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Category: Eritrean Involvement

‘No more sacred places’: Heritage sites under siege in Tigray conflict

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

“Not only us, but Muslims all over the world are shocked that this happened,”

“The FCDO must doIn the town of Dengolat, hundreds of residents hid in a centuries-old Orthodox church as Eritrean soldiers allegedly gunned down more than 160 civilians in late November.

At around the same time, Eritrean soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in the ancient Tigray city of Axum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, including Orthodox Christians gathering for a major festival, according to Human Rights Watch.

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Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict: Six Months On and No End in Sight

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

A “dirty war” with no fronts that was causing suffering for “defenseless victims”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Congress that “ethnic cleansing” is unfolding in western Tigray, with Amharas driving out Tigrayans 

“Further deterioration is expected as the conflict continues and disrupts the next planting season,” the UN said Tuesday.

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The Fleeting Promise of a Peaceful Ethiopia

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

A new prime minister was met with overwhelming optimism that he would help stem the country’s long-standing tensions. But military violence in the Tigray region dispels any hope of a unified republic.

“By using Amhara militias to attack Tigray, the government has tried to ensure further animosity between Amharas and Tigrayans. By involving Eritrea in this war and allowing its military to commit atrocities and wanton destruction of Tigray, the Prime Minister has deliberately tried to increase enmity between ordinary Tigrayans and Eritreans.

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US sees genocides against Uyghurs and Armenians but consistency elusive

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

In 1994, as 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked to death or shot dead in a 100-day bloodbath in Rwanda, the United States hesitated to call it genocide, eventually using the watered-down phrase “acts of genocide.”

The United States has instead spoken of “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar, and more recently in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

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Tigray crisis dents Ethiopia’s emerging image

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Fighting continues in Ethiopia, despite Ethiopia’s premier Abiy Ahmed declaring victory over Tigrayan rebels in November 2020. With elections on the horizon, has the war in Tigray done more damage to Ethiopia’s unity?

“There is a full-scale war going on in Tigray. Sudan also invaded some 40 to 50 km (25 – 31 miles) of our border. There is also the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis with Egypt.”

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Eritrean troops block, loot food aid in Tigray: documents

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Eritrean soldiers are blocking and looting food aid in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, according to government documents obtained by AFP, stoking fears of starvation deaths as fighting nears the six-month mark.

Eritrean soldiers have also started showing up at food distribution points in Tigray, looting the supplies after “our beneficiaries became frightened and (ran) away.

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In Tigray, Sexual Violence Has Become a Weapon of War

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

The world must step in now and call the assaults what they are: a war crime.

In recent weeks, women in Tigray, Ethiopia, have started coming forward with the most painful stories imaginable about how they have been sexually violated and tortured by soldiers of the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies.

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US Continues Non-Humanitarian ‘Assistance Pause’ to Pressure Ethiopia to End Tigray Conflict

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

“The fighting must come to an end.  There must be humanitarian access, which has been a problem,” the State Department’s acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Robert Godec, told VOA on Monday during a briefing by phone.

“We need the human rights abuses and atrocities to stop.  We need the Eritreans and the Amhara [militia] to leave.  And we need, really, an end to this conflict,”

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‘Look after my babies’: In Ethiopia, a Tigray family’s quest

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

The violence had broken out in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region at the worst possible time for Abraha and his family. Their village of Mai Kadra was caught in the first known massacre of a grinding war that has killed thousands of ethnic Tigrayans like them.

Abraha pleaded with his wife, writhing from post-childbirth complications, to be silent, as any noise could bring gunmen to his door. His two young sons watched in fear.

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“Dying by blood or by hunger”: The war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, explained

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Residents and officialsThe bodies of the two brothers were left for more than a day. Their families knew they were there, but the soldiers wouldn’t let them collect the bodies. The soldiers left behind witnesses, though: two boys, barely teens, tied to a tree nearby, after the soldiers forced them to spend the night on the ground, between the bodies of the murdered men.

“According to information we got from people who are displaced, we estimate that up to 200 people might have There have been massacres and mass executions. Jan Nyssen, a geography professor at the University of Ghent, and a team of researchers have compiled a list of 1,900 Tigrayans killed in approximately 150 mass killings since the fighting began.

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