Ethiopian Airlines is shipping live wild animals around the world unsafely for luxury use as exotic pets from West Africa, says new investigation by a nongovernmental organization (NGO).
According to a press statement from World Animal Protection Kenya Office sent to NewBusinessEthiopia.com this afternoon transportation of the animals by Ethiopian Airlines is “posing huge biosecurity and disease risks as well as the threat to animal welfare and conservation, reveals World Animal Protection”.
It is stated that the report ‘Cargo of Cruelty’ reviewed social media activity to demonstrate how airlines are fueling wildlife trade – enabling the international transport of wild animals to meet the global demand for exotic pets.
At least four of 33 Ethiopian Airlines shipments analyzed, carried mammals of high biosecurity concern, including African civets, primates, and marsh mongooses to destinations in Italy, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia, according to the report.
“Genets, rough-scaled lizards, African spurred tortoises, Savannah monitor lizards, green bush vipers, chameleons and scorpions were among the most frequently shipped animals via Ethiopian Airlines,” the report stated.
The global supply of exotic pets is largely undocumented, and regulation is insufficient. The report also identifies “aspects of the trade that may not comply with international legal requirements, and shows that legality does not guarantee the wildlife trade is safe, sustainable or humane.”
According to August 28, 2021 report by Geopolitics Press, the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines and Eritrea’s Red Sea Trading Corporation are being targeted by a Kenyan-based group CF2C, which is funded by the Western country and has been engaged in manufacturing and disseminations of false reports to bring regime change in Ethiopia.
It is not yet clear if today’s report share to the media by World Animal Protection Kenya Office is part of the CF2C.
After Ethiopian Government launched an offensive to reverse the attack of its military base in Tigray region last November by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), most of the Western countries including the United States have been pressuring Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration to stop the war against TPLF.
The Western countries and the United States have been accusing the Ethiopian soldiers and the Eritrean troops, which are invited into the war by TPLF missile attacks, have committed human rights violations in Tigray region during the war.
In response to the accusations, the Ethiopian Government has launched an investigation within its military and brought to justice the soldiers accused of committing sexual violence. Currently the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights commission are also jointly engaged investigation of the accusations.
As the controversy continues, the United States and its Western allies have tabled the issue of Tigray region at the UN Security Council several times, which Ethiopia and a few of the permanent members of UNSC such as China and Russia described as ‘interference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs’.
Though last June Ethiopia has taken out its troops from Tigray region to allow the farmers engage in farming using the current rainy season, TPLF has refused to accept the unilateral ceasefire by the federal government and launched a new military attack in the neighboring regions of Ethiopia namely in Afar and Amhara regions.
It is in the middle of this crisis that Geopolitics investigation has revealed the interest of the Western countries to bring regime change in Ethiopia by overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy using the unsuccessful Basma strategy being implimented by the Western Countries and the United States in Syria.
In its latest report over the weekend, Geopolitics Press stated the Kenya-based C2FC is working to execute a regime change in Ethiopia using the model executed by the CIA of the United States decades ago in the Great Lakes Region that brought to power President Paul Kagame in Rwanda and President Yoweri Musevine in Uganda after destabilizing and exploiting the mineral resources of the former Zaire, now called Democratic Republic of Congo.
As part of the regime change plan in Ethiopia and creating hyperinflation that may isolate the people from Abiy Ahmed’s administration, CF2C is set to launch defamation information campaigns against Ethiopian Airlines and Eritrea’s Red Sea Trading Corporation, according to the weekend report of Geopolitics Analysis.
World Animal Protection’s investigation about Ethiopian Airlines came in the middle of this developing political tension within Ethiopia and the East African region in general. Currently Ethiopian Airlines is the top African airline generating billions of dollars annually to the Government of Ethiopia.