Authorities in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region have arrested four employees of a US-based online media outlet, while the whereabouts of two others was unclear, the outlet said on Sunday, in the latest round of arrests involving media. The arrests would add to those of five journalists in another Amhara media …
Read More »Clashes in Ethiopia kill 20 Muslim worshippers – regional Islamic leader
Twenty Muslim worshippers were killed in Ethiopia’s Amhara region in clashes with unidentified armed men, an Islamic leader in the region said. “The incident happened yesterday when Muslims were on their way to bury an individual,” Seid Muhammed, president of the Amhara Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, told Reuters on Wednesday. …
Read More »Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed claims war gains, urges rebels to ‘surrender’
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday urged Tigrayan rebels to surrender, claiming government forces were nearing victory just one week after he vowed to lead military operations at the front. “The youth of Tigray is perishing like leaves. Knowing it is defeated, it is being led by one who …
Read More »Ethiopia says UN staff will face penalties if they break the law
Ethiopian staff working for the United Nations or African Union do not live “in space” and will be punished for any lawbreaking, the government said on Thursday, after the arrest of several U.N. employees for unspecified offences. Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Nov. 2 after rebellious forces from …
Read More »Tigray fighters say Ethiopia capital not facing ‘bloodbath’
Tigray forces fighting Ethiopia’s government on Sunday played down reports that they would face a hostile population or cause a “bloodbath” if they advanced into the capital city. Several countries have urged their nationals to leave Ethiopia and the US has withdrawn diplomats as the year-long conflict in the north …
Read More »Ethiopia declares nationwide emergency as rebels advance: State media
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Tuesday after forces from the northern region of Tigray said they were gaining territory and considering marching on the capital Addis Ababa. The announcement on state-affiliated media came two days after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged citizens to take up arms to defend …
Read More »Tigrayan forces seize strategic town in Ethiopia’s Amhara region: Spokesperson
Rebellious Tigrayan forces said on Saturday they had seized the strategic town of Dessie in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where tens of thousands of ethnic Amharas have sought refuge from an escalation in fighting. The fighters pushed Ethiopian government forces from Dessie and were headed towards the town of Kombolcha, Getachew …
Read More »Ethiopia fighting intensifies amid air strikes on Tigray and clashes in Amhara
An Ethiopian government air strike hit a university in the Tigray regional capital on Friday, rebellious Tigrayan forces and humanitarian sources said, as thousands of people fled fighting further south. The government said its strike targeted a base formerly belonging to the military and now being used by the Tigray …
Read More »125 villagers massacred in Ethiopia’s Amhara: doctors
At least 125 villagers were massacred in Ethiopia’s Amhara region earlier this month, doctors and local officials told AFP Wednesday, but rebels from neighbouring Tigray rejected claims they were responsible. It was the latest reported mass killing in the 10-month conflict in northern Ethiopia between government forces and Tigray rebels …
Read More »Ethiopia says more than 150 aid trucks enter war-hit Tigray over past two days
Ethiopia said on Saturday that more than 150 aid trucks had entered war-torn Tigray over the past two days after the United Nations warned of a “looming catastrophe” in the northern region. A senior UN official said this week that a “de facto aid blockade” was exacerbating the humanitarian crisis …
Read More »Ethiopia rights commission says 150 killed in attack in Oromiya
Gunmen killed at least 150 people last week in western Ethiopia, the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday, in what it described as an attack by an armed group on civilians. The commission said that residents of the Gida Kiremu district in the Eastern Wollega zone told its …
Read More »Ethiopia’s Tigray forces seek new military alliance with insurgents from Oromiya
Forces from Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region said on Wednesday they were in talks to forge a military alliance with insurgents from Ethiopia’s most populous region, Oromiya, heaping pressure on the central government in Addis Ababa. The move could signal an escalation in the country’s nine-month old war and comes a …
Read More »Ethiopia urges citizens to join armed forces as conflict spreads
Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday urged citizens to join the fight against resurgent Tigrayan forces now pushing beyond their own region in a nine-month-old war that has sparked a major refugee crisis. The call to arms came in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: “Now is the …
Read More »At river where Tigrayan bodies floated, fears of ‘many more’
From time to time, a body floating down the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan was a silent reminder of a war conducted in the shadows. But in recent days, the corpses became a flow. Bloated, drained of color from their journey, the bodies were often mutilated: genitals …
Read More »Residents say Tigray rebels take control of UNESCO site Lalibela
The development indicates rebels continuing a weeks-long push beyond Tigray that has, according to Ethiopian officials, displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Rebels from Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region have seized Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the neighbouring Amhara region famed for its 12th-century rock-hewn churches, residents told the …
Read More »Ethiopian troops, refugees fleeing fighting cross into Sudan
Three thousand Ethiopian asylum-seekers crossed into Sudan late Monday, according to a government report seen by AFP, hailing from the Amhara region which borders the conflict-hit Tigray region. The two regions, which both border Sudan, are locked in a decades-old land dispute that has become central to an eight-month-old war …
Read More »Ethiopia’s Amhara urges residents to fight Tigray rebels
Ethiopia’s Amhara region on Sunday called on all armed residents to mobilize for battle against rebels from conflict-hit Tigray, calling it a “survival campaign,” state media reported. Amhara borders Tigray to the south, and the two regions are embroiled in a decades-old land dispute that has become central to the …
Read More »Three more regions reinforce Ethiopia army, Amhara against Tigray forces
Three more Ethiopian regions are sending soldiers to reinforce the national army in its fight against forces from the northern region of Tigray, regional officials said, widening a conflict that has so far largely affected the north. Officials from Oromiya, Sidama, and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Region said …
Read More »Ethiopia PM Abiy’s party wins majority of seats in June parliamentary poll
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party won the most seats in Ethiopia’s parliamentary election, the election board said on Saturday, a victory that assures him another term in office. Abiy’s party won 410 of 436 parliamentary seats, election board deputy chairperson Woubshet Ayele told a news conference in the capital …
Read More »Over 400,000 in Tigray suffering famine now, with 1.8m on brink
Acting UN aid chief Ramesh Rajasingham says the humanitarian situation in conflict-hit northern Ethiopian region has ‘worsened dramatically in recent weeks. More than 400,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray are now suffering famine and 1.8 million others are on the brink, a top United Nations official has said, painting a devastating …
Read More »