Ethiopia

A group from Boston march down Church Street to protest the events in Tigray, Ethiopia and raise awareness to the atrocities taking place there.

"The night after the US election, on November 4th 2020, Abiy Ahmed, Nobel prize winner and Prime Minister of Ethiopia, started bombing Mekele, the capital city of Tigray in the North of Ethiopia. There was quickly a shut down of all communications, no internet, no electricity and no media allowed into the region, a region of over 6 million people. This bombing campaign, quickly escalated, with Ethiopian troops taking the city, followed by neighbouring Eritrea invading with reports of razed refugee camps, looting, sexual violence, massacres and extrajudicial killings. Many more have fled to Sudan, in what the United Nations has called the worst exodus of refugees from Ethiopia seen in two decades. They describe a disastrous conflict that's given rise to ethnic violence.

The region of Tigray has been under siege for months now. No humanitarian aid is being allowed in. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and are slowly dying of starvation. 90% of hospitals and clinics have been destroyed. Local people here in Vermont, with ties to Tigray, report family members who have been kidnapped and tortured by Eritrean troops, and others getting messages out of the country saying they have no food and no money to take care of their children. The Tigray Defence Force are now marching on Addis Ababa with the hope of capturing the city and ousting Abiy Ahmed from power."