Call to EU to engage with Eritrea
We urge you for positive engagement with Eritrea, tangible support for the Asmara peace agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia, meaningful partnership with all countries in the horn of Africa.
HE Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President
HE Pekka Haavisto, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland and EU envoy
Dear Excellences, Josep Borrell Fontelles and Pekka Haavisto
I am writing this call on behalf of British Eritrean Communities and Organisations Network to express our concerns as we are affected directly by war, the seemingly never-ending demonization of Eritrea, and wilful act of bringing extreme harm to Eritreans. It is also to urge you to support the peace endeavour, regional stability and economic cooperation that is led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Eritrean President Issais Afwerki.
On 9 July 2018 the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have signed a historic agreement that ended three-decade long animosity that caused untold misery, destruction and lost opportunities to both countries. The joint agreement which reflects the desires and aspirations of their people paved a strong foundation and roadmap for peace, development and cooperation that extends beyond the two countries.
All who benefited from the instability, human trafficking and conflict in the Horn of Africa worked relentlessly to reverse the historic peace agreement, dump aspiration of peace and development that the agreement brought, and engineer humanitarian crisis. The anti-peace movement was spearheaded by those who defied the will of the Ethiopian government and took hostage the implementation of the 2018 Asmara Peace Agreement.
After relentless two years media campaign against Eritrea and Ethiopian government, fuelling ethnic and sectarian hatred and militarizing section of the population, TPLF, the leaders of the anti-peace movement, attacked and looted its own military. On 03 November 2020, the forces loyal to TPLF launched what they called surprise and perfidious attack on the Northern Command of Ethiopian Military Forces. According to those who survived the attack, the Northern Command forces who refused to succumb to the armed robbery, were either being mercilessly killed and their dead bodies left naked and unburied for days or fought heroically and resisted the attack until they get support While thousands of the army crossed the Eritrean border with their weapons intact.
This heinous crime provoked Ethiopians to stand together behind their army and the Ethiopian Federal government to move swiftly to enforce the law in the area. When the law enforcement action of the Ethiopia Federal government started to bear fruit, the TPLF started to lose ground and began committing again serious and horrific crime against humanity.
Amnesty international confirmed that on the night of 9 November 2020, scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai_Kadra town in the Tigray region and said, “Amnesty International has not yet been able to confirm who was responsible for their killings, but has spoken to witnesses who said forces loyal to Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) were responsible for the mass killing, apparently after they suffered defeat from the Federal EDF forces.” And on 24th November 2020, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reported that TPLF youth group called Samri, with the help of the local police and militia, moving from house to house and from street to street, began a cruel and atrocious rampage on people they pre-identified/profiled as Amharas and Wolkaits. The Ethiopian government investigators have also reported that they have captured the criminals but informed the public that there are large numbers of those who committed the crime have fled to the Sudan and live now in the Sudan refugee camps.
At the height of their aggression, the TPLF had threatened that they are capable of destroying all major Eritrean and Ethiopian cities and started launching rocket attack on Eritrean cities and two Ethiopian cities. With regard these attacks, Michael R. Pompeo, ex-Secretary of State of USA said, “we are deeply concerned by this blatant attempt by the TPLF to cause regional instability by expanding its conflict with Ethiopian authorities to neighbouring countries. We also continue to denounce the TPLF’s November 13 missile attacks on the Bahir Dar and Gondar airports in Ethiopia.’
TPLF disgraceful attack on those who were defending the Ethiopian borders and helping the Tigrayian people during the COVID-19 and locust swarm had resulted in their complete isolation and condemnation from all Ethiopian. Therefore, shifted their propaganda machine to focus on foreign invasion of Eritrean forces in order to gain Ethiopian support and mislead international community. When asked about Eritrean Forces presence in Ethiopia, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that there is no proof of Eritrean troops inside Ethiopia, where government forces are fighting rebels in the northernmost region of Tigray. The attack on Ethiopian Defence force and the random rocket attack in cities have showed beyond doubt the dangerous path that the TPLF had taken and all Ethiopian neighbours and the African Union stood in solidarity with Ethiopian Federal government in its action on law enforcement.
Djibouti FM said the military operation was launched after the TPLF violently took control of a huge military base in Tigray, and the conflict will end once TPLF officials are arrested and prosecuted. While chairperson of the African Union, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, said, “in Ethiopia, the Federal government took bold steps to preserve the unity, stability and respect for the constitutional order of the country which is legitimate for all the states. It cannot be denied however that the crisis in Tigray has provoked large-scale displacement. We encourage IGAD to support Ethiopia in addressing the humanitarian dimensions. Particular attention should be paid to refugees and displaced people. It is necessary to recall the important role that Ethiopia plays in peacekeeping operations in the region, and I hope that this effort will continue.”
The humanitarian crises that has been engineered and exasperated by belligerent mind set of the TPLF political leaders in the whole of the Ethiopia in general and Tigray region in particular requires the attention of all humanity. Turning the blind eye by the international community and EU on the continued occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories by TPLF, even after the Asmara Peace Agreement, in flagrant breach of international law had emboldened the TPLF to indulge in yet another reckless act that precipitated the crisis we witness today. TPLF employed violence to destroy nation-state in order to invent its own barbaric norm and the tolerance of war drum, hate speech and demonizing Eritrea can only exasperate the humanitarian crisis and destabilize the already fragile situation of the Horn of Africa. This is on top of the COVID-19 and Locust Swarm crises that is afflicting the area.
There is a positive direction from the World Food Programme (WFP) which stated that there have been recent positive engagements with the Government of Ethiopia by senior UN officials, including the Under-Secretary General for Safety and Security, the High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme.
We urge you for positive engagement with Eritrea, tangible support for the Asmara peace agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia, meaningful partnership with all countries in the horn of Africa.
Ahmed Mahmoud
Chairman of British Eritrean Communities and Organisations Network
