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NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to make the case to world leaders at theU.N. General Assemblythat Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for as he looks to rally allies to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance. Biden, during his […]
The post Biden at UN to call Russian war an affront to body’s charter appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
Abiy's government and the regional one run by the Tigray People's Liberation Front each consider the other illegitimate.
\t There was no immediate word from the three AU envoys, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe. AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo did not say whether they can meet with TPLF leaders, something Abiy's office has rejected.
\"``Not possible,'' senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein said in a message to the AP. ``\"Above all, TPLF leadership is still at large.'' He called reports that the TPLF had appointed an envoy to discuss an immediate cease-fire with the international community ``masquerading.''
\t Fighting reportedly remained well outside the Tigray capital of Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who have been warned by the Ethiopian government that they will be shown ``no mercy'' if they don't distance themselves from the region's leaders.
\t Tigray has been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since Nov. 4, when Abiy announced a military offensive in response to a TPLF attack on a federal army base.
That makes it difficult to verify claims about the fighting, but humanitarians have said at least hundreds of people have been killed.
\t The fighting threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa.
\t With transport links cut, food and other supplies are running out in Tigray, home to 6 million people, and the United Nations has asked for immediate and unimpeded access for aid.
AP
[Nation] A survey conducted in Homa Bay County has found that poverty is the main reason for early exposure to sex.
The Ethiopian army has blocked one of the main roads leading to its border with Sudan, preventing Ethiopians fleeing the war in Tigray from reaching the neighboring country, according to refugees who arrived Thursday at the Lugdi border crossing in eastern Sudan.
\"The Ethiopian army has cut the road leading to the Sudanese border at the locality of Humera (20 km from the border) and those seeking to reach Sudan must avoid the main road and pass through the fields without being seen by soldiers,\" Tesfai Burhano, who had just arrived in Lugdi, told AFP.
On Thursday, the border post was empty and no Ethiopian soldiers were visible. An AFP reporter saw about ten refugees crossing the border while he was there.
The number of Ethiopian refugees fleeing to Sudan has dropped significantly over the past week, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). On Wednesday, the UN agency counted 718 arrivals, compared to 3,813 on November 21.
Communications are cut in Tigray, making it difficult to verify some claims.
A Sudanese security official confirmed the drop in refugee arrivals to AFP, without giving any explanation.
Aid given to 'liberated areas'
The United Nations on Thursday said Tigray region was experiencing 'critical shortages' of food, fuel, and cash.
But Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said on Thursday that the federal government had begun distributing food and other relief items in areas controlled by the national army.
“This humanitarian assistance will now be further reinforced with the opening of a humanitarian access route to be managed under the auspices of the Ministry of Peace”, said a statement from Abiy's office.
According to the UNHCR, 42,651 refugees have arrived in Sudan since the start of the deadly conflict in Tigray, 70% of them via Hamdayit, in the Sudanese province of Kassala, the rest via Gadarif.
Battle for Mekelle
Reports said heavy battles raged Thursday for control of Mekelle, capital of Tigray state. Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's governing had reportedly mobilized and armed thousands of men.
The Tigray region of northern Ethiopia has been the scene of fierce fighting since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation there on November 4, accusing leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front of seeking to destabilize the federal government and of attacking two Ethiopian military bases in the region, which the Tigrayan authorities deny.
AFP
[UN News] The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has launched an appeal for $147 million to support as many as 100,000 people fleeing Ethiopia's Tigray region into neighbouring Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.
Washington (AP) — Presidentelect Joe Biden on Monday tapped Obama administration veterans for top national security positions, signaling a stark shift from the Trump administration’s ...
[IPS] United Nations -- The numbers are staggering-- as reflected in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has triggered a new round of food shortages, famine and starvation.
Press Release - Since South Sudan's civil war began in 2013, both the government and opposition forces have committed widespread atrocity crimes, including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, recruitment and use of children in their armed forces, rape, and other forms of sexual violence.[1] The 2015 Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS)[2] and the 2018 Revitalized ARCSS[3] provide for three important mechanisms to deal with human rights violations arising from t
(AP)- Iran’s supreme leader today demanded the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear programme, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a...
[Nation] Some 34 million women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa could live in abject poverty in the next decade as a result of effects of Covid-19, according to new data on empowerment interventions.
We look back on this day in history and remember the people and events that shaped the world we live in today. Every day is worth remembering.
A shack in Sudan's Hamdayit refugee centre is offering free communication services for Ethiopian refugees.
It’s just a small gesture allowing the refugees to connect with family and friends at home, thus providing badly needed relief at such trying times.
A sign posted outside of the shack reads ‘’ restoring family links’’. The phone and messaging service has been set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
The refugee centre in Hamdayit is filled with some 30,000 refugees. Most of them have fled with a few belongings and clothes on their back, escaping the conflict between leaders of the northern Tigray region and the Ethiopian federal forces.
More than 43,000 refugees have crossed into Sudan since fighting broke out in Tigray on November 4, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said as he visited Sudanese camps this week.
[Botswana Daily News] Hukuntsi -- United Nations (UN) resident coordinator, Mr Ziachou Choundry, has urged nations to step up the protection of women and children.
Several Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, are shaping up to miss the ambitious 90-90-90 United Nations target for the end of this year to help end the AIDS epidemic. Set in 2013, the target called for countries to have 90 per cent of those...
[Monitor] Uganda Aids Commission is currently running sensitisation messages, \"Your HIV negative status expires every time you have unprotected sex with someone whose HIV status you do not know,\" ahead of the World Aids Day commemoration.
[Seychelles News Agency] Seychelles and Mauritius on Monday signed two agreements during the state visit of President Wavel Ramkalawan in the fields of security and combatting crime, as well as information and communication technology.
[Nyasa Times] Chairperson for Parliamentary Health Committee, Dr. Mathews Ngwale says he will table the the controversial Termination of Pregnancy Billduring the February, 2021 Parliamentary Sitting with hope that legislators will give a nod to the bill.
The United Nations now has ‘’unrestricted’’ access to the northern region of Tigray, according to a dossier cited by AFP. A senior UN official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity on Wednesday said that the agreement would allow the UN and its humanitarian partners to deliver aid \"wherever people need it.
Meanwhile, one of the reception camps in Sudan housing Ethiopian refugees fleeing conflict in the northern Tigray region is becoming overwhelmed. Already, some people in the Raquba camp scramble to find adequate shelter and enough food.
\"All my children are sick because they are not used to the food that they are eating here. Back home, we were doing fine, my husband worked at a bank and I used to work at a supermarket. Now we left everything behind and we came here. We have no money or anything and we need help\", an Ethiopian refugee, Otaaside Otimora said.
Solomon Gabriel is another Ethiopian refugee at the camp. He laments their current predicament.
\"We don’t have any blankets or mattresses, nor water or food. We feel as if we are just living in the bushes here. Our country was secure, we left our homes, our cows and our food; it has all been taken by the fighters and we have nothing here. We are very hungry and we don’t have a choice\", Gabriel said.
More than 45,000 people have escaped from northern Ethiopia since November 4. This follows Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s order for a military operations against leaders of Tigray's ruling party in response to its alleged attacks on federal army camps.
Human rights group have warned of possible crimes against humanity in East Africa’s largest country.
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.
The European Union wants to improve cooperation with Morocco for the return of the later's citizens who don't qualify asylum or refugee status in the bloc, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson said Tuesday in Rabat.
\"I am here with a mandate to negotiate readmission and visa facilitation, we will see how the discussions go,\" she said during a press briefing at the beginning of a two-day official visit.
\"An ageing Europe needs labour, and irregular arrivals are frightening European citizens (...): For me, having fewer irregular arrivals and sending back those who are not allowed to stay is closely linked to visa facilitation and legal migration,\" she explained.
In the midst of the migration crisis in the Canary Islands, her first visit to Morocco also aims to \"continue discussions\" on readmission mechanisms launched by Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska last week during a visit to Rabat.
Illegal arrivals in the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa \"have increased by more than 1000%\" this year, \"it seems that more than half of the migrants are Moroccan and it is important to know how to ensure that they return,\" the commissioner said.
Johansson also plans to discuss with the Moroccan authorities their \"needs\" in terms of migration management and the \"means necessary for shared benefits\".
Since 2018, Morocco has received 343 million euros of European aid on various programs (police training, education, etc.), according to data released Tuesday.
The European Union sees each year between two and three million regular arrivals (workers, students or refugees) from different countries of the world. About half of those who enter legally leave.
Last year, there were about 100,000 expulsion decisions, about a third of which were followed by effective return, mostly to Ukraine and the Balkans, according to figures released Tuesday.
Yvla Johansson, who is leading the reform of the European migration pact, pleads for greater efficiency in the return of illegal migrants to their countries of origin and considers it a priority to obtain \"good readmission agreements\".
The Horn of Africa has once again experienced renewed tensions this weekend.
Somalia decided to recall its ambassador to Nairobi and expel the Kenyan ambassador.
In a statement, Somalia’s foreign Affairs Ministry accused Kenya of “overt and blatant interferences” in internal affairs in Jubbaland.
“In recent weeks, it has become apparent to the Federal Government of Somalia that the Kenyan government is placing great political pressure on the regional President of Jubaland, Mr. Axmed Maxamed Islaan in order to pursue its political and economic interests in Somalia,” the statement read in part.
“For that reason, the Federal Government of Somalia recalls the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Somalia to the Republic of Kenya, Mr. Maxamed Ahmed Nur Tarzan, and instructs the Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to Federal Republic of Somalia, Mr. Lucas Tumbo, to depart to Kenya for consultation,” it added.
This is not the first time that diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained. After oil fields off the coast, disputed by both countries, were auctioned off by Somalia, Kenya recalled its ambassador to Mogadishu last February.
The state of Jubaland, one of Somalia's five semi-autonomous states and a buffer zone with Kenya, is now at the center of diplomatic tensions between the two East African countries.
The latest incident notwithstanding, Mogadishu authorities have in recent weeks not only accused Nairobi of meddling in its internal affairs, including the backing of Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe
But what mainly disturbs many Somalis is the presence of Kenyan troops in the force of AMISOM, the African Union mission in Somalia, experienced as a rooting of the country in Jubaland.
Kenya Army fighting Al-Shabaab
In 2011, the Kenyan army had crossed the border to fight against Shabaab terrorists who were targeting the north of its territory.
Even though the presence of the Kenyan armed forces has diminished in recent years, Kenyan-led military operations have not ceased in Somalia.
While the African Union mission is expected to end its mandate in the country in December 2021, Kenya now faces a dilemma: whether to leave the fight against the main terrorist threat to the Somali army or to continue its operations in the name of protecting Kenyans.
What is certain is that its interests in its northern neighbor are not about to stop guiding Kenya's military policy.
Disputed borderline
Kenya and Somalia have had a long simmering territorial dispute . The 62,000-square-mile triangle of the Indian Ocean has made the two neighbors lock horns and the dispute taken to the floors of the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The battled area is said to be rich with oil, gas and tuna fish.
Somalia initially went to the ICJ In 2014, challenging a 2009 agreement that set its maritime border along latitudinal lines extending 450 nautical miles into the sea.
Kenya, which has always regarded the line to be its border pleaded with the international court to seek o
[IPS] Sydney and Kuala Lumpur -- COVID-19 recessions have hit most countries, requiring massive fiscal responses. While most developing countries struggled with mounting debt even before the pandemic, many developed countries also face unprecedented macroeconomic pressures despite earlier spending cuts due to 'fiscal consolidation' policies.
[New Times] After registering significant success in the global targets between 2013 and 2020, Rwanda is now embarking on a more ambitious target to reduce the AIDS epidemic among its citizens by 2030.
[Shabelle] On their third group visit to Somalia's Federal Member States (FMSs), representatives from some of the country's main partners today emphasized the need for Somali leaders to remain in dialogue with one another, as well as continue in the spirit of consensus which has recently seen progress on preparation for national elections.
[International Justice Monitor] Who would have believed that an agreement with Darfuri armed movement's leaders would be used to justify granting amnesty to the Janjaweed for atrocities committed against innocent civilians in Darfur? And yet, that appears to be exactly what has happened.
[IPS] Mbabane -- The Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) has appealed to the United Nations to educate citizens to use their roles as consumers to create a momentum for change. This was ahead of the 2021 Food Systems Summit which the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, will host on November 25 next year.
Opinion - South Africa has good TB policies, an impressive achievement that comes through in Step Up for TB 2020, a report released this week by Stop TB Partnership and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which assesses TB policy in 37 high TB-burden countries.
When Miguel Murray goes to work his children worry.A porter at University Hospital of the West Indies, he's proud of his supporting role ensuring that patients can be treated. But that work comes with the added risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 facing Jamaica's health care workers.
THE Ministry of Education, Youth and Information has received 534 tablets for students with special needs from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), under the One Laptop or Tablet Per Child initiative.The tablets, valued at US$100,000, are aimed at providing the beneficiaries with greater access to online learning. The first batch of more than 200 devices has already been delivered to children.
[UN News] A Rwandan entrepreneur is pioneering the use of innovative farming technology that, he believes, is set to play a major role in feeding the growing population in his country, amid increasing pressure on arable land.
