Tens of thousands of Ethiopians on social media expressed their anger towards the response of the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said he was ‘shocked’ when Ethiopia expels its 7 staff members.
The reaction of the UN Secretary General came after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia announced its decision to expel seven UN diplomats including UNICEF and UNHCR country heads for meddling in the internal affairs of Ethiopia.
“I shocked by the information that the Government of Ethiopia has declared seven UN officials, including senior UN humanitarian officials, as persona non grata,” Antonio Guterres reacted to the decion of the Government of Ethiopia.
In response to Antonio Guteres comment Ethiopians have flooded twitter today with over 167,000 #handsoffEthiopia trending twitts that oppose his reaction to the decision made by the Government of Ethiopia against UN staffs found interfering in the internal politics of the uncolonized independent African nation.
We strongly condemn Ethiopia’s decision to expel seven @UN officials whose work is critical to humanitarian relief. The United States calls for this decision to be reversed and will not hesitate to respond decisively.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 30, 2021
“The international community have to know that Ethiopia is asking the UN to send qualified leaders that knows z limit of their mandate & respect Ethiopia’s sovereignty. Also Ethiopia didn’t expelled all UN staffs, rather only 7 employees who undermine Ethiopia’s sovereignty,” reads one of the twits with hands-off Ethiopia Hashtag.
#UN Secretary-General has just released his statement.@AntonioGuterres was “shocked by the information that the Government of Ethiopia has declared seven UN officials, including senior UN humanitarian officials, as persona non grata.”https://t.co/sgVEiFzYlu@CNSozi @UN pic.twitter.com/PA7t5KPH6R
— UN Ethiopia (@UNEthiopia) September 30, 2021
“We Ethiopian people are really sad to hear this from UN gen secretary. You weren’t shocked when 1500 people from Maikadra,500 from Kobo, 500 from Galikoma were killed. But shocked when 7 workers are forced to leave the country peacefully,” another Ethiopian twited.
After the fall of Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) regime, which has dominated Ethiopian politics and economy for close to three decades between 1991 and April 2018, the new administration of Prime Minister Abiy has been under huge pressure by Western countries.
The former long-time ally of TPLF, the United States has been leading the anti-Abiy Ahmed administration political pressure by imposing sanctions after sanctions over the past few months. The pressure against the Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Administration by the U.S. and European countries has been mounting mainly after the TPLF’s last November attempt to return to power in Ethiopia with arms struggle has been failed.
The war instigated by TPLF, which attached the northern military base of Ethiopia on November 4, 2020 with the objective of controlling the heavy artilleries based in Tigray region, has led to the death of thousands and internal displacement of millions of Ethiopians. In addition, about 50,000 are also immediately exiled from Tigray Region to the neighboring Sudan, where the TPLF used to have military base during the arms struggle that brough the rebels to power in May 1991.
A few months later after the war between TPLF and Ethiopian soldiers Sudanese army has invaded and occupied the disputed terrifies, which where under the control of Ethiopia – A move considered by many as an attempt to rescue TPLF, which is now designated as a terrorist group by Ethiopian parliament, by diverting the attention of Ethiopian army.
“Ethiopia’s sovereignty is by no means negotiable! We have no reason to sit back and watch any force that has an agenda to destroy Ethiopia. We Ethiopians will not sell our sovereignty!” another Ethiopian twitted today with #HandsoffEthiopia.
No more regime change using aid organizations. Enough is enough!#HandsOffEthiopia.
🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹 pic.twitter.com/SnixcdZ4Rf— Abdinasir Shukri✍ (@siciid_shukri) October 1, 2021