Ethiopian Government Response to the Ongoing Protest against Amhara Genocide

April 25, 2021

Ethiopian government asks for more patience from Ethiopians regarding what appear to be politically motivated crisis as powerful demonstrations in Central and North Western Parts of the country are demanding an end to Amahra genocide 

The National Security Council meeting on April 24, 2021 ( Photo credit : OPM)

Borkena 

Following several days of massacre of ethnic Amahra and pillages that brought about destruction of properties in many towns including total destruction of Ataye town, there have been persistent demonstrations in north central and wester parts of Ethiopia. 

They have been going on for the sixth day in a row. They are powerful and peaceful at the same time. The demand is an end to the massacre of ethnic Amhara in any part of Ethiopia. 

However, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, (and probably his power base in the ethnic Oromo branch of Prosperity party which is increasingly being linked to the group they rather describe as Oromo Liberation Front -Shane),  explicitly described the demonstrations as efforts to grab power through unconstitutional means. 

Abiy Ahmed spoke about it last Thursday when he was meeting with regional heads of state and electoral board authorities to evaluate progress on election related activities like voter registration.

His remark outraged the majority of Ethiopians to the point that some activities who have been supporting him are worried that he will lose more support base. 

A day after checking the political temperature following his rather unwise remark, as many call it in social media conversations, he apparently called a meeting with the National Security Council – the highest crisis time leadership body in his government. 

The council released a long statement after the meeting. For Abiy Ahmed and his time, much of the latest massacres which claimed hundreds of lives and displaced over 250,000 people was planned externally by external enemies of Ethiopia and executed through the agency of internal agents. The external enemies are not mentioned by name. There is an understanding among Ethiopians that Egypt has been relentlessly working to destabilize Ethiopia by investing in, in various forms,  internal forces with a hostile stand against Ethiopia. 

However, a considerable number of Ethiopians also believe that the radical ethnic Oromo Nationalist forces that have been massacring innocent civilians including children and women are also getting support from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration and Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. In fact, PM Abiy admitted this week that there are double agents working with the government during daylight and plotting with the enemy at night. The statement released on Saturday said that the government will deal with first. 

“We need to understand the challenge that Ethiopia is facing becomes tougher as we are approaching the tower of our hope,” said the statement from The Council. But it is noticeable that Ethiopians seem to have lost interest in flowering statements. The frustrations with Abiy Ahmed’s leadership, and lack of decisiveness have been revealed in many social media platforms. 

Abiy Ahmed and his team believes, as revealed in the statement from the council, the enemies (both internal and external) could challenge Ethiopia, but they will never Ethiopia.  

The statement from the council does not seem to have addressed the concerns of protestors. Demonstrations continued on the sixth day – a day after the statement was released. 

That does not seem to happen unless the government ends the massacre of innocent civilians. On Sunday for example, a report by Adebabay media said that innocent civilians have been attacked as brutally during a Palm Sunday celebration in Jimma, Oromo region of Ethiopia. The state media did not cover the story at this writing. 

That is an indication that the demonstration will get more momentum albeit Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is still asking for more patience from Ethiopians.