Month: July 2021
RDC: Lamuka – Communique (31.07.2021)
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Ethiopia: UNICEF – 100,000 Children in Tigray at Risk of Death from Malnutrition (31.07.2021)
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a UN briefing in Geneva that humanitarians’ worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children have been realized.
NEW YORK, United States of America, July 31, 2021 – More than 100,000 children in Tigray, Ethiopia, could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months, a tenfold jump over average annual levels, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
The development comes as UNICEF announced that it had recently reached areas of Tigray that were previously inaccessible owing to insecurity linked to nearly nine months of conflict between Government forces and those loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.
Worst fears
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a UN briefing in Geneva that humanitarians’ worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children have been realized.
Assessments also indicate that 47 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, suggesting that they could face more pregnancy-related complications, an increased risk of maternal death during childbirth and the delivery of low-birthweight babies, who are much more prone to sickness and death.
“We need unfettered access into Tigray and across the region, in order to provide support children and women urgently need,” she said, her comments coming as UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths and US aid relief (USAID) head, Samantha Power, reportedly planned to hold talks in Ethiopia this week to push for increased access in Tigray.
Aid convoy approaching
Meanwhile, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri, said that a convoy of more than 200 trucks was on its way to Tigray, but “this is a drop in the ocean.” At least 100 trucks are needed every day “if we are to stand a chance to reverse the catastrophic situation”.
Latest UN data indicates that humanitarian partners have reached nearly 3.7 million people. But the aid response has been slowed by cut-off communications services and widespread power cuts.
A further challenge is the fact that the movement of aid teams and supplies is only possible via one route, through the Afar region, which requires passing through multiple checkpoints, where humanitarian personnel have been interrogated, intimidated and in some instances detained, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Extreme danger
The operating environment in Tigray also remains extremely dangerous, said spokesperson Jens Laerke, noting that at least 12 aid workers had been killed to date, including on 24 June, when three Doctors Without Borders staff were murdered.
Humanitarian funding also remains a major problem, as more than $430 million is still needed to fund the aid response in Tigray until the end of the year.
In an appeal to all parties to the conflict, Mr. Laerke urged them to keep entry routes open to Tigray, to prevent large-scale loss of life, before appealing to the Ethiopian Government to allow humanitarians to bring in additional communications equipment, as well as provide longer visas for NGO staff.
Permissions call
The UN needs “critical communications equipment and longer-term visas for NGO staff” for its aid operation in Tigray, Mr. Laerke continued.
According to OCHA, 5.2 million people – about 90 per cent of the population – are now in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and hundreds of thousands are facing famine-like conditions.
Mr. Laerke explained that the conflict in Tigray had started in the middle of the harvest season in November 2020, when a quarter of crops had already been ruined by locust swarms.
More than 90 per cent of what was left of the harvest was then looted, burned, or flattened, making it critical that farmers are provided now with the tools, assistance and access they need to sow their crops, he added.
Trauma of survivors
Speaking of her own recent experience in the region, UNICEF’s Ms. Mercado noted that one young female survivor of sexual assault told her that “she watched her grandmother get killed, she was raped by several men and she watched her nine month old baby being tossed around by other men”.
A doctor at a UNICEF supported referral centre in Mekelle, told her that he had been struck by the fact that in many cases it was not the assault itself, but rather the psychological damage it inflicts on children, women and health staff, that was most difficult to bear.
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India: Samyukta Kisan Morcha Press Release (31.07.2021)
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All India Democratic Students’ Organization (AIDSO): AIDSO demands to Stop Police Atrocities on the Students (31.07.2021)
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South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A): SSUF/A address to the people of Republic of South Sudan on Martyrs Day! (30.07.2021)
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RDC: Rapport de Manque de Consensus dans de la Pateforme des Confessions Relgieuses (30.07.2021)
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RDC: Ensemble pour la Republique – Declaration Politique d’ “Ensemble pour la Republique” sur la Designation des Animateurs de la CENI (30.07.2021)
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National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUPJ): 33 Years Later, Solidarity for Press Freedom and for Media Still Needed (30.07.2021)
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Opinion: Abiy wants to be remembered for his “green legacy” but he will instead be remembered for his ‘Medemer terror’
We are now in the end of July in 2021 and time has passed. The Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali have been proven and his certainly not a man of peace. Neither is he a man of reforms or progress. No, Abiy is an old fashion warlord who by all mean uses his office to consolidate power and continues his path to be crowned the Seventh King of Ethiopia.
That is who Abiy is now. He wants to be known for planting trees, steering rain and being the most promising leader on the continent. However, we all know that this isn’t true. His armies, his authorities and his ministries are all working in cahoots to destroy, get rid off and silence anyone in his way. That’s why the leaves of green will not save his legacy now.
The trees that the plants is nice for props, posh pieces in the press and looks great in the world of climate change. However, that does not save the guns, the ammunition and the destruction his policies have made towards one region and other opposition in his way.
Abiy have used force in Ogaden. Abiy have used all means to silence and go after the opposition in the Oromia region. While in Tigray he first started with a blockade, with financial constraints and stopping all business between Mekelle and Addis Ababa. Long before the attack on the Northern Command. Heck, the Addis government even ordered Commandoes to take out the leadership of Tigray in 2018. That is the sort of leader Abiy is.
Then surely, he did the same in Amhara where the assassins got rid of the problematic ones. So, that the right persons could have the offices and the seats in favour of the current leader on the top.
Now, he is embroiled in a prolonged warfare in Tigray. It has escalated to Amhara and Afar region. Where also other groups are participating. The conflict is getting more vicious and more extreme. Where more innocent lives are taken and more people’s livelihood is on the line. Where all old grudges and ethnic land-boundaries are in question. Because, this man sparks conflicts and he ensures everyone takes their knives out. That’s why the Somali-Afar conflict is back in motion. Not because Tigray Defence Force (TDF) entered, but because of allies of the PM massacred Somalis in Somali Region (Ogaden).
That’s why the man-made famine, the blocking of humanitarian assistance from the Federal Government, the lack of care for the people and use of military force to settle political disputes is the reason why we are here. We are not here because the PM is planting trees and refurbishing office buildings in Finfinne. No, we are here because he orders soldiers, youths, Regional Special Forces and government sponsored militias to the battlefield. That’s why we are here and it’s brutal.
This is the era of the Medemer Terror. It is tragic, sinister and destructive. It is not building peace or inclusive dialogue. Well, Abiy thinks he deserves the right detain, silence and even kill his opponents. Because, that is what his state does and effortlessly too. Keeping the Oromo leaders behind bars for over a year and still no proof of the supposed allegations or charges against them. So, when a government does this to Jawar and others, why should be believe the narratives spun about his other enemies?
Alas, that is the Medemer terror in action. That is the policy and the way he will be remembered. Since we cannot remember him for planting green trees, when people are dying, hurt and on the move. When people are detained, seeking refugee elsewhere or dead. We cannot clap for his greatness and his achievements, when so many lives have been touched negatively. These are the lives he was supposed to give peace, harmony and a future too. Not in his power to destroy and annihilate. That is the decision he made, and he shall be remembered for that. Peace.
MinBane 