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Over 400 000 people have "crossed the threshold into famine" in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region, a senior UN official said on Friday, appealing for urgent humanitarian action to help the millions affected by the brutal eight-month long conflict.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
While delivering the Thabo Mbeki lecture, Professor 'Funmi Olonisakin said the war in Ethiopia's Tigray region was evidence of the shortcomings of the African Union.
Today is the 275th day of 2020. There are 91 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT2008: The last czar and his family were victims of political repression, Russia's Supreme Court rules, formally restoring the Romanov name and furthering a Kremlin effort to encourage patriotism by celebrating the country's czarist past.�OTHER EVENTS
The Congo, in west-central Africa, is bordered by the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, the Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one-quarter the size of the U.S. The principal rivers are the Ubangi and Bomu in the north and the Congo in the west, which flows into the Atlantic. The entire length of Lake Tanganyika lies along the eastern border with Tanzania and Burundi.
Transitional government.
Formerly the Belgian Congo, this territory was inhabited by ancient Negrito peoples (Pygmies), who were pushed into the mountains by Bantu and Nilotic invaders. The American correspondent Henry M. Stanley navigated the Congo River in 1877 and opened the interior to exploration. Commissioned by King Leopold II of the Belgians, Stanley made treaties with native chiefs that enabled the king to obtain personal title to the territory at the Berlin Conference of 1885.
Leopold accumulated a vast personal fortune from ivory and rubber through Congolese slave labor; 10 million people are estimated to have died from forced labor, starvation, and outright extermination during Leopolds colonial rule. His brutal exploitation of the Congo eventually became an international cause célèbre, prompting Belgium to take over administration of the Congo, which remained a colony until agitation for independence forced Brussels to grant freedom on June 30, 1960. In elections that month, two prominent nationalists won: Patrice Lumumba of the leftist Mouvement National Congolais became prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu of the ABAKO Party became head of state.
But within weeks of independence, the Katanga Province, led by Moise Tshombe, seceded from the new republic, and another mining province, South Kasai, followed. Belgium sent paratroopers to quell the civil war, and the United Nations flew in a peacekeeping force.
Kasavubu staged an army coup in 1960 and handed Lumumba over to the Katangan forces. A UN investigating commission found that Lumumba had been killed by a Belgian
By MAGGIE MICHAEL Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Yemen's Iran-backed rebels on Monday dismissed the U.S. move to designate them a terrorist organization in the final days of the Trump administration while a leading aid agency warned such a designation would deal another 'devastating blow' to the impoverished and war-torn nation. The planned designation, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late Sunday, would take effect a day before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20. It was not clear whether Biden would overturn the decision. Yemen is mired in a disastrous humanitarian crisis, with millions of people in […]
The post Yemen's rebels defiant as aid agencies fear US terror label appeared first on Black News Channel.
The UN Security Council is planning to discuss Western Sahara diplomats have said, after US President Donald Trump recognised Morocco's sovereignty over the disputed region.
[VOA] Kampala -- Ethiopian authorities said on Saturday that Eritrean troops had started withdrawing from Tigray, where they have been fighting on the side of Ethiopian forces in a war against the region's fugitive leaders.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- Residents of Shire and Adi Daero towns of Tigray region have expressed their readiness to stand firm with the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and the Interim Administration to restore peace and stability in the region.
[Nation] The African Union (AU) has launched an inquiry into human rights violations in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, becoming the first continental effort to investigate the conflict that began in November 4 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive against its regional forces.
[Premium Times] The report by the United Nations says parts of the population in the four hotspots of highest concern are already experiencing a critical hunger situation.
UNICEF said some 2.3 million minors are struggling to access treatment for malnourishment, critical vaccines, emergency medicines, water and sanitation.
The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Thursday that the grave humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region is deteriorating, with no sign of Eritrean troops withdrawing and alarmingly widespread reports of systematic rape and other sexual violence mainly by men in uniform.
The post UN: Tigray's Humanitarian Crisis Worsens, No Eritrean Exit appeared first on Los Angeles Sentinel.
Disturbing details of mass killings are being reported in the northern region of Ethiopia after an ongoing feud between opposing political groups escalated to violence in recent days. While much of the details about the violence has been difficult to confirm due to a communication blackout in the area, Amnesty International said dozens of people, potentially hundreds, were stabbed or hacked to death on Monday in the town of Mai-Kadra in the Tigray region. According to CBS News, tensions escalated last week when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an attack on local officials in Tigray, accusing them of attacking a military base in the region. Civilians are now caught up in the ongoing violence between the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front. With roads blocked in the area and journalists unable to get access, Amnesty International used its Crisis Evidence Lab to digitally verify graphic photographs and videos of dead bodies in Mai-Kadra. "We have...
[The Conversation Africa] At the launch of bitcoin in 2009 the size of the potential of the underlying technology, the blockchain, was not fully appreciated.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Monday the Tigray region's dissident leaders had fled west of the regional capital after weeks of fighting but indicated federal forces were monitoring them closely and would attack them soon.
Abiy, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, this month ordered military operations against leaders of Tigray's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in response to what he said were TPLF-organised attacks on Ethiopian federal army camps.
More than three weeks of fighting between federal soldiers and pro-TPLF forces has left thousands dead in the northern region, and prompted tens of thousands of refugees to flee across the border into Sudan.
\"I want them to hear me: yesterday evening, around midnight, we saw them from the situation room in the area between Hagere Selam and Abiy Addi,\" Abiy said in remarks to lawmakers, referring to two towns west of the Tigray capital Mekele.
\"We didn't attack them at night because as they retreated they took their wives, children and abducted soldiers... But this will not continue.\"
The fighting has been a dramatic escalation of tensions between Abiy and the leaders of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before anti-government protests swept Abiy to office in 2018.
Abiy said on Saturday the military operations were \"completed\" after federal forces claimed control of the Tigray regional capital Mekele.
The TPLF leaders, however, have repeatedly vowed to fight on as long as federal forces are on Tigrayan soil.
Their exact whereabouts remain unknown.
'Mekele is ours'
As the Ethiopian military bore down on Mekele last week, global concern mounted about a possible bloodbath in a city that, before the conflict, had a population of half a million.
A communications blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to verify claims from both sides about how the fighting is going.
On Monday, Abiy claimed soldiers did not kill any civilians as they took over Mekele and other cities in Tigray.
\"Mekele is ours, it was built with our own resources. We are not going to destroy it,\" he said. \"Not even a single person was harmed by the operation in Mekele.\"
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that hospitals in Mekele were flooded with trauma patients, though it did not specify how the injuries were sustained.
Abiy also dismissed claims from TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael that airstrikes had resulted in many civilian casualties.
As Abiy tries to shift towards helping Tigray recover, the national human rights body called Monday for telecommunications to be restored and for water, electricity, and health services to resume.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is government-affiliated but independent, also noted \"complaints of ethnic profiling\" including \"forced leave from work\" and travel restrictions.
\"EHRC is gravely concerned that while there is no government policy nor legal framework condoning ethnic profiling, security measures designed t
[VOA] Hawzen -- On the outskirts of Hawzen, Ethiopia, rocks and dirt cover the bodies of war victims in shallow graves.
[Monitor] By Agencies
Thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced after a government-led military campaign against regional forces in November last year.
According to the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF), more than 7,000 captive Ethiopian soldiers have walked from Abdi Eshir, about 75 km southwest of Mekele, streets of the capital of Ethiopia's Tigray for four days.
[The Conversation Africa] After two postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic and later for logistical challenges, millions of Ethiopians go to the polls on Monday. Held in the midst of historic domestic challenges - not least a war in Tigray region and instability in Western Oromia region - this election will be significant for several reasons. Here is why.
Many soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government task force for Tigray said on Wednesday.
[Ethiopian Herald] ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's 6th round general elections would be a historic milestone as it is highly expected to address long -awaited citizens' quest for democracy , politicians so remarked. All Ethiopian Social Movement Member Abera Yemaneab told local media that he is so hopeful that the upcoming general elections would be credible and offer a glimmer of hope for Ethiopia's democracy Abera added that the elections would for sure bring about socio-political freedom and equality despite various shortcomings
Ethiopia’has called for the African Union to “immediately cease” a new commission of inquiry into allegations of abuse in the nation’s Tigray region.
[DW] As Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sends troops into the Tigray region, the country could be on the brink of a civil war.
Jano Admasi, a resident of the small farming village of Bisober, said soldiers killed escaping civillians, including her son.
Emergency workers said they had been denied access to the site of the bombing, some 30km west of the regional capital Mekelle
[MAP] Rabat -- The security and stability challenges facing Africa, and which manifest themselves in the multiplication of conflicts and crises, require a synergy of efforts and a concerted and united response from all, underlined, Sunday in Rabat, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Mohcine Jazouli.
