💠Biden Administration Bows Before Ethiopian Genocide And Wastes Somaliland Opportunity
👉 Courtesy: The Washington Examiner
Speaking at the U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit, President Joe Biden declared, "The United States is all in on Africa and…
💠Biden Administration Bows Before Ethiopian Genocide And Wastes Somaliland Opportunity
👉 Courtesy: The Washington Examiner
Speaking at the U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit, President Joe Biden declared, "The United States is all in on Africa and all in with Africa." Biden continued, "The choices that we make today and the remainder of this decade and how we tackle these challenges, in my view, will determine the direction the entire world takes in the decades to come."
Alas, the choices Biden’s team now makes do not bode well for the future.
DON'T DERAIL UN INVESTIGATION OF Tigray GENOCIDE IN NAME OF PEACE
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for Ethiopia . His visit rehabilitates Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a man responsible for the Tigray genocide . In November 2020, Abiy suspended elections and ordered Ethiopia’s army to take over the Tigray state. Tigrayans preempted the attack and then fought back. Ultimately, Abiy besieged the region to cause a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people. He meanwhile rounded up Tigrayans in Ethiopia’s capital. Ethiopian and their Eritrean allies looted, raped, and stole. Abiy’s war laid infrastructure to waste and cost the Ethiopian economy tens of billions of dollars.
To rehabilitate Abiy now is a choice by Biden to sweep Abiy’s actions under the rug. It is a choice to reward the Ethiopian despot for genocide. It is a choice to allow him to outsource murder to Eritrea without consequence. It is a choice to greenlight Abiy’s willingness to repeat the Tigray playbook against any other group that questions his messiah complex and leadership.
Freedom House ranks Ethiopia as among the world’s least free countries, not much better off than Russia and less free than the Persian Gulf’s absolute monarchies. Niger, the second and final stop on his swing through Africa, is more democratic — it sits alongside El Salvador and Tunisia in the rankings — but Blinken goes mostly because Niger is home to the chief U.S. drone base in Africa.
What is curious is Blinken’s top omission: While Biden’s team says it will compete against China, Blinken studiously avoids any visit to Somaliland, the most democratic country in the Horn of Africa and a country that, unlike Ethiopia and Niger, cast its lot with Taiwan and Western democracies.
