Politics

Right groups accuse Ethiopian forces of ethnic cleansing in Tigray region

Published

2 years ago

April 7, 2022

Two international human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Ethiopian forces from the Amhara region of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the neighboring Tigray region.

The new report jointly issued by the two rights groups on Wednesday, revealed that hundreds of thousands of civilians in western Tigray have been unlawfully killed, sexually assaulted, forced from their homes with threats and denial of aid, which “amounted to crimes against humanity as well as war crimes,” the report said.

The report also reveal widespread abuses against civilians in the embattled Tigray region allegedly perpetrated by security officials and civilian authorities from the neighboring Amhara region.

“Sometimes, these abuses are with the acquiescence and possible participation of Ethiopian federal forces.

“The abuses are part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Tigrayan civilian population that amount to crimes against humanity as well as war crimes.”

The report, a result of months-long investigation including more than 400 interviews, also allege that several atrocities have been reported in the Tigray war, with Ethiopian government troops and their allies, including troops from neighboring Eritrea, commiting most of the crimes.

Ethiopian federal authorities have, however, strongly refuted the allegations but they have been accused of deliberately targeting Tigrayans for violent attacks since the outbreak of war in November 2020.

Western Tigray has long been a contested territory and has been a point of contention between the ethnic Amhara and Tigray communities for decades.

The Amhara authorities say the area was under their control until the 1990s when the Tigray-led government which ruled Ethiopia for nearly 30 years, redrew internal boundaries that put the territory within Tigray’s borders.

The outbreak of the war brought these longstanding and unaddressed grievances to the fore with Amhara regional forces, along with Ethiopian federal forces, reportedly seizing these territories and displacing Tigrayan civilians in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign, the report added.

1 Comment

Politics

African leaders want record World Bank financing to address climate change

Published

2 hours ago

April 29, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ahead of a World Bank conference scheduled for later this year, African leaders on Monday called for rich countries to commit to record contributions to a low-interest World Bank facility for developing nations.

The leaders stressed that most African countries depend on the fund to sponsor development and combat climate change.

At a meeting in Japan in December, donors will promise to give money to the International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank organization that gives loans with low-interest rates and long terms.

“We call on our partners to meet us at this historic moment of solidarity and respond effectively by increasing their IDA contributions… to at least $120 billion,” Kenya’s President William Ruto told a meeting of African leaders and the World Bank to discuss IDA funding.

African economies were facing a “deepening development and debt crisis that threatens our economic stability, and urgent climate emergencies that demand immediate and collective action for our planet’s survival,” Ruto said.

He talked about the terrible floods in Kenya and the serious drought in Southern African countries like Malawi. If donors promise the least amount that African leaders have asked for, it will be a new high.

The previous high was $93 billion, which was raised in 2021. IDA loans are given out every three years, and donors usually give their money at a world meeting before the loan is given out.

The World Bank said that IDA lends money to 75 poor countries around the world at low interest rates. More than half of these countries are in Africa. Governments use the money to improve access to healthcare and energy, put money into farms, and build important things like roads.

The president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, promised to cut down on the “burdensome” rules that guide lending to countries under the IDA. This would make the process more efficient and get money to countries that need it more quickly.

“We believe a simpler and reimagined IDA can be deployed with more focus to make a meaningful impact,” he said.

Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.