahmed and Isaias Afwerki continuous hatred toward Christians

Still from Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab geolocated a video showing people carrying a dead man on a stretcher in Da’Ero Ela Plaza (14.129918, 38.717113), towards Arba’etu Ensessa church.

Esaias Afwerki and Abiy Ahmed despite his claim of Christianity seemed joined together in their hatred for Christians during the Ethiopia Tigray conflict.

About 40,000 Irob (sometimes spelled Erob) people live on the northern Tigray Eritrean border. They speak a different language Saho then the Tigray and high percentage of them are Roman Catholics due in part to schools and support services placed in the community by the Catholic Church since the 19th century. Traditionally they have been allies with the Tigray in opposing Eritrea and the Derg.

Many Irob who have lived in the areas recognized as Eritrean since Eritrean independence have suffered extrajudicial killings, imprisonment, displacement, and general deprivation for years. It was not unusual to hear that Eritrean authorities would come to dismantle Irob homes to use the lumbar for government projects. Authorities blocked church functions, funerals, and public gatherings to discuss local issues which were customary to Irob cultural tradition.

Since the Ethiopia Eritrean invasion of Tigray the situation only got worse. Investigation by the European Center for Law & Justice as well as the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights reports numerous murders of priests, Catholic lay, destruction of worship facilities, and also of social supportive buildings for the Irob. Many families report many if not all the men in their family were executed by Eritrean forces. This barbarism against is not only for Catholics but also Tigray Orthodox believers where more than 80 priests and lay worshipers were murdered in Axum .

During the invasion of Mekelle, I witnessed the artillery barrage destroying much of the building housing Catholic Charities. Eritrean forces then came and removed all files and communication equipment. While meeting with lay representatives of the church to discuss how we could help offer medical help, I was accosted by Eritrean soldiers and my cell phone erased by them.

Esaias Afwerki’s prosecution of Christians in Eritrea is rated by Open Doors as the 6th worst in world. He has closed Catholic schools and hospitals throwing sick patients into the street. Even though Abiy Ahmed claims to be a Christian and member of the Mulu Wongel (Full Gospel Believers Church) in Addis Ababa his partner in the war, Esaias has expelled, tortured, and killed many members of this same church in Eritrea.

Vatican News reports that Ethiopian authorities have raided a center in Addis Ababa arresting many priests, Salesian missionaries, volunteers, and employees. Many of the Salesians have lived in Addis since 1975 with strong pacifist sentiments.

The World Council of Churches representing 50 million Christians from 349 churches in 110 countries sent letters to both Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopian Christian churches in February 2021 condemning violence, lamenting displacement, and widespread hunger in Tigray.

Rising prices and lack of medical supplies now affecting all of Ethiopia

The Djibouti to Addis railroad was plagued with problems before the war has been shut down by its proximity to fighting, lack of exports, and low electricity flow

Those that say life is going on as “usual” in the parts of Ethiopia not directly involved in combat are denying reality. As of October 21, 2021 the inflation rate was 34 to 35% which is up by two thirds what the rate was before the Ethiopia Tigray conflict began. Although the Ethiopian government is no longer publicly announcing the Consumer Price Index it has nearly doubled at 243 points since the onset of war as well.

Meanwhile in discussions with various sources about the condition of medical supplies in Ethiopia in regions even far remote the report is that supplies of medical consumables, medications, and others are back logged at best due to lack of available funding and constraints at supply lines to Djibouti. Apparently private truckers do not want to take the risk of going near or through a war zone. From everything to food, clothing, medicines, and electronics where there is already a shortage worldwide of supply Ethiopia is faring far worse. Pretending life is normal will not help.

Abiy Ahmed the spoiled child who mislead the international community

The noted publication Ethiopia Insight stated Abiy Ahmed preaches unity but is a “solo flyer” and his opinion is the only one that counts

Why is the international diplomatic community treating Ethiopia like the spoiled child ? Their fatal flaw is not coming to terms with the truth that Abiy Ahmed is not and never will be the leader they imagined. History always has told us that playing into the fantasies and manipulation of such a person never ends well. As an example of how dangerous dallying with such a leader one only has to look at the failed view British Prime Minister, Nivel Chamberlain, had of Adolf Hitler which served only to bolster Nazi Germany’s ultimate attempt at European domination.

Since the onset of the Ethiopian Tigray conflict the Ethiopian leadership including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been incessantly petulant towards the Western democracies whose trade and aid programs have played a significant role in building a successful economy. These same countries who were often critical of the previous Tigray Peoples Liberation Front and who clearly harbor great reservations about a return to power of this group continue to go out of their way to forestall an invasion of Addis Ababa by the Tigray Oromo alliance basically demanding Abiy Ahmed not be forcefully removed.

Undoubtedly many in the international community including some American diplomats cannot accept that they were so wrong about Abiy Ahmed, that somewhere inside him there are redeemable qualities that can still be coaxed out to yield a real unified Ethiopian democracy with a strong central government. Abiy Ahmed made mistakes they belief but it was not his fault they hold with fervor in midst of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Members of the United Nations and Western democracies ask the world to forget and put no importance to the following actions of Abiy Ahmed and his followers. They should think hard if they really wish to continue to:

Ignore the fact that he is voluntarily starving a population of over 7 million people as a part of a targeted law enforcement operation. Every minute the elderly, mothers, the sick, and young children are dying of starvation.
Ignore the fact that he has destroyed and cut off all supplies to more than 80% of medical facilities in Tigray such that the crude death rate from treatable conditions has likely increased five fold.
Ignore the fact that thousands of women have been violated and thousands of male children and babies killed by specific orders to Eritrean and Ethiopian forces.
Ignore the fact 80,000 law abiding Tigrayan citizens have lost their businesses and bank accounts without any due process.
Ignore the fact that now more 50,000 Tigrayans are imprisoned without right of trial.
Ignore the fact that he broke treaties signed by Ethiopia regarding the functioning with the United Nations and African Union as well as the United States.
Ignore the fact that he falsely accuses Western democracies of using established nonaligned charities as tools for regime change.
Ignore the fact that at one moment Ethiopian leaderships asks for hands off to deal with “criminals” whom they claim to have defeated and the next demands salvation from an enemy who can only win Ethiopia false claims because they are being helped by Western powers who like the TPLF.
Ignore the fact the the Eritrean peace pact was really a war pact with one of the most egregious tyrants in history making him a partner in genocide.

Ignoring the truth of who Abiy Ahmed and his genocidal followers are will surely just bring more suffering and death.

Ethiopia lies about aid to rebuild and relieve human suffering during occupation of Tigray

Taye Atske Selassie, Ethiopian representative to the UN lies about Ethiopia’s aid efforts to Tigray

The biggest Ethiopian lie is that Ethiopia itself sent relief to Tigray during its occupation from November 2020 to July 2021. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, his Foreign Press Secretary and the Ethiopia Representative to the United Nations have continually claimed that during the early phases of Ethiopian and Tigray war up through the claimed unilateral ceasefire Ethiopia intended to allow planting and Ethiopia spent millions in birr in reconstruction, food, and medical aid to Tigray. The truth is however, what aid got in that was not blocked on way by Ethiopia was supplied by international aid agencies not Ethiopia. Soon after the Tigray resurgence that pushed Ethiopian and Eritrean forces out of most of Tigray the the strict blockade of all aid was started by July 2021.

From the onset of the Ethiopian Tigray conflict to early January 2021 I was present at Mekelle University. During that time and continuing after we received no food supplies, no medical supplies, no fuel for generators or civilian needs, and all commercial traffic was blocked. International aid agencies sent containers through Djibouti which remained at the port not allowed to pass. The heads of the Tigray Interim Administration admitted that the Federal government intended to block planting and cut off supplies to Tigray to force their capitulation.

Shipments of medical supplies including consumables, medications, and other things were hijacked by Amhara militia, Ethiopia federal forces, and others before they reached Tigray.

I witnessed attempts at communication with the local Tigray Interim Administration, local military commanders, and even satellite calls to Ministers of Health and Education in Addis Ababa. The conversation was always that upper level Ministry officials accountable to the Prime Minister were reviewing the situation or sometimes just frankly saying it is not a “priority”. Several members of the Tigray Interim Administration during the Ethiopian occupation have at their own personal risks now admitted that the intent of the Ethiopian government was to starve, destroy, and kill Tigrayans so as described by Abiy Ahmed all that was left was “a fine dust that would blow away in the wind”.

Why is the world not holding Isaias Afwerki accountable for the Ethiopian crisis?

Passive support even admiration of the cruel tyrant Isaias Afwerki does not help the cause of African development

When will Africa learn that protecting evil dictatorships like Eritrea will always be an impediment to building a better and stronger Africa? Passing the one year mark of the human caused catastrophe of the Ethiopian war what most strikes me is the lack of discussion of the role Eritrea has played.

The 1995 movie, The Usual Suspects, has a quote that has become iconic “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist “. This most aptly describes the tyrant of Eritrea. While we hear constant commentary about Ethiopia and Tigray we hear next to nothing on how the most notorious master manipulator Esaias Afwerki masterminded not only what is going in Ethiopia but adding to chaos in Sudan.

Even though Eritrea competes with North Korea as to who is most egregious violator of human rights among the countries of the world it shamefully was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council mostly by endorsement of other African nations. The faulty notion that protecting African sovereignty and prominence in international affairs means accepting cruel and vicious leadership is allowable contributes significantly to much of Africa’s human rights struggles. The situation is so bad in Eritrea that a special envoy to follow it was created by the UN. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, presenting his oral update, said this year he had seen no concrete evidence of progress or actual improvement in the human rights situation in Eritrea.

If one wants to be generous to Abiy Ahmed that initially he had better intentions toward building Ethiopia this assumption can only be defended by pointing the finger to his naivete to the mal-intentions of the diaspora clerico-fascists and Isaias Afwerki. Yet these two entities remain obscured in the discussions of how this cataclysm developed.

Breaking news of accelerated Tigray detentions is just the tip of the iceberg

The Awash Arba camp is just one of three camps identified in Globe and Mail’s report of recent Tigrayan detentions

The detention and imprisonment of ethnic Tigray is not a just a recent phenomenon but has gone on for most of the duration of current Ethiopian Tigray conflict. The soaring number of Tigrayan(Tegaru) detentions in Addis Ababa in recent months reported by the Globe and Mail in detention camps in Afar and outside Addis Ababa is just the tip of the iceberg. Much more has been going on for the past year.

After the occupation of Tigray by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara militias completed by the end of November 2020 already thousands were forced off their farming homes and many were placed in concentration camps in Western Tigray. Numerous video clips taken by these occupying forces taken as trophies of their orders from superiors to rape, destroy, and kill Irob and Tigray especially in the Western region and border have been documented. In Northwestern Tigray we know that multiple concentration camps were occupied by hundreds with daily rape and execution.

As the Abiy Ahmed government began to permanently shut down universities in Tigray it offered many of the Tigray a false chance to go to Addis Ababa and transfer to institutions there. This was a lie for many who instead found themselves not meeting relatives in Addis but ending up in prison camps in the Southern Regions and Afar. Many photographs have emerged falsely claiming them as captured Tigray fighters. Like those reported in Globe and Mail some of them have managed to pay thousands of birr to leave the camps.

Even in Addis, Tigrayan faculty members at universities and employees in government offices were offered special trips to discuss “peace proposals”. They were to show up for bus pick up which turned out to be to detention camps. Many physicians became wary and avoided this ploy. Unfortunately now Addis Ababa police have began just showing up at these same facilities over the past two weeks and taking custody with no discussion allowed.

We know that thousands of Tigrayan businessman had their businesses closed down, assests confiscated, and many also imprisoned. Official government reports that there may be in excess of 80,000 individuals affected by this process.

Although these activities have been ongoing the past year the progressive defeats of the Eritrean and Ethiopian forces have accelerated this human rights violations exponentially. Some estimates reach as high as 50,000 or more currently detained. Some analysts ponder whether Abiy Ahmed wants to use them as abargaining chip.

Abiy Ahmed’s deteriorating status with Ethiopian performing artists

Singer Tariku Ganiski calls for youth not to go to war but for elders to make peace at Addis Ababa rally. See the Amharic speech he made here.

Popular Ethiopian singer, Tariku Gankisi, who is known for promoting Ethiopian unity in his works was invited to perform at a Addis Ababa rally to support the Federal governments fight against the Tigray and their allies but it did not go as organizers had planned. Instead Tariku told the crowd “Let no youth go to the front lines to fight, let the elders go holding the fresh grass and ask for reconciliation,” before his microphone was switched off by party unknown.

President John F. Kennedy said at the Alliance for Progress in 1962 that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”. He recognized that dictators oppression of nonviolent protest and dissent can ultimately inflame the cause for war.

In 2018 Abiy Ahmed praised the art community of Ethiopia saying “art has indispensable role in nourishing our cultural life, love, forgiveness and togetherness. The role of the artist is to be a guardian of truth and justice and creatively reveal the richness of our national life”. However as his ever attempt to tighten controls over everything in Ethiopian life including culture has increased his appreciation for performing artists seems to have changed as have theirs towards him.

On June 29, 2020 the popular Oromo singer, Hachalu Hundessa, was murdered most likely by supporters of Abiy Ahmed. In his quest to consolidate power over the Oromo population the Ethiopian Prime Minister had already imprisoned over 7000 Oromia and overseen the extrajudicial killing of over almost 300 since coming to power in 2018. This singer’s style and message appealed to multiple generations in ballads discussing the subjugation of the Oromo people historically and more recently the expansion of the nation’s capital, Addis Ababa generally considered Amhara territory, into the Oromo national state. Although Abiy Ahmed was initially seen as a champion of these causes he eventually dropped them preferring his Ahmara identity.

Making media the message and avoiding real issues hastens Abiy Ahmed’s fall

Even though Ethiopia has been thought of a religious country filled with pious Christians and Muslims activists now promote blasphemous suspension of morality

Twitter has seen so many posts advocating escalation of ethnic violence against the Tigray in Ethiopia that they shut down their mechanism for collecting posts with similar topics for readership. In the face of a great epic tragedy occurring in Ethiopia the supporters of Abiy Ahmed have decided that their best strategy in midst of a military debacle is to attempt to deflect the real issues and realign them to emotional ones unrelated to the current reality.

Amhara activist promotes savage behavior

Over the past few years I have had an interest in the use of language and neuroscience related to how it functions to establish human interactions. We have been using this to help develop teaching methods for students training for futures as executives in business in Africa in how they relate to clients. This neurobehavioral science gives some insight to what we are seeing in Twitter and Facebook.

Modern media is about the short sound bit or 125 character phrase that creates a “Wow” visceral response without contemplating the whys? Hows? Where is it going? Where did it come from?

Whereas decades ago all massively distributed media was created by professionals with supervisory editing dictated by agreed norms of civility today we see a change to media made for sensationalistic emotional immediate response. In the 1960s Marshal McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher, coined the phrase “the media is the message”. The concept is a bit complex but importantly relates to the idea that sensational content in its presentation draws the observer away from thinking about things like why is it presented, what were the circumstances that lead to it, etc. In his work Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man he gave the example of a “burglar carrying meat for the watchdog of the mind”.

The problems of starvation, deprivation, imprisonment, and violation will not be solved by sound bits or catchy phrases. History is replete with many instances of times when leaders let personal glory drive them to make decisions prolonging suffering of those in their charge with avoidable predictable catastrophe.

Washington hosts decentralization alliance against Abiy Ahmed government

Nine opposition factions against the Ethiopian Federal Government met and announced their alliance in Washington DC this week

The announcement of the cooperation of nine antigovernmental citizen’s armed groups from Ethiopia including the Tigray, Oromo, Gambella, South Omo, Benigshagul and others in a Washington DC meeting is very telling about the United States intentions as regards Ethiopia. The current situation all parties including the Tigray People Liberation Front is different then that in 1991 when the TPLF defeated the Derg regime.

We know the United States is strongly considering that the Tigray have suffered a genocide under Ethiopian and Eritrean military assault. This hosting of allied opposition groups in Washington D.C. clearly indicates that the United States is not seeing the Ethiopian situation as portrayed by the Ethiopian Federal government of solely the illegitimate rebel Tigray against the lawful national authority. The resolution will not be a return to status quo for Abiy Ahmed.

However, the claims by Abiy Ahmed supporters that the TPLF is seeking a new state dominated by one ethnic group are not supported by this movement called the United Front of Ethiopian Federalists and Confederalists Forces. They are jointly acting under the conviction that Abiy Ahmed violated the current Ethiopian constitution Article 39 in denying appropriate regional state autonomy.

They are seeking if possible a negotiated peace as purposed by the United Nations and the United States which invokes the current Ethiopian constitution but so far Abiy Ahmed has only responded with rhetoric of “bury all Tigrayans” and no peace talks. It seems this united movement is the only chance to restore peace without further bloodshed. In that the Tigray and their allies agree with USA.

George Orwell’s dystopian 1984 country is becoming reality in Ethiopia

A year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize thousands of Ethiopians were arrested, dead, and silenced

Abiy Ahmed is bringing the fantasy of George Orwells 1984 into reality in Ethiopia. He once promised a new era of free speech, free press, and exchange of ideas among different ethnicities but now his metamorphosis to one described by Jeffrey Felts as one “whose behavior no person of conscience can accept” has brought Ethiopia to the brink of ruin if not complete destruction.

Anyone with any previous tie to Tigray without current evidence of intention to act against Ethiopia can have their possessions taken, their livelihood destroyed, and imprisoned without due process. News organizations must register and promise to only publish news that is approved to strictly follow government’s dictations. Ordinary citizens who voice any opinion in opposition to government in person, on the street, or in social media are to be considered terrorists.

In the case of Big Brother in George Orwell’s classic tale of a completely dominating dystopian state, 1984, his name was unknown but in the case of Ethiopia which now seems to be following the same theme we know the protagonist is Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. Unfortunately this is not fiction but a growing epic catastrophe causing millions of people to suffer and die. There is no morality above that which serves the state. All actions to preserve the stability of the state are allowable.

In 1984 Big Brother constantly watches every citizen all the time. Not only what they do and say but even analyzing what they think to insure that everything is being done for the benefit of state stability and security. History, education, and media are strictly controlled and manipulated to further the state’s goals while truth has no relevance. There is only one official nationalism and all others are forcefully quashed. The citizens live in poverty and deprivation to keep them in a state of continual dependence on government assistance tied to perfect individual support of the state. Failure to fully cooperate results in severe penalty.