Around 225 people, including children, have died from hunger in Ethiopia’s Tigray region due to drought and war since last July, according to local officials.
Health officials told regional TV that most of the 209 deaths have occurred in the rural area of Edga Arbi.
In a different place, 16 people died because they didn’t have enough food. They had to leave their homes because of a war that lasted for two years and ended in 2022.
Officials from Tigray had warned that a famine like the one in Ethiopia in the 1980s may happen again, and many people could die.
The government says there isn’t going to be a famine soon and they are giving help to stop it.
The UN says over 20 million people in Ethiopia need food help because of fighting, lack of rain, and too much water.
As a way to show respect and remember those who passed away, people came together in churches and mosques during a three-day period of mourning.
Kidu Kiros had to leave her home and now lives in a camp for people who had to leave their homes. She told me that she lost her two sons in the war.
“If we are allowed to have control over our own country and go back to our homes, I believe that the loss of my children would have been worth it. ” We need effective and fair governing. My children have sacrificed their lives for their country, and we want their land back,” she said.
Hagazi Haftu, who lives in the camp and lost family members, said that our children fought for the pride and progress of Tigray. Therefore, we want the independence of Tigray to be recognized and we want to go back to our home.
Getachew Reda, the temporary leader of Tigray, gave a serious speech while people were grieving. He praised the courage and strong dedication of the heroes who died and gave everything for their cause.
In Tigrayan towns, people gathered with candles to remember those who died, while Tigrayans all over the world observed a quiet moment to honor their memory.
The time for grieving will go on until Monday evening.
Residents of Mekelle, a city in northern Ethiopia, are filled with happiness and anticipation as they commemorate the Ashenda Festival.
The cultural event was stopped because of a two-year civil war that ended in November.
This is a big festival that happens in Tigray, Amhara, and Eritrea. It is celebrated to show respect to the Virgin Mary going up to heaven.
The name Ashenda comes from the type of grass that young women and girls use to decorate their traditional dresses by tying it around their waist.
Even though it’s raining, girls and young women go out in groups of six to eight. They sing Ashenda songs as they visit different houses. In return, they are given bread and a local beer called siwa.
After that, they go to a field or park that’s close by. They take it easy and sing for the people who walk by.
Men are advised to give gifts of money as a way of saying thank you. Usually, this money is given to theOrthodox Church or other charities after the celebration.
The Holy Synod, the highest governing body of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, is making efforts to prevent a potential split within the community among followers in the northern state of Tigray.
The conflict arises from the church’s response to the two-year civil war, primarily fought in Tigray, which concluded in November of the previous year. The war resulted in the loss of numerous lives and triggered a severe humanitarian crisis.
Criticism has been directed at the church by bishops, priests, and believers in Tigray for its failure to condemn the war.
In March, the bishops of Tigray expressed their intention to separate from the Holy Synod and have announced plans to ordain 10 new bishops in the region on Sunday.
The Holy Synod has called on both the federal and regional governments to intervene and halt this process, citing a violation of the church’s constitution.
This request was made in a statement released following a two-day emergency session of the Holy Synod held on Thursday. The statement criticized the Tigray bishops and scholars for disregarding the established organizational structure and bypassing peaceful dialogue.
As part of reconciliation efforts, a delegation of bishops, led by Patriarch Abune Matthias, recently visited the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, to engage in discussions with regional government leaders and church representatives. However, the meeting with the regional church leaders did not take place.
The situation remains tense as the Holy Synod attempts to address the concerns and prevent a potential split within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Tigray.
Over the past two months, the regional government of Tigray has reported that at least 728 people have lost their lives following the suspension of food aid by the US and the UN to the war-torn region in Ethiopia.
According to an official from Tigray’s Disaster Risk Management Commission, Gebrehiwot Gebregziaher, the majority of the victims were children, pregnant mothers, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions.
Although USAid and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) officially halted aid in April due to concerns over theft and resale of the shipments, in reality, many Tigrayans had been deprived of assistance long before the formal suspension. This prolonged period without aid has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the region.
The situation highlights the urgent need for sustained humanitarian support and a robust mechanism to ensure the effective delivery of aid to the vulnerable population in Tigray. Addressing the challenges of theft and ensuring that aid reaches those in dire need is crucial to prevent further loss of life and alleviate the suffering of the affected communities.
People feel they are “dying of famine in the dark even though it is declared to the world [that] peace is flourished,” said Dr Gebrehiwot, referring to a peace deal made in Pretoria in November last year between Ethiopia’s government and TPLF rebels after two years of civil war.
A 27-member cabinet has been chosen by the recently installed interim administration in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region to oversee a political transition there, according to local media.
It comes after the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace accord to end a brutal war in the region.
New Tigray President Getachew Reda will be flanked by two vice-presidents – Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae and Gen Tadesse Werede, military commanders who fought the Ethiopian army in the recent war, the reports say.
Gen Tsadkan will have responsibility over decentralisation and democratisation, while Gen Tadesse will be the head of the peace and security secretariat.
There has been no official announcement yet, but the appointments have been widely reported in local media.
The new cabinet is dominated by the TPLF, but includes two members of Baytona, an opposition party allied with the TPLF.
On 23 March, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Mr Getachew, the TPLF spokesman, as the interim leader of Tigray.
He takes over from Debretsion Gebremichael, who has stepped down after about five years in office.
Under his tenure, sharp differences emerged between the regional and federal governments, triggering a war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
The success of measures to stop the war in the northern Tigray region, according to the European Union, will determine whether or not relations with the Ethiopian government can be normalized.
After the civil war broke out in November 2020, the EU suspended budgetary support citing human rights abuses.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said progress on ending the conflict was a rare example of good news in the world today.
But he said the gradual normalisation of relations with Ethiopia was dependent on how the peace process develops.
Earlier this year, EU officials said there had to be accountability for widespread abuses committed during the war in Tigray.
Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels have denied establishing a transitional administration in the northern region in accordance with the peace agreement signed in November last year.
A local news website reported that the TPLF had finalised the process of forming a 28-member interim regional administration, which needed approval by the federal government.
However, TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said the Tigray interim administration would only be established after mutual consultations between the parties to the Pretoria agreement.
“Reports of the [transitional government] having been established in Tigray without Addis’ involvement flies in the face of reality. Tigray is only trying to do its part,” Mr Getachew tweeted on Sunday.
Major political parties in the region have been calling for an inclusive interim government to steer the region as it tries to recover from the devastating civil war.
Last month, the opposition parties in Tigray boycotted a conference on the formation of an interim government, accusing the TPLF of monopolising the process.
In an effort to put an end to a brutal two-year civil war, Ethiopia’s government signed a peace agreement with forces from the northern Tigray region last November. However, locals and aid organisations have informed the BBC that attacks on civilians, particularly sexual assaults against women, have persisted.
This report contains content which some readers may find upsetting, including sexual violence
Letay spent the night hiding under a bridge as mortar rounds fell and exploded all around her on the day that representatives of the Ethiopian government shook hands with their rivals from Tigray to make peace. Both sides grinned as cameras captured the moment.
She had just escaped an Eritrean soldier’s rape while she was by herself in a remote area of north-east Tigray.
“After it happened, I was unconscious for a long time before I regained consciousness. I had to hide myself until they left.”
We have changed Letay’s name and those of the other rape survivors who shared their stories with the BBC to protect them from stigmatisation and retribution.
During the two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia, the systematic rape of Tigrayan women by Ethiopian soldiers, as well as their allies from neighbouring Eritrea and militia groups, has been documented by the United Nations, human rights organisations and journalists.
Forces from Tigray have also been accused of sexually assaulting women in the Amhara region as they made a push towards Ethiopia’s capital.
Image caption,Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have died in the war
For two years, from November 2020, the two sides in the civil war fought for control of Tigray. The death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands.
There was hope that after the peace agreement was signed in November, the assaults on civilians would stop.
Women, health workers and aid organisations have told the BBC that they did not.
I spoke to Letay on a crackly phone line – journalists are not being given government permission to travel to Tigray.
“It happened to me twice. What have I done wrong? It seemed like I wished for it.”
“The two of them did what they wanted before asking the third one to do the same, except he said no. He said: ‘What will I do with her? She is already a corpse lying around.’”
After the first time she was raped, Letay sought medical and psychological help, joining a women’s support group for survivors. On the day of the peace deal Letay had rushed out to help a young girl who had also been raped before she was assaulted too.
It is difficult to know the true number of sexual assaults committed during the war.
Victims are often scared to speak out while telecommunications had been cut off during the fighting.
According to data from the official Tigray Health Bureau in November and December 2022 – after the peace deal was signed – 852 cases were reported in centres set up to help survivors.
Human rights workers and aid organisations operating in Tigray have also continued to document cases of sexual violence.
Image caption,Support groups have set up centres for survivors of sexual assault in the conflict
Adiama, who comes from the town of Zalambesa in north-eastern Tigray, said she was sexually assaulted by an Eritrean soldier at the end of last month.
“There were four of them but only one raped me. They even had plans to kill me but they left after I was raped.”
Sister Mulu Mesfin, who has worked with rape survivors since the start of the conflict at Tigray’s biggest hospital in the regional capital Mekelle, sent me a voice message as she walked through a ward.
According to Sister Mulu, and other health workers we have spoken to, most of these assaults in Tigray were committed by Eritrean troops, while militia from the Amhara region and federal government forces are also accused of committing rapes.
Eritrea shares a border with Tigray and has a long-standing rivalry with the region’s ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – one of the reasons why it joined the civil war backing the Ethiopian government.
Last week, Eritrea’s reclusive President Isaias Afwerki made a rare public appearance when he visited Kenya.
Coming from a country where a free press does not exist, Mr Isaias was visibly angry and frustrated when asked tough questions by journalists. He dismissed all claims of atrocities committed by his country’s forces in Tigray.
“Everybody talking about human rights violations [by Eritrean forces], rape, looting, this is a fantasy in the minds of those who own this factory, that I call a factory of fabricating misinformation,” he said.
Image caption,President Isaias Afwerki denies all allegations of atrocities by Eritrean forces
We have sent the allegations in this report to the Ethiopian government’s communications minister and the African Union, which brokered the peace deal, for comment, but neither have responded.
November’s agreement has brought positive change to Tigray. There is no active fighting. Aid, especially food and medication, is reaching more towns and cities, while banking and communication services have resumed.
Some families have been reunited and others have spoken to each other for the first time in more than a year. But according to article four of the agreement: “The Parties shall, in particular, condemn any act of sexual and gender-based violence.”
“Sexual violence is a violation of the agreement,” says Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa Director at Human Rights Watch. “One of the issues we have been raising is the importance of the backers of the agreement to ensure that they are speaking out when there are violations”.
The organisation continues to call for independent investigators and journalists to gain access to northern Ethiopia.
“We are very concerned by the efforts of the Ethiopian government to try to end and undermine the work of the international commission of human rights experts of Ethiopia, which was established by the Human Rights Commission in Geneva,” she adds.
Ms Bader says investigations will be crucial if survivors are to get justice and for any reconciliation process.
“I never expected to be assaulted after the peace agreement,” says Hilina.
The mother of three had already fled her home in Humera to the town of Shirao where she worked as a street vendor selling maize.
She says on 16 November, she was late going home when two Eritrean troops stopped her for breaking the curfew. She told them she had no ID, and they took her to an empty house.
Satellite images taken on September 26 and released by the company Maxar Technologies showed the build-up of what appeared to be Eritrean or Ethiopian forces in Shiraro.
Image caption,The war raged for two years but was largely hidden from the world’s view, with communications cut off and entry restricted
Hilina says she could tell from the men’s appearance and the dialect in which they spoke that they were from Eritrea.
“They brought me to an empty house. They took out a gun and said: ‘If you keep quiet, we won’t harm you.’ So, I told them they could do what they wanted to but begged them not to kill me.”
Hilina says she was raped the whole night before they let her go in the morning. She has since had an abortion, saying she would rather die than give birth to a child from rape.
According to aid workers the BBC spoke to there are Eritrean troops close to Shiraro.
The peace deal requires them to leave Tigray and though they have pulled out of major cities and towns, they maintain a presence in areas close to their border with Tigray.
Shashu, an 80-year-old woman, cannot hold back her tears as we speak to her – again on a crackly phone line. We ask if she wants to continue with the interview and she agrees.
Like Letay, Shashu says she has been raped twice in this war – before and after the peace deal.
The US is allegedly responsible for helping Tigrayan rebels during the recently ended civil war in northern Ethiopia, according to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.
The president alleged that the US hurried the peace agreement between Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in a Sunday interview with local media to stop the rebels from losing on the battlefield.
After a two-year civil conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives and left millions in desperate need of humanitarian aid, a peace agreement was struck in South Africa in November 2022.
In the interview, Mr. Isaias also made the first admission that the conflict claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, though he made no mention of Eritrean casualties.
Last week, the reclusive leader denied reports that Eritrean troops committed war crimes in neighbouring Ethiopia where they had been deployed to fight alongside federal troops and pro government militia.
After asserting that the East African nation lacked jurisdiction over its operations, parent company Meta tried to stop a court case accusing it of having exploitative working conditions but was unsuccessful.
After a former worker sued the social media giant, citing subpar working conditions, a Kenyan labour court on Monday decided that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, can be sued.
By saying that the East African nation’s courts lack jurisdiction over Facebook’s operations, Meta argued for the dismissal of the case.
However, Judge Jacob Gakeri said, “Since the petition has raised certain actual issues that are yet to be determined, it would be inopportune for the country to strike out the two respondents from the matter.”
Why did an employee take action against Facebook?
A former Facebook moderator in Kenya accused the company of exploiting poor working conditions.
Daniel Motaung said that while working as a moderator, he was exposed to content such as rape, torture, and beheadings. He said this put his and his colleagues’ mental health at risk.
He said Meta did not offer any support to employees regarding such issues. In addition, staff were allegedly required to work unreasonably long shifts, and offered minimal pay. Motaung was employed in Facebook’s African hub in Nairobi, which is operated by Samasource Ltd.
Following Monday’s ruling from Judge Gakeri, the next step in the process will be considered by the court on March 8.
Meta also faces Ethiopia lawsuit
Meta is also facing legal action in which two Ethiopians say hate speech was promoted on Facebook in the midst of the country’s Tigray conflict.
The suit was filed in Kenya in December by two Ethiopian researchers and a Kenyan rights group, the Katiba Institute. According to court documents, the plaintiffs accuse Meta of not only failing to moderate violent posts about the conflict, but also blame the social media giant for amplifying the most virulent ones.
One of these posts preceded the murder of a plaintiff’s father, their filing said.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has met Tigrayan leaders for the first time since the two sides signed a peace treaty three months ago.
Pictures released by Ethiopian state media show Mr Ahmed and other government officials sitting down with top Tigrayan figures, including the commander of Tigrayan forces, General Tadesse Worede.
They’re reported to have discussed the progress made in implementing the peace deal, as well as issues needing further attention.
The agreement ended a two-year civil war that had ravaged the country’s northernmost region.
The meeting is reported to have taken place at a resort in southern Ethiopia.
Ethiopian government forces on Tuesday entered Adigrat, a northern town previously held by Tigray rebels in the recently concluded conflict in the region.
Residents told the BBC that the soldiers entered the town on foot while others used buses and military vehicles.
Fitsum, a resident in the town, said things were calm but added: “There is widespread fear in relation to what happened before, but nothing has happened so far.”
There has been no official statement from the Ethiopian government or Tigray authorities about the entry of federal forces into the town.
The troops are expected to retake federal military camps and security installations.
Provision of essential services, including electricity supply, telecommunications and banking services has resumed in parts of Tigray following the signing of a peace agreement in November 2022.
But Fitsum said the situation in Adigrat town had not improved much.
“There is no bank yet, no social services have started except the telephone,” he said.
The African Union mediator in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict, Olusegun Obasanjo, has told the Financial Times(FT) that up to 600,000 people may have died in the two-year war.
In an interview with the paper, Mr Obasanjo said the number of the dead was “around 600,000”.
The number of the people who died in the conflict is difficult to verify. Researchers have previously estimated the deaths to be in the hundreds of thousands.
On Sunday, the FT quoted the head of Ethiopia’s human rights commission, Daniel Bekele, as saying that estimates given by all sides needed to be treated with caution as it was impossible “to know the full number of casualties”.
The conflict started in November 2020, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive against regional forces in Tigray – which he said was a response to an attack on a military base housing government troops.
Last November the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels signed a ceasefire agreement ending the war.
The army says, forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region that fought in support of federal troops during the two-year civil war in neighbouring Tigray have left in accordance with a ceasefire backed by the African Union.
In a statement released late on Thursday, the Ethiopian National Defence Force stated that “the Amhara regional special force, which was in a national mission alongside the ENDF, has withdrawn from the area, as per the deal.”
The withdrawal is an important step in carrying out the agreement reached on November 2. The disarmament of Tigrayan forces, who started handing over their heavy weapons on Wednesday, is another crucial element.
The agreement was signed by Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a party that dominates the region.
The conflict broke out in November 2020 over disagreements between the federal government in Addis Ababa and Tigrayan authorities. It has created famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands of people and killed tens of thousands.
According to the United Nations, the war has displaced more than two million Ethiopians and left more than 13.6 million people in the north dependent on humanitarian aid.
The restoration of basic services in Tigray, resumption of humanitarian aid and withdrawal of troops from neighbouring Eritrea, who fought alongside Ethiopia’s army, are central to the deal.
Eritrean soldiers began to pull out of several important towns inTigray late last month. However, they have not left those towns entirely, residents say, and it is not clear whether they intend to leave.
Eritrea, which was not a party to the truce, has declined to comment on whether its troops will leave Tigray.
Tigrayan rebels this week began handing in their heavy weapons in the town of Agulae, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of the regional capital Mekelle, in a move overseen by a monitoring team made up of members of the two sides and a regional body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Besides disarming rebel forces, the terms of the agreement also include restoring federal authority in Tigray and reopening access and communications to the region, which has been cut off since mid-2021.
Ethiopia’s largest bank, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, declared on Monday that it has reopened its doors to business in some towns in the unstable Tigray region after a more than 12-month hiatus.
“Following the recent peace agreement, the branches we have in the towns of Shire, Alamata and Korem have started receiving money sent from abroad and locally. And they have also received money on deposit,” the bank said in a statement.
The bank said it was “continuing its efforts to expand (its) services and gradually resume operations in all branches.
The government and rebels signed an agreement in Pretoria on November 2 that included a cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal and disarmament of tiger forces, the restoration of federal authority in Tigray and the reopening of access to the region, which is in a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
On December 7, tiger authorities confirmed that Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, had been reconnected to the national power grid after more than a year of being cut off due to the war in the northern region of Ethiopia.
The northernmost region of Ethiopia, home to six million people, has been virtually cut off from the world since the start of a conflict between the federal government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the regional authorities of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
It had been deprived of many basic services (electricity, telecommunications, banks, fuel, etc.) for more than a year.
The fighting began in November 2020, when Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to arrest the region’s leaders, who had been challenging his authority for months and whom he accused of attacking federal military bases.
On December 7, tiger authorities confirmed that Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, had been reconnected to the national power grid after more than a year of being cut off due to the war in the northern region of Ethiopia.
The northernmost region of Ethiopia, home to six million people, has been virtually cut off from the world since the start of a conflict between the federal government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the regional authorities of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
It had been deprived of many basic services (electricity, telecommunications, banks, fuel, etc.) for more than a year.
The fighting began in November 2020, when Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to arrest the region’s leaders, who had been challenging his authority for months and whom he accused of attacking federal military bases.
Ethiopia has restored power to Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray state. It should be recalled that during the two-year civil war that ended last month, Federal troops fought rebels there.
According to city sources, after being without electricity for more than a year, local residents are finally resuming full use of it.
“Electricity has been everywhere in the city since yesterday (Tuesday),” said a resident.
A spokesman for the government-owned Ethiopian Electric Electricity (EEP) was quoted by the state-affiliated Fana broadcast as saying that power had been restored following repair on a high-voltage line.
Ethiopia’s Minister of Energy Dr. Ing. Sultan Woli
Services in Shire town and the surrounding areas have also been restored by state-run telecommunications company Ethio Telecom.
Foreign-based families have revealed to newsmen how, after two years, they were finally able to call their loved ones.
After fighting broke out in the Tigray region in November 2020, power and telecommunications services were suspended. Meanwhile, a month after a truce was reached to put an end to the two-year fighting in the northern Tigray region, the rebels’ top commander reports that more than half of their fighters had left the frontlines in Ethiopia.
“We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army,” Tadesse Wereda, commander-in-chief of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front said in a video posted on the TPLF’s Facebook page late on Saturday.
“Our army left the front lines and moved to the place prepared for them to camp,” he said.
Ethiopia has restored power to Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray state. It should be recalled that during the two-year civil war that ended last month, Federal troops fought rebels there.
According to city sources, after being without electricity for more than a year, local residents are finally resuming full use of it.
“Electricity has been everywhere in the city since yesterday (Tuesday),” said a resident.
A spokesman for the government-owned Ethiopian Electric Electricity (EEP) was quoted by the state-affiliated Fana broadcast as saying that power had been restored following repair on a high-voltage line.
Ethiopia’s Minister of Energy Dr. Ing. Sultan Woli
Services in Shire town and the surrounding areas have also been restored by state-run telecommunications company Ethio Telecom.
Foreign-based families have revealed to newsmen how, after two years, they were finally able to call their loved ones.
After fighting broke out in the Tigray region in November 2020, power and telecommunications services were suspended. Meanwhile, a month after a truce was reached to put an end to the two-year fighting in the northern Tigray region, the rebels’ top commander reports that more than half of their fighters had left the frontlines in Ethiopia.
“We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army,” Tadesse Wereda, commander-in-chief of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front said in a video posted on the TPLF’s Facebook page late on Saturday.
“Our army left the front lines and moved to the place prepared for them to camp,” he said.
A month after a cease-fire was reached, the World Health Organization claims it can only assist a “tiny percentage” of individuals in need in the Ethiopianarea of Tigray.
It claimed that it lacked unrestricted access to provide medical aid.
The federal administration is meeting with Tigrayan fighters to discuss disarmament as they begin to leave the front lines.
Aid workers say Eritrean troops and Ethiopian regional militias are continuing to kill and abuse civilians in Tigray.
The region was almost completely cut off from the rest of the world during the two-year war.
Peace talks with rebels in Ethiopia’s restive Oromia region have been ruled out by the Ethiopian government. Federal negotiators sat down and struck a deal with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to end the two-year-long civil war in the north.
The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which is also fighting the federal government, once allied with the TPLF.
However, Hailu Adugna, a spokesman for the Oromia regional government, has since told local media that the government has no plans to meet with a group “that has no chain of command or political agenda.”
An OLA spokesperson has denied the claim and stated that the organisation will continue to fight.
The rebels in Oromia have been accused of being involved in a number of deadly attacks, which it denies.
The authorities say that despite there being no talks they will continue to receive OLA youth who have opted to lay down their arms.
The situation in Oromia, the home region of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has been overshadowed by the war in Tigray, but attacks by different armed groups have continued unabated.
The authorities have been blamed for not protecting civilians.
The OLA is a splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, which is now a legally registered political party. As well as making an alliance with the TPLF, the OLA has also made deals with other rebels in the western part of the country to put pressure on Mr Abiy’s government.
The OLA says it is fighting to secure full autonomy for the Oromo people and has been labelled a terrorist organisation by the government.
There is “no timeline” for restoring internet access to Ethiopia’s embattled Tigrayregion, a senior government official said Tuesday.
The restoration of Tigray’s internet service will be carried alongside the resumption of its phone and electricity services, though no date has been set for those goals, Ethiopia’s Minister for Innovation and Technology Belete Molla said.
He was speaking at the U.N.’s annual Internet Governance Forum being held this week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
“The government of Ethiopia is designing a package that is not only about internet resumption but the resumption of everything, because this is what we need as a people, as a government,” Belete said of the internet shutdown in Tigray. “There is no timeline.”
Tigray, home to more than 5 million people, has been mostly without internet, telecommunications, and banking since war broke out between federal government troops and forces led by the TigrayPeople’s Liberation Front in November 2020.
A ceasefire deal signed between the warring sides in South Africa earlier this month commits the government to restore Tigray’s basic services, but the communications blackout has not yet been lifted.
Renewed fighting in August halted aid deliveries to Tigray, which is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis. Aid has now started reaching the region, but the World Food Program said last week that access to parts of Tigray remains “constrained.”
With the Tigray blackout still in place, the U.N.’s decision to hold its flagship event on internet access in Ethiopia has drawn criticism.
This year’s conference aims to build steps towards “universal, affordable, and meaningful connectivity,”, especially in Africa where 60% of the continent’s 3 billion people are offline.
Ethiopia has shut down the internet at least 22 times since 2016, according to internet rights group Access Now. The blackout affecting Tigray “is the world’s longest uninterrupted shutdown,” said Brett Solomon, Access Now’s executive director.
Aid workers and rights groups say the communications blackout has hampered the delivery of aid to Tigray and fueled human rights abuses by fostering a culture of impunity among armed actors. U.N. investigators have accused all sides of abuses, including killings, rape, and torture.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the internet forum on Tuesday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared to defend the shutdown in Tigray, saying the internet has “supported the spread of disinformation as Ethiopia dealt with an armed rebellion in the northern part of the country.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenhas spoken to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the implementation of the ceasefire deal between government troops and Tigray forces in the north.
“[The] Ethiopian Prime Minister and I discussed the urgent need to implement the cessation of hostilities agreement and to secure lasting peace in northern Ethiopia,” Mr Blinken said in a tweet.
In a readout of his phone call to the Ethiopian leader, Mr Blinken stressed the need to immediately implement the deal “including withdrawal of all foreign forces and concurrent disarmament of the Tigrayan forces”.
Mr Abiy has already reiterated his government’s commitment to the peace deal.
The secretary of state said the US was committed to support the African Union-led process including its monitoring and verification mechanism of the peace agreement
Mr Blinken recognised ongoing efforts by the Ethiopian government “to work towards unhindered humanitarian assistance and restoration of basic services” in Tigray and neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.
Amhara and Afar regional forces, as well as Eritrean troops, have been fighting alongside the federal forces war against the Tigrayan fighters.
On 2 November the Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan fighters agreed, in a surprise move, to halt their two-year conflict.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says the first food aid trucks to enter Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region since the signing of a peace deal earlier this month are rolling into the region.
“Critical food assistance will now be delivered to communities in coming days. More food, nutrition, medical cargo will follow,” WFP tweeted, along with a video of the aid trucks driving.
In #Ethiopia@WFP trucks are rolling into #Tigray with critical food assistance—this is the first movement since the peace agreement was signed.
Critical food assistance will now be delivered to communities in coming days. More food, nutrition, medical cargo will follow. pic.twitter.com/NiFrUESM9Q
On 2 November the warring sides – Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan fighters – agreed, in a surprise move, to halt their two-year conflict which led to thousands of deaths and warnings of a famine.
Half of Tigray’s 5.5 million people need food aid, with many of them starving.
Ethiopia’s Government Communication Service Minister Legese Tulu has said that all forces fighting in the Tigray region who are not part of the federal army will withdraw
as soon as the Tigrayan rebels disarm.
Amhara and Afar regional forces, as well as Eritrean troops, have been fighting alongside the federal forces in the two-year war against the rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The government and the TPLF signed a peace agreement on 2 November in Pretoria, South Africa, to end the war in the north of the country, and the army and rebel commanders also signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in Nairobi, Kenya, on 12 November.
Meanwhile, an opposition party in Tigray region, Baytona Tigray, has rejected the peace agreement, saying the TPLF does not represent the Tigray people.
A convoy of medical aid, the first since late August, arrived Tuesday (November 15) in the capital of Tigray, following a peace agreement reached in early November to end the war in the northern Ethiopian region, the ICRC said.
“The first ICRC medical supplies have just arrived in Mekele (…) by road,” Jude Fuhnwi, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ethiopia.
After a five-month truce, the resumption of hostilities at the end of August between the rebel authorities in Tigray and the federal army and its allies interrupted most of the delivery of humanitarian aid – already largely insufficient – to Tigray.
Two “trucks have delivered 40 tonnes of essential medical equipment, emergency medicines, and surgical supplies” to health facilities in the region “to treat the most urgent cases,” the ICRC said in a statement.
“Although some health facilities in Tigray are no longer functioning, those still open lack basic medicines and equipment and other essential supplies,” the organization said.
“The ICRC hopes to continue these deliveries on a regular basis and significantly increase the humanitarian response in Tigray,” whose six million inhabitants have been largely deprived of food and medicine for more than a year.
The Ethiopian government and the rebel authorities in Tigray signed a peace agreement in Pretoria on November 2 to end a two-year deadly war in northern Ethiopia.
Military leaders from both sides also initialed a document on Saturday to implement the provisions of the agreement, including the disarmament of rebels and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Tigray.
Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels have agreed to facilitate immediate humanitarian access to “all in need” in war-ravaged Tigray and neighbouring regions.
Saturday’s agreement followed talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi this week on the full implementation of a deal signed between the warring sides 10 days ago in South Africa to end the brutal two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia
“The parties have agreed to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access to all in need of assistance in Tigray and neighbouring regions,” a joint statement said.
The agreement was signed by Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, chief of staff of the Ethiopian Armed Forces, and General Tadesse Werede, commander-in-chief of the Tigray rebel forces.
African Union mediator Olusegun Obasanjo said the deal would take “immediate effect”.
Ethiopian legislator Keiredin Tezera told Al Jazeera that aid was being sent to the areas in control of the army even before the agreement was reached on Saturday.
“This agreement may even further facilitate to deliver aid not only to the Tigray region but the neighbouring regions, which are also being affected by the conflict,” he said. “This is big news for us and not only for all of Ethiopia but also for Africa … It is significant beyond Ethiopia.”
The two sides also agreed to establish a joint committee to implement the disarming of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters, as stipulated in the ceasefire deal, the statement said.
Cessation of hostilities
After little more than a week of negotiations in the South African capital Pretoria, the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF on November 2 signed a peace deal which has been hailed by the international community as a crucial first step in ending the bloodshed.
The deal notably calls for the cessation of hostilities, restoration of humanitarian aid, the re-establishment of federal authority over Tigray and the disarming of TPLF fighters.
Ethiopia’s northernmost region is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis due to a lack of food and medicine, and there is limited access to basic services including electricity, banking and communications.
Tigray regional government representative in North America, Yohannes Abraha, said there have been calls for unhindered humanitarian flow to Tigray for a long time.
“There has been a very long time, since August, that there has not been any humanitarian aid into Tigray,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that nothing had materialised yet after the November 2 peace deal.
Abraha said that, among other reasons, the dire situation on the ground contributed to reaching the Pretoria outcome.
A scene from the signing ceremony in Nairobi [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]
The African Union Commission said it “applauds the parties on these significant confidence-building measures and encourages them to continue towards the full implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, as part of overall efforts to end the conflict and restore peace,security and stability in Ethiopia”.
Weaponising starvation
The conflict between the TPLF and pro-Abiy forces, which include regional fighters and the Eritrean army, has caused an untold number of deaths, forced more than two million from their homes and led to reports of horrific abuses such as rape and massacres.
Estimates of casualties have varied widely, with the United States saying that as many as half a million people have died, while the European Union’s foreign envoy Josep Borrell said that more than 100,000 people may have been killed.
UN-backed investigators have accused all sides of committing abuses but also charged that Addis Ababa had been using starvation as a weapon of war – claims denied by the Ethiopian authorities.
Abiy declared last week that his government, whose forces had claimed considerable gains on the battlefield, had secured “100 per cent” of what it had sought in the peace negotiations.
On Friday, the government said its forces controlled 70 per cent of Tigray and that aid was being sent in – claims swiftly denied by Tigrayan rebels.
Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sent troops into Tigray in late 2020 to topple the TPLF, the region’s governing party, in response to what he said were attacks by the group on federal army camps.
The conflict capped months of simmering tensions between Abiy and the TPLF, which has dominated the national government for nearly 30 years until he took office in 2018.
Aid to Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region has yet to resume, despite a recent truce, according to international humanitarian agencies, despite the US urging Addis Abeba to honour the agreement and allow assistance.
The federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls Tigray, signed a ceasefire agreement on November 2 and pledged to work with humanitarian organisations to expedite the provision of aid.
But it did not commit to a specific timeline and it has denied blocking aid.
On Friday, Ethiopia’s chief negotiator said essential services were being restored and humanitarian aid was flowing into the region of some 5.5 million people, half of them in severe need of food after the two-year conflict.
The two sides are currently negotiating the implementation of that agreement, including the resumption of aid deliveries.
International aid agencies say they have been blocked from sending assistance into Tigray for much of the conflict.
Three officials at international humanitarian organisations said despite the truce, their convoys were still waiting for permission from authorities to cross into the area.
The US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs urged a swift resolution.
“Vulnerable Ethiopians in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara need aid now,” it said on Twitter, referring to the neighbouring regions affected by the war. “Waiting urgently for actions to respect and implement the agreement.”
It also quoted the Ethiopian government’s lead negotiator, Redwan Hussein, as saying during continuing talks in Nairobi that aid would flow unhindered “by week’s end”.
“Aid is flowing like no other times,” he said on Twitter, adding that 35 trucks with food and three trucks with medicine had arrived in the northern city of Shire and services were being reconnected.
Another official familiar with the humanitarian situation said, however, Redwan may have been talking about Ethiopian trucks, while international agencies could not move freely.
Redwan did not respond to a request for comment.
Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission, which coordinates Ethiopian aid, said it would provide an update later on Friday.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia did not respond to a request for comment.
Against this backdrop, the African Union-mediated talks between Ethiopia’s government and representatives from Tigray continued in Nairobi on Friday, with military commanders trying to work out details of the disarmament of Tigray forces. The resumption of aid deliveries was also on the agenda.
Observers have expressed concerns about when Eritrean and other forces that were not party to the ceasefire will withdraw. Eritrea’s government has said nothing about whether it would withdraw its troops and abide by the ceasefire agreement.
Humanitarian aid will start reaching people who face hunger and disease in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray by the end of the week, according to the national security adviser to the prime minister of Ethiopia.
Millions of people in the region are in urgent need of food, medicine, and other basic supplies.
Redwan Hussien is quoted as saying by the US State Department that “aid would flow unhindered” as was agreed in the peace talks.
(1/2) @RedwanHussein said in Nairobi that by week’s end humanitarian aid would flow unhindered as agreed in Pretoria. Vulnerable Ethiopians in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara need aid now…
The final round of talks between representatives of Tigray and the government in Addis Ababa are expected to end on Friday in Kenya.
Both parties have been meeting to discuss the implementation of the peace deal signed last week in South Africa.
Ethiopia’s government and the TigrayPeople’s Liberation Front have committed to ending two years of fighting.
The deal calls for aid deliveries to restart in Tigray and for essential services to be restored. Millions of people there urgently need food and medicine.
An official from the war-torn area of Tigray has refuted the Ethiopian government’s claim that its federal forces now control 70% of the northern region of Tigray.
Ethiopian Prime Minister’s national security adviser, Redwan Hussien tweeted that “70% of Tigray is under the Ethiopia National Defence Forces] and that aid was “flowing like no other times” including in areas he said were not under the control of the government’s forces.
The spokesman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Getachew Reda, has however denied the claim, the AFP news agency reports.
“He is plucking his facts out of thin air,” Mr Getachew is quoted as saying.
Representatives of Tigray and the government in Addis Ababa have been meeting in Kenya this week to discuss the implementation of the peace deal signed last week in South Africa.
The two parties signed an agreement committing to end two years of fighting in Tigray.
The World Health Organization says no food or medicine has reached the Ethiopian region of Tigray despite the signing of a ceasefire last week.
The United Nations has accused Ethiopia of using starvation as a weapon of war in Tigray, where it says a humanitarian blockade put 90% of the population at risk.
“Nothing is moving,” said WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“I was expecting food and medicine to start flowing immediately after the ceasefire. That’s not happening.”
He said people were dying from starvation and treatable diseases.
Dr Tedros, who comes from Tigray, called for the restoration of telecom, banking and other basic services.
He said six million people had been shut off from the rest of the world for two years as if they didn’t exist.
An Ethiopian official said Dr Tedros was trying to undermine the peace agreement – and that food and medicine were reaching Tigray.
He said electricity and telecom services had been restored in some areas.
A new round of talks began on Monday between Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayregional representatives to work out military and other details of last week’s signing of a “permanent” cessation of hostilities in a two-year conflict thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
The meetings in Kenya involved the military commanders of both sides along with the lead political negotiators.
Discussed were expected to focus on how to monitor the deal, disarming Tigray forces and the resumption of humanitarian aid access and basic services to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has been cut off for months.
“Maybe by the end of this week or the middle of next week” trucks of humanitarian aid will be allowed to go in, the Ethiopian government’s lead negotiator Redwan Hussein told journalists.
Tigray’s lead negotiator Getachew Reda said the delivery of aid would increase confidence in the talks.
He also reiterated that military leaders have the responsibility to ensure the implementation of the deal.
“It is for them (military leaders) to figure out how effectively to carry out the deal and to make sure that we continue to hold our fire and of course silence the guns forever,” Reda said.
Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who’s facilitating the talks in Nairobi, said he was fully confident that warring parties would be able to reach a resolution. .
“These brothers who know each other well will be able to work and formulate together the best way to bring a permanent cessation, and resolution to the problem that has confronted our brothers and sisters, our mothers and children from Ethiopia in a peaceful way,” he said.
Others who were facilitating and attending the talks included African Union envoy and former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo and Nigerian, South African and Kenyan military officers.
The United States and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development were listed as observers.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says he has achieved “100%” of what his government demanded in a deal signed Wednesday with rebel authorities in the Tigray region to end two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia.
The agreement, reached in Pretoria where the two parties have been discussing since 25 October under the aegis of the African Union, provides for an immediate cessation of hostilities, disarmament of rebel forces and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“In the negotiations in South Africa, 100% of the ideas proposed by Ethiopia were accepted,” Abiy Ahmed boasted on Thursday before a crowd of supporters in Arba Minch, in the south of the country.
“Among the victories achieved (in the agreement), Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have been accepted by both parties,” he said, as well as the principle of “one-armed force in a given country.
The agreement has not been published but a joint statement read publicly by the delegations reveals its main features. The agreement includes the disarmament of the rebel authorities’ forces in Tigray.
But it does not specify the modalities and does not address the future of the forces of the country’s regional states or the presence on Ethiopian soil of the army of neighbouring Eritrea, which has provided crucial assistance to the Ethiopian army in Tigray.
The press does not have access to northern Ethiopia and communications are haphazard, making it impossible to know whether the ceasefire is being respected.
The toll of the conflict, marked by countless cases of abuse and largely behind closed doors, is unknown, but the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Amnesty International (AI) describe it as “one of the deadliest in the world”.
The conflict began on 4 November 2020 when Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to arrest Tigrayan executive leaders who had been challenging his authority for several months and whom he accused of attacking a federal military base.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia, displacing more than two million Ethiopians and plunging hundreds of thousands into near-famine conditions, according to the UN.
Hanna Tetteh, one-time Minister of Foreign Affairs was part of the high-profile team that mediated peace between Ethiopia’s federal government and rebels in the northern Tigray region.
Talks ended in South Africa on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at African Union-led talks led by former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and AU mediator, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president.
“Life is a gift to be cherished,” Madam Tetteh, who is UN Under Secretary General & Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, was quoted to have said after the agreement was signed.
The deal was reached almost two years to the day that conflict broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, a permanent cessation of hostilities is signed between the two sides was hosted by the South African government.
Analysts are now keeping an eye on how the implementation phase of the deal will play out.
Hanna Tetteh has previously served at Special Rep of UN Chief at the UN Office to the AU – between 2019 and 2022. She was Foreign Minister under the John Dramani Mahama government that spanned Jan 2013 -Jan 2017.
The African Union has announced that Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan forces have formally agreed to end fighting following talks in South Africa.
The parties in the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray have agreed on a “permanent cessation of hostilities”, the African Union mediator said, just over a week after formal peace talks began in South Africa.
Former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, in the first briefing on the peace talks, also said Ethiopia’s government and Tigray authorities have agreed on “orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament” along with “restoration of law and order,” “restoration of services” and “unhindered access to humanitarian supplies.”
The agreement marked a new “dawn” for Ethiopia, he said, speaking at a press conference.
The war, which broke out in November 2020, pits regional forces from Tigray against Ethiopia’s federal army and its allies, who include forces from other regions and from neighbouring Eritrea.
“It is now for all of us to honor this agreement,” said the lead negotiator for Ethiopia’s government, Redwan Hussein.
Tigray’s rebels hailed the deal and said they had made “concessions.”
“We are ready to implement and expedite this agreement,” said the head of their delegation, Getachew Reda.
“In order to address the pains of our people, we have made concessions because we have to build trust.”
“Ultimately, the fact that we have reached a point where we have now signed an agreement speaks volumes about the readiness on the part of the two sides to lay the past behind them to chart a new path of peace,” said Reda.
The conflict, which has at times spilled out of Tigray into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, has killed thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine.
Urgent need for aid
Neither Eritrea nor regional forces allied with the Ethiopian army took part in the talks in South Africa and it was unclear whether they would abide by the agreement reached there.
Eritrean forces have been blamed for some of the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang rapes, and witnesses have described killings and lootings by Eritrean forces even during the peace talks.
Obasanjo, who has been leading the African Union’s mediation team, said the implementation of the agreement would be supervised and monitored by a high-level African Union panel. He praised the process as an African solution to an African problem and said the agreement would allow humanitarian supplies to Tigray to be restored.
A critical question is how soon aid can return to Tigray, whose communications and transport links have been largely severed since the conflict began. Doctors have described running out of basic medicines like vaccines, insulin, and therapeutic food while people die of easily preventable diseases and starvation.
United Nations human rights investigators have said the Ethiopian government was using “starvation of civilians” as a weapon of war.
“We’re back to 18th-century surgery,” a surgeon at the region’s flagship hospital, Fasika Amdeslasie, told health experts at an online event Wednesday. “It’s like an open-air prison.”
A humanitarian source said their organization could resume operations almost immediately if unfettered aid access to Tigray is granted.
“It entirely depends on what the government agrees to … If they genuinely give us access, we can start moving very quickly, in hours, not weeks,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Peace talks to end Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have begun in South Africa.
It is the highest-level effort yet to end two years of fighting that has killed thousands of people.
The talks are taking place under the auspices of the African Union.
“The peace talks, which have been convened to find a peaceful and sustainable solution to the devastating conflict in the Tigray region started today, 25th October, and will end on 30th October.
As a country committed to the African Union’s objectives of silencing the guns, South Africa is ready to serve as a host and provide assistance to the peace talks”, said Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Former Nigerian presidentand AU envoy Olusegun Obasanjo and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta are facilitating the talks with the encouragement of the United States special envoy, MIke Hammer.
The talks are scheduled to last until Sunday.
Over the past few days, Ethiopian and allied forces from Eritrea have made progress in urban areas in the Tigray region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has stated that the conflict in northern Tigray “will end and peace will prevail.”
He made the remarks during the inauguration of a talent development centre in the Oromia regional state on Thursday.
“The situation in northern Ethiopia will come to an end, peace will prevail. We will not continue fighting forever. I believe that in a short period of time, we will stand with our Tigrayan brothers for peace and development,” Mr Abiy said.
He urged Ethiopians to work together for the country’s prosperity and not to be divided along ethnic and religious lines.
On Thursday, the Ethiopian government accepted an invitation by the African Unionto participate in peace talks to be held on 24 October in South Africa to end the war that has killed an unspecified number of people and displaced millions.
It came on the same day Tigrayan rebels accused Ethiopian and Eritrean forces of killing seven youths in a town that was captured by the federal army on Tuesday.
The BBC has found that nearly 2,450 severely malnourished children have died in Ethiopia’s Tigray region since last year, as the civil war there escalates.
The discovery comes despite communications being cut off in Tigray and access restricted by the central government.
In the three years before the conflict, a total of 508 severely malnourished children died, but by last year that number stood at over 1,900 and nearly 2,500 this year.
Doctors believe the true figure is higher because most sick children do not get to hospital due to the conflict and a lack of fuel for transport.
The region has been cut off for many months, leaving a catastrophic humanitarian situation, with thousands of people killed, and over 2 million displaced.
On Wednesday, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Tigrayan, warned that there was a “very narrow window to prevent genocide in Tigray”.
The Ethiopian government has previously accused the head of the WHO of abusing his position.
Ethiopian forces supported by Eritrea have been engaged in a power struggle with Tigrayan regional forces for nearly two years.
New night-time satellite images from Nasa, shared with the BBC show how light levels have dropped in key cities in Tigray.
This is an indication that they have been cut from the national power grid – compounding a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Ethiopia’s central government denies blocking Tigray from key resources and aid.
Ethiopia says its soldiers have seized three towns in the northern Tigray region from forces it has been fighting in the 23-month civil war.
It has promised to take “maximum care” to protect civilians from harm.
The news comes as diplomats grow increasingly worried about the impact of the war on citizens.
The loss of the strategic city of Shire, with its airport and road links to the regional capital, comes as a significant blow to Tigrayan forces.
Alamata and Korem are the two other towns now claimed by Ethiopian federal troops.
This is the latest escalation in the conflict with the Ethiopian government, whose troops are being bolstered by Eritrean allies.
Ethiopia on Tuesday promised to work with humanitarian agencies to bring vital aid to all parts of Tigray now under its control, but many analysts are sceptical because similar promises have been made and broken in the past.
Most of Tigray has been under a virtual blockade by the federal government since June 2021, when Tigrayan forces recaptured much of the region.
Shire is one of Tigray’s biggest cities with some 100,000 residents.
Reporters on the ground in the regional capital, Mekelle, say there was a mix of anger and shock over the news of the loss of Shire.
Residents are glued to radio sets and discussing the information on street corners, while others are preparing food to support the Tigrayan Defence Forces and also stocking up for themselves as a precaution.
One woman said “we will not give up defending ourselves from those who are coming to humiliate us”. Another feared for her sister living in Shire, saying “they [the federal forces] will kill her”.
Thousands of residents are already leaving Shire, despite the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) insisting that the loss of control to federal troops is only temporary.
Many of the people leaving had previously been forced to flee their homes in other parts of Tigray, and had come to Shire where they were living in makeshift camps in schools and university campuses.
The TPLF have said they are locked in a “life and death struggle” and called on all Tigrayans to keep fighting, but have also sought to play down developments saying “during war movement out of areas is natural”.
The war has left a humanitarian disaster in its wake.
The UN says that currently 5.4 million people – around three-quarters of Tigray’s population – need some kind of food aid as the fighting has disrupted supplies.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Monday that the situation in Tigray was “spiralling out of control” and hostilities must end immediately, and the African Union has called for the same.
But the violence shows no sign of ending and attempts to start peace negotiations – though welcomed by both sides – have not yet borne fruit.
Diplomats have been warning of a civilian bloodbath if more TPLF forces are pushed out of other towns and cities.
Within less than 100km (62 miles) from Shire are two other major cities – the historic Axum and Adwa.
Emboldened by its gains, the federal government could head for Axum and Adwa, which would then give them access to the main highway leading to Mekelle.
In August, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed alleged that planes carrying weapons were landing at night in Shire – presumably to support Tigrayan forces. Mr Abiy did not specify where the flights were coming from.
In a statement on Monday, the government’s communication office accused Tigrayan forces of colluding with unnamed “hostile” foreign actors in violating Ethiopia’s airspace as a justification for the decision to control airports.
Fighting began in November 2020, when federal Ethiopian forces tried to wrest control of the region from the TPLF.
The Ethiopian government says it intends to seize control of airports and other federal facilities in the Tigray area “to protect Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
In a statement, it stated that this was necessary to preserve its airspace, which had been “violated by hostile foreign actors supporting the TPLF [rebel fighters].”
It said the government would also be able to expedite humanitarian aid to the people in the region affected by the ongoing war.
The statement signals fighting could go on despite calls for de-escalation – even as it expressed commitment to resolve the crisis through an African Union-led process.
“We believe that there is a need for a comprehensive andnegotiated settlement that would bring about durable peace,” the statement added.
The government’s remarks follow a call by the AU for the warring parties to recommit to peace talks.
Tigrayan forces said on Sunday in response to the AU call that they were “ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities”.
They also called on the global community “to compel the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray”. Eritrea, an ally of the Ethiopian government, has been aiding its neighbour in the fight against the Tigray forces.
On Monday, the Ethiopian government pledged to avoid urban combats and provide humanitarian access in areas that the government controls.
However, several international voices have sounded alarm bells that cities like the Shire have been bombarded and civilians killed, including at least one humanitarian worker.
The African Union (AU) on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Tigray, where violence is escalating, with rebels in the northern Ethiopian region saying they were “ready to respect it.
A member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an NGO providing disaster relief, was killed and another wounded in one of these attacks on Friday, which left two other civilians dead, according to the IRC.
After UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the escalating violence, AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat called for “an immediate and unconditional cease-fire.”
“The chairperson urges the parties to reiterate their commitment to dialogue in accordance with their agreement for direct talks to be convened in South Africa,” he added in a statement.
“We are ready to respect an immediate cessation of hostilities. We also call on the international community to force the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray, to take steps towards an immediate cessation of hostilities and to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to come to the negotiating table,” said the TPLF.
Shortly before, the U.S. Department of State’s Africa desk had said on Twitter that “the priority” was to “achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Tigray’s rebel forces in northern Ethiopia have asked the world community to impose an immediate truce between them and the Ethiopian government or to assist them in defending themselves, according to a statement on Twitter.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) called on the international community to “compel the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray” and “press the Ethiopian government to come to the negotiating table”.
Eritrea, an ally of the Ethiopian government, has been aiding its neighbour in the fight against the rebel forces.
The TPLF said it would be forced to fight on if nothing was done.
It said it was ready to respect “an immediate cessation of hostilities” if the Ethiopian government was compelled to negotiate for peace.
Earlier, the African Union (AU) called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between the group and Ethiopian forces amid renewed fighting in the north.
There has been no comment from the Ethiopian government on either the AU or the TPLF statements as heavy fighting continues in the Tigray region.
As the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region escalates once more, civilians are increasingly becoming involved in the fighting.
Tigray rebel commanders have embarked on a new recruitment campaign, having previously been accused of forcing people to join the war effort.
Similar accusations have been levelled against Eritrea, which has entered the war on the side of Ethiopia’s government.
The BBC has received an exclusive report from a journalist in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, on how residents are coping.
Drones fly over the skies of Mekelle, which has a population of around 300,000, almost every day. I can hear one now as I write this article. It makes me feel very insecure. In the last few weeks airstrikes have hit playgrounds and residential areas – it is not clear what the targets were.
This week the Tigray army called on every able-bodied person to join the fight – and as war-weary, as people are after 23 months of violence, they are taking up the call.
“It is considered taboo not to join the military,” says a resident, whose name the BBC is withholding for safety reasons.
Many Tigrayans remain defiant, saying they will no longer accept the federal rule, while Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accuses the region’s leaders of rebelling in a bid to regain the power they lost when he took office in 2018.
Everyone here wants to defend their rights. The latest surge in violence started in late August after the collapse of a five-month-long humanitarian truce.
People from all walks of life, including women and young people, are answering the call to join the army of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Women have received military training, and say they are ready to fight if called up.
They include a 23-year-old who told me she was “proud to be Tigrayan and excited to have been trained to protect my rights and preserve my land”.
Tigray has been under a blockade since June 2021, and living conditions have been steadily worsening.
It’s now been more than a year since telephone lines and internet services stopped, disconnecting us from the rest of the world.
People have gone back to using paper to write messages to their families and friends – or they go to the border with Ethiopia’s Amhara region to make calls and receive money from relatives abroad.
Groups gather around a single radio on the side of the road to find out what’s happening. Everyone talks about the peace process and follows attentively the news about that but many people here believe that the Ethiopian government isn’t ready for peace talks, because they have not stopped bombing.
People here cannot make money, or withdraw cash from banks because they have been closed. So businesses are not functioning.
It has led to the emergence of open-air markets, which were illegal before the war, and the movement of cash through the black market, with brokers charging a commission of at least 30%, down from 50% a few months ago.
My own neighbours live on money sent by their families in the US and Canada.
One of the neighbours says he can’t feed his five children if they don’t send cash. He has two sisters in the US, and he has received money from his siblings four times since the start of the siege.
The conflict has prevented essential goods, including fuel, from reaching Tigray. Many people go around on foot, or in donkey carts.
Image caption, Mekelle has been cut off from the rest of the world
Prices keep increasing. Teff, the grain we commonly use to make the traditionally baked bread known as injera, goes up every week. The current price of 100kg (220 lb) is around $265, compared to $85 a year ago.
People are dying due to a lack of medication that can’t be brought in because of the siege. The cost of medicines for chronic diseases has increased tenfold.
As every new airstrike kills more civilians, more young people are driven to join the military.
A 29-year-old woman told me that three of her family members – two brothers and a sister – have now joined the Tigray army.
For the past two months she has been spending her time, and using the little she has, to prepare food for fighters on the frontline.
Other residents are sharing their food with the families of those who’ve gone to fight.
When news broke last week that African Union-brokered peace talks could start in South Africa, people were happy.
But the talks failed to get off the ground for reasons that are unclear. Many here are just desperate for peace and churches and mosques are full every night, with people praying for this war to end.
The BBC has withheld the name of the journalist and interviewees for their own safety.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Residents of a district in Ethiopia’s Amhara regionthat government forces have recently retaken have accused fighters from the Tigray region of mistreatment, including extrajudicial killings.
Tigrayan forces occupied theRaya Kobo district for five weeks.
Residents told the BBC that people suspected of belonging to a pro-government militia were targeted.
All sides of the conflict in northern Ethiopia have previously been accused of violating international human rights.
A joint investigation done last year by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the UN Human Rights Office said there could also be evidence of war crimes.
Extra-judicial executions, torture, rape, and attacks against refugees and displaced people were documented.
Both sides in the two-year long civil war in northern Ethiopia have now agreed to attend peace talks this weekend in South Africa following an invitation by the African Union.
Tigrayan rebelsconfirmed they would take part after the Addis Ababa government confirmed its participation earlier on Wednesday.
The Tigray rebels have however raised some questions about the invited participants, observers, guarantors and the role of the international community.
“Considering we were not consulted prior to the issuance of this invitation, we need clarification to some of the following issues to establish an auspicious start for the peace talks,” said a statement signed by Tigrayan leader Debretsion Gebremichael.
The rebel authorities in Tigraysay they have withdrawn their troops from areas they occupied in the neighbouring Amhara region to the south to face a joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces further north.
After a five-month truce, fighting resumed at the end of August between the Ethiopian federal government – backed by forces and militias from the Amhara region – and the Tigrayan rebels.
The Asmara regime, a sworn enemy of the Tigray rebel leaders, is also lending a hand to the Ethiopian troops, as it did during the first phase of the conflict, which began in November 2020, during which Eritrean troops were accused of multiple cases of abuse.
“A change in the location and direction (of our forces) was deemed necessary to deal with the joint invasion forces… On the southern front, we have therefore evacuated the areas of the Amhara region where we had entered,” said the “central command” of the rebel forces in Tigray in a statement issued late Sunday.
The decision was implemented over the past three days, it said, assuring that “although the enemy has multiplied attempts to control this front, it has not succeeded in changing the situation and has only aggravated its defeat.
The fighting areas are closed to journalists and it was not immediately possible to independently verify the claims of the Tigrayan rebels.
A surgeon at the main hospital in the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region says that the 23-month civil war has led to patients dying needlessly because of a lack of medicines and treatments.
“We don’t have medicines for our patients, we don’t have surgical materials… we don’t have vaccines… we don’t have insulin,” Dr Fasika Amdeslasie told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
Tigray has been cut off for most of the conflict which has seen forces from Tigray clashing with Ethiopian federal troops and their allies since November 2020.
Some medicine has got through, thanks to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization, but the supply has been sporadic, Dr Fasika said.
He added that diabetic patients are dying because of a lack of insulin and kidney patients may also die because dialysis treatment cannot continue.
On top of this, Dr Fasika says that the staff at the hospital have not been paid for 17 months.
“We are trying to save those who we can… but it’s difficult now to save those who can be saved,” he concluded.
Some of the 42,000 Arema fans flung bottles and other missiles at players and officials and at least five police vehicles were toppled and set alight outside the stadium.
Riot police trying to stop the violence fired tear gas in the stadium, triggering panic in the crowd and sparking the crush as they stampeded for the exits.
Most of the 125 people who died were trampled or suffocated.
Image:Arema FC players and officials pray for the victims
Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said in a news conference: “I ensure that investigation on this case will be conducted thoroughly and seriously.”
President Widodo has ordered a suspension of the Indonesian premier league until safety is re-evaluated and security is tightened.
The nation’s football association has also banned Arema from hosting any matches for the rest of the season.
Human rights group Amnesty International has urged the Indonesian governmentto investigate the use of tear gas at the stadium and ensure that those found in violation are tried in open court.
Police are still questioning witnesses and analysing footage from 32 security cameras inside and outside the stadium and nine mobile phones owned by the victims, as part of the investigation to identify suspects.
The 18 officers responsible for firing tear gas as well as security managers are also under investigation.
‘A tragedy beyond comprehension’
FIFA, which has no control over domestic games, has previously advised against using tear gas at stadiums.
Hooliganism is rife in Indonesian football, with fanaticismoften spilling over into violence.
Prior to the stampede on Saturday, 78 people have died in game-related incidents over the past 28 years, according to data from Indonesian watchdog Save Our Soccer.
“Flying debris from the strike injured a driver contracted by WFP and caused minor damage to a WFP fleet truck,” the spokesperson is quoted to have told the Reuters news agency.
The lorry was delivering food to internally displaced people in Tigray, Reuters reports.
A spokesman for the rebel TPLF Getachew Reda termed the incident “an outrageous crime.”
Several previous air strikes have been reported by the Tigray rebels since fresh confrontations erupted on 24 August – which have not been acknowledged by federal authorities.
The reported deployment of Eritrean forces into the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, according to the European Union, will only help to intensify the conflict.
“The EU urges once again all parties to forget about any military solution and join efforts for the benefit of their populations,” said Josep Borrell, EU’s foreign affairs and security policy chief.
It comes amid a reported full-scale offensive by Eritrean troops along the Eritrea-Tigray border.
The Tigrayan forces spokesman, Getachew Reda,said the Eritreans were fighting alongside Ethiopian federal forces and regional militia.
But neither the Eritrean nor the Ethiopian governments have spoken about the reported entry of Eritrean forces.
An American envoy on Tuesdaycondemned the fighting, noting that the US was aware of Eritrean troops crossing into Tigray.
Eritrea has been allied with Ethiopian government soldiers in their almost two-year-long war against Tigrayan rebels.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the conflict.
