Bloomberg Editorial Board’s Hatchet Job of Lies and Damned Lies on Ethiopia
The Bloomberg Editorial Board is a shiftless lot of journalistic hacks pretending to uphold journalistic integrity. Bloomberg professes five values. One of them is, “Do the right thing.”
In its February 18, 20201 editorial on Ethiopia, Bloomberg did the wrong thing by taking a position on Ethiopia that is anchored in lies, oozes with damned lies and hemorrhages with disinformation. Alemayehu G. Mariam
Make no mistake about it!
There is a global conspiracy to besmirch Ethiopia’s global image and create a negative and demonizing narrative against Ethiopians and their leaders.
The cyberspace gutter is full of editorials, op-eds, commentaries and news reports and analysis vilifying and denouncing Ethiopia.
It is a conspiracy of lies, damned lies and disinformation against Ethiopia that is secretly hatched and coordinated between top U.S. policy makers.
Those in cahoots include Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and soon-to-be USAID boss Samantha Power and the legacy (old guard/corporate media) particularly in the United States. The Egyptian Government is also pumping its usual propaganda filth against Ethiopia hiding in the shadows.
The purpose of the conspiracy is to demonize, dehumanize and ostracize Ethiopia and its government with the aim of preparing global, and particularly African public opinion, for the combined U.S., European and Egyptian action to paralyze and pulverize Ethiopia politically, economically and diplomatically.
Just today, an op-ed in the National interest headlined, “Abiy Ahmed: The First Nobel Laureate On Trial at the International Criminal Court?” It is an attempt to attract the reader’s attention by hyperbole and sensationalism.
On February 18, 2021, the Editorial Board of Bloomberg wrote an editorial so transparently biased, so willfully ignorant and so malicious, I had no choice but to expose their lies, fake and disinformation on Ethiopia to a candid world.
Bloomberg Editorial Board Lie #1
“Ethiopia’s worsening civil war, which has already drawn in Eritrea and is now spilling over into Sudan, threatens to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa, with alarming humanitarian consequences. American leadership is urgently needed to restore peace.”
Fact: There is no civil war in Ethiopia! Period!
The Bloomberg Board writes as though the entire country is in a civil war conflagration. The irrefutable fact is that an insurrectionist group in Ethiopia’s Northern Tigray region attacked a federal military base in early November 2020 slaughtering, maiming and imprisoning thousands of federal troops. The Ethiopian federal government sent troops to Tigray and in two weeks suppressed the insurrection and arrested many of the insurrectionists, including their top leaders, who are now standing trial.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Eritrean troops participated in the law enforcement action in Tigray. If there is a shred of evidence, Bloomberg should present it. It is a public secret that the Tigray insurrectionist had prepared uniforms similar to the Eritrean army and issued them to the thousands of criminals they released from their prisons. It is these criminals that are committing crimes in Tigray in the guise of the Eritrean army. Yet, the Bloomberg Board’s reckless accusations based on on “uncofirmed” and “unverified” reports makes a travesty of professional journalism.
It is a shame a presumably “respectable” editorial board at Bloomberg peddles lies, fake news and disinformation based on nothing more that rumors, gossip, hearsay and innuendo and without any investigation.
The fact of the matter is that the insurrectionists in Tigray lobbed missiles into Eritrea to “internationalize” the conflict.
On November 15, 2020, Tibor Nagy, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs tweeted, “The United States strongly condemns the TPLF’s unjustifiable attacks against Eritrea on November 14 and its efforts to internationalize the conflict in Tigray.”
The insurrectionist believed they could draw Eritrea into the conflict and destabilize the Horn of Africa region.
But Eritrea did not respond to the insurrectionists’ missile attacks though it would have been fully justified to respond in self-defense.
Why is Bloomberg and the other fake news factories spinning lies about “civil war” and “Eritrean intervention” and “regional destabilization”?
The answer is simple. They want to create and shape the narrative on Ethiopia by spinning lies to contaminate global public opinion and depict Ethiopia and Eritrea as the “bad guys” of Africa.
In other words, they aim to demonize both Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The Bloomberg Editorial arrogantly recommends, “American leadership is urgently needed to restore peace” in Ethiopia and the Horn region.
Behold, America’s “White Man’s Burden” in Ethiopia and the Horn!
Ha!
The fact of the matter is that America cannot take care of its own house, let alone take care of the Ethiopia House or the houses in the Horn region.
America sorely lacks leadership to restore peace in America, let alone elsewhere.
America has no moral or legal standing to demand or command peace in Ethiopia or the Horn region.
The days of American imperial power are gone.
America can no longer be the policeman of the world.
Americans don’t want America to be the policeman of the world.
Americans want American police to serve and protect Americans, not brutalize them!
Americans want America to be America for them, not for Ethiopia or whatever other country there is.
Is Ethiopia an American colony for the U.S. to “restore peace”?
The incredible hubris of the fake white liberal media!
Do Blomberg editors know Ethiopia is a sovereign country that had existed long before the United States of America was even conceived?
If Ethiopia is in a state of civil war today, so is the United States after the terrorist attack of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Ethiopia is doing to the insurrectionists that attacked its Northern Command what the U.S. is doing to its insurrectionists that attacked the Capitol: Take law enforcement action, defend the constitution, arrest suspects and prosecute them in a court of law.
The fact remains that the reconstruction effort in Tigray region is coming along well and humanitarian assistance is flowing normally, despite the sabotage of the remnants of the insurrectionists.
Bloomberg Editorial Board Lie #2
The conflict began last November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the northern province of Tigray, the home of his most powerful political opponents, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Eritrea, which formally ended a long-running war with Ethiopia two years ago, provided its new ally with reinforcements.
Fact: The claim by the Bloomberg Editorial Board that the “conflict in Tigray began when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the northern province of Tigray” is a boldfaced, doggone lie!
A top TPLF leader stated on video they had mounted a blitzkrieg (“mebreqawi’) attack on the Ethiopian federal forces.
On November 3, 2020, Bloomberg itself reported, “Ethiopia’s leader ordered the military to respond to an alleged attack on an army camp in the restive Tigray region, escalating a standoff between the federal and state governments.”
On November 4, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted:
“We are deeply concerned by reports that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front carried out attacks on Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. We urge immediate action to restore the peace and de-escalate tensions. (Italics added.)
On November 15, 2020, Assistant Secretary Tibor Nagy tweeted, “The United States strongly condemns the TPLF’s unjustifiable attacks against Eritrea on November 14 and its efforts to internationalize the conflict in Tigray.”
On December 1, 2020, Nagy gave an interview to the BBC and laid it all out:
It is important to remember here there is not equivalency. There are not two states which have been belligerent with each other. You have a sovereign government on the one hand Ethiopia, and on the other you have a region of Ethiopia the leadership of which basically started a conflict against the government. And interestingly enough, the Ethiopia Constitution has provisions for a region to secede from Ethiopia but, you know, the best evidence is that the Tigrean leadership did not want to secede from Ethiopia. They wanted to use the opportunity basically to overthrow the prime minister and return to the type of privilege that they had enjoyed within the Ethiopian state for the last 27 years…
How could the Bloomberg Editorial Board possibly say, “The conflict began last November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the northern province of Tigray”?
The Bloomberg Editorial Board demands “immediate action by the U.S. to restore peace and de-escalate tensions.” in Ethiopia.
Charity begins at home.
The Bloomberg Editorial Board should first urge the Biden Administration to restore peace and deescalate tension in America before exhorting action in Ethiopia.
Is the U.S. Congress fenced in barbed wire because America is at peace and tensions have deescalated?
Bloomberg Editorial Board Lie #3
Abiy has prevented human-rights monitors, humanitarian aid groups and United Nations agencies from fully accessing the province. There are credible reports of atrocities committed in Tigray by Ethiopian forces and their proxies. The European Union has accused Eritrean troops of “exacerbating ethnic violence.” A famine looks increasingly likely.
Fact: Bloomberg’s Editorial Board claims “atrocities committed in Tigray by Ethiopian forces and their proxies.”
The fact of the matter is that it is the insurrectionists in Tigray who committed untold atrocities and human rights violations.
On November 12, 2020, Amnesty International “confirmed that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra.” Amnesty International reported it had “spoken to witnesses who said forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were responsible for the mass killings.”
This massacre was confirmed by Human Rights Watch in its December 2020 report.
Yet, Bloomberg’s Editorial Board – just to pretend to play fair — does not mention a single word about the TPLF’s massacre at Mai Kadra!
The Bloomberg Editorial Board claims “Abiy has prevented human-rights monitors, humanitarian aid groups and United Nations agencies from fully accessing the province.”
On February 16, 2021, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tweeted: “In #Tigray, partners are able to operate along the main road from Alamata to Shire & are working to scale up response in currently accessible Adigrat, Axum, Adwa & Shire. Access to rural areas remains challenging.”
There was delay and it was challenging to access the rural areas because the remnants of the insurrectionists have created unsafe conditions for those providing humanitarian assistance.
Yet, the Bloomberg Editorial Board did not even bother to do minimal research to inform its editorial statement.
Bloomberg Editorial Board Lie #4
Now the prime minister has ordered tanks and artillery to the border with Sudan. As with the offensive into Tigray, his government claims to have been provoked by the other side, but there’s more than a little suspicion of an Ethiopian land grab.
Fact: On December 31, 2020, Sudan announced its forces had taken control of all of Sudanese territory in a border area settled by Ethiopian farmers, after weeks of clashes.
Sudan, by its own official statement, confirmed it had taken military action against Ethiopia. That makes Sudan the AGGRESSOR not Ethiopia.
Scholarly studies document, the “present-day boundary between Ethiopia and Sudan is principally the result of the 1902 and 1907 Anglo-Ethiopian delimitation treaties which were demarcated in 1903 and 1909 respectively.” The border conflict between the two countries is the horrible legacy of British colonialism. “Borders in Africa would be arbitrary and artificial, delineated by exogenous colonial powers with little knowledge of the local communities, dividing pre-existing and homogeneous ethnic groups and thereby stirring frustrations and conflicts.”
On December 23, 2020, the Ethiopia-Sudan Border Commission met and “discussed means of addressing the border issues and reaching a permanent solution to issues of settlement and agriculture on the border lands.”
A week later, Sudan sent its troops to take control of contested territory subject to negotiations.
Despite these facts, the Bloomberg Editorial Board, in willful ignorance, crucifies Ethiopia as the aggressor illegally grabbing Sudanese land.
Why?
Simple. It is part of the grand conspiracy to demonize Ethiopia as a regional threat!
Bloomberg Editorial Board Recommendation Based on Lies but is the truth
The Biden administration should be prepared to impose punishment if PM Abiy Ahmed fails to respond adequately. A good first step would be to join the EU in suspending assistance until the UN and other aid agencies are allowed free access to Tigray. If necessary, the U.S. should freeze the preferential trade benefits Ethiopia enjoys under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Any Ethiopian adventurism in Sudan should be met with even harsher penalties, including economic sanctions.
The EU has suspended nearly 90 million euros ($108 million) in aid to the government in Addis Ababa, to no apparent effect.
So has the U.S. which has suspended over $230 million in handouts to no effect.
On February 19, 2021, the U.S. isused a statement “delinking” Trump’s cut off of aid from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute and relinking it to the situation to Tigray.
Incredible! Susan Rice, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Samatha Power still believe they can break Ethiopia’s back by denying the pittance of aid they provide.
The fact of the matter is that Bloomberg, the U.S. and E.U. should understand that Ethiopia may be poor but it is the TPLF that made Ethiopia a beggar nation because the TPLF is a gathering of beggars.
In December 2017, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo at a joint press conference in Accra with the visiting French president Emmanuel Macron said something that shocked all Africa.
Akufo-Addo in no uncertain terms told Macron to take his aid and shove it:
We can no longer continue to make policy for ourselves and for our country and our region and our continent on the basis of whatever support the Western world or France or the European Union can give us. It will not work. It has not worked, and it will not work. Our responsibility is to charter a path which is about how we can develop our nation’s ourselves. It is not right for a country like Ghana 60 years after independence to still have its health and education budgets being financed on the basis of the generosity and charity of European taxpayers. By now, we should be able to finance our basic needs ourselves.
I say to the U.S., E.U. and the Bloomberg Editorial Board, “TAKE YOUR MEASLY, PALTRY AND NIGGLING AID AND SHOVE IT!”
Bloomberg and all the other Western media dogs will bark, but the Ethiopian camel will walk, and walk and walk…
The Bloomberg Editorial Board prescribes, “Blinken has said the U.S. should ‘not be AWOL as problems emerge’ in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia presents an urgent challenge to that commitment.”
Fact: Ethiopia, according to the Bloomberg Editorial Board, is the PROBLEM.
The demonstrable fact is America, the European Union and Western media are the REAL PROBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA AND AFRICA!
Let me repeat it again!
The U.S., the European Union and Western media are the REAL PROBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA AND AFRICA!
The U.S and the E.U. have tried to break Ethiopia’s back by cutting off handouts and threatening sanctions, blocking World Bank loans, etc.
I WILL SAY IT LOUD AND CLEAR AS I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES BEFORE: TAKE YOUR AID AND LOANS AND SHOVE IT!
The U.S., E.U. and Western media who demonize Ethiopia will lose.
The Bloomberg Editorial Board is a shiftless lot of journalistic hacks pretending to uphold journalistic integrity. Bloomberg professes five values. One of them is, “Do the right thing.”
In its February 18, 20201 editorial on Ethiopia, Bloomberg did the wrong thing by taking a position on Ethiopia that is anchored in lies, oozes with damned lies and hemorrhages with disinformation.
Be forewarned U.S., E.U. and Western media: “Your swords will pierce your own hearts, and your bows will be broken” in Ethiopia!
