Campaign criticizing US Secretary of State, Blinken, over what many call tacit support to a terrorist group in Tigray region was trending in twitter
borkena
As Ethiopia continues to face pressure from the United States and its allies in connection with the conflict in the Tigray region, Ethiopians took to social media to condemn US biased intervention in the internal affairs of Ethiopia.
The social media campaign came a day after Mr. Anthony Blinken’s office released a report from the 47th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. The statement from his office called, among other things, which for “an immediate cessation of hostilities, the swift, verifiable withdrawal of Eritrean troops.”
Ethiopians, except the supporters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), believe that Mr. Blinken has been consistently biased about the war that TPLF started in November 2020 when it attacked the Northern Command bases of the Ethiopian Defense Force.
One of the social media hashtag, it was trending, was #BlinkenSoWoyane, coined to indicate the level of his bias. Woyane is another unpopular name for TPLF and their supporters.
Tamerat Negera, former Addis Neger journalist, currently working for his own media, Terara Network, tweeted “#BlinkenSoWoyane his press statement about Ethiopia is written & reviewed by #TPLF.”
As indicated in the hashtag, many Ethiopians tend to believe that Mr. Blinked is supporting the cause of TPLF, which ruthlessly ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades, so much so that he does not even mention the atrocities and massacres that the organization carried out before and after the war.
Among other atrocities, in November 2020 TPLF massacred over 1000 civilians in Maikadra. As the TPLF fighters recaptured towns and cities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia after the Ethiopian Defense Force was withdrawn from the region following unilateral humanitarian ceasefire, the organization has reportedly carried out multiples of summary executions in several areas in the region. It was meant to be a vengeance killing against those who reportedly supported the Ethiopian Defense Force and the reform that was introduced in the country after TPLF lost power in 2018.
Another key message during the social media campaign was to let the “international community” know that the TPLF is a terrorist group. It was in May of this year that the Ethiopian Parliament designated it as a terrorist organization after it massacred thousands of Ethiopian Defense Force members in unsuspecting circumstances – which triggered a military response from the Federal government. The hashtag #TPLFisTerroristGroup was trending
TPLF has rejected the humanitarian ceasefire, and is conducting a military campaign to take the war to different parts of Ethiopia.
Emerging video footage and pictures indicate that the organization is using child soldiers in the conflict. According to a social media report by journalist Mesay Mekonnen, the TPLF had three rounds of fighters during the latest battles and children were put in the front line.
Despite all those evidences, Mr. Anthony Blinken and the US government are not condemning the use of child soldiers.
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