November 13, 2023

Washington Update: Letter to President Biden

One of only two stone bridges built over the Blue Nile during the reign of Emperor Fasilides in approximately 1660. Broken during World War II by Ethiopian patriot Colonel Tamrit to help fend off the advance of Mussolini's army.

To: President Joe Biden

Via: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

From: Mesfin Mekonen and 10 concern Ethiopian/American civic organizations

Re: Averting civil war in Ethiopia

Mr. President, I am writing as a longtime representative of the Ethiopian-American community to alert you to the imminent danger of a civil war in Ethiopia. I often corresponded with your staff when you served as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Tensions between the central government and the Amhara people have boiled over and have already resulted in armed conflict. If it is not stopped soon, the violence will grow into a civil war that will destabilize Ethiopia and spread to the entire Horn of Africa. The U.S. has a moral obligation to avert the war and protect human rights.

The U.S. must step in rapidly to facilitate a transition to a legitimate government and advocate for a process that will lead to a new constitution for Ethiopia. The conflict between the Amhara and the central government originates in the divide-and-rule and ethnic federalism created by the TPLF government and retained by the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad Ali.

The ethnic federalism imposed by the Abiy government is putting the country on a rapid downward spiral into violence that could soon spin out of control. The Oromo Liberation Army, along with the regional government in Ethiopia’s Wollega region, have massacred Amhara people and displaced over two million Amharas.

We, the Ethiopian-American civic organizations, ask the United States to help avert the civil war in Ethiopia before it is too late.

Ethiopian-Americans met on November 6 in the U.S. Senate Russell building, Kennedy Caucus Historic Room for the Ethiopia Constitutional Conference of the Diaspora, organized by ten concerned civic organizations: