Everyday the future grows dimmer for Ethiopia

Government supported security forces search the streets killing unarmed young men who look like Oromos in the southern region of Ethiopia. Source OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbii.

Everyday there are growing reports of extrajudicial killing in just about every region of Ethiopia. Clearly the population diffusely throughout the country has no faith in the government. While Abiy Ahmed makes international trips to get his picture taken with various foreigners this does not hide the lack of solidarity rising in Ethiopia. His lies about economic growth, currency stability, and domestic food security, are blatantly exposed by the millions now displaced facing hunger and insecurity from Tigray to the the Kenya border. Once stable lives for working class and middle class families in the cities throughout the country are now faced with growing unemployment and rising inflation making everyday life the most miserable in several decades. Meanwhile the Tigray siege continues unabated except for a trickle of aid which the Western democracies foolishly call progress.

When I first came to Ethiopia in 2012 it seemed to be a place that was on the way to a better future. Many hospitals and universities had been built. There had been relative peace since the 1990s. At first the change in leadership in 2018 seemed to be a continuation of progress with many promises of free speech, opposition parties without condemnation, free press and economic opportunity. Frankly it is hard to believe it is the same country now.  Educated professionals of just about every ethnic group including Amhara, Tigray, Oromo, Somali, etc. are leaving the country in droves. They have become pessimistic that the country’s situation will improve in the near future.

Even previous skeptics of immoral acts by the Ethiopian government such as the poorly regarded Ethiopian Human Rights Commission are now admitting growing horrors. Probably in part because they fear future criminal liability for being conspirators in genocide.

European democracies and most of the American political establishment although wanting to support the poor status of the population especially in Tigray need to finally realize that sustaining the current failed leadership is only leading to a failed state of death and misery. There is no medemer or unity.

Author: Professor Tony Magana

Professor Tony Magana is Head of the Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences at Mekelle University in Mekelle, Ethiopia. He directs a neurosurgery residency and training program as well as neuroscience research.

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