Ethiopian gov’t demands apology over CNN ‘disinformation’ campaigns on Tigray conflict

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian government has accused US-based Cable News Network (CNN) of standing behind a disinformation campaigns that it said are meant at distorting facts over what begun in November 2020 as a ‘law enforcement’ operation in the Tigray region.

This comes a month after the CNN ran a story in which the America-based news organization claimed that forces belonging to the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were just at the outskirts of Addis Ababa when they were about 400 kilometers away from the Ethiopian capital.

“It’s exactly one month since @CNN lied to the global community claiming Addis Ababa was under siege. As the ENDF keep clearing rebels out of key areas, CNN owes an apology to Ethiopia and the world for serving as instrument of instability through its disinformation,” Billene Seyoum, press secretary in the office of Prime Minister, said in a tweet.

On Thursday, the Ethiopian Government Communication Service (GCS) said in a statement that it has information that the US-based news service has intentions to lie to the international community over reports of genocide in the Tigray region which has been caught in a grisly conflict between federal government forces and the TPLF.

“The Government of Ethiopia has received credible information that CNN intends to misinform the world once again through a supposed report claiming genocide is taking place in the Tigray region. If ever there was a nefarious weaponization and deliberate misrepresentation of the word genocide, then it would have to be the ‘Tigray Genocide’, a narrative so unscrupulously constructed,” the Government Communication Service statement reads in part.

“The cries of genocide from the TPLF camps started to appear on social media from the outset of the conflict on November 4, 2020, the exact date of TPLF’s attack on Ethiopia’s northern Command. While TPLF was waging what it dubbed its “lightning strike” to decapitate Ethiopia’s army, it was simultaneously accusing its sworn enemies of genocide on the people of Tigray,” the statement added.

The statement said claim of “genocide was first and foremost debunked by the UN OHCHR and EHRC joint investigation.  While the sad state of war implies civilian casualties, Ethiopia has taken steps to minimize this, even at the cost of losing territory to the TPLF.”

The statement added that “there has not been any active combat or Federal Government presence in the Tigray region since June 2021. Rather, the TPLF has sent in fighters in human waves into the Afar and Amhara regions to undertake grave crimes against civilian populations. Which begs the question, where is the said genocide against the people of Tigray taking place? Here lies the deception of some international media that portrays the aggressor as a victim.”