04 – 20 – 2022
Mekelle, Tigray
I am writing to you to highlight the multifaceted crises currently afflicting Ethiopia, imperiling the integrity of the state and threatening to tear the country at the seams. At present, Ethiopia is in the midst of cataclysmic social, economic and political upheavals whose ramification will reverberate for generations to come. At the root of the country’s seemingly insurmountable crises is the declaration and vicious prosecution of a genocidal war on Tigray, resulting in massive dislocation and unleashing a conflagration that has metastasized throughout the country.
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One tragic element accelerating the country’s journey to the abyss is the cruel and inhumane blockade of Tigray, putting millions of people at risk of death by starvation. The UN’s relief chief, Martin Griffiths, had highlighted the deleterious impact of the “de facto blockade” of Tigray on humanitarian operation months ago. While limited aid—far from sufficient to meet burgeoning needs –had been trickling into Tigray from July through mid-December, no humanitarian aid was delivered from mid-December through the end of March overland. In fact over the last 4 months, only 67 truckloads of supplies have arrived in Tigray, representing a mere 6 percent of what is required to meet increasing needs.
As long as Tigray doesn’t pull out of areas in Amhara and Afar it occupies and stop attacking there’s no way anything else would work. It’s too late for anything else. None of this will work. Even if the federal government turns on Amharas and Afars with full force it still not work, only makes it worse on Tigray. This is the result of hubris.