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By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia's government says its security forces shot at and detained United Nations staffers as they tried to reach part of the embattled Tigray region. Senior official Redwan Hussein told reporters that the U.N. staffers were to blame because they 'broke' two checkpoints to go to areas where 'they were not supposed to go.' He said the staffers have since been released. The shooting occurred amid soaring frustration among humanitarians as aid is still not freely reaching the Tigray region more than a week after the U.N. and Ethiopia's government signed a […]
The post Ethiopia's forces shoot at, detain UN staffers in Tigray appeared first on Black News Channel.
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.
There are now more than over 130,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
According to the latest data by the John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when.
As of May 13, every African country had recorded an infection, the last being Lesotho.
We shall keep updating this list largely sourced from the John Hopkins University tallies, Africa CDC and from official government data.
SUGGESTED READING: Africa’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 mark
Major African stats: May 30 at 7:00 GMT:
\t
\t\tConfirmed cases = 135,375
\t\tNumber of deaths = 3,923
\t\tRecoveries = 56,401
\t\tActive cases = 75,051
Countries in alphabetical order
\t\tAlgeria – 9,134
\t\tAngola – 81
\t\tBenin – 224
\t\tBotswana – 35
\t\tBurkina Faso – 847
\t\tBurundi – 42
\t\tCameroon – 5,436
\t\tCape Verde – 405
\t\tCentral African Republic – 874
\t\tChad – 759
\t\tComoros – 87
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 571
\t\tDR Congo – 2,833
\t\tDjibouti – 2,914
\t\tEgypt – 22,082
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 1,306
\t\tEritrea – 39
\t\tEswatini – 279
\t\tEthiopia – 968
\t\tGabon – 2,613
\t\t(The) Gambia – 25
\t\tGhana – 7,616
\t\tGuinea – 3,656
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,256
\t\tIvory Coast – 2,750
\t\tKenya – 1,745
\t\tLesotho – 2
\t\tLiberia – 273
\t\tLibya – 118
\t\tMadagascar – 698
\t\tMalawi – 273
\t\tMali – 1,226
\t\tMauritania – 423
\t\tMauritius – 335
\t\tMorocco – 7,714
\t\tMozambique – 234
\t\tNamibia – 23
\t\tNiger – 955
\t\tNigeria- 9,302
\t\tRwanda – 325
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 463
\t\tSenegal – 3,429
\t\tSeychelles – 11
\t\tSierra Leone – 829
\t\tSomalia – 1,828
\t\tSouth Africa – 29,240
\t\tSouth Sudan – 994
\t\tSudan – 4,521
\t\tTanzania – 509
\t\tTogo – 428
\t\tTunisia – 1,071
\t\tUganda – 329
\t\tZambia – 1,057
\t\tZimbabwe – 149
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa II
BY PATRICIA SIBANDA EPIDEMIOLOGY and disease control director in the Health and Child Care ministry, Portia Manangazira, has emphasised on the need for the unification of traditional and conventional medicines in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing a workshop in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Manangazira said there was need to ensure the maximum use of locally available medicines and herbs in the supportive care and management of COVID-19 patients. She said her ministry had harnessed traditional medical practitioners, conventional medical practitioners and their communities together so that dual intervention is done to mitigate COVID-19. “So we must start, we should have continued and furthered that, and today, we would be having even a large manufacturing plant which we say, it's our marula tree or some other nutritious shrub,” she said. “Sometimes we end up having healthy animals and malnourished people and we haven’t really explored that. All I am saying is, we are living and failing to utilise our locally available medicines.” She said it was worrisome that the ministry had not taken traditional medicine on board. “We do have a lot of herbs and they form raw materials for the pharmaceuticals. If I heard correctly, the International Traditional Healers Association leader said uMsuzwane has got some anti-ceptive properties, a bit disappointing is that we have not taken our traditional medicine a step further so that we describe and display the content and the ingredients in the market places.” Manangazira said the late former Health minister Herbert Ushewokunze attempted to introduce the system, but died before his ideas were adopted. “I think we are also in the right place because at some time, we had a former Minister of Health, the late Herbert Ushewokunze. He operated the Marondera Clinic here in Bulawayo and that clinic was unique. It would treat you for modern medicine if you so wished or for traditional medicine and he had labels on his containers, but he died and that practice also died with him,” she said.
As confirmed coronavirus cases continue to rise throughout Maryland and the D.C. region, Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced an executive order Thursday her jurisdiction will reinstitute certain restrictions.
After decades on the run, Felicien Kabuga called the charges against him \"lies\" and his lawyer doubted he would receive a fair trial in an international court.
Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga called the charges against him lies in a French courtroom on Wednesday.
After the presiding judge read out the offenses that Kabuga was accused of, including genocide, persecution and extermination against Rwanda's Tutsi minority, Kabuga denied the charges.
The French court refused to release Kabuga on bail, despite his lawyer's argument that he is in poor health.
End of the road
Kabuga, who was arrested earlier this month is a Paris suburb, was considered the most-wanted suspect connected to the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.
Tension between Amhara and Tigray, two of Ethiopia's most powerful regions, is increasing as the country approaches elections next year, says a new International Crisis Group report.
But it is the dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions, the new report says, that “is arguably the bitterest of these contests, fueled in part by rising ethnic nationalism in both regions.”
William Davison, the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tells VOA that Amhara citizens believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.
Plans to hold a vote have led political elites in Tigray and Amhara to adopt increasingly hardline stances toward each other, the report says, noting a recent warning from Prime Minister Abiy that any such act would “result in harm to the country and the people.”
But Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, chairman of the opposition National Movement of Amhara, said via a messaging app that Ethiopia’s regional map based on ethnic territories has been the root cause of many tensions, not just between the Amhara and Tigray regions, but many others.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- A new round of tripartite negotiation between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will resume today, according to Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy.
May 29: Amnesty accuses Ethiopia of extrajudicial killings
\tEthiopian security forces in the Oromia region have executed 39 opposition supporters and arrested thousands of others accused of being members of an armed group, Amnesty International said on Friday.
The rights group said in a report that victims were accused of being supporters of the Oromo Liberation Army, the breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front, which the government had previously declared a terrorist movement but which has been unbanned by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“Security forces have continued to violate human rights despite reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and this is due to widespread impunity and lack of accountability for those violations,” Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher Fisseha Tekle said.
“The report is further proof that the new administration has not parted ways with the practice of forcefully stifling dissent, committing egregious human rights violations and carrying out extrajudicial killings,” the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress, an opposition party, said in a joint statement, calling on the government to investigate the findings.
Based on interviews with 80 victims or direct witnesses of violence, Amnesty’s report said the Ethiopian army and regional security forces in Amhara and Oromiya were involved in inter- ethnic killings, mass arbitrary detentions and rape.
In June 2006, an Islamist militia seized control of the capital of neighboring Somalia and established control in much of that countrys south. Ethiopia, which has clashed in the past with Somalias Islamists and considers them a threat to regional security, began amassing troops on Somalias border, in support of Somalias weak transitional government, led by President Abdullah. In mid-December, Ethiopia launched air strikes against the Islamists, and in a matter of days Ethiopian ground troops and Somali soldiers regained of Mogadishu. A week later most of the Islamists had been forced to flee the country. Ethiopia announced that its troops would remain in Somalia until stability was assured and a functional central government had been established. Battles between the insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops intensified in March, leaving 300 civilians dead in what has been called the worst fighting in 15 years. Amid a growing threat from militant Islamists, Ethiopia began withdrawing troops from Somalia in January 2009. At this point, Somalia was far from stable. Indeed, Ethiopias presence in Somalia sparked increased guerrilla warfare and even further weakened the transitional government. Many feared that the withdrawal, along with Somalias political instability, would provide Islamists an opportunity to fill the power vacuum.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawis Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front won parliamentary elections by a wide margin in May 2010. The U.S. and the European Union said the vote failed to meet international standards, and the opposition refused to recognize the results. Nevertheless, parliament elected Zenawi to a fourth term.
Total confirmed cases = 3,954 (new cases = 195)
Total recoveries = 934
Total deaths = 65
Active cases = 2,953
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 18, 2020
June 13: Ethiopia passes 3,000 mark as deaths reach 55
\tA total of 268 new cases within 24-hours took Ethiopia’s tally past the 3,000 mark.
Confirmed cases = 3,166
\t\tNumber of deaths = 55
\t\tRecoveries = 495
\t\tActive cases = 2,614
\tJohn Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 13, 2020
\tVIDEO
June 8: 2,070 cases, PM defends ‘no lockdown’
\tEthiopia crossed the 2,000 mark on Sunday when 86 new cases took the tally to 2,020.
Confirmed cases = 2,070
Deaths = 27
Recoveries = 344
Active cases = 1,647
Total tests = 142,960
June 3: 1,486 cases, community transmissions mounting
\tEthiopia’s Health Minister is worried over the spate of community transmissions of COVID-19.
Total confirmed cases = 731 (new cases = 30)
Total recoveries = 181
Total deaths = 6
Active cases = 544
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 27, 2020
May 24: 193 cases in 5 days as tally hits 582
\tEthiopia has recorded back-to-back one-day spikes, record 61 new cases on Saturday and a further 81 on Sunday toppling the Saturday record.
Total confirmed cases = 582 (new cases = 88)
Total recoveries = 152 (new recoveries = 8)
Total deaths = 5
Active cases = 423
\tTrajectory of infections between May 20 – 24
\tMay 20: 389 (24 new cases)
May 21: 398 (9 new cases)
May 22: 399 (10 new cases)
May 22: 433 (34 new cases)
May 23: 494 (61 new cases)
May 24: 582 (88 new cases)
May 19: 365 cases with 60 new cases in three days
\tTotal confirmed cases = 365 (new cases between May 17 – 19 = 60)
Total recoveries = 120 (new recoveries = 8)
Active cases = 238
\tEthiopia’s case count spiked on Monday by 35 new cases (a daily record) whiles 14 new cases were recorded today.
Analysis - Disputed elections in the Ivory Coast and Guinea, violence in Nigeria: many West Africans hope for foreign support, but the European Union has kept itself at a distance. Publicly, at least.
Keria Ibrahim, speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of federation, has quit her position citing a looming constitutional blank with postponed elections.
Her resignation was announced first by regional Tigray TV. Privately-owned Addis Standard said Keria’s resignation was on the outcome of a Council of Constitutional Inquiry on deferred elections.
According to Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, Keria resigned from her position refusing to work with those who display unconstitutional & authoritarian practices. She has been in the role since April 2018.
She is quoted as saying she did not want to be part of a system where: “the constitution is being violated and an authoritarian government is being formed.”
Ethiopia, currently under a five-month State of Emergency imposed over the coronavirus pandemic have also postponed the much anticipated polls. The current government’s mandate expires in October and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has recently rejected calls for a transitional government.
The former speaker belongs to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, TPLF, a former coalition partner of the now defunct Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF; which brought Abiy to power in 2018.
Abiy has since gone on to disband and rebrand it into the Prosperity Party, PP, which the TPLF opposed and refusing to be part of the new party. TPLF is currently the ruling party in the northern Tigray region but technically in opposition with the federal government.
Despite the shelving of polls by the elections body, the TPLF has insisted that elections will be held in the region according to schedule.
By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In a breakthrough a month after deadly conflict cut off Ethiopia's Tigray region from the world, the United Nations on Wednesday said it and the Ethiopian government have signed a deal to allow 'unimpeded' humanitarian access, at least for areas under federal government control after the prime minister's declaration of victory over the weekend. This will allow the first food, medicines and other aid into the region of 6 million people that has seen rising hunger during the fighting between the federal and Tigray regional governments. Each regards the other as […]
The post UN, Ethiopia sign deal for aid access to embattled Tigray appeared first on Black News Channel.
As Ethiopia's 2021 election nears, a territorial dispute has flared between Amhara and Tigray, two northern regions.
Tigray and Amhara, the powerhouse regions of northern Ethiopia, are locked in a bitter land dispute exacerbated by national politicking that pits their elites against each other.
In late 2018, in north-western Amhara, local Amhara killed hundreds and displaced thousands of Qimant, an ethnic minority pursuing greater autonomy within the region, amid regional officials' claims that Tigray's ruling party is funding the self-rule campaign.
Were Tigray willing to instead grant political representation and language rights to minority populations in the territories, some Amhara officials have suggested this could help lead to an acceptable outcome.
The Amhara not only assert historical ownership of the land but also charge that TPLF rebels killed and uprooted Amhara in the disputed areas, thus altering the demographic balance in favour of Tigrinya speakers and laying the basis for a TPLF claim to the lands under Ethiopia's ethnic federal system.
The Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against Covid-19 is a joint initiative between the People's Republic of China, the Republic of South Africa in its capacity as the Chair of the African Union (AU), and the Republic of Senegal in its capacity as the Co-Chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
We recognize the importance of public health issues to global peace and security and the well-being of people around the world, particularly the fact that Africa is extremely vulnerable to the ravages of this virus and needs solidarity and support, including resources from various parties to bolster its response to the pandemic and to support its economic and social development.
We welcome the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on Covid-19 response, which expresses deep concerns about the negative impacts and consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, emphasizes the importance of global collaboration, and calls for intensified international cooperation, unity, solidarity and joint efforts to contain and mitigate the pandemic, and to pay particular attention to the needs of people in vulnerable situations.
China commends the solidarity and support extended by African countries, the AU and other regional organizations for China's Covid-19 response and appreciates the establishment of the AU Covid-19 Strategy and the appointment of Special Envoys to mobilize international support for Africa's efforts to address the economic challenges faced as a consequence of the pandemic, and further commends the resilience African countries have demonstrated and the positive results thus achieved in curbing the spread of the virus by adopting preventive measures.
We fully recognize the positive role of China-Africa investment and financing cooperation in promoting development and improving people's lives in Africa, and call on the international community to work in solidarity and collaboration, share best practices, and provide more material, technical, financial and humanitarian support to help African countries overcome the impact of Covid-19 and achieve independent and sustainable development.
Security forces have continued to violate human rights despite reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and this is due to widespread impunity and lack of accountability for those violations.
[Ethiopian Herald] Ethiopia's Foreign Minister, Gedu Andargachew has rejected Egypt's call to refer the dispute over Addis Ababa's construction of the giant Nile dam to the United Nations Security Council.
POLICE are investigating a robbery case in Esigodini, Matabeleland South province, where six robbers walked away with US$87 000 and R38 800 on Monday. BY RICHARD MPONDE “The Zimbabwe Republic Police is investigating an armed robbery case which occurred in Esigodini on November 9, 2020 when a gang of six suspects attacked a family with machetes and a bold cutter,” national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said in a statement. “The suspects used a bolt cutter to break burglar bars of a sitting room window and went on to tie the two complainants with an electric cable and shoelace before ransacking the house. “Complainants were robbed US$87 000 and R38 800 cash which was in a safe, four Samsung Galaxy tablet cellphones, Samsung laptop and a 32-gig flash disk.” The police urged people, including miners to be security conscious and avoid keeping such large amounts of cash in their houses. Cases of robberies are on the rise with the robbers including members of the security such as police and soldiers. This week, a Seke businessman was robbed of US$30 000 by robbers which he was keeping in the house. Meanwhile, leader of an Esigodini notorious gang of gold panners and businessman Baron Dube has been jailed to an effective 10 years for shooting a rival to death in a gold rush in the farming area of Matabeleland South province. Dube (44) of Habane Extension Township pleaded not guilty to murder when his trial started last year, but was convicted on Tuesday by Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Maxwell Takuva. He was sentenced to an effective 10 years after the court noted that he committed the offence in aggravating circumstances. In sentencing him, Takuva noted that Dube acted out of greed as the offence was committed in a gold rush. “In the first place, you had no right to be at that mine which you claimed the owner tasked you to manage. There was a gold rush at the mine and you were driven there by greed because you are a bully,” Takuva said. In his defence, Dube said he accidently shot the now deceased, Prince Antony Bvundura (22) after he fell down in an attack by his gang, leading in his rifle discharging. Dube’s sworn rival with whom he has had several fights over gold claims and also a gang leader Mkhululi Sibanda was the key witness in the matter.
POLICE in Gweru have since Monday arrested at least 100 pirate kombi drivers and impounded their vehicles for operating illegally. BY STEPHEN CHADENGA The arrests were made as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 which saw the countrywide banning in March of private commuter omnibuses not registered under Zupco. Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko confirmed the development, saying the kombis were being handed over to the Vehicle Inspection Department. “We have since impounded over 100 private kombis for operating illegally in the city,” Goko said. “It is part of our routine exercise to ensure pirate public transport operators are brought to book.” Yesterday, pirate kombis ferrying commuters from western suburbs were dropping passengers a few kilometres outside the central business district to avoid arrest at various police roadblocks. Passengers had to walk the remaining distances to town. Recently, government reiterated that private kombis were banned from carrying passengers unless they registered with Zupco. But following the relaxation of lockdown rules, the number of private kombis operating illegally have increased in most towns and cities. lFollow Stephen on Twitter @jagganox78
The Conflict Gets Worse
The Tigrayan regional government has fired rockets at two airports in the neighbouring Amhara region in Ethiopia with spokesman Reda asserting that further retaliation could continue and even Asmara in Eritrea could be targeted. The Ethiopian federal government confirmed that Gondar and Bahir Dar airports were damaged in the strikes late Friday — as the deadly conflict threatens to spread to not only other parts of Africa's second-most populous country but more areas in the horn of Africa.
Since the conflict began Nov 4th, reports from the Tigray region — still under a national state of emergency, see hundreds of people on both sides losing their lives and over 21,000 Ethiopians fleeing to neighbouring Eastern Sudan.
Many authorities in the international community who caution against inter-ethnic genocide fear a possible all-out civil war — compounded by the already chaélengiong Covid-19 pandemic.
The funeral of Hachalu Hundessa, the slain Ethiopian singer, was held Thursday in his hometown of Ambo, in the Oromia region.
The singer, whose highly political lyrics expressed frustrations of the Oromo people, who have long considered themselves marginalised, was shot dead Monday night in Addis Ababa.
Demonstrations resulted in the deaths of 81 people and increased political and communal tensions in the country.
Over the past two days, demonstrators have been expressing their anger in the capital and in Oromia, the stronghold of the Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group.
It was a federal government plan to expand the capital into Oromia that triggered the anti-government protests in 2015 that led to Abiy Ahmed’s accession to power three years later.
