An AFP News agency photojournalist accused Amnesty International (AI) of misusing his photo for “unrelated” and debunked story of alleged ethnic profiling of Tigrayans in Ethiopia. AFP journalist Amanuel Sileshi asked Amnesty on Friday to “take down the photo.”
The controversy began after a rise in Ethiopian government’s crackdown on supporters of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which is designated as a terrorist organization by parliament. A conflict started in the northern province of Tigray after the TPLF waged an insurrection on the federal government in November 2020. After the government announced ceasefire to support humanitarian aid, TPLF’s leader Getachew Reda declared TPLF will expand its war and strike at Addis Ababa. The ensuing increase in activity by pro-TPLF individuals in the city has led to a rise in arrests of those accused of supporting the terrorist organization.
Critics say Amnesty International (AI) appointing an alleged partisan opponent of the Eritrean government as a regional director and campaigner has led to several blunders recently. This is due to opponents of the Eritrean government being opposed to the peace deal between Ethiopia & Eritrea, and most remain sympathetic to the TPLF since TPLF built several refugee camps by the Eritrean border that the United Nations (UN) once described as “illegal” for its proximity to the boundary.
In 2020, Amnesty International was forced to apologize after it “posted a controversial video defending violent protests which has led to a cleansing of ethnic and religious minorities in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.”
On the latest controversy, many Ethiopians accused Amnesty of being uninformed of local context and aggravating the situation. “America is never accused of racial profiling on white people during a crackdown on extremist white nationalists and insurrectionists,” said US-based Oromo political analyst Teshome Borago. “All Tigrayans are not members of TPLF but all TPLF members are Tigrayans,” added Ethiopian activist Abebe Gelaw. Ethiopia’s attorney General Dr Gedion Timothewos has also previously denied ethnic profiling and explained the local context where political mobilization has increasingly been attached to ethnicity since 1991 which naturally leads to crackdowns creating the false impression of ethnic profiling. According to local media, most Tigrayans recently detained have been released with small penalties, while others face more serious charges.
Meanwhile, underreported by Western media this week, the TPLF has been accused of killing “hundreds of dissidents and non-Tigrayans” since Monday around the Raya region, according several witnesses and local activists like Dejene Asefa who described the “massacre.” Eritrean refugees have also been murdered by TPLF militia, according to Reuters, while there is a disturbing spike in exploitation of child soldiers by the TPLF.
Amnesty International (AI), who has previously condemned deployment of child soldiers in countries like Yemen, has remained silent as TPLF uses child soldiers at the frontlines in Tigray. And critics have accused Eritrean opponents of Asmara, who are allegedly hired by Amnesty International (AI), for not campaigning against the murder of Eritrean refugees and the use of child soldiers by TPLF.
Tigrayan activist Araya Tesfamariam has also revealed that TPLF leader Getachew Reda admitted exploiting children as he inadvertently accused Amhara troops of “killing child soldiers.” For its part, the Amhara regional state security office this week said its forces withdrew from some towns and have made effort to avoid fighting back at Tigrayan child soldiers, as TPLF sent “waves of children at the frontline.”
On Wednesday, the Sidama regional state leader President Desta Ledamo told local media in Hawassa that Sidama will send troops north to fight the TPLF which is being “helped by Sudan & Egypt to destroy Ethiopia.“
“Sidama people will not let TPLF continue atrocities against Wolkait and Afar people,” he added.
