NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Dozens of women and girls have been raped and hundreds of civilians killed during fighting in Ethiopia´s Tigray region, according to an official document seen by The Associated Press.
Roughly 40 girls and women between the ages of 13 and 80 were raped in the town of Sheraro in northwestern Tigray, according to the document prepared by Tigray´s regional Emergency Coordination Centre. The center includes regional government bureaus, U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
The document reports eight more rapes, “including gang rape,” in the district of Tselemti, also in northwestern Tigray.
Issued Oct. 14, the document did not state who was responsible for the sexual violence. Nor did it state the time frame in which it occurred.
According to diplomatic sources, Eritrean and Ethiopian forces took control of Sheraro last month. Eritrean troops have fought alongside Ethiopia´s federal military since hostilities resumed in Tigray on Aug. 24 after a lull in fighting.
Diplomats have expressed alarm over reports of civilian casualties in the region as Ethiopia´s federal military this week took control of the major town of Shire and the federal government expressed its aim to capture Tigray´s airports and federal institutions.
A humanitarian worker based in Shire told the AP the town´s airport is now manned by Eritrean forces. Ethiopian and Eritrean forces have captured warehouses belonging to NGOs there, and Eritrean forces are specifically looting vehicles, according to the aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety fears.
U.S. officials have called on Eritrean forces to withdraw from Tigray and urged the parties to agree to an immediate cease-fire. The administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, has described the human cost of the conflict as “staggering.”
The internal document seen by the AP said 159 individuals have been “shot dead” in the Tahtay Adiyabo, Dedebit and Tselemti areas of northwestern Tigray, adding that others were maimed by gunshots and shelling.
A further 157 people were “taken by Eritrean forces” in Tselemti, Dedebit and Sheraro, according to the document, which said there is “no information (on their) whereabouts.”
The latest fighting has halted aid deliveries to Tigray, where around 5 million people need humanitarian help. A lack of fuel and a communications blackout are hindering the distribution of aid supplies that were already in the region.
Ethiopia´s federal government said Thursday it would participate in African Union-led peace talks expected to begin in South Africa next week. Tigray’s fugitive authorities are yet to confirm their attendance but have previously committed to participating in talks mediated by the African Union.
Both the U.N. Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council were due to discuss the conflict on Friday.
A World Food Program spokesperson told the AP “an armed group” entered its warehouse in Shire on Oct. 18, a day after Ethiopia´s federal government announced the town’s capture.
“WFP is actively working to confirm if the armed individuals remain and if any humanitarian stocks or assets have been taken or damaged,” the spokesperson said.
All sides have been accused of atrocities since the conflict in northern Ethiopia began almost two years ago.
Last week a report by the Amhara Association of America advocacy group said the Tigray forces had killed at least 193 civilians and raped 143 women and girls since August in the Raya Kobo area of the Amhara region, which borders Tigray.
The conflict, which began nearly two years ago, has spread from Tigray into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara as Tigray´s leaders try to break the blockade of their region.
“Calling out the atrocities for what they are would at least put Ethiopia and Eritrea on notice that the world is watching, and the long arm of international justice could ultimately prevail. Offenders in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, to name a few, ultimately faced justice after all.”
While the world’s eyes are trained on the war in Ukraine and whether Vladimir Putin is unhinged enough to use nuclear weapons, another war rages mostly unseen some 3,000 miles away in Ethiopia.
The war is centered on the northern region of Tigray, where a long-standing political conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) turned violent in 2020. The region has been under a near total blockade for most of the time since, cut off from humanitarian aid, electricity, telecommunications and banking, leaving 5.3 million civilians in dire straits. The Ethiopian government’s renewed offensive has escalated the crisis even further.
Accurately estimating the dead while war continues is difficult, but the best estimates available suggest at least half a million people have died so far from direct violence, starvation and lack of access to health care. Starvation seems to be a feature rather than a bug in the government’s battle plan. More recent estimates suggest that this number have died in combat alone, possibly bringing the overall deaths closer to a million.
To put it in perspective, the United Nations estimates about 6,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine so far, and estimates put military deaths in the tens of thousands. Even if these estimates are low, the best available numbers suggest that the scale of death in Ethiopia exceeds that in Ukraine many times over. And yet Ethiopia has received a small fraction of attention, both from policymakers and the media.
The U.S. and others must take a more direct approach before the worst fears of the Tigrayan people are realized.
Those fears include a genocide of the people of Tigray. In response to the latest offensive, the United Nations, African Union, United States and other countries have called on all sides to cease hostilities. But generic calls for everyone to stop fighting and quiet behind-the-scenes diplomacy that has been the favored approach so far are a woefully inadequate response.
Tigrayan authorities have indicated that they would respect a cease-fire, but Ethiopian government officials have instead doubled down to lambaste the “evils” of its enemy. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has reportedly dropped leaflets in Tigray stating that anyone remaining behind would be considered a combatant, raising clear concerns that all Tigrayans, a distinct ethnic group, would be targets in an assault.
Sources from the area claim Ethiopian and Eritrean forces (their allies) have been instructed to kill three Tigrayans each, including elderly and children, and that victims’ limbs and skulls are on display.
These stories are unverified given the lack of humanitarian and media access to the region. But given the language and actions of Ethiopia so far, along with the death toll and atrocities already committed, there is little reason not to take them seriously.
Eritrea’s role has complicated efforts to reach a peace, too, as few countries have any leverage to influence its actions, and the TPLF is its sworn enemy. There is no guarantee that Eritrea will stop fighting even if the Ethiopian government comes to the table.
While it’s true that all sides have committed abuses, the scale is hardly comparable, with Ethiopia and Eritrea committing the lion’s share of wanton violence and harm against civilians throughout the conflict. When one side holds this level of responsibility for continuing conflict and suffering, those who hold any sway must speak out clearly and directly against it.
At this stage, peace looks like a long shot, but that does not excuse the inadequate efforts made so far.
The U.S. and the United Nations are often loath to invite criticism by directly calling out states for violent acts against their own people when those states are friends and partners, as Ethiopia is.
It won’t likely end the war, but that is a weak excuse for not trying harder. The innocent people of Tigray deserve acknowledgment, and there is a chance that such international pressure, in combination with policy choices that reduce Ethiopia’s support, through international institutions and individual countries alike, could influence the path Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed chooses.
Calling out the atrocities for what they are would at least put Ethiopia and Eritrea on notice that the world is watching, and the long arm of international justice could ultimately prevail. Offenders in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, to name a few, ultimately faced justice after all.
We must stop shying away from uncomfortable conversations when so many lives are at stake. If U.S. leverage is inadequate, we should press the countries who arm and support Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the international financial institutions like the World Bank which keep the country afloat as its economy falters.
The time for quiet diplomacy is over. The time for alarm has long since passed. Echoing what we’ve heard repeatedly about the plight of Ukraine: If Ethiopia stops fighting, the war ends, but if Tigray stops fighting, in the absence of international oversight and an inclusive peace process, the impoverished people of Tigray might end instead.
Just a quick, brief statement. The Security Council just met to discuss the conflict in Ethiopia, in a closed meeting. And I want to take the opportunity to thank the A3 and the African Union for leading on this process, including the statement that was issued by the African Union today, and we were briefed by the African Union.
It is disappointing that the council did not agree on issuing a statement, which is why it’s important for me to come out here today.
As the Secretary-General said this week, “The situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control. The social fabric is being ripped apart, and civilians are paying a horrific price.” In the past week alone, we’ve seen a serious uptick in fighting and violence. Thousands of Ethiopian, Eritrean, and TPLF forces are engaged in active combat. The scale of the fighting and deaths rival what we’re seeing in Ukraine, and innocent civilians are being caught in the crossfire. Over two years of conflict, as many as half a million – half a million – people have died, and the United States is deeply concerned about the potential for further mass atrocities. And we all should be.
We’re also horrified by the recent death of an aid worker from the International Rescue Committee and the injuries of others. We heard today that a total of 26 humanitarian workers had been killed over the course of the past two years – that’s approximately two per month. This tragedy underscores the serious dangers facing humanitarian workers in the region. And as I told the Security Council just now, it’s past time for all of the parties to lay down their weapons and return to peace. It is past time for a cessation of hostilities and for unhindered humanitarian access to all those in need. And it is past time for Eritrean Defense Forces to halt their joint military offensive and for Ethiopia to ask Eritrea to withdraw its soldiers from Northern Ethiopia.
💭 Malawi Police Exhume 25 Bodies of Ethiopians in Mass Grave. A mass grave was discovered in a government forest reserve in Mzimba district.
Following the discovery of a mass grave in which 25 bodies were found, Malawi police have arrested 72 Ethiopian men who were found hiding in a forest reserve in the northern border town of Karonga.
Ten Malawians have also been arrested on suspicion of being part of a syndicate involved in trafficking the Ethiopians.
On Wednesday, a mass grave was discovered in a government forest reserve in Mzimba district, some 300 km (185 miles) south of where the Ethiopian men were arrested on Thursday.
Young boys from the area are said to have gone into the forest reserve to harvest honey when they were first greeted by the pungent smell of rotting bodies before they discovered body parts including heads and limbs.
The boys reported the matter to village elders who in turn notified the police who went to the forest and discovered the mass grave.
On Thursday morning, a separate grave near the one found on Wednesday was also discovered, where another four bodies were unearthed.
Homeland Security Minister Jean Sendeza, who has travelled to the scene of the mass graves, says authorities plan to conduct a post-mortem to ascertain the causes of death.
Human trafficking has become a huge challenge in Malawi, where hundreds of people are regularly arrested and deported for illegally entering the country with the help of organised syndicates.
Last April, up to 140 illegal immigrants were arrested by Malawi police. They included 133 Ethiopian nationals, six from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan. They are yet to face trial.
Police say the 72 Ethiopians and 10 Malawians arrested on Thursday will soon be taken to court to answer various charges connected to human trafficking and violation of immigration laws.
😈 Saudi King Abdulaziz’s grandson sharply rebuked Joe Biden for threatening to retaliate against OPEC+ oil production cuts. Saudi Prince Saud al-Shaalan reminded President Biden that Saudi Arabia was formed through jihad and martyrdom. It appears that President Biden is dangerously close to losing Saudi Arabia as a U.S. Ally.
❖ Ethiopian New Year’s Day 11. September 2001 (1. Meskerem 1994)
☪ Of the 19 Muslim Jihadists who hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners on the morning of September 11, 2001, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia — and of course, Osama bin Laden was a member of one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families.
Immediately after the attacks, the Bush administration downplayed the Saudi connection and suppressed evidence that might link powerful Saudis to the funding of Islamic extremism and terrorism. The Bush White House didn’t want to upset its relationship with one of the world’s largest oil-producing nations, which was also an American ally with enormous political influence in Washington, and much of what the FBI discovered about possible Saudi links to the attacks remains secret even today.
Evidence made available by the British police shows Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi Arabian government operative, hosting two of the 9/11 hijackers a year before they carried out the attacks.
😈 Saudi King Abdulaziz’s grandson sharply rebuked Joe Biden for threatening to retaliate against OPEC+ oil production cuts. Saudi Prince Saud al-Shaalan reminded President Biden that Saudi Arabia was formed through jihad and martyrdom. It appears that President Biden is dangerously close to losing Saudi Arabia as a U.S. Ally.
❖ Ethiopian New Year’s Day 11. September 2001 (1. Meskerem 1994)
☪ Of the 19 Muslim Jihadists who hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners on the morning of September 11, 2001, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia — and of course, Osama bin Laden was a member of one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families.
Immediately after the attacks, the Bush administration downplayed the Saudi connection and suppressed evidence that might link powerful Saudis to the funding of Islamic extremism and terrorism. The Bush White House didn’t want to upset its relationship with one of the world’s largest oil-producing nations, which was also an American ally with enormous political influence in Washington, and much of what the FBI discovered about possible Saudi links to the attacks remains secret even today.
Evidence made available by the British police shows Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi Arabian government operative, hosting two of the 9/11 hijackers a year before they carried out the attacks.
💭 Tell Me Who Your Friends Are And I Will Tell You Who You Are!
☆ Roman Catholics and Muslims were Allies since the First Crusade. (No wonder ‘The Second Vatican Council‘)
The conquest of the Byzantine metropolis Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in May 1453. When Ottoman Sultan Mehmet conquered Constantinople in 1453, his first destination was Haghia Sophia, the towering seat of Orthodox Christianity. In front of what was then the largest church in the world, he knelt, sprinkled soil on his turban as a sign of humility and recited the Muslim prayer of faith, turning the church into a mosque: “There is no Allah-god but Allah-god, and Mohammed is his prophet.”. The new Antichrist Sultan Erdogan did the same to Hagia Sophia two years ago.
When the Orthodox Church broke away from Rome over the issue of papal authority in 1054, Constantinople became the undisputed political and religious center of the Greek-speaking world.
The city was sacked in 1204 by Western Catholic crusaders, cementing the split between Catholic west and Orthodox east.
In 2004, the late Pope John Paul expressed “disgust and pain” for the sacking of the city by the Fourth Crusade.
☆ Protestantism and ☪ Islam were allies during the early-16th century when the Ottoman Empire, expanding in the Balkans, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The Turks and Protestants imported the Galla-Oromo tribe from Madagascar to the Horn of Africa to use them in their Jihad on Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia. Aḥmad Grāñ and The 16th Century Jihad In Ethiopia is repeated today in the exact same manner.
Ethiopia: The ‘revenge Jihad’ was sought and pre-planned a 126 years ago – after the defeat of Italian Romans at the battle of Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia on March 1, 1896 .
Almost two years ago, with the meticulous knowledge of the C.I.A and State department, Anti-christian Jihadist nations and organizations strategically displaced millions of Orthodox Christians from Western Tigray – so that they could be gathered together in such a concentration camp like here in Shire. Now they are attempting to massacre them. All pre-planned by The UN + USA + Europe + UAE + Israel + Egypt + Oromos + Amharas + TPLF — and God forbid, could be finished within short time like Hitler’s Auschwitz and Dachau concentration and extermination camps.
UN + America & Europe allow their proxies; the Islamo-Protestant Perpetrators (Fascist Oromo Regimes of Ethiopia and Eritrea) to commit crimes against Ancient Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia.
💭 In 1999 the US + Europe (NATO) did the same thing directly against Orthodox Christian Serbia to help Albanian and Turkish Muslims – ‘to avenge’ the death of 45 Albanian Muslim terrorists.
💭 Senator Joe Biden, in 1999, bragged “I suggested bombing of Belgrade. I suggested that American pilots go there and destroy all bridges on the Drina”.
The 78 days of air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombs kept falling even on Serbia’s Easter – called Pascha – which is the holiest day of the Orthodox Christian year. NATO bombed innocent Serbians with Depleted Uranium because they killed 45 Albanian terrorists?! Mind boggling!
In this archived clip, for example, Joe Biden said in a fiery speech, “I will continue with every fiber in my being to keep America involved with troops that can shoot and kill….”
“I believe it is absolutely essential for American troops to be on the ground with loaded rifles and drawn bayonets.”
“Amasra”, anagram: „Asmara„ = capital of the fake state Eritrea. Eritrea, together with the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia, Turkey, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia are waging a genocidal war against ancient Orthodox Christians of Northern Ethiopia – against The Ark of The Covenant.
💭 An explosion deep inside a coalmine in Turkey’s mountainous northern Black Sea region has killed at least 41 people, with rescue efforts and work to contain a fire in the facility continuing on Saturday, hours after the incident.
Turkish officials including the energy minister, Fatih Dönmez, said initial assessments indicated the blast on Friday inside the state-owned mine was caused by a firedamp explosion, a reference to the combustion of pockets of highly flammable gases trapped in the coal bed.
“All search and rescue teams are on duty,” he said, adding that the mine’s ventilation system had continued to work.
State television showed white smoke billowing from the mine entrance over the mountainside in the port town of Amasra, with a reporter at the site stating more than 12 hours after the incident: “The fire is happening underneath us, it’s still active.”
The interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, who travelled to Amasra to oversee rescue efforts, said 110 miners were inside the facility at the time of the explosion, and that 49 had been trapped in a high risk area of the mine.
Rescue workers pushed through the night as concerned relatives of those trapped gathered close to the TTK Amasra Müessese Müdürlüğü mine. Soylu said that by Saturday morning at least 58 had been rescued or escaped from the mine, and a further 11 had been taken to hospital, with the status of one miner unclear.
The incident at a state-run facility in a part of the country traditionally associated with support for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party presents a challenge for the government. There have been a number of high-profile mining disasters in recent memory, drawing questions about whether the state has done enough to protect workers in a dangerous industry.
The head of one Turkish mining union told the local Cumhuriyet news outlet that increasing safety measures after disasters was insufficient. “The important thing is to value people while they are alive,” he said, referencing two major mining disasters in Turkey in 2014. “There are mines all over the world, but these disasters always occur in mines in Turkey,” he said.
A prolonged fire inside a mine in the town of Soma in western Turkey in 2014 caused the worst mining disaster in the country’s history, where 301 miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning and at least 162 others were injured.
That incident drew widespread public outrage, amid questions from families and observers about what they said was insufficient government oversight and lack of safety precautions at the facility.
💭“አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለማስጠበቅ ልዩ ቀውስ ያስፈልጋል።…አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለመጠበቅ የመንግስት ያልሆኑ ተዋናዮችን እና ስልጣን የተሰጣቸውን ግለሰቦችን ማስወገድ ግድ ነው”። “Extraordinary Crisis Needed to Preserve New World Order….The elimination of non-state actors and empowered individuals “must be done” in order to preserve the new world order.
💭 The Washington Post has analyzed photos of shrapnel and satellite imagery and cross-referenced video to confirm that Ethiopia used a Turkish drone in January in an attack that killed at least 59 civilians sheltering in a school in Tigray, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing an analysis by the paper published on Monday.
On January 7, a school was struck by a drone-delivered bomb, killing at least 59 people and gravely injuring dozens more, according to aid workers whose organizations worked at the camp for internally displaced people in Dedebit, located in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray.
According to The Washington Post, more than 300 civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes since September, including more than 100 since the start of this year.
Weapon remnants recovered from the site of the strike by aid workers showed internal components and screw configurations that matched images of Turkish-made MAM-L munitions released by the weapons manufacturer. The MAM-L pairs exclusively with the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drone.
Military experts from the Dutch nongovernmental organization PAX and Amnesty International also identified the weapon used as a MAM-L bomb that is fitted to a TB2 drone, Politico earlier reported.
The attacks have drawn criticism from US President Joe Biden and a warning from the United Nations that they may constitute a grave violation of international law, Politico said.
Drones are rapidly turning into the decisive weapon of the conflict and have helped Ethiopian government forces turn the tide against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed the country for nearly three decades before 2018.
Turkey has exported Bayraktar armed drones manufactured by defense contractor Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Baykar), which is run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar. Ukraine, Poland, Qatar, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Azerbaijan have all taken delivery of the armed drones.
According to Turkey’s 2021 export figures announced by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in early December, Turkey’s arms sales reached a record level, with the biggest increase to African countries.
In the first 11 months of 2021, Turkey exported $2.793 billion worth of defense products, an increase of 39.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The Turkish defense industry, which set an export record of $2.7 billion in 2019, is preparing to set a new record by closing this year with exports of more than $3 billion. For the first time the defense sector had a 1.8 percent share of Turkey’s total exports in November 2021.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 