by Belay T.
Yesterday, after Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) regime declared war through the current Prime Minster Hailemariam Dessalegn to suppress the freedom movement of Amhara people in particular and the Ethiopians in general, a systematic massacre of Amhara in Metemma has happened and still the blood shade is worsening. Fully armed TPLF junta fighters called ‘Agazi’ jointly with the Sudanese fighters made the massive killings. The Sudanese fighters have dressed the same cloth as to Agazi’s. But the survived local people simply identified them with their identity. Such barbaric act of TPLF has been made by cutting any communication channels, including telephone and internet. Today, horrific images taken by the survivors are coming up via social media (Figure 1). The question is why TPLF is doing such systematic massacre in Metemma area at this point?
According to the local people, the regime has been doing its very best to change the Metemma area demography into Tigre people dominated so that to easily annex the area to Tigrai Region as to Welkait Tegede. The people of Welkait Tegede have been forced to be administered by Tigrai Regional Authority despite their strong objection since TPLF took power 25 years ago. This is mainly to expand the Tigrai Region towards to the fertile land of Amhara Region.
The area is suitable for various export commodities. Tigrai Region has no suitable land for these activities. To facilitate the annexation, the TPLF regime was teaching high school students as if Metemma is not part of Amhara Region (Figure 2). The ongoing massive killings seems that the TPLF junta’s hopelessness and to try their very best to make the Ethnic cleaning on Amhara before they leave the central government office. Sources are indicating that they made retreat back to Tigray Region if the resistance continues with the current momentum. They already started to move important resources from the center to Mekele. In the meantime, the regime is preparing to make similar massive killings to other parts of Amhara region and Oromia, where strong resistance is happening. All such action is to secure one minority ethnic group superiority by massive suppressing’s and killings other Ethiopians.
Before declaring the war, the TPLF regime was evacuating Tigrai people from some towns of Amhara, including Gondar. Additionally, they made a fake propaganda as if the peaceful Tigrai people were targeted and aired the news via Al Jazeera. Similar evacuation is expected in the coming days in other parts of Ethiopia.
Though these systematic massacres are happening international media outlets give deaf ear! We hope they will be soon in the side of Ethiopians effort and journey towards freedom and democracy.