Africa-Press Ethiopia<\/p>\n
Denver area resident Mohammed Warid is monitoring the political conflict in Ethiopia \u2014 at least, as much as he can with a communication blackout in parts of the country.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the Oromo Community of Colorado is worried about his family, and for him, that includes all those living in the Oromia region in Ethiopia. He\u2019s at least been able to speak to loved ones, unlike those struggling to reach their families and get news about the northern Tigray region. Under the latest political regime, people are suffering; they\u2019re living in fear; they\u2019re being imprisoned for their ideologies; they\u2019re being tortured and killed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not OK,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day activity is not OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warid, along with Oromo Community of Colorado, has helped plan protests after high-profile killings in Ethiopia. Like those with Tigrayan roots in Colorado, the Oromo community is making its voice heard in Colorado and calling for change.<\/p>\n
But, as is the case in Ethiopia, Colorado\u2019s Ethiopian communities don\u2019t agree about the cause of the problems in their home country, particularly over which entity is the aggressor, and they worry about their families and friends who live there. Supporters of Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who took over the office in 2018 and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, say the new regime is bringing needed political reforms and \u201claw and order\u201d to the country mired in ethnic tensions while responding to attacks from those in opposition. They insist that the majority of the violence, which escalated in early November, is over.<\/p>\n
People from Tigray \u2014 where the military and opposition groups were fighting \u2014 and other areas experiencing waves of violence, say Ahmed is far from democratic and is persecuting his own people. They cite human rights abuses, calling the conflict a progression over time.<\/p>\n
Nebiyu Asfaw, an Adams County resident, came to the United States as a child with his mother, seeking a better life. He still has friends and family mostly in Addis Ababa, the capital, and he said they have not been affected by the country\u2019s unrest. Asfaw speaks to them regularly and calls published reports of violence \u201cexaggerations.\u201d What\u2019s really happening, according to his reading of the situation, is the new prime minister brought reforms after 27 years of an oppressive regime and is trying to put an end to ethnic politics in its 10 nation states with more than 80 ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Ethiopia\u2019s conflict stokes humanitarian and virus crisis: \u2018I think the war is worse\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cA majority of the community supports the reform effort and we\u2019re hopeful that Ethiopia is going (in) the right direction,\u201d Asfaw said.<\/p>\n
The main conflict happened about a month ago, according to Asfaw, referring to the November attack by the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front in Tigray and federal military action. The transition hasn\u2019t been perfect, and war is ugly, he said. But he blames the \u201cold guard,\u201d the powerful TPLF party leader, not recognizing Ahmed\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you organize a country into ethnic regions and when you politicize your ethnicity, there\u2019s just no winner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the way many Tigrayans, including Millete Birhanemaskel, see it.<\/p>\n
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Africa-Press Ethiopia Denver area resident Mohammed Warid is monitoring the political conflict in Ethiopia \u2014 at least, as much as he can with a communication blackout in parts of the country. The chairman of the Oromo Community of Colorado is worried about his family, and for him, that includes all those living in the Oromia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press-ethiopia"],"yoast_head":"\n