Hundreds of Eritrean refugees held at Addis airport threatened with deportation

Friday, 11 December 2020 11:03 Written by Eritrea Hub

DECEMBER 11, 2020 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS

Ethiopia threatens hundreds of Eritrean refugees with enforced return to Eritrea

IOM Office Bole Airport Addis Ababa

(London 11/12/2020) Arbi Harnet (Freedom Friday) has received disturbing information from Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia.

The news relates to around 300 Eritrean refugees who fled the fighting in Tigray.

Some were working in various capacities in Tigray region and some are from the refugee camps that are home to thousands of Eritrean refugees.

Once in Addis they were detained at the offices of International Organisation for Migration in the area of Bole in Addis and have been threatened with forced return to Eritrea.

The process is presented as voluntary return and they are being held in the voluntary return registration centre of IOM.

In a message smuggled out of the centre the refugees have asked for help in stopping this injustice that is about to be perpetrated against them. They asked for pressure on IOM to not be complicit to this crime of returning them to the brutal regime they had fled from.

Many in the group had arrived in Tigray in the last couple of years and some have been taking advantage of the opportunity to work and settle in the region and live outside the refugee camps.

If returned to Eritrea they will be considered absconders from the national service and be punished for that and the circumstances under which they fled.

In addition, under the current circumstances of active war with Tigray that Eritrea is participating in together with the Federal government of Ethiopia, they might even be considered as agents and collaborators as they had been living and working in Tigray.

Arbi harnet believes that this return that is being orchestrated by the Federal Government of Ethiopia is against the principle of “non-refoulement” which prohibits States from transferring or removing individuals from their jurisdiction when there are grounds for believing that the person would be at risk of irreparable harm upon return, including persecution, torture, ill treatment or other serious human rights violations.

The Group calls for UNHCR to intervene and protect the refugees in accordance to the refugee convention and prevent their return to a certain ill-treatment in Eritrea.

IOM should also be aware that none of the refugees have consented to this return and thus their return is a contravention of their stated objectives.

U.S. senators seek possible sanctions over Ethiopia conflict abuses

Thursday, 10 December 2020 16:34 Written by Eritrea Hub

DECEMBER 10, 2020 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS

Source: Reuters – Note the full draft resolution is below.

U.S. senators seek possible sanctions over Ethiopia conflict abuses

The proposed resolution was introduced on Wednesday by Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, and Senator Jim Risch, a Republican.

It was the first such call by U.S. lawmakers since war between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) broke out on Nov. 4.

The conflict is thought to have killed thousands and displaced more than 950,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, about 50,000 of them into Sudan.

Concern has mounted over reports of civilians targeted by both sides, posing a policy dilemma for the United States, which considers Ethiopia an important ally in a volatile region.

The government has said it will investigate any reports of atrocities or mass killings, but will only allow independent investigations if the government was not able to do so.

Accounts from all sides are difficult to verify because most phone lines and internet connections to the region have been down since the conflict broke out. Foreign journalists are required to have permits to leave the capital city.

The Ethiopian army has captured Tigray’s regional capital Mekelle and declared victory but TPLF leaders say they are fighting back on various fronts around the highland city.

The Senate resolution introduced by Cardin and Risch also called on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF to cease hostilities and pursue a peaceful resolution to the war.

Civilians fleeing fighting in Tigray last month told Reuters that they witnessed bombing by government warplanes, shooting on the streets, and people being hacked to death with machetes.

Rights group Amnesty International said scores and probably hundreds of people were stabbed or hacked to death in the town of Mai Kadra in Tigray less than a week after the war began.

Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission’s initial report found that an estimated 600 civilians were killed in that attack.

RESTORING ORDER

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in Geneva on Wednesday that events in Tigray were still “worrying and volatile”.

“There is an urgent need for independent monitoring of the human rights situation in the Tigray region, all necessary measures to protect civilians, and accountability for violations,” Bachelet said.

Abiy’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum responded that there was

“nothing volatile about Tigray or Ethiopia”.

“The federal government is well equipped and able to restore order and is undertaking such activities as cities and towns slowly return to regular activities,” she said.

Meanwhile aid groups are pressing for safe access to the northern region, which is home to more than 5 million people and where 600,000 relied on food aid even before the conflict.

The government has said it was delivering aid in areas that it controlled, but relief agencies are increasingly frustrated.

A United Nations team visiting refugees in Tigray was shot at over the weekend. The government said it had failed to stop at two checkpoints.

In response to that, another U.S. Senator, Bob Menendez said in a tweet: “Attacks on humanitarians must STOP. Refugees & all civilians must be PROTECTED.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the problems on Wednesday and said Ethiopia and the United Nations had now agreed on joint missions to assess humanitarian needs.

Source: US Senate

RISCH, CARDIN INTRODUCE RESOLUTION ENCOURAGING PEACEFUL RESOLUTION TO TIGRAY CONFLICT IN ETHIOPIA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that oversees civilian security, democracy and human rights, today introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to cease all hostilities, protect the human rights of all Ethiopians, and pursue a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

“The conflict in Tigray presents a dire humanitarian situation and a direct threat to Ethiopia’s historic transition to democracy,” said Risch. “This bipartisan resolution encourages the Ethiopian federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to engage in dialogue that will address grievances and pursue a peaceful and sustainable end to the conflict. A stable and democratic Ethiopia is critical to the security of the broader region, and the United States will continue to be supportive of good-faith efforts to further democratic progress.”

“The ongoing fighting in Tigray has already cost thousands of lives and created a humanitarian crisis of disastrous proportions, threatening the long-term stability not only of Ethiopia, but the entire region,” said Cardin. “For the sake of the Ethiopian people and their loved ones across the diaspora, many of whom I’m proud to represent in Maryland, the violence must stop. All parties to this conflict must work together towards reconciliation, justice, and lasting peace.”

Full text of the resolution can be found here.

US Senate Resolution on Ethiopia and Tigray

Three reports on the Tigray war: Appalling situation, spiraling out of control

Thursday, 10 December 2020 16:25 Written by Eritrea Hub

DECEMBER 9, 2020 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS

Three reports below: AP, Reuters and CNN

Source: Associated Press

UN: Ethiopia’s conflict has ‘appalling impact on civilians’

By CARA ANNA

Tigrayans who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, start wood fires to prepare dinner, in front of their temporary shelters at Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s situation is “spiraling out of control with appalling impact on civilians” and urgently needs outside monitoring, the United Nations human rights chief warned Wednesday, but Ethiopia is rejecting calls for independent investigations into the deadly fighting in its Tigray region, saying it “doesn’t need a baby-sitter.”

The government’s declaration came amid international calls for more transparency into the month-long fighting between Ethiopian forces and those of the fugitive Tigray regional government that is thought to have killed thousands, including civilians. At least one large-scale massacre has been documented by human rights groups, and others are feared.

Senior government official Redwan Hussein told reporters on Tuesday evening that Ethiopia will invite others for assistance only if it feels that “it failed to investigate.” To assume the government can’t carry out such probes “is belittling the government,” he said.

Frustration is growing as the northern Tigray region remains largely cut off from the outside world, with food and medicines desperately needed by the population of 6 million — some 1 million of them now thought to be displaced.

The lack of transparency, with most communications and transport links severed, has complicated efforts to verify the warring side’s claims.

It also hurts efforts to understand the extent of atrocities that have been committed since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Nov. 4 announced that fighting had begun with the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s government and military for nearly three decades before he came to power and sidelined it.

Each government now regards the other as illegal, as the TPLF objects to the postponement of national elections until next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and sees Abiy’s mandate as expired.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the situation is “exceedingly worrying and volatile” with fighting reported to continue in areas surrounding the Tigray capital, Mekele, and the towns of Sheraro and Axum, “in spite of government claims to the contrary.”

“We have corroborated information of gross human rights violations and abuses including indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, looting, abductions and sexual violence against women and girls,” Bachelet told reporters. “There are reports of forced recruitment of Tigrayan youth to fight against their own communities.”

However, she said, with communications limited, “we have been unable to access the worst affected areas.”

Ethiopia’s government is pushing back against what it calls outside “interference,” from efforts at dialogue to delivering aid, drawing on its history as the rare African country never colonized, a source of deep national pride.

The government wants to manage aid delivery, and on Tuesday it said its forces had shot at and detained U.N. staffers who allegedly broke through checkpoints while trying to reach areas where “they were not supposed to go.”

The shooting incident “is really costly” because it further delays humanitarian operations for people in Tigray who have been waiting five weeks for aid, U.N. humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told The Associated Press.

He said the six-member U.N. team, which was detained in Humera and released two days later, was the first sent into Tigray and was carrying out security assessments along roads that had been previously agreed upon with Ethiopia’s government. Such assessments are crucial before aid can be moved in.

“Now we have to work out additional operational details with the government,” especially on security, Abreu said, repeating the U.N.’s call for unfettered, unconditional access.

The shooting occurred a week after the U.N. and the government signed a deal to allow humanitarian access. The deal, crucially, allows aid only in areas under federal government control.

The need for aid is critical. Mekele, a city of a half-million people, is “basically today without medical care,” the director-general of the International Committee for the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, told reporters on Tuesday. The city’s Ayder Referral Hospital has run out of supplies, including fuel to power generators.

“Doctors and nurses have been forced to make horrible life and death decisions,” Mardini said. “They suspended intensive care services and are really struggling to take care like delivering babies or providing dialysis treatment.”

A joint ICRC-Ethiopian Red Cross convoy with supplies for hundreds of wounded people is ready to go to Mekele, pending approval, he said. It would be the first international convoy to reach the city since the fighting began.

While the risk of insecurity remains in the Tigray capital, there is no active fighting, Mardini said.

Overall, he said, “People in Tigray have been cut off from services for nearly a month. They have had no phone, no Internet, no electricity and no fuel. Cash is running out. This of course adds to the tension.”

Source: Reuters

Ethiopia volatile with fighting, ethnic profiling of Tigrayans – U.N. rights boss

GENEVA (Reuters) – The situation in Ethiopia is “worrying and volatile” as fighting in the Tigray region continues amid reports of ethnic profiling of Tigrayans including in Addis Ababa, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday.

“We have reports that particularly areas surrounding towns like Mekelle, Sherero, Axum, Abiy Addi, and the borders between the Amhara and Tigray regions, fighting continues between federal forces and the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front), and affiliated militias on both sides,” Bachelet told a news conference in Geneva.

“There is an urgent need for independent monitoring of the human rights situation in the Tigray region, all necessary measures to protect civilians, and accountability for violations.”

Reuters has been unable to verify claims by either side in the conflict since phone and internet connections to the Tigray region are down and access to the area is strictly controlled.

Source: CNN

CNN uncovers reality for refugees on the Ethiopia-Sudan border

CNN hears testimony from refugees at the Sudan-Ethiopia border, all of whom say they were targeted because of their Tigray ethnicity. CNN also heard from a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front that the majority of the forces operating in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are from Eritrea, suggesting that one of the international community’s biggest fears – regional contagion – is already happening. CNN’s Nima Elbagir reports.

“Eritrean troops seen in Ethiopian uniforms”

Wednesday, 09 December 2020 15:58 Written by Martin Plaut

DECEMBER 9, 2020 MARTIN PLAUT ETHIOPIA, NEWS

Source: Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-08/suspected-eritrean-troop-sightings-suggest-wider-ethiopia-war?utm_source=url_link

Possible Eritrea Troop Sightings Signal Wider Ethiopia Fight

Bloomberg News8 December 2020, 13:05 GMTUpdated on 8 December 2020, 13:30 GMT

UN teams saw soldiers dressed in Eritrean uniforms in Tigray
Eastern neighbor at odds with Tigrayans since 1998 border war

United Nations security teams evaluating the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have observed troops wearing Eritrean uniforms moving in the area, according to people familiar with the matter.

The observations follow claims by Tigrayan leaders that they’ve been battling Eritrean soldiers inside their territory since clashes between Ethiopian government forces and Tigrayan fighters erupted last month. The presence of Eritrean troops would suggest the conflict, which the Ethiopian government has characterized a domestic issue, has gone regional.

UN teams saw troops dressed in Eritrean military outfits last week in western Tigray, en route to the town of Shire, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media. A second person said soldiers wearing Eritrean uniforms were seen in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, and west of the city, though the observers couldn’t fully verify their findings.

A third person said regional security sources had also reported Eritrean troops on the roads that lead from Eritrea’s border to the northern Tigray towns of Adwa and Adrigat.

‘False Claims’

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, didn’t respond to a request for comment sent by email. At the onset of the conflict, Abiy accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of manufacturing uniforms resembling those of Eritrea’s army to “implicate the Eritrean government in false claims of aggression against the people of Tigray.”

Eritrea’s government hasn’t commented on whether its forces are involved in the conflict and Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel didn’t respond to emailed questions. Catherine Sozi, the UN resident coordinator in Ethiopia, said she couldn’t immediately comment as she was unaware of the security-team reports.

A foreign diplomat and a humanitarian-aid official said Eritrean troops are suspected to have entered Ethiopia to abduct refugees at four camps in Tigray that house Eritreans suspected of being anti-government activists. Last month, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters in Sudan that such treatment of refugees would constitute “major violations of international norms.”

Meron Estefanos, director of the Eritrean Initiative on Refugee Rights, said by phone she had spoken to at least one refugee who said they had been taken by Eritrean forces across the border to a hospital in Eritrea and were not allowed to return to Tigray.

Counter Narrative’

Abiy has stressed that the conflict in Tigray is an “internal affair,” and described the incursion into Tigray as a “law-enforcement operation.”

Any Eritrean involvement would run “counter to the entire narrative that the Abiy government has sought to create around this conflict: that it is limited in scope, that it is law-enforcement only and that it is entirely domestic,” said Cameron Hudson, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

The TPLF, the ruling party in Tigray until last month’s incursion, has repeatedly accused Eritrean forces of crossing the border and aiding the Ethiopian federal army. Tigrayan forces fired ballistic missiles at Eritrea in retaliation on at least two occasions since the conflict began.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has been at odds with the TPLF since 1998, when a dispute over territory sparked a two-year war with Ethiopia. The fighting left tens of thousands of people dead and didn’t officially end until two years ago, when Abiy signed a peace accord with Isaias — an action for which Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Prior to that conflict, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces fought together to overthrow the Marxist Derg regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 until 1987.

In addition to sharing a border, Tigray and Eritrea have a similar language and culture. While there have been calls for a greater Tigrinya-speaking nation by Tigrayans in the past, Eritrea’s government is opposed to the idea.

— With assistance by Paul Richardson

Diplomats back claims Eritrean troops have joined Ethiopia conflict

Wednesday, 09 December 2020 00:34 Written by Peter Beaumont

US official among sources saying soldiers from Eritrea are fighting in operations against Tigray People’s Liberation Front

A woman at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, balancing matting, a blanket and a box on her head as she walks past white tents

A refugee who fled the Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict carries distributed supplies at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

Peter Beaumont

Tue 8 Dec 2020 17.00 GMT

A US official and other diplomatic sources have backed accusations that Eritrean soldiers are fighting alongside Ethiopian troops to help Abiy Ahmed’s government in the war on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), complicating an already dangerous conflict.

The claims made to Reuters, which interviewed several unidentified diplomats in the region and a US official, follow mounting allegations by Tigrayan leaders that Eritrea, long a rival of Ethiopia, had joined with Ethiopian forces against a common enemy despite denials from both nations.

According to some accounts, thousands of Eritrean troops have joined the conflict during the last month of fighting, while Tigrayan forces have admitted rocketing the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

While refugees crossing into Sudan have also made similar claims, confirmation has been complicated by the lack of access for outsiders, including media, and the cutting of communications to the region.

Earlier this month the regional president of Tigray, Debretsion Gebremichael, accused Eritrean forces of mass looting.

According to the report, evidence of Eritrean involvement cited in the US view of the month-long war includes satellite images, intercepted communications and anecdotal reports from the Tigray region.

“There doesn’t appear to be a doubt anymore. It’s being discussed by US officials on calls – that the Eritreans are in Tigray – but they aren’t saying it publicly,” the US government source, who has been privy to the internal calls, told Reuters.

The latest allegations follow an incident on Sunday when a UN security team attempting to visit a camp for those displaced in the fighting reportedly encountered uniformed Eritrean troops during an incident in which they were shot at and detained.

Troops suspected of being Eritrean have also allegedly been spotted in the regional capital Mekelle, said a resident and two diplomats in touch with the city’s inhabitants.

Some were reported to be in Eritrean uniforms, one of the diplomats said. Others wore Ethiopian uniforms, but spoke Tigrinya with an Eritrean accent and drove trucks without license plates, the resident told Reuters.

The US assessment creates a potential policy predicament as Washington views Ethiopia as a major ally in the volatile Horn of Africa but accuses Eritrea of severe rights abuses.

A senior diplomat from another country concurred, saying “thousands” of Eritrean soldiers were believed to be engaged.

The US state department did not confirm the US conclusions, although a spokesman said it would view any proven Eritrean involvement with great concern and that its embassy in Asmara was urging restraint to officials.

Contacted on Saturday, Eritrea’s foreign minister, Osman Saleh Mohammed, said: “We are not involved. It’s propaganda.”

Claims by all sides are near-impossible to verify because most communications to Tigray are down, and the government tightly controls access.

Abiy won a Nobel peace prize last year for making peace with Eritrea, but the presence of Eritrean troops on Ethiopian soil would alarm western allies. Ethiopia hosts the African Union, its security services work with western allies, and its troops serve in peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Somalia.

Eritrea has for years faced accusations of large-scale rights abuses, including jailing opponents and forcing citizens into lengthy military or government service. It accuses western powers of smear campaigns and luring Eritreans abroad, which they deny.

Ethiopia-Eritrea ties were mostly icy under the TPLF-dominated government that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades in increasingly autocratic fashion before Abiy took office in 2018.

The TPLF claims to have killed and captured large numbers of Eritrean troops in the last month, but has provided no evidence.

It has fired rockets into Eritrea at least four times, the US state department says. Eritrean troops are believed to have entered Ethiopia in mid-November through three northern border towns: Zalambessa, Rama and Badme.

The diplomatic sources and the US government source did not have information on the numbers Washington believes have crossed, nor on their weapons or role in the war.

Ethiopian officials have accused the TPLF of manufacturing fake Eritrean uniforms to bolster their claims and increase pressure on the government to accept international mediation. The TPLF denies this.

Source=Diplomats back claims Eritrean troops have joined Ethiopia conflict | Ethiopia | The Guardian

Eritrean refugees flee camps in Tigray seeking safety in Ethiopian cities

Tuesday, 08 December 2020 23:58 Written by Martin Plaut

DECEMBER 7, 2020 MARTIN PLAUT ETHIOPIA, NEWS

Eritrean refugees are pouring out of the UN camps in which they have been living, to escape being engulfed in the fighting in Tigray.

They have been targeted by Eritrean forces who are fighting alongside the Ethiopian Federal forces. Eritrean refugees are reported to have been forcibly returned to Eritrea, or even put into uniform and sent to the frontline.

Reports from the Adi Harush refugee camp says that many fear for their safety. They are staying up all night, to try to prevent attacks and abductions from the camp.

Adi Harush is the most southerly of the camps in Tigray and was home to over 32,000 Eritrean refugees before the fighting, who fled from their country to escape its repressive conditions.

Four camps held 96,000 refugees before the fighting began on 4th of November; it’s unclear how many remain. There are few remaining supplies of food, and fuel and water are scarce.

Some of those leaving the camps are heading for Gondar, others for Bahir Dar – the capital of the neighbouring Amhara region, and then finally on to Addis Ababa.

To get as far as Gondar they each pay 200 birr for a car. Those that cannot afford the fare are having to walk.

Eritrean refugees – some from the camps and others who were integrated into the Tigrayan – are also making their way to Addis Ababa. Hundreds have already arrived and are having to find homes and support to get by.

Eritrean aid agencies are calling on the UNHCR to extend protection and assistance to the refugees wherever they flee to.

The camps are increasingly unsafe – a point underlined when UN security team came under fire today while in the vicinity of a camp.

U.N. security team blocked, shot at near Eritrean refugee camp in in Tigray. Over 50,000 flee to Sudan

Monday, 07 December 2020 15:53 Written by Eritrea Hub

DECEMBER 7, 2020 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS

“United Nations security team seeking to visit a camp for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region was denied access and shot at.”

Source: Reuters

The incident occurred when the team tried to visit Shimelba, one of four settlements for Eritreans in the northern Tigray region, the sources told Reuters. They declined to give more details, saying the full circumstances were unclear.

Neither Ethiopia’s government nor the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), who have been at war since Nov. 4, immediately responded to requests for comment. Information from Tigray has been hard to verify because communications have been largely down and access has been tightly controlled.

There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials.

Source: Sudan Tribune

December 6, 2020 (GADAREF) – The flow of Ethiopian refugees continued towards the eastern Sudanese areas, bringing the total number of refugees who sneaked into Sudan to more than 50,000 people.

The reception centres for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the war between the federal army and the TPLF fighters received hundreds of newcomers on Sunday, humanitarian sources told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.

“The total number of Ethiopians increased to 50,530 refugees, including 34,184 refugees in Hamdayat camp, after the arrival of 553 refugees on Sunday,” the officials added.

According to the aid workers, the number of refugees inside Hashaba camp jumped to 16,264, of whom 11250 were transferred to Um Rakuba camp in the eastern Qallabat locality of Gadaref.

Despite the poor conditions in the camps, refugees say they feel safe of the continued fighting in several areas in Tigray Region.

Addis Ababa initially announced the end of the war after the capture of the regional capital Mekelle, but reports from the Tigray say the federal troops continue to clash with the TPLF elements in different areas.

Sudan which is the head of the IGAD region proposed to mediate between the two parties but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declined the proposition which had been made during the first week of the fighting.

Fighting reported among Ethiopian troops in Somalia – as Tigrayans disarmed

Monday, 07 December 2020 15:48 Written by Eritrea Hub

DECEMBER 6, 2020 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS

These include a Kenyan minister and a general in Somalia.

There are reported to have been around 20 deaths in the fighting

This is another source:

It is in line with a trend reported by Rashid Abdi on 13 November.

It is also very much in line with the treatment of Tigrayans in other fields – like Ethiopian Airlines.

Ethnic profiling.

Very sad. Very discriminatory.

Ethiopia’s war in Tigray shows no signs of abating, despite government’s victory claims

Monday, 07 December 2020 01:40 Written by Max Bearak

Ethiopian refugees who fled the Tigray conflict wait to fill their jerrycans with water at Um Raquba reception camp in Sudan on Dec. 3, 2020. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)

Max Bearak

Dec. 4, 2020 at 12:36 p.m. EST

NAIROBI — Clashes continued across Ethiopia's Tigray region and humanitarian aid remained paused at its border Friday, despite government claims that military operations had ceased and pledges to allow U.N. agencies access to hundreds of thousands of people who rely on them for food.

The conflict exploded a month ago between Ethiopia’s new leader, Abiy Ahmed, a young and reform-minded ex-soldier who won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and the country’s old ruling faction: the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a powerful regional political party that dominated Ethiopian affairs for 27 years until Abiy’s rise.

Abiy had begun to dismantle the TPLF’s grip on state institutions, deepening their political rivalry. It spilled into warfare over control of vast amounts of federal military equipment stationed in Tigray, and the TPLF’s decision to go ahead with regional elections despite a government ban amid the pandemic. Abiy has so far rejected international attempts to mediate.

Diplomats, aid workers and analysts said in interviews that the war in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region, was far from over even with government troops in effective control of the region’s main city, Mekele. The fighting has shifted to Tigray’s many craggy mountain ranges — difficult terrain where TPLF leaders and militia hold the advantage of familiarity and have been able to regroup.

“We have reports of fighting still going on in many parts of Tigray,” said Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office, adding that security concerns were preventing aid missions from crossing into the region. “We have not, indeed, been able to send personnel or relief items to Tigray [yet].”

The TPLF’s leadership remains largely intact despite abandoning Mekele last week. On Thursday, in a message aired on a regional television network, one prominent leader called on supporters to “rise and deploy to battle in tens of thousands.” TPLF officials did not respond to requests for comment and have kept their whereabouts secret.

Humanitarian crisis

The fighting has prevented a full assessment of what is almost certainly a dire humanitarian crisis.

Agencies such as the NRC, International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders were not granted access to Tigray in the Wednesday agreement between Addis Ababa and the United Nations. But hundreds of workers from non-U. N. relief groups have been stranded there since fighting began.

“There will be many displaced within Tigray on top of the hundreds of thousands already needing aid,” Tricks said. “And we know essential supplies are running out or have run out.”

European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic visits a warehouse built by the World Food Program at the Um Raquba camp on Dec. 3, 2020. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)

On Friday, the U.N.’s refugee agency said that more than 47,000 people had crossed into neighboring Sudan seeking safety since the conflict began. Many came with harrowing stories of survival.

Most of Tigray remains under a transport blockade as well as communications blackout.

Clampdowns on both local and foreign press and other observers have made claims even harder to verify. Ethiopian journalists have been arrested, few foreign journalists have been granted visas, only one has gotten permission to travel to Tigray under government supervision. Numerous independent Ethiopian political analysts declined to comment for fear of reprisal.

How many killed?

The question of how many have been killed is one of the trickiest to answer. In announcing the capture of Mekele, Abiy claimed that no civilians had been killed in the offensive on the city. Doctors in Mekele’s biggest hospital, however, recently told the New York Times that 27 people were killed in indiscriminate shelling. The Red Cross issued a statement a day after Abiy’s announcement saying the hospital was running low on body bags, among other necessities.

A Red Cross spokeswoman said Friday that their Ethiopian partner organization has a network of 18 ambulances “that have been working throughout this crisis and have transported hundreds of injured people to medical facilities in Amhara and Tigray.”

Women walk on the side of a road in a rural area of Ethiopia’s Amhara region on Nov. 27, 2020. (Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images)

Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF leader, told Tigray TV, a regional network, that tens of thousands of Ethiopian federal soldiers had been killed, but wouldn’t quantify how many TPLF-aligned fighters had died. A spokeswoman for Abiy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Davison and others said much of Tigray was still clearly contested between federal forces and the TPLF, despite Addis Ababa’s claims to the contrary.

“Still, with no external support or open supply lines, [the TPLF] will be relying heavily on the backing of the Tigrayan people to be able to sustain armed resistance,” Davison said.

On Wednesday, the leader of a provisional government for Tigray, set up by Abiy’s administration, had taken up their posts in at least one city in the region, according to the state-run news agency.

Opinion: Ethiopia sees echoes of dark days as ‘Abiy-mania’ fades

Analysis: Why Ethiopia’s conflict could spill beyond its borders

Ethiopia says it has taken control of main city in defiant Tigray

Source=In Ethiopia's Tigray, fighting persists and humanitarian concerns grow - The Washington Post

President Ramaphosa opens today’s African Union session: “Silencing the Guns” – guess what he forgot?

Monday, 07 December 2020 01:30 Written by Menasmer

Date: 06/12/2020Author: Martin Plaut0 Comments

You really couldn’t make it up. Terrorism…trouble in Mozambique…Western Sahara…but not a word about the war currently raging North of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Not a mention of the three African Union presidents Ramaphosa asked to mediate in the Tigray conflict.

Any wonder the African Union is held in such low regard by ordinary Africans?

OPENING STATEMENT BY AFRICAN UNION CHAIRPERSON PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA AT THE 14TH EXTRAORDINARY SESSION ON SILENCING THE GUNS
6 DECEMBER 2020
VIRTUAL PLATFORM

Your Majesties,
Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Honourable Ministers,
Commissioners of the African Union,
Representatives of Regional Economic Communities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me welcome you, once again, to this 14th Extraordinary Session on Silencing the Guns.

While the year 2020 has imposed unprecedented challenges on us, it has also reminded us of our fortitude and resilience as Africans.

We have gathered here today to assess the progress we have made since 2013 when we adopted the Agenda 2063 flagship project of ‘Silencing the Guns’ by 2020.

With this flagship project, we committed ourselves to the objective of creating a conflict-free continent that is stable, developed, prosperous and capable of delivering the better life that all its people yearn for.

We made a solemn declaration not to bequeath the burden of wars to the next and future generations of Africans.

It was at the January 2017 Assembly that we adopted the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps for Silencing the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020.

As we gather here, we all know that the guns are not yet silent.

In some areas peace has been achieved, but considerable challenges still confront us.

There are shortcomings in implementation that must be addressed urgently because they diminish our ability to consolidate peace, prevent the recurrence of violent conflict, build social cohesion, deepen democracy and advance economic development.

Peace and stability will remain elusive if we do not address the connection between security and development; these are mutually reinforcing and one cannot be achieved without the other.

Sustainable peace can only be achieved by building a just world and a rules-based international order that is inclusive and that addresses the root causes of conflict, such as poverty, injustice and discrimination.

We condemn the acts of violence, terrorism and violent extremism as seen in the Sahel region and that are now spreading to other parts of the Continent, including our sisterly country of Mozambique.

We equally express our grave concern about the current situation in Western Sahara, which demands that every effort is made to facilitate the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

We need to reaffirm our commitment to the full and successful implementation of the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa.

As we march towards the start of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area on the 1st of January 2021, we are mindful that its success cannot be separated from a stable and conducive business environment that is able to attract foreign direct investment.

We need to address the root causes of conflict in our societies through a multifaceted approach that will require improved governance, entrenched democratic norms, respect for human rights and the political will to capacitate our institutions.

We need to address the continued exclusion of women in the economic, political and social spheres, which renders them particularly vulnerable to violence and conflict and which undermines the contribution they could make to finding and sustaining peace.

We welcome the ongoing efforts to create a conducive environment for the effective participation of women and youth in peace and development processes.

It is through political will that we will overcome.

It is through political will that we, the African Union, will foster unity among the people of our continent.

Yesterday we marked the 7th anniversary of the passing of the founding father of the South African nation, President Nelson Mandela.

As we continue to remember him and draw inspiration from his lifelong dedication to the African cause, it is fitting that we, who are given the privilege to lead our people, work practically to give meaning to his dream of “an Africa which is at peace with itself”.

Let us work to realise the dreams of our forebears and ensure that the next and future generations of Africans will reap the rewards of an Africa at peace with itself.

We look forward to your insights and perspectives on our agenda item of the day.

Equally, we look forward to the adoption of concrete decisions that will emanate from our engagements.

I therefore declare this session officially open and I wish us all fruitful deliberations.

I thank you.