Why the Ethiopian NoMore Campaign is a Campaign of Sharing Ignorance

Mi arriva un messaggio da un mio contatto che pubblico e condivido in maniera integrale come l’ho ricevuto.

Today, a message arrives from a contact of mine that I publish and share in full as I received it.

Davide Tommasin

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Ethiopia today is a country adamantly starving its people to death by placing siege to Tigray. No medicine, food, or anything life-supporting supply is allowed in to the region for a long time now. War affected neighboring Amhara and Afar regions are accessible and being supplied by government and others, Ethiopian government forbids any medical and food supplies to Tigray which is just next to those two regions! The world begged the Ethiopian government for access and continued being CONCERNED. And yet, Ethiopia continued tightening the siege on children and women of Tigray. Tigray people whether they are civil servants in various parts of Ethiopia, business people, daily laborers, and returnees from Saudi prisons are all put to concentration camps. Yes, the Ethiopian-Eritrean-Amhara forces are fighting Tigray Defense Force (TDF) which is in control of some parts of Tigray. However, this should not warrant starving and dehumanizing of all Tigray population! Paradoxically, to cover up its genocidal acts, Ethiopia has been launching a campaign of NoMore, apparently to keep off the CONCERNED western world’s pressure asking Ethiopia to stop siege on Tigray, eject Eritrean forces from region, and negotiate ceasefire.

However, the Ethiopia’s desperate genocidal and cowardly act of laying siege on civilians is the reality which deserves genuine NoMore! This is why some normal citizens have now launched mild campaign of KnowMore about Tigray situation before one succumbs to this bogus scam of sections of the Ethio-Eritrean diaspora – apostles of genocide. Thus, Africans are advised to guard themselves from this forceful spreading of ignorance in the name of Pan-African movement of NoMore which is essentially meant to cover up genocide. So KnowMore, act better guided in ways of Ubuntu than being confused by contemptible noise of NoMore of Ethiopia.

The contradiction is – Abiy and Eritrean president Isayas Afework are perhaps the most disrespectful to Africa and Pan-Africanism. Abiy is the most unfaithful to Pan-African agenda among the leaders of Ethiopia since Pan-African agenda started. All other leaders had commitment to Pan-African cause in one way or another. Abiy and Isayas’s first political relations has been midwifed by the Middle Eastern countries: UAE and Saudi Arabia. Africa was deliberately left out in the cold, despite AU sits idle in Addis. The two have been systematically weakening IGAD by organizing parallel informal but more decisive alliance among Farmajo-Isayas-Abiy. Their maiden project to clear way for their future shared dream of ‘empire of the horn’ or sort of was declaring war on self-governing Tigray. And so they did. That has been and is unAfrican and against the core question of self-governance which the Pan-Africans struggled for.

The Drivers of Genocide on Tigray and their Questionable Pan-Africanism

The big hypocrisy of Ethiopia’s NoMore to western domination or sort of colonialism is clear from the forces behind the genocide on Tigray. Isayas, Abiy, Farmajo of Somalia are not Pan-Africanists in anyway, as mentioned above. In fact, Isayas Afework of Eritrea, who is high priest of the genocidal, harbors unequivocal contempt for AU, IGAD and UN. On the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam issue, Abiy ignored and by passed Africa and Nile Basin Initiative to take the issue to the World Bank and America; though later due to pressure from Ethiopians he pulled it back and tried to ‘re-Africanize’ it. Abiy Arabized and Westernized all his actions but returns to Africa to cover his political failure and hide genocide! However, it is expected that Africans can listen to the plight of victims of the man-made famine in Tigray; and defend African humanity. The Ethiopian corrupt NoMore campaign is an insult to the African conscience whereby Abiy is trying to hide genocide in the name of Pan-Africanism.

In fact, the true Pan-Africanists will not lazily follow banal NoMore; but ask critical questions that can tackle what is the state and viability of AU’s ‘Silencing Guns’ in Africa while genocide is happening on Tigrayan Africans next to its headquarters, for more a year now? Is AU fit for the mission from the African citizens’ point of view, for real? Are we, Africans, going to keep being cheated by hollow face-saving slogans of dictators or it is time to reflect for ourselves and listen to fellow African citizens on the ground whose voices we are not hearing? In this case the Tigray people who are denied of humanitarian aid, food, medicine, fuel, banking, electricity….? Doesn’t this situation need more vigorous NoMore to systematic genocide on African civilians? Or, are we to tolerate the systematic genocide sugarcoated as Pan-Africanist movement? In the last one year and three months, Eritrean, Ethiopian governments-initiated war destroyed factories, schools, health facilities, universities, gang-raped girls and women in Tigray, in the form of campaign at that, to break the Tigray society for good. They are currently drone-bombing civilians in Tigray, day-in, day-out. The forces are also supported by Ethiopian religious leaders and diaspora in profiling and rounding up civilian Tigrayans in the whole of Ethiopia. This is the predicament in Africa’s Tigrayan community now – it warrants genuine NoMore campaign in spirit of Ubuntu. NoMore destruction of development gains; NoMore man-made starvation in Africa, and NoMore denial of people’s right to movement and communication. Enlightened Africans must push for such causes because butcher governments using state machinery will continue to cover up human suffering they cause; by staging such kind of fake Pan-African initiatives such as Ethiopia-led #NoMore which is stumbling to take off.

In conclusion – Pan-Africanism and all related initiatives have one shared direction, I want to believe. It is about liberation of the African person, ensure the right place for Africans in the global affairs, self-determination of African people and right to chart their own ways as it is relevant to the African people and reality. Now, this genuine aspiration of Africans which goes back centuries has been betrayed by African governments more than anybody else. In case of Tigray, the people want to govern themselves as any African community would like and as provided for in the current constitution of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic. In substantial contravention of the constitution, Abiy and genocidal alliances wanted to subdue and subject Tigrayans to internal colonization and oppression. The defiant Tigrayans said, ‘NO’ to domination and eternal subjugation. Ethiopian government invited villain Eritrean government to exact its long-held vendetta on Tigray and collaborative genocide is on through various means. The attitude and practice of the likes of Abiy-Isayas-Amhara regional governments against common civilians in Africa left the continent war-torn and at the bottom of the world. These blood thirsty leaders invest meager national resources on big bubble events and movements while their people are dying of all sorts governance failures- such is the Ethiopian NoMore.

Therefore, it is time for young, all enlightened Africans, scholars and media persons to initiate and launch informed and citizen oriented genuine Pan-Africanism; and NoMore misuse of Pan-Africanism and anti-Western campaigns when it is not warranted. Sometimes, whenever malicious dictators are exposed they pool anti-Western cards, and national sovereignty campaign in the hope of relegating local justice and governance issues. This is, however, not to say that Africans do not need policy independence. Unnecessary imposition of alien policies and double standards should not be accepted. African governments’ human rights violation to the extent of genocide and group profiling such as the situation against Tigrayans is global human issue and cannot be swept under the carpet of Pan-African, anti-Western lies! People’s sovereignty at local level is the foundation of national or African sovereignty. For Tigray people who are starved to death, drone-bombed, and lied about in all global platforms where they cannot make their case, what matters is not empty national sovereignty that Ethiopian government trumpets, but right to life of the community. Without people’s sovereignty to determine their own destiny or govern themselves at their levels, what is the point of national sovereignty or Pan-Africanism? The current Ethiopia-promoted NoMore movement is an insult to African citizens who suffer under state injustice and is a live betrayal of genuine Pan-African aspiration! Pan-Africanism doesn’t discriminate against any Africans. Ethiopian government and its allies do not allow Tigrayans to work in civil organizations in Ethiopia at the moment, Tigrayans are not allowed to run business, to travel abroad, they are subjected to arbitrary arrests, selectively starved while neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar are receiving humanitarian support by sate! Africans have to know what is happening on the ground and judge for themselves.

For genuine Pan-Africanism, knowledge is important. African knowledge has to be guided by concept of Ubuntu. Tigray calls for Ubuntu from fellow Africans. Africans should guard themselves from pathological lies of Abiy Ahmed and his well-oiled social and mainstream media. Ethiopia now is yet another sign of failed African leadership that is subjecting the heart of its civilization, Tigray, to total elimination, if at all Abiy succeeds. Therefore, malicious association of Abiy’s #NoMore campaign with the Africa’s centuries old aspiration is blasphemy, to say the least. The current Ethiopian NoMore campaign against the West’s call of ceasefire and humanitarian access, perhaps, is a sign that there is new rise of conning movements rising in Africa including in the name of religions. In Ethiopia, religious conmen have now rented the air and are leading supporters of the genocide. So we Africans, when the world is advancing in science and reason, these various bogus movements, religiously disguised politics and business should not astray us as well! Stop, think and KnowMore about genocide on Tigrayans and act according to the precepts of Ubuntu, I reiterate.

At the end, Tigray, where Axum, Adwa, Al-Nejashi are located; is the land and people who offered the Geez Alphabets and calendar which now Ethiopia prides itself. Tigray is epitome of African defiance to colonialism and home of religious tolerance in practice. So, when shallow and malicious Ethiopian government and its collaborators moan about colonial paranoia, it is ill intentioned while the rich history of Tigray speaks more eloquently to true aspiration of Pan-Africanism. Not only that, the current Tigray argument is about self-governance and self-determination within the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Ethiopian Federal Democratic. Tigray and Tigrayans are Africans whose side of the story all Africans should listen to. Fellow Africans KnowMore about Tigray and stand on the right side of history!

Mr. Gedda Komma

gedakoma43@gmail.com

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