Band Aid and TPLF

In 1974, there was famine in Northern part of Ethiopia which costed thousands of lives. The then Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sillassie hide the famine to cover up for his fame.

In 1984, famine came again in the same area of Northern Ethiopia. Many part of Ethiopia was not aware of the scale of the disaster. The then dictator gov’t tried to hide this from the eye of the world, but journalist Michael Buerk revealed this to the world in his BBC report.

His report caught the attention of Bob Geldof, a singer from Ireland. He took it and mobilized the music world for aid and they organized Band Aid. There was a music recorded by world famous singers and concerts were organized all over the world.

When this was happening, little known in another part of Ethiopia, almost the news was blocked by the dictator government. When the musicians organized aid money and collected millions of dollars and try to delivery help to the famine stricken area, Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Presidant of Ethiopia denied it blaming the then rebels of TPLF and he wanted to punish the people accusing them for harboring the rebels.

Then aid world helped by US gov’t found a link to the rebels and met them in Sudan to agree delivery without the knowledge of the Eth. Government. The rebels came with a sand full of many lorries covering only the upper part with food and showed it as if it was a food cheating the aid workers. They get paid millions of dollars and used it to buy weapon and to fight the government. But it was with a cost of human lives, hundreds of thousands died of famine while we were unaware of it in the other part of the country and the live aid band feeling that they helped, the money was misused by the then rebels TPLF and todays government of Ethiopia. TPLF is a criminal group who cheated the world and killed hundreds of thousands of people. This just come on top of thousands they killed while demonstrating and thousands languishing in prison till today. Just watch the Band aid and BBC documentary.

Interesting story for Sunday.