Ethiopia: UNICEF – Continuing crisis for children in Tigray, Ethiopia, amid reports of atrocities (19.03.2021)

Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore

NEW YORK, 19 March 2021 – “UNICEF remains deeply concerned about the continuing crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia, and its worrying implications for children and their access to basic social services.

“Five months since the start of the conflict, a clearer picture is emerging of killings and sexual violence against women and children in Tigray. The reported murder of at least 20 children at Maryam Dengelat Church last November will continue to haunt families and communities.

“Schools and health centers have been looted, vandalized and occupied by armed forces and groups. Organizations on the ground have reported deliberate attacks on health facilities and warned that the limited health services that are functional are unable to cope with the needs.

“According to assessments conducted at the end of February 2021, violence and looting have left nearly 60 per cent of health care facilities not operational. Some 57 per cent of boreholes in 13 towns surveyed are not functional and a quarter of the region’s schools have sustained damage from the conflict.

“Families continue to flee for their lives.

“We are working with our partners to ensure that critical supplies continue to reach those most in need and that populations can safely access essential services. We are also stepping up our staff presence in the region to respond to the scale of the challenge.

“However, humanitarian aid alone is not enough.

“Monitoring, reporting and protection services for those affected must be urgently expanded to meet the growing needs of survivors.

“Parties to the conflict must ensure that children are protected from harm at all times. Basic service outlets, such as health centers and schools, must be protected and the safety and security of everyone working in and accessing those services guaranteed.”

Opinion: Abiy gives a “final notice” today after starting the “final phase” in the end of November 2020

Today’s statement by the Federal Police Commission was issued as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the start of final phase of law enforcement operation and called on “the people of Mekelle and its environs to disarm, stay at home and stay away from military targets and take all necessary precautions.”” (Addis Standard, 26.11.2020).

Today is a weird day. As the prolonged conflict between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Amhara Paramilitary Group ‘Fano’ against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that started early in November 2020. In the end of the month… about the 25th or 26th November 2020 the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali that the Law Enforcement Operation was going its final phase.

However, we are now in the middle of March 2021 and the Final Phase isn’t over. Even when the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara armed personnel is fighting one enemy. This mechanical and conventional war is continuing. Where the devastation reports are coming out. Where hospital are looted and used as bases. Woman have been raped and civilians killed in massacres. Villages burned down and so fourth. The state are leaving no stone unturned to seal the victory.

Every time there is a report or an article in the Foreign Press. It is dismissed and debunked by the state. While the state is willing to lie about the current state of affairs. Therefore, the state never takes any responsibility for the efforts of the little reporting that is happening. While they are only accepting their narrative. The state are not accepting the ills of the wars and only points at the TPLF.

Yes, the TPLF have been an bad actor in the past. However, currently the baddest actor is the Prosperity Party and Federal Government who is killing its own, starving its own and getting many either internally displaced or seeking refuge abroad. That is the mere reality of this. The giant elephant in the room is the war-crimes and the crimes against humanity. That we know the state wants to blame on the TPLF. While not proving anything.

Already on the 18th December 2020 the state started to offer bounty on the TPLF leaders. However, that is not working or people are not co-operating with the interim government in the region. Neither is the state done with its final phase. That is why they got to send a final notice to the TPLF. This is happening after the warnings of late November 2020. The state is clearly not winning or having the control its speaking off. When they have to do this yet again.

Prime Minister Abiy is clearly not winning this war. Even when he has three armies against one. By share amount of numbers and abilities of the state. He should win, but they are clearly not able to outsmart or outplay the TPLF. If they was able to do so…

The Office of the Prime Minister wouldn’t say this:

The government is calling on senior TPLF military and political leaders, who are suspected to have played a key role in the crime, to surrender peacefully to law enforcement agencies. The government calls on these leaders to do their part by learning from the devastation and damage so far, presenting themselves to justice, preventing further national loss and not shedding the blood of citizens in vain” (Abiy, 19.03.2021).

This is the same government that said they had them in the end of November 2020 and put bounties on their head in the middle of December 2020. They are now in March 2021 thinking they would cease the battle and leave their swords. Knowing that they will never be accepted and be seen as “treasonous” by this government. The state will also ensure their demise and stop them from being a viable part of politics. Therefore, why would the TPLF do that?

Especially, when they had constitutional grievances, which the state used as reasons. The state had already for months retaliated and stopped the business between the leadership in Mekelle and Addis Ababa. Therefore, the state knows they played apart of this too and they we’re already prepared with mechanical brigades and soldiers on two fronts before the Northern Command was hit. This is why the state knew what they we’re doing and it was well planned.

We know the state will use all means to discredit and go after the TPLF. While never taking any responsibility or being accountable. Still, they will blame the aid agencies, media houses and all reporting happening, which isn’t directly copied from the state.

This is all known now. There is two types of truths in Ethiopia. The actual truth and what the state publishes as truth. The state could at one point say the Tigray region was accessible for aid agencies, but at that point …. most of the region was out of their reach. Which is still an issue and the state will still claim they are covering everything. That they are saying without proving it, but expecting us to eat out of their hands.

Prime Minister Abiy is again coming with a harsh warning. Like that will be “final”. If it would be final. The Final Phase would already be done, but the PM opened a can of worms and he cannot put them back in the can. He has already unleashed a monster he cannot control and his now a war-lord. That is who the Prime Minister is now.

Abiy is a warlord and acts like one now. That is why his continuing this and thinks he can end it all with statements like these. They look good with headlines, but they will not resolve the war. The war he has started will not end with words like these. No, he cannot bully the enemy like this and thinking he can overcome them this way. That will not happen.

Prime Minister Abiy might says otherwise… but we know the deal. The bullets will fly until the end of the enemies. He will ensure their end at all costs. With the knowledge of this and his will to get total control. The PM will let this region burn and its citizens suffer, because the TPLF hurt his pride and he cannot put that aside. Peace.

Ethiopia: Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) – Final Notice from the Government to all allied with the TPLF Outlaws (19.03.2021)

Ethiopia: Salsay Weyane Tigray (SaWeT), National Congress of Great Tigray (Baytone) and Tigray Independence Party (TIP) Joint Letter to Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Commissioner of the African Union – The Involvement of the African Union in investigating genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, massacre and rape committed on the people of Tigray (18.03.2021)

Ethiopia: Oromo Political Prisoners Defence Team – Journalist Melese Diribsa Pleads Not Guilty at Federal High Court Hearing (15.03.2021)

March 15, 2021

His statement:

I am a journalist. I didn’t become journalist off the streets. I studied journalism and have over 10 years of experience. That’s why I do my job very well. Unfortunately, journalism doesn’t have respect in this country. The government silences those who criticize its actions and policies.

We thought there were some reforms in our country and decided to get to work.
Dr. Abiy’s administration silences anyone whose ideas don’t align with his, and for that reason he targets journalists. I am targeted because of my qualifications and because I do my job with the utmost professionalism. I am not guilty of the fabricated charges against me. I am being punished by the same government that continues to crack down on journalists and suppress media in this country.

Melese Diribsa was a journalist at Oromia Media Network before he was arrested on June 30, 2020.

Ethiopia: Oromo Political Prisoners Defence Team – Dejene Tafa, High Ranking OFC Official, Pleads Not Guilty at Federal High Court Hearing (15.03.2021)

March 15, 2021

Mr. Tafa’s statement:

The charges brought against me aren’t clear and are not sufficient to plead guilty. The Criminal Code provision I am being charged with states the use of a firearm was used to incite violence. Yet, the content of one of the charges brought against me is inciting violence by the use of stones and sticks. The charges against me and the Criminal Code provision I’m being charged with are unrelated. I was arrested one week after Hacaaluu Hundessa’s assassination. I was surrounded and arrested in my home, not on the way to the funeral home. The weapon charge has already been dismissed by this court. The prosecutor presented stones and sticks to charge Oromos with possession of weapons. We believe that the only nuclear weapon Oromos have is to use our farming products, including wheat and other crops, for peaceful struggle.

I am also being charged for saying “the government, particularly the House of Peoples Representatives, would lose its legitimacy on Sene 30th (July 7th, 2020).” It’s my right to say that and I will repeat it without hesitation: the current government has finished its term and there is no legitimate government in place currently. The incumbent, knowing very well that Dr. Abiy’s government term has expired, has interpreted the law to accommodate the expiring term.

The other thing I’m being charged with is for saying, “there needs to be a transitional government.” Yes, I still believe there needs to be a transitional government. For many years, the struggle of the people for freedom and democracy has been aborted by successive oppressive governments. Now, we don’t want another fake election, like the one Prosperity Party is currently preparing. We need an inclusive transitional government. The way things are going currently, it is inevitable that a transitional government will be established.

Thank you.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF): Health facilities targeted in Ethiopia’s Tigray region (15.03.2021)

In some health facilities across Tigray, the looting of health facilities continues, according to MSF teams.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 15, 2021 – Health facilities across Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been looted, vandalised and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack on healthcare, according to teams from international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Of 106 health facilities visited by MSF teams between mid-December and early March, nearly 70 per cent had been looted and more than 30 percent had been damaged; just 13 per cent were functioning normally.

In some health facilities across Tigray, the looting of health facilities continues, according to MSF teams. While some looting may have been opportunistic, health facilities in most areas appear to have been deliberately vandalised to make them non-functional.  In many health centers, such as in Debre Abay and May Kuhli in the North-West, teams found destroyed equipment, smashed doors and windows, and medicine and patient files scattered across floors.

In Adwa hospital in central Tigray, medical equipment, including ultrasound machines and monitors, had been deliberately smashed. In the same region, the health facility in Semema was reportedly looted twice by soldiers before being set on fire, while the health centre in Sebeya was hit by rockets, destroying the delivery room.

Hospitals occupied by soldiers

Every fifth health facility visited by MSF teams was occupied by soldiers. In some instances this was temporary, in others the armed occupation continues. In Mugulat in east Tigray, Eritrean soldiers are still using the health facility as their base. The hospital in Abiy Addi in central Tigray, which serves a population of half a million, was occupied by Ethiopian forces until early March.

“The army used Abiy Addi hospital as a military base and to stabilise their injured soldiers,” says MSF emergency coordinator Kate Nolan. “During that time it was not accessible to the general population. They had to go the town’s health centre, which was not equipped to provide secondary medical care – they can’t do blood transfusions, for example, or treat gunshot wounds.” 

Ambulances seized

Few health facilities in Tigray now have ambulances, as most have been seized by armed groups. In and around the city of Adigrat in east Tigray, for example, some 20 ambulances were taken from the hospital and nearby health centres. Later, MSF teams saw some of these vehicles being used by soldiers near the Eritrean border, to transport goods. As a result, the referral system in Tigray for transporting sick patients is almost non-existent. Patients travel long distances, sometimes walking for days, to reach essential health services.

Many health facilities have few – or no – remaining staff. Some have fled in fear; others no longer come to work because they have not been paid in months.

Devastating impact on population

“The attacks on Tigray’s health facilities are having a devastating impact on the population,” says MSF general director Oliver Behn. “Health facilities and health staff need to be protected during a conflict, in accordance with international humanitarian law. This is clearly not happening in Tigray.”

Before the conflict began in November 2020, Tigray had one of the best health systems in Ethiopia, with health posts in villages, health centres and hospitals in towns, and a functioning referral system with ambulances transporting sick patients to hospital. This health system has almost completely collapsed.

MSF staff conducting mobile clinics in rural areas of Tigray hear of women who have died in childbirth because they were unable to get to a hospital due to the lack of ambulances, rampant insecurity on the roads and a night-time curfew. Meanwhile many women are giving birth in unhygienic conditions in informal displacement camps.

In the past four months, few pregnant women have received antenatal or postnatal care, and children have gone unvaccinated, raising the risk of future outbreaks of infectious diseases. Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and HIV, as well as psychiatric patients, are going without lifesaving drugs. Survivors of sexual violence are often unable to get medical and psychological care.

“The health system needs to be restored as soon as possible,” says Behn. “Health facilities need to be rehabilitated and receive more supplies and ambulances, and staff need to receive salaries and the opportunity to work in a safe environment. Most importantly, all armed groups in this conflict need to respect and protect health facilities and medical staff.”

Eritrea: Ministry of Foreign Affaris – EU’s Unwarranted Statement on Eritrea (14.03.2021)

Ethiopia: Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – OLF Press Release Regarding the Illegal General Assembly currently taking place in the OLF Headquarter, Finfinnee (March 12, 2021)

Due to the confusion created by a particular splinter group, organized and financed by external body, from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), our organization was required by National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) to conduct an extraordinary General Assembly meeting to clear this confusion, particularly in the leadership. The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has also supported the intention of OLF to call a general assembly to resolve the confusion around the OLF leadership before the forthcoming National election. To this end, OLF Preparatory Committee priorly elected by Central Committee, and since then started working toward its implementation according to our constitution and internal procedures of conducting a General Assembly. NEBE is informed by formal letter of this committee to this effect. In the meantime, the committee has continued closely working and making appropriate communication. For instance, we have been formally updating NEBE with our progress and milestones of organizing the Assembly. At the same time, OLF has been appealing to the NEBE to facilitate the Assembly by, for example, opening our headquarter office in Finfinnee, which was closed forcefully by Addis Ababa police force. Even, OLF has written an official letter on 25/02/2021 to the NEBE demanding to facilitate the opening of our headquarters and create a conducive environment for the Assembly to be held.

As can be recalled that on 01/08/2020 the Addis Ababa police commission forcefully closed our headquarters without due court process. Since this day, our headquarter was under the Addis Ababa police commission’s surveillance who oversees all the activities that take place in the office and around the compound. However, according to the information we are receiving, an illegal conference is currently taking place in the office by a splinter group with heavy government police presence. Based on the information we had, on 12/03/2021 OLF has written an official letter to the Addis Ababa police commission to stop this illegal meeting before it is being held, and failing this, the police commission would bear the responsibilities they took when they evacuated us.

We believe that this conference currently running in our headquarter is entirely illegal and should not be allowed to a splinter group. Also, this is a lack of accountability to the body that knowingly concedes this unlawful conference. The splinter group has no legal ground or constitutional mandate to undertake this General Assembly, which also violates the organization’s constitution and internal procedures and the NEBE registration rules of A6112/2019. It is important here to note that the Addis Ababa police commission has no legal mandate to allow this splinter group to carry out a conference in our office without the chairman of the organization’s knowledge and endorsement, particularly after forcefully vacating us, the OLF leadership, including the chairman, staff, and members since August 01, 2020.

Therefore, the OLF would like to inform the Oromo people, the Ethiopian peoples, and the international community that illegal, unfair, and political sabotage is taking place against OLF and push out the country into more chaos. The whole responsibility lies on the government and its institutions on the impact of this illegal act.

We would also like to demand independence and impartiality of key institutions again in the country, including the NEBE, the judiciary, and the government’s law enforcement branch, particularly the Addis Ababa Police Commission to correct this gross mistake.

We thank our members and supporters for their vigilance and total boycott from this bogus meeting and call for continued perseverance to protect their organization.

Oromo Liberation Front

March 12, 2021

Ethiopia: Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Press Stateent on allegations of “ethnic cleansing” (13.03.2021)