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Chinese president Xi Jinping opened the Belt and Road forum in Beijing on Wednesday, with a message that China "can only do well when the world is doing well".
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.
Post-Electoral Crisis
Violence erupted in many parts of Côte d'Ivoire after the Constitutional Council officially validated on November 9 the re-election of President Alassane Ouattara for a controversial third term.
However, the political unrest in the small landlocked city of M'Batto was exacerbated by circulating false information. Dr Jean Serge Kouassi Kouassi, the director of the M'Batto hospital, shares his insight into the situation of the ground, \"When this information arrived on social media, the phone calls rained down on us to find out if it was true and what was going on. So that's it. Everyone reassured their parents stating that there were indeed skirmishes here, there were shootings and we could hear shots, and we would send the wounded to the hospital.\"
Problematic Fake News
M'Batto fell victim to fictitious gendarmerie reports and press releases about so-called fatalities — as well as misleading and inappropriate images trending online. All of which did not help the already tense political atmosphere. Abdoulaye Konaté, a teacher, outlines what was really happening to contribute to the regional tension, \"The rumours were: such and such shop was burned, so and so was killed, so every time one of the parties heard, everyone wanted revenge, so that's what made the situation even worse. It was the rumours themselves that made the situation worse.\"
Inter-ethnic Friction
An opposition demonstration degenerated into inter-community clashes between Agni (local ethnic group reputed pro-opposition) and Dioula (an ethnic group from the north reputed pro-Ouattara). The electoral unrest saw the loss of six lives. Nanan Béda Kadio II, the Chief of the Agnikro district, expressed his peaceful stance,
\"We don't want war here. We have been here for several years, there is no war between us. Before this year, we had never seen anything like this. So I wouldn't like it to happen again. I want peace in my village of M'Batto.\"
Armed forces have now been stationed across the city of 50,000 inhabitants to prevent any further confrontation and many shops have been closed.
