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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Monday the Tigray region's dissident leaders had fled west of the regional capital after weeks of fighting but indicated federal forces were monitoring them closely and would attack them soon.
Abiy, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, this month ordered military operations against leaders of Tigray's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in response to what he said were TPLF-organised attacks on Ethiopian federal army camps.
More than three weeks of fighting between federal soldiers and pro-TPLF forces has left thousands dead in the northern region, and prompted tens of thousands of refugees to flee across the border into Sudan.
"I want them to hear me: yesterday evening, around midnight, we saw them from the situation room in the area between Hagere Selam and Abiy Addi," Abiy said in remarks to lawmakers, referring to two towns west of the Tigray capital Mekele.
"We didn't attack them at night because as they retreated they took their wives, children and abducted soldiers... But this will not continue."
The fighting has been a dramatic escalation of tensions between Abiy and the leaders of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before anti-government protests swept Abiy to office in 2018.
Abiy said on Saturday the military operations were "completed" after federal forces claimed control of the Tigray regional capital Mekele.
The TPLF leaders, however, have repeatedly vowed to fight on as long as federal forces are on Tigrayan soil.
Their exact whereabouts remain unknown.
'Mekele is ours'
As the Ethiopian military bore down on Mekele last week, global concern mounted about a possible bloodbath in a city that, before the conflict, had a population of half a million.
A communications blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to verify claims from both sides about how the fighting is going.
On Monday, Abiy claimed soldiers did not kill any civilians as they took over Mekele and other cities in Tigray.
"Mekele is ours, it was built with our own resources. We are not going to destroy it," he said. "Not even a single person was harmed by the operation in Mekele."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that hospitals in Mekele were flooded with trauma patients, though it did not specify how the injuries were sustained.
Abiy also dismissed claims from TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael that airstrikes had resulted in many civilian casualties.
As Abiy tries to shift towards helping Tigray recover, the national human rights body called Monday for telecommunications to be restored and for water, electricity, and health services to resume.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is government-affiliated but independent, also noted "complaints of ethnic profiling" including "forced leave from work" and travel restrictions.
"EHRC is gravely concerned that while there is no government policy nor legal framework condoning ethnic profiling, security measures designed t
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.
In summary In the latest installment of the “Future of Work” series, California mayors explain their cities’ most pressing issues. CalMatters · The Future of Work #4: A Q&A with California Mayors As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, several California mayors described how the crisis has affected their cities, from an impending “homelessness armageddon” to […]
The post California mayors share how the pandemic shapes their cities appeared first on Black Voice News.
[RFI] France is to host a flagship pan-African event in December designed to break down negative stereotypes of Africa and its people. Announced in a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, the Africa2020 Season will bring together change makers from the continent to \"tell their own story\".
Italian Foreign Minister arrived in the Libyan capital, Wednesday, where he met with Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj to discuss the Libyan internal conflict and migration agreements.
According to a statement from Sarraj’s office, the two leaders both rejected “the negative foreign interference” in the oil-rich country.
Earlier this week, Di Maio said a ceasefire is urgent given the Egyptian threat and called for the strong enforcement of the arms embargo.
Di Maio said: “I raised with Prime Minister Sarraj our concerns about military operations to liberate Sirte that could lead to renewed fighting and more civilian casualties.
“At the same time I stated how essential it is to avoid a freezing of the conflict, and that this possibility would lead to a de facto division of the country.”
The Libyan leader also presented a proposal to modify the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding on migration that was rearranged by Italy and presented to the Libyan counterparts in February.
June 10: Speaker Keria replaced
\tEthiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of Federation (HoF), on Wednesday elected a new speaker following the resignation of Keria Ibrahim.
June 8: Speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliament quits over postponed polls
\tKeria Ibrahim, speaker of Ethiopia’s upper parliamentary chamber, the House of federation, has quit her position citing a looming constitutional blank with postponed elections.
Privately-owned Addis Standard said Keria’s resignation was on the outcome of a Council of Constitutional Inquiry on deferred elections.
The former speaker belongs to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, TPLF, a former coalition partner of the now defunct Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF; which brought Abiy to power in 2018.
TPLF is currently the ruling party in the northern Tigray region but technically in opposition with the federal government.
Armed criminals killed 60 people in a string of attacks on villages in the restive northwest of Nigeria, medics and residents said Thursday.
Dozens of gunmen — described locally as “bandits — riding motorcycles raided five villages in Sabon Birni district in Sokoto state late Wednesday, the sources told AFP.
“We received a total of 60 dead bodies and several people with gunshot injuries from the villages attacked by the bandits last night,” a nurse at the general hospital in Sabon Birni said.
On Monday 18 people were killed when gunmen raided five other villages in Sabon Birni district, local officials said.
Nigeria’s armed forces last week launched bombing raids against “bandit” camps in neighbouring areas of the northwest as part of the latest efforts to curb attacks.
[Nation] The Covid-19 pandemic has handed Kenyan fishermen an unexpected boon after fish imports from China dropped to Sh993.62 million in the last nine months of the year, compared to the Sh2.03 billion in 2019.
(Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Friday to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, saying Congress has both the moral obligation and constitutional authority to ensure that the city’s 700,000 residents are allowed full voting rights, no longer subject to “taxation without representation.”
Holmes Norton held a news conference to discuss “efforts to protect D.C.’s local laws during the FY2019 appropriations process, including gun safety, anti-discrimination, labor, marijuana and abortion.Ó (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
D.C.’s population is larger than those of Wyoming and Vermont, and the new state would be one of seven with populations under one million, she said.
Opponents, mostly Republicans, called the bill a power grab for the firmly Democratic city, and said the nation’s founding fathers intended the capital to be separate from the other states.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The bill also would reduce the size of the federal district to a tourist-friendly area that includes the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, federal monuments and the federal executive, legislative and judicial office buildings adjacent to the National Mall and the Capitol.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser invoked Douglass as she hailed the “historic vote” bringing the city closer than ever to becoming the 51st state.
[Nation] MPs will today vote on proposals to improve benefits for health workers including medical cover and higher allowances as well as compel public hospitals not to charge Covid-19 patients for protective gear.
Dear Editor,
The Guyana Public Service Union, rather than being critical should applaud the Government for providing a bonus of two weeks’ pay to health care workers, The union should be aware that a bonus is a non-negotiated payment based on management discretion unless it is stipulated as a condition in an employer’s manual, a contract of employment or within a union agreement.
The article Two-week bonus to health workers entirely at government’s discretion appeared first on Stabroek News.
[Nation] The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Kenya has risen to 83,618 following 302 new positive tests from 3,038 samples, the Ministry of Health has reported.
[New Frame] Americans love to promote the myth that they have the corner on government by and for the people, but the latest brouhaha at the polls suggests otherwise.
