ATLANTA — A group gathered outside the CNN Center on Thursday to protest war crimes and human rights violations they say are happening in Tigray region of Ethiopia.
According to Georgia State Patrol, the protests were peaceful and moved from the CNN center to the Georgia State Capitol at the end of the day.
The Atlanta demonstration was part of a larger string of protests organized by Stand With Tigray (SWT), a global campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the crimes committed against the Tigrayan people in Ethiopia.
The protest was originally posted on social media and includes 19 posters all with different locations for the same protest that took place Thursday.
SWT organized the protests from Atlanta to Stockholm, Sweden.
The global campaign is a recent project, founded in November 2020 in response to the civil war that began in Tigray when Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered a military offensive against Tigrayan leadership and its security forces.
The Tigrayan leadership aka Tigray People’s Liberation Front (T.P.F.L) is a political group of rebels that dominated Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Ahmed came to power.
The feud between Prime Minister Ahmed and Tigrayan leaders soon turned violent.
Protesters all over are gathering to raise awareness against the violence that has been reported during the civil war. There have been reports from witnesses, many confirmed by a U.N.-led investigation, of massacres, widespread sexual violence, and other human rights violations.
The war has also forced more than 2 million from their homes and pushed parts of Ethiopia into famine.
T.P.F.L is currently, along with its allies moving towards Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. They have also taken over two towns near the capital forcing the government to call a state of emergency.
In response, Prime Minister, Abiy Ahme is calling on citizens to arm themselves against the rebels.
In September President Biden signed an executive order threatening sweeping new sanctions that aim to stop the civil war and allow needed humanitarian aid to flow into the region.
For more information on how to attend SWD events visit their website here.