“The war is with your closest enemy who is sitting in Ethiopian cities collecting information and spending money to your killers.”
The Facebook post below is a sign of the depths to which the supporters of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy have sunk.
As their forces have suffered reverses in the war with the Tigray Defences Forces, they have turned on their Tigrayan neighbours. The Facebook post below (originally in Amharic) is an example. Little wonder that Tigrayan civilians are being arrested, attacked and murdered in Ethiopian cities.
This is not the first example of hate-speech by the Prime Minister’s supporters.
In September the United States on Monday condemned a speech by a prominent ally of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed which compared Tigrayan rebels to the devil and said they should be “the last of their kind”.
“Hateful rhetoric like this is dangerous and unacceptable,” a State Department spokesperson told AFP in response to the speech last week by Daniel Kibret, who is often described as an adviser to Abiy and was nominated to the board of the state-run Ethiopian Press Agency last year.
The UN and US have recently voiced concern about hate speech and dehumanising rhetoric in the conflict, but Daniel’s comments were the first to draw specific criticism from Washington. At an event in Amhara attended by high-ranking officials, Daniel called for the total erasure of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated national politics for nearly three decades before Abiy took office in 2018.
“As you know, after the fall of Satan, there was nothing like Satan that was created… Satan was the last of his kind. And they (the TPLF) must also remain the last of their kind,” Daniel said. “There should be no land in this country which can sustain this kind of weed. “They should be erased and disappeared from historical records. A person who wants to study them should find nothing about them. Maybe he can find out about them by digging in the ground,” he said to applause.
Facebook is under scrutiny for fanning hate speech in Ethiopia
Hate and division on Facebook are not just a problem in the U.S. That’s one of the messages whistleblower Frances Haugen took to Congress last week, where she accused Facebook’s algorithms of quote, “literally fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia,” a country that’s endured nearly a year of civil war.
• The war is with the one who is your neighbor for ages and is with you and your people and is waiting for your death.• The war is with the traitor you raised.• The war is not only with the invader Junta that came from Tigray but also with the one who is next to you who is drinking your blood instead of your death.• The war is with your closest enemy who is sitting in Ethiopian cities collecting information and spending money to your killers!!!!!• The war is with your neighbor who throws whiskey when he thinks your killer has won!!!!!= If you can control and control these thorny thorny elements you have hugged in your guyah… Don’t doubt the victory is yours!!!!. AND YOU KNOW THEM!!!!.Do it even when you are sad!!!!!. You won’t get worse than them!!!!.Who is evil… Who is the real one… Who is a traitor… Who is wearing a neck… Who is the cruelest one… History will remind him as it was!!!!.Starting today in Dessie in Kombolcha in Habru… This should be done in Addis Ababa and all the cities… You will see the change immediately!!!!.Embrace your killer and killer but expect nothing!!!!.Hold on let go of us!!!!. Be wise because they look good on you!!!!.So hurry up!!!!!. Hurry up!!!! Still hurry up!!!!!Only if you are quick, you will save your people from humiliation and destruction of your country!!!! It’s not greater than your existence!!!!. Protect your unity and do this.. Ethiopia will win!!!!!