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Tag: BBC

BBC: Ethiopia – Growing concerns for unity as Tigray conflict spreads

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

There are increasing concerns about Ethiopian unity as the conflict in the northern Tigray region escalates.

The nine-month-long war between Tigrayan rebel forces and the Ethiopian army and its allies has been mostly contained in Tigray itself.

But the fighting is spreading into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

This is off the back of Tigrayan forces making significant territorial gains, including capturing the regional capital, Mekelle, in June after Ethiopian troops withdrew and the government declared a unilateral ceasefire.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: A rare view inside the conflict zone

Posted on by Tech Support

Shire has seen a huge influx of people over the past four months, and it was ill prepared.

Its schools and a university campus have become theatres of suffering.

Aid agencies estimate some 200,000 people are currently living in the city’s makeshift camps. Many of them are women and children.

The first arrivals came back in November when fighting broke out. They mostly came from the southern and south-western lowlands of Tigray that were hotbeds of the fighting in the early days.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: Hospitals ‘vandalised and looted’

Posted on by Tech Support

Nearly 70% of health facilities in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have been vandalised and equipment looted, a report by medical charity MSF has found.

The facilities were “deliberately” attacked to make them “non-functional”, Médecins Sans Frontières said.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: BBC reporter Girmay Gebru detained by military

Posted on by Tech Support

The BBC reporter in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit region of Tigray has been detained by the military.

Witnesses say Girmay Gebru, who works for BBC Tigrinya, was taken along with four other people from a café in the regional capital, Mekelle.

Mr Girmay is reported to have been taken to a military camp in Mekelle.

The BBC is yet to establish the reason for his detention, but has expressed its concern to the Ethiopian authorities.

A local journalist, Tamirat Yemane, and two translators – Alula Akalu and Fitsum Berhane, who were working for the Financial Times and the AFP news agency, respectively – have also been detained in recent days.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray killed hundreds of people in Aksum mainly over two days in November, witnesses say.

The mass killings on 28 and 29 November may amount to a crime against humanity, Amnesty International says in a report.

An eyewitness told the BBC how bodies remained unburied on the streets for days, with many being eaten by hyenas.

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BBC: Tigray crisis – ‘Overwhelming’ humanitarian needs in Ethiopia’s region

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

The United States says it has decided to “de-link” its suspension of millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia from that country’s dispute with Egypt over a massive hydroelectric dam project.

But the State Department early Friday said that does not mean all the roughly $272 million in security and development assistance will immediately start to flow, and it depends on more recent “developments” — an apparent reference to the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

The State Department said humanitarian assistance remains exempt from the aid suspension. It said it has informed Ethiopia’s government. A spokeswoman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: ‘I lost my hand when a soldier tried to rape me’

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

An Ethiopian schoolgirl has told the BBC how she lost her right hand defending herself from a soldier who tried to rape her – and who had also tried to force her grandfather to have sex with her.

The 18-year-old, who we are not naming, has been in hospital in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region for more than two months recovering from her ordeal.

The conflict in Tigray, which erupted in early November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an offensive to oust the region’s ruling TPLF party after its fighters captured federal military bases, has destroyed her dreams, and those of many of her classmates.

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