Media Roll-up: July 5th-11th
Updated: Apr 12
Election Results
Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed gets his Pyrrhic victory
James Jeffrey, July 11th, 2021, Al Jazeera
Ethiopian PM has prevailed in his first electoral contest, but there is little to celebrate given the country's dire state.
Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed wins election in landslide amid Tigray conflict and voting fraud concerns
Mia Alberti, July 11th, 2021, CNN
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ruling Prosperity Party (PP) overwhelmingly won general elections Saturday, meaning he will stay in power another term, according to CNN affiliate Nation Media Group.
Ethiopia: Abiy’s Prosperity Party wins landslide election victory
Al Jazeera, July 10th, 2021
PM Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party wins 410 out of 436 contested seats in Ethiopia’s federal parliament.
Ceasefire
After battlefield reversals, what next for Ethiopia’s Tigray war?
Zecharias Zelalem, July 10th, 2021, Al Jazeera,
Questions loom over the next phase of a brutal conflict that has left civilians at risk of famine.
Blinken calls for indefinite ceasefire in call with Ethiopia's Abiy
Reuters, July 6th, 2021
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday, stressing the need for all parties to commit to an immediate and indefinite ceasefire in the northern Tigray region, the State Department said.
Tigray rebel chief calls for political solution to conflict in Ethiopia
Reuters, July 6th, 2021
NAIROBI, July 6 (Reuters) - The commander of rebel forces in Tigray on Tuesday called for a negotiated ceasefire with the Ethiopian government and a political solution to the conflict in the northern region, saying the government could not win the war.
Humanitarian Aid
UPDATE 3-Ethiopia says aid flights to Tigray allowed, but none has yet left the capital
Reuters, July 7th, 2021
ADDIS ABABA, July 7 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Wednesday that it had allowed humanitarian flights to its northern Tigray region this week, amid concerns that aid is not reaching people facing famine, but the civil aviation head said no such flights had yet left the capital.
UN says Ethiopia’s PM vows ‘immediate’ aid access to Tigray
Cara Anna, July 9th, 3032, Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s prime minister has promised “immediate access” for humanitarian groups to Tigray, the United Nations said on Friday, after the United States and the European Union compared the Ethiopian government’s current treatment of the embattled region to a “siege.”
Secretary-General welcomes Ethiopia’s pledge to allow humanitarian access to Tigray
Humanitarian Aid, July 9th, 2021, UN News
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment to ensuring aid workers can access the war-ravaged Tigray region, his Spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
East Africa: Exclusive - Donors Accuse UN of Mismanaging Tigray Refugee Response
Philip Kleinfeld, July 7th, 2021, All Africa
London — Tens of thousands of refugees who fled the conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region are facing security risks and assistance shortfalls in camps in Sudan, according to a group of Western embassies and donors who have criticised the UN-led relief operation in a letter obtained by The New Humanitarian.
Emergency livelihood support for conflict-affected communities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
FAO, July 6th, 2021, ReliefWeb
The ongoing conflict in Tigray has led to a humanitarian crisis characterized by alarmingly high levels of food insecurity, gender-based violence, widespread displacement, limited access to services, and the destruction of the local economy.
International Intervention
As allies accuse Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed of atrocities in Tigray, Canada stands back
Evan Dyer, July 10th, 2021, CBC News
The Trudeau government has done less to condemn Tigray excesses than the U.S. or EU.
UN Rights Body Needs to Act on Ethiopia
Lucy McKernan, July 9th, 2021, Human Rights Watch
As reports of grave rights abuses continue to emerge from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the United Nations Human Rights Council is considering a resolution to add Tigray to its agenda. It should do so immediately.
Conflict in Tigray
Ethiopia’s Looming Catastrophe
Editorial Board, July 7th, 2021, Bloomberg
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed erred disastrously last November in launching a war against his own people in the northern Tigray region. He has a chance to reverse his mistake, and he needs to seize it.
Ethiopia: Tigray Conflict Decimates Maternal Health Services, Overwhelms Health Workers
UNFPA East, July 7th, 2021
Shire, Tigray — "When the conflict broke out, I was two months pregnant. We were forced to flee and walk for days under the blazing sun to reach safety and protection," said Merhawit Gebremedhin, who is from the town of Dansha in Western Tigray, the Ethiopian region that has been caught up in conflict since November last year.
Ethiopia: Hundreds of Women, Girls Brutalized By Soldiers in Tigray War
Heather Murdock, July 7th, 2021, Voice of America
MEKELLE, ETHIOPIA - The stories are eerily similar. Soldiers came to their homes and demanded to know the whereabouts of their husbands, fathers or brothers, insisting the men were fighters with Tigrayan forces at war with the government of Ethiopia.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
Ethiopia: MSF demands investigation into killing of three staff members in Tigray
Medecins Sans Frontieres, July 7th, 2021
NEW YORK/BARCELONA, JULY 7, 2021—Following the brutal murders of three of its staff in the Ethiopian region of Tigray on June 24, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is demanding that local parties to the conflict carry out an immediate investigation into the killings. Without assurances that MSF’s medical work can be carried out safely, the international medical humanitarian organization has suspended its activities in Abi Adi, Adigrat, and Axum in central and eastern Tigray, but will continue to provide assistance to people in other areas of Tigray.