Joe Biden’s special messenger Chris Kuns was present on CNN (CNN). Journalist Christian Ampur asked him a little confusing about the situation of Ethiopia :: The senator replied very calmly.
I have gone to Ethiopia as a special messenger of Joe Biden. I have sent a letter to Dr. Abiy. In the same way, a letter written by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy said: Continue… It is known that Dr. Abiy has released the longest war against Eritrea and he is also the winner of World Peace Nobel.
We have talked with prime minister Abiy for five hours. I would like to say that Dr. Abiy gave me five hours because he is generous.
During our discussion, we have reached an agreement with three things and they promised to be implemented according to their words.
1th) Unlimited human rights aid should be allowed throughout Tigray :: It is going well.
2th) Human Rights Commission has presented to the parliament. This is a big change.
3th) The main and most important thing but the first Eritrean army has agreed to enter Ethiopia :: The senator has discussed with President Isayas. This is a big step.
The senator continues… There is a conflict with the great Ethiopian renaissance dam and Sudan :: We are following this too :: There are good improvements :: After they say In general, the things that still have shown great improvement. They have admired their speech by saying that there are still things we expect to see in action! (Source: VOS)
Ethiopian soldiers ride on a truck near the town of Adigrat, Tigray region, Ethiopia. (March 18, 2021)
The U.S. and its G7 allies are concerned about recent reports of human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in the Tigray province of Ethiopia
Bloody conflict in Tigray, one of Ethiopia’s semi-autonomous, ethnically defined provinces in the north of the country, is fuelling support for secession from Ethiopia’s federal state.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched what he called a “law-and-order” operation against the regional government of Tigray, run by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), last November, in response to what he claimed was an “attack” by Tigray’s ruling party on an army compound.
It followed moves by the federal government to bypass the regional government after Tigray rejected Abiy’s decision to postpone elections due to the pandemic and went ahead with its own elections in September.
A Tigrayan refugee who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region sits inside his shelter at Hamdeyat Transition Center near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, March 16, 2021.
TWO WAYS TO READ THE STORY
The military offensive in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has dragged on for nearly six agonizing months, forcing more than 2 million people out of their homes. Despite government attempts to keep journalists out, and information in, reports have emerged of mass atrocities by both Ethiopian and Tigrayan fighters.
What led Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to conduct a military campaign in the Tigray region, and what are the potential consequences for Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa?
Flags representing the Tigray region of Ethiopia lining a wall in the Tigrayan city of Mekele. The region has experienced rising conflict with the federal government.Credit…Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty
HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) — The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, injured vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the horrors that jolt them awake at night: Memories of dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind
Ethiopian Minister of Peace Muferiat Kamil announces the launch of a disaster alert system in July 2020
Ethiopia’s recently formed Ministry of Peace has hired its first lobbying firm amid escalating US criticism of the country’s handling of the conflict in the northern Tigray region.
Peace Minister Muferiat Kamil signed a six-month, $45,000-a-month contract withglobal law firm Holland & Knight on March 12, according to a newly disclosed lobbying filing. The firm will provide “strategic counsel and federal government relations assistance” before Congress and the Joe Biden administration
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan expressed U.S. concerns over the crisis in the Tigray region in a call with Ethopia’s deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen, the White House said on Thursday.
The two “discussed critical steps to address the crisis, including expanded humanitarian access, cessation of hostilities, departure of foreign troops, and independent investigations into atrocities and human rights violations,” in their phone call on Wednesday, the White House said.
Ethnic rivalries over land, power and resources have ignited at several flashpoints before national elections scheduled for June in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country.
Fighting in the northern Tigray region has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes amid shortages of food, water and medicine. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said Eritrea agreed to withdraw troops it had sent into Ethiopian territory along their mutual border. Eritrea has denied its forces joined the conflict.
Former foes have found a common enemy in the TPLF. Will it lead beyond battlefield cooperation?
BY LYNSEY CHUTEL
How Did East Africa’s Sworn Enemies Become Allies?
In a conflict marked by obfuscation, the reported withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been met with skepticism by many diplomats and experts.
The war in Ethiopia raged largely unnoticed for months due to an information blackout. As reports of atrocities emerge, Global Insight assesses the extent of the crisis.
Header pic: An Ethiopian boy, who fled the ongoing conflict in the Tigray region, stands in Hamdayet village, Kassala, Sudan, 15 December 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
It has been several months since the war in Ethiopia began in Tigray in November with an attack by Tigrayan forces, which attracted swift and brutal attention from Ethiopia’s military. At the time, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claimed no civilians had been killed, which has since been proven to be extremely inaccurate.
Despite the continuing human catastrophe, little is being done to stem the deaths, massacres, hunger and depressing array of atrocities, including the use of rape as a weapon of war and the killing of boys and young men of military age.
Eritrean troops, Ethiopian troops and militias of various ethnic groups have been involved in the conflict: thousands have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and hunger has once again taken hold in Ethiopia.
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and may disturb some readers.
The atrocities have been seared into the skin and minds of Tigrayans, who shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
Allegations of ethnic cleansing that began last fall amid a military crackdown in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region now threaten to engulf the surrounding areas and permanently tarnish the reputation of the country’s nobel prize-winning prime minister. Thousands are dead, tens of thousands have been displaced, and the Ethiopian government is on the defensive. Coletta Wanjohi reports.
Tigrayan refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia’s Tigray gather after the sun sets in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia
TIGRAYAN refugees in Sudan have accused Ethiopian authorities of genocide, saying in addition to mass killing and rape, there is a deliberate attempt to erase Tigrayan identity.
Lemlem Gebrehiwet, a 20-year-old Tigrayan refugee, holds her 3-day-old daughter, Semhal, in their shelter in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 16, 2021. Other Tigrayans were turned away because of who they were. “They started distributing new ID cards in Bahkar but only for Amhara and Wolkait,” said Gebrehiwet, who fled while heavily pregnant and gave birth three days after reaching Sudan. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) NARIMAN EL-MOFTYAP
HAMDAYET, SUDAN
The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
A Tigrayan refugee who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region sits inside his shelter at Hamdeyat Transition Center near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, March 16, 2021.
