By Ismail D. Osman
Thuesda - August 31, 2021
As both federal and resistance forces continue to escalate a
brutal and devastating civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, this week the
United States imposed sanctions on Filipos Woldeyohannes, the
chief of staff of the Eritrea Defense Forces (EDF), citing the Global Magnitsky
Human Rights Accountability Act and accusing the Eritrean military leader
of serious human rights abuse.
In a press release
published on Monday, August 23, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office
of Foreign Assets Control indicated that “Today’s action demonstrates the
United States’ commitment to imposing costs on those responsible for these
despicable acts, which worsen a conflict that has led to tremendous suffering
by Ethiopians. We urge Eritrea to
immediately and permanently withdraw its forces from Ethiopia and urge the
parties to the conflict to begin ceasefire negotiations and end human rights
abuses.”
This is a power move by the United States Government, and it
is a good first step in putting an end to the crisis in Tigray. But it is not nearly enough.
Every year, the Special
Rapporteur of the United Nations (UN) submits a report to the Human Rights
Council (HRC) and the General Assembly (GA) responding to individual
complaints, conducting studies, providing advice, and undertaking country
visits to assess specific human rights situations.
In June, the
UN Rapporteur released a report indicating that there was strong evidence
that Somali trainees were transported to Ethiopia to engage as part of Eritrean
forces and that these Somali trainees took part in the ongoing conflict in the
Tigray region.
The report released by the UN also indicated that “…that
Somali soldiers were moved from military training camps in Eritrea to the front
line in Tigray, where they accompanied Eritrean troops as they crossed the
Ethiopian border.”
Although the report did not specifically indicate the number
of military troops sent into Eritrea, some Somalia
federal lawmakers have claimed upwards of 10,000 recruits were deployed to Eritrea
to participate in the Tigray conflict, without the consent or knowledge of the
parliament.
The situation in the Tigray region has become a massive humanitarian
catastrophe, and that is probably not worded strongly enough. Blockades have hindered the delivery of both
food and medicine. The licenses of
humanitarian organizations like Doctors without Borders have been underhandedly
and inconceivably revoked, preventing life-saving access to the thousands of individuals
experiencing famine, sexual assault, eviction, and execution.
This war has killed thousands of people and, regrettably,
civilians have not been spared. The
Associated Press have reported many accounts of gang-rapes, destruction of necessary
infrastructure (health centers and hospitals), the burning of crops and forced civilian
expulsions. The statement released by
the US Treasury Department indicated that the “EDF troops have raped, tortured,
and executed civilians; they have also destroyed property and ransacked
businesses. The EDF have purposely shot
civilians in the street and carried out systematic house-to-house searches,
executing men and boys, and have forcibly evicted Tigrayan families from their
residences and taken over their houses and property.”
Sending Somalia troops to Ethiopia to escalate this criminal
behavior and further this crisis is both abominable and unacceptable. But deploying Somalia troops to Ethiopia in an
illegal backroom deal brokered under the cover of darkness and veiled in
secrecy is dishonest and immoral and it needs to be condemned in the strongest
possible language by the strongest nations on Earth. Including, and especially, the United States.
Make no mistake
about it, in as much as the EDF is responsible for the daily atrocities
occurring in the Tigray region, the Somalia government is just as liable. And it is incumbent and just that the
international community stand as one and condemn the actions of the Eritrean
President Isaias Afwerki and Somali President Mohamed
Abdullahi Farmaajo, His Spy Chief Fahad Yasin hold them all
accountable to the International Court for the war crimes being committed in
Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
This week, the United States Government strongly and justly
condemned the actions of the Eritrea Defense Forces. Now they must do the same for the actions of
the Somalia Government.
Many of the Somali troops remain missing. Many more are surely dead. And their parents are confused, outraged and
demanding answers. Their teenage sons
were deceitfully and illegally recruited and then hypnotized by promises of
education and money before being sent off to an illegal war with little hope of
ever returning.
The parents deserve to know the truth. They deserve to know not only where their
boys are, but why they were sent there in the first place.
Author: Ismail D. Osman Writes in Somalia, Horn of Africa Security and
Geopolitical focusing
on governance and security.
You can reach him [email protected]