The Holocaust, Rwandan genocide and Armenian genocide, at one point none of those were history, they were “today” for those living in that time. We read about them in history but are we able to see and call them out in our current lives? I wonder if New Hampshire realizes genocide is happening today? One of which is in Tigray, Ethiopia where I was born and lived for the first 6 years of my life before coming here.
For over 300 days now, the Ethiopian and the Eritrean governments have been waging genocide on Ethiopia’s northernmost region, Tigray. Internet and telecommunications have been blocked among access to humanitarian aid, food, water, medicine, banks and other basic necessities. I have lost family and friends to extra-judicial killings and massacres. Those who managed to survive have become victims of weaponized hunger and rape. I have my mother and three younger siblings there. I’m not sure if they are even alive.
The Tigrayan diaspora have been advocating relentlessly for nearly 10 months yet our calls seem to fall on deaf ears. Do people not know or do they just not care? The international community said “never again” after Rwanda. Will it take a history textbook in order for people to realize “never again” has happened again?
Samrawit Silva
Bow