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[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.
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.
[Nation] Kenyan Journalist Yassin Juma has refuted claims that he opted to stay in Ethiopia, where he was arrested and detained for 49 days on several charges.
A crucial election has begun in the East African nation of Burundi, where President Pierre Nkurunziza is stepping aside after 15 years in charge but he will remain “paramount leader” in the country that continues to reject outside scrutiny.
Face masks and social distancing were observed as voting began after 6 a.m. but Burundi’s government has been criticized for not appearing to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously.
Ahead of the vote, government agents were accused of harassing the main opposition party, the CNL, whose leader Agathon Rwasa is believed to be in a close race with Nkurunziza’s chosen successor in the ruling CNDD-FDD, Evariste Ndayishimiye.
Some in Burundi worry that a rigged election could spark the kind of street demonstrations that marked the previous vote in 2015, when Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term that some called unconstitutional.
More than 300,000 people who fled Burundi amid the turmoil caused by the previous election remain refugees.
COVID-19 CAN provide an opportunity for African governments to strengthen the way they govern and...
The post COVID-19 can ‘provide an opportunity for innovation and solidify unity’ in Africa appeared first on Voice Online.
MIAMI — Florida billed itself as a coronavirus oasis when it wooed the Republican National Convention: The pandemic seemed under control, and Republican state and city leaders welcomed a major televised event to show off the progress and cement votes for President Trump in the nation’s biggest presidential battleground.
That pitch collided with the grim reality of the coronavirus and its explosive surge in Florida when Jacksonville, the convention’s new host, imposed a requirement on Monday that people wear masks indoors, precisely the mandate that the Republican Party had hoped to avoid for its celebrations.
The mask order is almost certain to rankle Mr. Trump, whose demands for a traditional, packed rally forced the move earlier this month to Jacksonville from Charlotte, N.C., in the first place.
In a must-win state for Mr. Trump — and arguably a must-win city for Republicans — recent polls have shown that Jacksonville residents do not want the convention.
The challenge of confronting the virus and Jacksonville’s racist history while a national political convention comes to town has troubled the city’s business elite from the start, said Nate Monroe, metro columnist for The Florida Times-Union newspaper, with the crush of new infections only intensifying those concerns.
Ethiopia's confirmed Covid-19 cases on Sunday reached 582 after 88 more infections were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
This is so far the highest daily increase in the Horn of Africa country, which on Saturday reported 61 new confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The Ministry of Health said all 88 new Covid-19 cases are Ethiopian nationals – 51 males and 37 females – with their ages ranging between 8 to 75 years.
The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health also said that 152 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 have so far recovered from the virus.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of Covid-19 on March 13.
Sarah Hegazi, a prominent queer Egyptian feminist, committed suicide on Saturday in exile in Canada.
Hegazi died in Toronto, where she had sought asylum in 2018 after her arrest for daring to raise the rainbow pride flag at a concert in Cairo in 2017.
For musician Hamed Sinno, also an LGBTQ activist, Hegazi's death is linked to wider violence inflicted on LGBTQ people's bodies and minds.
\"From 2013, when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power, to 2017, when Sarah was arrested, Egyptian authorities arrested or charged tens of thousands of people, forcibly disappeared hundreds for months at a time, handed down preliminary death sentences to hundreds more, and tried thousands of civilians in military courts,\" Younes wrote.
Younes' message to the Egyptian government was unequivocal:
\"We, queer feminists, are the collective force etching at your oppression, raising our flags and voices and fists until you are held accountable for robbing Sarah and countless others of their bodily autonomy, their home, and their lives.\"
READ MORE – Burundi sacks WHO officials ahead of May 20 polls
February 2020: Tunisia expels UN envoy
\tTunisia on Friday expelled its own ambassador at the United Nations, faulting him for not doing adequate consultation on a Security Council resolution he helped draft responding to the U.S. Middle East peace initiative.
The official TAP news agency quoted the Tunisian president’s office as saying Moncef Baati was accused of “absence of coordination and consultation” with the foreign ministry and with representatives of Arab and Islamic countries at the United Nations.
DRC expels EU envoy
\tLast month, the Democratic Republic of Congo took a decision to expel the European Union ambassador, Bart Ouvry as a reaction to the renewal of EU sanctions against Congolese officials including the ruling coalition’s candidate in a presidential election.
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READ MORE: DRC gives EU quit notice, nationwide protest over excluded cities
Burundi vs U.N. Human Rights office
\tBurundi’s government has taken several actions against the United Nations office in its country, including asking that ‘all international staff are redployed’ and that the office closes ‘within two months’ from December 2018.
SUGGESTED READING: Burundi clashes with AU over arrest warrant against ex-President
\tWhile the affected diplomats face the consequences of leaving the country hastily, and could end up on blacklists for those particular countries, relations between the governments and international institutions like the United Nations often continue.
Following the Partition of Africa during the Berlin Conference of 1885, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi of Italy began his nation’s colonization in Africa. Italy focused on the Red Sea because of its trade routes to Asia and East Africa, and subsequently stationed troops in the port of Massawa in Eritrea, then part of the Ethiopian nation. Ethiopia’s King Yohannes fought back against this Italian invasion. Although initially unsuccessful, they eventually defeated the Italian troops in a battle that took place on January 26, 1887, that would be known as the Dogali Massacre. This battle left four hundred and thirty Italian troops dead and injured eighty-two. King Yohannes’s forces did not dislodge the Italians from Eritrea, but they did limit their control to that coastal province. Nonetheless, with the Dogali Massacre, Ethiopia became the first African nation to defeat a European power following the partition.
After the death of King Yohannes in 1889, the new monarch, King Menilik II, realizing the Italians would seek to conquer all of Ethiopia, began to assemble a modern arsenal for his army by opening up trade with French-controlled Djibouti, and ironically with Italian merchants at Massawa. After developing a friendly relationship with Italians partly because of this trade, Menilik in 1889 signed the Treaty of Wichale with the Italian government. While Menilik and the Ethiopians understood the treaty would give them the option to use Italian assistance to communicate with other European powers, the Italians interpreted the treaty as giving them authority over all Ethiopian trade and communications with other nations, thus effectively stripping Ethiopia of its sovereignty. This deliberate mistranslation by the Italians caused tensions between Italy and Ethiopia which led to the Italo-Abyssinian War of 1889–1896.
In preparation for the oncoming conflict, Menilik II assembled an army of one hundred and ninety-six thousand men to take on both the Italian Army of twenty-five thousand men composed of European
The man faced weapons charges and had her name \"on a list.\"
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.
Main opposition parties in the Oromia region – Abiy’s home region – have kicked against the HoF decision calling it a unilateral and illegal extension of the term of government.
“A political consensus whereby the views of the opposition political parties were taken into consideration and a climate of trust and fruitful collaboration was promoted would have been more likely to create an environment where the promised peaceful and comprehensive democratic transformation of Ethiopia would have been possible,” their statement read in part.
He has serially insisted that he did not fear elections and was ready to hand over power if he loses
\tThe Council of Constitutional Inquiry held public hearings last month on possible next steps, though critics said these were insufficiently inclusive of opposition voices.
Dawud Ibsa, chairman of the opposition Oromo Liberation Front, told AFP Wednesday that the House of Federation vote “does not have any constitutional basis”.
If major opposition parties reject the recommendations from the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, “protests or election boycotts could become a reality, reducing the chances of successful competitive polls in 2021,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group (ICG), a conflict-prevention organisation.
[Radio Dabanga] Khartoum / Nyala / Shendi / Wad Madani / El Gedare -- Correctors of the Sudanese secondary school examinations laid down their pens yesterday in protest against their working conditions. Nutritionists, medics and airport staff are or will go on strike in Sudan as well.
THE international media swooped on Kingston shortly after May 17, 2010 when Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced in Parliament that he would instruct Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne to authorise extradition of west Kingston Don, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, to the United States.
His decision sparked bloody fighting between security forces and gunmen loyal to Coke in west Kingston, for which Golding was Member of Parliament.
He reflected on a knotty situation that ended in Coke's capture one month after the fighting, and which forced Golding to resign one year later.
He believes Golding's stance that the US was encroaching on Jamaica's rights as a sovereign nation by demanding Coke's extradition, was baseless.
What is most astounding is that as the prime minister of Jamaica he went to Gordon House and defended Dudus Coke's inalienable constitutional rights against a foreign power which Jamaica has an extradition treaty with for over a quarter century.
Popular outdoor heat sources for your yard, patio, or deck keep cold-weather gatherings warm while you're social distancing Cooler weather across most of the country, in addition to social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, is making it even harder to get together with family and friends. But installing an outdoor heat source is a quick […]
The post Consumer Reports: Best Ways to Crank Up the Heat Outdoors for Socially-Distant Gatherings appeared first on Milwaukee Community Journal.
By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press A Sudanese court's decision to send five young artists to prison has stirred controversy both in Sudan and abroad, with activists and rights groups calling for judicial reforms following last year's pro-democracy uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir. The artists _ known for their support for the uprising _ […]
The post Verdict Against Young Artists in Sudan Stirs Controversy appeared first on Voice and Viewpoint.
As the ruling party of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region fires rockets at the capital of neighbouring Eritrea, we look at the crisis stoking fears of a devastating conflict in Africa's second most populous country.
The Ethiopian government says operations by its defence forces are underway in Tigray its northern region
The move comes after the government of prime minister Abiy Ahmed declared an “unexpected war” on it’s northern state, threatening the stability of one of the world’s most strategic regions, the Horn of Africa.
Birhanu Jula Gelalcha, Deputy Chief of the Ethiopian Army described the war a shameful one. \"O ur country has entered into a war that it did not want. This war is a shameful war. It does not have a point. The people of Tigray and its youth and its security forces should not die for this pointless war. Ethiopia is their country.\" the army chief explained.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are accused of an unprovoked attack on the Ethiopian army’s northern command, and of trying to loot its weapons.
Tensions between the government and TPLF, which used to be part of the governing coalition before falling out with Mr Abiy, have escalated in recent months.
The TPLF has accused Abiy’s administration of trying to destroy Tigray’s right to self-determination and conspiring with Ethiopia’s northern neighbour Eritrea to stage a military attack.
(Tigrinya) Debretsion Gebremichael, President of the Tigray Regional State. berated the government's move.
\"In the regions around Tigray there is a massing of military forces. Consequently I have announced at a news conference to say that they are surrounding us with their forces. I stated that they have decided to go to war and we should all prepare to foil it. This is our proclamation, so let it be clear\". Gebremicheal said.
He stressed there was no reason for this because the people of Tigray held an election. \"There was nothing new that happened. This is the action of a self-loving government that is trying to resolve, albeit though not possible, political differences through force, weapons, and war. That is why they have declared war on the people of Tigray.\"
On Tuesday, the federal parliament proposed that the TPLF be designated as a \"terrorist organisation.\"
Johanneburg — Officials in Africa have expressed concern over developments in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, the black American man killed in police custody in the city of Minneapolis last week.
The head of the African Union described Floyd’s death as an act of “murder,” while South Africa’s ruling party is calling for calm in the U.S. Statements from the African continent could portend a shift in global relations — and hopefully, analysts say, make a bigger point: whether you live in Minneapolis or Monrovia, George Floyd’s death affects us all.
In Addis Ababa, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat took the U.S. government to task over the death of Floyd.
Meanwhile, U.S. embassies in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo issued rare statements of concern over Floyd’s May 25 death and called for accountability after the arrest of a police officer on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
This week, as fires burned across the U.S., South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party also weighed in in the mounting crisis, saying the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor show that “American society places a perilously low value on black lives.”
JAMAICANS for Justice (JFJ) wants the joint select committee of Parliament tasked with reviewing the proposed sexual harassment legislation to reform the provision imposing a 12-month limit on complaints brought by victims before the tribunal.
“This proposed limitation restricts victims' rights to effectively access justice and ignores many of the most obvious underlying issues associated with sexual harassment.
Jamaicans for Justice believes that Section 25 (3) sends a message that is inconsistent with the spirit and the purpose of the proposed legislation and ultimately diminishes its scope as a mechanism created to protect victims from sexual harassment,” the release said.
The rights groups said it has written to members of the joint select committee, outlining its reasoning on the issue and a detailed analysis of why the amount of time given for reporting sexual matters should be more.
We are urging the committee to amend the Bill by either removing the limitation being proposed or where such is deemed necessary, to create a limit that allows for the longest reasonable time for a complaint to be made which is consistent with the limits that already exist for other civil claims,” said the human rights group.
Burundi's longtime President Pierre Nkurunziza has congratulated the governing party's hand-picked successor on a \"large victory\" in the country's presidential election, though the main opposition has pledged to contest the result in court.
The election commission on Monday declared Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general chosen by the CNDD-FDD party as heir to Nkurunziza, the winner of the May 20 poll with 68.72 percent vote.
\"I warmly congratulate the President-elect General Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies,\" Nkurunziza, who chose not to run after 15 years in power, posted on Twitter.
On May 8, 12 days to the polls and before the scheduled arrival of an East African Community mission to the country, the government said the regional bloc's observers would have to be in quarantine for 14 days, effectively ruling them out of the election process.
Nkurunziza was this year elevated by Burundi's parliament to the rank of \"supreme guide for patriotism\" and he will continue to be chairman of the governing party's powerful council of elders.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has pampered soldiers and the police, giving them between $5 000 and $8 000 COVID-19 allowances which critics say are meant to appease them ahead of the planned July 31 protests by opposition and civic groups. BY MOSES MATENGA In contrast, teachers were awarded $1 200. Mnangagwa last month awarded government workers a 50% salary hike and a non-taxable US$75 three months COVID-19 allowance to cushion them from the economic crisis that has eroded earnings and savings. With inflation running at 786% and the prices of basic commodities rising daily, workers are demanding United States dollar salaries and rejected the government offer. The increment, recently described by Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana as “a gift”, reflected in civil servants’ accounts on Tuesday, showing a huge disparity between other civil servants and security forces. While police and soldiers got $5 000 and $8 000 respectively, other civil servants including teachers questioned why government gave them only $1 200. They now await the US$75 COVID-19 allowance promised by government. Observers immediately described the government move as a ploy to appease members of the uniformed forces ahead of the protests against the deteriorating economic situation in the country. In separate interviews, teachers, military and police officers confirmed receiving the allowances which they immediately rubbished as a useless gesture by government. Analyst Rashweat Mukundu said the disparities exposed the divide and rule tactic by the government which was banking on soldiers and police to crush dissent. “It is a clear strategy of divide and rule in which government is pampering the security sector in order to use it for repression and suppressing protests by other civil servants as we saw a few days back where police were used to chase and arrest striking nurses protesting over poor salaries,” Mukundu said. “Government is in a survival mode and not necessarily focusing on resolving issues faced by civil servants. Essentially, it is a strategy to pamper and give more money to those you will unleash on protesters. “It is partly to prepare for end of month protests being planned and it is an unfortunate way to deal with the civil servants crisis of livelihood.” Mangwana was not picking calls yesterday, but hinted on his Twitter handle that Mnangagwa might be forced to lock down Harare and Bulawayo in the face of rising local COVID-19 cases, a move seen by observers as an excuse to block the planned anti-government protests. Zanu PF communications director Tafadzwa Mugwadi said government would unleash the security forces to quell “the illegal protest”. “I am pretty sure these July 31 issues will be a non-event,” Mugwadi said. “It is illegal and it is not going to happen. I am pretty sure that our law enforcement agents, whom the nation has entrusted with the responsibility to maintain peace and order and also ensure that lockdown regulations are enforced to the full, are not going to fold their arms and watch people
By The Associated Press undefined The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world: ___ North Carolina coach Mack Brown said he remains 'confident' that the Tar Heels will play football this season after the school shut down in-person undergraduate classes. Brown said Tuesday that the school's move to online courses after recent coronavirus clusters in student housing and a fraternity could ultimately help 'create a better seal around our program and a better bubble.' Brown said team staffers hosted a Zoom call for parents on Monday to address questions. Athletes can choose to remain […]
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[East African] The Ethiopian government on Wednesday began restricting telephone and internet services to the troubled Tigray region, hours after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military response to an ambush on the military.
By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi court issued final verdicts on Monday in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution. While the trial draws to its conclusion in Saudi Arabia, the case continues to cast a shadow over the reputation and international standing of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose associates have been sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for their alleged involvement in the brutal killing, […]
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In Jan. 2007, the U.S. launched airstrikes on the retreating Islamists, who they believed included three members of al-Qaeda suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The air strikes were strongly criticized in a number of Muslim countries, which accused the Americans of killing Somali civilians. 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. The fighting created a humanitarian crisis, with more than 320,000 Somalis fleeing the fighting in Mogadishu in just two months. In July, a national reconciliation conference opened in Mogadishu but was quickly postponed when leading opposition figures failed to appear. The fighting intensified once again in October. The Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, a coalition of moderate Islamist leaders, and the transitional government agreed to a cease-fire in June 2008 that called on Ethiopian troops that were propping up the fragile government to be replaced by UN troops. The future of the deal was tenuous from the start and was greeted by much skepticism. Indeed, it was unclear if the UN could assemble a force willing to be deployed to the troubled region, and several powerful Islamist groups did not participate in the negotiations.
Al-Shabab, the militant wing of SICC, began gaining strength in 2007. It allied itself with al-Qaeda and won the support of many local warlords, primarily in the south. The group has raised alarms in the U.S. that its brand of militant Islam would spread throughout eastern Africa and beyond. The group seeks to return Somalia to an Islamist state and has intimidated civilians with stonings, by chopping off hands, and by banning many forms of technology, while continuing to wage war against the transitional government. Al-Shabab has taken advantage of the power vacuum and weak transitional government. By February 2009, the group controlled almost all of southern
Ethiopia has said that forces loyal to the ruling party in the Tigray region had fired into neighbouring Amhara region.
