Metro

Ethiopians celebrate Orthodox Christmas two months after peace deal with Tigray

Published

3 weeks ago

January 8, 2023

Ethiopians were able to celebrate their Orthodox Christmas two months after a ceasefire agreement was reached between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ended almost two years of war.

The agreement was on November 2, 2022, in Pretoria, South Africa, after former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo and former Kenyan leader, Uhuru Kenyatta, led an African Union mediation team to get the warring factions to come to a truce.

The Orthodox Christmas celebration which held on Saturday, saw crowds of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians flocked to the town of Lalibela to celebratein the hope of a long-awaited reconciliation.Lalibela which has been at the heart of a fierce struggle for several months, changing sides four times, was taken by the Tigrayan rebels during an offensive in mid-2021.

It was recaptured by pro-government forces on December 2021 before falling back into the hands of the Tigrayan fighters 10 days later, who finally withdrew from at the end of last December after announcing their withdrawal to Tigray.

After two years of devastating war in northern Ethiopia between the federal government and rebels in the Tigray region, Africa’s largest Christian site returned to the excitement and fervor of Genna, a major religious festival, a local Ethiopian media said.

“A white tide of tens of thousands of worshippers of all ages, draped in their immaculate netela, a white shawl covering head and shoulders, invaded the city of Lalibela, which is home to 12th and 13th century churches carved into the rock and classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” the United Nations Humanitarian agency wrote on the celebrations.

“In recent years, the crowds have been much smaller. This town in the Amhara region is only about 40 kilometers from Tigray where a conflict between the government and rebels began in November 2020, spreading for a time to neighboring regions ” the agency added.

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Metro

M23 rebels take control of Kitshanga in eastern DR Congo

Published

12 hours ago

January 28, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

The M23 rebels have announced that its fighters have seized control of the strategic town of Kitshanga, in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after days of intense fighting.

The DRC military authorities also confirmed in a statement late on Friday that its forces have withdrawn from the town in a tactical move to protect civilians in the face of a renewed offensive by the rebel militia.

“We have tactically withdrawn from the city in order to attract these genocidal forces deep into the city and avoid the worst for our people in Kitshanga,” spokesman for the military governor of North Kivu, Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, said in the statement.

“We are making every effort to dislodge this enemy,” he added.

Videos then emerged on social media showing the M23 fighters celebrating and claiming they had captured the town.

The M23 rebels said it took control of Kitshanga town on Thursday night after capturing several villages on the road linking the town of about 60,000 people to the provincial capital, Goma.

In an earlier statement, M23′s spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, has accused government troops of attacking civilians in Kitchanga and elsewhere, and said the rebel group was “obliged to intervene and stop another genocide”.

While condemning the recent development, the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO), said more than 500 people, including women and children, are seeking refuge at its base in the town of Kitshanga.

MONUSCO spokesperson, Ndeye Khady Lo, said civilians fleeing from Kitchanga have been given tents, food, water and first aid.

Metro

237 African migrants rescued off Libyan coast

Published

12 hours ago

January 28, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Not less than 237 African migrants were on Friday, rescued after their makeshift boat capsized off the Libyan coast while navigating the dangerous Mediterranean Sea, on their way to Europe.

French medical charity, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which carried out the rescue mission, said the migrants were rescued by its chartered rescue vessel, Geo Barents, which was sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, north of the country’s capital Tripoli, when it received a distress call.

“The Geo Barents ship encountered other overcrowded rubber dinghies with migrants attempting to reach Europe and took them on board,” the NGO said.

“Following instructions by the maritime rescue coordination centre, the ship then sailed towards the northern Italian port of La Spezia.l,” it added.

The MSF and other NGOs operating rescue vessels off Africa’s northern coast have accused the Italian government of deliberately assigning far away ports to discourage their operations, an accusation the Italian Interior Ministry had denied.