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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
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.
It's been a year since the earliest-known COVID-19 transmission took place - and looking back at the first news reports on the virus is a haunting exercise.
Quite what would have triggered last week’s outburst by the Private Sector Commission (PSC) in response to correspondence sent to the Palm Court Restaurant and Bar by the COVID-19 Task Force in the matter of what the Task Force says is the popular downtown entertainment facility’s repeated breaching of the restrictions associated with the pandemic, is difficult to tell.
The article The PSC, Palm Court and the COVID-19 Task Force appeared first on Stabroek News.
[New Times] Rwanda Workers' Trade Unions Confederation is assessing the possibility of establishing a 'Job Loss and Unemployment Benefit Scheme' that will be providing direct support to employees who lose their jobs.
[UN News] National elections in Libya will take place on 24 December 2021, Stephanie Williams, the head of the UN mission in the country, announced on Friday during a virtual press conference.
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.
His death immediately rekindled tensions. 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.
Since assuming office, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner has worked to promote political and economic reforms.
However, this has opened the way open for inter-communal violence, which is putting the Ethiopian system of ethnic federalism to the test.
AFP
Forces of Libyan Marshal Khalifa Haftar confirmed their “redeployment” out of Tripoli, after their rivals announced the total reconquest of the Libyan capital following heavy fighting.
On Thursday, the UN-recognized Government of National Unity (GNA) said it had regained control of the entire western city of Tripoli, another setback for rival troops of Marshal Haftar, a Libyan strongman from the east.
“We are announcing the redeployment of our forces out of Tripoli on condition that the other side respects a ceasefire,” said Haftar’s spokesman, Ahmad al-Mesmari. “In case of non-compliance, we will resume our military operations and suspend our participation in the military committee negotiations,” he said.
In a statement issued on Thursday night, he said the decision was taken after “the acceptance of the military command to participate in the military committee under the aegis of the UN”.
He referred to it as “a humanitarian initiative to stop the bloodshed of the Libyan people.”
On Wednesday, the UN announced the resumption in Geneva of negotiations —suspended for more than three months— of the 5+5 military committee, a body comprising five pro-GNA and five pro-Haftar members, aimed at achieving a cease-fire in a conflict between the two sides which erupted in April 2019.
All previous attempts to establish a lasting ceasefire have failed.
Since pro-Haftar forces launched an offensive in April 2019 to seize the capital, the headquarters of the GNA, hundreds of people, including many civilians, have been killed and some 200,000 have fled their homes.
Civilians Hit by Political Feud
As of Friday evening, at least 21,000 Ethiopians had crossed into eastern Sudan, according to the regional head of Sudan's refugee agency, Alsir Khaled.
Many are in fear of having lost their homes and livelihoods and some are even separated from their families as they fled the intense and traumatising fighting between the Ethiopian army and authorities of the Tigray region.
The Northern region — still under am officially declared state of emergency, continues to be under curfew and is currently seeing a communication blackout. Hence, the information provided by the exhausted and terrified refugees crossing the border into the neighbouring country is some of the first eyewitness accounts of the conflict which is now spanning around a week.
Fear, Trauma and Desperation
One Ethiopian shared his experience, \"I left with seven people, four of them are my nephews. Now I have no idea where my brother, his children and his wife are. Are they alive or dead? I don't know. But those who were with me brought them here, and when we arrived here, we could sometimes eat. The first time we saw water was when we arrived here. This is all because of the war.\"
Another Ethiopian woman seems devasted, \"They are abusing us, we came with five to six children on our backs. The children don’t have anything to drink and eat. All of us are suffering, we don't have clothes of our own, what clothes we have worn were borrowed from neighbours. We want the Tigray region and the federal government to look after us.\"
Inter-ethnic Political Conflict
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered military operations in Tigray last week in response to attacks on two federal military camps by Tigrayan regional authorities — whose political party once dominated the nation's politics and claim the ethnic group has been sidelined and unfairly targeted under the Ahmed administration.
Many in the international community have cautioned against all-out civil war and have made appeals on behalf of the civilians in the Tigray region.
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations Rights Chief issued a warning on Friday of possible war crimes in Tigray. The UN's Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, Pramila Patten, also \"condemned reports of targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnicity or religion.\"
Afro Solidarity at Home and Abroad
Journalists on the ground have reported the kind gestures of solidarity by the Sudanese villagers to help the Ethiopian refugees. However, as many Ethiopians continue to arrive many are concerned about the strain their already very limited resources and more aid will most likely be necessary from governments, organisations or charities.
By Danica Kirka
The Associated Press
Nations around the world have watched in horror at the five days of civil unrest in the United States following the death of a Black man being detained by police.
Burning cars and riot police in the U.S. featured on newspaper front pages around the globe May 31—bumping news of the COVID-19 pandemic to second-tier status in some places.
Germany’s top-selling Bild newspaper on Sunday carried the sensational headline “This killer-cop set America ablaze” with an arrow pointing to a photo of now-fired police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with third-degree murder in Floyd’s death, with his knee on Floyd’s neck.
In Italy, the Corriere della Sera newspaper’s senior U.S. correspondent Massimo Gaggi wrote that the reaction to Floyd’s killing was “different” than previous cases of Black Americans killed by police and the ensuring violence.
In another expression of solidarity with American protesters, about 150 people marched through central Jerusalem on May 30 to protest the shooting death by Israeli police of an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man earlier in the day.
HARARE magistrate Milton Serima has crossed swords with the opposition MDC Alliance after he threw his hat into the ring to contest in the Zanu PF district co-ordinating committee (DCC) elections. BY MOSES MATENGA Serima, a Harare-based magistrate, is eyeing the post of secretary for legal affairs in Mount Darwin district, Mashonaland Central province. In his campaign message, he promised to deliver “justice for all and for President Emmerson Mnangagwa”. He added that he had “vast experience and knowledge of the law”. The opposition said Serima’s move confirmed judicial capture. The campaign message reads in part: “Justice for you all is in my heart and it is justice for His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and first secretary of Zanu PF Cde ED Mnangagwa and Zanu PF in winning the elections resoundingly.” However, the Zanu PF director of information Tafadzwa Mugwadi blasted Serima. He took to Twitter and threatened to institute disciplinary action against him. “As a matter of principle, the party doesn’t tolerate members of the public service to participate in party electoral processes before they resign. The sitting magistrate must be censured. The party will summon him to explain his actions,” Mugwadi said. Judicial Service Commission spokesperson Rumbidzai Takawira confirmed that Serima was a sitting magistrate based in Harare and that disciplinary action would be taken against him. “The judicial code of ethics prohibits magistrates from participating in political activities,” Takawira said. “We are investigating the issue that has been brought to the public fora and if it is indeed true that the magistrate is participating in political activities, then he has breached the fundamental principles of his practice and this must be dealt with accordingly.” Last month, Gweru prosecutor Namatirai Chipere was forced to resign after winning the Zanu PF DCC elections in the Midlands capital. MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatywayo said Serima's move was “irregular and unacceptable”. “This is illegal and irregular. It is in breach of section 165 of the Constitution which prohibits them from engaging or holding a political position in any party. “The main problem is that Zanu PF has created a very bad system for our country. The party-government conflation, civil service has been structured in a way that all of them must be members of Zanu PF and this is how they have captured the State, including the Judiciary, which must be independent and professional. Zanu PF has killed the institutions and professional systems of governance. This is unacceptable and must be resisted,” Hlatywayo said.
[Africa In Fact] The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Renaissance Dam offers a unique chance to create a regional authority benefiting all 12 countries reliant on the river
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...
Zambia expects to conclude talks over buying Glencore's stake in Mopani Copper Mines within a month, according to Barnaby Mulenga, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines.
