Comments by US Ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin Massinga reinforce dangerous narratives that fuel state-sponsored aggression.
By SHLOMO MOLLAMAY 28, 2025 03:01
The recent message shared on X/Twitter by US Ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin Massinga, while couched in the language of peace and humanitarian concern, unfortunately reflects a troubling mischaracterization of the existential threat faced by the Amhara people. It misrepresents the nature of the ongoing violence and inadvertently reinforces dangerous narratives that fuel state-sponsored aggression. Nowhere is this more evident than in how the statement addresses the Amhara people and the Fano resistance.
1. Misframing the nature of the genocidal war against the Amhara
The ambassador’s reference to “ongoing conflicts” and “internal conflicts” dangerously implies a symmetrical struggle between rival factions vying for political power. This framing deviates sharply from the reality on the ground.
What is unfolding in Ethiopia is not a civil war between equals. It is a systematic campaign of state-sponsored violence directed overwhelmingly against the Amhara population. Drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, and forced displacement are not incidental consequences of instability – they are the very instruments of an orchestrated campaign of ethnic repression. The Amhara are not combatants in a political contest; they are victims of an existential war waged against them by a state apparatus dominated by Oromumma hegemonic ideology.