I don’t want to say that Texas is not suffering. However, in all honestly, things are really not that bad, and I am being serious. Yes, being out electricity is not fun, or rolling blackout. Water problems are also difficult to deal with. It is unfortunate by American standards, but really, it’s not all that bad, and for all of the complaining, people will be able to go back to eating their fried chicken and super-sized bacon-wrapped deep-fat, sugar-encrusted fast-food meals with a triple-tank of soda in front of a television in a warm room, with the only difference being they have to do it in three weeks, and not tomorrow. But it is unlikely that one is really going to suffer from this- and I mean really suffer. For example, not being able to know if one will be able to eat or drink anything at all (even muddy water and moldy food), and at the same time, may get shot, kidnapped, raped, or murdered by marauding bandits.
That said, the latter example I gave above is what some people are going through right now in Tigray, as millions displaced and at risk of starvation- real starvation, not the “they-ran-out-of-the-special-at-the-fast-food-place” starvation -and murder from marauding soldiers or bandits are now facing electrical blackouts.
Ethiopia’s conflict-torn northern Tigray region has been hit by an electricity blackout, the government said Wednesday, blaming the outage on the ousted ruling party in the semi-autonomous zone.
Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.
He declared victory after pro-government troops took regional capital Mekele in late November, though the TPLF vowed to fight on, and clashes have persisted in the region, hampering efforts to deliver sorely-needed humanitarian assistance.
In a press statement, the state utility firm Ethiopia Electricity Power (EEP) said TPLF “remnants” had attacked a high-voltage line carrying electricity to Mekele, “causing total electricity blackout in the region”.
The statement didn’t mention the date of the alleged attack, however a resident of Mekele told AFP the power had gone out on Tuesday evening.
The resident said fear was growing in the capital of an offensive by the TPLF, with security forces reportedly digging trenches on the outskirts of the city.
He said tension was high, with red and yellow flags associated with the TPLF and red and yellow balloons cropping up around the city in recent days.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda on Tuesday gave an interview to a US-based television station, denying they were planning an imminent offensive.
“Currently, we’re not in a hurry to free our cities. The cities are our own. We will do the utmost effort to ensure our cities can’t be centres of destruction,” Getachew told the Tigrai Media House (TMH).
Separately on Wednesday, The Tigray council of religious institutions — representing Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholic, Islamic and evangelical churches — issued a statement calling for the withdrawal of forces from Eritrea and neighbouring Amhara regional state from the region. (source)
Watch Tigray closely. So few are talking about it, but with the trends of massive social and political destabilization, poverty, and now this major war in Tigray where millions of lives are at risk, it could prompt another 2015-2016 style refugee crisis.
Texas is bad, but it could be Tigray, and that is far worse and yet almost no one is talking about it.
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