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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.
[The Conversation Africa] In July 2009, a woman brought her husband to the hospital where our colleagues work in western Kenya. She reported that for several years he had been behaving abnormally, sleeping poorly, hearing voices that no one else could hear, and believing that people were talking about him and plotting to harm him.
[HRW] Nairobi -- The Ethiopian government and Tigray regional authorities should protect people and property at risk from the fighting, Human Rights Watch said today. Amid credible reports of increasing casualties, the authorities on both sides should facilitate access for humanitarian groups, stop interrupting essential services, and immediately restore communication services in the region.
Zweli Mkhize has delivered a solemn message on Tuesday, as several key strategies to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 in Mzansi were made public.
[UN News] It will take a variety of different actors to confront and deal with the \"daunting challenges\" in the Sahel region, the head of UN peacekeeping told the Security Council on Monday.
Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has fallen ill with a fever while serving his 23-year prison sentence at the Wende Correctional... View Article
The post Harvey Weinstein reportedly very ill, doctors believe he has coronavirus appeared first on TheGrio.
[Africa In Fact] The Stiegler's Gorge hydropower project - a 48-year-old folly
The Eritrean government says a 2018 peace deal with Ethiopia remains in good shape and was progressing despite efforts by detractors to portray it as a stalled failure.
Information Minister Yemane Meskel posted the general state of the deal which chalks its second anniversary today, July 9. “Overall progress made so far remains significant by all contemporaneous standards,” he said in a tweet.
Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the historic Eritrea-Ethiopia Peace Agreement that was signed in Asmara bringing to an end the state of intermittent wars that existed between the two countries for almost 80 years and ushered in “a new era of peace and friendship” between them pic.twitter.com/V72v3xhYOf— Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) July 9, 2020
Adding: “ This is in spite of the desperate, last-ditch efforts of the regressive forces of inertia and darkness – TPLF and its ilk – to scuttle and rollback enduring peace with its dividends to the two countries.”
TPLF is the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, the ruling party in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – it shares a long boundary with Eritrea, hosting the border crossing that were opened to fanfare but have all been shut unilaterally by Eritrea, according to reports.
TPLF is currently an opposition party to the new ruling party at the federal level, Prosperity Party led by PM Abiy Ahmed.
“The Eritrea-Ethiopia peace process has catalysed a conducive climate of regional cooperation. Substantial challenges that still remain will no doubt be scaled in the period ahead through resolute and concerted action on the basis of shared vision & prevailing political good will,” the minister added.
“It is important to remember there is no formal peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Border controls have been reinstated. Talks on economic cooperation, use of ports stalled.
“What is holding Abiy & Isayas together is their mutual antipathy to TPLF and Tigray. Nothing more,” these were recent views shared by Rashid Abdi, a former Crisis Group researcher who is a keen political watcher for the Horn and East Africa region.
The second anniversary of the July 9 deal comes at a time Abiy is dealing with an internal crisis that spared protests in the capital and surrounding Oromia region. Over 200 deaths and 3,500 arrests have been made whiles today is the tenth straight day that internet access has been cut.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa showed his support for a South African restaurant on the Steenberg Vineyards this past weekend.
[Nation] The Ministry of Education has finally released the 2021 academic calendar that will require all learners in primary and secondary schools to report back from January 4.
[Monitor] Uganda's last attempt to make the U20 Africa Cup of Nations ended in disappointing fashion but with heads held high.
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.
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.
AFP
[Daily Maverick] With total outstanding municipal debt sitting at R31 billion, Eskom is threatening to cut off electricity to a third of the municipalities across the country who've breached their contracts with the power utility.
[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.
US forces have not adequately investigated a February 2 strike killing one woman at her home, and a March 10 attack that killed five men and a child in a minibus.
\"The US military has not seriously investigated two recent airstrikes in Somalia in which civilians were killed and wounded in apparent violation of the laws of war,\" said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Between February and May, Human Rights Watch interviewed 14 people by phone, including relatives of those killed in the February and March strikes - four of whom visited the scene in its immediate aftermath - and assessed publicly available information about the airstrikes.
In its initial quarterly report on civilian casualty assessments published on April 27, 2020, AFRICOM said it examined 20 alleged airstrikes that caused civilian casualties between February 2019 and March 2020 and was still investigating 7 additional incidents, 2 of which Human Rights Watch investigated.
On the evening of February 2, at least one airstrike hit a home in Jilib, a town in the Middle Juba region, instantly killing a woman possibly between age 18 and 20 and injuring her two sisters, both children, and her grandmother.
Horizon Theatre Partners with Global HIV/AIDS Organization for World AIDS Day Premiere of Love, M. starring Greenleaf’s Lamman Rucker In recognition of World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, Atlanta-based Horizon Theatre, the Black Leadership AIDS Crisis Coalition (BLACC) and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS services, bring to the virtual stage Love, … Continued
The post Horizon Theatre partners with Global HIV/AIDS Organization for World AIDS Day Premiere of 'Love' appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.
\"They have pushed us, and they must prepare to be pushed harder,\" the EFF tweeted, announcing its intention to stage more protest action at Brackenfell High School over a private matric party that was reportedly only attended by white pupils.
