Ethiopia is one of the oldest civilisations in the world. It is one proud African nation which has never been colonised and, therefore has remained the beacon of freedom for the black people of the world in general and for Africans in particular.

Despite its proud history, Ethiopia has always humbled itself in the eyes of the world, worked for international peace, equality and justice for all. Ethiopia was a member of the League of nations and a founding member of the United Nations. Its forces had participated in the Korean war,and Ethiopia has remained a leading contributor to the UN peacekeeping efforts inCongo, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Darfur (Sudan),Abyei (South Sudan) are just a few examples to mention.

Ethiopia is also home for more than eighty( some even put it two hundred) ethnic groups who lived in harmony for thousands of years.

Despite its glorious past, as mentioned in both the Holy books (the Bible and the Quran), and this beautiful façade, Ethiopia had gone through a lot of troubles and difficult times but ethnic conflict has never been one of them until the TPLF( Tigray peoples Liberation Front) came to power in 1991.

The TPLF started as a separatist group in the northern region of Ethiopia. Their original manifesto was a copy of the then Albanian type communism which was dictatorial and one of the most severe and repressive regimes.

The population of Tigray constitutes only 6% of the Ethiopian people.The top echelon of the TPLF leadership is mainly from a small district of Adwa, and is not even inclusive of all Tigrayans. It was with this in mind that the TPLF came up with a cunning plan to rule Ethiopia using both an iron fist and a “divide and rule” method. To execute their plans, the TPLF leadership created fake movements and fronts from a few of the ethnic groups and formed a coalition called EPRDF(Ethiopian peoples democratic front) with TPLF at its top.

Using these opportunist groups, it propagated and promoted ethnic hatred and conflicts which resulted in Ethnic cleansing in some parts of the country. Amharas in various parts of the country, Oromos in Somali region, the Gambellas, the Gedeos in the south, etc were massacred and displaced as a result, actions amounting to genocide.

In its twenty seven years of brutal and barbaric rule of Ethiopia,hundreds of thousands of people were killed, Hundreds of thousands were displaced and lost their livelihood, tens of thousands of Ethiopians were hoarded into prisons. The country experienced its darkest moments in history.

While this was happening, the TPLF junta enjoyed political, economic and financial powers.

Evidence is now available that the TPLF and its cohorts looted nearly thirty six billion dollars from Ethiopia and invested it in foreign banks around the world. Organisation such as Transparency International had reported this rampant corruption by the then “Ethiopian Officials”.

Obviously, no action has been taken by the international community for this heinous crime. To put it more mildly, no word was uttered by those nations who claim to stand against international money laundering. Instead those very western nations are fighting tooth and nail to save this very corrupt and devious terrorist organisation at the expense of the Ethiopian people.

While keeping thousands of opposition politicians incarcerated in prison, the TPLF/EPRDF carried out five elections, and not surprisingly won all of them by over 99%. These elections were marred by violence, intimidation and further killings. It was that government Barrack Obama,the then US president shamefully said was a “democratically elected government” at a meeting with the African Union, and left many with embarrassment.

With the money they stole and the position they enjoyed the TPLF leadership was able to rub shoulders with and form alliance with western politicians.The Likes of Susan Rice who holds a high office in Biden’s administration is one of those desperately trying to save TPLF.

Mrs Rice used to enjoy parties and weddings thrown by the TPLF leadership. There are also British politicians who enjoyed the same privileges. Therefore why not help “a friend in need” seems to be the motto. Some members of the British parliament and US congressmen were heard saying the TPLF will need to come to power because they serve the interests of these countries.

It seems their sins have been wiped and they are forgiven as long as they remain loyal to the west. What they do to their people does not matter and does not count.

The TPLF even used its influence to criminalise the new-born nation of Eritrea and managed to get sanctions imposed on it for many years for crimes Eritrea did not commit. The Ethio-Eritrean war was triggered by the TPLF for a piece of dry land which the international court had already assigned to Eritrea. Eritrea was provoked.

That war costed the lives of over seventy thousand Ethiopians. That was provocation of violence and was unlawful act against its own people and a neighbouring country. If this is not terrorism, then what is?

The people of Ethiopia rose up and said enough is enough. Although the Oromo and the Amhara movements were on the forefront, there were revolts against the TPLF/EPRDF all across the country. The desperate TPLF did not even hesitate to use helicopter gunship on the Oromos who were holding an annual celebration in Bishoftu, and also shot and killed 97 people in Bahir Dar just in one day.The united front formed by the Amhara and Oromo marked the end of the TPLF era and saw the emergence of Prime Minister Abiy in 2018.

When Prime Minister Abiy came to power, he promised to restore peace, unity and the national identity which was reduced to ethnicity by the TPLF, and that he’d work with all political parties both inside and outside the country. Very soon, peace deal was struck with Eritrea, opposition politicians were invited in from abroad, tens of thousands of political prisoners were released and the nation momentarily took a breath of sigh.

Not long after that the TPLF moved to Tigray as a regional government, refused to cooperate with the federal government. Instead they started a war of words against the federal Government undermining its authority irrespective of all pleas made by the Federal government to share political power. The TPLF transformed the war of words into intimidation and war rhetoric.

They started building fortresses and digging trenches under the guise of impending federal government’s attack. They smuggled in high tech communication equipment, arsenals, etc while 1.8 million Tigrayans remained on food handouts. At the time 97% of the army generals were Tigrayans and the TPLF used this opportunity to launch an attack on the Northern Command of Ethiopian National Defence Force(ENDF) which had 70% of the arsenal ENDF owns.

Known business people and elders of the country, breast feeding mothers and others went to Mekele and pleaded with TPLF leaders to stop their war rhetoric and come to a negotiating table but they were told they were a bit too late and the door was slammed on their faces.

On the night of November 4, 2020 the TPLF attacked the unsuspecting Northern Command and massacred nearly six thousands soldiers. The soldiers and their non-Tigrayan commanders were shot from behind, some in their sleep, others were hand tied and laid on the road, and military tracks were driven over them. The few who survived and witnessed that brutality now suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. If this is not terrorism, then what is it? The TPLF officially declared this brutality as “a lightening attack”.

As if that is not enough, the TPLF launched missiles to the neighbouring Amhara region and the neighbouring Eritrea in an attempt to regionalise and internationalise the conflict. The Ethio-Erirean border which was manned by the Northern Command then became unguarded, and the Eritrean border force that was shot at by the TPLF stepped forward to defend themselves. Eritrea was then unwillingly pulled into the conflict. This was the dynamics of the event triggered by the TPLF.

I will certainly talk about all attempts that have been made by the people of Ethiopia to bring Tigray in line with the rest of the country in the next article but for now let us just see why I think TPLF is a terrorist group.

Before the TPLF retreated to Tigray, they made the National Security Agency inefficient by dismantling all its cyber technology and taking it to Tigray, looted all the Gold bullion from the National Bank through their high office holding members, re-mortgaged their high rising multistorey buildings and run with the money. The national coffer was left empty and the country’s economy at tatters. Up to these days TPLF is using all that stolen money to finance other terrorist groups in the country to ensure the country breaks up.

By the way, recent declaration by the TPLF leadership that they’d enter hell to break up Ethiopia if they need to , is evidence of the intensity of their hatred towards Ethiopia and Ethiopians.

As any other responsible government, the federal government attempted to restore law and order in Tigray.The warring TPLF junta was dispersed like a chaff in the wind. While the federal government was trying to restore communication, water supply, repair bridges destroyed by the TPLF, bring in food aid and set up a provisional regional government, the outcry from their western allies and condemnation of the Ethiopian government gave the TPLF a new lease of life.

They were somehow assisted to regroup and started a guerrilla war fare. In the mean time , the fleeing TPLF militia carried out genocide of the Amharas in a small town of Mai Kadra where over 600 people were killed in a matter of a few hours. This very group called Samri fled to the Sudan and is now being trained by the ex-TPLF commanders and Sudanese army. Once again, if this is not terrorism, then what is it?

Despite the fact that the Federal government spent over one hundred billion Ethiopian Birr which is ten times the annual budget of Tigray in just 6 months, stored 0ver 400.000quintals of grain, medicine and fertilisers for the farmers, the western nations and the so called NGO’s continued their condemnation of the government and demanded unfettered access to the region.

When they were given what they demanded, there was no aid coming through. By the time the federal government declared a unilateral cease fire and pulled its troops out of Tigray, 70% of the aid was covered by the Ethiopian government.

When the NGOs were given access, a few of them were caught transporting arms, satellite telephones and medicine to the TPLF leadership straight away. Some of WFO workers were seen rubbing shoulders with the leaders of this terrorist group instead of helping the distribution of aid.

The Federal Government’s unilateral declaration of “cease Fire” was to give the Tigray farmers time to work on their lands before the rainy season ends, and also to give the people time to reflect, but this was wrongly interpreted by the TPLF as “Victory. Unfortunately that also gave TPLF time to regroup and restructure its army and go on further offensive beyond the boundaries of Tigray.

It invaded the Amhara and the Afar regions. To date over 700,000 people have been displaced and many killed as a result of this invasion by the TPLF. As described by the Telegraph newspaper on 17/08/21 a small town in the Amhara region was burned down to ashes by the TPLF. In the Afar region, they bombed a shelter and killed 205 innocent civilians of which 107 were children.

As soon as the Federal troops left Tigray, the TPLF executed civilians whom they thought collaborated with the provisional government when TPLF was on the run. That included poor shop keepers who sold goods to federal soldiers. A large number of Muslims were massacred by the TPLF in a small town of Mahonie for allegedly cooperating with the provisional regional government.

The TPLF has continued its invasion of the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions. It is using “human wave” sending school children and elderly people to the forefront of the war.

For all what it is the TPLF was designated “terrorist” by the federal parliament.Ethiopia is a member of the UN and as a member state, the decision of its parliament should be respected. Instead the western nations have been trying to twist the arms of the Ethiopian government through intimidation of stopping “Aid Money”, Imposing sanctions, showing open collaboration with ardent enemies of Ethiopia to negotiate with the terrorist TPLF.

I just wonder why USA or Britain or France or Germany would not sit and negotiate with Al-Qaida, ISIS, Al-Shabab or any other group for that matter.

So, we come to the question, if the TPLF is not terrorist, then who is?

They have committed crimes and atrocities, involved in embezzlement, money laundering, massacred innocent civilians to promote their political agenda, tortured and killed religious and political leaders, committed ethnic cleansing, rape and genocide. Doesn’t that make Boko Haram a saint?

While all this is happening to our people, where are the so called human rights advocates and “concerned” politicians of the west? Why are they so quiet about all this? However, I know we have true friends in,Africa, Europe and in America, and thanks to all those who stand for justice the truth has started to show.