Zecharias Zelalem
Today is November 4th. On this day three years ago, war was declared in Ethiopia's Tigray region. It ended up being among the bloodiest civil wars of our era, and killed hundreds of thousands by the time it ended on Nov 3rd 2022. We are still investigating atrocities and alleged atrocities until this day.
The conflict completely changed me as a person forever, in so many ways.
News report from that day:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-idUSKBN27K0ZS
Zecharias Zelalem
You learn in school about how the intelligentsia and elite classes would be harnessed by the likes of Mussolini and Hitler to provide intellectual backing that would sway the masses into blind support. But I won't forget witnessing this phenomenon engulf Ethiopia. It completely shattered everything I believed in.
Religious fathers who normally preach forgiveness calling on the army to "crush" the rebels.
Legal experts lecturing us on how an army massacre was somehow legal.
Zecharias Zelalem
Not just journalists, anyone who questioned the necessity of war, anyone who called for a ceasefire, anyone who expressed worry about systemic profiling & war abuses, was slammed as a traitor, by people who we had previously looked up to as exemplary.
EVERYONE changed. I still haven't recovered from seeing an old sociology teacher become a pro war radical nationalist partisan. Everyone, from lawyers, prominent business leaders, feminist movement leaders, religious fathers, got on the bandwagon.
Zecharias Zelalem
Nationalism and misinformation were weaponized. Consent for the most heinous atrocities was granted.
People I grew up with, friends, family, educated professionals, suddenly abandoned life long ideals & ethics, to blindly cheer on the Ethiopian government's military effort. Even as reports of massacres, atrocities, sexual violence & famine made the rounds.
We journalists were ostracized, declared the enemy. Life long relationships were ended, & we were declared persona non grata everywhere.
Zecharias Zelalem
I do not hail from Tigray, or any of the other warzones. My friends and colleagues who do, were suddenly cut off from family, as phone and internet lines were severed and would largely remain that way until the end of the war. I'm privileged not to have endured the traumatic experiences of some of my friends.
Nevertheless, I remain stunned until this day, at the sobering reality of just how seemingly sane, sensible, normal people you've known all your life, could just completely transform.
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