By Tigist Bekka
When Abiy came to power, like most Ethiopians, I was swept away by Abiymania. Like the late professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam, I was convinced that Lemma Megersa and Abiy Ahmed, the youthful duo, the proud Oromos, the faithful Ethiopians, were the right politicians for the right time. They were a godsend, I fancied, to solve Ethiopia’s myriad political problems.
I was in Ethiopia in the summer of 2018. The air was full of anticipation, elation, and optimism. Not only did Abiy say the right thing, but he appeared posed to tackle Ethiopia’s numerous challenges. He made a historic visit to Asmara, where he received a hero’s welcome. On the return visit, when Isaias Afeworki visited Ethiopia, to my surprise, he received a tumultuous welcome, with calls of ‘Isu, Isu, Isu’. The joy was palpable. Families were united. Past enmity was forgiven. A new era has ushered in. The frayed relationship between the two countries was repaired. Ethiopia and Eritrea felt once again united. The future looked bright for Ethiopia.
Abiy Ahmed was destined to transform Ethiopia, I was convinced, as were millions of Ethiopians. He had the charisma, the intellect, and above all, the vision to do the job. He was a transformative leader, a leader who only appears once in a few hundred years, so I believed, as did millions of other Ethiopians. To be sure, some expectations were unrealistic, but no one foresaw that behind the façade of his polished words, elegant rhetoric, and rousing oratory, lay a mendacious, deceptive, and callous politician. What a disappointment he has been. He fooled me, he misled the Ethiopian people, and he tricked the world into giving him the Nobel Prize for peace. Until recently, I had been a diehard supporter of Abiy Ahmed. No more.
He arrived at the political scene at the right time. He appeared to be the right man for the right occasion. Ethiopians had rejected the TPLF’s divisive ethnic politics. The people had rebelled against the TPLF’s corruption, oppression, and state terrorism. The conditions were ripe to bring about fundamental changes in Ethiopia. He suited the bill, at least it appeared.
The Ethiopian people were craving for a leader who could lead them out of the narrow confines of the killils to the broader vision of Ethiopian identity. His rhetoric suggested that he would deliver. Instead, he turned out to be a sleazy politician, good at making flowery speeches, but inept at introducing meaningful changes. Ethiopians may have been dazzled by his verbal gymnastics, but they have been brutalized by his politics.
He squandered an excellent opportunity to transform Ethiopia. Initially, Ethiopians from all regions, ethnic groups, religious affiliation, and all walks of life trusted him. They were ready to follow him on a journey to democracy, unity, and prosperity. If he told them to jump, they were ready to ask ‘how high’. I am an eyewitness. In July 2018, Ethiopia’s foreign exchange holdings were dwindling. Many people were using the black market to exchange their foreign currency holdings into Birr. He pleaded with the public not to use the black market, to use the banking system instead.
The people responded to his plea and stopped using the black market. In a week, the difference between the official and black-market exchange rates disappeared. Just like magic. The two exchange rates were at par. If Mao Zedong can move mountains, I concluded, Abiy Ahmed can determine exchange rates, at a minimum. He was able to do this because people trusted him, respected him, and admired him. Four years later, their trust, respect, and admiration have turned into mistrust, contempt, and disdain. Now, many people refer to him as ‘kibew’, roughly translated as ‘the sleazy one’
Understanding Abiy Ahmed
How do we explain Abiy’s deceitful political games that have destabilized Ethiopia? He has revived the TPLF, created the OLA, attacked the Amharas, corrupted the opposition, and incited ethnic animosity throughout Ethiopia. Conspiracy theories abound. Plausible hypotheses have been proposed, one of which says that he is dedicated to establishing a greater Oromia, extending from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, but his political tactics may in fact break up the current Oromia region into feuding mini states, let alone create a bigger united region. My hypothesis is much more parsimonious than that. The man suffers from a deeply ingrained form of insecurity. His insecurity explains his hesitant, inconsistent, contradictory, and indecisive rhetoric, behavior, and actions.
Psychologists have written extensively on the relationship between the personality types of politicians and the ideology they subscribe to, the alliance they form, the policies they implement, the people they appoint, and so on. For example, politicians with authoritarian traits are naturally attracted to authoritarian ideologies. Medemer, as espoused and practices by Abiy Ahmad, is an authoritarian ideology; it is the ideology of an insecure autocrat.
His actions reveal his anxiety about losing power. His fear of losing power is as intense as his hunger for power is insatiable. He fears he could lose power any time, the throne that his mother told him belongs to him when he was a seven-year-old child. The major political decisions he has made over the last four years underscore his insecurity, his phobia about losing power.
He established the Prosperity Party to consolidate his control over the political elite of the country, not to create a united Ethiopia. He created the Republican Guard to minimize the possibility of a coup d’état from the army. He is micro-managing all of the miniseries, including the ministries of defense, foreign affairs, and peace. The intelligence service is under his direct control. In the last four years, he has not taken a single meaningful step to unify the country. In fact, he has done everything he can to destabilize Ethiopia in his insecurity-driven motivation to consolidate his power.
Strong personalities terrify him. If you recall, Lemma Megersa and he were supposed to be twins, joined at the hip, never to be split from each other until death separates them. Lemma Megersa is popular among a certain faction of the Oromo elite, and when he was in the cabinet, he posed a threat to Abiy. So, Abiy had to remove him from the cabinet and eventually from Ethiopian politics. Abiy has also banished from politics other competent, charismatic, and influential individuals as well, whom he sees as potential threats by ‘appointing’ them as ambassadors, severing them from their domestic political network, or as ‘special advisors’, putting them under his surveillance 24 hours a day.
This group includes General Bacha Debele, who played an important role in defeating the TPLF and has an unwavering stand on national unity. The general, perceived as a threat to Abiy Ahmed’s pro-TPLF stance, was appointed ambassador to Kenya. Engineer Seleshi Bekele, Chief Negotiator for Transboundary Water and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), was removed from his position and ‘appointed advisor to the Prime Minister’, but when the public became angry about his removal, he was appointed ambassador to the United States.
Abiy Ahmed is also terrified of Mustafa Mohammed Omar, the current leader of the Somali region of Ethiopia. Many Ethiopians believe that he has the competency, integrity, and foresight to be a future prime minister of Ethiopia, but there have been numerous attempts to remove him from office, including assassination attempts. Another politician who potentially poses a threat to Abiy Ahmed, at least in the region of Oromia, is Jawar Mohammed, but it is a matter of time before Abiy appoints him to his cabinet. The list is long, but the pattern is clear.
Abiy Ahmed has corrupted, divided, undermined, and weakened the main opposition political parties in Ethiopia by appointing opportunist opposition politicians to his cabinet. He has appointed leaders of EZEMA, NAMA, and OLF to his cabinet. These people have betrayed their political principles for temporary personal gains. If Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet was famous for being a ‘team of rivals’, Abiy Ahmad’s cabinet is notorious for being a team of sycophants.
Abiy Ahmed’s Amhara Phobia
Not only is Abiy Ahmed afraid of his political rivals, but he is also obsessed with the Amhara people as an ethnic group, just like some members of the Oromo political elite. Bekele Gerba announced in 2019 on Ethio Forum, a now-defunct YouTube channel that was owned by the TPLF, that he suffers from Amhara phobia. In their distorted belief, these insecure Oromos are convinced that the Amhara will displace them one day, unless the Amharas are continually harassed, threatened, intimated, humiliated, oppressed, terrorized, even massacred. Abiy Ahmed is one of them. The crimes committed against the Amhara people today are crimes of insecurity by the Oromo elite.
His government has never brought to justice the perpetrators of the heinous crimes against the Amhara people. There is widespread suspicion that government officials are directly involved in the crimes committed against the Amharas throughout Ethiopia. No official who facilitated or participated in the systematic killings of the Amharas in Oromia or Benishangul has been brought to justice.
The Amharas have been prevented from entering Addis Ababa, in their own country, under the disguise of ‘security concerns’. The Amharas are being disarmed in Wollega so that they cannot defend themselves against the OLA or the other government-sponsored terrorist organizations. There is a plan to disarm the Amharas in the Amhara region so that they cannot defend themselves against the next round of invasion by the TPLF or OLA. Abiy Ahmed, indoctrinated in ethnic politics from a young age by the TPLF, steeped in the TPLF’s political intrigues of divide and rule, and ever obsessed with Amhara phobia, has engineered the intimidation, terrorization, brutalization, and killings of the Amharas.
Abiy’s Love for the TPLF
His irrational fear of the Amharas explains his attitude towards the TPLF. Before November 2020, the military balance was in favor of the TPLF, with up to 80% of Ethiopia’s heavy military assets in Tigray. He desperately needed to ally with Eritrea and to mobilize the Amhara special forces, the patriotic FANO fighters, and the Amhara militia to fight the TPLF. With their support, the TPLF was decisively defeated in 2020, but because of his fear of the Amharas, he had to resuscitate the TPLF in the summer of 2021.
Once the TPLF’s capacity to overthrow him was eliminated, he revived the TPLF to be used as an instrument of brutalization against the Amharas. He ordered the Ethiopian army to withdraw from Tigray in July 2021. He conceded Amhara territories to the TPLF. He has promised the TPLF that he would return Wolkait, Tsegede, and Raya to the TPLF under the Pretoria agreement.
His support for the TPLF is crystal clear, if any proof is needed. He has allowed the TPLF to re-arm itself. In his address to youth representatives on August 21, 22, he admitted that his government knew that several flights of military cargo airplanes had been bringing weapons to the TPLF in the summer of 2022. This has been corroborated by others. William Davidson, who cannot be considered a friend of Ethiopia, claims that at least 10 flights of military airplanes supplied the TPLF with arms and ammunition. The Abiy government is complicit in arming the TPLF to attack the Amhara and Afar people. This is treasonous.
While the Abiy government was arming the TPLF directly and indirectly, it and its lackeys in the Amhara regions were busy imprisoning, harassing, disarming, and killing members of the patriotic FANO fighters. Nothing scares the Abiy government more than an organized population, especially organized Amharas. Hence, the campaign to bully, vilify, annihilate the FANO.
So far, according to the Guardian, the government has arrested more than 4000 FANO members. This is a criminal act, considering that the FANO have proved indispensable in fighting the TPLF invasion, protecting the Amhara people, and maintaining the territorial integrity of Ethiopia.
The ploy to remove Amara officials
His irrational fear of the Amharas prevents him from defeating the TPLF decisively. Using the Pretoria agreement, he is ready to revive the TPLF and to return the forcefully annexed territories of Wolakit, Tsegede, and Raya to the TPLF. There is strong resistance to his plan from all sectors of the Amhara society, including from members of his own Prosperity Party in the Amhara region. He is trying to remove the leadership of the Amhara government who are opposed to his plan, under the guise of fighting corruption. His motivation is to weaken the opposition to his ploy, not to fight corruption. He has never been serious about fighting corruption. In fact, like other dictators, he has weaponized corruption to force the economic and political elite into submission to ensure his political survival.
All Ethiopians should oppose the return of these areas to the TPLF on justice, political, and strategic grounds. The Amhara people in these regions were oppressed by the TPLF, their identify, suppressed; their land, confiscated; their property, looted; their fundamental rights, denied. During the occupation, Amharas couldn’t even sing or mourn in Amharic. Such is the TPLF’s brutality. To return these areas to the TPLF is to resend the Amhara people in these regions back to hell. Never again. Politically, it legitimizes the current ethnicist constitution; it emboldens the TPLF and other irredentist organizations to practice their brutalization. It denies the democratic rights of the Amhara people to live in the jurisdiction of their choice.
Furthermore, the TPLF needs Wolkait to declare independence from Ethiopia. The TPLF, to fool the rest of the Ethiopian people and because of pressure from its foreign sponsors, especially the Biden administration, has softened its stance on independence, but it doesn’t mean that it has abandoned independence. In fact, a TPLF spokesperson has said the Pretoria agreement does not prevent the TPLF from holding a referendum on Tigray’s independence. Therefore, any government that is committed to the territorial integrity of Ethiopia should not under any circumstances facilitate the independence of Tigray by returning these annexed lands to the TPLF. All Ethiopians should oppose the TPLF’s expansionist plan.
Fortunately, the Pretoria agreement, an agreement signed between two felons, will collapse as each side, especially the TPLF, given the hostility of its supporters to the agreement, will try to cheat by violating the terms of the agreement. The TPL has never respected any agreement that it has signed. Characteristically, the TPLF, to justify its violation of the agreement, has already started demonizing the Amharas and the Eritrean government for committing atrocities in Tigray, and the Abiy government has responded in kind by accusing the TPLF of mobilizing the population for another round of fighting. It is probably a matter of time before we see the fourth round of conflict between the TPLF and the federal government.
Countervailing Forces
Abiy Ahmed is trying to rule Ethiopia by creating opposing forces in the various ethnic groups, political parties, religious groups, community groups, and supporting each faction, sometimes even supplying them with arms. He fears the numerically large Amharas, especially if they form alliances with other ethnic groups. They must be demoralized, disarmed, divided, and disorganized. He needs the TPLF and the OLA as countervailing forces against the Amharas. Although the Pretoria agreement stipulates that the TPLF must be disarmed, it is unlikely that the Abiy government will disarm the TPLF because it needs an armed TPLF to intimidate, attack, and brutalize the Amharas. Abiy Ahmed will try to compensate for the numerical inferiority of the Tigray people by arming the TPLF with superior military weapons. He needs a well-armed TPLF to brutalize the Amhara people.
I am all for peace, but a peace treaty that leaves the TPLF armed, that denies justice to the Amhara people, and that endangers the territorial integrity of Ethiopia, will not bring about lasting peace in Ethiopia or in the region. The Abiy government should stop resuscitating the TPLF, with or without a peace agreement, disarming the Amharas, and negotiating to return the annexed areas to the TPLF. Otherwise, the Abiy government will face the same fate as TPLF’s: revolt by the people of Ethiopia and forceful removal from power.
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Dear “Tigist Bekka”,
I was waiting to see where you are going with your pitch. “Abiy Ahmed’s Amhara Phobia” “The ploy to remove Amara officials” gave you away. Having said that, I do share your concern that Abiy is unpredictable and vain.
Abiy is Amhara and he likes Amahra than any other tribe . He worked with KInijit , amhara genocidal party.
Tigist Bekka, Yes we all had high hopes and shared the same feelings. People thought finally some one with good heart, intentions, mind and qualification came when heard Abiy’s effortless lies by throwing good words people want to hear and longed for.
Just like any scammer he is now caught and could not go far. He did not succeed in hiding his evil intentions and hate for Amhara people.
He is suffering from schizophrenia, behavioral disability and impairments that hate for Amhara and inferiority complex have dominated his daily functions to the point he can no longer choose responsible words expected even from a Prison Guard let alone from a Prime Minister.
Every time he hears Amharas got massacred in Wellga, instead of showing remorse and determination to bring those criminals to justice, his body language, his eyes and face change and starts to squirm in his seat. Throwing threatening and intimidating words to those who asks the daring questions.
His callous and bad actions are the testimony for the involvement of PP in Amhara Genocide and death includig Shimeles Abdissa and the Oromia zone administrations.
The incompetent buffoon masquerading as the PM of all Ethiopians is a closet sociopath and psychopath obsessed with himself, with power and with control. In a recent speech, this fool said an economist with PhD cannot contribute anything to the Ethiopian economy. What knowledge if any does Abiy Ahmed have in micro macroeconomics???? He does not even know the difference between a million and a billion!!! Abiy, the “ I know everything” dude, in one boring and laborious speech, kept referring to Karl Marx, as Mark!!!!!! Hilarious!!!!! A man who pretends in front of millions to be a well read, highly educated person reveals that he could not even properly pronounce Marx, in a speech written by others and given to him to read. It was equally funny that early in his ascension to power, he talked about Immanuel Kant and his philosophy to appear as erudite and well read.
Abiy is a man with a deeply flawed moral character. He does not have a moral compass. Self awareness and humility are not in his vocabulary. He is vain, perfunctory, opportunistic and callous beyond measure. His avarice for power and control have no limits. His hands are soaked in blood. He is surrounded by sycophants day in, day out.
In due time, all Ethiopians will see in detail the massive failures of this bogus man.The corruption,embezzlement, kleptocracy, murderous criminal legacy, and mendacity of his PP buddies, himself and the likes of Adanech, Shimeles and similar elks will be displayed before the world. Look at the facts on the ground, 40% inflation, currency devaluation upwards north of negative 200%, massive food shortage across all Ethiopia , and much more. No wonder “Pastor Ayalkebet” aka “Abiy the Terrible”, hates and dreads PhD Economists who divulge and prognosticate the Writings on the Wall: State Failure!!!
No amount of verbosity, boring speeches and summersault and political gymnastics will prevent the inevitable. To quote the beloved Star Trek character Spock, speaking as Tuvok, “I wait until his own illogic overwhelms him“. The walking sticks of contradiction Abiy Ahmed will soon be exposed to be nothing but a fool that tripped over his own lies and obfuscations.
The democratization, progress, the establishment of the rule of law and the building of a society that operates on meritocracy will not be realized on the watch of the duplicitous, mendacious, corrupt and callous fraud- Abiy Ahmed and the repulsive sycophants surrounding him 24-7.
PM Abiy bin Ahmed is suffering from an Amhara Phobia? Where did this come from? That means he would not touch anything that has to do with Amhara even with a 14ft pole. I wouldn’t! Not a single Amhara would come near me because I fear Amharas witless. Ladies and gentlemen in Gojjaam and Gondar! If you think you are Amharas, think again. I now declare all of you to be Oromos effective immediately. You have been lying to the world claiming to be Amharas when you are actually Oromos. Liars, liars, liars, your pants on fire!!! You’re claiming Wolkait to be your land and since you are all Oromos, by extension it belongs to my Itu clan. I am ordering you to get out of my land immediately. Pay undivided attention to what I am telling you here. You are all Oromos. Read it and live it! Period, end of story!!!
FREE and STOP Abusing 80 Years Old, Senior Citizen Mr. TADIOS TANTU in Ethiopia NOW!!!!!
The brutality and insecurity of Abiy Ahmed is a testimony to his cruelty against Journalist Tadios Tantu. Abiy shivers when People speak the truth or honestly. He has sympathy for the devil and despised criminals but hate and cruelty for innocent people.
His hate and insecurity against Amhara has gone beyond any limit because he is the only responsible Prime Minister that allowed, gave cover and encouraged the slaughter and looting of hundreds thousands of Amharas in the 21 century.
#StopAmharaGenocide
All the lies and multiple agendas to keep Amharas distracted from Defending themselves while being massacred by Shene savages and demanding for FREEDOM AND HUMANS RIGHTS has been exposed.
Shene definitely are Abiy Ahmed’s supporter coordinated by Oromia administration and the evidence is Abiy’s action when he quickly comes out to dismiss and deny the massacre of Amharas and hiding the crime of Shene savages.
At the same time to encourage Shene beasts and discourage Amharas who are the victim of Genocide and looting he double downs on Amhara by ignoring the crimes and mass arresting over 22000 Amhara and innocent brave heart Fanno patriots.
This article has all the hall marks of corners bent on destroying Ethiopia, but very angry for not being able to do so. In fact, I would not be surprised if the origin is junta members/supporters/followers, in collaboration with traditional and newer external enemies under assumed name. But that type of old politics does no work in today’s Ethiopia populated by young and fairly up to date with contemporary world political play books.
Abiye is one of the best leaders Ethiopia ever had, and I hope he will continue to lead the nation for years or even decades to come, provided power and popularity would not corrupt him.
I grew up hating Ethiopian history, because my first exposure to the subject was in 3rd grade when the text book was “Primer in History’ written in English. Of course, introducing the subject at that age and in an alien language was a factor in my hatred of Ethiopian history, but more important was the content where the emphasis was family history of lords, marital linkages, and similar, which I thought did not apply to me. What I saw in my deep rural village was oppression of my family and neighbors by ancestor of one of those “lords’, and believed then not to waste my time and brain studying nauseatingly boring details about them. But in the nauseating boring detail, I found inspiration from what I thought were worthy my study time in leaders such as Theodros and Menilik (and planned to name my future children in those names to honor them); I find Abiye Ahmed in the category of those leaders.
And so, the remnants of old school of Ethiopian politics should shed their past play books and sprint forward. Contemporary Ethiopians should work together to get rid of poverty for all, and leave in the trash bin of history the tradition of ‘war lordship, tribalism, regionalism, communism’, and the like.
‘Tigist Bekka,’ you are out-of-touch with reality and lack objectivity. When anybody’s performance is evaluated, operational constraints are the first to be taken in to account:
1). Could have you done better under this youtu.be/Pg3WuF1eXww?t=5 If he were a TPLF/OLF/OLA anti-Amhara why did they want to kill him at Mesqel Square?
2). Could you have prevented a looming government shutdown? TPLF looted Ethiopia so bone-dry that there wasn’t even a month’s salary left to pay government employees.
3). Could you have kept Ethiopia afloat? TPLF left Ethiopia paralyzed to fight back: No Money; No Army; No Intelligence Services; Ethiopia-wide riots by TPLF Proxies; etc.
4). On Abiy’s alleged Amara Phobia: Mother: Amara/Christian; Father:Oromo/Muslim; Wife: Amara/Christian; Abiy: Amara-Oromo Christian. How can he be an Amara-phobe?
5). On your alleged Abiy’s Thirst for Power: So, why did he refuse to sell Ethiopia to Egypt & Egypt’s White Supremacist West masters if he wanted to rule carte-blanche?
6). On Fannos: Fannos are ENDF’s backups. Real Fanno are Miré’s Group, Hassan’s Group, etc. The Asaminew-Mesafint-Zemene-Eskinder ‘Fannos’ are Bandits – አማራ ሸኔs!
7). Abiy’s alleged Ploy to Remove Amara Officials: Abiy released Asaminew from serving life in prison – at Ambachew-et-al’s request. Asaminew killed Ambachew et al.
The ‘Primer in History’, which was my first exposure to history of Ethiopia in 3rd grade was donation from America USAID. The brainwashing or rather attempted brainwashing started at young age. Whether that brainwashing had positive impact on the donor is still questionable.
I am not a fan of his leadership style and his political moves, but this argument that Abiy is targeting any particular ethnic group doesn’t make sense. Does Abiy has leadership and ideological flaws? Yes . Did he fall under expectations of many ? Absolutely. Does he makes some contradictions or other unintelligible statements and political gaffes at times? Seemingly. Ethiopia and its politico- and socio-economic issues are very complex , multifaceted, generational and daunting task . Realistically one should not expec from anyone to overcome all these homework easily overnight and through changing of this constitution and that orher disagreeable things.
Thomas Jefferson Quote: “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
A government’s basic functions are providing leadership, maintaining order, providing public services, providing national security, providing economic security, and providing economic assistance.
In todays Ethiopia, all of the above are absent and the opposite. The Prime Minister power is over extended and controls the whole government body function. Abiy Ahmed is the sole decision maker and speaker of every sector with many tentacles in the whole ministry of the government. For those of you who do not know, pretend or chose to be ignorant:
Abiy Ahmed is the Sole dominant tyrant figure who controls the
Airports and prevent individuals from going out or coming in,
spy and Security outlets and who gets abducted and goes to prison ,
Banks, Businesses, disturbing places of worships,
what judges should say or not and how long innocent people suffer in prison,
how many Amharas gets massacre in Wellga including innocent Oromos who do not align themselves with his unjust misrule,
Who loots and who gets looted,
who gets economical and food assistance and who dies of starvation and misery
Preventing Amhara from growing Teff and forcing them to grow Wheat instead, otherwise their farm will be spread with toxic sprays
YES PHOBIA PLUS ANTI AMHARA/ANTI SEMITISM You have hit it on the head. Insightful article please write some more. This was obvious from the moment he declared war on Eskinder and then had Dr Ambachew, Migbaru, Ezzez, and General Asamenew assassinated. It comes out of his mouth during the parliamentary speech when he mockingly blurted that he would plant trees on the graves of the massacred Amharas in Welega. It was in our faces when he ignored the massacres of Amharas in Shashemene after the murder of the Oromo singer who insulted Amharas. Too many examples to cite So yes it’s more than phobia it’s Anti-Amhara vitriol similar to Anti-Semitism.
The Oromo nationalists like Abiy and the Oromuma extremist movement identify with Salafi and Wahabist Islamic fundamentalists. They have an abnormal hate for Amharas (a Cushito-Semitic people) and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Knowing the heritage of the Judeo christian EOTC and what makes it unique in terms of the traditions and practices which harken back to ancient Israel is it a surprise that there may be a connection? They go to those Wahabist countries for training and we know how those countries feel about anything associated with Israel.
Those who sprayed false accusations and stained Amhara history with sinister, unfair and evil false history must be identified and brought to stand in trial for Genocide and ethnic cleansing criminal charges. Those are the responsible people for Amhara Genocide and ethnic cleansings.
It should be every Amhara’ responsibility and those who have the sprite of honesty, morality and truth to expose and bring those individuals to light who have been spreading lies about Amharas.
Let those individuals bring their evidence and take responsibilities for the crimes they caused for hundreds thousands and Millions of Amharas Deaths and sufferings.
Setting the record straight – Misinformation Campaigns/Asaminew/Ambachew/Eskinder:
1). Negadras Eskinder & Negadras Jawar: Both are Ethiopia’s enemies! Both own Media Businesses. Both use their media to pit Amaras against Oromos or vice-versa. Jawar inflames Oromos against Amaras. Eskinder fires-up Amaras against Oromos. Hooligans!
2). Asaminew/Ambachew/Abiy: TPLF stripped Asaminew of his rank and sent him to jail for life. When Abiy took over, Ambachew et al asked Abiy to release Asaminew.
So, Abiy gave Asaminew amnesty and restored his rank – general. Ambachew et al. gave Asaminew a job [Amara Security Head] and he formed the Amara Special Forces Corps.
Then, when some Amaras showed discontent for Ambachew, Abiy offered him a federal post. However, the same Ambachew-detractors protested: “Abiy is removing Ambachew to kill the Amara’s Struggle!” So, Ambachew stayed on as Amara Region’s President.
Soon after, Asaminew gunned down the same Amara leaders who fought for his release and gave him a job, too. Asaminew is an Ungrateful Criminal. There is no such hero!
A non-Amhara relative of mine once said there is a similarity b/n King Solomon’s famous verdict on belonging of an infant when two mothers appeared before him to decide and Amhara’s difficult position since 1991. This is not to mean all Amharas are the same or non-Amharas don’t love Ethiopia as much. I remember small shoeshine boys that live far away from their parents and their long faces every time Ethiopian team lost a match. I used to feel sad for those kids who ached to play soccer just like any other kid but couldn’t b/c they had to work. Some of those ‘street-kids’ became ‘rich’ adults only to see everything they worked for their whole lives taken away by brutal ethno-fascist TPLF gov’t even though none of them were from Amhara tribe.
Recently, I clicked on a discussion on a YouTube post by accidental/curiosity. The Sidama activists were bitterly complaining about their current situation. And then one of them started to narrate the struggle of some Sidama liberation front and its ‘proud’ history of war supported by Siad Bare. A few years ago I’ve read a book in PDF written by a son of one of the greatest commanders of the Ethiopian Army in the 70s and 80s. Attorney Dereje Demissie wrote what his dad General Demissie Bultou did there back in 1977 to the so called liberation front and Siad Bare’s invading army. It is written very beautifully, to say the least. When Gen Demissie arrived, the Ethiopian units there were in total chaos and about to leave. Weapons were already loaded on army trucks for retreat. At the spot the famous general ordered to unload and went to work. The end result was amazing. Unfortunately, Demissie ended up being a victim of brutal Mengistu’s dogs in 1989, just like the many dozens of Generals of Ethiopia who were assassinated in the course of 17 years of Derg’s extremely cruel rule.
Also in 1977 a young officer was at Somalia-Ethiopian border closely following the movement of Siad Bare’s army from a few yards away. At times he was crossing the border with his tanks chasing the enemy away, and each time he was told to cross back on the army radio from higher up. He knew exactly what the enemy was doing. A few miles later the landscape would be favorable to the enemy. Higher up won’t listen to his plea and give him the permission to shoot. They were worried what the Americans and IC would say about Ethiopia, supposedly. A few weeks later he was the only officer and had only one tank to defend a major town in Eastern Ethiopia. Later on that officer would be known as General Kassaye Chemeda. And Derg arrested him on suspicion of being part of a coup and was jailed for two years until May 1991.
General Kassaye is still around and he’s one of the vocal opposition of the current dysfunctional constitution. Gen Bacha Debele’s name was smeared by a famous propagandist of TPLF from Bishoftu town who died last year. In one of his widely read books he cruelly ridicules the general as more of a MJ style moon dancing entertainer. According to that guy Gen Bacha stunned a hall full of EPRDF bosses by suggesting a return to FITAWRARI and DEJAZMACH and the like titles to officers of the Army. Bacha was born in Burayou town, a stone-throw away from Addis Ababa and always had ‘city-boy’ trends even when he was a POW. In his following book the same exiled propagandist claimed that general Bacha had offered to talk to Sebehat Nega on his behalf so that he could come back to Addis when the two met again in South Africa. I mean either Bacha has wings or hadn’t read what that evil guy wrote about him. Or maybe the propagandist was lying and trying to ridicule him once again.
Supposedly there were always some good ones in tyrannical gov’ts all over the world. Col Goshu Wolde proved to be the exact opposite of Derg for example. Even though Goshu was an officer with 2nd law degree in the same class with former president Clinton, he was only part of the cabinet and never Derg. And then he left for USA and explained why on VOA Amharic broadcasting. No doubt Colonel Goshu is Ethiopian patriot and a very capable minister with no corrupt bones in his body.
By the same token Dr Berhanu’s acceptance of his current job can be controversial. On one hand even his worst foes seem to recognize his legendary ability to get things done. Despite lack of autonomy in his position, many agree that if things can be repaired he is the right guy to fix them. He is also the leader of the most viable opposition and that his usual ‘compromising’ habit can be harmful in the long run. That is if you can omit the poisonous propaganda against him led by TPLF for the past two decades. At one point he was chased away with machine gun totting masked men in Bahir Dar that were in opposition themselves. In Bahir Dar there were a lot of members and supporters of Ginbot 7 that were waiting for him to deliver a speech at a hall they rented. It’s now become clear who exactly was behind that masked men with machine guns. Since 2019 or may be even before that same guy has been spewing pure hatred against Andargachew Tsige and him, his former bosses in the same movement. His infamous ‘over 99.9999… % of Ginbot 7 being from his tribe’ makes you doubt how far he went in school. When asked how come his FANO never handed over POWs, his answer was very stupid and could make him a war criminal, if you believe him that is. In some town he paraded his ‘FANO’s and claimed one of his men has killed two armed enemy combatants with a stick. And the ‘hero’ was invited to come up on the stage. He still had only a stick. Where did the guns of the two enemies he killed went to? May be that drama wasn’t well thought through.
There seems to be something bothersome in the new indoctrination of some tribe nowadays. And they are in agreement with the above-mentioned ‘hero’ when he said Berhanu and Andy had nothing to teach ‘his’ people about Ethiopianism. But if his tribe is so superior to all other tribes in ‘history’ and ‘civilization’ and what have you, and if they think it deserves to rule over the ‘history-less’ and ‘uncivilized’ tribes of Ethiopia, Apartheidic fascist TPLF would have been right since it claims to represent Tigray which has the exact same ‘superior-history’ and ‘civilization’. And why are other formerly colonized African countries way ahead of Ethiopia in many aspects after all these centuries of independence? In the holy Bible, it is written ppl had shoes more than 2000 years ago, but I saw Lij Iyassy’s picture taken in 1910s bare-footed. And that was the crown prince the great TIQUR SEW made his bare-footed generals swear to make king after him. So much for civilization. Shoes don’t mean much but I’m just saying.
“His (Abiy’s) irrational fear of the Amharas explains his attitude towards the TPLF. Before November 2020, the military balance was in favor of the TPLF, with up to 80% of Ethiopia’s heavy military assets in Tigray. He desperately needed to ally with Eritrea and to mobilize the Amhara special forces, the patriotic FANO fighters, and the Amhara militia to fight the TPLF. With their support, the TPLF was decisively defeated in 2020, but because of his fear of the Amharas, he had to resuscitate the TPLF in the summer of 2021.” With TPLF supposedly or decisively defeated, Abiy could simply side with Amhara and leave TPLF to history books. If he did that then Amhara would love him and call him a hero, no doubt. The Amhara didn’t insist on Amhara leader of Ethiopia since 1974. With Wokait and Tegede and other areas back in Gondar, next step of Amhara would be other things rather than remove Abiy from power. Besides all but a few ‘liberation fronts’ have abandoned their separation agenda and Abiy knows he just have to live with the rest of Ethiopia. In other words the most rational thing for a ‘power-hungry’ person is more power and not less of it.
Mustefe (you misspelled his name BTW but can’t blame you for that b/c Mustefa is a more familiar name to most Ethiopians) is a very popular politician since he did what many thought was impossible to do in a very short time. In a presidential system and if he run for it, there is no doubt he will get one of the biggest votes if not win outright. But as of now Mustefe is a loyal PP and the current system doesn’t allow two or more from the same party to compete for general election.
And if Abiy were exiling ‘strong’ leaders to Embassies abroad, why do they stink at their current jobs so bad? They could’ve done a lot more in the past two years when Ethiopia was being threatened by sanctions and bombarded with false propaganda of TPLF copied and pasted by media in the West. That only disproves the idea that they were ‘strong’ in anything, or capable of being a threat to anybody for that matter. Besides they were all recruited by TPLF and indoctrinated in hating Amhara if not the whole Ethiopia. And we all knew that. The euphoria didn’t demand removal of the very ppl we were excited about. Instead, the plan was to get rid of most of them in the election. The Harvard grad judge Birtukan Mideksa is head of NEBE and she is a public hero that paid the price for Ethiopia with her own freedom leaving her only newborn child, twice. Oxford grad Dr Daniel Bekele is heading the EHRC with a lot of autonomy, and he too was imprisoned by fascist TPLF for doing the right thing. Prof Berhanu Nega is probably the most hated individual by the same fascist TPLF but he is the education minister today. Had Dr Berhanu refused the appointment, it is an easy guess what would be said about him by foes and friends alike. EZEMA did much worse than the lowest expectation even though it probably got the second most popular vote. The now defunct BALDERAS competed in the same turf in Addis signing an agreement with NAMA, splitting up the votes against PP in the process. And in Amhara only 40% of voting age registered and even less voted on election day. In contrast over 70% in Oromo voted for PP knowing the other Oromo factions had boycotted the election. OLA/Shene was threatening to slit throats of those who voted, but they voted anyways. In reflection Dr Berhanu said many ppl are scared that the safety-net program would be gone if any other party but PP rules Ethiopia, among many big problems. There was ample time to organize and unite the existing opposition or even build brand new party from scratch. And there was a delay b/c of the COVID-19 which meant even more time to do so.
Dr Aklog Birara wrote a few days ago that there are more than 50 Amhara Orgs in USA alone. If this trend continues, enemies of that tribe need not do anything except watching them fight each other. When organizations that claim to represent the same thing can’t unite physically, they will unite in blaming a common ‘enemy’ and compete with each other for congregation. That is exactly why the ever-splitting OLF failed where the united TPLF succeeded in its deadly journey even though OLF is older than TPLF by a few years. When those anti-Ethiopia groupings feared of yet another split, the faction that claimed to hate Ethiopia the most always won. That went on for decades and many Ph.D. degrees were awarded to those who wrote fiction to satisfy white superiority advocate council in universities. Their reference? Of course those pro-Italian fascist propagandist literatures who blamed the Amhara for Ethiopia’s strong unity that couldn’t be defeated. They abandoned their own greatest Black war heroes that walked on this planet in the process. The very idea of ‘liberation front’ was meant to say ‘liberating self from Amhara’ But in reality those students who got rid of the last monarchy rule were mostly Amhara themselves. And not all feudal lords were Amhara and feudalism was gone by 1974. For the next 17 years it was all about socialism and communism after the biggest feudal lords like Ras Mesfin Sileshi were executed without a single day in court, dragged out of prison and shot to death. Mesfin Sileshi was one of the greatest resistance fighters during Italian occupation and Oromo. Just like Dej Geressu Duki who had had more than 50 000 resistance fighters under his command at his peak or the teenager General Jagama Kello who insisted the emperor come see his three thousand fighters and later refused to marry the king’s granddaughter or grandniece b/c he was in love with a divorcee sister of another famous fellow resistance fighter from Wag and Ras Abebe Aregay whose grandfather is none other than Ras Gobena Datchie.
Well, every country on this earth has something that it is very proud of and Ethiopia can’t afford to be an exception. I recently watched sister of Abubakar from Ethio national soccer team saying how she loves the fact she is treated with a lot of respect by everyday people she doesn’t know. Sports is one of the expressions of modern day nationalism in a more relaxed way. If you see a child crying b/c the national team lost a match, that child is most probably growing up to be a patriotic Ethiopian and expressing that in one form or another when s/he become an adult.
here is a paranoid writer, full of fury but no substance
Looking at those comments makes me feel that the Orommuma Abiy government is spending a lot of looted money to defend its rotten and blood soaked name.
If supporters of Abiy loves Ethiopia let us hear you say stop Amhara Genocide in Wollega and Oromia Zone!!
Amhara preserved, protected with blood and tears and presented intact Ethiopia first to Mengistu Hailemariam, Then TPLF and OLF (TPF servant and prisoners) came and immediately started ethnic division, lootings, land theft and selling Ethiopia to the highest bidder.
Since them Peace in Ethiopia become only a dream that disappeared in thin air. Violence, looting, war, Genocide, lawlessness, chaos, pillage, mayhems, death, sufferings and the worse kind of misery and human rights abuse now defines Ethiopia under the Oromo controlled Orommuma group.
Abiy when he came to power he was adored by Amharas and every Ethiopians although the Orommuma wanted to assassinated him. As days and months goes by Abiy started to spit evil words, and did the most cruelty and shed his evil skin and only his own action and cruelty changed the very people that stormed out to support him first.
Abiy where is your concern? Where is you humanity? Where is your responsivity to protect innocent Amhara and civilians from Oromo Terrorist that are getting ample weapon, dress, wigs and food from by Oromia Zone Shimeles Abdissa and OLF members.
Where is your responsivity to compensate and stop the looting and abduction of Amharas
Abiy is OLF member and shares the same ideology to hurt Amharas. He has pure hate for Amharas that cannot be hidden. He thinks planting trees on Amhara grave is the solution to Amhara Genocide by Oromo Terrorist groups.
There is no government that will protect and stop the Amhara Genocide. Amharas should never trust Abiy Ahmed. For 3 plus years he did nothing but worsen Amharas death and sufferings. Amharas are now forced to fend for themselves and assure their safety and having to survive.