Ethiopia. Genocide in Tigray. FAO speculates on people tragedy, alongside the Abiy Ahmed Ali regime

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has approved funds of $ 10 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to increase the supply of fertilizers to support farmers in the region of the Tigray.

The funds (disbursed in the form of a loan) are part of UN commitments to FAO to ensure the supply of fertilizers that should help Tigray farmers sow their fields during the critical planting season. However, this support must be delivered and applied by the end of August.

“If farmers receive the inputs they need, they will be able to harvest and start consuming agricultural products as early as October 2022. These crops would cover their food needs for at least six months and, at best, until harvest. next for a significant portion of families, with a surplus to sell, ”said David Phiri, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for East Africa and Interim Representative for Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO’s Office for Emergencies and Resilience, stressed wider implications. “There is a small window of opportunity to prevent severe hunger by providing critical agricultural inputs and allowing farmers to produce enough food for the population, thereby preventing a potential increase in humanitarian needs,” Paulsen explained.

FAO said that, with good rainfall patterns, coupled with favorable prospects, the season offers a crucial and cost-effective opportunity to improve food production and availability across the region.

The United Nations agency and its partners have so far procured just over 19,000 tons of fertilizer, or 40% of the needs. This is enough to meet the needs of around 380,000 families. An additional 12,000 tons were purchased through the CERF loan, along with a similar allocation by the FAO.

We are shocked to see that FAO and the United Nations speak about support for agriculture in the Tigray region, even promising a good harvest season by placing the speeches in a framework of normal situation as there is absolutely nothing normal. Since the two Warlords: Abiy Amhed Ali and Isias Afwerki have decided to invade the Tigray to eliminate the political opponent TPLF (Tigry People’s Liberation Front) and punish an entire ethnic group, agricultural activities have stopped, creating first acute food insecurity and starvation after six months among the population of 7 million Ethiopians of Tegaru origin.

Many agricultural fields would have been mined. There is a lack of fuel needed for agricultural machinery and for distributing agricultural products in urban centers by road transport. There is no water to irrigate the fields and electricity to grind cereals and so on. All these objective difficulties created by the Addis Ababa and Asmara regimes are well known to FAO experts but not mentioned.

There is even talk of the “sale” of food surplus without mentioning that Tigray has been subjected to a state of siege since June 2021. There is no mention of the daily difficulties created by the federal government to prevent the access of UN convoys to the region by virtue of the humanitarian blockade against Tigray. What is more serious is the absolute silence on the ongoing genocide against the Tegaru population conceived, wanted and implemented by the federal regime of Addis Ababa.

Between 250,000 and 500,000 civilians have died in Tigray, including an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 direct homicides, 150,000 to 200,000 starvation deaths and more than 100,000 deaths caused by lack of health care. Questre are the figures, ironically given by the United Nations while refusing to declare genocide in Tigray.

Of the 31,000 tons of fertilizers that FAO purchased, only 7,000 were distributed to farmers in Tigray. The rest lie in warehouses in Addis Ababa as the federal government is preventing them from being sent to Tigray in all possible ways.

Beyond the damage comes insult. FAO bought the fertilizers through the Ethiopian government. Sources from Ethiopian civil society report that the purchase was made in opaque circumstances and the suppliers chosen from Ethiopian firms belonging to Amhara and Oromo entrepreneurs nearby or an integral part of the government who would have applied prices higher than those of the market.

The purchasing procedures would have been carried out by the Ethiopian FAO staff, ideologically and politically close to P.M. Abiy regime and economically colluding with the beneficiary suppliers. Expatriate staff would have limited themselves to monitoring bureaucratic procedures formal compliance without asking too many questions about the prices applied and the methodologies for choosing suppliers.

Unfortunately, these allegations will be difficult to verify as FAO, like all other UN humanitarian agencies, is not subject to external audits or the obligation to publish the procurement procedures carried out. An internal audit of these agencies certifies the correct compliance with procedures, accounting and the fairness of prices. In short, the UN Agencies implement a self-certification, which can only be positive, to be offered to international donors, including Italy.

Tigray government, democratically elected in September 2020 and still in office, has not been involved in either the fertilizer purchase or distribution process, except marginally. This is a clear political choice made by FAO in order not to irritate the Addis Ababa regime which considers the TPLF a terrorist organization.

One gets the impression that the 7,000 tons of fertilizer (out of 31,000) distributed to Tigrinya farmers so far serve as a red herring for the federal government, which demonstrates its “generosity” in “helping” the population of Tigray and FAO in order to apply for additional funds.

Finally, it should be clarified that, due to the Machiavellian bureaucracy of the UN Agencies, about 60% of the funds received from UN and International donors are used to cover operating expenses, employee salaries, logistical and office expenses. So even the 10 million dollars received from FAO will be managed “as usually” and their use will be justified by simple self-certifications.

The distribution of fertilizers will not solve the hunger problem in Tigray as no action is planned against the Addis Ababa regime to end the siege and humanitarian blockade of the region. Worse still, FAO fertilizers will be yet another humanitarian weapon in the hands of the Abiy regime to increase pressure on the TPLF to accept an unconditional surrender disguised as peace agreements.

But all of this is beyond the concern of FAO expatriates working in Ethiopia. Like their colleagues from other UN agencies, they enjoy excellent salaries (from 6 to 12 thousand dollars) to which are added benefits of all kinds for them and their families, arriving at monthly financial packages ranging from 8 to 14 thousand dollars. Compared to the average annual income of the Ethiopian population, these monthly packages are equivalent to 8 to 15 years of wages for a normal Ethiopian citizen.