Thank you so much.
Yes. I think about 10% of global trade goes through the Red Sea, and about 40% of the the trade between Asia and Europe is channelled through the Red Sea. Ethiopia is an anchor nation, because of its size and population, to the entire Horn of Africa.
I believe the European Union representative for the eastern African countries once said that Ethiopia is not like Yugoslavia: It doesn't implode in. If Ethiopia collapses, the whole region would collapse, so this is really a very serious catastrophe in the waiting.
Beyond that, and beyond the threats, 128 million people are facing a threat of genocide. What we are hearing here, unfortunately, from my Amharan and my Tigrayan friends, is that you hear the Tigrayans saying that everything has been done to them, but they say nothing about what they have done. It is the same thing with my Amharan friends. They talk about the atrocities they faced, but they do not say what the Amhara have done.
If you look at international reports, no one is a victim here: Each is a victimizer and a victim. Until this kind of mentality from our compatriots stops, particularly in Amhara and Tigray, this crisis will continue and, at the end, it is the people of Tigray and the people of Amhara who are suffering.
We have seen the Amnesty International reports. We have seen that all have been condemned of crimes against humanity. We have heard each group using “genocide” like a common word.... The only organizations that came close to announcing genocide were in the last report by the new institute, and anybody who has read it can tell, as I said, that it reads like a TPLF document.
How the Canadian government and the world can help is perhaps by not inviting us to come and complain about what happened to our people, but maybe to find common ground: How can we move away from these claims and counterclaims of genocide and solve the problem with help from the international community?
Thank you.