There is a genocide in Tigray, but no one talks about it

There is a humanitarian crisis going on in northern Ethiopia, but you may not have read about it in the news. In fact, you may never have heard of the national regional state of Tigray, which is currently surrounded by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. These troops create blockades, burn food silos and go from village to village committing genocidal massacres and rapes.

If we compare the situation in Tigray with other ongoing armed conflicts, the numbers are startling. Looking at civilian deaths, for example, the war in Ukraine resulted in fewer than 3,000 Ukrainian deaths, according to the UN Human Rights Office, while Tigray saw more than 500,000 dead, according to Ghent University estimates.

Ethiopian politics are complex. The nation has five parliamentary parties, 17 other national parties and 15 other regional parties. In March 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed general elections set for August to 2021, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. The local Tigrayan government called it an unconstitutional attempt to extend his mandate and held local elections anyway. Abiy cut funding to the region and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front responded by attacking the headquarters of the Federal Command in the Tigray capital of Mekelle, after which Ethiopian and Eritrean forces launched a siege.

But the violence is not only political – it is also racial. There is a long-standing conflict between Ethiopia’s three main ethnic groups – the Oromo, Amhara and Tigrayan – as well as a desire among Eritreans to settle old scores with Tigray after decades of border conflict. The resulting ethnic tensions have led to violence that is not limited to Tigray. Tigrayans across the country face attacks.

There is a humanitarian crisis going on in northern Ethiopia, but you may not have read about it in the news. In fact, you may never have heard of the national regional state of Tigray, which is currently surrounded by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. These troops create blockades, burn food silos and go from village to village committing genocidal massacres and rapes.

If we compare the situation in Tigray with other ongoing armed conflicts, the numbers are startling. Looking at civilian deaths, for example, the war in Ukraine resulted in fewer than 3,000 Ukrainian deaths, according to the UN Human Rights Office, while Tigray saw more than 500,000 dead, according to Ghent University estimates.

Ethiopian politics are complex. The nation has five parliamentary parties, 17 other national parties and 15 other regional parties. In March 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed general elections set for August to 2021, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. The local Tigrayan government called it an unconstitutional attempt to extend his mandate and held local elections anyway. Abiy cut funding to the region and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front responded by attacking the headquarters of the Federal Command in the Tigray capital of Mekelle, after which Ethiopian and Eritrean forces launched a siege.

But the violence is not only political – it is also racial. There is a long-standing conflict between Ethiopia’s three main ethnic groups – the Oromo, Amhara and Tigrayan – as well as a desire among Eritreans to settle old scores with Tigray after decades of border conflict. The resulting ethnic tensions have led to violence that is not limited to Tigray. Tigrayans across the country face attacks.

Ahlam “Lala” Mohammed, a 21-year-old university student from Washington, D.C., told me that one of her family members was murdered in the capital, Addis Ababa, in early April. “He was a Tigrayan and of course, as a Tigrayan during this time, you are a target. So the only thing you can do is hide your identity or you will be killed.”

To be fair, some affiliates like Al Jazeera have provided adequate coverage. But that’s not enough, and it dwarfs the coverage of Ukraine or the genocide of Bosnia before it. “I don’t know if the world really pays the same attention to black and white lives,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, himself an ethnic Tigrayan based in Geneva, told a news conference on April 13. be blunt and honest that the world does not treat the human race equally. Some are more equal than others.”

“This is one of the longest and worst sieges in modern history,” Tedros told me recently. “For 18 months now, 7 million people have been closed off from the outside world. I haven’t spoken to my relatives in Tigray for 18 months because telecommunications are down. They are hungry. But I can’t send money because the banks are closed.”

The war in Europe is surprising to Western audiences and carries with it echoes of World War II and Nazi Germany, the horrors of the Holocaust and the words “never again.” Tigray, meanwhile, is a foreign and unknown land where it can be difficult to discern who the bad guys are. For American and European readers, too often the response to conflict in Africa or the Middle East is that many shrug their shoulders and say, “Isn’t that region always at war anyway?