Ethiopia’s war is being fought not just in a blackout, but also in a fog of lies – and Ethiopia’s envoy to the EU is making matters worse.
Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia’s EU ambassador, recently wrote to EUobserver, accusing Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, of making “erroneous” claims after he visited the region and told press that violence and suffering was “out of control”.
Once a day, she says, Ethiopian soldiers would line up outside her cell in a military camp, sometimes as many as 10 men waiting their turn to rape her.
According to Tirhas, the group assaults lasted for two weeks — from the afternoon soldiers picked her up off a street in Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region, until the day they drove her home.
Recent human rights investigations confirm the atrocities that journalists reported in November. A strong multilateral push can force an Eritrean withdrawal and put the region on the path to peace.
Ethiopian troops and their allies in the restive northern province of Tigray face a growing insurgency fuelled by a series of massacres and other violence targeting civilians.
I was arrested on the evening of my birthday.
After nearly four months of violent conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the government has admitted that widespread crimes have been committed, including massacres and sexual violence, as well as widespread looting and the destruction of refugee camps. Despite credible reports that members of the Ethiopian armed forces have perpetrated some of this violence, the government has rejected calls for external involvement in investigations, arguing that it is capable of conducting impartial investigations and holding perpetrators to account.
More than 60,000 Ethiopians from the northern war-torn Tigray region have fled to Sudan and several thousands are struggling to access basic needs like electricity, water and medical help as the military conflict between the government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front continues to escalate. Stephen Cornish, Director General of Doctors Without Borders-Geneva joins from Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations Security Council on Friday scrapped plans to issue a statement calling for an end to violence in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, according to reports from three UN diplomats.
Ireland, which drafted the statement, decided not to push for approval after the council failed to reach a consensus due to objections by China, Russia and India.
The conflict in Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia, has mostly been unfolding under a media blackout since early November. Thousands of civilians have likely died as a result of the crisis.
The United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a joint statement on the crisis in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, after Russia, China and India concluded it was an internal matter.
