WHO’s Tedros says narrow window to ‘prevent genocide’ in Ethiopia

_{Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) speaks following his re-election during the 75th World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse}

NAIROBI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday there was a “very narrow window now to prevent genocide” in his home region of Tigray in northern Ethiopia.

Tedros, who previously served as Ethiopia’s health minister and foreign affairs minister, has been sharply critical of Ethiopian authorities throughout the two-year war.

The government has, in turn, accused him of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for rebel forces – charges he has denied.

In his sharpest comments on the war yet, Tedros told reporters in Geneva that food and healthcare were being used as weapons of war in Tigray, which is largely cut off from the outside world.

“There’s no other situation globally in which 6 million people have been kept under siege for almost two years,” Tedros said. “There is a very narrow window now to prevent genocide.”

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, Redwan Hussein, the national security advisor to the prime minister, and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied blocking humanitarian supplies to Tigray or targeting civilians. The conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine.

Ethiopian forces and their allies have captured several towns in Tigray this week, raising fears that the advancing soldiers will commit abuses against civilians.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission last year found that all sides fighting in the Tigray war committed violations that may amount to war crimes.

Ethiopia’s government said this week that its forces respect human rights.

The Tigray conflict is rooted in long-running rivalries between regional power blocs over control of Ethiopia as a whole and in deep disagreements over how power should be balanced between federal and regional authorities.

Ethiopian authorities have previously accused Tedros of supporting Tigray forces, without providing evidence.

“Yes, I’m from Tigray, and yes, this affects me personally. I don’t pretend it doesn’t,” Tedros said on Wednesday.

“I have many relatives in some of the most affected areas. But my job is to draw the world’s attention to crises that threaten the health of people wherever they are.”

Fonte: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/whos-tedros-says-narrow-window-prevent-genocide-ethiopia-2022-10-19/

Ethiopia, Tigray head invited to peace talks in South Africa

By CARA ANNA

_{FILE – In this image from video, Tigray’s regional president Debretsion Gebremichael speaks during an interview in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on July 7, 2021. The leader of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and the federal government have been invited to peace talks in South Africa in early October 2022 as part of a pan-African effort, according to a letter seen Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 by The Associated Press. (AP Photo)}

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The leader of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and the federal government have been invited to peace talks in South Africa this weekend as part of a pan-African effort to end one of the world’s most overlooked wars, according to a letter seen Wednesday by The Associated Press.

If Debretsion Gebremichael attends the proposed talks between the Tigray and Ethiopian sides, it will be the highest-level effort yet to end the two-year war that has killed thousands of people from conflict and starvation.

Ethiopia’s government has accepted the invitation, national security adviser Redwan Hussein said. In a separate statement, the government called it “consistent with the Ethiopian government’s prior positions” that talks be mediated by the AU and be held without preconditions. The statement, however, does not give details about who might attend.

A diplomat in Addis Ababa said the African Union was still waiting for a response from the Tigray side. The spokesman for the Tigray forces, Getachew Reda, could not immediately be reached. Another member of the Tigray negotiation team, Tsadkan Gebretensae, told a U.S. think tank last week that “we have agreed on an African-led process, but that should not be carte blanche for the AU to impose what should be a peace process.”

The diplomat in Addis Ababa also said representatives from the European Union, the United Nations and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development are expected to attend the talks as observers in support of the AU’s mediation team. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The letter from the chair of the AU Commission says the AU-convened talks would be “aimed at laying the foundation for a structured and sustained mediation” between the two sides toward a “durable resolution of the conflict.”

The AU letter says the talks would be facilitated by AU special envoy and former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo with the support of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The talks come more than a month after fighting in Tigray renewed following months of relative calm. Forces from neighboring Eritrea, allied with Ethiopia’s government, are again joining the fighting in what Tigray forces have described as a large-scale offensive.

On Tuesday, an airstrike hit the Tigray town of Adi Daero where displaced people were sheltering, a humanitarian worker who visited the site afterward told the AP. They described the scene as “total carnage” and said health workers reported more than 50 people killed. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The Tigray region has been largely cut off from the world since the war began in November 2020, with more than 5 million people without basic services including electricity, phone, internet and banking. Medicines have run desperately low. On Thursday, the U.N. said trapped staffers were finally able to rotate out of the region for the first time since the fighting renewed.

The fighting also has spilled over into Ethiopia’s neighboring regions of Amara and Afar as Tigray forces have tried to pressure the government, putting hundreds of thousands of other civilians at risk.

United Nations-based investigators have said all sides have committed abuses.

Tsadkan, the Tigray negotiation team member, said last week that Tigray representatives had met three times with Ethiopian authorities — in Djibouti and Seychelles — and he thanked the United States government for organizing the meetings, which he said produced a “clear proposal for a cessation of hostilities.” But after that, he asserted, the Tigray side was “betrayed.” He didn’t give details.

The Tigray authorities seek unfettered access for humanitarian aid, the resumption of basic services, respect for constitutional boundary arrangements and the withdrawal of foreign forces, Tsadkan said.

The Tigray authorities “will accept whatever comes out” of an impartial, agreed-upon peace process, he said. He didn’t immediately respond to questions Wednesday.

Fonte: https://apnews.com/article/africa-south-kenya-ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-111e5606197359d5e8160d6f78cd032b

Drone strikes hit Ethiopia’s Tigray region after ceasefire offer -local authorities

NAIROBI, Sept 13 (Reuters) – One person was injured in drone strikes on Mekelle University and a TV station in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the station and a hospital official said, after Tigrayan forces voicedreadiness for another ceasefire with the federal government.

One of the two strikes on Tuesday hit the business campus of Mekelle University while the other hit Dimitsi Woyane TV station that is run by the regional government, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive officer at Ayder Referral Hospital. He cited a witness who arrived with a man wounded in the strike.

The second drone knocked the TV station off the air, Dimitsi Woyane said in a statement posted on Facebook. Images shared by the station appeared to show damaged transmission equipment on the building’s roof.

Tigrayan regional government spokesperson Getachew Reda said on Twitter that the business campus had been hit by drones.

Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment.

It was third instance of aerial strikes on Mekelle since the nearly two-year-old conflict resumed late last month after a five-month ceasefire. Each side has blamed the other for the renewed fighting.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a further truce without preconditions and would accept an African Union-led peace process. read more

Diplomats described the offer as a potential breakthrough. The Ethiopian government has not yet officially responded.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed as the AU’s chief mediator, met with the American envoy to the Horn of Africa region, Mike Hammer, on Monday, according to a Twitter post from Djibouti’s former ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, who was also present.

The TPLF dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.

The TPLF accuses Abiy of centralising power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions. Abiy denies this and accuses the TPLF of trying to reclaim power, which it denies.

JOURNALISTS ARRESTED

The conflict has also repeatedly spilled into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Two Amhara journalists who publicly criticised the federal government were arrested last week, according to a police document seen by Reuters. The Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second most populous, has been a key part of Abiy’s powerbase.

Gobeze Sisay, the founder of Voice of Amhara, was accused of supporting the TPLF on social media. Meaza Mohamed, a journalist with Roha Media, was accused of encouraging Amhara people to allow the TPLF to pass through their areas, the police document showed.

“Amhara people, especially those close to the Tigrayan border – we are tired of war,” Gobeze said in a Facebook post a week ago.

Efforts by Reuters to contact the two journalists via their Facebook pages elicited no response.

Amhara journalists, politicians and militia members were among thousands arrested during a regional crackdown in May; some remain in prison.

An Ethiopian government spokesperson, the head of the Ethiopian Media Authority and a police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said last month it had documented the arrest of at least 63 journalists and media workers since the conflict erupted.

Fonte: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/air-strike-hits-capital-ethiopias-northern-tigray-region-hospital-official-2022-09-13/