by Ennio Bassi
In order to understand what has been happening in the Horn of Africa in recent months, it is necessary to start from a simple yet hidden truth. In recent years, ethnic Tigrayan members of the TPLF, the minority that has held the entire area in check for more than 20 years, have infiltrated, directly or indirectly, many international organizations.
Prestigious NGOs such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, broadcasters such as the BBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, or even various UN agencies such as the UNHCR, WFP, and WHO have all been targeted, in spite of themselves, from the constant disinformation carried out in a systematic and professional manner by an organized network of TPLF cyber militants.
Indeed, propaganda at every level is creating many problems for the peace process initiated in the area by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. In Ethiopia, for example, the local personnel of these organizations are, to a large extent, ethnic Tigrayan militants who respond with military discipline to the orders of their elites, who use their considerable resources to exploit the only weapon available to them today, which is propaganda.
This situation explains the one-sided media campaign in their favor, which is also supported by internal reports from these agencies, prepared mainly by people within this closely-knit group and linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The incredible number of Tigrayans accepted as Eritrean refugees in Europe and the United States who now use their refugee status to support the disinformation media campaign against the Abiy government is the result of this infiltration strategy prepared and supported by the Central Committee of the TPLF over the past 20 years.
This was in anticipation of a war to destabilize Ethiopia and subject it to the rule of the sovereignist ideology that aimed at the birth of Greater Tigray. The other Ethiopian ethnic groups consider TPLF’s chauvinism to be on a par with the worst extremism and accuse the TPLF of starting a war with the sole aim of restoring its monopoly of power and effective domination of all the other ethnic groups using the nominal coalition – the EPRDF – as a suitable umbrella.
What has unfolded recently is a long-planned war, prodigiously unleashed by the TPLF, but also fought with the unwitting support of the West which was apparently deceived by a media campaign designed to perversely portray Tigrayans as victims of ethnic cleansing”. Thus the massacres perpetrated by the Tigrayan militia are being passed off as Amhara, Oromo crimes or as massacres perpetrated by Ethiopian army troops or, as has been attempted in the past, Eritrean army troops.
These days there are chilling reports of TPLF troops collecting and transporting their war dead to areas of Tigray under their control and burying them in selected sites with the aim of making them appear as victims of “massacres by the Ethiopian or Eritrean army. Independent witnesses certify that false testimonies in are collected in the Tigray Region and refugees in the Sudan who are often desperate and ready to say anything to make ends meet. The script of a supposed massacre in Humera’ is currently being worked on. At the same time, the massacres and violence committed by the TPLF and denounced by the Ethiopian government in the Afar and Amhara regions in recent weeks, affecting innocent women and children, are not reported adequately and somehow downplayed. No one understands the failure of international organizations to report these atrocities perpetrated by the TPLF and its various militia forces.
The huge sums embezzled by the TPLF from the coffers of the central state in 28 years of managing power also serve this purpose, unfortunately. The terrorist nature of the actions carried out or managed directly or indirectly by the TPLF since they lost the elections and the leadership of the Ethiopian government cannot be disputed. Unfortunately, their subversive and criminal plan to destroy Ethiopia and destabilize the entire Horn of Africa continues with the sometimes tacit and sometimes overt support of the West and with the help of TPLF sympathizers who have infiltrated Europe, the United States and the Ethiopian Federal Administration over the years. The list of infiltrators in the hands of the Ethiopian authorities is long and, according to those who have seen it, impressive. Apart from the Director General of the WHO, who is the best known and most visible, the network includes many other militants with high profile and with established links to EU and US officials, or ambassadors of various Western countries, international organizations, NGOs, etc.
In fact anyone who cares can do some research to verify this fact. Most of the links between Tigrayan militants and various international organizations are obvious and largely known. In the face of such a perverse situation, with the reality of history and facts constantly attacked by obviously false propaganda narratives, a public mobilization was needed, which the Prime Minister of the Ethiopian Republic and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed attempted to have by launching an appeal, of rare intensity, to the nation of rise in unison to thwart the threat. Abiy underlined that this is against the TPLF criminal enterprise änot the people of Tigray who are part and parcel of the Ethipiansoical fabric”.
Abiy asked his people to stay united and cohesive, not to give in to provocations and to react to this last-ditch TPLF attack with the strength that in a few months has led Ethiopia to sign peace agreements with Eritrea and Somalia and to start a peace process that will bring prosperity and development to the entire Horn of Africa.
Abiy’s appeal does not seem to have fallen on deaf ears. From Addis Ababa there is news of a growing rebellion by the deepest soul of the country, which no longer accepts the idea of continuing to be destabilized by a minority that for more than 20 years has only looked after its own interests to the detriment of the entire Horn of Africa. However, the clash has only just begun, and it is a safe bet that the disinformation will continue and that the politically defeated TPLF will continue to plot their agenda.
(Associated Medias) – All rights are reserved
