Let it be known Eritrea is a troubled land: abandoned by its avuncular stepfather, it did not know where to turn.
Eritrea did not prepare itself to fight back the Italians for two reasons. It was so small and its citizens fragmented on religious and ethnic lines could not see itself carry the burden of armed struggle to liberate itself.
Likewise it did not want to claim it was part of Abyssinia, as it felt Abyssinia under the Amhara rulers who were more obsessed with the colonisation of weaker group of people in the south, west and eastern part, as well as Tigray what has been known as Ethiopia.
For lack of choice Eritrea tacitly preferred to stay ruled by the Italians and served as a military force, albeit derogatorily known as Ascari, under different Italian commanders in all the battles the Italians fought Abyssinians, Libya and also including against the British who came to liberate them from the colonial masters.
In 1950 the gov’t created a pension fund for nearly 140,000 #Eritrean Ascari who had served in the Italian Colonial Army. The amount was minimal (the equivalent of $100 yearly) and was paid through the Italian Embassy in Asmara.
Now the Eritreans are back occupying Tigray with flimsy excuses and their plan to colonise and exploit is fast fading like a dew and don’t know how to extricate themselves without blame and accountability.
For face-saving the Eritreans are embroiled in propaganda war fronts suggesting that they would resume war against Tigray at any time so to scare Tigrayans into thinking they ought to settle the conflict with the them amicably.
If this were to happen then the Eritreans would be embraced by world leaders and would go scotch free and convince their citizens that they opted for peace because of world politics. That way they would secure a favourable tum-thump and save themselves the indignity of macular.
The other front of their propaganda is that they are in Tigray and would remain in Tigray as long as the Ethiopian government did not request them to evacuate and leave.
The Eritreans live in cloud cuckoo land. Eritrea is a sovereign country and requires no permission to do business and/or carry out a military exposition outside the will of its own people.
Only mercenaries and racketeers do this sort of work for a commission. Unless Eritrea is an open and close mercenary nation carrying operations for a commission, then it wouldn’t have done what it did and wait for a request to act and cease its illegal activities.
One thing is clear the world ought to know: Tigray will not sit down and conduct peace negotiations with Eritrea. No one is legally bound to sit with mercenaries to do business. Old habits die hard: a Ascari is always Ascari, they can’t help it!
Belay Ambelay