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[RFI] Ethiopia's army captured the town of Alamata, in southern Tigray, 115 kilometres from the regional capital Mekelle, according to a statement on Monday by the Ethiopian government, as a conflict between the federal government and Tigray region continues to escalate.
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
The man faced weapons charges and had her name \"on a list.\"
Two years ago President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the UNHRC, the White House said that the decision did not mean that the country would retreat from its stance on human rights — a cause the administration accused the council of betraying.
Now, African countries are pushing for the UN’s top rights body to launch a high-level investigation into “systemic racism” and police violence in the United States and beyond, The text was the subject of heated discussions in Geneva ahead of a so-called “urgent debate” on the topic at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday.
The draft resolution, introduced by the African group, condemns “racially discriminatory and violent practices perpetrated by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent and structural racism endemic to the criminal justice system, in the United States of America and other parts of the world.”
The commission, the text said, should probe “systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and of people of African descent in the United States” and elsewhere by law enforcement agencies.
UNHRC, founded in 2006, is designed to review and investigate human rights concerns in U.N. countries, whether they are members of the council or not.
Burundi is kicking out the World Health Organization’s top official in the country just days before the presidential election and after the WHO raised concerns about crowded political rallies.
The WHO Africa regional chief, Matshidiso Moeti, described Mulombo as an “extremely competent person” and said the WHO was communicating with Burundi “to clarify and understand the reasoning for the decision they have taken.”
The day that election campaigning in Burundi began late last month, images circulated online of crowded political rallies with President Pierre Nkurunziza in attendance.
The Africa CDC chief, John Nkengasong, on Thursday called Burundi’s action “unfortunate” and said any differences should be addressed by dialogue instead of actions that affect the pandemic response,
\t“We don’t have the luxury of kicking out the WHO,” he told reporters.
Burundi is using virus restrictions to limit election observers, however, telling the East African regional bloc that any arriving foreigners would face a 14-day quarantine.
Ethiopia has said that forces loyal to the ruling party in the Tigray region had fired into neighbouring Amhara region.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- Ethiopia reaffirms its capability and resolve to manage and handle its own rule of law operation without any external intervention, Office the Prime Minister said.
By Micha Green AFRO D.C. Editor mgreen@afro.com While COVID-19 canceled a lot of cultural and social events, the pandemic has not stopped protests and the fight for equity and justice- as is the case with the March on Washington Film Festival (Sept. 20-27), which is virtually continuing its tradition of serving as a legacy project […]
The post March On Washington Film Festival: Shedding Light On “Who Tells the Story” appeared first on Afro.
DRESSED in a mini-skirt and blouse, Esther Kamupunga stood in semi-darkness waiting for men looking for sex - the latest Zimbabwean to lose her job in a deepening economic crisis, worsened by the new coronavirus. When the first COVID-19 case was detected in March, Zimbabwe rapidly went into lockdown, and the 24-year-old single mother and waitress was laid off in the eastern city of Mutare. “Life was better until the advent of this coronavirus. Our business came to a standstill due to lockdown … unfortunately I was one of the people who were retrenched,” she said, shielding her face from passing car headlights. “I have two children. I could not watch them going to bed without eating anything. I had no option but to follow some friends to this shopping centre,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, declining to publish her real name. The southern African nation is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, with crippling hyperinflation, unemployment, strikes by public workers and shortages of food, medicine and foreign currency. Commercial sex workers and charities providing them with health care services said the number of women selling sex has increased, particularly young girls facing hunger at home. “We have a lot of cases coming to us of girls who were now engaged in transactional sex because of the increase in the household poverty,” said Beatrice Savadye, director of Roots Africa, a local charity supporting young people. Savadye said she received 350 reports of children having sex in exchange for money or gifts from March to June — double the previous year — in Mazowe, a mining town 40 km north of Harare. Her charity has been giving food parcels to hungry families. Ordinary Zimbabweans say life is difficult, with inflation above 700%, rocketing prices for basic goods, electricity and petrol, and lagging salaries - prompting teachers to refuse to return to work without a pay rise last month. “Hunger drives us into sex trade,” said Hazel Zemura, who has sold sex for a decade and works for Women Against All Forms of Discrimination, which runs health programmes for sex workers. “As our incomes, like the cross border trading — the importation of weaves and makeup kits from China for resale — got eroded during the lockdown, we had to turn to men for survival.” The latest government data shows 16% of Zimbabweans were unemployed in 2019, but many regard this as an underestimate. The lockdown, followed by a curfew in July, forced traders off the streets, while the closure of Zimbabwe’s borders for all non-essential travel cut off a lifeline for 1 million informal cross-border traders, said economist Victor Bhoroma. “COVID-19 has exacerbated an already dire situation in terms of employment,” the independent analyst said from the capital Harare, adding that about 6 million Zimbabweans who work in small businesses and informal trade were severely affected. “The lockdowns in the tourism and hospitality sector, transport, aviation and leisure services, manufacturing, fast food and retailing and sports have resulte
In particular, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a regional political organisation that had major dominance over the old revolutionary front, has now emerged as a major political foe to Abiy's Prosperity Party.
As a result, Ethiopia's road to democracy and national elections, which were due to be held in August, is now facing two challenges: a global pandemic, and deteriorating relations between the Tigray regional state and the Prosperity Party, which is in charge of the federal government, and the remaining eight regions and two city administrations.
By holding an election without the supervision of the National Electoral Board, the Tigray People's Liberation Front is undermining Ethiopia's federal constitutional system.
Finally, unless addressed, the deteriorating relations between the federal government and the Tigray region could further unravel Ethiopia's dangerously designed federal system that in any case, is in need of major revision.
For democracy to take root in Ethiopia, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front's defiance to the country's constitutional order must resolved.
Ethiopia on Friday appointed a new head of Tigray region, one week after parliament voted to remove the executive Addis Ababa deems rebellious.
Mulu Nega's appointment was announced by PM Abiy Ahmed via Twitter.
On the basis of the decision of the House of Federation and the Council of Ministers Regulation "Concerning the Provisional Administration of the Tigray National Regional State", Dr. Mulu Nega has been appointed as the Chief Executive of the Tigray Regional State. 1/2
— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 13, 2020
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.
A Haitian-American legislator has strongly condemned what she describes as the “egregious and inhumane” treatment meted out to a 33-year-old Black man during a New York Police Department (NYPD) enforcement of the social distancing mandate of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic last weekend.
Louis said she is calling on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea to hold all officers involved in “egregious and inhumane treatment” of Donni Wright accountable “and assure that our communities will be treated fairly.”
“A tale of two cities has never been more prevalent at a time when America’s biggest city and the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic should be united,” added Louis, co-chair of the Council’s Women’s Caucus and vice co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.
“As we cope with our new reality, black and brown communities have been outspoken and outraged by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and our City’s response to this pandemic.
Louis said the social distancing rules apply to all New York City residents without exemption, but noted that recent incidents of “noncompliance and inconsistent NYPD enforcement have proven otherwise.
A Black college student in Texas said campus police stormed into her dorm room with their guns drawn after a group of mostly white students falsely accused her of a crime. This incident happened Sept. 14 at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, about 160 miles southeast of Dallas. Attorney Randall Kallinen said […]
The post Black Texas college student says police stormed into dorm after false report appeared first on DefenderNetwork.com.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that requires publicly traded corporations who have their headquarters in California to appoint directors from “underrepresented communities” to their boards. “Underrepresented communities” are specifically identified in the law as Black, Latino, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Natives. Companies also have the option […]
The post Racial Diversity Law for California Corporation Boards first appeared on Post News Group.
… Civil War sites. But for Black Americans, Charleston was Ellis Island rewritten … in Charleston Harbor, the International African American Museum is rising to tell …
FALMOUTH, Trelawny - Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie is expected to meet with the management of Golden Age Home later today to investigate claims by a former resident that he was discharged and dumped at an 'abandoned building' with no electricity or door in downtown Kingston.
As the ruling party of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region fires rockets at the capital of neighbouring Eritrea, we look at the crisis stoking fears of a devastating conflict in Africa's second most populous country.
News24 went back in time to dig out the most explosive testimony the Zondo commission has heard so far.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, more commonly known as Al-Shabaab (meaning youth), is a clan-based jihadist terrorist group in East Africa. Originating as the militant youth wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (ICU), which took over southern Somalia in June 2006, the group splintered off following the defeat of the Council in December 2006 to continue violent insurgency against the Somali Transitional Government and its allies in Ethiopia and Kenya.
It is the largest militant group, numbering around 7,000, fighting to overthrow the Somalian government and aims to control territory within Somalia in order to establish a society based upon rigid interpretations of Sharia Law. Al-Shabaab’s unity, however, has been affected by numerous internal conflicts due to the fractured nature of the organization, competing clan loyalties, and debates between nationalist goals and the goals of Gulf-based transnational terror.
Al-Shabaab’s goals include promoting local insurrection, establishment of a fundamentalist Muslim society, and eventual regional and global jihad under Wahhabism and Salafi Jihadism, extreme Sunni ideologies that count among its adherents other jihadist groups such as Al-Qaeda. To highlight this relationship, Al-Shabaab was founded by Somali extremists educated in the Middle East with tutelage and support from Osama Bin Laden. In fact, many members of Al-Shabaab’s leadership got their start fighting along Bin Laden in Afghanistan during the 1990s.
Returning home to a Somalia which had no effective government, Al-Shabaab’s leaders such as Ahmed Abdi Godane, who held the top post of the terrorist organization until his death by U.S. drone strike in September 2014, sought to establish a local political and religious system in accordance with their Salafist beliefs.
The ICU briefly gained control of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in December 2006 until they were driven out by a coalition of Somalian and Ethiopian troops. Following that defeat Al-Shabaab initiated guerilla assaults, suicide
Around 200 people turned out Monday for a protest in a poor Nairobi neighbourhood against police violence linked to the deaths of 15 people nationwide since the authorities imposed a curfew to fight coronavirus.
Kenya's Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) reported last week it had received 87 complaints against police since the dusk-to-dawn curfew and heightened security measures were imposed on March 27.
In recent days, cities around the world have seen massive protests against racism and police violence prompted by last month's police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man in the US state of Minnesota.
In April, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the police of imposing the coronavirus curfew in a \"chaotic and violent manner from the start\", sometimes whipping, kicking and teargassing people to force them off the streets.
On Thursday, the IPOA announced six police officers would be arrested and prosecuted - one for Moyo's death; another for shooting dead a secondary school teacher while responding to a burglary at a market in western Siaya; and four others for seriously assaulting a man during an arrest.
By Jocelyn Gecker and Michael Liedtke Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year's most crucial back-to-school supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found. The world's three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts they have a shortage of nearly 5 million laptops, in some cases exacerbated by Trump administration sanctions on Chinese suppliers, according to interviews with over two dozen U.S. schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer […]
The post AP EXCLUSIVE: US faces back-to-school laptop shortage appeared first on Black News Channel.
Dear Editor,
In view of the current political stalemate and anticipated crisis in Guyana, where a barefaced and prolonged attempt to steal the will of the Guyanese electorate by the losing coalition in order to impose itself on the people by remaining in power, we the defenders of democracy plead with all the ABCE, EU, OAS, CARICOM countries and like-minded others, to stay the course you have been engaged in since March 2nd 2020, in your strong defence of democracy in Guyana.
The article Help of all democratic governments and institutions needed for democracy to prevail in Guyana appeared first on Stabroek News.
The Second Italo-Abyssinian War was Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia, a process it began after the 1885 Partition of Africa. Italy was defeated in its first attempt at conquest at the battle of Adwa in 1896, allowing Ethiopia to become the only African nation to remain free of European control. Italian colonial forces however still remained in neighboring Eritrea and Somalia, and it was only a matter of time before the two nations would clash again.
The prospect of war increased dramatically after the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, took control of Italy in 1922. He sought Ethiopia for its resources but also to salvage the pride of the only European nation defeated by an African country. Taking Ethiopia would have also completed the Italian domination over the Horn of Africa.
The initial conflict that sparked the war took place at Wal Wal, an oasis in the Ogaden Desert in 1934. On November 22, 1934, Italian forces marched fifty miles into Ethiopia and clashed with Ethiopian troops at Wal Wal, leaving one hundred and fifty Ethiopians and two Italians dead. The League of Nations evaluated the conflict and exonerated both nations, although Italy was the clear aggressor. Great Britain and France, which dominated the League, hoped to prevent Italy from becoming an ally of Nazi Germany. Taking advantage of this situation, Mussolini signed agreements with France and the United Kingdom, thus isolating Ethiopia and forcing it to face Italy alone.
The impending attack from the Italians prompted Emperor Haile Selassie I to recruit and mobilize the Army of the Ethiopian Empire. His approximately half-million-man legion was armed with mostly bows and spears, with the exception of those who owned outdated rifles, some of which remained from the conflict forty years earlier. Only a quarter of the army had any combat training. With a miniscule arsenal of outdated artillery and anti-tank or aircraft guns, and a handful of planes including some piloted by African Americans and other volunteers, the Ethiopian nation was
The former First Lady of G-Unit has had unprecedented highs on the music front; accompanied by her fair share of lows--but now she's back with a fierce new sound and a lot of new projects on the way.
Black Lives Won’t Matter Until Black Politics Do. Black centered policies developed by Black people that will change the daily lives of all Black people are necessary now more than ever.
The stage is set for the formation of a government of national unity as President Uhuru Kenyatta races against time to implement his legacy projects — the Big Four Agenda.
President Kenyatta has been consulting with key political players in the country such as Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga, Kanu boss Gideon Moi and Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka in what is understood to be part of consensus building that could see them nominate their allies for plum jobs in government.
Political analyst Herman Manyora said whatever is happening — the talk of a government of national unity, post-election agreements and pushing Ruto allies out of the system — is part of the wider game plan to ensure that President Kenyatta gains total control of the State.
“If you want to form a government of national unity you need the numbers, hence the agreement,” he added, noting that the agreements help to strengthen the President in the face of a Jubilee falling-out.
Having sensed danger, a number of MPs, especially the nominated ones who did not heed President Kenyatta’s call to attend the State House meeting, are toeing the line.
What began as just a trip to the airport ended in the most horrible lifetime experience for me, a sixteen year old girl and my family.
The article Horror at Hopetown and the good people who rescued us appeared first on Stabroek News.
