Likewise, when Eritrea and Ethiopia officially reopened their border in 2018, both Eritreans and Tigrayans poured into each other's territories—reconnecting with lost relatives, doing business, trading, and beginning to rebuild a normal relationship. Naturally, the Eritrean dictator and his inner circle were not pleased with this development. They desperately tried to exclude Tigrayans from the spirit of Medemer, bypassing Mekelle and instead reaching out to Gondar and Addis Ababa to forge selective alliances.
This happened in 2018.
In an attempt to sabotage the growing people-to-people connection, the dictator’s media resorted to scare tactics. They accused Tigrayans of buying the practically worthless Nakfa currency with Ethiopian Birr in an effort to cause inflation and economic instability. They also blamed Tigrayans for acts of sabotage, including an alleged assassination attempt on General Sebhat Ephrem—despite strong indications that the real perpetrators were the dictator himself and his security apparatus.
Today, after the Oromo political forces used the dictator for their own ends and then cast him into the dustbin of history, he and his clique have returned—without any shame or embarrassment—to lecture us about the importance of Tsemdo, and how Eritreans and Tigrayans supposedly share a common fate and destiny.
It's the equivalent of telling your mathematics teacher that 2 + 2 = 4—or trying to reinvent fire.
