The word "Prosperity" has now a different meaning in Ethiopia. The country's leader defines it as civil war and starvation.
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Ethiopia's ruling party is registered as Property Party (PP). The name was coined by the party's founder and chair Abiy Ahmed who took power in 2018. In five years, the prime minister delivered three major things. One a horrific civil war in multiple parts of the country whose death toll is over a million, second 300% inflation that is silently killing the urban population and finally a hidden famine in the southern and eastern parts of the country that has put over five million people on death row.
None of these matter for Abiy Ahmed who is building a new multi-billion-dollar palace at the heart of the nation's capital. For him, Ethiopia is the new horizon of hope that has started "exporting" wheat.
The Ethiopian nation is not new for autocrats. Its history is full of strong men. All these dictators matched their age in leadership style and paradigm; they did what was "okay' in their times. Before 1974, the emperors did what Emperors do. Between 1974 and 1991, Col Mengistu Hailemariam did what communist dictators do during his time. The next comers TPLF also had some "achievements" to balance their dictatorial rule. Abiy Ahmed's success is replacing the word prosperity by bloodbath and destruction. His paradigm is violence, chaos and lawlessness.
The big lie - Wheat export
A few days after Abiy Ahmed and his ruling clique staged a drama titled "Ethiopia started exporting wheat for the first time in its history", the story of the Borana famine took the Ethiopian internet by storm.
Abiy proved he is a pre-civilization dictator, he has completely forgotten this is an age of information, nothing can be hidden from the public no matter how much he tries to suppress it or how little internet penetration is in Ethiopia. He's so much drugged by his prosperity gospel that he lives in his own world.
While millions are on death row by the famine in the southern and eastern parts of the country, his ruling party the Oromo Prosperity party spent millions overnight at a party organized to launch a new town called "Shagger" at Sheraton Hotel. For the diners there, there is nothing wrong in the country, everything is beautiful.
Starvation has been a daily life phenomenon for millions in the north affected by the TPLF war. Even after the rebels signed a surrender agreement with Abiy Ahmed, starving people and internally displaced citizens in Wag province are ignored by aid organizations who focuses on Tigray because the government hasn't paid attention to the area. Wag is on the border between Amhara and Tigray regions.
A major horror story is now unfolding in Borana, another conflict-stricken zone in the blood-land Oromia region. Over five million people are facing death there. The zone has seen some major fighting between Abiy Ahmed's troops and far-right Oromo separatist militias like OLA-Shene.
Ongoing Civil war
The true face of today's Ethiopia is a horrific war that has so far killed over a million people. The killing started a week after Abiy came to power in Jijigaa Somali region when hundreds were savagely massacred in churches in mid 2018. The latest was just a week ago in Wollega, Oromia region, gun men backed by the Oromia regional ethnic paramilitary forces opened fire on a refugee camp and massacred over fifty kids and women. Ironically, the victims came to the camp fleeing the other parts of Wollega where bloodbath was frequent, and the camp was supposed to be a safe place until they "return" home.
The Oromia region has so far accomplished in ethnically cleansing over a million "minorities". The region is home to over ten million indigenous non-Oromos but Abiy and his ruling clique believe they can cleanse the remaining nine million. This is happening in the 21st century.
The prime minister's government has declared violence is the only way to achieve political goals instead of civilized dialogue. This bad message strongly resonates with discontented groups in the Amhara province who have picked up arms. A major war zone may be in the making in the region.
Economic collapse
Inflation of basic goods like food in urban Ethiopia has surpassed 300%. People in cities and towns are silently dying. No food means no one can think and see what's happening. Abiy Ahmed is cashing on this cruel reality. Abiy Ahmed's cadres hoard staples like Teff and wheat to starve even those with the money to buy.
The ruling party is officially in illegal money laundering business. The Addis Ababa city administration led by Abiy Ahmed's right-hand man Adanech Abebe proudly announced the purchase of several buses using dollars from illegal black market.
The prime minster is a leader of both the official government and the underground mafia ruling clique that abducts and assassinates people, sell foreign currencies in illegal markets. If he can't get what he wants with state power like the courts, he leverages an underground mafia to eliminate you.
He has changed the meaning of the word Prosperity. It now means, death and destruction by a horrific civil war and famine. The collapse of Ethiopia whose population is still over the 100 million mark will reshape the entire middle east and north African region. The shocks of Ethiopia's collapse will definitely affect Europe and America.
The only way out of this chaos is Ethiopians sitting around a table and resolving their differences in a civilized manner. Abiy Ahmed's medieval ruling style by personal power dealings and savage killings has not solved a single problem in Ethiopia in the last five years.