Thank you so much for having me and giving me a chance to talk to you about the siege in Tigray.
Just before I go to the situation in Tigray, I want to note that this was done by the Government of Ethiopia intentionally and deliberately in a very planned way. In the very first place, about 19 months ago, five different actors planned to destroy the infrastructure of Tigray and there is a 360-degree siege all over. This was by the Ethiopian government, by the Amhara militia, by the Eritrean government, by the Somalian government, by the United Arab Emirates and by Turkey. All these acted the same in order to destroy all the infrastructure in Tigray—no communication, no banking, no electricity, no water and no transportation. Can you imagine if that happened here how long we could survive here in Canada with no communication and no telephone for your loved ones?
The siege in Tigray is completely boycotting. In the very first place, they destroyed everything: hospitals, schools and electricity. What happened? After that what they did was block all banks, so there was no money, no transactions in Tigray, no fuel and no electricity. Here, we have not heard about our families, and whether they are alive or not, for 19 months. My friends say that with all the assaults, whether they exist and they live after that, we don't know. Nobody knows.
Can you bring this into your home, into Canada?
As it stands, because all the hospitals are destroyed, there is no medication. People are dying—diabetics because there is no medicine and cancer is not treated. After all the sexual abuse, over 2,000 women have been sexually abused. Some of them are pregnant with an unwanted pregnancy.
Let me put into perspective, for example, the banks. It's not only in Tigray. Any Tigrayans out of Tigray, even if in they're in Ethiopia, their account is blocked and they can't send money to the others. In the very first place, there is no way to send the money and, second, all those outside Tigray don't have access to their accounts. We are not talking about only the poor who are suffering. If you think about it, those who are middle income, who have a car, who have a house, who have at least a decent living, at this time they are begging. Even if he is begging, his neighbour is also begging. There is no aid. There is no humanitarian aid whatsoever.
I wish I could show you and send you one of the pictures in my phone of how the kids are affected because of this siege. These are the kids with all kinds of diseases. Some of them are serious diseases and some are very easy but they can't get any help.
Doctors are dying. Doctors are begging on the streets just for a living, so we are not talking about those who are in the marginalized area. We are talking about those people who are even in a higher income, because they don't have access to their account.
There is no fuel. If you see, for example, if you follow the news of the day, the EU representative of the UN to Tigray said that it is horrifying. It is unthinkable. Living in the 21st century, I don't think human beings or humans as a society have experienced what Tigray is experiencing now.
Thank you so much.