Media Roll-up: May 24th-30th
Crisis
Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Warnings of genocide and famine
Alex Da Waal, May 28th, 2021, BBC News
The patriarch of Ethiopia's Orthodox Church recently ignited controversy when he said that genocide was being committed in the northern Tigray region.
Grave concerns over 'dire' and deteriorating situation in war-torn Tigray region
UN News (Peace and Security), May 28th, 2021
UN humanitarians expressed deep concern on Friday about serious and ongoing abuses carried out against displaced civilians who are also facing dire food insecurity in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, after months of conflict.
Schools in Ethiopia’s Tigray region pillaged, occupied: HRW
Al Jazeera, May 28th, 2021
A quarter of all schools in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been damaged during a months-long conflict, according to a prominent human rights group, which accused all fighting sides of looting and occupying educational facilities.
Hundreds of detained Tigrayans released following CNN report
Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Katie Polglase & Gianluca Mezzofire, May 29th, 2021, CNN
Hundreds of men in Ethiopia's restive region of Tigray were released on Thursday evening, eyewitnesses and aid workers said, following a CNN report into their detention that prompted international outcry.
Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Katie Polglase & Gianluca Mezzofire, May 27th, 2021, CNN
Days after the United States announced financial sanctions and visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, eyewitnesses told CNN that hundreds of young men were rounded up from displaced peoples camps in Shire, a town in Tigray, late Monday evening.
A grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Ethiopia. ‘I never saw hell before, but now I have’
National Geographic, May 28th, 2021, Lynsey Addario & Rachel Hartigan
The only roads open in besieged Tigray, a semi-autonomous federal state in northern Ethiopia, lead to endless tales of darkness. Most roads north and south from Tigray’s capital of Mekele have been closed to journalists and humanitarian aid. Burnt-out tanks and looted ambulances stripped of engines and wheels line the road west. Patches of towering eucalyptus trees give way to rocky, untilled fields—and checkpoint after checkpoint manned by Ethiopian troops. Soldiers from neighboring Eritrea saunter casually through villages, marking their presence.
Opinion
Tigray: Call it Genocide, Prosecute its Leaders and End It
Goitim Aregawi, May 29th, 2021, The Elephant
On 26 May 2021, US President Joe Biden issued a bold statement on the raging crisis in Ethiopia, warning of escalating violence and the hardening of regional and ethnic divisions, including the “large-scale human rights abuses” and “widespread sexual violence” taking place in Tigray. But he stopped short of calling the appalling atrocities in Tigray by their true name: genocide.
Why is Ethiopia at War With Itself?
Published November 6th, Updated May 26th
Declan Walsh & Adbi Dahir, The New York Times
What led Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to conduct a military campaign in the Tigray region, and how has the fighting affected Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa?
Ethiopian-U.S. Politics
US restricting visas, aid over conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region
Morgan Winsor, May 24th, 2021, ABC News
LONDON -- The United States is now restricting visas for those accused of fueling the grinding war in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
U.S. warns of further action against Ethiopia, Eritrea over Tigray
Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle, May 27th, 2021, Saltwire (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A senior U.S. State Department official warned on Thursday that Ethiopia and Eritrea should anticipate further actions from the United States if those stoking the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region fail to reverse course.
Ethiopia accuses US of meddling after sanctions over Tigray
Al Jazeera, May 24th, 2021
Ethiopia has accused the United States of meddling in its affairs after Washington announced restrictions on economic and security assistance over alleged human rights abuses during the conflict in the northern Tigray region.
Biden urges ceasefire, end to ‘large-scale abuses’ in Tigray
Al Jazeera, May 27th, 2021
United States President Joe Biden has called for a ceasefire and end to “large-scale human rights abuses” in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, just days after the US imposed visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials accused of furthering the ongoing conflict.
U.S. to Freeze Funding for Ethiopia as Tigray Abuses Surface
Simon Marks, May 28th, 2021, Bloomberg
The U.S. has asked multilateral development banks to suspend funding to Ethiopia as fresh reports of human rights abuses surfaced from the war-torn Tigray region.
Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Tens of thousands attend anti-US rally
BBC News, May 30th, 2021
More than 10,000 people have attended an anti-US rally in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to denounce President Joe Biden's policy on the conflict in the country's northern region of Tigray.
Similar Articles:
Ethiopians protest US sanctions over brutal Tigray war (Associated Press)
Women & Children
Women in Tigray need immediate support
UNFPA, May 27th, 2021, Intrado GlobeNewswire
New York, May 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where conflict erupted last November, hundreds of thousands of women and adolescent girls remain in urgent need of life-saving health, protection and support services.
Eritrea in Tigray
Eritreans commit atrocities in Tigray region
The Canadian Press, May 28th, 2021, Yahoo News
Ethiopia’s government admits Eritrean troops are committing atrocities in Tigray. But it says Eritrean forces will withdraw. The Associated Press has heard testimony that Eritreans are deep inside Tigray, striking terror on its people.
Ethiopian army chief asks Eritrea to withdraw troops from Tigray
Simon Marks and Fasika Tadesse, May 25th, 2021, BNN Bloomberg
The head of Ethiopia’s army asked officials in neighboring Eritrea to withdraw all of their troops from Ethiopian territory, according to two people familiar with the matter.
'Our season': Eritrean troops kill, rape, loot in Tigray
Rodney Muhumuza, May 28th, 2021, Associated Press
MEKELE, Ethiopia (AP) — Women who make it to the clinic for sex abuse survivors in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray usually struggle to describe their injuries. But when they can’t take a seat and quietly touch their bottoms, the nurses know it’s an unspeakable kind of suffering.
Humanitarian Aid
U.S. Delivers Vehicles and Health Supplies to Tigray Regional Health Bureau
Relief Web, May 26th, 2021
Mekele, May 25, 2021– Last Thursday the United States handed over 33 vehicles and an array of medical and healthcare supplies valued at $3.5 million to the Tigray Regional Health Bureau. The vehicles replace destroyed and looted vehicles that are essential for delivering life-saving public health services throughout Tigray. This handover is part of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) broader support for health workers providing critical care to people affected by the ongoing crisis.
Famine
Famine Looms in Ethiopia’s War-Ravaged Tigray Region, U.N. Says
Rick Gladstone, May 26th, 2021, The New York Times
The top humanitarian official at the United Nations warned that parts of Tigray are one step from famine, as the government hinders relief shipments.