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(CNN) —Thefuneral of Pope Francisgave Catholics across the globe the chance tobid farewellto a beloved pontiff – and for world leaders to rub shoulders at a fraught time for international diplomacy. More than 250,000 people packed into St. Peter’s Square for Saturday’s service, the Vatican said, with members of the public there to mourn along […]
The post Trump, Julian Assange and 250,000 others. Who was at Pope Francis’ funeral? appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
Abiy's government and the regional one run by the Tigray People's Liberation Front each consider the other illegitimate.
\t There was no immediate word from the three AU envoys, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe. AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo did not say whether they can meet with TPLF leaders, something Abiy's office has rejected.
\"``Not possible,'' senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein said in a message to the AP. ``\"Above all, TPLF leadership is still at large.'' He called reports that the TPLF had appointed an envoy to discuss an immediate cease-fire with the international community ``masquerading.''
\t Fighting reportedly remained well outside the Tigray capital of Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who have been warned by the Ethiopian government that they will be shown ``no mercy'' if they don't distance themselves from the region's leaders.
\t Tigray has been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since Nov. 4, when Abiy announced a military offensive in response to a TPLF attack on a federal army base.
That makes it difficult to verify claims about the fighting, but humanitarians have said at least hundreds of people have been killed.
\t The fighting threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa.
\t With transport links cut, food and other supplies are running out in Tigray, home to 6 million people, and the United Nations has asked for immediate and unimpeded access for aid.
AP
President Trump continued to spout baseless claims of election fraud, including that the FBI and Justice Department helped Biden win the election.
The office for Georgia Governor Brian Kemp rejected President Trump's call for Kemp to overrule his secretary of state and state election officials.
THE Ministry of Education, Youth and Information has received 534 tablets for students with special needs from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), under the One Laptop or Tablet Per Child initiative.The tablets, valued at US$100,000, are aimed at providing the beneficiaries with greater access to online learning. The first batch of more than 200 devices has already been delivered to children.
With Western Cape Children’s Commissioner Christina Nomdo having made great strides, the DA say that the entire country should follow suit.
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 28 November 2020: Thousands of people have died unnecessarily across Sierra Leone, especially in the capital Freetown - due to poor disaster management planning and response. In August 2017, over one thousand people – mainly children and the elderly were killed by a mudslide in Freetown, after [Read More]
[International Justice Monitor] Who would have believed that an agreement with Darfuri armed movement's leaders would be used to justify granting amnesty to the Janjaweed for atrocities committed against innocent civilians in Darfur? And yet, that appears to be exactly what has happened.
The Horn of Africa has once again experienced renewed tensions this weekend.
Somalia decided to recall its ambassador to Nairobi and expel the Kenyan ambassador.
In a statement, Somalia’s foreign Affairs Ministry accused Kenya of “overt and blatant interferences” in internal affairs in Jubbaland.
“In recent weeks, it has become apparent to the Federal Government of Somalia that the Kenyan government is placing great political pressure on the regional President of Jubaland, Mr. Axmed Maxamed Islaan in order to pursue its political and economic interests in Somalia,” the statement read in part.
“For that reason, the Federal Government of Somalia recalls the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Somalia to the Republic of Kenya, Mr. Maxamed Ahmed Nur Tarzan, and instructs the Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to Federal Republic of Somalia, Mr. Lucas Tumbo, to depart to Kenya for consultation,” it added.
This is not the first time that diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained. After oil fields off the coast, disputed by both countries, were auctioned off by Somalia, Kenya recalled its ambassador to Mogadishu last February.
The state of Jubaland, one of Somalia's five semi-autonomous states and a buffer zone with Kenya, is now at the center of diplomatic tensions between the two East African countries.
The latest incident notwithstanding, Mogadishu authorities have in recent weeks not only accused Nairobi of meddling in its internal affairs, including the backing of Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe
But what mainly disturbs many Somalis is the presence of Kenyan troops in the force of AMISOM, the African Union mission in Somalia, experienced as a rooting of the country in Jubaland.
Kenya Army fighting Al-Shabaab
In 2011, the Kenyan army had crossed the border to fight against Shabaab terrorists who were targeting the north of its territory.
Even though the presence of the Kenyan armed forces has diminished in recent years, Kenyan-led military operations have not ceased in Somalia.
While the African Union mission is expected to end its mandate in the country in December 2021, Kenya now faces a dilemma: whether to leave the fight against the main terrorist threat to the Somali army or to continue its operations in the name of protecting Kenyans.
What is certain is that its interests in its northern neighbor are not about to stop guiding Kenya's military policy.
Disputed borderline
Kenya and Somalia have had a long simmering territorial dispute . The 62,000-square-mile triangle of the Indian Ocean has made the two neighbors lock horns and the dispute taken to the floors of the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The battled area is said to be rich with oil, gas and tuna fish.
Somalia initially went to the ICJ In 2014, challenging a 2009 agreement that set its maritime border along latitudinal lines extending 450 nautical miles into the sea.
Kenya, which has always regarded the line to be its border pleaded with the international court to seek o
Trinidad and Tobago says it has deported 160 Venezuelans who had illegally entered the country, even as a High Court judge stopped the immediate deportation of 19 others to the South American state.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory was in quarantine in Rome Friday, just hours away from making history as the South Side native will become the first Black American cardinal in the history of the Catholic Church Saturday.
[RBM] Geneva -- Africa avoids doubling of malaria deaths in 2020, however progress continues to flatline in high-burden countries South-East Asia makes great strides towards malaria elimination 10 countries across all continents reach zero malaria in the last five years
[MSF] On November 4, Ethiopia's prime minister ordered military action against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, following an attack on a military base. The escalating conflict is already affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and it runs the risk of destabilizing other parts of the country and the region, with potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
[UNHCR] Geneva -- Study reveals a severe deterioration in international efforts to protect the world's most vulnerable, with human rights violations on the rise.
[IPS] Rome -- The recent meeting of the G20 - scheduled to take place in Riyadh but held virtually due to the Coronavirus pandemic - has been an eloquent example of how the world is drifting, in a crisis of leadership.
Opinion - South Africa has good TB policies, an impressive achievement that comes through in Step Up for TB 2020, a report released this week by Stop TB Partnership and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which assesses TB policy in 37 high TB-burden countries.
The Um Raquba refugee camp in eastern Sudan once housed Ethiopians fleeing famine, but now life has flooded back into the isolated camp as refugees seek safe haven from the Tigray conflict.
\"A month ago, this was just a piece of desert, but now it's turned back into a town,\" camp director Abdel Basset Abdel Ghani told AFP.
The sound of hammering and digging rings out as people build temporary huts, while elsewhere children take lessons in makeshift classrooms.
Young people kick a football around in the dust while others line up to refill containers of water.
More than 44,000 refugees have crossed into Sudan since fighting broke out in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region on November 4, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
The rapidly growing Um Raquba refugee camp, located some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the border, once housed refugees who fled Ethiopia's 1983-85 famine that killed more than a million people.
It was closed 20 years ago but reopened for a second time earlier this month.
Tasfai Burhani and his wife, who arrived Thursday from the Hamdayit transit centre in neighbouring Kassala province, are among those building a hut for themselves.
\"For now, we'll live here. After that, we'll see,\" said the farmer, aged around 20.
- Rapid expansion -
Authorities have assigned them a 200 square metre (over 2,100 square feet) area and have provided them with rudimentary materials and tools to make the wicker shelters.
Others less inclined to build the structures themselves or who are convinced their stay will be brief have opted for white tents distributed by UNHCR.
Um Raquba is Sudan's only official refugee settlement.
Other camps near the border are transit centres where new arrivals are registered before being directed towards Um Raquba.
The camp now houses almost 9,700 people, according to the UN refugee agency.
Some 2,100 huts have been set up since the settlement was reopened this month, camp director Abdel Ghani said.
Toilets have been put in place across the camp and UN children's agency UNICEF has installed water tanks.
\"Luckily the region has a lot of (underground) water, even though the infrastructure is poor,\" Abdel Ghani said.
He said the camp can accommodate \"20,000 people, but the number of arrivals here is constantly going up.\"
An additional 3,000 huts are planned to fill the gap in demand, he added.
- Makeshift schools -
Shelters were initially concentrated in the middle of Um Raquba, but now extend for a radius of up to a kilometre, AFP correspondents said.
At the centre of the settlement, international organisations have opened offices that people visit in the hope of receiving aid.
Small vegetable stands have sprung up too, and while some refugees prefer to prepare their food themselves with ingredients distributed by the United Nations, most queue up three times a day for meals from the World Food Programme's tents.
Sitting on the ground in one hut, around 50 young children were excited to be back at school after the trauma of fleeing conflict
