“Midterms Are Coming!” Ethiopian & Eritrean Americans Vow to Use Their Vote Over US-Africa Policy

“We will not give away our votes blindly. We have to investigate what the candidates stand for. Do they support Senate Bill 3199? HR Resolution 6600? Do you know what those bills and resolutions do? They will take your rights away,” Belay Tekalign, an Ethiopian-American organizer in DC addressed hundreds of people that rallied Sunday in front of the White House – to protest the Biden Administration’s foreign policy in the Horn of Africa. 

Many Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans say the Congressional initiatives Tekalign addressed (S.3199 and H.R. 6600) are a way to punish the Ethiopian & Eritrean Governments – and by extension the people in the countries, which combined have a population of more than 120 million people. The bills also appear to use language that many believe attempts to silence the voices of  the African diaspora – those who have roots in the Horn of Africa, but live in the United States. Thirdly, the bills are believed to be initiated by activists in the U.S. – who support a small ethno-fascist insurgent group in Ethiopia and who operate under the hashtag #TigrayGenocide online.

“We turned Virginia red! We will vote!”

One of the largest populations of Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans live in the DMV area. Last November, they helped vote out former Virginia Governor Democrat Terry McAuliffe and voted in Republican Glenn Youngkin. The population in the Virginia area mobilized out of frustration with McAuliffe, whose views on Ethiopia echoed that of the Biden Administration’s – which many Ethiopians believe was demonizing the elected Government of Ethiopia – and attempting to legitimize insurgents in the country. 

A Washington Post article at the time carried the headline, “Why some Ethiopian voters in Virginia swung for Youngkin — and how it may spell trouble for Democrats elsewhere.” At the White House rally Sunday, Tekalign said, “We turned Virginia red! We will vote!… Don’t forget that Mr. Biden. Listen to us,” as the crowd chanted “No More!”

“End Biden’s Support of TPLF Terrorists” 

With a spirited unity and colorful flags and signs, the crowd which also included Somalis, Pan-Africans and anti-war allies including A.N.S.W.E.R coalition – rallied for hours in front of the White House. Neamin Zeleke, a longtime activist and one of the most recognizable figures in Ethiopian advocacy, spoke at the rally about the decades-long U.S. support of the insurgents – the Tigray People Liberation Front, commonly referred to as the TPLF.

Zeleke said, “For 27 years, successive U.S. administrations, in particular the Democrat party have been backing and enabling a small group of ethno-fascist tyrants that had a near total chokehold on the Ethiopian state. Without the diplomatic, material and financial support of successive U.S. administrations, the TPLF, the Tigray People Liberation Front’s brutal and corrupt regime could not have survived for nearly three decades.” Zeleke continued, “To add insult to Ethiopia’s injury, today… longtime allies of the TPLF within President Biden’s administration are driving the flawed and misguided policy.”

Who is the TPLF? 

The TPLF was an armed rebel group that was formed in 1975 in the Tigray region to fight the then communist government of Ethiopia, commonly referred to as the DERG. The TPLF aimed to create an independent Tigray state for the minority ethnic Tigrayans, but that’s not what happened after they won. 

With the backing of the U.S., the group led a coalition of rebel groups to overthrow the DERG government in 1991 – and declared themselves the government of all of Ethiopia. A few years later they established a constitution that divided the country into ethnic states, which some legal experts say essentially legalized ethnic discrimination. Many Ethiopians say the TPLF’s ethnic-based constitution was designed to divide the country so the group could maintain power.

Over the years, the people of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia became increasingly frustrated by the TPLF which has been accused of rigging elections and human rights abuses – including a widespread practice of torture. In 2018, in what appeared to be a David and Goliath story, the by then mega-powerful TPLF was ousted out of power through a parliamentary vote –  after years of struggle by the people. In part, that struggle included people living outside the country.

“In fact,” Ethiopian-American journalist Hermela Aregawi said addressing the rally, “many of the people gathered here today, naturalized American citizens fled their homelands as victims of TPLF with the hope that their pursuit of the American dream would be their saving grace.” Aregawi was reading a prepared statement from The #NoMore Global Movement. She continued, “However these citizens, many of which waved American flags outside their homes, cannot erase from their memory that TPLF instituted state-sanctioned tribalism in Ethiopia, installed a puppet clannist government and terrorist group in Somalia, and executed war on the Eritrean people – supposedly in the name of a “border dispute.” Eritrean organizer Amanuel Biedemariam said, “Today the fact that we are here together like this is a significant development.”

“No more gunboat diplomacy!”

The statement from #NoMore concluded with a list of issues the protesters were saying “No More” to. The crowd responded with a resounding “No More!” as she said in part, “No more TPLF. No more to its child soldiers… no more scapegoating Eritrea.. no more gunboat diplomacy… no more gas lighting us. No more censorship of African voices… and no more terror on Amharas and Afars,” a people most impacted by the nearly two year TPLF insurgency.

The TPLF has occupied Tigray, the northernmost region in Ethiopia – since they were ousted out of power in 2018. For more than two years, the new Government of Ethiopia sent mediators to the region in order to peacefully integrate some of the TPLF leaders into Ethiopia’s new Government, known as the Prosperity Party. TPLF leaders rejected every option and instead went to war by attacking Ethiopia’s Northern Command – the largest military base in Ethiopia which was located in the Tigray region.

The protesters out on Sunday say, TPLF leaders have admitted to using child soldiers and young children are seen marching to fight – in videos released by TPLF activists. The insurgents are on their third war offensive since they attacked Ethiopian National Army Defense forces and fired mortars into Eritrea in November 2020. The #NoMore rally statement read, “Rather than immediately condemn TPLF for violating  the [latest] ceasefire, the State Department framed their actions as “renewed hostilities” between both sides, refusing to even acknowledge TPLF’s offensive when TPLF’s own spokesperson himself told the New York Times that it was a “full-scale offensive.”

“Free Tigray from TPLF”

Negasi Beyene is an Ethiopian from Tigray. He is one of the earliest critics of the TPLF. Speaking at the rally, Beyene said, “My message to the people of Tigray, while it may not reach them, is this: Your suffering is our suffering too. For those who held you hostage and have been doing business in your name for more than 50 years, the TPLF — it’s time for you to tell them enough!” 

Beyene added, “To the Tigray diaspora, while you are sleeping safely with your children here – you are advocating for the lives of poor children in Tigray to be sacrificed, so that your dream of destroying the country and dividing the people can come true. You are doing the work of the devil. You have to stand with the people and tell TPLF, enough! What kind of future are you creating for your relatives in Tigray by turning them into enemies of all the people around them?”