Responding to the Crisis in Northern Ethiopia

Recording of the event hosted by the Yale Genocide Studies Program (and for which the Senate Human Rights Caucus is serving as an honorary co-host) on the topic of the current crisis in northern Ethiopia.

The event was moderated by none other than Nima Elbajir- CNN Sudanse Journalist who has been very outspoken since the start of the conflict in November of 2020 with a very one-sided narrative that has put immense blame on the Ethiopian government and also very minimally critical of the #TPLF rebel group labeled as a terrorist group and actually launched the offensive against the Ethiopian government by attacking the Ethiopian Northern Command on Nov 3rd and killing hundreds of Ethiopians and causing the response attacks from the Ethiopian army.

The specific narrative pushed by CNN and other news outlets for a year long propaganda campaign against Ethiopia and the sovereignty of the country and the government legal authority in containing the conflict has been outrageous. Hashtags and consistent repetition of words like genocide specifically against the Tigrayan Ethiopians has been heard and seen on all mainstream media for months. Perhaps whats most important to note is that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the joint UN OCHA and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reports debunking the claims of genocide are consistently ignored.

Further more the numerous atrocities, mass displacement of millions and the deaths of thousands of civilians not just in Tigray but for the most part in both Amhara and Afar regions (areas surrounding Tigray), and the aggression of the TPLF or TDF (Tigray Defense Forces) which disobeyed the unilateral cease fire agreed upon by the government in June, and instead advanced into specifically civilian regions where war crimes, attacks on civilians, cultural icons, cattle and property were completely ignored in this conversation due to the constant framing of conversation and specific questions presented by Nima Elbajir. In addition to the clear bias in her position as has been her numerous reporting of the conflict throughout the year long conflict, she also consistently attempted to draw parallels to genocide in Rwanda - a point carefully discounted by the Yale professor who clearly described the process of how scholars and international law defines genocide. In fact the most stunning aspect of the discussion is that David Simone (yale) literally described the Amhara Genocide in Ethiopia that has received literally no press or mainstream media attention, despite the fact that its been an ongoing "process" that has been heavily documented even prior to the war and literally ticks each box for what is described as "genocide".

Below are several sources describing the multiple atrocities against ethnic Amharas and Afar (Mai Kadra Massacre, Galikoma Massacre and countless more) that are still ongoing, while Nima and CNN continue to shift the narrative.