Thread by @althecat

Dear @SamanthaJPower,

You appear to be getting inadequate briefings.

Please let me enlighten you. The aid situation in Tigray is due to the TPLF not accepting an unconditional unilateral ceasefire and instead choosing to mount a multi-front military offensive against Ethiopia.

https://twitter.com/PowerUSAID/status/1419650102273224705

As a result Ethiopia is preparing for a defensive war on three fronts inside Ethiopian territory.
1. On the road to Gondar where the TPLF says it has taken Abbi Akray in Amhara Region.
2. On the road south from Mekele to Addis where TPLF says it has taken the town of Kodo.

...

And 3. on the road which previously was the main route for bringing aid to Tigray through the Afar region where the TPLF says it has taken the town of Mille.

Last Sunday 18th July a @WFP convoy was attacked by the TPLF, and this is the reason that road is now closed.

I would have presumed that in your role as @PowerUSAID you would be aware of this convoy attack, but I try as I might I cannot find any statements from you or anyone else in the @JoeBiden administration who has mentioned any of this.

@PowerUSAID @JoeBiden In addition Ethiopia has issued a no-fly instruction for the airspace over Tigray to prevent the air dropping of military supplies to the insurrectionist TPLF forces who have now invaded Ethiopia.

@PowerUSAID @JoeBiden The ongoing silence of the U.S. Govt. in the face of recent developments in the #HornOfAfrica is now Kafkaesque.

Ethiopia at your insistence announced a unilateral ceasefire to enable humanitarian aid which was immediately rejected.

Since then there has to all intents and purposes been silence as the tensions in the region have grown more and more dangerous thanks to ongoing TPLF aggression.

In the meantime the U.S.'s great paper of record the @NYtimes published a piece by an embedded correspondent who observed the illegal use of child soldiers during an offensive which was launched on the day of Ethiopia's first democratic elections.

Like your govt. the @nytimes has also now lost its tongue and has not published any updates on the march to war by the TPLF, nor the child soldiers, nor Ethiopians calls for international attention on the grave danger that they are facing.

Had your govt. remained engaged after the ceasefire and pressed the TPLF to focus on the humanitarian efforts, whilst also supporting Ethiopia to focus on peace much of this current mess might have been avoidable.

Instead it appears we now seem to have the nightmare scenario unfolding. An impossible humanitarian situation plus a resumption of the war. Only this time with Children on the TPLF front lines.

Ciao.