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By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia's government says its security forces shot at and detained United Nations staffers as they tried to reach part of the embattled Tigray region. Senior official Redwan Hussein told reporters that the U.N. staffers were to blame because they 'broke' two checkpoints to go to areas where 'they were not supposed to go.' He said the staffers have since been released. The shooting occurred amid soaring frustration among humanitarians as aid is still not freely reaching the Tigray region more than a week after the U.N. and Ethiopia's government signed a […]
The post Ethiopia's forces shoot at, detain UN staffers in Tigray appeared first on Black News Channel.
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.
Confirmed cases = 5,846
\t\tActive cases = 3,311
\t\tRecoveries = 2,430
\t\tNumber of deaths = 103
\t
John Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 19, 2020
June 20: 4,000+ cases, quarantine period now 7 days
\tThe government has revised the quarantine period for persons entering the country from fourteen to seven days, the Ethiopia News Agency reported on Friday.
Confirmed cases = 4,070
\t\tActive cases = 2,969
\t\tRecoveries = 1,029
\t\tNumber of deaths = 72
June 18: 3,954 cases as tests pass 200K mark
\tEthiopia’s case load looks set to enter the 4,000 zone as 195 new cases took the tally to 3,954 confirmed cases, the 100th update from the Health Ministry disclosed.
Total confirmed cases = 3,954 (new cases = 195)
Total recoveries = 934
Total deaths = 65
Active cases = 2,953
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 18, 2020
June 13: Ethiopia passes 3,000 mark as deaths reach 55
\tA total of 268 new cases within 24-hours took Ethiopia’s tally past the 3,000 mark.
Confirmed cases = 3,166
\t\tNumber of deaths = 55
\t\tRecoveries = 495
\t\tActive cases = 2,614
\tJohn Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 13, 2020
\tVIDEO
June 8: 2,070 cases, PM defends ‘no lockdown’
\tEthiopia crossed the 2,000 mark on Sunday when 86 new cases took the tally to 2,020.
Confirmed cases = 2,070
Deaths = 27
Recoveries = 344
Active cases = 1,647
Total tests = 142,960
June 3: 1,486 cases, community transmissions mounting
\tEthiopia’s Health Minister is worried over the spate of community transmissions of COVID-19.
By CARA ANNA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Up to 200,000 refugees could pour into Sudan while fleeing the deadly conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, officials said Wednesday, while the first details are emerging of largely cut-off civilians under growing strain. Nearly 10,000 people have crossed the border, including some wounded in the fighting, and the flow is growing quickly. 'There are lots of children and women,' Al-Sir Khalid, the head of the refugee agency in Sudan's Kassala province, told The Associated Press. 'They are arriving very tired and exhausted. They are hungry and thirsty […]
The post Sudan braces for up to 200,000 fleeing Ethiopia fighting appeared first on Black News Channel.
After decades on the run, Felicien Kabuga called the charges against him \"lies\" and his lawyer doubted he would receive a fair trial in an international court.
Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga called the charges against him lies in a French courtroom on Wednesday.
After the presiding judge read out the offenses that Kabuga was accused of, including genocide, persecution and extermination against Rwanda's Tutsi minority, Kabuga denied the charges.
The French court refused to release Kabuga on bail, despite his lawyer's argument that he is in poor health.
End of the road
Kabuga, who was arrested earlier this month is a Paris suburb, was considered the most-wanted suspect connected to the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, November 12. Dwindling options Proposition 15 is dead — and with it, one of California’s few remaining hopes of infusing money into local governments and schools staring down massive deficits. The Associated Press called the race late Tuesday night with 51.8% of voters opposing and 48.2% supporting the campaign to […]
The post Two unappealing choices for Newsom, lawmakers appeared first on Black Voice News.
By MICHELLE R. SMITH and SEAN MURPHY Associated Press School systems in Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and suburban Minneapolis are giving up on in-person classes, and some governors are reimposing restrictions on bars and restaurants or getting more serious about masks, as the coast-to-coast resurgence of the coronavirus sends deaths, hospitalizations and new infections soaring. The crisis deepened at hospitals, with the situation so bad in North Dakota that the governor this week said nurses who test positive but have no symptoms can still work. Idaho clinics struggled to handle the deluge of phone calls from patients. The virus is blamed […]
The post Virus surge: Schools abandon classes, states retreat appeared first on Black News Channel.
Over 500 million dollars is likely to be pledged Thursday for a device to ensure that all countries have equitable access to covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.
That's according to organizers of the Paris Peace Forum at the Elysee palace Thursday.
Several world leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron, Senegalese Macky Sall and Canada's Justin Trudeau are attending the two day event which ends Friday.
The leaders called for universal access to future covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
Macron said \"We will not win against the virus by abandoning a part of humanity.\"
He recalled the launch of the \"ACT Accelerator\" with the WHO, the G20 and NGO’s such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the international Covax vaccine procurement and distribution system.
\"But how can we be sure that everyone is playing the game, that there will be no stowaway behavior and that enough doses will be produced for the poorest countries, who need them the most? Otherwise it would further reinforce inequalities\", the French president queried.
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also agreed.\"The international community must ensure that fair and equitable access will be guaranteed to provide everyone with a vaccine,\" he said.
Senegalese President Macky Sall also spoke of a \"necessary solidarity between states\" in the face of \" a common pandemic\".
Other international leaders, such as Secretary General of the Francophonie, Rwanda’s Louise Mushikiwabo, have also supported this willingness to make the vaccine a common good.
\"As the race for the Covid-19 vaccine continues, I join the call to make it a global public good, accessible to all, without any restrictions,\" she said.
Smalls alleges Amazon subjected a group of African American and Hispanic workers to inferior working conditions compared to its mostly white managers.
May 28: Field hospital on Addis outshirts
\tEthiopia will soon have a COVID-19 field hospital on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa.
Total confirmed cases = 731 (new cases = 30)
Total recoveries = 181
Total deaths = 6
Active cases = 544
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 27, 2020
May 24: 193 cases in 5 days as tally hits 582
\tEthiopia has recorded back-to-back one-day spikes, record 61 new cases on Saturday and a further 81 on Sunday toppling the Saturday record.
Ethiopia’s tally has therefore jumped by 193 new cases in a space of five days.
Total confirmed cases = 582 (new cases = 88)
Total recoveries = 152 (new recoveries = 8)
Total deaths = 5
Active cases = 423
\tTrajectory of infections between May 20 – 24
\tMay 20: 389 (24 new cases)
May 21: 398 (9 new cases)
May 22: 399 (10 new cases)
May 22: 433 (34 new cases)
May 23: 494 (61 new cases)
May 24: 582 (88 new cases)
May 19: 365 cases with 60 new cases in three days
\tTotal confirmed cases = 365 (new cases between May 17 – 19 = 60)
Total recoveries = 120 (new recoveries = 8)
Active cases = 238
\tEthiopia’s case count spiked on Monday by 35 new cases (a daily record) whiles 14 new cases were recorded today.
Major African stats: May 19 at 6:00 GMT:
\t\tConfirmed cases = 88,264
\t\tNumber of deaths = 2,832
\t\tRecoveries = 33,898
\t\tActive cases = 51,534
COVID-19 response before index case
\tBut the journey to the May 15 status lasted roughly two months (exactly 55 days) from the day an index case was recorded and reported by the ministry.
May: Case peak, lull and recovery boost
\tBy May 8th, case tally had reached 39 but the good news from the Health Ministry was the recovery of 37 out of the number.
Two days on, the 38th recovery was recorded before the final on May 15 meant that there was no active case in the country.
Mauritius was the second to declare virus-free status with 332 cases, 322 recoveries and 10 deaths as of May 11, a case stat that remains valid as of May 17 according to tallies from the John Hopkins University portal.
The Health Ministry delivered virus updates – cases, recoveries and directives; whiles the Task Force came in with the guidelines relative to containment measures and other fine details.
Delayed elections and ethnic tensions are undermining Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's reform agenda.
Rather, it was because before they were connected, they heard the voice of none other than Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed promoting the country's plan to plant 20 billion seedlings by 2024 -- an ambitious reforestation project that again highlights Ethiopia's reputation as Africa's poster child.
Or Ethiopia's reconciliation project that launched with Abiy's appointment as a young reformist prime minister in 2018 but is now threatening to crash land.
Before the announcement of the election delay, Ethiopia already faced growing interethnic violence and more than a dozen small ethnic groups were calling for greater regional autonomy.
Poll postponement an opportunity
But the election delay and the extension of the government's mandate should also be seen as an opportunity for reconciliation -- perhaps the government's last chance if the time gained up to 2021 could be used for a genuine National Dialogue that involves the entire region, including neighboring Eritrea.
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.
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer Temperature and COVID-19 symptom checks like the ones used at schools and doctor's offices have again proved inadequate for spotting coronavirus infections and preventing outbreaks. A study of Marine recruits found that despite these measures and strict quarantines before they started training, the recruits spread the virus to others even though hardly any of them had symptoms. None of the infections were caught through symptom screening. The study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, has implications for colleges, prisons, meatpacking plants and other places that rely on this sort of […]
The post Fever, symptom screening misses many coronavirus cases appeared first on Black News Channel.
Zerina Akers is taking the fashion industry by storm. The Maryland bred fashion guru is known to the Beyhive as Beyoncé's stylist and the Black woman responsible for the singer's most iconic looks in her music videos, IG posts and red carpet appearances. Most recently, Zerina gained notoriety for the gorgeous looks she created for […]
Irrigation and water ministers from the three Nile basin countries will meet via videoconference.
May 30: Cases pass 1,000 mark; total tests top 100,000
\tEthiopia’s confirmed cases passed the 1,000 mark after today’s tallies were released.
Health Minister Dr Lia Tadesse confirmed at the meeting that 67% of the country’s total confirmed cases are from the capital Addis Ababa.
In 1895 T. Thomas Fortune, then editor of the New York Age, and founder of the Afro-American League in 1890, was considered one of the leaders of African America. That year he gave an address at the Congress on Africa which met in Atlanta in connection with the Cotton States Exposition. His address appears below.
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress:
The map of Africa is no longer a Chinese puzzle. Its geographical mysteries have been solved. Its mighty lakes and rivers have been traced to their source, and fiction and cupidity have unlocked hordes of treasure by the side of which that of King Solomon’s mines was as the vastness of the Atlantic’s waste of waters to the smallest stream that, like a silver thread, wanders down the mountain side and sighs itself away into the sands of the desert. Railroads are spanning its immense distances, steamboats are navigating its waterways, and the electric wire has brought it into talking distance with Europe and America. Its limitless agricultural and mineral resources are being developed for the comfort and the happiness of mankind. Vast States have sprung into being, as if by magic, controlled by European colonists, so that already a South African confederacy has worked its way into the brain of Cecil Rhodes, whose empire is cemented with more human blood and tears than the East Indian empire wrenched into the British Government by the crimes of Lord Clive and Warren Hastings.
Never in the history of mankind has a continent been so rapidly subdued and its waste places made the habitation of civilized governments and its savage inhabitants brought into contact and under the control of civilization. More has been accomplished along these lines in Africa in the past quarter of a century than was accomplished by European colonists in America in the first one hundred and fifty years of their desperate struggles here to subdue the aborigines. Steam and electricity and gunpowder are responsible for this phenomenon. They are conquering forces against
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief, the head of intelligence and the foreign minister as the military continued a five-day old offensive in the restive Tigray region.
Addis Ababa was the last imperial capital of Ethiopia and serves as the capital of the modern state of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa came into existence in 1886 as a mineral springs resort for Ethiopias royal family and nobility. In 1892, Emperor Menilek II (r. 1889-1913) made it the capital when he constructed his palace there. By 1896, members of the nobility began to build permanent homes in the new capital. Neighborhoods bearing the names of these nobles provided housing for their followers along with districts for the imperial employees. Foreigners, artisans, and merchants also flocked to the city. The city’s previously uncertain future was established in 1907 with the granting of land charters and, in 1917 when the railroad arrived from Djibouti.
By 1917, Ras Tafari Makonnen, later Haile Selassie (r. 1930-74), had become one of the most powerful people in Addis Ababa. He recognized the future importance of the city and redistributed much of his recently acquired wealth to gain the support of the emerging class of urban Ethiopians. In 1918, a series of popular demonstrations in Addis Ababa catapulted Tafari to the head of a regency council.
Addis Ababa experienced an economic boom between 1926 and 1927, fueled by the lucrative processing of coffee and hides just before export. Aided by this new wealth, the bourgeoisie of the city began to construct new, stone houses filled with imported European furniture and the richest amongst them drove automobiles. At this time, a rudimentary banking system began to develop in the city.
In 1930, Tafari was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie in a spectacular week-long celebration. The extravaganza was preceded by a wave of city-wide improvements including street paving, the installation of power lines and telephones, and the erection of several monuments throughout Addis Ababa. However, after a string of defeats by the Italians, who had invaded in 1935, the Emperor was forced to leave Addis Ababa and the country in 1936. This triggered a riot in the capital which was only quelled
The Battle of Adwa and the Victory of Adwa Centenary Medal
The Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II united to defeat an invading force of Italian troops, was one of the most significant turning points in the history of modern Africa. It occurred, in 1896, when the “colonial era” was well advanced on the African continent, and it served notice that Africa was not just there “for the taking” by European powers. More than this, it marked the entry of Ethiopia into the modern community of nations: Menelik’s victory over the Italians caused the other major European states, and Italy itself, to recognise Ethiopia as a sovereign, independent state in the context of modern statecraft.
The actual battle which took place on March 1 and 2, 1896, at Adwa, the principal market town of the North of Ethiopia, had been precipitated by the great rush of the European powers to colonise Africa. Italy and Germany had lagged behind other European powers — most notably France and Britain — in seizing large parcels of the Continent to colonise. Thus, the Conference of Berlin was convened in 1884-85 to “divide up” the remainder of Africa among the other European powers, anxious to obtain their own African colonies to satisfy the urge for imperial expansion and economic gain. Italy was “awarded” Ethiopia; all that remained was for Italian troops to take possession.
Significantly, until this time, Ethiopia had been left alone by the European powers. Its coastal littoral was well-known to traders, but the heartland in the highlands was peopled by nations notoriously unwilling to accept and embrace external contact and influence. But the Ethiopian nations had been known in the past to be fractious and divided, and from all accounts, Italy’s leaders expected a rapid conquest of the individual national leaders. Britain had, in 1868, waged a successful war against Emperor Téwodros II (Theodore), leading to his death. The Italians, however, failed to recognise that Emperor Menelik II had re-shaped Ethiopia
Meanwhile, in South Africa the death is reported of a two-day-old baby after being born prematurely to a coronavirus positive mother.
The case becomes the country’s first neonatal coronavirus death since the pandemic hit the Rainbow Nation.
Explaining the circumstances leading to the baby’s death, health minister Zweli Mkhize said the premature baby’s condition was critical including lung problems and after birth.
This was a two-day-old baby that was born prematurely and therefore had lung difficulties, which required ventilation support immediately after birth,” the BBC quoted Mkhize at a press briefing.
“The mother had tested positive for Covid-19 and the child subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 as well.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Gedu Andargachew has rejected Egypt’s call to refer the dispute over Addis Ababa’s construction of the giant Nile dam to the United Nations Security Council.
The $4.6 billion project, on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, would create the most powerful hydroelectric dam in Africa.
“The issue with the dam can be solved right here instead of taking it to the UN Security Council.
Truth be told, if they are thinking like that their issue is not with Blue Nile (dam), it is with a country called Ethiopia.
Unless this is a longing for war, the dam in fact encourages development, brotherhood, and creating ties”, the Ethiopian foreign minister added.
Analysis - Ethiopia wants to fill Africa's most powerful hydroelectric dam even without a deal with Sudan and Egypt. Talks on how much water will pass through the Nile dam are deadlocked. The spat threatens the region's security.
A study found that at least 350 transgender people were killed in 2020.
PINELLAS COUNTY - A transformational gift from The Hough Family Foundation has provided St. Petersburg College with the seed funding needed to grow its nursing, certified clinical medical assistant (CMA) and patient care technician (PCT) programs. The transformational gift will be used to expand SPC's nursing simulation lab and provide additional training equipment and faculty […]
Although all age groups are at risk of contracting COVID-19, those who face significant risk of developing severe illness are older people. Majority who fall under this at-risk group have given up the ghost. This is as a result of ageing and underlying health conditions. However, a Centenarian has recovered from the deadly coronavirus in...
The post 114-year-old Ethiopian recovers from COVID-19 appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
