Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonen warned over the weekend that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) aid shipments are being exploited to secretly resupply the TPLF. He said that “Special attention should be given to prevent equipment from being transferred to the TPLF. I have noticed there are efforts to transport more fuel than allowed and some banned equipment that can be used to carry out the terror group’s aims. Efforts by the customs commission and other entities to ensure control and surveillance of banned equipment should be boosted.”

This development is a clear provocation by ill-intended actors that operate under the cover of the UN in order to advance their unfriendly agenda against Ethiopia. It’s not the first time that this global body has been exploited to that end, but this latest such instance shows that they haven’t given up their old tricks. It’s politically convenient to operate in such a way since they can attempt to flip everything around each time Ethiopia calls them out by misportraying their host country as “being against the international community”.

In reality, however, the only rogue states are those that have weaponized the UN in such an illegal way. Nevertheless, because they’re dominant players in the international community, they believe that they can get away with it unscathed except for the self-inflicted damage that this causes to their reputations. This latest provocation is much more dangerous than prior ones though since it’s taking place in the context of the global systemic transition to multipolarity unprecedentedly accelerating since the start of Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.

The US-led West’s anti-Russian sanctions that were promulgated in response have artificially manufactured a global food crisis that’s expected to disproportionately affect African countries, many of which – including Ethiopia – rebuffed American pressure to vote against Russia at the UN while none of them have sanctioned it. These forced famines are essentially a Hybrid War weapon that’s being wielded against them as punishment for their principled neutrality towards the Ukrainian Conflict, which the declining US hegemon regards as absolutely unacceptable.

Ethiopia, which has historically been the cradle of Africa’s anti-imperialist movements, is especially disliked by the US since its principled neutrality towards America’s New Cold War with China was the reason why Washington victimized it through the TPLF-driven Hybrid War on Terror that began in November 2020. Just last week, the Ethiopian Embassy in London exposed The Economist for weaponizing fake news in what was arguably an attempt to provoke war with Sudan, and now it’s evident that there have also been efforts to exploit UN aid shipments in order to resupply the TPLF.

This triple whammy – the artificially manufactured food crisis, The Economist’s information warfare campaign to provoke war with Sudan, and now the UN being exploited as cover to resupply the TPLF – all very strongly suggest that the Hybrid War of Terror on Ethiopia that had previously calmed down from its climax last fall is once again intensifying. The last-mentioned of these three provocations hints that rogue states want to restart the hot phase of that conflict precisely at the moment when Africa’s facing a famine and coincidentally at the same time as The Economist wants an Ethiopian-Sudanese war.

The convergence of these three threats makes each of them much more dangerous than if they were being faced separately. The deliberate targeting of Ethiopia isn’t just meant to advance those rogue state’s preexisting agenda against it, but also to symbolically punish all of Africa for its principled neutrality towards the Ukrainian Conflict since Addis hosts the African Union’s headquarters. America is also enraged that the continent’s countries are still interested in purchasing Russian grain despite the fake news that it was stolen from Ukraine, hence why these malicious efforts are intensifying as of late.

Once again, Ethiopia is being punished as an innocent victim of the US’ New Cold Wars with China and now Russia in order to send a statement to the rest of Africa that it shouldn’t dare continue practicing an independent foreign policy towards those two. Nevertheless, these thuggish tactics already failed once so there’s a precedent to expect them to fail again, but it’s still important to raise maximum awareness across the world of the modus operandi behind these latest interconnected provocations, especially the most recent one related to exploiting the UN as cover for resupplying the TPLF.