Thread by @Amhara_Fascism

During the civil war in #Ethiopia, the Marxist Mengistu regime --with the largest standing army in Africa-- used food as a weapon of war against Eritrean and Tigrayan rebels and their sympathizers. They waged a brutal starvation and bombing campaign against civilians for years.

The most characteristic feature of the war has been indiscriminate violence against civilians by the Ethiopian army and air force. The army deliberately killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians and the air force bombed civilians and civilian targets. #Tigray #Eritrea

In both #Eritrea and #Tigray, aerial bombardment has caused massive loss of lives, property damage and displacement, and forced cross-border relief convoys to restrict movement to nighttime hours only. REST aid convoys and feeding centers were all targets of the bombing.

The severity of the famine was due to the government's counterinsurgency strategy, causing deliberately-induced suffering. In March, the Ethiopian government had used Soviet MiGs to drop Israeli cluster bombs on a grain stockpile in the Welo region (BBC, 5 April 1990).

Peasant farmers in #Tigray have reported being bombed while they plowed their fields, and refugees from western #Eritrea living in Sudan reported losing livestock to bombing raids. They said that the pilots of MiGs appeared to take particular pleasure in "hunting" camels.