Protesters Against 'Genocide' in Tigray Block Washington Interstate
Demonstrators protesting against allegations of genocide in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region blocked Interstate 395 southbound on the George Mason Memorial Bridge in Washington on November 6.
Multiple posts on social media, see here and here, indicated that the action was to raise awareness of events in Tigray which the protesters described as “genocide.”
“We will be voice for the voiceless of our people in Tigray until @POTUS @SecBlinken @WhiteHouse act to stop the #TigrayGenocide,” user @Heaven_Axum wrote.
Al Jazeera reported Ethiopia has been accused of violating human rights by cutting off the people of Tigray from humanitarian aid and resources during an ongoing, armed regional conflict, which Ethiopian leadership denies.
Following a strike on a kindergarten in Tigray, which local media reported killed multiple people, including children, in late August, World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Tigray, said the region was under “siege” by the Ethiopian state, and claimed it had caused “starvation, deprivation & death of children.”
A spokesperson for the Ethiopian government denied there were civilian casualties in the August incident, according to Reuters, and the Ethiopian government accused the “military forces” of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of stoking conflict.
Videos filmed by Twitter user @foreigncurlss_ show people blocking Washington’s George Mason Memorial Bridge, also known as the 14th St Bridge Complex, holding Tigray and American flags on Sunday. Credit: @foreigncurlss_ via Storyful
Video Transcript
- Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- I stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- I stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan! Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- We must stop it now!
- Tigray!
- I stand with Tigray!
- I stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for? Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
[CHANTING]
- I stand with Tigray!
- I stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- We stand with Tigray!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan!
- Who are we?
- Tigrayan! Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do we fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- Who do fight for?
- Tigrayan!
- We must stop it now!
- We stand with Tigray!
