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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — European countries have generously offered shelter to some of the 5.5 million people who fled the war in Ukraine launched on Feb. 24 with an unprovoked attack by Russia.
More than 50,000 have been welcomed by France and granted a temporary status that enables them to work and receive social and medical assistance.
By Robert Johnson
BRUSSELS (IDN) — The Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans, a Netherlands based organization, has decided to sue the European Union and international bodies for failing to respond to human rights abuses by the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and his associates.
At the press conference on May 10, the Foundation’s lawyer, Emiel Jurjens from Kennedy van der Laan made the announcement of legal action by the Foundation on the Responsibility of Eritrea for Grave Human Rights Violations, the details of which can be found here.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A World Heritage Site and Ethiopia’s holy city of Lalibela is welcoming pilgrims once again. Throngs of Ethiopians recently flooded the streets of the town caught up in the fighting between the government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth of Christ on January 7.
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) — The UN Secretary-General António Guterres is deeply concerned about the impact the conflict continues to have on civilians in Ethiopia. He said he was deeply saddened by reports that more than 50 civilians were killed and injured in an airstrike in northern Ethiopia, on January 7.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — At a large pro-war rally held recently in Meskel Square in the heart of the capital city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, surrounded by thousands of his supporters, made clear that the battle against Tigrayan rebel fighters would continue unabated, despite mounting fatalities and famine.
Residents of the capital were told to arm themselves to repel the rebel forces if they managed to reach the city. To some analysts, this suggested that Abiy’s own Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) was not up to the challenge of defending the capital.
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) — UN has "serious concerns" for the safety of staff working on the ground in Ethiopia's Tigray region. A UN humanitarian aid flight destined for the capital of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, was forced to return to Addis Ababa due to airstrikes on October 22, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator said in a statement.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — Ethiopia’s decision last week to expel seven UN officials, including senior humanitarian officials from the politically troubled African nation, generated an implicit warning to all 193 member states: do not kick out any UN officials for political reasons or declare them “persona non grata”.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) — The Elders address the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tigray; refugees in Ethiopia approved for resettlement reportedly refused departure; UN urges opening of Tigray for aid; 29 Tigrayan bodies found between Sudan and Ethiopia; 5,000 Ethiopian migrants blocked in Yemen; Ethiopia is facing competing alliances; over 23,000 refugees returned to Libya this year, reports the Belgium-based Europe External Programme with Africa in its latest report on the Horn of Africa situation.
By Lisa Vives
NEW YORK (IDN) — Lalibela, a holy site for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and home to 13th century rock-hewn churches—a world heritage site—has been caught between the warring forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the central government in Addis Ababa, according to reports from the region.
In a statement issued by the UN agency UNESCO, Lalibela’s historic role as a place of pilgrimage, devotion and peace was underscored. “It should not be a place for instigating violence and conflict,” their statement read.
Viewpoint by Asayehgn Desta*
CALIFORNIA (IDN) — The constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, promulgated in 1995, was supposed to resolve ethnic conflict and enhance self- and shared-rule. But, contrary to expectations, Ethiopia became heavily embroiled in inter-ethnic skirmishes starting in 2018.
Demand for self-rule and ethnic fighting has been brewing in a number of Ethiopia’s regional states.
