Western carte-blanche a shovel to dig a grave

Silence as the terrorist TPLF massacre and displaced innocent people in Afar and

Amhara regions, but speaking a lot about humanitarian corridor along Ethio-

Sudanese border to expose Ethiopian security is an attempt of robbing Peter to pay

Paul.

On her article, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, International Relations expert,

Bethlehem Mehari, noted that Western giant medias and their counter politicians

attempt to discredit the Federal Government and appraise their former regional

ally- the butcher TPLF junta – clearly shows how biased the U.S and its allies

stand is.

According to the expert, since the onset of the conflict in Tigray on November 3,

2020, Western political elites and media giants like The New York

Times, Economist, CNN, and BBC have adamantly expressed buyer’s remorse

over the Nobel Peace Prize winner that went to war. No such reaction, however,

over the much petitioned humanitarian-ceasefire-turned-offensive in Tigray that

subsequently displaced  over 200,000 people in the neighboring Amhara region

and over 100,000 in Afar region, according to the expert.

Bethlhem also indicated that after a concerted pressure campaign on Ethiopia’s

Federal Government to cease its Law and Order operations in search of two dozen

members of the TPLF armed rebel group, the Federal Government succumbed to

these pressures, stating that a pause in hostilities will also allow the resumption of

agricultural activities in Tigray- Ethiopia’s most food-insecure region. The global

media, however, was quick to label the withdrawal of federal troops as a decisive

military victory on the part of the TPLF; a true David and Goliath story.

The sudden, yet marked, shift from humanitarian outcries to zero-sum conflict

rhetoric is not limited to Western media giants. The United States, and its

European counterparts, has stayed largely silent as the TPLF declared its military

gains on its march to Addis Ababa, Bethlhem noted.

Though the seemingly symbiotic relationship between the US and EU political

interests and the skewed global media coverage of the Tigray conflict merits closer

attention, very few of the aforementioned media outlets dare to host or feature

Ethiopian voices with legitimate criticisms of the government. They, instead,

feature armed rebel leaders such as Jal Merro and Getachew Reda, grossly

misrepresenting Ethiopia’s political landscape.

From the destruction of the historic Tekeze bridge to the blockade of the Afar-

Tigray route, humanitarian organizations and global leaders seem less concerned

about TPLF’s strategy of obstruction of access roads into Tigray, but rather a

Sudanese “corridor” to best facilitate aid.

In addition to granting the usual carte-blanche to TPLF escalation, the United

States has deemed the Federal Government’s unilateral ceasefire and subsequent

withdrawal to be a blockade- i.e. so long as there is no Ethio-Sudan corridor.

In her conclusion the expert indicated that the US, EU, and UN agency officials

should pause their blanket demonization of Ethiopian officials as opposed to

addressing the legitimate concerns of Ethiopians. At the very least, these same

officials should cease legitimizing the claims of one party over the other’s as

“humanitarian concerns.”