Episode 85 - Understanding Tigray (w/ Vanessa Tsehaye)

This week, we cover the crisis in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, where civil war has been raging since last November. The conflict has lead to what may become the worst humanitarian crisis in the region in decades, with 350,000 Ethiopians facing famine conditions, and reports of sexual violence and ethnic cleansing. Brie speaks to Swedish-Eritrean human rights advocate Vanessa Tsehaye about the origins of the conflict, and why theories about the root of the conflict are so controversial on social media. Why does one political camp cast the Tigray People's Liberation Front as "terrorists," while another views the Ethiopian Federal Government as enabling and denying genocide? Vanessa attempts to explain how ethnic conflict, federalism, and colonialism are affecting the dispute, and how the American left should weight calls for humanitarian intervention against concerns about US imperialism. Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to join the Bad Faith Discord and instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend). Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).