BY YOHANES JEMANEH
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has already won the war on fake news that used to be propagated relating to the law enforcement operation and the current barrages of fake news which are being spread to tarnish the government’s humanitarian response in Tigray state would be debunked soon, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations Taye Atske Selassie said.
He told local media that the government has distributed food and non-food items to 1.8 million citizens in Tigray despite the inaccessibility in some pocket areas due to some security issues.
“We have almost defended the previous accusations by some individuals and organization. Now we’re exposing fake news about humanitarian situation in Tigray state. We’ll soon win this war presenting the hard facts to this end on the ground.”
The government has successfully explained the root and the immediate causes of the law enforcement operation to the international community, he said, adding that now the world knows that the defunct TPLF is the one that rejected the reform and waged war against the federal government.
The Ambassador , moreover, said that TPLF confronted the federal government perceiving the Ethio- Eritrea rapprochement as existential threat .
Many civilians have been killed by the TPLF during the operation and the international community has considered this as atrocious incident in history and so it couldn’t be wrapped by endless propaganda, he noted.
The idea reflected on the informal meeting of the UNSC held on last Wednesday proved this fact, Amb. Taye added.
The meeting was called by Ireland, Norway, Estonia, England and the U.S. to discuss the humanitarian assistance in Tigray State. Understanding the situation, the representatives of some nations capitalized that the issue is the internal affair of Ethiopia so that it should only be solved by Ethiopians, he noted.
They emphasized on the need to respect the sovereignty of Ethiopia and this bought the common understanding of the meeting, he stated.
As to the ambassador, there were also nations in the meeting that have strong position on advocating the agenda of African solutions to African problems.
They suggested the government to evaluate the situation properly and explore every opportunity especially the experience of women officials to smoothen down things shortly, he said.
Their major concern during the meeting was the access of humanitarian support, he mentioned.
Actually it was an informal discussion so that the participants have expressed their concerns and interests on behalf of their respective governments. Therefore, the ideas entertained during the discussion are not the common understanding or resolution of the UNSC but many of the representatives have firm stance to acknowledge the issue is Ethiopia’s internal case and expected the government to solve it on its own capacity, according to Ambassador Taye.
The Ethiopian herald February 5/2021
