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Tigray forces entered the Amhara town of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its rock-hewn churches, on Thursday
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.
All countries will attempt to build up production of \"essential goods\" including medical supplies and possibly even food items
The globalized system has been increasingly under threat for the past several years, particularly from populist parties working on fears and resentment of those who feel left behind by globalization.
This reversal of globalized production chains is bad news for developing countries, coming at a time when the medical emergency responses to COVID-19 are drawing heavily on public and private resources, and lockdowns are hitting output and employment, both in the formal and informal sectors.
However, in the emergency, there is hardly any mention in the policy and public debate of the impacts of COVID-19 in developing countries, let alone the economic impacts on the poor in these countries.
It is quickly becoming clear that the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 in developing countries will stretch far beyond the immediate medical and social costs.
In spite of the current crisis, it is crucial that OECD countries reach out to these governments and offer their support: the challenges to rebuild institutions and economies will exceed the capacities of many developing countries.
South Africa still has a treasure trove of desirable dust-covered cars sitting in farm buildings waiting to be discovered.
BY FIDELITY MHLANGA The Total Consumption Poverty Line (TCPL) for an average family of five people grew by 10% to $17 244 in August 2020, latest data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has shown. In July, TCPL was pegged at $15 572. “The TCPL for an average of five persons stood at $17 244,07 in August 2020. This means that an average household required that much to purchase both food and non-food items for them not to be deemed poor. This represents an increase of 10,7% when compared to the July 2020 figure of $15 572,85,” ZimStat said. This comes as Zimbabwe’s year-on-year for the month of August eased to 761,02% from 837,53% reported in July. According to ZimStat, the August 2020 food poverty line (FPL) for an average of five persons in Zimbabwe stood at $7 210,99 representing an increase of 8,6 % when compared to the July 2020 figure of $6 642,98. FPL in August per person was $1 442,20, representing an increase of 8,6% over the July 2020 figure of $1 328,60. The TCPL for Zimbabwe stood at $3 448,81 per person in August 2020. This means that an individual required that much to purchase both non-food and food items as at August 2020 in order not to be deemed poor. This represents an increase of 10,7% when compared to the July 2020 figure of $3 114,57. “The poverty datum lines vary by province as prices vary from place to place. The TCPL for an average household in August 2020 ranged from $15 909 in Mashonaland Central province to $18 891 in Matabeleland North province. The differences are explained by differences in average prices in the provinces,” ZimStat said. Zimbabwe, which has the world’s second largest inflation rate after South America’s Venezuela, is currently going through its worst economic crisis since 2008 aggravated by runaway inflation, currency depreciation with about seven million food insecure citizens, according to the United Nations.
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.
New Jersey is a small but vivacious state nestled in the shadows of New York City’s skyscrapers. One of the nation’s most mocked and belittled state is actually very interesting and unique. It’s been called the backroom of New York City usually by those who never get to know its Read More
The post 11 Best Places to Visit in New Jersey in 2020 appeared first on PensacolaVoice.com.
Godwin Ajala is remembered as a U.S. national hero who fought to save the lives of countless people as they escaped from the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001.He is also the only Nigerian listed among the nearly 3,000 people who died because of the attack.
Ajala was born in Nigeria on June 9, 1968, the son of a retailer from Ihenta, a small town in the eastern Nigerian state of Ebonyi. At the time his region was part ofthe break-away Biafra which was in rebellion against the central Nigerian government. Ajala came of age long after the Nigerian Civil War ended and Nigeria was reunited. As an adult, Ajala became a lawyer in Nigeria. His family, including his wife, Victoria, and their three children, Onyinyechi, 7, Uchechukwu, 5, and Ugochi, 1, lived in Ihenta. In 1995, Ajala emigrated to the United States to make a better life for himself and his family.
When he first arrived in the U.S Ajala bounced between poorly paid jobs but eventually obtained a steady position as a security guard or Access Control Officer at the New York World Trade Center towers at the Concourse (ground floor) level. In this position, Ajala rode elevators and walked floors of the 110-story tower at Two World Trade Center, helping secure the building and attending to small emergencies.
Ajala worked in this position while preparing to take the New York State Bar Exam with plans to reunite his family in the U.S. once he had passed the exam. Friends described him as working from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. as a security guard and then coming home to study for another 6 to 8 hours every day.
Despite his efforts, Ajala never achieved his goals of becoming a lawyer in the United States and bringing his family to the U.S. Nor do we know if he would have ever been able to achieve these goals since, having little money, he was unable to attend law school in the U.S., and instead took more affordable specialized prep courses for the New York Bar Exam. He failed the exam three times.
Yet on the day of September 11, 2001, Ajala demonstrated
Keanin Ayer's early life tilted listlessly between a haven for vulnerable children and his violent, alcohol- and drugs-ridden home.
Ayer was voted the best player at his small and unknown Swedish club, Varberg BoIS, when they won promotion to the top flight last year for the first time in their 95-year history.
Ayer is unknown back home in South Africa, primarily because he has hardly spent any time in the country since he was 12 years old.
Manchester City were one of those who replied and suggested Seethal try and place Ayer at Right to Dream, the Ghana-based academy that they had ties with.
\"If a set-up with strong links to a top European club trusted us enough to say, 'come over and train,' then I was going to put my trust more with them as opposed to Keanin wanting to go [to] Kaizer Chiefs, where he would have been in the same [home] environment and unlikely to succeed.
With a total of 221 COVID-19 deaths, Nigeria, with estimated population of 205.5 million recorded a total of 7,526 confirmed cases which is equivalent to one death per million population according to data from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, JHU, released on May 23rd, 2020.
From the data, Nigeria has lower death burden per million population when compared to the 7 deaths per million population recorded by South Africa (59.2 million) with 21, 343 cases and total of 407 deaths and Egypt (102.1 million) with 16,513 cases and total of 808 deaths.
In terms of the death burden per million population, Africa's most populous country, ties with less populous countries like Ghana (31 million) 6,617 cases and total of 198 deaths; Algeria (population 43.7 million) with 8,113 confirmed COVID-19 cases and total of 31 deaths; Ivory Coast (26.3 million) with 2,366 cases and total of 30 deaths and Togo (8.2 million) with 373 cases and total of 12 deaths.
From the data, Africa recorded a total of 107,747 confirmed cases and 3,257 deaths, and of the total 1.5 million COVID-19 tests so far conducted in the continent, Nigeria conducted a total of 43,328 tests, which is 2 percent of the total, compared to South Africa that has carried out 564,370 tests (37.6 percent); Ghana, 193,705 (12.9 percent); Cameroun, 161, 882 (10.7 percent); Egypt, 135,000 (9 percent); Morocco, 133,561 (8 percent); Kenya, 76,692 (5 percent), and Ethiopia, 57,650 (3 percent).
Although the case fertility rate for Nigeria is currently about 3 percent, Tomori, in a chat with Vanguard, said there was need to also compare the number of confirmed cases each month to be able to state clearly if the number of deaths are rising or not.
Mali received its first batch of vaccines against COVID-19 on Friday, the first Sahel-Saharan country to receive shots through the COVAX initiative
Worried about the economy amidst COVID-19, young people in Seychelles say they want to see the island nation diversify away from its reliance on tourism and grow the island nation's ICT sector and agriculture production to lower its reliance on imports.
SNA spoke to several young people to get their point of view on how COVID-19 has impacted Seychelles, what changes they would like to see as well as opportunities presented.
Echoing the need to diversify the economy, Jade Jules told SNA that though the country is small, Seychelles has a lot of potential.
Angelique Popounneau, another young Seychellois, told SNA that COVID-19 has provided the country with an opportunity to test the 'working from home' concept which most organisations or people were not employing before the pandemic.
Popounneau, who is chief executive of the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT), added that whether people will see the working from home concept continue into the future, depends on the willingness of the organisations to create work environments that work for their workers.
[African Arguments] We're told the war is not with ordinary Tigrayans. Yet as thousands suffer and our compatriots remain silent, that's how it feels.
THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD stars Angelina Jolle as a hard driving smoke jumper who parachutes into roaring forest fires along the Montana wilderness. Her character, Hannah, out boys the boys when it comes to high risks and hard drinking. However, she loses her confidence when three young boys die in a fire that she […]
The post Review: Those Who Wish Me Dead appeared first on Texas Metro News.
No fewer than 90 residential houses, a Church, clinic, nine shops and other properties worth millions of naira were razed in Debiro, Tarfa and Dakwaima villages of Biu Local Government Area of Borno State, when some insurgents, suspected to be of Boko Haram members, invaded the communities.
This was disclosed, on Monday, by the District Head, Alhaji Mohammad Bukar, while briefing the Deputy Governor, Umar Kadafur, who paid a sympathy visit to the affected communities.
Biu council is one of the peaceful community in Southern Borno, where both Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Tukur Buratai and the Deputy Governor hail from.
The traditional ruler, who addressed the Deputy Governor and his entourage, during the sympathy visit said: \"The insurgents stormed the villages about 6:30 p.m.
\"They operated till 10:25p.m., and burnt down 90 residential Houses, nine shops, one church, one dispensary/clinic, one tractor and carted away essential commodities as well as food items.\"
Kadafur, while sympathising with the people of the communities, urged them to take the incident as an act of God and continue to pray for lasting peace, adding that vigilante group of hunters in the area will be well equipped and provided with monthly stipends to help defend the area.
[Dalsan Radio] Somalia's new foreign minister, Mohamed Abdirqzak, has for the first time responded to the ongoing war in Ethiopia.
Keria Ibrahim resigns in apparent protest at the postponement of planned elections.
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Tracing their family members is complicated by camp relocations and lack of access to conflict-hit Tigray region, aid workers say
Chinese investors have been wise to the opportunities presented by Port St Johns for the past few years, as the 'new coastal city' prepares for an overhaul.
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.
Global NGO Save the Children says more than 1.7 million children and adults are displaced as a result of Ethiopia's Tigray conflict.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Glynn County Courthouse on a recent Saturday in May to demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed in February in Brunswick, Ga.
Emma Hurt/WABE
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The normally quiet community of Brunswick, Ga., has been rocked by the fallout of the shooting death of a 25-year-old black man, Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased and shot by two white men while jogging in February, according to a viral video of the incident.
Unlike many southern cities, Brunswick, Ga., hasn't seen violence, riots or major protests about race, said Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker.
Members of Ahmaud Arbery's family line up together as hundreds of rally attendees began to march through the streets of Brunswick, Ga., in May.
Confirmed cases = 20,919
\t\tActive cases = 13,285
\t\tRecoveries = 7,109
\t\tNumber of deaths = 525
\t
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 22, 2020
June 22: 20,919 cases; sub-500 new cases in five days
\tNigeria’s case load went past 20,000 mark at close of day June 21 when 436 new cases took the tally to 20,244 confirmed cases.
Confirmed cases = 19,808
\t\tActive cases = 12,584
\t\tRecoveries =6,718
\t\tNumber of deaths = 509
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 20, 2020
June 20: 19,147 cases; July 3 for second US evacuation
\tNigeria’s case load passed the 19,000 mark as of close of day June 19 with over 660 new cases recorded across the country.
Confirmed cases = 19,147
\t\tActive cases = 12,079
\t\tRecoveries =6,581
\t\tNumber of deaths = 487
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 19, 2020
June 19: 18,480 cases, flurry of evacuee arrivals
\tNigeria hit the 18,000 mark as of close of day June 18 as deaths reached 475 and recoveries hit 6,307 according to the NCDC.
Confirmed cases = 18,480
\t\tNumber of deaths = 475
\t\tRecoveries = 6,307
\t\tActive cases = 11,698
\tStats valid as of close of day June 18, 2020
June 18: tally nears 18,000; over 1,700 recoveries in a week
\tTallies show that 1,761 recoveries have been recorded in one week as COVID-19 toll nears 18,000.
Total confirmed cases = 17,735
Total recoveries = 5,967
Total deaths = 469
Active cases = 11,299
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 17, 2020
June 17: 17,148 cases; govt hails role of media
\tThe government has underlined the centrality of the media’s role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
