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Ethiopian forces blocked people from the country's embattled Tigray region from crossing into Sudan on Thursday at the busiest crossing point for refugees, Sudanese forces said.
Their account follows allegations by refugees in previous days of Ethiopian forces stopping people from fleeing the month-old deadly conflict in Tigray.
The Sudanese forces, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the events, said people tried to cross from Ethiopia around 6 a.m. to Hamdayet in Sudan but were stopped, and refugees waiting on the Sudan side became upset and began throwing rocks.
The Sudanese forces then cleared the area, and on Thursday evening they confirmed that the border crossing remained closed.
Tensions have been rising at the border in recent days as the flow of Ethiopians crossing has slowed to hundreds per day from several thousands.
A senior Ethiopian government official who has served as spokesman during the conflict did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
End fighting
The European Union's crisis management commissioner Thursday urged the Ethiopian government to restore communications in its northern Tigray region and called on both sides to cease hostilities.
"I urge... the Ethiopian authorities to lift the communication blockade," Janez Lenarcic said at Um Raquba camp in neighboring Sudan, where he spoke with Ethiopian refugees who had fled their homeland over the last month.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last month ordered military operations against the northern Ethiopian region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in response to what he said were attacks on Ethiopian federal army camps.
Tens of thousands of refugees have since poured into eastern Sudan, with many complaining that they have not been able to re-establish contact with those left behind or lost on the scramble to leave due to a communications blackout.
"I spoke with a number of refugees in this camp today and what is perhaps most painful to hear is that they have zero information... about their relatives and friends who stayed behind," Lenarcic said.
Abiy on Saturday claimed the conflict was over after federal troops took control of the Tigrayan capital, Mekele, but the TPLF threatened a full-scale counter-offensive on Wednesday.
Lenarcic also urged Ethiopia's government to provide access for humanitarian workers and goods, while calling on both sides to "cease the hostilities".
Ethiopia has formally granted the United Nations access to deliver aid to Tigray.
AFP
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.
Gribaudo recalls spotting a familiar-looking elephant in a similar Buenos Aires circus tent seven years later.
The May road trip to Elephant Sanctuary Brazil was four days long, and almost a waste of diesel: At the border crossing from Argentina, a COVID-19 health order had shut down all traffic for nearly a month.
Blais says when Rana, a 60-year-old female elephant, met Mara, she “was incredibly vocal—a lot of bellowing, rumbling, signs of excitement and enthusiasm.
Brazil appeared to tiptoe close to that standard last year, when a judge ruled that state authorities can’t levy a tax of 50,000 Reals (about $9,500) on Elephant Sanctuary Brazil after it took in an elephant named Ramba.
The post MEET AN ANIMAL: Mara the elephant found sanctuary after 50 years in circuses and zoos appeared first on Zenger News.
By Russ Bynum and Ed White
The Associated Press
Anti-racism protesters on June 13 sought to call attention to the deaths of two more Black men — one who was found hanging from a tree in California and another who was fatally shot by police outside an Atlanta restaurant.
In Palmdale, Calif., hundreds of people marched to demand an investigation into the death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, who was found hanging from a tree early June 10 near city hall.
Fuller’s death has brought to light the death of another Black man found hanging from a tree on May 31 in Victorville, a desert city 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Palmdale.
Meanwhile in Europe, far-right activists scuffled with police in London and Paris as more Black Lives Matter demonstrations unfolded nearly three weeks after George Floyd, another Black man, died at the hands of a White Minneapolis police officer who pressed a knee to his neck.
In Paris, police stopped protesters from confronting far-right activists who unfurled a huge banner from a building denouncing “anti-white racism.”
Ms Gadaheldam has been an almost permanent fixture on the sides of President Museveni in regional meetings to deal with relations with Sudan under former President Omar-al-Bashir and current military leader Gen Abdel Fatah al-Burhan.
Najwa Gadaheldam, a senior adviser to Sudan's leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, died Wednesday, about 24 hours after the plane that had intended to transport her back to Israel for treatment landed in the Arab country.
Times of Israeli in a lead article titled; 'Israeli MDs fly to enemy Sudan in failed bid to save diplomat behind secret ties', said despite the two countries still being technically at war, Israeli officials went to great length to send \"a plane with medical staff and equipment to Sudan in an attempt to save the life of a diplomat sick with Covid-19, who managed the clandestine ties between Jerusalem and Khartoum\".
The controversial Uganda link
Ms Gadaheldam was said to have first met President Museveni in Vienna, Austria at the UN conference on water in early 2000s when the relations between Uganda and Sudan were fragile.
Ms Gadaheldam's last 'official' function involving Uganda was said to have been on February 22 in Juba, where she attended a meeting between Lt Gen al-Burhan, the chairman of the Sovereign National Council of Sudan, and Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who was representing President Museveni at the inauguration of the new government of national unity of South Sudan.
A ban on the sale of cigarettes in South Africa since the country’s COVID-19-induced lockdown began in March has cost the economy millions of rands daily in the form of tax revenue lost to illicit sales of smokes, a variety of industry officials say.
A study conducted by the country’s Human Sciences Research Council on the impact of the lockdown showed that cigarettes were more accessible to South Africans compared to alcohol during lockdown.
TAX Justice South Africa, which advocates lifting the ban on cigarette sales, urged citizens to join the fight against criminals looting the country’s coffers.
“Very few people realize that, for many years now, illicit cigarettes have been openly displayed for sale at local stores and account for a third of all cigarettes sold in South Africa.
“During the lockdown ban on tobacco products, criminal syndicates have used their sophisticated networks to keep trading and enriching themselves,”
In the 2015–2016 financial year, the revenue service estimated fiscal loss through the illicit trade of cigarettes at R6 billion.
New research seems to confirm that, across the nation, the coronavirus has disproportionately impacted black people, with death rates more than twice as high as that for any other race.
One other big factor is that, sadly, our people also tend to have more underlying medical conditions-like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension-that make us more vulnerable.
In my own community in Oklahoma, I’ve witnessed many black folks not wearing masks or practicing any degree of physical distancing in public.
For others, it’s the fact the young black men have more negative encounters with the police, and people don’t want to wear masks and give anyone an excuse for mistaking them for criminals.
J.C. Watts is founder and chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, chairman of Black News Channel, and a member of National Coronavirus Recovery Commission.
Before the Chief Justice David Maraga and the National Council on the Administration of Justice, announced on April 1, the scaling down of court operations, a number of magistrates hearing corruption related cases had gathered speed with some about to conclude testimonies from witness and rule whether the suspects should be put on their defense.
But it is not all gloom for the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and his team, especially after a magistrate ruled a few weeks ago, that Busia Governor had a case to answer over fraud charges.
Other high-ranking officials involve former National Land Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri and former Kenya Railways boss Atanas Maina and those of ex-MDs Joe Sang (Kenya Pipeline Company), Dr Ben Chumo and Ken Tarus (Kenya Power).
Mr Lenolkulal is facing charges together with 10 other officials in his administration and a businessman over fraudulent payment of Sh84.6 million to a company associated with the County boss.
Former Nairobi Governor Dr Evans Kidero is also facing charges together with former chief officers in his administration.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Barack Obama said in a commencement speech Sunday that the nationwide protests following the recent deaths of unarmed black women and men including George Floyd were fueled from “decades worth of anguish, frustration, over unequal treatment and a failure to perform police practices.”
Obama along with his wife, Michelle, delivered speeches during YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” virtual ceremony.
The duo, along with a wide-ranging, star-studded lineup including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Tom Brady, offered inspirational messages in hopes of uplifting new graduates.
Michelle Obama said the ongoing protests following Floyd’s death are a “direct result of decades of unaddressed, prejudice and inequality.”
Her initial speech touched on the effect COVID-19 had on this year’s graduating class, but she wanted to speak more on the Floyd’s death, the Black Lives Matter movement and racism in America.
SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. judge on Friday ordered Seattle police to temporarily stop using tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang devices to break up largely peaceful protests, a victory for groups who say authorities have overreacted to recent demonstrations over police brutality and racial injustice in the liberal city.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones issued the two-week order after a Black Lives Matter group sued the Seattle Police Department this week to halt the violent tactics it has used to break up protests.
The judge said those objecting to police using violent tactics to break up protests make a strong case that the indiscriminate use of force is unconstitutional.
This week, protesters have turned part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood into a protest center with speakers, drum circles and Black
Lives Matter painted on a street near a police station.
“As tens of thousands of people were gathering today to march silently and in solidarity against police brutality and misconduct, the U.S. District Court affirmed their right to protest, free from state violence.
