Tigray Battle goes to K St.

By Scott Morgan

It appears that the situation in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia has galvanized some action in Washington. As usual the action is taking place in more than one area.

On March 18th, it was announced that the White House would be sending an envoy to Addis Ababa. The chosen person was Chris Coons (D-DE) a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Africa and also a former ranking member on the same Subcommittee. He is also considered to be a close political ally of President Biden. 

Within a short twenty four hours, reports emerged of some lobbying efforts in Washington that are being made by the Ethiopian Government through the embassy and the Tigray themselves have undertaken.

First of all, the Embassy has contracted with the lobbying firm Venable on a contract that expires at the end of April at a price of $35,000 per month according to paperwork that was filed with the U.S. Justice Department. This effort included outreach to at least three Democratic Senators. One of the successes of this effort was a phone call between Ambassador Fitsum Arega and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen.

The Tigray Community have not slouched either at trying to get their message heard inside the beltway. Earlier this month, the Tigray Center for Information and Communication, based in Alexandria, Virginia retained the services of the Von Batten-Montague-York to push the Biden Admnistration and Congress to enforce the removal of Eritrean Ground Forces from the Conflict Zone as well as to pressure the Ethiopian Government to allow Humanitarian Assistance and the appointment of an independent investigator to determine whether or not War Crimes have actually been committed in the Tigray Region.

There are several interesting points to be made:

• Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called upon Eritrea to remove its ground forces from Tigray. 
• The Secretary called the situation in Tigray a Genocide much to the chagrin of the Ethiopian Government as well.  
• The Biden Administration has announced plans for $52 Million in Humanitarian Aid to be made available for those suffering as well. 

This brings to light another interesting wrinkle in this story. Platinum Advisors DC retained the services of former US Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) as a subcontractor to lobby for supporting increased Humanitarian Aid to the Tigray region on behalf of JM International. This company is a real estate and petroleum distribution company based in Virginia.  It is not clear how much money will change hands in this effort 

A recent adage in American Politics says that "Never let a good crisis go to waste". That should be the new motto for K St. 

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