A correspondent asked me this question, regarding Ethiopia:
Dear Kidist,
Good to hear from you!
The news from Ethiopia seems confused - both good and horrible things.
[...]
I'll be interested to hear your impressions.
I answered thus:
Yes, the news is confused. There was a period of intense danger. A regional ethnic group from the north, the TPLF (the Tigray People''s Liberation Front) which formed, and deposed the Communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam (in the early 1990s) ruled the country for several decades.
[...]
PM Abiy (the current Prime Minister) was part of a variety of smaller groups fighting Haile Mariam. He was even joined armed fight as a young man.
The leftist/socialist TPLF with a rebranded name - Weyane - took on several years ago.
Through a national election process (I think there were leadership disputes within this Weyane) about two years ago, Abiy got the helm and started his governance. The elections were heavily disputed, and many disruptions were attempted. Abiy got the army on his side, formed them into a more efficient, and national, unit.
About a year ago, the remnant old guard TPLF (Weyane) leaders started their disruptions once again. This instigated other regional ethnic groups, like the Oromo from the south, the Gurage from the central valleys, and even the Amhara from the highlands to cause friction with the purpose of splintering off.
These were the leaders - not peoples. Abiy gets huge crowds at his visits in these regions, showing almost unanimous popular support for "Ethiopia" and for him.
To make a long story short, these flare-ups are controlled by strict surveillance, but their ammunitions are gone (almost) and foreign assistance from Egyptian/Israeli (what an alliance - all to destroy Ethiopia) now the target of political concern. Rebels from the Sudan and Somalia borders were instigated by external forces (some Egyptian forces were found in their midst) and we believe again Israeli/Egyptian and even Jewish-led American groups, and Biden is suspected to be part of it.
PM Abiy continues to build a relationship with these regions - Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, and to some extent the Egyptians sympathetic to Ethiopia, with his overall mission to strengthen the Horn of Africa, with Ethiopia as (once again) the leader. He has restrengthened the African Union, started by Haile Selassie, and with its headquarters in Addis Ababa. He has already held several high-powered meetings.
[T]here is a lot going on, and a lot has happened recently. The horror, I strongly assess, is media propaganda, to distance Americans (ordinary Americans, including in politics and other institutions) to malign, isolate, and even destroy the current Ethiopian regime.
Part of it also is the deeply frustrated Oromo and Tigray (TPLF) peoples, who were abandoned by their leaders and left to fend for themselves, resorting to desperate murders. Abiy has provided humanitarian assistance, and even military protection, for these people, whom he has visited personally.
Part of the leadership of these instigators also comes from abroad from Tigray and Oromo affiliates, with moneys funneled in to finance rebels and terrorists.
It is all of course political - who wants a strong Horn of Africa, with Israeli and Jewish interests so close by?
But, it is also existential (religious/Biblical), another era in Ethiopia where this Jerusalem on the Hill, becomes a land to sabotage.
I have written an article about this in June 2021
Ethiopia's Election - A Strong and United Ethiopia
Here is another article on the "overseas" influences, which got published in various Ethiopia-based online media: A Critique of the Film Faya Dayi by Jessica Beshir
Further down in the article I have a screen shot of a twitter page showing these external instigators (America-based, although there are many in Canada also).
I hope this gives you some idea. I think in very concise, simple terms, as I wrote above:
...it is also [existential] (religious/Biblical), another era in Ethiopia where this Jerusalem on the Hill, becomes a land to sabotage.
Kidist