☪ If The
Mullah Regime Falls, Iran Could Become The First Nation to Ban The
Satanic Cult of Islam.
• Iran has
been gripped by increasingly large protests for nearly two weeks
• The
demonstrations began in Tehran in late December in protest at the
severe economic crisis in the country
• They have
since evolved into calls to overthrow the Islamic regime
• Tehran
Mayor Alireza Zakani said unrest on Thursday night saw more than 50
banks and several government buildings set on fire. "More than
30 mosques went up in flames,"
• Iranian
women are defying decades of repression by lighting cigarettes with
burning photos of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
• Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei says the clerical regime won't back
down
• The
Evil Islamic Dictator Khamenei brands the protesters 'vandals'
and 'saboteurs' who are trying to please US President Donald Trump
• President
Dollar Trump has repeatedly warned the US will strike Iran
'very hard' if protesters are killed
• Trump again
warned Tehran on Friday but said any US action would stop short of
'boots on the ground'
• At least 51
demonstrators have been killed in clashes with security forces since
the unrest began, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO
• Iranian
exiled crown prince vows to bring regime 'to its knees' in fresh call
for weekend protests
♱ Anti
Ethiopia Conspiracy Can Cause Universal Cataclysm as Ethiopia is a
Biblical Nation Under the Almighty Egziabher God
☪
The Islamic Republic Is
Killing Islam in Iran. There are signs that the population is losing
its religion.
🛑 Iranians
Leaving Islam in Huge Numbers: 50,000 Mosques out
of
75,000 Are Now
Closed in
Iran
🛑
Islamic Antichrist Nations of Iran + UAE + Turkey/Azerbaijan are the
main suppliers of Combat Drones to the fascist Oromo regime of
Ethiopia, which has massacred up to two million Orthodox Christians.
📖 One
Of The Most Important Events in Human History they don't teach us in
school: 'Aksumite–Persian
Wars'
Countries like Egypt,
Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Persia/Iran were widely attacked by the
plague-ridden Islamic virus (the king of all plagues) for their
diabolical Conspiracy/Jihad against Christian Ethiopia. These
countries have fallen to the sword of the Mohammedan nations in the
past 1400 years one by one. Persia, which later became Iran, was
punished with the Islamic plague because it invaded present-day Yemen
and massacred Ethiopian Christians there. The warnings were there,
but they ignored them, like they do today.
Abraha
(flourished 6th century ad) was an Ethiopian Christian viceroy of
Yemen in southern Arabia during the 6th century AD.
Abraha
was viceroy of the principality of Sabaʾ in Yemen for the
(Christian) emperors of Ethiopia. A zealous Christian himself, he is
said to have built a great church at Sanaa and to have repaired the
principal irrigation dam at the Sabaean capital of Maʾrib. Abraha is
chiefly famous, however, for the military expedition that he led
northward against the city of Mecca in the same year as Muhammad’s
birth, about 570. Though it was supported by elephants, the
expedition failed, and Muslims believe that Mecca escaped capture
only through a miracle.
As
the story told by the Mohammedans, who are skilled in falsehood, is
only half true like a broken clock, we must be careful until our
little-known and hidden historical writings are revealed. Attention!
Islamists from Turkey and Arabia are coming back to destroy books and
manuscripts. Remember Axum, Alexandria and Timbuktu!
According
to the biased commentary on verses in Surat Al-Fil in the Quran,
Abraha built a cathedral in Sana'a to rival the Ka'ba as a
destination of pilgrimage, and in response Meccans desecrated the
cathedral. Abraha then set out with a force of elephants to destroy
the Ka'ba, but Allah sent birds who killed the elephants by pelting
them with stones.
Abraha’s
rule ended in 575 when the Persian Sāsānians invaded the region and
brought the Sabaean kingdom to an end. Persia and The Persians were
punished for this invasion later with the scourge (plague) of Islam.
♰
Orthodox
Priest: Islam is The Most Disruptive Historical Development in The
History of Christianity
🛑
The Hidden Genocidal War in
Ethiopia | ስውር
የዘር ማጥፋት ጦርነት በኢትዮጵያ
👉 The Deadliest
country no one wants to report truthfully about is Ethiopia:
🛑 In
Ethiopia; From November 2020 till today:
❖ – 1.5
Million Orthodox Christians were brutally Massacred
❖ – 200.000
Orthodox Christian Women, Children even Nuns were Raped and abused
❖ – Over
a Million Ethiopians were forced to migrate to other countries
❖ – 4.4
million internally displaced people severely impacted by conflict,
hostilities and climate shocks
❖ – Over
a Million female Ethiopian slaves sold to Arab countries
❖ – 20
million Ethiopian forced to experience food insecurity
by
the fascist Islamo-Protestant, Oromo army of the prosperity gospel
heretic PM Abiy Ahmed Ali (The 2019 Nobel Peace Laureate -- Trump
Talks obsessively about this quite frequently) and his UN, Arab,
Israeli, Turkish, Iranian, European, American, Russian, Ukrainian,
African allies. By the entire Edomite and Ishmaelite World!
It's no secret that President
Trump really, really loves gold.
Trump has been comprised by the
billions invested in Trump Organizations and in America by Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, and other Muslim Countries which are
waging all forms of jihad (eg. lives, money), war against Non-Muslims
to make Islam supreme (Quran 9:5, 29, 111, etc.).I t’s worse than
that.
💭
"President Dollar Trump: In Gold We Trust – We’re Going to
Become So Rich...
👉 Courtesy:The
Globe and Mail, Canada, by Claire Wilmot and Ashenafi Endale,
November 13, 2025
As gold prices skyrocket,
Chinese and western companies are working side by side to exploit a
region ravaged by civil war.
Illegal gold mining industry
has exploded in Ethiopia's Tigray region since the end of the civil
war
Shady foreign investors
have joined forces with local military to exploit it for profit
Unregulated mining is
ruining land, killing cattle and poisoning local people
At a military checkpoint in
Ethiopia’s Tigray region, an area reckoning with the aftermath of
one of the 21st century’s deadliest wars, heavily armed soldiers
ordered TBIJ to pull over. After a brief interrogation, we were told
in no uncertain terms to turn back. Only those with written
permission from the military controlling the area could go any
further.
As we tried to negotiate our way
through, a dusty pickup truck skidded to a halt next to us. Its
driver, a Chinese national, was accompanied by a local interpreter
dressed in army fatigues. In the back were vinyl sacks, pickaxes and
half a dozen men. The interpreter handed a piece of paper to one of
the soldiers, who waved them through.
The truck accelerated away from
the checkpoint and towards the sites we had been forbidden from
approaching: two vast gold mines, so big they can be seen from space.
The Bureau of Investigative
Journalism (TBIJ) can reveal that for over a year these sites, known
as Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, were both home to huge illegal mining
operations, part of an illicit post-war gold rush in Tigray now worth
billions, according to records from Ethiopia’s National Bank.
On paper, the sites are licensed
to subsidiaries of East Africa Metals (EAM), a Canadian mining
company with deep ties to China. EAM has said publicly it is
developing legal industrial mines here through its business partners.
Meanwhile, on the ground, gold has been illegally excavated by former
soldiers working alongside Chinese miners whose machinery is paid for
by shadowy “foreign investors”, according to miners and former
security officials. The sites are guarded by military men who control
vast smuggling networks, which are in turn fuelling yet more violence
across a region already devastated by conflict.
Part of what is driving the
explosion of illegal mining in Tigray is the sky-high price of gold
around the world. The US, China and others are scrambling to buy up
gold reserves. But our investigation also challenges popular
depictions of Chinese and western companies as fierce competitors: in
Tigray, the two are working hand-in-glove.
EAM told us it “categorically
denies the suggestion it is implicated in activities that violate
Canadian, Ethiopian or international law”. It acknowledged that
mining operations appear to have taken place at the sites, including
potentially by foreigners, but believes they are acting as
individuals, not as representatives of any company. EAM also told us
operations on the sites were suspended and its subsidiaries and
development partners were unable to access them.
It is not only EAM’s sites
that became hubs of illegal gold production. Since the end of the
war, large illicit mines have sprung up across Tigray, fuelled by
foreign capital and enabled by local military men. The chemicals
being used to pry gold from the earth are poisoning the local land
and water. People living nearby have reported strange skin
conditions. Their crops and animals are dying.
Canadian companies hold most
foreign mining licences in Tigray and numerous people within the
industry told us they believe some of these firms have been involved
in the boom of illicit mining. For over a year, TBIJ has been
investigating these claims. Our reporters have travelled across
hundreds of kilometres to some of Tigray’s most remote corners,
conducting more than 200 interviews in search of answers.
The stakes are high. Journalists
reporting on these matters have been detained and threatened with
serious violence. Whistleblowers have been intimidated, assaulted and
threatened with death. Tigrayans protesting the looting of their land
have been injured and killed.
For these reasons, almost
everyone who spoke to us for this story did so on the condition of
anonymity. But their testimonies paint the clearest picture yet of an
illicit industry that is ruining the land, stoking deadly violence
and threatens to push Ethiopia back to war.
The gold rush
Gold has always been a precious
commodity – but right now, it is worth more than ever. In October
prices surpassed $4,000 an ounce, and across Tigray, the gold rush
can be seen everywhere. Along the highway that links the regional
capital Mekelle with the gold hub of Shire, young children brandish
small bags of dust and nuggets at passing cars.
Not long ago, this region was
the scene of a brutal civil war that broke out in late 2020 between
Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s leading political
party. By the time a peace deal was signed two years later, more than
half a million people were believed to have been killed.
Before the war, Tigray’s
mining industry was smaller and more tightly regulated. For foreign
companies, licences were granted federally and implemented
regionally. Meanwhile, licences for so-called “artisanal” mining
– which permit small-scale methods, like digging and panning for
gold by hand – were granted by local and regional governments.
But the war drove a wedge
between the federal and regional governments, and fragmented
political authority within Tigray. In its aftermath, as an economic
crisis took hold, opportunistic military men took control of key
gold-producing sites.
Gold mining in Tigray became a
multibillion-dollar industry – and those who controlled the most
profitable sites gained sudden political power. Unnamed “investors”
from outside the region, spotting their opportunity, began to cut
deals to expand production and smuggle gold out of Tigray, local
miners and former government officials told us.
The result was the expansion of
sites like Mato Bula and Da Tambuk into sprawling quarries where
artisanal miners, in violation of laws and regulations, began to use
heavy machinery and toxic chemicals to unearth gold. Many people we
spoke to were clear that mines like these could not be built without
the approval of local military leaders involved in the illicit gold
trade.
EAM told us it does not engage
with any military or paramilitary organisations and has no
involvement with armed actors in the region.
“The gold economy is fuelling
conflict and empowering armed actors in Ethiopia,” said Ahmed
Soliman, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. “We should have
seen these resources being used to rebuild the region. Instead, they
are being misappropriated.”
Our findings raise major
questions about Tigray’s mining industry – not least around the
role of East Africa Metals, whose previous public statements about
the legal development of its sites are a far cry from what is
happening on the ground.
‘This
is the wild west’
While a number of Canadian
companies hold mining exploration licenses in Tigray, EAM’s
subsidiaries are the only ones permitted to develop large-scale
industrial mines. In so doing, EAM has enlisted the help of a
China-registered firm called Tibet Huayu, which, as well as promoting
the projects to potential Chinese investors, is covering the two
mines’ construction costs. According to stock exchange filings, it
has spent at least $2m on the projects since 2019.
The official word from both
companies is that the mines are not yet operational. Neither company
has reported any revenue from the mines.
But Mato Bula and Da Tambuk were
already producing gold. Both sites have been hubs of illegal
extraction for well over a year, according to artisanal miners, gold
brokers and security officials.
Heavy machinery has been visible
in satellite imagery of both sites since January 2024, and one
smuggler who moves gold from both sites said that returns have grown
rapidly.
Justin Lynch of Conflict
Insights Group, a research organisation that has analysed images of
both sites, said they show “clear signs of expansion from 2024 to
2025”. He added that more equipment associated with large-scale
artisanal mining appeared between January and November 2024.
According to four artisanal
miners who have witnessed the expansion, as well as a government
official, two former security officers and an individual involved in
smuggling, most equipment was brought to the site by Chinese miners,
who ramped up production midway through 2024, around the same time
EAM announced construction would be starting.
Three investors with first-hand
knowledge of operations at the sites also told us that the expansion
of these illegal operations has been financed by EAM’s Chinese
business partners. They said Chinese miners employed by EAM’s
partners and subsidiaries have been mining on these sites, in
collusion with some Tigrayan military officers, for around a year –
and that the gold has been smuggled out of the region.
Other insiders who have visited
the sites went as far as saying that the miners in question worked
for Silk Road Investments, a company wholly owned by Tibet Huayu,
EAM’s business partner. Others told us that illegal miners at the
sites worked for Tigray Resources, a company joint-owned by EAM and
Tibet Huayu.
EAM told us it “unequivocally
rejects the suggestion that it, or any of its subsidiaries or
affiliated business partners, financed or facilitated illegal
artisanal mining activities”, including any complicity in
smuggling. Tibet Huayu did not respond to requests for comment.
In June, Tigray’s new
president dispatched a task force to seize mining assets and enforce
temporary pauses on mining across the region. His allies say the move
is meant to bring the illicit economy to heel. His critics say it is
a means of asserting his authority over all sites. One of his key
allies maintains control over Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, though sources
near the sites say that machinery has changed hands in recent months,
and Chinese miners were replaced by locals. The task force was set to
conclude in the coming weeks, but worsening violence on Tigray’s
southern border may cause further delays.
“This is the wild west,”
said Ahmed Soliman of Chatham House. “[Tigray’s illegal mines]
appear to be causing serious environmental harms, labour is
unregulated and there is very little transparency about the
relationships western companies have with problematic actors.”
In the case of EAM, its business
links throw up some especially intriguing questions. Not least
because its partnership with Tibet Huayu is only the most public of
its numerous connections to Chinese companies, Chinese capital –
and Chinese state strategy.
The
China connection
EAM’s links to China go back
as far as the company itself. Shortly after its creation in 2012, it
acquired exploration licences in Tigray – including for Mato Bula
and Da Tambuk – from a company called Beijing Donia Resources.
Thirteen years on, EAM says it
has not made a penny from its Ethiopia projects. But since the war
ended, it has received cash injections from other companies – known
as private placements – worth at least $5m. These are often made
anonymously.
Two of these, totalling $1.1m,
originated from a Chinese company called Sinotech Minerals
Exploration Co Ltd, according to well-placed business insiders. They
said the money had been paid via another Canadian company, which
Sinotech part-owns, called Nickel North Exploration Co.
EAM told us that Nickel North
has never made a private placement to EAM. When asked if the payments
in question came from individuals associated with Nickel North or
Sinotech, the company said it could not disclose the information
without the investors’ consent. Nickel North and Sinotech did not
respond to multiple requests for comment.
In June 2025, EAM closed a $4m
private placement – this time with a company called Anchises
Capital, a newly formed US-registered company. Anchises executives
also have ties to China, according to two industry insiders and
business registry documents.
Linking these entities is one
man: a businessman called Jingbin Wang. He is chairman of Sinotech,
chairman of Nickel North, former chairman of Beijing Donia, and
chairman of the board of directors at EAM.
Wang is also the chief geologist
for Zijin Mining Group, a Chinese enterprise that has a 55% interest
in a third mine licensed to an EAM subsidiary.
On top of this, he holds key
roles in government agencies responsible for China’s gold and
critical minerals strategy. And copper, a vital mineral for the green
transition, is found alongside gold in the earth at EAM’s Tigray
mines. The Canadian government has limited Chinese control of
Canadian critical minerals companies, including a Lithium company
owned by EAM’s CEO and Wang's business partner, Andrew Lee Smith.
Nickel North, Sinotech, Anchises
and Jingbin Wang did not respond to our requests for comment.
EAM told us that no copper is
expected to be recovered from Da Tambuk and is not present “in
economically significant amounts” at Mato Bula.
“The pattern in high-risk
resource ventures often reveals opportunistic, risk-tolerant frontier
investors who leverage political connections back home to secure
deals,” said JR Mailey, research associate at the Africa Center for
Strategic Studies. “Profit dictates collaboration.”
Days after we presented our
findings to EAM, the company announced that it had applied for a
management cease trade order, which means it can delay filing its
statements for the most recent financial year. It said the order was
unrelated to our questions.
EAM published its statements in
mid-September, and the cease trade order has been lifted. In the new
filings, EAM says the continuation of the project is contingent on
its ability to access its sites.
‘A
captive workforce’
When we asked miners at another,
smaller EAM-licensed site who had paid for their excavators and rock
crushers, most kept quiet. Those who did speak told us of anonymous
“investors” from abroad.
Nearby at the same site,
Abrihet*, a miner, sat on the ground and swirled pearls of mercury
over a slurry of dirt and gold – a way of extracting the metal from
the ore by hand. The gold trade was new to her, she explained: her
family had been left destitute by the war, so she, like so many, was
forced to find an alternative income.
Yet for miners like her, gold is
far from lucrative. After the investors and the military men took
their cut, Abrihet was left with just enough to keep her and her
family fed. Her situation isn’t unique. These profit-sharing deals
between investors and the military can leave the miners themselves –
already risking their health and safety to eke out a living – with
very little.
“It’s a captive workforce,”
explained one local researcher.
Just down the hill from Abrihet
was a large metal structure that sifts ore and mercury through a
series of sieves. The process typically extracts only about 30% of
gold in the ore, so the runoff that pools at the bottom of the
structure is then treated with cyanide.
These processes present serious
dangers. Mercury is a toxic chemical that accumulates in the body and
even in small amounts can cause neurological damage, skin conditions
and loss of vision. It can be especially harmful to unborn babies and
infants. Cyanide, meanwhile, is a poison that can seriously damage
the brain, heart and nervous system.
In the type of illegal activity
seen across Tigray, the use of these chemicals is far more dangerous
than in industrial mining, which is bound by regulations designed to
keep workers safe. Rules around the containment of runoffs, for
instance, shield both miners and the surrounding environment from
severe harm. Here there is no such protection.
EAM told us: “Neither EAM, its
officers, employees, contractors, or partners have engaged in
transactions introducing equipment or chemicals at the target areas.”
It categorically denied any suggestion of complicity in environmental
harm.
The ecological crisis gripping
the region has been extensively documented. A confidential legal
report, obtained by TBIJ, detailed the widespread use of chemicals
near sources of drinking water. One miner who lives nearby a mine
showed us welts covering her hands. In a village downstream, Abrihet
said, two children have died from illnesses she attributes to
cyanide.
“Without these chemicals, we
don’t earn enough,” she said. “But they are also killing us.”
A
country at odds
At first, little of the
illegally mined gold in Tigray stayed in Ethiopia for very long. Most
of it was roughly refined in Shire, and then smuggled out of the
country through Eritrea to be sold around the world.
Last summer, however, this
changed when federal politicians moved to take control of an industry
that they said was empowering some of their Tigrayan rivals.
According to an internal report
compiled by the Federal Ministry of Mines, obtained by TBIJ, the
National Bank of Ethiopia purchased just over 18,000kg of gold from
Tigray’s artisanal miners over the past year. This is nearly 30
times the amount Tigray was projected to legally produce in the same
period.
The conclusions are clear: the
vast majority of Tigrayan gold that made its way to Addis Ababa was
of illicit provenance. Ethiopia generated nearly $3.5bn from gold
exports last year, according to the above report, the vast majority
of which was reportedly mined in Tigray.
Smugglers and brokers told us
that most of the gold, rather than being taken across borders, is now
being moved to government purchasing sites, with federal officers
complicit.
“There are people who are
known to participate in this network from top to bottom among
government and security officials,” said Tigray’s former interim
president Getachew Reda last year.
Ethiopia’s federal government,
Tigray’s regional government, and a military spokesperson did not
reply to requests for comment.
The region’s shifting politics
may also be warding off the bigger mining companies. An employee
formerly with the Newmont Corporation, one of the world’s largest
gold mining firms, told us it did not plan to return to the region
any time soon despite holding licences there.
This presents a problem for the
so-called “junior” companies (a category EAM falls into), which
typically operate by selling their prospects on to bigger buyers. A
foreign miner who has worked in Tigray said that some overseas mining
companies – or individuals using them as cover – have begun
trying to take a cut from the illegal mining happening on their
patch.
‘They
make the chaos’
At a mining camp near Shire, a
young woman told us that her sister’s six-month-old baby had
recently died of a mysterious illness. The child was buried without a
clear cause of death having been established, but she believes it was
because of chemicals that leached into the drinking water.
Tigray’s gold rush has lined
the pockets of a few, but for countless others it has brought death
and disillusionment. Dozens have been killed in clashes at mining
sites and untold more will suffer long-term effects of toxic land.
Gold has transformed Ethiopia’s political landscape – and as its
value continues to rise in an increasingly uncertain world, so too
will the incentives to expand production at all costs.
The future of EAM’s projects
are uncertain. Tigray’s new interim president is trying to
consolidate control over mining, and many artisanal projects appear
to have been paused. Equipment at some of the larger sites, including
Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, have been handed over from the Chinese to
Tigrayans. Whether this indicates a material change in who is
benefiting from these sites is not clear. But whoever controls these
sites moving forward, the root problems are likely to persist.
“What we now see in Tigray is
not just an environmental, economic and security crisis of a colossal
scale,” Getachew Reda, the former president of Tigray’s interim
administration, told TBIJ. “It will also help to precipitate a
regional crisis. Those [benefiting from the gold trade] have a vested
interest in destabilising the region, because it is better to fish in
troubled waters.”
Sitting under dim lights in a
bar in Shire, an ex-soldier told us how he quit the army several
months ago, angered by the corruption he saw throughout the ranks.
But he seemed resigned to the fact that illegal gold mining will only
continue to spread across the region.
“Tigrayan commanders, federal
officers, foreigners […] they make the chaos and then they profit
from the chaos,” he said.
In the last two
years, there is an ongoing devastating war in the Amhara and Western
Oromia regions of Ethiopia. The atrocities in these wars has gotten
limited coverage but recent reports by the US
State Department, Amnesty
International and Human
Rights Watch indicate that the casualties and
destruction of civilian infrastructure needs international attention.
According to the
World
Report 2025 by Human Rights Watch, fighting
between the Ethiopian military and militias in the Amhara region
resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, including
attacks against refugees and civilian infrastructure such as
hospitals. The government renewed a sweeping state of emergency for
the Amhara region, but its provisions were applied throughout
Ethiopia; mass arrests persisted once it expired.
And now, the storm
clouds gather once more. Despite the Pretoria
Peace Agreement, and call for peace from the
Tigray, Amhara and Oromia political forces, the Abiy Ahmed regime
appears intent on returning to war which now seems to include Eritrea
too. In his parliamentary address on 10/28/2025, the Prime Minister
of Ethiopia has made it clear that war is inevitable. Multiple
signals indicate that the fragile peace is unraveling:
War
mongering in Parliamentary speech: Prime
Minister Abiy’s recent “appeals” to diplomats, religious
leaders, and elders to caution Tigray against entering into conflict
(despite Tigray’s repeated call for the full implementation of the
Pretoria peace agreement), delivered during his address to the
Ethiopian Parliament, is seen as highly alarming. It echoes the
rhetoric he used in his speech to parliament just before the 2020
war, where he made similar statements days before declaring war. This
is widely regarded as evidence of an impending war.
Precision
Drone Threats Over Tigray:
Following a private statement, reported by reliable media outlets, by
Prime Minister Abiy referencing tactics “like Israel used on Iran,”
surveillance drones have reappeared in Mekelle, threatening the lives
of Tigray’s civilian leadership and undermining any confidence in
peaceful resolution. This has been admitted by the Prime Minister of
Ethiopia in his parliamentary address on 10/28/2025,
Dangerous
Brinkmanship with Eritrea: The
government’s inflammatory threats toward Eritrea, and Asmara’s
military posturing in response, risk plunging the region into a
broader conflagration with devastating consequences for the Horn of
Africa. Repeated references to the imminence of war with Eritrea
including the statement “war can break out at any time” was said
by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in his parliamentary address on
10/28/2025,
Ethnic
Profiling and Arbitrary Detentions:
Echoing the early days of the 2020 genocide, young Tigrayans are
being rounded up in Addis Ababa—held in mass encampments without
cause or due process. This is not law enforcement; it is ethnic
persecution.
Failure to
provide justice and accountability for industrial-scale looting and
atrocities: There is a growing
appetite to use Tigray resources to fund the war on Tigray. In the
2020-2022 war, the invading forces looted Tigray and destroyed
everything they couldn’t take with them. This is documented in a
new investigative report by The
Sentry, which accuses Eritrean leaders of
orchestrating industrial-scale looting and atrocities during and
after the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The Eritrean Defense
Forces (EDF) allegedly trafficked gold, antiquities, and human beings
while committing brutal acts such as gang rape, torture, and
mutilation. The report estimates that $75–$80 million in gold is
diverted annually to the black market from EDF-controlled areas.
Similar accusations have been made against the Ethiopian forces.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea
have increased their rhetoric about war and their prowess. Ethiopia
warns that Eritrea is rebuilding its military and continuing to
destabilize neighboring countries, raising fears of renewed conflict.
Eritrea is leveling the same counter accusations. This back and forth
is now at the level of the top government leaders. This is causing
unease and tension with the people of Tigray and the region. The
Sentry urges international actors, including the UN Security Council,
to impose targeted sanctions and take swift action to prevent further
escalation. We do too.
We, implore the United
States and members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to
lead the world in urgently calling for peace in Ethiopia and
protecting the innocent people from being unjustly annihilated. The
Tigray people, after the recent genocidal war, need protection,
justice and peace. The people in the Amhara and Western Oromia
regions need peace and right to live without fear and drone attacks.
The millions of people in these war prone regions need a global power
willing to stand between them and annihilation.
We would like to join
hands in making a call upon the US and the UN Security Council to:
• Demand
immediate compliance with the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities
Agreement (COHA) with international monitors on the ground and access
for humanitarian agencies restored without obstruction. This might
require the US to reassume the leadership role that its envoy to the
Horn of Africa, Ambassador Hammer and his predecessors played in
making the COHA possible.
• Condemn
the use of drones for political intimidation or assassination and
make clear that further escalation will trigger diplomatic and
economic consequences.
• Sanction
individuals/entities leading the perpetuation of war crimes against
international law.
• Lead
a multilateral peace initiative with the UN and EU, not after
conflict reignites, but now, before the first shot is fired. The
current descent to war could be prevented if the US re-assumes its
leadership in coordinating the COHA implementation and monitoring
since the African Union has forgotten its role as stipulated in the
agreement.
Silence, in the face of a
second genocide, will not be remembered as neutrality. It will be
remembered as complicity. Let history show that when the people of
Ethiopia cried out for protection, America and the international
community stood with them.
“Two years later,
in 2020, civilians in Ethiopia found themselves in an armed conflict
that was referred to as one of the worst atrocities of the 21st
century – mass killings, mass displacements, sexual violence, and
unmatched polarization. The war that began in Tigray exposed not only
the dangerous reality in Ethiopia, it also provoked all of us to ask
far-reaching questions
about humanity’s future.”
