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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.
[Dalsan Radio] Somalia's new foreign minister, Mohamed Abdirqzak, has for the first time responded to the ongoing war in Ethiopia.
[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.
Minister of labour and social affairs of the federal republic of Somalia Sadiq Hirsi Warfaa and the Commissioner for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons have pledged the work towards creation of job opportunities.
The two spoke during a meeting the minister's office in which they promised to bring home Somalia refugees and create income streams for the internally displaced.
\"The ministry is putting efforts on ensuring continued support and relocation of the Somali Diaspora, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is currently working to create jobs for internally displaced persons and provide them with care,\" Minister Sadiq said.
Also, the director of social and planning departments was present at the meeting.
South Sudan has rubbished reports that it has agreed to Egyptian request to build military base in Pagak, a town bordering Ethiopia.
Ethiopia and Egypt are close friends to South Sudan,\" read the statement.
James Morgan, South Sudan's Ambassador to Ethiopia, late on Thursday said that Juba would not allow any external force to use her territory to attack Ethiopia.
Egypt and Ethiopia have been cooperating with South Sudan in the implementation process of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan mainly with regard to security arrangements.
The latest allegation against South Sudan comes as tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt escalate after Addis Ababa announced to start filling its controversial hydro-power dam next month.
By BRIAN MELLEY and AMY TAXIN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A month ago, Antonio Gomez III was a healthy 46-year-old struggling like so many others to balance work and parenting during the coronavirus pandemic. This week, he's struggling to breathe after a three-week bout with the virus. Gomez said he let down his guard to see his parents and contracted one of the nearly 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California. For months, the virus has hammered the economy, disproportionately affected the poor and upended daily life — and now the state and the rest of the […]
The post Unwelcome milestone: California nears million COVID-19 cases appeared first on Black News Channel.
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.
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.
WELLINGTON, (Reuters) - The West Indies cricket team have been cleared to leave their biosecure facility in Christchurch today after their third round of novel coronavirus tests were negative, New Zealand Cricket said yesterday.
The article Windies cleared to leave isolation in NZ after COVID-19 testing appeared first on Stabroek News.
Timber! Trees are Coming Down in Sudan
At the Um Raquba reception camp in Eastern Sudan, dozens of trees are being torn down by bulldozers to create space to build shelters and provide firewood for displaced Ethiopians fleeing the violent conflict in the Northern region of their country, Tigray. One of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees is 65-year-old Zayet Wali, who is building a wooden shelter to protect her sick husband from the blazing sun.
Wali shares how she is getting by way of the wood supply, \"I got the wood from a person who was building his house and I collected another pile myself. The machine chops them up for us so they can be ready to use.\"
A Blow to the Environment
According to the head of Gedaref state health department, Amira Elgada, the equivalent of 65 square metres of trees disappears each day. Their destruction is a serious blow to the environment that has harmful consequences for several plant and animal species. But desperation can sometimes precede ecology. Abadi Grazdier, another displayed Ethiopian, explains that options are limited, \"In my country, I have never cut a branch, it is forbidden, but here I don't have any other solution. We get the wood from over there and use it to make fires. There isn't anything other than the wood to use.\"
An Urgent Political Crisis
Indeed, Gedaref has a desert climate and in these semi-arid regions, acacia trees are important from an ecological standpoint but for the tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees making camp at Um Raquba, their main concern to survive by way of a wooden roof over their heads and firewood to cook their meals. Department head Elgada says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Sudanese Commission for Refugees have been asked to provide shelters that do not use wood - such as tents and to deliver gas bottles to avoid using logs.
Since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive on November 4 against Tigrayan authorities - vowing to install \"legitimate\" institutions, over 45,000 people have fled the region.
[Radio Dabanga] Khartoum / El Gedaref -- Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan Abdallah Suleiman reported yesterday morning that 24,944 Ethiopian refugees fleeing the war in the neighbouring Tigray region have been registered so far. Most of them are women, children and elderly.
