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Category: Refugee Crisis

nytimes: As Ethiopia’s Civil War Rages, Bodies Float Downriver Into Sudan

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

The bodies floated over the border in ones and twos, bloated and bearing knife or gunshot wounds, carried on waters that flow from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.

At least 40 bodies have washed up on a riverbank in eastern Sudan in the past week, in some cases just a few hundred yards from the border with Ethiopia, according to international aid workers and doctors who helped retrieve the corpses.

The grisly finds at the river are apparent evidence of the latest atrocities in a brutal, nine-month civil war between Ethiopian federal forces and their allies, and fighters in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia — a conflict accompanied by reports of massacres, ethnic cleansing and widespread sexual assault.

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UNHCR Regional Update #15: Ethiopia Situation (Tigray Region), 12 – 30 April 2021

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

OCHA warned of alarming malnutrition rates in Tigray. Out of +69,000 children screened, +1,900 cases of severe acute malnutrition and +17,700 cases of moderate malnutrition have been identified. Malnutrition has also been found amongst pregnant women. WFP is targeting around 867,000 children and 415,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with their feeding programmes.

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Eritrea’s Isaias meets Sudanese leaders amid Ethiopia tensions

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Khartoum visit by Eritrean president comes amid strained relations between government of Ethiopia, a close ally, and Sudan.

Isaia’s visit also comes as he faces growing pressure from the international community to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray. Soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders, have also been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses in the Tigray conflict, including massacres of civilians and systematic rape.

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In Ethiopia camp, displaced Tigrayans live with hunger, fear

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Many came with almost nothing. And yet, “I don’t want to think of going back,” said 21-year-old Wegahta Weldie, a student from Mai Kadra, the scene of the six-month-old conflict’s first known massacre.

She recalled stepping on dead bodies there as her family hid in a maize field and then walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Mekele.

“Many people had been killed and it was very dark,” she said. “I could not tell whether they were my relatives or not.”

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Tigray: thousands flee in search of safety as humanitarian needs rise

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

The conflict in the Tigray region in Ethiopia broke out early November 2020. It is estimated that thousands of fighters and civilians have died, and around 4.5 million people require emergency food assistance, of whom an estimated 2.2 million are displaced. Over 60,000 have crossed the border into Sudan in search of safety.

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East Africa: ERIPS Statement on Addressing the Conflict and Refugee Situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region

Posted on by Merhawit Mellse

While calls for the Government of Eritrea to pull out of the conflict in Ethiopia increases, the international community must also consider the repercussions of Eritrean intervention in the Tigray war if a lasting solution is to be developed.

“Refugees International is concerned about reports that Ethiopian government forces and Eritrean soldiers have forced Eritrean refugees to return to Eritrea or other locations where they may be in danger. For example, Eritrean refugees who fled to Addis Ababa to avoid the fighting in Tigray have been rounded up and returned to camps in Tigray. This is unacceptable, as camps in Tigray are in the middle of an active conflict zone and have little access to food or medical supplies.”

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Refugee doctor chronicles Tigray’s pain as he treats it

Posted on by Merhawit Mellse

Tewodros Tefera is one of more than 60,000 people who have fled ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, crossing the border into a remote corner of Sudan. Horrified by what he saw when the fighting between Ethiopian and Tigray forces began six months ago, and by the tales of new arrivals, the 44-year-old chronicles the pain even as he treats it.

“”It is definitely genocide,” he says. “If someone is being attacked for their identity, if they’re threatened to be vanished because of their identity, there is no other explanation for this.” 

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Sexual violence used as ‘weapon of war’ in the ongoing conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Sexual violence is being used as a “weapon of war and humiliation” in Tigray, Ethiopia, according to a USAID-funded report. Many are saying this violence against women and children is rooted in ethnic cleansing. NBC News Foreign Correspondent Matt Bradley reports on the ongoing conflict. Warning: This report contains graphic accounts of sexual assault and may be disturbing.

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Ethiopia’s COVID-19 cases pass 258,000

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Ethiopia registered 322 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 258,384 as of Sunday evening, the country’s Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, 17 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported during the same period, bringing the national death toll to 3,726, the ministry said.

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Sudan is ready to sue Ethiopia’s government due to GERD threats: Irrigation Minister

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Sudan’s Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said that Khartoum will bear great losses if Ethiopia insists on conducting the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD] without reaching an agreement.

Abbas said in a press conference that his country will store a billion cubic meters of water behind Roseires Dam as a precautionary measure against the second filling of GERD, planned in the next rain season in June.

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