Word for word, the Tigrigna word "drgoNa" comes from "drgo" which means food or ration given to a poor person by an order of an authority. It is usually associated with Abyssinian soldiers that were sent over to Eritrea to get food. There are horror stories of Eritrean women, children and the elderly suffering of hunger because they were forced to feed the drgogna armies that came their way year in year out. A friend of mine once told me his great grandmother killed herself as she heard a drgogna army had entered her village for the third consecutive rainy season and she had nothing to give them.

Without a doubt the TPLF government is behaving like the Tigrean warlords that lived in the 18th and 19th century. Warlords like Michael Sihul, Wube, Sbagadish, and Alula. All these used to frequently send their armies into Eritrea for nothing else but to pillage and plunder. In fact whenever famines hit Tigray Eritrea was the source of food for the Tigrean army. It mattered less whether Eritrea was itself stricken by famine or not. They were ordered, like what the Woyanes did in southwestern Eritrea, to go to Eritrea and live off the food poor Eritrean farmers had saved for their families.

If only Eritrean mothers from a century ago could come back and tell the horrors of the drgogna armies. If only the hills and plains of Ayla-Gundet, Hazomo, Meraguz, Mai-Chaada, Akran, Logo Sarda, Anbeset-Geleba could talk. They could tell details of property looted by drgogna armies that used to come frequently. If only the rivers Mareb and Belesa could have a mouth and speak, they could list how many people crossed them carrying stolen Eritrean property. If the water of aba-meTaE (in guHChia) could communicate it could reveal the booty it saw from the drgogna armies of Agew-Nguse, Rasi Bariyu, Wube, Alula and their likes. If the Eritrean land could talk, the world would have been shocked. The land could have narrated for us the repeated invasions and the all too familiar looting of property and animals. The drgogna army had been a constant thorn on the side of Eritrea farmers.

Of all the drgogna armies that had invaded Eritrea, those of Michael Sihul, Wube and Alula were the most notorious ones. For example Wube had looted the whole highland Eritrea in 1844, the plains of Semhar in 1849, and the land of the Baria and Kunama in 1850. The destruction of this warlord was so much that there is a saying in Tigrigna that says "bzeben wube zSememe wube kbl nebere."

Michael Sihul, was another notorious leader of a drgogna army. Besides invading Eritrea and looting he tried to uproot the whole inhabitants of Gundet and to resettle it with his own drgogna army. BTW in many instances the drgogna army was not composed of male members but also wives and children. As the plan was to live off on what Eritrea could provide the drgogna used to come with their family members. Imagine the burden the Eritrean population had to bear. Oral history has it that when the drgogna army of Ras Michael invaded Eritrea, his army had covered the whole region from Afelba-Akleguzay all the way to Afelba-Areza. No one knows how big his army was but it must have been huge as to make him boast that his army could empty the Red Sea by scooping. It is to this ignorant remark of Rasi Michael that the following poem was written:

"sdrabietka de'a keyguda'
serawitka de'a keywda'
qelay baHrido qediHka ywda'"

Alula's drgogna army is another one that will be remembered for what it did to the Baria and Kunama, to Halhal and Bogos as well as to highland Eritrea. It is to be recalled that the great famine of 1888-92 that devastated Ethiopia was a combination of both drought and rinderpest. What is sad was that the rinderpest was introduced into Tigray because Ra'si Alula's soldiers decided to pillage and plunder highland Eritrean villages. In the pretext of fighting the Italians the army of Tigray invaded Eritrea and as spoils of war took some cattle that was infected with rinderpest. The rinderpest was introduced into Eritrea by cattle the Italians brought from India to feed their troops circa 1887.

Out of greed the Tigrean army took Eritrean cattle and in the process introduced a deadly disease into their homeland. From Tigray the disease quickly swept over to other parts of Ethiopia. By 1890, only three years after its introduction into Tigray, the rinderpest disease had spread all the way to Ethiopia's border with Somalia and Kenya and had devastated the whole Horn of Africa. As the disease had killed all the oxen, the population was left without means of plowing its land. This resulted in a devastating famine of Biblical proportions and claimed more than 30% of the Ethiopian population. All this because of the greed of the Tigrean army. For this account read Mesfin Woldemariam's book "Rural Vulnerability to Famine in Ethiopia" (1986),

One European observer had this to say about that human tragedy:

"Here and there, were abandoned corpses, their faces covered with rags, horrible to see .. .. the dead awaited the hyenas, the living awaited death. .. .. We are accosted for help, and from their deathbeds suddenly rises a mob of skeletons whose bones can be seen under the taut skin as in the mummified skeleton of Saint Bernard. They try to follow us, they also crying out 'meskin', 'meskin' [cries for alms], exhausted, they fall down, attempt to rise, stumble, fall again and trail behind us on all fours, calling for help with groans and shrieks. .. .. I flee horrified, stupefied, shamed by my impotence, hiding my watch chain in shame, ashamed in my self of the breakfast which I had eaten, of the dinner which waited me.. ..¦" Quoted by Richard Pankhurst in "The Great Ethiopian Famine of 1888-92" (1964), p. 44-45.

A hundred years later, a Tigrean army and civilians are in Eritrea pillaging, plundering, and looting. It seems the lessons of a hundred years ago are not yet learned. The Tigrean army is introducing into Ethiopia another plague this time around too. But it would not be cattle devouring rinderpest anymore, but a far-reaching scourge instead. The problem will be that of an army and a civilian population armed with automatic rifles that are learning to take looting as a culture. The army that was given instructions to loot and steal civilian property from Eritrea will go on to do the same in Ethiopia. With the way Ethiopia is being ruled now, members of the army from one region will treat other areas of Ethiopia as foreign lands and will not refrain from ransacking villages and towns. A shaky truce might prevail between Eritrea and Ethiopia, but the troubles of Ethiopia from nearly a million undisciplined army is just starting and could have a devastating consequence. The end result could be far worse than that of the great famine from the late 1880s. With such kind of discipline in the Ethiopian army who is there to prevent from seeing another Somalia in Ethiopia? Pious Ethiopians should start praying that the country might not end up in the ditch the TPLF dug for Eritrea. As for Eritrea thank God that the Eritrean Defense Force takes discipline and order as virtue.

What the Woyane army took from Eritrea last week will be replaced, but the behavior and character that was instilled in the Ethiopian army in order to destroy Eritrea will sooner or later spill disaster into Ethiopia and the country could see a catastrophe it had never seen before.

As for the civilian Tigreans that came all the way from Tigray to loot Eritrean possessions, it can only be said shame on them. By their act they have burned the only bridge they had with their neighbors. Eritrea, the refuge and Jeddah for the too many Tigrean migrant workers and daily laborers, will never be the heaven they knew it to be. It might no more be possible for Tigreans to migrate to Eritrea looking for a better life. If welcoming Tigreans will prove hard for Eritreans, other Ethiopians will find it even harder to welcome a group that desires to thrive by looting. As hard as it is now for Tigreans to live among other Ethiopians it will be even worse tomorrow when and if the war with Eritrea stops. All this is due to the irresponsible and reckless leadership of the TPLF. It is unfortunate that many innocent and upright Tigreans will be associated with theft and robbery that they have nothing to do with for generation to come. What a tragedy!