US Statement on aid situation in Ethiopia – “only a small trickle of convoys has been allowed into Tigray”

Sunday, 22 August 2021 21:48 Written by Martin Plaut

AUGUST 20, 2021 MARTIN PLAUT ETHIOPIA, NEWS, TIGRAY

“To meet the vast humanitarian needs in Tigray, 100 trucks carrying tons of food and life-saving supplies need to arrive each day, which should have meant a total of 5,000 trucks since July 1. However, as of a few days ago, only around 320 had arrived—less than 7 percent of what is required.”

On The Humanitarian Situation In Ethiopia

United States Agency for International Development
Office of Press Relations
Statement
Samantha Power, Administrator
August 19, 2021

In Tigray, where hundreds of thousands are facing famine, food warehouses are virtually empty. This week, for the first time in nine months of conflict, aid workers will run out of food to distribute to the millions of people who are going hungry. USAID and its partners as well as other humanitarian organizations have depleted their stores of food items warehoused in Tigray.

Despite the small trickle of convoys into Tigray and an average of two UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights per week to Mekele during the first half of August, the flow of humanitarian assistance remains woefully insufficient. This shortage is not because food is unavailable, but because the Ethiopian Government is obstructing humanitarian aid and personnel, including land convoys and air access. The U.S. calls on the Ethiopian Government to immediately allow humanitarian assistance to swiftly move into Tigray in order to prevent a catastrophic stop to food assistance that millions need to survive.

Humanitarian organizations have food loaded onto trucks, and they are waiting in Semera, Afar, and other places in Ethiopia, but for the last month and a half only a small trickle of aid convoys has been allowed into Tigray. To meet the vast humanitarian needs in Tigray, 100 trucks carrying tons of food and life-saving supplies need to arrive each day, which should have meant a total of 5,000 trucks since July 1. However, as of a few days ago, only around 320 had arrived—less than 7 percent of what is required. While the Government of Ethiopia has been quick to hail the limited aid as a positive step, it is far too little and far too late. People in Tigray are starving with up to 900,000 in famine conditions and more than five million in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian workers continue to face entirely too many hurdles to make aid convoys happen. They have encountered unacceptable delays at multiple checkpoints, some of which take hours to clear, as well as repeated intensive searches. Aid workers are harassed, and we have seen an increase in troubling and harmful rhetoric coming from the Ethiopian Government against humanitarians. Instead, we need to see action from the Government of Ethiopia that will enable humanitarians to do their jobs and save lives. Fuel deliveries, electricity, telecommunications, and banking services must all be immediately restored and maintained, and humanitarians and relief supplies need to be allowed to move quickly, regularly, and unimpeded into Tigray. In addition, restrictions on aid organizations bringing cash and telecommunications equipment into Tigray need to be lifted in order to facilitate the delivery of lifesaving assistance.

The TPLF’s offensive into other regions will only prolong this conflict and the suffering of the Ethiopian people. The United States urges the TPLF to halt its offensive and withdraw its forces immediately from the Amhara and Afar regions, the Amhara regional government to withdraw its forces from western Tigray, and the Eritrean government to withdraw its forces immediately and permanently from Ethiopia.

The United States remains committed to the welfare of all Ethiopians. All parties must allow humanitarian aid to reach the people whose survival depends on it, and they must end hostilities and commit to a negotiated ceasefire.

For the latest updates on U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Tigray response, visit: Ethiopia | Humanitarian Assistance | US Agency for International Development.

Ethiopia Plans National Dialog in Bid to Defuse Tensions

Saturday, 21 August 2021 01:27 Written by Fasika Tadesse and Samuel Gebre, Bloomberg News

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - JUNE 13: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the inauguration of the newly remodeled Meskel Square on June 13, 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is seeking reelection in the upcoming national and regional parliamentary elections, which could lead to the country's first democratic transfer of power, after the original date of August 2020 was postponed amid the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images) , Photographer: Jemal Countess/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia will begin holding a national dialog in September to address grievances that have undermined stability in the Horn of Africa nation, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said.

A roadmap for the talks will be announced this month and a structure will then be put in place to facilitate them, Billene Seyoum, Abiy’s spokeswoman, told reporters in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday. The discussions form part of a reform process the government embarked upon three years ago, she said, without saying who will participate.

Federal troops and militia’s have been battling dissidents from the northern Tigray region since November, fighting that’s displaced hundreds of thousands of people and left millions more facing hunger. Ethnic rivalries have also degenerated into violence in several other areas, and Abiy is facing calls to grant regional authorities greater autonomy.

On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Ethiopia’s government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, which controls Tigray, to end hostilities and enter into talks.

“It is time for all parties to recognize that there is no military solution and it is vital to preserve the unity and stability of Ethiopia which is critical to the region and beyond,” Guterres said, adding that his special envoy Martin Griffith met TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael to discuss the conflict.

The U.S. is also trying to broker peace, with President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman making his third trip to the region to discuss how to kick-start talks. Samantha Powers, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, visited the country earlier this month.

Source=Ethiopia Plans National Dialog in Bid to Defuse Tensions - BNN Bloomberg

Is Eritrea planning a fresh offensive against Tigray?

Thursday, 19 August 2021 20:30 Written by Eritrea Hub

AUGUST 19, 2021 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS, TIGRAY

Source: Kjetil Tronvoll

Is Eritrea and the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) preparing a new military offensive against Tigray?

Over the last week information of considerable Eritrean troops deployments in Western Tigray has been confirmed by both the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) and international sources.

It is believed that Eritrean forces are filling the vacuum left by the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and Amhara special forces which have pulled out of Western Tigray to fight the TDF offensives in Amhara. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has allegedly promised the Amhara People’s Party that he will defend Western Tigray and has endorsed Amhara control of the area.

More concerning, however, is intelligence on new the Eritrean troop reinforcements along the Eritrea- Tigray/Ethiopia northern border, on the Badme, Rama and Zalambessa frontlines. After the EDF pulled back from central Tigray, there has not been substantial active military engagement on the northern front.

Seen from Asmara, the war in Ethiopia is a “do or die” moment for President Isaias Afwerki.

If the TDF-Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) alliance is successful in bringing about a political transition in Ethiopia, the Eritrean regime will be vulnerable. Hence, Isaias needs to sacrifice more of his people to ensure the survival of Abiy.

As the TDF offensives in Afar and Amhara move forward, Tigray has committed many troops and resources outside of their region, possibly leaving their northern flank vulnerable (at least as seen from Eritrea and Addis/Ethiopia).

Furthermore, in order to ease military pressure on the ENDF and Amhara, and to halt the TDF offensives against Bahir Dar, Semera and Addis Ababa, it would serve Abiy’s interest for Eritrea to launch an attack on the northern front, forcing the TDF to rethink their southern offensives.

The UN, UN Security Council, the US and EU should be attentive of this development, as a renewed Eritrean war in Tigray would be likely to be even more disastrous, with more atrocities, than their earlier engagements.

[Note: this is from a series of Tweets by Kjetil Tronvoll]

EPDP 2021 - A Short Profile

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 20:22 Written by EDPD Information Office

7 Facts You Need to Know about the Famine in Tigray

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:22 Written by Eritrea Hub

Source: Refugees International

David Del Conte

August 13, 2021

Since November 2020, a brutal war in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray has trapped civilians in a waking nightmare. Countless reports have detailed human rights abuses, displacement, sexual violence, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. A growing number of people living through the violence are dependent on life-saving humanitarian assistance for survival, but communications, banking, and access to the region has been largely cut off by warring parties as fighting rages on. Meanwhile, the region is teetering toward widespread famine.

Despite the horror of the situation for millions of people, Tigray’s famine has rarely made front page news or the top of international agendas. But the world cannot look away as Tigray starves. Here are seven facts you need to know about Tigray’s famine:

Tigray is experiencing famine. On August 8 – just two months after the UN declared that “famine-conditions” were affecting 350,000 people in Tigray and just and one month after USAID declared 900,0000 Tigrayans were facing famine – the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) published its food security outlook for Tigray. The report shows there are people throughout the region identified as in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5, i.e. famine). An estimated 5.2 million people are now critically food insecure and require sustained life-saving assistance to prevent them from falling into famine.
Relief aid is not getting in. At the end of June, the Ethiopian government imposed a blockade on Tigray. Since then, according to USAID, only 10 percent of the necessary relief assistance required is being allowed entry to the region. The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it needs 100 trucks every day to enter Tigray to keep up with needs. Given the extreme shortage of relief assistance entering the region, one must assume those needlessly suffering is far higher today.
The blockade is causing extreme human suffering. Since the blockade took effect in June, banks have remained closed, preventing civilians from accessing their money to purchase food. Communications remain cut, blocking people trapped inside Tigray from telling their families they were alive. And fuel has not been allowed entry into the region, shutting down flour mills, water pumps, and electricity generation necessary to maintain medical services.
Needs are mounting. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA’s) most recent Humanitarian Update details the extreme shortage of support for millions of people trapped in the region. In every ‘life-saving’ sector (food, health, water and sanitation, nutrition, and shelter), needs massively outweigh the valiant and dangerous effort of aid workers.
Children are needlessly suffering. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the number of children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Tigray had jumped from 33,000 to 160,000 in just three months, and now estimates a 10-fold increase in the number of children who will suffer from life-threatening malnutrition in Tigray over the next 12 months. Nearly 50 percent of pregnant and lactating mothers screened at health facilities suffer from acute malnutrition.
This is a man-made famine. Humanitarian agencies are concerned that the extreme shortage of food supplies and basic services caused by the blockade will continue to drive famine. The Ethiopian government and parties to the conflict must uphold their responsibility to protect civilians and allow unfettered access for humanitarians to reach populations in need with life-saving assistance before it is too late. It is within their power to do so.
This is the region’s second famine in less than forty years. People in northern Ethiopia also experienced a famine in 1984-85, when an estimated 2 million people died from starvation and related illnesses. This tragic history cannot be repeated.

Right now, people in Tigray have nothing to eat and nothing to feed their children. This is happening in real time. But there is time to prevent the absolute worst of it. The UN Security Council and African Union must set aside political division and see the catastrophe as it really is: a real and growing threat to international security.

Two vulnerable Eritreans in danger of imminently being forced to return to Eritrea from Egypt

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:16 Written by Eritrea Hub

AUGUST 17, 2021 ERITREA HUB NEWS

16 August 2021

Source: Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)

The Egyptian Immigration Authorities are planning to return two Eritrean Asylum-Seekers to their country of origin where they are certain to be imprisoned and likely to face tortured or might even be killed.

Alem Tesfay Abraham and Kibrom Adhanom have been detained at Al Qanater prison in Cairo, since March 2012 and 2014 respectively. They have been detained in humane, harsh conditions, and without due legal process. These two refugees, who had to leave Eritrea for genuine fear of persecution and who wished to claim asylum in a safe country, have spent over nine years in Egyptian prisons without having committed any crime.

The Egyptian and Eritrean governments are planning to forcibly return the two detainees to Eritrea in violation of international law. On Sunday 8 August 2021, the prison management took them to the immigration office, where they met two Eritrean Embassy officials and were informed by the Egyptian immigration officers that they would be sent back to Eritrea.

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that “everyone has the right to freedom of movement” and “the right to leave any country, including his own.” These two men have simply exercised these rights.

Egypt is party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and is also a signatory to the African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. Under these Conventions, Egypt is duty bound to make every effort to protect the rights and ensure the safety of asylum-seekers and refugees, of whatever nationality. Additionally, Article 91 of the country’s 2014 Constitution stipulates that political asylum must be made available to anyone who has been persecuted.

Mr Adhanom and Mr Tesfay Abraham were conscripts in the Eritrean National Service, which can lasts for decades. All able-bodied men and women over 18 are conscripted into National Service for indefinite periods, and are often used as cheap labour, which amounts to slave labour, under very poor conditions in government owned projects, including construction, mining or any other use the regime finds for them. Because of this appalling treatment, thousands of young Eritreans desert and escape their country. Mr Adhanom and Mr Tesfay Abraham are two of such escapees.

The punishments for desertion are severe. If Mr Adhanom and Mr Tesfay Abraham are refouled, they would most certainly be imprisoned incommunicado, under harsh conditions, and tortured. Seeking asylum in another country is a crime in Eritrea; therefore, Mr Adhanom and Mr Tesfay Abraham would be in grave danger if they were to be returned to Eritrea as failed asylum seekers.

Anyone who has left Eritrea without official permission is regarded as a traitor who has committed a crime, according to the Eritrean regime’s policy. Returnees have to sign a “repentance” form and accept ill-defined punishment for this confession. Refouled Eritrean asylum-seekers have faced incommunicado detention, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment for extended periods of time upon return.

The findings of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry into the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea, by highly respected UN experts who took evidence from many witnesses, confirm this mistreatment: –

“A common pattern of treatment of returnees is their arrest upon arrival in Eritrea. They are questioned about the circumstances of their escape, whether they received help to leave the country, how the flight was funded, whether they contact with opposition groups based abroad. Returnees are systematically ill-treated to the point of torture during the interrogation phase. After interrogation, they are detained in particularly harsh conditions…. Returnees… were held in prison between eight months to three years… They were made to undertake forced labour and were frequently punished by prison guards. The Commission finds that, with a few exceptions, those who have been forced to return to the country have been arrested, detained and subjected to ill-treatment and torture.”

In the light of this well-documented and internationally attested evidence, Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRCE) urgently calls upon the government and Immigration Department of Egypt: –

to cease all efforts to repatriate the above-mentioned Eritrean refugees;

to release them immediately from prison;

to provide them with temporary safe accommodation;

to ensure they are accorded all the rights outlined in the UN and African Refugee Conventions;

to ask the UNHCR to assess their asylum cases and seek a safe country where they may be resettled.

—

Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+44 7958 005 637

www.hrc-eritrea.org

Preliminary thoughts on reconfiguring the Horn of Africa

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:05 Written by Martin Plaut

AFRICA, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, HORN OF AFRICA, SOMALIA

Date: 15/08/2021Author: Martin Plaut0 Comments

The war in Tigray is tearing at the seams that bind the current structures holding the nations of the Horn of Africa together.

When the Eritreans joined in the invasion of Tigray, supported by Somali troops, at the start of this war in November this year this was the inevitable outcome. Sudan is now caught up in the war, while all the nations of the region look on with concern.

As the US Institute for Peace warned last year:

“While many of the facts remain unclear, the risks of escalation are certain: Intrastate or interstate conflict would be catastrophic for Ethiopia’s people and for the region and would pose a direct threat to international peace and security. The acceleration of polarization amid violent conflict would also mark the death knell for the country’s nascent reform effort that began two years ago and the promise of a democratic transition that it heralded.

As we cautioned in the study group’s Final Report and Recommendations released on October 29, the fragmentation of Ethiopia would be the largest state collapse in modern history. Ethiopia is five times the size of pre-war Syria by population, and its breakdown would lead to mass interethnic and interreligious conflict; a dangerous vulnerability to exploitation by extremists; an acceleration of illicit trafficking, including of arms; and a humanitarian and security crisis at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East on a scale that would overshadow any existing conflict in the region, including Yemen. As Ethiopia is currently the leading Troop Contributing Country to the United Nations and the African Union peacekeeping missions in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, its collapse would also significantly impact the efforts by both to mitigate and resolve others conflicts in the Horn of Africa.”

Even if an Ethiopian state collapse is avoided, it is clear that a new dispensation for Ethiopia is required, which could involve a new relationship with neighbouring states – and Eritrea in particular.

The Tigrayan perspective

Whether Tigray should remain part of Ethiopia or become an independent state has been a question hotly debated since the TPLF was launched in the 1970’s. It is – not surprisingly – once again on the agenda. The atrocities inflicted on Tigrayans, and particularly on Tigrayan woman, has given this extra impetus.

How might an independent Tigray relate to the remainder of Ethiopia? Would it be viable? What would its borders look like? All these questions – and more – are issues that need to be resolved before a final decision is taken, hopefully in agreement with other Ethiopians.

It is a question for the people of Tigray and the people of the region to decide upon.

The Eritrean perspective

It should not be forgotten that President Isaias convened a meeting of his senior advisers and commanders just before the war began.

As Eritrea Hub reported at the time:

The president told them that the country had to accept that it has a small and not very viable economy and a lengthy Red Sea coast, which Eritrean cannot patrol on its own. He is reported to have suggested that some sort of “union” with Ethiopia might be possible, at least in terms of economic co-operation and maritime security.

In so doing Isaias appears to be echoing Prime Minister Abiy’s grandiose dream of re-establishing the old empire-state of Ethiopia. This idea is not as far-fetched as it would appear, despite the fact that Isaias led Eritrea’s 30 year war of independence from Ethiopia.

The war, which has involved the enforced conscription of tens of thousands of young Eritreans and cost so many lives, has not produced the unity President Isaias was looking for. But it may yet see a new relationship between Eritreans and the people of the region.

Key criteria for regional transformation

If the map of the Horn is to be withdrawn – and it seems likely – then there are some key criteria that should apply:

First – this is an issue for the people of the Horn of Africa. Outside interests should be resisted. Advice can be welcome, but these questions must not be decided by western, Chinese or Russian influence or Arab cash.
Second – the outcome will be shaped by the current conflict but it should not be the result of a solution imposed by the victor; whoever that is.
Third – solutions need to take into account tradition, history and economic realities. The views and needs of minorities need to be protected.

Points to consider

While the shape of a settlement should be arrived at by negotiations by the people of the region, there are some lessons that can be learned from the past and from abroad.

Conflict and war is not inevitable. Bitter wounds can be healed. One only has to consider the tragic losses inflicted on the French and Germans by what amounted to three world wars that they fought against each other. From the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 through the First and Second World Wars the youth of both countries slaughtered each other in their millions. Yet today they live together in peace and harmony, with borders crossed as if they hardly exist.
Nations and nationalities are never finally resolved. One only needs look at the United Kingdom. The British have been attempting to forge a final settlement of the government of these islands since at least 1800 – if not before. Yet the future is far from settled. Ireland gained independence in 1922, creating Ireland and Northern Ireland. Yet the North may – in the not too distant future – leave the UK and join Ireland, if this is agreed in a referendum. Scotland is pushing for independence and this too may come about, if the Scots vote for it in a referendum. There are movements for self-government or independence in Wales, Cornwall and Yorkshire. Some want all of England to have far more devolved administrations. None of this is settled, but these disputes are being resolved by peaceful negotiation and referenda. Not by war.
Nation states and forms of government are important, but not invariably critical. Traditions, religions, social and community links can be just as important. Consider a few of these. Eritreans have visited sacred sites in Tigray down the centuries; irrespective of who ruled in Asmara or Addis Ababa. Somali and Afar traders have crossed vast spaces carrying goods down the years. Sometimes they were called traders, sometimes businessmen, sometimes smugglers. Think of the khat trade, which crosses frontiers irrespective of laws, governments or regulations. Farmers follow their flocks, wherever they lead, in search of fresh pastures. These are vital parts of the life of the Horn of Africa and will continue, whatever is settled in conferences, on battlefields or signed into agreements.

The Tigray Defence Forces strategy

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:01 Written by Martin Plaut

AFRICA, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, HORN OF AFRICA

Date: 16/08/2021Author: Martin Plaut

The TDF has been pushing southwards from Tigray into the Amhara region. It is difficult to be certain of their strategy, but one of the TDF commanders has been giving a rare insight into what is being attempted.

This is the source.

Here is a translation:

“I’m head of 3rd battalion of Ahiferom division. If I were to express the battle of Woldia in few words, since the enemy was boasting a lot, we entered into it after making high preparations.

However, it was not as we had expected. It was a very easy battle. All the weapons and tanks that were there were captured [by the TDF]. The place we are in is called Geregera.

We are continuing towards Gondar. Gayint is next, then we will take control of Debre Tabor and are going to block the Humera route.

We are prepared to block the route between Gondar and Bahir Dar. This is the mission we have been given”.

EXPLAINER: Why Ethiopia’s war crisis is deepening by the day

Monday, 16 August 2021 13:42 Written by Eritrea Hub

AUGUST 15, 2021 ERITREA HUB ETHIOPIA, NEWS, TIGRAY

Source: Associated Press

By CARA ANNAAugust 13, 2021

1 of 7

FILE – In this Saturday, May 8, 2021 file photo, Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The United States said Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 it is sending a special envoy to Ethiopia as the fast-moving conflict in the Tigray region has spread into neighboring regions and Ethiopia’s government this week called on all able citizens to stop the resurgent Tigray forces “once and for all.” (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States says it is sending a special envoy to Ethiopia as the fast-moving conflict in the Tigray region has spread into neighboring regions and Ethiopia’s government this week called on all able citizens to stop the resurgent Tigray forces “once and for all.”

The widening war in Africa’s second-most populous country, with 110 million people, is also a growing humanitarian crisis. Millions of people in Tigray remain beyond the reach of food and other aid as the United Nations and U.S. say Ethiopian authorities allow just a small fraction of what’s needed. And hundreds of thousands of people in the Amhara and Afar regions are displaced as Tigray forces move in, vowing to go to the capital, Addis Ababa, if needed to stop the fighting and remove the blockade on their region of 6 million people.

“It’s one of these cases where we’ve run out of words to describe the horror of what civilians are being inflicted,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters this week. “More conflict can only lead, sadly, to more civilian pain.”

Here’s a look at the latest in the nine-month war and what pressure the U.S. special envoy might apply.

WHAT IS THE U.S. SEEKING IN ETHIOPIA?

The U.S. announced overnight that special envoy Jeffrey Feltman would travel to Ethiopia, neighboring Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates, a key Ethiopia ally, starting on Sunday. This is a “critical moment,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted. “Months of war have brought immense suffering and division to a great nation, that won’t be healed through more fighting. We call on all parties to urgently come to the negotiating table.”

That seems highly unlikely. Ethiopia’s government this year declared the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which dominated the government for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018, a terrorist group. The Tigray forces have set several preconditions for talks and say Abiy no longer has the legitimacy to govern. They retook much of the Tigray region in June in a dramatic turn in the war as Ethiopia’s military retreated.

What began as a political dispute has now killed thousands of people.

Discussing what pressure the U.S. could apply to encourage negotiations, a congressional aide told The Associated Press that “I understand all options are on the table, from Global Magnitsky (sanctions over human rights violations) to an executive order on sanctions, to removal from (the African Growth and Opportunity Act), to more restrictive measures on assistance,” as well as ways to block Ethiopia’s efforts to get cash from international financial institutions. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on policy discussions.

Officials and lawmakers in Washington have signaled impatience as Ethiopian officials deny widespread human rights abuses such as gang-rapes and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans or blame the Tigray forces.

The Ethiopian government’s prickly dismissal of a new Amnesty International report on shocking sexual violence against Tigrayan women during the war “reflects the tone-deafness with which the government is handling the multiple conflicts and humanitarian crises across the country,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Jim Risch tweeted on Thursday.

WHAT DOES ETHIOPIA’S GOVERNMENT SAY?

Ethiopia’s government has repeatedly expressed frustration, alleging without evidence that the U.S., U.N. and others are taking the side of the Tigray forces or supporting the fighters with aid. It has asserted that disproportionate attention is paid to the Tigray people and not enough is done to address alleged abuses by Tigray forces in the Amhara and Afar regions.

The most urgent allegation was raised by the U.N. children’s agency, which cited “credible information from partners” about deadly attacks last week on a camp for newly displaced people in Afar. A U.N. team plans to assess the scene as soon as security allows, the agency said Thursday. Ethiopia’s government has blamed the Tigray forces, whose spokesman Getachew Reda denied it but said they’re willing to cooperate in an independent investigation.

In the Amhara region, humanitarian groups are having trouble reaching their colleagues in Woldiya, one center of the fighting, amid a communications blackout. Now the Tigray forces have formed a military alliance with the Oromo Liberation Army, also designated by Ethiopia as a terrorist group.

On Thursday the prime minister’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, told reporters that the government’s call to arms this week, signaling an end to a unilateral cease-fire, meant that Ethiopians are urged to stop the Tigray forces by “all means necessary.” She said this is not a result of the military’s inability to take on the Tigray forces, and asserted that “in the millions, people are taking this call.”

WHAT ABOUT THE FATE OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE?

Caught in the middle are civilians, and efforts to reach them with aid are increasingly challenging because of the Ethiopian government’s concern that it will end up helping the Tigray forces.

Just 10% of the aid needed for Tigray reached the region in recent weeks, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, told reporters after a brief Ethiopia visit last week in which the prime minister did not meet her. USAID has estimated that up to 900,000 people in Tigray face “man-made” famine conditions while phone, internet and banking services remain cut off.

The U.N. World Food Program on Friday said at least 30 trucks a day must enter the region to address the need and what has arrived so far is a “drop in the ocean.”

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s government has suspended the operations of two major international aid groups, the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council, accusing them of spreading “misinformation.” This has further deterred many humanitarian workers from speaking openly, worried about retaliation. It also means efforts to respond to the crises in the Amhara and Afar regions could be affected.

“Some humanitarian organizations may now alter their public messaging campaigns or self-censor to avoid facing suspension. This would further contribute to Ethiopia’s closing civic space,” the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote on Thursday.

That means even less knowledge about conditions on the ground as many journalists face government-imposed restrictions, it said, adding that “civilians will suffer.”

Qatar asks US court to force Eritrea to pay $300 million debt

Saturday, 14 August 2021 11:22 Written by Asmahan Qarjouli

AUGUST 13, 2021 MARTIN PLAUT NEWS

Source: Doha News

QNB asks US court to order Eritrea to pay $300 million debt

August 11, 2021

Source: Aalmeen News

Officials at the Eritrean embassy in London locked one of the Qatari bank’s lawyers in the building to hinder the delivery of court documents in 2018.

Qatar National Bank QPSC [QNB] asked a Washington, D.C. court to order Eritrea to pay about $300 million of debt after the Horn of Africa nation refused to respond to two lawsuits filed by the lender, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Eritrea borrowed $200 from the Middle East’s largest lender in 2009 and 2010 and only returned $45 of the amount in May 2012 without returning the remaining amount.

The bank later sought legal recourse in the UK in 2018 per the loan agreement, and a year later, a judge ordered Eritrea to pay its creditor $254 million in addition to interest. Eritrea stopped responding to lawyers.

This prompted QNB to request a judgement by default from a US federal court on Friday after filing a complaint in the same US legal body in February, saying that President Isaias Afwerki’s government, who has ruled the country for 28 years, allegedly avoided being served with legal documents.

QNB said that Eritrea’s debt has now risen to $295.3 million, which is equivalent to more than 10% of the African nation’s $2.3 billion gross domestic product [gdp].

Avoiding legal action

QNB alleges that Eritrea has not been responsive with court rulings and chose not to defend itself in both the UK and US cases, while responding to lawyers with hostility.

The bank said in the court filings that staff at the Eritrean embassy in London even locked one of the bank’s lawyers in the diplomatic building until he agreed to leave without handing the court documents.

Another representative was also “physically assaulted” as a receptionist threw the court papers on the embassy’s pavement, after which a British judge allowed the documents to be sent via email or post.

“The receptionist physically knocked the documents out of a process server’s hands and threw them on the pavement outside the embassy’s front door,” read the bank’s complaint.

Among the documents filed by QNB was a letter sent in March 2009 by Eritrea’s Afwerki, in which he stated his commitment to repaying the loan to the Qatari bank through tax revenue and income from the Bisha mine, a gold-copper-zinc project currently run by China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. that entered production ten years ago.

Bloomberg said the legal dispute can lead to the discouragement of investments in Asmara, which already stands as the second last economy out of 190 others in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.

The Washington court’s decision would enable QNB identify and seize Eritrea’s overseas assets.

Source=Qatar asks US court to force Eritrea to pay $300 million debt - Eritrea Hub