US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday described violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as “ethnic cleansing” as he pressed for a prompt investigation, aid and the exit of Eritrean troops.
Tag: AFP
Yahoo: ‘I don’t feel safe’: Survivors allege rape by soldiers in Tigray
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.
AFP: A bid ‘to exterminate us’: Tigrayans recount massacre by Eritrean troops
The soldiers had tied their hands with belts and ropes and shot them in the head.
“I’d rather die than have lived to see this,” Beyenesh told AFP, tears rolling down her face as she described how the annual festival of Saint Mary turned into a bloodbath.
Local church officials say 164 civilians were killed in Dengolat, with most of the deaths occurring on November 30, one day after the festival.
That makes it one of the worst known atrocities in the ongoing conflict in Tigray.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has tightly restricted humanitarian and media access to the region, and for nearly three months Dengolat residents despaired of sharing their story with the world.
AFP: AFP calls for the release of a translator working for its journalists in Ethiopia
AFP calls on the Ethiopian authorities to release a man who was arrested while he was serving as a translator for a team of its journalists reporting in the Tigray region, the scene of a military operation launched in early November by Addis Ababa against the then regional authorities.
Daily Mail: Tigray official slams damage by troops from ‘neighbouring’ country
Troops from a “neighbouring country” destroyed factories and universities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray state, an official with the region’s interim administration told state media Thursday in an apparent reference to Eritrea.
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.
He declared victory after pro-government troops took the regional capital Mekele in late November and appointed an interim government to take over from the TPLF leadership. Fighting has however persisted.
Barron’s: EU Envoy Warns Ethiopia Tigray Crisis ‘Out Of Control’
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.
15 UN peacekeepers from Tigray refuse to return to Ethiopia
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.
AFP: Ethiopia’s Tigray region hit by power blackout
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.