I am writing to you in urgency today to bring to your attention the bombing in Mekelle, Tigray, which targeted civilians, including children at a kindergarten. Children are among the dead & badly wounded. It is important to note that all critical infrastructures, such as healthcare, in Tigray have been destroyed by the war and paralyzed by the siege leaving the local community with no capacity to respond to emergencies.
This renewed attack on civilians by the Ethiopian government comes in defiance of calls for de-escalation following the recent full-blown invasion launched by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and Amhara Regional forces on Tigray, breaching a truce announced in March 2022. The Ethiopian government has renewed its attack on civilians, demonstrating, yet again, that the Ethiopian government is unwilling to abide by international law. This new aggression comes after weeks of threats and expressions of intent for military confrontation by the Ethiopian government. It is now terrorizing a community already traumatized by war and deprivation.
I am deeply distressed that this renewed invasion will bring another round of atrocities on the civilian population of Tigray. The State Department's failure to stop the Ethiopian government’s attacks on civilians shows an ambivalence to the extreme suffering of civilians in Tigray.
In a profound betrayal of what is supposed to be a “human rights-centered foreign policy,” the State Department has chosen appeasement as its foreign policy approach in Ethiopia, failing to publicly disclose its findings of whether genocide has been committed in Tigray and failing to disincentivize war by implementing the executive order to its total capacity.
My plea is not political; it only emanates from a desire to save people and protect our community from complete extermination.
History shows that there is no diplomatic recourse to genocide. With this in mind, I am writing to ask you, as my elected representative, to:
1. Condemn the Ethiopian government’s belligerent acts that have escalated and protracted one of the deadliest wars in the world;
2. Ask the U.S. State Department to implement the Executive Order signed by President Biden to levy sanctions and decisive punitive measures on the Ethiopian government;
3. Call for the verifiable withdrawal of Amhara and Eritrean forces, which continues to be the major hindrance to a peaceful resolution, from the constitutionally-recognized territories of Tigray;
4. Urge the U.S. State Department to unequivocally uphold its Human Rights-centered foreign policy by disclosing its determination of genocide in Tigray;
5. Call on the U.S. government and our allies to ensure that the Ethiopian government does not continue to use starvation as a weapon of war, especially by using the renewed invasion as a pretext to hinder humanitarian aid delivery further.
