On Thursday, Ethiopia warned the US against “spreading false information” after the US Embassy in Addis Ababa warned of a potential terrorist attack in the city and urged Americans to leave.
Ethiopian government spokesman Kebede Desisa said there was no terror threat to the capital and accused the US of supporting the forces from the northern Tigray region, known as the Tigray’s People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Desisa said Ethiopia is not only fighting the TPLF, “but also with colonialism of the powerful states of the West.” He also rebuked Western media reports that said the TPLF is closing in on Addis Ababa as an attempt to create chaos in the city.
Since the war broke out last year, the US has sanctioned Ethiopia and its northern neighbor Eritrea and is threatening more action. Ethiopians regularly protest against Western intervention in the war. On November 7th, tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched in Addis Ababa in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and denounced the US.
The US claims to be neutral in the conflict, but a group of former US and other Western diplomats met with a TPLF official via Zoom on Sunday to express support for the group, and a video of the conference was obtained by investigative journalist Jeff Pearce. During the meeting, the Western diplomats made clear they supported the ousting of Ahmed to make way for a “transitional government.” The TPLF was the ruling political party in Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018.
TL:DR: make your press stop reporting our defeats!
Easy to guess how mess that 10% of population ruled the rest with US help. It went swimmingly well, as at first US sweetening the pot with tens of thousands immigrant visas given to Ethiopia. Other sweet deals followed. Eventually, goodies were fewer and fewer, demands bigger and bigger. Eventually, people stopped voting for false gods once they stopped bearing gifts, reality sunk in — democracy resulted in Tigray rule over country ended.
The drama started. Tigray started civil war, hoping US would stop the government and force a compromise. Did not work. Eritrea stepped in to support the President, earning US sanctions in turn.
It is not looking good, but minority cannot win unless mercenaries step in.
“Transitional government” = yet another regime change.
I don’t care for the present government, nor for what the minority Tigray did when dominating government, but still for the US to launch more regime change can’t be a good thing. Everything the US has touched in this way turned brown and nasty.
Worse, the US found the Tigray minority government useful, hiring it to send an invasion force into Somalia when the Somali people seemed to be accepting the Islamic Courts as a legitimate government, preferable to alternatives like chaos and at least minimally non-corrupt.
Regardless of who is right, it seems the “West” has decided to support the Tigray “rebels”.