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Category: Human Rights

Al Jazeera: 7,000 seek Sudan asylum after fleeing western Ethiopia violence

Posted on by Tech Support

At least 7,000 people who fled escalating ethnic violence in western Ethiopia have sought asylum in neighbouring Sudan, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said, amid heightened tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

Violence in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region is separate from the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has sent more than 61,000 Ethiopians into Sudan’s provinces of al-Qadarif and Kassala since fighting erupted in November.

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Devex: EU envoy says Ethiopia in ‘denial’ over Tigray

Posted on by Tech Support

When it comes to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the federal government in Addis Ababa has no common understanding of events and is in “denial” over the scale of the problem, said Pekka Haavisto, European Union envoy, on Tuesday.

With negligible humanitarian access to the Tigray region since fighting broke out in November, Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, traveled to the region recently to assess the situation on behalf of the EU. He met with Ethiopian government ministers and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and he visited the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan.

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Barron’s: EU Envoy Warns Ethiopia Tigray Crisis ‘Out Of Control’

Posted on by Tech Support

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto warned Tuesday that the crisis in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region appears “out of control”, after visiting the country on behalf of the EU.

“You have come to the situation which is militarily and human rights-wise, humanitarian-wise very out of control,” Haavisto told journalists in Brussels.

Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.

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EUobserver: EU urges Ethiopia to lift Tigray ‘blackout’

Posted on by Tech Support

The EU has urged Ethiopia to let the international community see what it is doing in its Tigray region after four months of civil war and reports of atrocities. “Some 80 percent of Tigray’s population is unreachable … it’s a complete blackout,” EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said in Brussels Monday, following a fact-finding mission to the conflict zone by Finland. There must be “full and immediate access”, Borrell said.

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DW: German-Ethiopian relations suffer over Tigray

Posted on by Tech Support

A call from German Chancellor Angela Merkel is bound to be about something important. When she called Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in early February this year, for example, she stressed how vital it was to find a peaceful resolution to the Tigray conflict, according to her spokesman, Steffen Seibert. The German leader also said civilians caught up in the fighting must receive humanitarian assistance.

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15 UN peacekeepers from Tigray refuse to return to Ethiopia

Posted on by Tech Support

Fifteen members of a contingent of Ethiopian peacekeepers in South Sudan, originally from the Tigray region, have refused to return to Ethiopia, the UN said, citing their right to seek asylum if they fear for their lives.

Tigray has been the theater of fighting since early November 2020, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.

He declared victory after pro-government troops took regional capital Mekele in late November, though the TPLF vowed to fight on and clashes have persisted in the region, hampering efforts to deliver sorely-needed humanitarian assistance.

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aljazeera: UN – Tigray malnutrition ‘very critical’, response woefully poor

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

A new United Nations report has sounded the alarm over a “very critical malnutrition situation” unfolding in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, citing continuing insecurity, bureaucracy and the presence of “various armed actors” as major obstructions to the efforts to deliver life-saving aid to rural areas still out of reach for humanitarian workers more than 100 days into the conflict.

“Despite some progress, the humanitarian response remains drastically inadequate compared to the sheer magnitude of needs across the region,” the report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCA) said on Saturday.

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devex: EU development chief calls for united response on Ethiopia

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

The European Union’s top representative for development aid said Tuesday that the bloc needs to “plan very carefully” when it comes to Ethiopia, as Brussels continues to withhold funding from the government over the conflict in the country’s North. In December, the European Commission postponed €88 million in planned budget support payments, with officials saying they could not give one euro to the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed until unimpeded humanitarian access is granted to the Tigray region, among other conditions.

Jutta Urpilainen, EU commissioner for international partnerships, told reporters Tuesday that another five budget support payments, together worth €100 million ($120 million), are due in 2021.

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CRD: Grave Human Rights Violations in Tigray Must be Investigated

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Civil Rights Defenders is alarmed by the grave human rights violations that have occurred during the war in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region. The devastating number of confirmed cases of sexual and gender-based violence adds another layer of urgency to the crisis in the region. We urge the federal government of Ethiopia to immediately facilitate independent investigations that involve experts on sexual and gender-based violence to ensure proper scrutiny and accountability. Independent local and international organisations, as well as the media, must be allowed access to the conflict-affected areas.

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AFP: Ethiopia’s Tigray region hit by power blackout

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Tigray region has been hit by an electricity blackout, the government said Wednesday, blaming the outage on the ousted ruling party in the semi-autonomous zone.

Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.

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