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Sudan recalls ambassador to Ethiopia as tensions high amid Tigray war

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Sudan said Sunday it has ordered its envoy to Ethiopia home for consultations after a government spokesperson in Addis Ababa rejected a Sudanese initiative to mediate a cease-fire in the Tigray war and accused it of occupying Ethiopian territory.

The move announced in a Foreign Ministry statement was the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the African neighbors. The tensions began after Sudan deployed troops late last year to the fertile al-Fashaga border area it says was occupied for over two decades by Ethiopian farmers and militias.

Billene Seyoum, spokesperson for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said Thursday that ties with Sudan have been “a little bit tricky” and accused Khartoum of occupying Ethiopian territory – a reference to al-Fashaga. She said Sudan was not a “credible party” to facilitate negotiations between Ahmed’s government and Tigray leaders.

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WFP delivers food to another 1 million people in Tigray during June and July but is only reaching half of those it should be

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

WFP aims to reach 2.1 million people with emergency food assistance from August onwards and needs at least 6,000 metric tons of food each week to do so. Due to insecurity and operational constraints, it has been unable to bring these quantities into Tigray in recent weeks.

More than 175 trucks arrived in the Tigray region, via the Abala corridor, during the first week of August. This included 90 trucks loaded with over 5,000 metric tons of life-saving food. An additional 90 trucks are expected to arrive in the coming days to further replenish stocks of food, fuel, nutrition, health, WASH and shelter items in the region.

But with 5.2 million people in the region (90% of the Tigray population) in need of humanitarian food assistance – WFP and partners require at least 100 trucks to be arriving daily to meet the vast needs.

“People in Tigray are suffering due to lack of humanitarian support over the past month – we need to reach them now before they fall into famine. WFP is calling for all parties to agree to a ceasefire and guarantee an unimpeded flow of humanitarian supplies into Tigray, so that we can deliver lifesaving food and other emergency supplies safely before it’s too late,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Corporate Response Director for Tigray. 

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Sudan-Ethiopia tensions rise amid diplomatic wrangling and famine

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

After Sudanese efforts to help broker a ceasefire in Tigray were rejected by Ethiopia, Khartoum has recalled its ambassador to Addis Ababa.

With Sudan currently chairing the regional body Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he was trying to “encourage all Ethiopian sides to reach a ceasefire agreement, and engage in comprehensive political talks”, in a statement released on Sunday.

Fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region began last November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops in to defeat the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Part of the issue stems from Fashaga, the contested border region that is used by Ethiopian farmers, but claimed by Sudan.

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Sudan recalls ambassador from Ethiopia after ‘unsubstantiated allegations’

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Sudan summoned its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations after statements issued by senior Ethiopian officials rejected Khartoum’s mediation in the conflict raging in the Tigray region on the grounds of “non-neutrality and the occupation of Ethiopian lands”.

Diplomatic sources said that the Sudanese Ambassador to Addis Ababa, Jamal Al-Sheikh, will meet with Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to discuss these developments in Sudanese Ethiopian relations.

In a statement, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that “the suggestion that Sudan played a role in the conflict, and the claim of occupation, is a continuation of Ethiopia’s practice of overriding facts in its relationship with Sudan and promoting allegations that it has no basis for based only on the ambitions of circles in the Ethiopian government.”

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Refugees find more bodies in river separating Tigray, Sudan

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Six more bodies have been found floating down the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan, refugees and a physician said on Saturday. They urged Sudanese authorities and the U.N. to help in search efforts.

Around 50 bodies have been discovered over the last two weeks in the Setit River, which flows through some of the most troubled areas of the nine-month conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, according to Tigray refugees.

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Ceasefire in Tigray more urgent than ever: UN relief chief

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Speaking in Geneva, Martin Griffiths highlighted the urgency of the situation for all those affected in the northern Ethiopian region, after eight months of fighting between Government forces and those loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Earlier this week, the UN senior official warned that 200,000 people had been displaced by fighting in neighbouring Amhara region, along with more than 50,000 in Afar.

“This war has to stop, this war has to end; we will all of us continue to try to make sure that those 100 trucks a day reach Mekelle, reach the beneficiaries”, Mr. Griffiths insisted. “We will do everything we can to help the people affected in Amhara and Afar, while continuing the work in other parts of Ethiopia.”

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The war in Tigray: the makings of a man-made famine, and what can be done

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

“There’s famine now in Tigray.” That 10 June 2021 declaration by the UN’s most senior humanitarian official was the clearest indication yet that embattled Tigray faced a severe food emergency. Close to five million Tigrayans were subsequently  under watch for what constitutes emergency level conditions.

The affected population now falls under emergency (phase four) and famine (phase five) of the Famine Early Warning System Network classification. A famine is declared when households have an extreme lack of food even after they’ve used all available coping strategies. It’s when starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.

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Reuters: USAID chief concerned by ‘dehumanising rhetoric’ in Ethiopia amid war in Tigray region

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Wednesday during a visit to Ethiopia that she had raised her concerns about “dehumanising rhetoric” with authorities, amid war in the country’s northern Tigray region.

Samantha Power’s visit to the country, and to neighbouring Sudan, this week follows warnings from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of punitive measures against the Ethiopian government if aid is unable to reach the Tigray region.

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Bloomberg: U.S. Official Calls for Cease-Fire as Ethiopia Conflict Deepens

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

The head of the U.S Agency for International Development called for an end to hostilities and on anti-government forces to withdraw from two regions bordering Ethiopia’s war-ravaged Tigray region.

Samantha Power’s comments in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, came after the U.S. State Department reinforced its calls for Tigray forces, which have been embroiled in a nine-month conflict with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to “withdraw its associated military forces immediately from the Amhara and Afar regions.”

The worsening conflict may scare overseas investment into Africa’s second-most populous nation just as it prepares to lure overseas telecommunications operators, as well as investors for its sugar assets. The violence has spilled into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions as Tigray forces seek to push back against their adversaries following gains in June and July.

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The Washington Post: US warns Ethiopia of ‘dehumanizing rhetoric’ on Tigray

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development expressed concern Wednesday about the “dehumanizing rhetoric” used by Ethiopia’s leaders amid the nine-month conflict in the Tigray region, whose forces last month were described as “weeds” and “cancer” by the country’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.

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