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Tigray: The darkest hour is just before the dawn Kalayu Abrha 12-17-20 The proverb, used as a title, may have originated from
the Irish song meant to inspire hope under adverse circumstances. What is
happening in Tigray has never been dreamt of. It looks like a doomsday
scenario: From a tranquil life which was envied by all ethiopians, until a few
weeks before, the entire State is overwhelmed by a tsunami of war from all
directions. A bolt from the blues for millions of Tegaru death, displacement,
injury, and loss of property became the fate of the people for over a month
now. Anyone who carried guns converged on Tigray eager to devour it in a few
days. The invasion, which included a foreign country and a regional militia
alongside ethiopia’s defence force, had the leadership of TPLF as a
"target". The WWII DD-day like military operation was to catch finger
counted leaders, who were elected by the people to form a Regional
Government just a couple of months before the blitzkrieg. The entire operation
was like trying to kill a flea with an atomic bomb. The fact that the war by
allied forces on Region had no sufficient reason to justify it was sheer
insanity at a massive scale. Humanity may have had no idea how far hate can go.
Although Tigray has been hit by the center several times in history and its people killed, harassed, insulted, intimidated, jailed, and marginalized in Tigray and elsewhere in ethiopia, nothing compares to what is happening now. The UN is expressing its alarm about the two million children on the verge of death due to lack of food and medicine; the tens of thousands of refugees in Sudan, who escaped from genocide; massive ethnic profiling of Tigraians in all walks of life in all parts of ethiopia; millions in situ and internally displaced starving; legalized bandits from the amhara region who flocked into Western and Southern Tigray marauding cities and villages; all services like power, telecommunication, road and air transport, water supply, health service sealed. As far as our knowledge of history goes no such thing ever happened in any part of the world on fellow citizens. Worse than the war, which was heroically degraded by the Tigray Defence Force, was the unreserved support of the invasion by political parties, religious institutions, scholars, and ordinary ethiopians. Tigraians, including those who used to be ardent adherents of ethiopian nationalism, are confused to say the least about the all-out war on Tigraians with the support from foreign governments. They are unable to understand what the meaning of the ethiopian citizenship they have got written on their passports and id-cards could be. Typical in this regard is what a certain Tigraian in addis ababa told The New Humanitarian: "...more like 80 percent regarded themselves (Tigraians) as Ethiopians... but after the war I am sure if I say I am ethiopian to my people they will hate me". By now, most Tigraians are convinced that ethiopia is not for them. Is this going to pass just as a hiccup? Wouldn't Tigraians forget and forgive like Japan did to USA? The answer is No! If you stumble on a boulder once, the boulder is the bolder not you. If you stumble on the boulder again the boulder is you not the boulder. There was no time in the history of ethiopia that Tigray was treated fairly. Every time some bad thing is done to it, it forgives and forgets. Maybe it had not been getting the message clearly. This war is unique in the sense that it is well designed to "help" Tigray better understand that it is not needed in ethiopia. Now Tigray rudely awakened to the reality that Tigray has never been considered as ethiopian. Knowing the truth is halfway to the solution. The dawn of a new Tigray is sure to come, but the darkness before it is long and deep. Tigraians have to show the world that they were the glorious Axumites and will experience the renaissance soon. Never weep, never give up! We have God the almighty on our side. We are his earliest believers who built his domicile in Axum and Negash!
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