Abiy Ahmed calling on Africa to turn blind eye on Tigray genocide - Getachew Reda

Abiy speaking during the opening summit of the AU meeting. [Photo: Ethiopia's foreign ministry]

ADDIS ABABA - The Tigray Defense Forces [TDF] has faulted the speech delivered by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the 35th Ordinary session of the African Union, arguing that it was full of hypocrisy and fell short of expectations.

Ahmed, the Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2019, seemed to laud the African nations for their support throughout the Tigray conflict, adding that the crisis was "internal" and precipitated by "external actors".

For some time now, he has been accusing unnamed foreign nations of meddling in the Ethiopian conflict but he's yet to exactly point out the countries involved. On the other hand, Eritrea and Somalia have been linked to the conflict while supporting Addis Ababa.

“The greatest lesson that Ethiopia has learned over the past year is that without the solidarity of our African brothers and sisters, our existence as a nation would have been at great risk," he said in his speech.

But Getachew Reda, the spokesperson of TDF, accused Abiy Ahmed of " misleading" African leaders in Addis Ababa, adding that the PM was justifying the ongoing killings in the Tigray region which have left thousands of people dead.

He accused the PM of promoting mockery of justice, adding that there is a need for African leaders to reprimand the PM over the ongoing deaths in Tigray. The Ethiopian Air Force is accused of using drone strikes in Western Tigray.

"Abiy Ahmed told the AUSummit today that ‘Ethiopia’s challenge was internal in nature and a matter of maintaining law and order.’ Inviting a rogue state to take an active role in the killing of one’s people, he reassures his colleagues, is an internal matter; commuting genocide is a matter of maintaining ‘law and order'," he protested.

"To make his mockery of justice complete, he laments that ‘resolution of our internal matters was made exceedingly difficult by the role played by external actors.’ Now that is his version of Pan Africanism. He should be given a carte-blanche to kill his people and to destroy a nation."

Heads of state and governments met in Ethiopia of the ordinary session where they picked Senegal President Macky Sall as the new Chairman of the African Union, taking over from DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi.

"He is calling upon Africa to once again turn a blind eye to his Genocidal campaign; or worse still, to praise him to the skies for killing his people at will as part of his ‘pan African’ crusade. Africa needs to say no to this carnage, " he added.

GAROWE ONLINE