Thread by @althecat

This @HolocaustMuseum hosted event was as dreadful as I feared it would be. THREAD.

Ethiopian Voices on Current Mass Atrocity Risks youtube.com/live/XPV_U8HTQ…

A series of diaspora information warriors/propagandists (excepting Moges who was a last minute addition to the lineup) + @wdavison10 of @crisisgroup defending on ethnic lines a cacophony of lies about the largest war of the 21st Century (in casualties civilians & combatants)

The event neatly illustrates the special circumstances of this conflict, especially wrt the sophistication of the information warfare in Western Narratives that so effectively drowned out the truth in this nightmarish conflict.

The involvement of the @HolocaustMuseum in hosting the event is particularly unfortunate as it is lending its reputation to a genocide discourse which - in the case of #TigrayGenocide (a hash tag initiated on the night that TPLF forces started the war) - is not supported by any… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

There was no discussion at all of what is likely the largest atrocity of all - the recruitment of 100s if thousands of Tigrayan child soldiers (done openly) a huge number of whom were killed many drugged up and sent out ahead of the TPLF’s seasoned fighters, unarmed, in human… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

When it comes to the atrocities which were described by speakers, these also require close inspection. The allegation of famine as a weapon of war has not held up.

The truth of this war is that vast quantities of UN/WFP/UNICEF/USAID humanitarian aid was looted by the TPLF and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

We have seen a glimpse of what happened here in a recent whistleblowing book by a senior WFP official.

Moreover many of blockages in the delivery of food aid to Tigray were caused by the TPLF’s offensive operations.

The Oromo diaspora speaker in the panel’s Oromo victim narrative is particularly galling. For the most part what she is referring to (misleadingly) here - wrt the Oromo Regional Govt is security operations carried out against the Oromo Liberation Army. A group which is formally… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This speaker goes on to talk about alleged Fano massacres of Oromo civilians - a relatively new set of recent allegations which date to 2022 - following months and months of mass OLA killings of 1000s Amhara civilians in Wellega and Showa.

The allegation is based on flimsy… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

As far as I am aware there is no compelling evidence of these allegations - except for videos which could have been faked. Given the timing of the reports I suspect they are part of an OLA/TPLF information operation.

As for mass atrocities in Tigray, there is compelling evidence which I witnessed personally in Alamata that the TPLF systematically massacred Amharas in Raya and Northern Wollo and repatriated the human remains in an effort to manufacture physical evidence to back their fictional… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The published evidence of this - first published in Nov. 2022 - and then confirmed using satellite imagery in December can be found in this thread - published posted December 13th.

https://twitter.com/althecat/status/1601964974934466560

The ramblings of the Tigray speaker in this event - from @OmnaTigray - a key player in the pre-planned and extraordinarily effective information/warfare and lobbying operation launched with the war - are particularly egregious. And right now fully aligned with @StateDept Comms.

The @OmnaTigray #TigrayGenocide information - likely funded by the TPLF -was white-washed soon after its launch by some conspicuously credulous reporting of cyber warfare research in the @WashingtonPost soon after the war began.

When it happened my reading of the decision by the US 🇺🇸 President to fête @AbiyAhmedAli in the Whitehouse in December was that it was proof that the US Govt at least had come to it’s senses about indefensibility of the TPLF’s victim narrative in this war. A war that they… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

However recent statements made by @SecBlinken following his return to the US from Addis - and this event hosted by the @HolocaustMuseum provide clear evidence this is not the case.

Instead - on the face of it @SecBlinken seems to be doubling down on the fictional propaganda and obscene US diplomatic attacks on Ethiopia which have been a feature of this war from the outset.

And in the process he is completely destroying what little goodwill remains in Africa as a whole to the United States - that which was created off the back of the constructive work undertaken by @MikeHammerUSA & @JoeBiden (who appointed him) & @AsstSecStateAF Molly Phee.

And as a result there is a growing risk now that - due to the COHA (Cessation of Hostilities Agreement) having not been completed by the TPLF in its most important disarmament and demobilisation clauses that this war will now restart.

/ends @threadreaderapp unroll