Hello, everybody. My name is Hermon. I will shorten my statement to brief sentences.
First of all, I am from the Horn of Africa. As a Black woman, I can relate to the people of Tigray, particularly to the women of Tigray. No one is more interested in peace in this region than we are, because it has tremendous consequences for the Horn of Africa. As a relatively new country, Eritrea is interested in peace, development and partnership.
As the New Africa Institute in New York has identified, the TPLF disinformation network is composed of six stages. Essentially, each of these stages describes how the TPLF uses western allies and agents to disseminate propaganda and shape global public opinion.
In the first stage, TPLF leaders serve as a primary starting point for disinformation. For example, the former Ethiopian ambassador under the TPLF, Ambassador Wondimu, leaked talking points to William Davison of the International Crisis Group on behalf of the Tigray Friendship Liaison Office. Similarly, Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, a TPLF member, briefed Alex de Waal of the World Peace Foundation on battlefield conditions in Tigray. Both William Davison and Alex de Waal have written extensively on the war in northern Ethiopia. Their work has been cited by major international online and print media, shaping global public opinion.
In the second stage, there's the development of a pro-TPLF narrative. When they are briefed by TPLF operatives, the very same western contacts publish the TPLF's version of events in unconfirmed reports through their social media accounts and blogs. Some of these blogs and sites include those of the Europe External Programme with Africa, Eritrea Hub and the World Peace Foundation.
In the third stage, the TPLF creates facts on the ground that support the narrative. An example of this is a CNN video of a Dengelat villager in Tigray being coached on what to say for video cameras. The village of Dengelat was the site where the TPLF alleged that Eritrean soldiers committed a massacre. Nima Elbagir of CNN admitted on air that she relies on a network—