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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.
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.
\"Serious violations of international law, which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, may have been committed,\"- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet
By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia's situation is 'spiraling out of control with appalling impact on civilians' and urgently needs outside monitoring, the United Nations human rights chief warned Wednesday, but Ethiopia is rejecting calls for independent investigations into the deadly fighting in its Tigray region, saying it 'doesn't need a baby-sitter.' The government's declaration came amid international calls for more transparency into the month-long fighting between Ethiopian forces and those of the fugitive Tigray regional government that is thought to have killed thousands, including civilians. At least one large-scale massacre has been documented by human […]
The post UN: Ethiopia's conflict has 'appalling impact on civilians' appeared first on Black News Channel.
Sex trade survivors, frontline service providers, humanitarians, abolitionists, human rights activists, and women’s rights advocates are advocating to end sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, boys and girls in Oakland and Alameda County.
Regina Evans of Regina’s Door/Conjure and Mend; Rashida Chase of Regina’s Door and Liberated Wellness; Nola Brantley, founder of Nola Brantley Speaks and co-founder of MISSSEY; Amara Tabor Smith, co-founder of House Full of Black Women; Amba Johnson, executive director of Dreamcatchers and Sarai Smith-Mazariegos, founder and executive director of S.H.A.D.E are on the front line.
This week Sarai Smith-Mazariegos of S.H.A.D.E. stood shoulder to shoulder with health care providers and advocates Aisha Mays, MD, of Roots Community Health Center; Dr. Lela Bachrach, of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and HEAL Trafficking Education and Training Co-Chair Melissa Farley, Ph.D, executive director of Prostitution Research and Education; and Daryle Allums, founder of Oakland Frontline Healers.
Survivor Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment (S.H.A.D.E) Movement is a survivor-led, survivor-based advocacy anti-human trafficking organization who believe that it is necessary to provide survivors of trafficking with a safe life space where their voices, ideas, and skills can be nurtured, increased, and fortified in a compassionate manner.
“There has to be a multi-prong approach that includes restorative justice initiatives for women and children, programs for men to help heal from their addiction to sex and sexual violence, and a forum, where society deals with the fact that we have raised wounded men who need just as much help as their victims,” said Chase of Liberated Wellness who partners with Regina’s Door.
As Nigerians protest brutality and demand reforms, some say full abolition is the only road to liberation from violence.
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.
ONE in four Jamaican adolescent girls aged 15-19 experience sexual violence in their lifetime, and with school closures and curfew measures due to COVID-19, local children agencies foresee a heightened risk of exposure.
[ICRC] Bangui -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has sent an aid convoy from Cameroon to the Central African Republic (CAR) with 135 tonnes of food - enough to feed almost 10,000 people displaced by violence.
We are sharing this blog with you as a Guest Editorial; it has laid out the data and points to possible solutions.
Military still sacrificing women & men to sexual violence By Diana Danis Service: Women Who Serve Military Women’s Coalition - Chair, Policy Committee Sexual Violence There are only a handful of actual sexual harassment complaints each year across the U. S. military, while nearly 70 percent of women and six percent of men say they have […]
[Shabait] Excellency,
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.
[Dalsan Radio] Somalia's new foreign minister, Mohamed Abdirqzak, has for the first time responded to the ongoing war in Ethiopia.
Democracy was at work in Sierra Leone’s parliament yesterday, when the main opposition APC party, led by Honourable Chernoh Ramadan Maju Bah voted against two of the eight presidential nominees put forward by president Julius Maada Bio for MPs approval.
Justice Alhaji Momojah Stevens is of course the High Court Judge who is presently presiding over the alleged treason charges brought by this government against our former APC minister of defence and internal affairs – Retired Major Palo Conteh.
But with a slight parliamentary majority wielded by the ruling SLPP, other minority opposition parties – C4C, NGC, Independent MPs and Paramount Chief Members of Parliament voted to approve the two Judges, along with the following six presidential nominees:
Sheikh Alhaji Yayah Sesay-Deputy Bank Governor 2, Bank of Sierra Leone; Mrs. Hawah Humu Wurie-Member, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency; Ms. Constance Bockarie-Member, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency; Mrs. Maude Regina Peacock-Member, Board of Directors, Sierra Leone Local Content Agency; Major General Sulley Ibrahim Sesay-Chief of Defence Staff; Hon. Justice Fatmata Bintu Alhadi-Justice of the Court of Appeal.
They include problem of access to justice, especially for groups such as poor people, children and women, the absence of both individual and institutional independence, judicial corruption, lack of adequate resources, huge backlogs of cases leading to long delays, inefficiency of staff, and the politicization of the judiciary.
Other justice sector institutions like the Sierra Leone Police and the Sierra Leone Correctional Services are also in dire need of reform to foster professionalism and to reduce executive interference in the functioning of these institutions.
U.N. agencies are warning migrants and refugees crossing the central Mediterranean Sea risk losing their lives if European nations continue to prevent search and rescue vessels from saving those in distress.
The U.N. human rights office expresses alarm at recent reports of rescue boats failing to assist migrants in trouble on the central Mediterranean Sea, considered to be one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.
The agency deplores the coordinated pushback of migrant boats by nations and by hard-nosed policies by some European countries intent on preventing private humanitarian search and rescue vessels from supporting migrants in distress.
Colville says his agency is concerned about the many refugees and migrants who are being returned to Libya after they are rescued at sea.
U.N. agencies are calling for the release of all refugees and migrants in Libyan detention facilities.
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\".
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.
Just one day after putting out a dire emergency warning, Ethiopia's federal government has agreed to allow the United Nations "unimpeded" humanitarian access to parts of the northern Tigray region, according to a UN spokesperson.
That would allow organizations to focus solely on helping families rather than worrying about funding during the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a domestic violence crisis.
“As domestic violence incidents increase due to the financial and emotional stress of the pandemic, we must ensure these vital organizations are able to leverage federal funding to help them provide prevention, resources and support to those who are in crisis,” Casey added.
Many domestic violence shelters were already at mass capacity before the pandemic hit, said Catherine Beane, vice president of public policy and advocacy at YWCA USA, one of the organizations that supported the POWER Act.
“This bill is so critical right now because the individuals who are experiencing domestic and sexual violence and other forms of family violence, they don’t have time to wait for a better time financially for YWCA or any other organization to have room in their shelter,” Beane told HuffPost.
Last month, a bipartisan group of senators wrote two letters urging leadership to include more funding relief in the next COVID-19 bailout bill and asked for more resources specifically for native and indigenous survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
In presidential elections in early 2011, incumbent François Bozizé (National Convergence Kwa Na Kwa) won reelection with 64.4% of the vote. In March 2013, Bozizé was ousted by rebels from the northern part of the country. The rebels, who are mostly Muslim and collectively known as Seleka, have been engaged in battles with government troops and said they overthrew Bozizé because he failed to follow through on earlier peace deals. Bozizés presidency was marred by allegations of corruption and cronyism—hardly a surprise in one of the worlds poorest and most unstable countries. Michel Djotodia, the coup leader, assumed power, suspended the constitution, and dissolved parliament. In mid-April he created a transitional national council that named him interim president. He was sworn in as head of state in August and promised to hold free and fair elections within 18 months. The African Union suspended the country in response to the coup, and refused to recognize Djotodia as president.
Djotodia was not able to stem the violence in the country, and CAR spiralled into chaos. Seleka rebels terrorized civilians, and Christian opponents formed their own militias to retaliate and defend themselves and were equally as brutal to Muslims. About 1 million people, in a country of 5 million, fled their homes. Many of those fleeing were farmers and herders, and officials feared that their absence would lead to famine. In October, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the country had experienced total breakdown of law and order, and he authorized the deployment of a peacekeeping force. In December, the African Union said it would increase the size of its force there from 3,500 troops to 6,000. France deployed 1,600 soldiers to CAR, a former colony of France. Many feared that CAR was on the brink of experiencing a genocide. In April 2014, the UN authorized a force of 12,000 peace-keeping troops. They were deployed to CAR in September.
At the urging of regional leaders, Djotodia resigned in January 2014 for his failure to stem the
On an ordinary day, Hamisa Zaja, the Coast Association for Persons with Disability chief executive officer, receives more than 30 phone calls.
If it is not a person arrested by police officers while scampering to beat the curfew, it is about distraught people suffering from hunger, domestic and sexual violence or persons living with disabilities.
She visits hospitals, chiefs’ offices and even the streets to rescue persons living with disabilities who fall afoul of the law for flouting the curfew rules or for being suspected to have coronavirus-like symptoms.
“Police officers should not beat people flouting the curfew rules, some are not aware, especially those living with different disabilities.
At Mama Ngina Girl’s High School, Zaja said she did not like students pitying her.
