The oracle concerning
Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of
Dedanites. To the thirsty bring water; meet the fugitive with bread,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema. For they have fled from the
swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press
of battle.
❖[Jeremiah
49:7-8]❖
“Concerning
Edom: This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Is there no longer
wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their
wisdom decayed? Turn and flee, hide in deep caves, you who live in
Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time when I punish
him.”
❖[Ezekiel 25:13]❖
“Therefore
thus says the Lord GOD, I will stretch out my hand against Edom and
cut off from it man and beast. And I will make it desolate; from
Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword.”
☪ Iran and Co. Will
Be Forced to Target Mystery Babylon Mecca and Medina
The oracle concerning
Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of
Dedanites. To the thirsty bring water; meet the fugitive with bread,
O inhabitants of the land of Tema. For they have fled from the
swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press
of battle.
Ethiopians on
death row in Saudi Arabia's Khamis Mushait detention centre speak to
MEE about their plight.
In Saudi
Arabia’s Khamis Mushait detention facility, hundreds of Ethiopian
prisoners are held on death row in harrowing conditions, waiting in
fear of their eventual execution.
On 21 April,
the shouts of the guards echoed through the overcrowded prison in
Aseer province as they came to read out the names of those scheduled
to be executed.
Three
Ethiopians were taken away to their fate.
Hailay Berhane,
a migrant from the Gulomahda district of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray
region, is being held in Khamis Mushait. He told Middle East Eye what
happened using the messaging app Imo. Like other prisoners MEE
communicated with for this article, his name has been changed.
“Guards came
early in the morning in a rush, handed cards to three of the
Ethiopian migrants among us and took them away,” he said.
“Two hours
later, the same guards came back and told us that the three migrants
had been beheaded and warned us that is what awaited us all.”
Ephrem Kidane,
another death row prisoner, also saw his friends taken away. After
they were executed, he told MEE, the guards wrapped their lifeless
bodies in their blankets.
Kibrom
Gebremariam, Tsigabu Hagos and Kidane Angesom were executed. They
were young men who had fled to Saudi Arabia from war-ravaged Tigray,
where the humanitarian situation remains dire.
The three
Tigrayans had crossed the Gulf of Aden and travelled through Yemen to
Saudi Arabia, seeking work. They carried khat, the plant chewed as a
mild stimulant in large parts of east Africa, with them.
According to
Human Rights Watch, Saudi security authorities arrested the three
Ethiopians between 2023 and 2024, accused them of drug-related
offences, and moved them between various detention centres until they
ended up in Khamis Mushait.
On 23 June,
five more Ethiopian nationals were executed, among many foreigners
accused of non-violent drug crimes by Saudi authorities. Multiple
sources said the prisoners admitted to the crimes, fearing that if
they did not, they would simply be executed without legal assistance.
The migrants
were forced to sign documents in Arabic without understanding their
content and, in some cases, were beaten by security forces, said
Berhane.
“They
handed me 41kg of drugs and forced me to believe it was mine and made
me sign documents that I don’t even understand what they were
saying in Arabic,” he told MEE, recalling the moment he was caught
by Saudi security men three years ago.
He was in the
deadly border region between Yemen and Saudi Arabia known as Rago.
It’s a place that has become known for the brutal apprehension of
migrants, with human rights organisations highlighting accusations
that Saudi border guards have fired indiscriminately on them.
“In the past
three years, I appeared in court three times for a very short period,
all without an interpreter,” Berhane said, describing how difficult
it was to present his case and prove his innocence.
“Foreign
nationals who are on death row in Saudi Arabia are, most of the time,
subjected to grossly unfair trials,” said Yared Hailemariam, an
Ethiopian human rights advocate.
Almost 100
executions in Saudi Arabia this year
Saudi
authorities have executed almost 100 people so far this year,
including at least 61 for drug-related offences, according to a new
report from Amnesty International.
“Foreign
nationals have borne the brunt of Saudi Arabia’s ruthless use of
the death penalty for drug-related offences, frequently after grossly
unfair trials,” the report said.
Amnesty said
that it was “profoundly alarming” that at least 63 Ethiopian
nationals are being held in a single ward of Khamis Mushait, and that
they were at “imminent risk of execution solely for drug-related
offences”.
According to
local officials, local civil society organisations and human rights
defenders who spoke with MEE, as many as 200 Ethiopian citizens are
currently on death row awaiting execution in Saudi Arabia. Many
prisoners say the figures could be higher.
“There are
many migrants in all six prison blocks here in Saudi Arabia,”
Berhane said. “In the Khamis Mushait detention facility there are
58 Ethiopian migrants, and most are from Tigray, uprooted by constant
conflict and crises, and dwindling humanitarian support.”
Speaking on a
phone smuggled into the detention centre, with security cameras
following his every move, the Ethiopian prisoner said he wonders how
long he has left to live.
“Every time
the security guards knock on the door, we feel that our names will be
called and we will become another figure among many who are wrongly
accused like myself, whose plea goes on unnoticed,” Kidane, another
prisoner, told MEE.
Kibrom
Gebremariam, 30, was among the Ethiopian migrants executed at Khamis
Mushait detention facility for drug-related offences on 21 April.
News of
Kibrom’s death shocked his parents in the Egela district of Tigray,
from where many young people migrate to Saudi Arabia.
Of the family’s
seven children, two had already made the hazardous journey across the
Gulf of Aden and then through war-torn Yemen.
Kibrom's older
brother, Merhawi, who migrated illegally to Yemen in 2020, was killed
by security forces three years ago. Migration has now claimed two
children from this family.
“Illegal
migration took our children. We anticipated Kibrom’s wedding, not
his death. His murder has become an open wound for us,” his
heartbroken mother, Gimja Gebremariam, told MEE at her home in
Tigray.
Tears filled
her eyes as she explained that nowadays, she prays that Saudi
authorities will release the corpse of her child, so that he can be
properly buried. This remains a distant dream for her and many
parents like her, who have been forced to mourn without a proper
burial.
When Kibrom
travelled through Somalia, across the sea and through Yemen into
Saudi Arabia 12 years ago, he dreamed of a life far away from the
reality of his village, where prospects were scarce.
He knew he was
taking a risk, but he never imagined that he would be thrown in
prison and left there for 11 years before being executed, his father,
Gebremariam Gebrezgiabher, said.
He had been
waiting for his son’s release from prison for years. Instead, he
received news that Kibrom had been executed. The shock has left him
bedridden.
The 30-year-old
Kibrom last spoke to his father on 20 April at midday, a day before
his death. Via the Imo messaging app, he assured his father that he
would return soon and be reunited with his family.
His death was
later confirmed by other prisoners, who sent a voice message saying
Kibrom had been beheaded.
“It was very
hard to hear of his death as a father, especially how he was killed,”
Gebrezgiabher, now a frail 60-year-old, told MEE. “His death has
killed a part of me and is made worse by the fact that I have nothing
to bury.”
'He wanted to
live a productive life'
One of Kibrom’s
cellmates, Tsigabu Hagos, was also executed.
Hagos was the
only son of eight children from a family whose livelihood is based on
agriculture. In 2020, he made it to Saudi Arabia travelling through
Somalia and Yemen. He wanted to stay there or go on to Europe, his
father, Hagos Gebremeskel, said.
“He wanted to
have his own business, be self-sufficient and live a productive
life,” Gebremeskel told MEE, as he glanced at his 26-year-old son’s
portrait on his mobile phone.
His mother,
Letekristos Gebretsadkan, recalled what Tsigabu told her after
reaching Saudi Arabia. He said he’d make her proud and promised to
support his younger sisters.
Gebremeskel,
who had previously been in Saudi Arabia in his early 20s and knew the
risk of a drug offence, said he didn’t think his son was involved
in such a trade, given his experience.
“I wasn’t
shocked when he was arrested. I was hoping he would eventually be
released as he was innocent,” the father said.
“I never
thought they would kill my son,” Letekristos lamented. She said she
was consoled by her husband. She wondered how much their son had been
tortured before he was killed, if the family would ever get justice,
if they would at least get the body of their son back.
Masho Hagos,
his sister, said her brother’s fate would not deter her from going
to Saudi Arabia. The 20-year-old is still a high school student
because she had to suspend her studies because of the brutal Tigray
war.
War and
economic crisis in Tigray
Since the
Tigray war officially ended in 2022, the region has been a little
more stable, though the humanitarian situation remains dire. Hundreds
of thousands of people died in the war, which also displaced
millions.
Many young
people continue to flee the region as fear of yet another conflict -
this time a proxy war involving Eritrea – remains.
High
unemployment rates, a collapsed wartime economy and recurring
conflict lead them to take the dangerous journey to Saudi Arabia or
Europe.
“Political
instability, armed conflict and economic crisis are the major factors
affecting the life of Ethiopian youths,” said Hailemariam, the
Ethiopian human rights expert. “They are also forcefully recruited
for military training and deployed as soldiers for both internal
conflicts and cross-border war.”
Christian
bishops from the Catholic and Orthodox churches in Tigray have
appealed to Saudi Arabia to show clemency for the 200 prisoners in
the kingdom. The president of the Tigray region has done the same.
“Saudi
Arabia’s willingness to execute foreign migrants for non-violent
offences following trials that denied them basic due process reflects
a profound disregard for their rights and lives,” said Nadia
Hardman, senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights
Watch. “Saudi Arabia’s partners should urgently intervene before
it is too late.”
Back in the
village of Egela, Kibrom’s father is heartbroken, hoping other
parents won’t have to go through the nightmare of hearing that
their child has been killed in a Saudi prison.
He hopes such
tragedies will stop before the lives of too many more young
Ethiopians are shattered as they look for a future in richer
countries.
“That must
end,” he said, whispering in a voice that could barely be heard,
overwhelmed by the sorrow that comes from losing a child.
There are multiple,
widespread and credible independent reports that the conduct
throughout Ethiopia of the federal Ethiopian National Defence Force
(ENDF) on behalf of Ethiopia, Amhara regional armed forces and/or
militia (Fano) and loyal groups, the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF),
as well as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray
Defence Forces (TDF) and those loyal to them, have violated
international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
There is a
reasonable basis to believe that
such violations amount to the commission of war crimes and/or crimes
against humanity. These include numerous examples of inhumane
treatment, such as that prohibited under common article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions, as well as violations of the requirements of
distinction and proportionality in carrying out attacks.
Correspondingly, the evidence suggests that Ethiopia has not made
adequate efforts to discharge its obligation under customary
international law—equally applicable in non-international armed
conflicts—to investigate war crimes committed by its nationals or
armed forces, or on its territory, and, as appropriate, to prosecute
the suspected perpetrators.
This report has
considered in particular whether some or all of this conduct
potentially amounts to genocide. This is significant because
genocide not only occasions individual criminal responsibility, if
proven, but also the duties and associated responsibilities of
States notably under the Genocide Convention (of which Ethiopia was
an original signatory and, from 1 July 1949, is a ratified State
Party). Likewise, Ethiopia bears corresponding obligations under
customary international law.
This report concludes
that, on the evidence currently available, there is a reasonable
basis to believe that members of the ENDF, the Amhara Special Forces
(“ASF”), and the EDF have committed genocide against Tigrayans.
There is a reasonable
basis to believe that at least some members of the ENDF or civilian
officials associated with the Ethiopian federal government, the ASF
or civilian officials associated with affiliated militias or the
Amhara regional government, and the EDF possessed the intent to
destroy Tigrayans as an ethnic group, in whole or in part, as such.
With the intent
described in this report, there is a reasonable basis to believe
that EDF, ASF, and ENDF members carried out at least four acts
constituting the crime of genocide: killing Tigrayans, causing
serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of
life upon Tigrayans calculated to bring about their destruction, and
imposing measures intended to prevent births among Tigrayans.
There is a reasonable
basis to believe that at least some statements reportedly made on
social media by certain individuals also met the requirements for
direct and public incitement to genocide, and were again made with
the requisite intent.
While it may not
necessarily be the case that there was a formal plan for any of this
conduct to occur, or that senior officials were necessarily involved
in these acts, this does not preclude the possibility that these
acts may be attributed to Ethiopia, occasioning its responsibility
as a State.
Furthermore, even if
the genocide took place at a ‘grass roots’ level, and
irrespective whether it may be attributed to Ethiopia, there is in
any event also a reasonable basis to believe that Ethiopia as a
State failed to discharge its responsibility under international law
to prevent such acts. This failure contributed to and perpetuated
the situation of manifest and serious risk that acts of genocide
would occur. Likewise, there is a reasonable basis to believe that
Ethiopia has not discharged its responsibility to punish such acts.
In any event, and
notwithstanding questions of State responsibility, the individuals
responsible for the serious acts described above may themselves bear
criminal responsibility. Indeed, even if the conduct in question
were considered not to meet the requirements of genocide, it is
highly likely that it amounts to war crimes and/or crimes against
humanity, including offences of particular gravity and breadth.
These include persecution and other inhumane acts as crimes against
humanity, and the war crime of starvation by depriving civilians of
objects indispensable for their survival.
Accordingly, States
should:
Recognize that there
is at least a reasonable basis to believe that genocide and other
related acts were committed in Ethiopia against Tigrayans, and that
responsibility for these acts may be attributable to Ethiopia as a
State; and
Recognize that, even
if Ethiopia was not responsible for the genocide and other related
acts, there is at least a reasonable basis to believe that it failed
to prevent or punish such acts committed on its territory;
Conform their
bilateral relations with States, including Ethiopia, to the state of
affairs set out above
Take appropriate
action in light of their own obligations under the Genocide
Convention, including, as appropriate, instituting proceedings
before the International Court of Justice under Article IX;
Take appropriate
action in multilateral fora to secure an international, impartial,
and independent criminal investigation of such acts by the
International Criminal Court or any other suitable mechanism; and
Exercise universal
jurisdiction, in accordance with applicable domestic law, over
individuals implicated in the commission of genocide and other
related acts, as well as other core international crimes such as
crimes against humanity and war crimes.
🥴 Note! Pope Leo XIV visited four African countries (Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon) including Muslim Algeria three weeks ago for eleven days.
On the other hand, there is a very surprising fact; that is; no Roman Catholic Pope has ever visited Ethiopia, the oldest Christian country in the world. Besides the Vatican Pope, no Russian Orthodox Patriarch, no Russian or Soviet leader, and no Tsar has ever visited Ethiopia, which is connected to the Russian people through Alexander Pushkin. The United States sent its first and last president in 2015. Like the jihadist New York City Mayor Mamdani, the East African Muslim Barack Hussein Obama. What is the secret?
👹 Genocidal Abiy Ahmed Ali: “I am a Muslim! Allah
Snackbar”
Ninety years
after its invasion of Ethiopia, Italy continues to honour the
perpetrators of crimes it should instead confront.
Ninety years ago, on 3 October 1935, Italian troops invaded Ethiopia,
opening one of the darkest chapters in modern history. Ethiopia,
uniquely independent when the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 started
the European ‘Scramble for Africa’, suddenly faced an assault by
a state determined to complete the colonial map.
The campaign was not a sideshow. It was the last large-scale European
colonial conquest in Africa — a deliberate war of aggression that
defied the League of Nations and shocked contemporaries. Italian
planes dropped mustard gas on soldiers and civilians alike. Entire
villages were bombed and burned; survivors were deported to camps.
Tens of thousands died.
Yet for decades, this invasion has remained at the margins of public
memory. Italians tend to recall the fall of fascism or the
devastation of the Second World War, while the Ethiopian war – and
earlier aggressions in Libya, Somalia and Eritrea – are still
dismissed as an embarrassing footnote. This year’s 90th anniversary
is unlikely to be treated differently.
The myth of
the ‘good Italian’
A central reason lies in the enduring myth of ‘italiani brava
gente’ — the belief that Italians were somehow ‘better’
colonisers. As the historian Angelo Del Boca has shown, this
narrative was cultivated from the very start of Italy’s expansion
in 1885. Governments and cultural institutions promoted the idea that
they brought roads, railways and architecture rather than chains and
massacres. For decades, textbooks framed Italy’s presence in Africa
as a civilising mission, while popular culture romanticised the
colonies as lands of adventure. Echoes of this narrative still
linger.
But the
story collapses under the weight of evidence.
The conquest of Ethiopia was meant to be Mussolini’s crowning
achievement: proof that a ‘new Roman Empire’ could be built in
the 20th century. Yet Italy’s imperial ambitions pre-dated fascism.
Liberal governments, with full backing from the monarchy, had seized
Eritrea and Somalia in the 1880s and 1890s; attempted and failed to
conquer Ethiopia in 1896 at Adwa; and in 1911 invaded Ottoman Libya,
carrying out mass deportations and pioneering aerial bombing of
civilians. These campaigns foreshadowed the brutality of the 1935
assault.
From
conquest to oppression
In 1935, Italian forces advanced from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland,
deploying tanks, aircraft and chemical weapons in violation of the
1925 Geneva Protocol. On 5 May 1936, Marshal Pietro Badoglio entered
Addis Ababa at the head of his victorious troops and proclaimed the
end of hostilities — yet the war was far from over. Less than a
quarter of Ethiopia’s territory had been occupied, and at least 100
000 soldiers loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie remained at arms. What
followed was a hidden war of resistance, largely suppressed by
censorship, that lasted until February 1937. The war is estimated to
have claimed the lives of around 70 000 Ethiopian soldiers and
between 120 000 and 200 000 civilians.
Italian control lasted until 1941, when Ethiopian resistance, British
intervention and the Second World War brought down Italian East
Africa.
Even as clashes continued, Mussolini declared the creation of Italian
East Africa, merging Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia into a single
colony, and crowned King Vittorio Emanuele III as Emperor of
Ethiopia.
Occupation was marked by systematic violence. The most infamous
episode was ‘Yekatit 12’, when reprisals after an assassination
attempt on viceroy Rodolfo Graziani left more than 30 000 civilians
dead. Villages were razed to the ground, populations deported and
forced into labour on infrastructure projects under brutal
conditions. Resistance was met with executions, mass imprisonment and
concentration camps where thousands died from disease and starvation.
Italian authorities dismantled traditional governance, imposing
language and culture in a bid to eliminate Ethiopian self-rule.
Italian control lasted until 1941, when Ethiopian resistance, British
intervention and the Second World War brought down Italian East
Africa. Haile Selassie was restored to the throne, but the scars of
occupation – physical, social and political – remained.
Silence and
denial
After 1945, Italians struggled to confront fascism’s crimes abroad.
Successive governments found it easier to stress Italy’s victimhood
under Nazism than its role as a colonial aggressor. Unlike Germany,
Italy never underwent a systematic reckoning with its imperial past.
This amnesia also reflects a deeper issue rooted in the post-war
period, when the Resistance was elevated to a founding myth of the
new Republic. The heroism of some 200 000 partisans and their
supporters allowed the country to reimagine fascism not as a national
project, but as a tragic aberration inflicted on Italians. In this
version of history, Italians emerged as victims, absolved from the
complicities that sustained two decades of dictatorship — a far cry
from the antifascist intellectual Piero Gobetti’s indictment of
fascism as ‘the autobiography of the nation’. This narrative,
however, left no room to acknowledge responsibilities for the crimes
committed during the occupation of Ethiopia and the other colonies.
The result is striking: public commemorations of the Ethiopian
invasion are minimal. When the subject surfaces, it is often
accompanied by nostalgia for roads, bridges or Art Deco buildings.
Public figures have even celebrated the modernist legacy of ‘our
architecture’, reflecting an aestheticised memory that sidelines
violence. The return of the Axum obelisk from Rome to Ethiopia in
2005, after decades of dispute, remains one of the few symbolic acts
of acknowledgement. When it was re-erected in 2008, critics, such as
then-minister Vittorio Sgarbi, opposed the restitution and, years
later, even encouraged attempts to ‘get it back’ on grounds of
alleged neglect, implying Italians would be better at preserving the
monument. Apart from Italian-Libyan diplomatic reparations in 2008 –
when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologised ‘for the suffering
inflicted during the colonial period’ and signed a treaty worth $5
billion in investments and compensation – Italy has never publicly
reconciled with its colonial violence through state apologies or
reparations. Debates exist in academia and among activists, but not
at the level of official national policy.
In a political climate where PM Meloni defends nationalist narratives
that echo fascist talking points, Italy continues to honour the
perpetrators of crimes it should instead confront.
However, remembering the Ethiopian war is not just an academic
exercise. It speaks directly to questions of historical
responsibility and the politics of memory in Europe. While statues of
imperial figures spark fierce debate across much of the Western
world, Italy’s colonial record is largely absent. Even the Black
Lives Matter wave had limited traction beyond 2020’s mass rallies.
Perhaps the most visible flashpoint was the statue of Indro
Montanelli in Milan – defaced in 2020 over his admitted ‘marriage’
to a 12-year-old Eritrean girl during the colonial war – which
triggered a culture-war backlash rather than a sustained reckoning;
the mayor refused to remove the monument.
Acknowledging this past would also give depth to Italy’s
contemporary relationship with Africa. Migration, trade and
development policy are all shaped by historical ties, whether
recognised or not. Pretending colonial ventures were benign does
nothing to build mutual respect. Ninety years after the invasion,
Italy does not need rituals of guilt, but it does need clarity. In a
political climate where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defends
nationalist narratives that echo fascist talking points, Italy
continues to honour the perpetrators of crimes it should instead
confront. In 2012, the town of Affile inaugurated a monument to
Rodolfo Graziani, the viceroy who ordered the 1937 Addis Ababa
massacre, while nearby Filettino – home to the Graziani family –
still hosts a public park bearing his name, renovated with regional
funds as recently as 2017. Confronting the full reality of Italy’s
colonial past, and the violence it inflicted on others, is more
urgent than ever.
🔥Italians
Committed Terrible Crimes, Then Forgot Them: Addis Ababa Fascist
Massacre & Poison Gas 19 Feb 1937
M & Ms: Modi, Macron, Mohammad, Meloni all
travel to Addis Ababa to congratulate the genocidal PM of the
fascist Galla-Oromo Islamic Regime of Ethiopia, Black Mussolini
aka Abiy Ahmed, for massacring 2 million
Orthodox Christians.
