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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.
President Museveni yesterday told Parliament that after analysing the 2020/2021 Budget, they found a lot of wastes, which will necessitate a review to align the expenditure to the country's priorities.
we are coming back to engage our people,\" Mr Museveni said during the 2020/2021 televised Budget address at State House, Entebbe.
Mr Kasaija is going to review the Budget,\" the source said.
Presenting the Budget from Parliament, Mr Kasaija said the interventions for the pandemic came in after the Budget was approved.
Consequently, the budgets of all ministries, agencies and local governments will be revised to align them with the nine strategic priorities and fourteen production lines.
Less than three weeks ago, David Kampani spoke before a group of security agents, government officials and his Adara kinsmen on the need to stop the tit-for-tat killings between Adara and Fulani natives in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
To defend their action, the attackers claimed that Kampani had been sighted by many Adara youths assisting in putting out fire on a Fulani settlement, which was attacked and set ablaze over a week ago.
There are some areas in Kufana district of Kajuru that a Fulani man dares not visit, especially places like Doka and Kallah villages because even if they know him personally, he may be killed,\" he said.
Last week Wednesday, nine Adara people, including women and children, were killed in Tudun Wadan Doka when attackers, the residents said were suspected Fulani herders, sneaked into homes in the early hours of the morning and killed their victims.
But despite these efforts, Daily Trust Saturday gathered that there is still tension in Doka village and parts of Kajuru, where hostilities between Adara and Fulani have threatened peaceful coexistence for years.
Abuja/ Benin City — -Governor to decide next line of action
The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress yesterday upheld the disqualification of Governor Godwin Obaseki as a candidate for the party's governorship election ticket.
Continuing, the statement posited that, \"The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki sincerely appreciates Edo people, Nigerians and our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, for the outpouring of goodwill and solidarity since the announcement of his unjust disqualification by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Screening Committee from the Edo governorship primary election.
Meanwhile, while some leaders of the APC have continued to express misgivings about the disqualification of Governor Godwin Obaseki from participating in the primary election scheduled for June 22, others said the decision of the party has saved Edo APC from a major defeat in the coming governorship election.
A former National Chairman of the party, Mr. John Odigie Oyegun and a former of Minister of Information, Tony Momoh, recently warned that the ruling party might lose the governorship election in the state as a result of the disqualification of Obaseki by the party's screening committee on Friday.
But, in a statement yesterday, some party leaders in Edo State, said the decision of the party has saved the APC from collapse and a major defeat in the September governorship election, saying there is \"huge jubilation in the state over the good news, Obaseki's disqualificati
NEW YORK (AP) — States are rolling back lockdowns, but the coronavirus isn’t done with the U.S.
Cases are rising in nearly half the states, according to an Associated Press analysis, a worrying trend that could intensify as people return to work and venture out during the summer.
The analysis found that in 21 states as of Monday, the rolling seven-day average of new cases per capita was higher than the average seven days earlier.
Here’s what’s driving increases in some of the states with notable upticks:
ARIZONA
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey ended Arizona’s stay-at-home order on May 15 and eased restrictions on businesses.
The AP analysis found Arizona had a rolling average of fewer than 400 new cases a day at the time the shutdown was lifted, but it shot up two weeks later and surpassed 1,000 new cases a day by early this week.
“I can assure you that Montgomery’s cases are not going down, and if our community does not take this seriously, the virus will continue to spread, and at some point, our medical capacity will reach its limit,” Dr. David Thrasher, director of respiratory therapy at Jackson Hospital, said in a has also seen increases — in cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of tests that come back positive.
Donald Trump isn’t usually one to cave to the so-called “culture wars,” but that’s exactly what he did after his decision to hold a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Juneteenth was met with heavy backlash.
In response to an uproar that started earlier this week over the president’s scheduling of a MAGA rally in the same city of the Black Wall Street massacre on Juneteenth (Friday, June 19), he’s retreating by rescheduling the event for a later date.
RELATED: Biden Campaign Calls Out Racist Trump Rally To Be Held Where Black People Were Massacred
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
But Trump’s decision to hold the rally in the city that is the site of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in America’s history — the 1921 massacre where hundreds of Black people were attacked by a white mob — was deemed doubly disrespectful.
Trump has also faced backlash for holding rallies at all, considering cases of the coronavirus that continue to spike nationwide.
The fact that entire communities can still function despite the coronavirus pandemic is probably due to the efforts of women.
Coronavirus places more demands on many women -- and at the same time threatens to frustrate ongoing efforts for equality.
\"COVID-19 exacerbates many risks and problems to which women were already exposed before, for example the problem of domestic violence, or the problem of poverty,\" Mutisi says.
The economic situation of many women has been considerably aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic.\"
As in many other African countries, women in Zimbabwe are disproportionately affected by poverty.
13 June 2020 -- Thirty-one (31) new COVID-19 cases were identified out of 2043 samples tested today.
This brings the cumulative number of confirmed cases to five hundred and forty-one (541).
The number of active cases is two hundred and seven (207) and two (2) deaths.
The new cases are related to the Rusizi and Rusumo clusters, which continue to drive new cases; heightened vigilance is required everywhere.
Withholding information related to contact tracing or COVID-19 symptoms, jeopardises public safety and will be punished in accordance with applicable laws.
[DW] Hundreds have died in the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region and thousands more have fled. As the TPLF and Ahmed trade jabs, thousands of refugees are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Sudanese camps.
That’s the difficult job Vice President Mike Pence undertook Friday as the Trump administration works to make voters feel better about the direction of the country amid a coronavirus pandemic and racial unrest.
While Trump told those in Dallas on Thursday that bringing Americans together will “go quickly” and “very easily,” Pence spoke in Pittsburgh about finding opportunities “in the long term” to address what he described as some historic inequities.
Pence’s trip to Pennsylvania was part of what is described as the “Great American Comeback Tour.”
Still, the participants voiced their frustrations with Pence in a way that was not visible when Trump met with black supporters at the White House earlier this week.
“I can tell you that I have three sons who have been stopped collectively at least a dozen times by the police, even some black police in the city of Pittsburgh,” said Cheryl Allen, a former judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
In light of the recent murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the numerous murders of black people by a white supremacist system, the Asian Pacific Islander Civic Action Network of Massachusetts (APIs CAN!)
However, we stand firmly with millions of peaceful protesters standing against police brutality, calling for justice for George Floyd and demanding a transformation of the system that murders, dehumanizes and systematically oppresses black people.
Our community must speak unequivocally in solidarity with black communities to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many others.
There is a history of Asian Americans being labelled the “model minority” in order to pit us against black communities and other people of color that dates back several decades.
When Asian people, like Long Guang Huang and the Quincy Four, were targets of police violence, the black community has always stood with us in demanding accountability.
Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Africa with 110 million people, and by far the most important power in the Horn of Africa.
The Eritrean government says a 2018 peace deal with Ethiopia remains in good shape and was progressing despite efforts by detractors to portray it as a stalled failure.
Information Minister Yemane Meskel posted the general state of the deal which chalks its second anniversary today, July 9. “Overall progress made so far remains significant by all contemporaneous standards,” he said in a tweet.
Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the historic Eritrea-Ethiopia Peace Agreement that was signed in Asmara bringing to an end the state of intermittent wars that existed between the two countries for almost 80 years and ushered in “a new era of peace and friendship” between them pic.twitter.com/V72v3xhYOf— Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) July 9, 2020
Adding: “ This is in spite of the desperate, last-ditch efforts of the regressive forces of inertia and darkness – TPLF and its ilk – to scuttle and rollback enduring peace with its dividends to the two countries.”
TPLF is the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, the ruling party in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – it shares a long boundary with Eritrea, hosting the border crossing that were opened to fanfare but have all been shut unilaterally by Eritrea, according to reports.
TPLF is currently an opposition party to the new ruling party at the federal level, Prosperity Party led by PM Abiy Ahmed.
“The Eritrea-Ethiopia peace process has catalysed a conducive climate of regional cooperation. Substantial challenges that still remain will no doubt be scaled in the period ahead through resolute and concerted action on the basis of shared vision & prevailing political good will,” the minister added.
“It is important to remember there is no formal peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Border controls have been reinstated. Talks on economic cooperation, use of ports stalled.
“What is holding Abiy & Isayas together is their mutual antipathy to TPLF and Tigray. Nothing more,” these were recent views shared by Rashid Abdi, a former Crisis Group researcher who is a keen political watcher for the Horn and East Africa region.
The second anniversary of the July 9 deal comes at a time Abiy is dealing with an internal crisis that spared protests in the capital and surrounding Oromia region. Over 200 deaths and 3,500 arrests have been made whiles today is the tenth straight day that internet access has been cut.
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President Donald Trump has decided to reschedule his first rally since the coronavirus emerged from the original date of June 19th to the next day, June 20th, “out of respect” for the Juneteenth holiday according to CNN.
The president took to Twitter to announce the rescheduled date:
We had previously scheduled our #MAGA Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for June 19th – a big deal.
Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2020
…of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents.
I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests…
The Republican Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has also released a statement regarding the changing of the date of the rally.
“I am thankful President Trump recognizes the significance of June 19 and has chosen to move his campaign rally out of respect to Oklahomans and the important Juneteenth celebrations.”
