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The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Thursday that the grave humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region is deteriorating, with no sign of Eritrean troops withdrawing and alarmingly widespread reports of systematic rape and other sexual violence mainly by men in uniform.
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 proposal to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to a contingent of Cuban doctors who specialize in disaster situations and serious epidemics, has been endorsed by four members of the British Parliament.
Tunisian President Kais Saied said his country would not accept a divided Libya at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Monday.
Saied is the first head of state to visit France since the country’s de-confinement due to the pandemic.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya”, he said.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed.
The 70-page draft review - circulated last month to aid officials working in Congo and obtained by The New Humanitarian - looks at everything from corruption within the Ebola response to how women and girls are subjected to sexual exploitation.
The operational review was commissioned by an anti-fraud taskforce created by UN agencies and aid groups in Congo after the NGO Mercy Corps discovered a fraud scheme in late 2018 - first made public this week by TNH - that raised the alarm about widespread corruption and problems with the systems designed to root it out.
The review was shared with TNH by a senior aid official working in Congo who expressed dissatisfaction with how the humanitarian sector is managing fraud and corruption risks.
DFID, a major donor to humanitarian aid in Congo, said it had provided funding for the review because it is committed to tackling fraud and corruption, but refused to comment on the findings and recommendations until a final version is published later this month.
Fraud, mistrust, and lost aid
Ongoing corruption has caused a mutual lack of trust between the aid sector and local communities, who \"perceive humanitarian aid as corrupt and driven by external agendas\", according to the draft review.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- The House of Federation has anonymously approved a proposed resolution presented to it by the federal government to interfere and establish transitional administration in Tigrai Regional state.
ONE in four Jamaican adolescent girls aged 15-19 experience sexual violence in their lifetime, and with school closures and curfew measures due to COVID-19, local children agencies foresee a heightened risk of exposure.
“The COVID 19 pandemic has aggravated the existing conditions for women, who are discriminated against in all sectors,” said Dr. Beatrice Duncan, Policy Advisor, Rule of Law, UN Women, at a May 22 briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services.
Dr. Nicole Mason, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research said women disproportionately account for the nearly 39 million people who have filed for unemployment in the last nine weeks because of their over-representation in service sector jobs which require employees to be on-site, rather than working remotely.
Dr. Estela Rivero, a Research Associate with Notre Dame’s Pulte Institute for Global Development, stated that the COVID 19 pandemic has exacerbated the already limited opportunities for women to gain financial independence.
In the U.S., her studies show that amid the pandemic women ages 30-40 spend an average of 60 hours per week in paid and unpaid labor.
Women isolated at home with an abusive partner cannot call a hotline for help because of fears that the violent domestic partner or adolescent child might overhear, resulting in increased violence.
