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The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Thursday that the grave humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region is deteriorating, with no sign of Eritrean troops withdrawing and alarmingly widespread reports of systematic rape and other sexual violence mainly by men in uniform.
The post UN: Tigray's Humanitarian Crisis Worsens, No Eritrean Exit appeared first on Los Angeles Sentinel.
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.
[DW] Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the government will launch more military attacks on the Tigray region. His announcement comes amid international calls for an end to hostilities.
HAVANA (CMC): A proposal to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to a contingent of Cuban doctors who specialise in disaster situations and serious epidemics, has been endorsed by four members of the British Parliament. According to the official site...
Kingsley and Ross Holgate will lead the 70-day, 10 000km Mzansi Edge Expedition.
He now holds a master's degree in Public International Law and is an assistant to the prosecutor of the National Public Prosecution Authority at Muhanga Intermediate Level.
Due to this fact, almost all people with albinism are visually impaired and are prone to developing skin cancer.
The UN data indicate that in some countries, the majority of persons with albinism aged between 30 and 40 years die from skin cancer.
Hakizimana Nicodem, the Executive Secretary of OIPPA (Organization for Integration and Promotion of People with Albinism) confirms that sunscreen is a luxury to many people with Albinism, yet it is a basic need at the same time.
He suggests that the government puts people with Albinism in a different category from other people with disabilities so that resources could be allocated for systematic screening of skin cancer, and that sunscreen could be bought with health insurance, mutuelle de santé.
[Addis Fortune] For Grave Rights Concerns, Truth Should not be Casualty of Conflict
IN THE early hours of November 4, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the...
The post Ethiopian National Defense Forces Base comes under attack appeared first on Voice Online.
Pierre-Richard Prosper is an attorney and diplomat who turned his passion for the rule of law into a global pursuit for justice for victims of the worst crimes of humanity, and accountability for the perpetrators of those crimes.
Born in Denver, Colorado in 1963, Prosper was raised in New York by his Haitian emigrant parents, Drs. Jacques and Jeanine Prosper, both of whom were physicians. He received his bachelor of arts from Boston College (1955) and his doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law (1989).
Prosper began his career at one of the most volatile and dangerous times in one of the largest American cities – Los Angeles, California. He served as deputy district attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (1989–1994) with the responsibility of prosecuting gang-related homicides and other criminal activity in the gang-infested city of Compton. Also, just three years after taking this role, he found himself in the middle of prosecuting cases of violence and crime in Los Angeles County following the 1992 acquittal of four police officers for the beating of Rodney King.
Prospers would use these experiences in his next post, as assistant U.S. attorney for Central District of California (1994–1996) where he continued his work on violent crime issues, focusing then on investigating and prosecuting major international drug cartels.
Upon hearing about the acts of genocide in Rwanda where an estimated eight hundred thousand people were slaughtered over a one-hundred-day period, Prosper wanted help bring about justice for the victims. He left Los Angeles first to become a legal advisor to the U.S. government’s mission in Rwanda (1995), then as one of two trial attorneys, and later as a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1996–1998). This was the tribunal established by the UN to bring the perpetrators the genocide to justice. Here Prosper made a lasting mark on the international criminal justice system as he and his fellow
KEMPTEN, Germany — A German court has sentenced an Afghan refugee to life imprisonment for murdering his wife on a public bus. Mohammad Salih M, 38, took the drastic step after his wife Razia M, [...]
Tunisian President Kais Saied said his country would not accept a divided Libya at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Monday.
Saied is the first head of state to visit France since the country’s de-confinement due to the pandemic.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya.
And I will say it from this podium, in Paris, that Tunis will not accept the division of Libya”, he said.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed.
A proposal to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to a contingent of Cuban doctors who specialize in disaster situations and serious epidemics, has been endorsed by four members of the British Parliament.
[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.
Human rights violations are still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder, a report by a UN watchdog said.
Hopes had been pinned on new President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who was elected in May. He took over from his predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza, who was in office for 15 years.
During his tenure, at least t 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 displaced during unrest between April 2015 and May 2017, according to the UN.
It was hoped the new leader could change the face of the central African country.
But the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi described evidence of killings and disappearance in recent weeks.
It also said during the election there was evidence of summary executions, torture and sexual violence.
“In recent weeks there have continued to be killings, there have continued to be arbitrary detentions and there have continued to be disappearances,” said Commission of Inquiry member Francoise Hampson.
\"It’s slightly surprising that it is continuing as it was even though elections have finished. And that is a matter of very grave concern.”
The investigators also looked at serious violations committed on youngsters under 18, who they said were \"specifically targeted.”
“They are forcibly recruited into the ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, other times they were harmed when other family members are the real targets,” the commissioners said.
“We very much fear the consequences of the 2015 crisis for Burundi’s future, not least because of the long-term impact it will have on the children”, said Commissioner Lucy Asuagbor.
Over the past four years, the commission has been the only independent mechanism to report on human rights violations in Burundi
The panel is concerned that this oversight will disappear when it ends its mandate this year.
The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on 23 September.
Armed with research to prove how much better off our world would be with the rights of women and girls realised, we in the global advocacy community declared that it is well past time to start living in a gender equal reality.
I had declared in 2018, after the death of another innocent girl victim of sexual and gender based violence, Ochanya, that we were standing on a gender precipice from where good actions could flow, if together, we determinedly took the right actions to protect women and girls.
At the United Kingdom-France consultations on the Prevention of Sexual Violence Initiative last year, we said with such hope that we would uphold the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1325 on women peace and security.
At the Commonwealth of Nations last year, we made a promise of No More Violence, yet, here we are, from our leaders, and right down to our grassroots, failing women and girls.
The gruesome deaths of Uwa and Tina are a visceral notice of our failure in Nigeria, and that's why I am joining the WACOL Tamar SARC and Social Intervention Advocacy Foundation to call for radical reform of our police, to end the impunity of sexual violence against women and girls.
Burundi's newly elected president Evariste Ndayishimiye will be sworn in today (Thursday), following the sudden death of his predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza who left him an isolated nation in political and economic turmoil.
Ndayishimiye was elected in May, in a vote disputed by the opposition, and was meant to take office in August
But his inauguration was speeded up after his predecessor Nkurunziza's sudden death.
Nkurunziza, a devout evangelical who believed he was chosen by God to lead Burundi, leaves a \"dark and sad legacy\", Carina Tertsakian of the Burundi Human Rights Initiative told AFP.
He won the vote with 68.7 per cent and an opposition bid to have the results overturned due to alleged fraud was overturned just days before Nkurunziza's death.
After the news of Nkurunziza's death, Ndayishimiye vowed to \"continue his high-quality work that he has done for our country\".
Dar es Salaam — Tanzania yesterday reopened its airspace to both scheduled and non-scheduled international flights following its closure last month in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a swift response, Mr Kamwelwe said commercial passenger flights, diplomatic flights, aircraft in emergency and operations related to humanitarian aid, medical and relief would be allowed into Tanzania without any restrictions.
Mr Kamwelwe also directed the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) and Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (Kadco) to ensure they were well prepared to handle flights into Tanzania.
The minister also directed Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) to prepare to resume flights to countries that have opened their skies or those seeking the national carrier's services.
By March 25, 13 airlines flying into Tanzania - Emirates, Swiss, Oman Air, Turkish Air, Egyp-tian Air, South African Airways, RwandAir, Qatar Airways, Kenya Airways, Uganda Airlines, Fly Dubai and KLM and ATCL had suspended international commercial flights.
Tension between Amhara and Tigray, two of Ethiopia's most powerful regions, is increasing as the country approaches elections next year, says a new International Crisis Group report.
But it is the dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions, the new report says, that “is arguably the bitterest of these contests, fueled in part by rising ethnic nationalism in both regions.”
William Davison, the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tells VOA that Amhara citizens believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.
Plans to hold a vote have led political elites in Tigray and Amhara to adopt increasingly hardline stances toward each other, the report says, noting a recent warning from Prime Minister Abiy that any such act would “result in harm to the country and the people.”
But Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, chairman of the opposition National Movement of Amhara, said via a messaging app that Ethiopia’s regional map based on ethnic territories has been the root cause of many tensions, not just between the Amhara and Tigray regions, but many others.
Four weeks of hostilities in Ethiopia's Tigray region came to an end this week, according to the nation's head of state. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed […]
Mandera Governor Ali Roba said the foreign army is a threat to local security and wants the national government to kick them out.
\"The continuous presence of foreign forces within our border has been threatening the lives of our population along the border and Mandera town and we want them out,\" he said.
Police are holding three people suspected of procuring ammunition from the Jubbaland military camp in Mandera.
The Jubaland Forces loyal to Mr Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur, also known as Abdirashid Janan, the embattled security minister for Jubbaland have been in Mandera since January.
The clash in Mandera town forced Mr Abdirashid camp to relocate from Border Point 1 to Kapedo area after being overpowered by the FGS forces.
The United Nations' food agency has said it has agreed to a deal with Ethiopia to expand access for aid workers and “scale up” operations in the war-hit Tigray region.
The UN-backed Libyan government's forces on Saturday said it took over three military camps from the rival eastern-based army in the south of the capital Tripoli, as the armed conflict between the two rivals continued.
\"Our forces took control of Al-Yarmuk, Hamza and the Missiles camps and are pursuing the fleeing militias of Khalifa Haftar (commander of the eastern-based army),\" Mohamed Gonono, spokesman of the UN-backed government's forces, said in a statement.
\"The military engineering teams are clearing mines laid by Haftar's militia,\" the statement said.
Lately, the UN-backed government's forces have been making significant progress against the eastern-based army, taking over military camps and cities in western Libya.
A war has been going on since April 2019 between the UN-backed government and eastern-based army, which is trying to take over Tripoli and topple the UN-backed government, despite repeated international calls for cease-fire.
Geneva — Expressing “grave alarm”, UN human rights experts have called on Zimbabwe to immediately end a reported pattern of disappearances and torture that appear aimed at suppressing protests and dissent.
“Targeting peaceful dissidents, including youth leaders, in direct retaliation for the exercise of their freedom of association, peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is a serious violation of human rights law.”
“Under the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, which includes enforced disappearance and violence against women, Zimbabwe must take all measures in its power to prevent such abuse, to investigate suspected violations, and to bring any perpetrators to justice,” the experts said.
The experts were: Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances: Luciano Hazan (Chair-Rapporteur), Tae-Ung Baik (Vice Chair), Bernard Duhaime, Ms. Houria Es-Slami, and Henrikas Mickevičius; David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Ms. Dubravka Šimonovic, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.
The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
President: Filipe Nyusi (2015)
Prime Minister: Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (2015)
Land area: 302,737 sq mi (784,089 sq km); total area: 309,494 sq mi (801,590 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 24,692,144 (growth rate: 2.45%); birth rate: 38.83/1000; infant mortality rate: 72.42/1000; life expectancy: 52.6. note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2014 est.)
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Maputo, 1.15 million
Monetary unit: Metical
Mozambique stretches for 1,535 mi (2,470 km) along Africas southeast coast. It is nearly twice the size of California. Tanzania is to the north; Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to the west; and South Africa and Swaziland to the south. The country is generally a low-lying plateau broken up by 25 sizable rivers that flow into the Indian Ocean. The largest is the Zambezi, which provides access to central Africa.
Multiparty republic.
Bantu speakers migrated to Mozambique in the first millennium, and Arab and Swahili traders settled the region thereafter. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and first colonized by Portugal in 1505. By 1510, the Portuguese had control of all of the former Arab sultanates on the east African coast. Portuguese colonial rule was repressive.
Guerrilla activity began in 1963, and became so effective by 1973 that Portugal was forced to dispatch 40,000 troops to fight the rebels. A cease-fire was signed in Sept. 1974, and after having been under Portuguese colonial rule for 470 years, Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975. The first president, Samora Moises Machel, had been the head of the National Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) in its ten-year guerrilla war for independence. He died in a plane crash in 1986, and was succeeded by his foreign minister,
Khartoum – Sudanese protesters took to the streets of Khartoum on Wednesday, angrily demanding justice for scores of pro-democracy demonstrators killed a year ago in a bloody crackdown.
Protesters on Wednesday hung up effigies of soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group they blame for the bloodbath – a charge firmly denied by Sudan's military leaders.
The dead man's father, Kisha Abdulsalam, told AFP days ago that he still held out hope the killers would be brought to justice by post-revolution authorities.
\"We demand an international probe to ensure justice for those killed,\" said Kisha, a leading member of a campaign group for the families of protest victims.
In July last year, an initial probe by Sudan's military officials and prosecutors showed that some members of the RSF and other security forces were involved in the killings.
The first report on the financial management of COVID-19 initiatives, has shown some irregularities, to say the least.
