Its been a week since the  elections of June 21 came to an end .  According to the national election Board (NEB), additional regions are scheduled  for elections in August 2021. Most Ethiopians nationwide and in diaspora waiting for this day  followed  periodic reports from the NEB and quite a few reporters from international and national   news organizations  (VOA,DW, AL Jeezira, ETV, ATV, OBN, etc) kept the world informed in real time as the elections took place throughout the day. Ethiopians saw thousands of people all over the country queued to vote at designated stations. Enthusiasm expressed by voters as shown by early morning queues prior to the 6:00 am  scheduled voting start time, the massive turn out ,  the long lines , the favorable voter interviews of the process ..all made it look like a celebration. The voters  endured  rain or shine and stood in line  into the night……all inspiring  for Ethiopia’s well wishers. 

The NEB reported election results will be forthcoming in the next five to ten days.

 

Report from France 24

“Should those responsible for undermining a resolution of the crisis in Tigray fail to reverse course, they should anticipate further actions from the United States and the international community. We call on other governments to join us in taking these actions.” —U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, May 23, 2021 press statement


The attack on the federal base by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that started the conflict is now being used as a de-facto instrument of U.S. policy in Ethiopia to justify “humanitarian intervention.” In this way, the primary contradiction in the Tigray region reflects broader dynamics in the Horn of Africa as a whole and can be boiled down to the common denominators of global capitalist hegemony and Western imperialism by way of its proxy actor, the TPLF. Western powers only curtail the right of self-determination for the Horn of Africa and Global South states.

We condemn all military violence, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, displacement, theft, discrimination, harassment and intimidation perpetrated on innocent Tigrayans, as well as any and all unnecessary violence perpetrated on other Ethiopians and Eritreans in the ongoing conflict as a result of their ethnic, religious, or national identity, refugee status or political affiliation. We unequivocally support and uplift mutual cooperation, solidarity, and peace among all parties and people in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the broader Horn of Africa region.

We support African-led, localized conflict resolution that is not tied to advancing imperialism, neo-colonialism or any other nefarious Western agendas. We believe in the inherent agency and ability of Africans on the continent to reach a resolution to the conflict peacefully and independently of Western aggression, destabilization, and extractive and exploitative economic interests.

The United States and its EU-NATO allies know no compassion or genuine concern for the Black lives in Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa or anywhere else Black people are in the world. Their true concerns are always selfish, racist and reflective of their objective geopolitical interests. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, their interests are:

  • To control or have undue influence over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint critical to securing global energy;

  • to challenge the robust presence of China; and

  • to impose AFRICOM in the only country left in Africa that has evaded its control, Eritrea.

Africa is not underdeveloped and fraught with militarized instability because there is not enough involvement by Western Europe and its evil settler-colonial spawn, the USA. Anyone who believes that must also believe Africans are inferior savages. The fact is Africa is underdeveloped and destabilized precisely because of centuries of European colonialism and decades of U.S. and Western European neocolonialism. Any disposition held by Africans that lends legitimacy to intervention, sanctions, or the fake moral or altruistic dominion of Pan-European, white supremacist capitalist interests in Africa are based either on severe ignorance or treacherous opportunism.

U.S. foreign policy in Africa always involves enveloping any part of the continent that poses a threat to its geostrategic interests into its sphere of forever wars. In 2011, Black anti-imperialist forces were unable to effectively counter the plan by the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination to destroy the revolutionary Pan-Africanist nation of Libya. This was partially because the action had the political cover of the first Black president, which confused and disarmed left opposition and made them objective collaborators with U.S. reaction.

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network and Horn of Africa Pan-Africans for Liberation & Solidarity refuse to allow this fatal mistake to be made again.
Hands off Ethiopia and Eritrea!
#ShutDownAFRICOM!
#USOutofAfrica!

For more information, read HOA PALS’ report.

Banner photo: People walk from a rural area towards the town of Agula in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where the Relief Society of Tigray was distributing food. (Ben Curtis/AP)