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Children dying in Somalia as food catastrophe worsens
MOGADISHU, Dec 13 (Reuters) – More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of food crises, said its most acute level, “IPC Phase 5 Famine”, had been temporarily averted but things were getting worse.
“They have kept famine outside of the door but nobody knows for how much longer,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson of the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA).
“That people are dying from hunger, there’s no doubt about it, but I cannot put a number on it,” he told a news briefing in Geneva after the latest IPC analysis on Somalia came out.
A two-year drought has decimated crops and livestock across Horn of Africa nations, while the price of food imports has soared because of the war in Ukraine.
In Somalia, where 3 million people have been driven from their homes by conflict or drought, the crisis is compounded by a long-running Islamist insurgency that has hampered humanitarian access to some areas.
The IPC had previously warned that areas of Somalia were at risk of reaching famine levels, but the response by humanitarian organisations and local communities had staved that off.
“The underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted. Prolonged extreme conditions have resulted in massive population displacement and excess cumulative deaths,” it said.
Somalia’s last famine, in 2011, killed a quarter of a million people, half of them before famine was officially declared.
Fearful of a similar or even worse outcome this time, humanitarian chiefs were quick to say the situation was already catastrophic for many Somalis.
‘STOP WAITING’
“I have sat with women and children who have shown me mounds next to their tent in a displaced camp where they buried their two- and three-year-olds,” said James Elder, spokesperson of the U.N. children’s charity UNICEF, at the Geneva briefing.
“Whilst a famine declaration remains important because the world should be past this, we also do know that children are dying now.”
The IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale has a complex set of technical criteria by which the severity of crises are measured. Its Phase 5 has two levels, Catastrophe and Famine.
The Somalia analysis found that 214,000 people were classified in Catastrophe and that number was expected to rise to 727,000 from April, 2023 as humanitarian funding dropped off.
Catastrophe is summarised on the IPC website as a situation where starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.
It said famine was projected from April onwards among agropastoral populations in the districts of Baidoa and Burhakaba, in central Somalia, and among displaced populations in Baidoa town and the capital Mogadishu.
The IPC data showed 5.6 million Somalis were classified in Crisis or worse (Phase 3 or above) and that number would rise from April to 8.3 million — about half the country’s population.
The OCHA is appealing for $2.3 billion to respond to the crisis in Somalia, of which it has so far received $1.3 billion, or 55.2%.
David Miliband, head of aid group the International Rescue Committee, said the underfunding of the appeal showed the world was not treating this as an urgent moment.
“The time for action is now in Somalia,” he told Reuters in an interview, adding that what happened in 2011 should serve as a warning. “Stop waiting for the famine declaration,” he said.
Reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Bhargav Acharya and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg and Sofia Christensen in Dakar and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Ed Osmond
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ethiopia peace talks delayed for logistical reasons
NAIROBI, Oct 7 (Reuters) – African Union-led peace talks proposed for this weekend to try to end a two-year-old conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been delayed for logistical reasons, Tigray forces and two diplomatic sources said on Friday.
Ethiopia’s government and Tigray forces said on Wednesday that they accepted the AU’s invitation to talks in South Africa, which would be the first formal negotiations between the two sides since war broke out in November 2020.
The conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation pits the federal government against regional forces led by a party that used to dominate national politics. Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions uprooted by the violence.
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At least five people were killed and 37 more wounded on Friday in an air strike about 30 km (18 miles) outside Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, the director of the hospital that received the victims.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the incident.
The diplomatic sources, who asked not to be named, said the postponement of this weekend’s talks was related to organising logistics and that a new date had not yet been scheduled.
Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for Tigray forces, said the AU did not consult Tigrayan leaders before sending out the invitations.
“You don’t just expect people to show up on a certain date as if this was some kind of get-together,” he said in a text message.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu and Ebba Kalondo, an AU spokesperson, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about this.
Despite the agreement to hold talks, various parties have voiced concerns.
Some activists from Amhara, a region bordering Tigray that has fought alongside the federal government in the war, oppose the talks.
“The current AU-led peace talks process excludes Amharas – the largest affected group in the war,” the Amhara Association of America, a lobby group, said in a statement.
Even in its letter accepting the AU invitation, the leader of Tigray forces suggested he had reservations, asking for clarification on who had been invited as participants, observers and guarantors.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved before (talks) occurs, and mediators will then face a major challenge … to get the two parties to commit to a new truce,” said William Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
Meanwhile, the government of neighbouring Eritrea, which has also fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal government in the war, has not been invited to the talks, the two diplomats said.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Frances Kerry, William Maclean and Toby Chopra
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Drone strikes hit Ethiopia’s Tigray region after ceasefire offer -local authorities
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NAIROBI, Sept 13 (Reuters) – One person was injured in drone strikes on Mekelle University and a TV station in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the station and a hospital official said, after Tigrayan forces voicedreadiness for another ceasefire with the federal government.
One of the two strikes on Tuesday hit the business campus of Mekelle University while the other hit Dimitsi Woyane TV station that is run by the regional government, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive officer at Ayder Referral Hospital. He cited a witness who arrived with a man wounded in the strike.
The second drone knocked the TV station off the air, Dimitsi Woyane said in a statement posted on Facebook. Images shared by the station appeared to show damaged transmission equipment on the building’s roof.
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Tigrayan regional government spokesperson Getachew Reda said on Twitter that the business campus had been hit by drones.
Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment.
It was third instance of aerial strikes on Mekelle since the nearly two-year-old conflict resumed late last month after a five-month ceasefire. Each side has blamed the other for the renewed fighting.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a further truce without preconditions and would accept an African Union-led peace process. read more
Diplomats described the offer as a potential breakthrough. The Ethiopian government has not yet officially responded.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed as the AU’s chief mediator, met with the American envoy to the Horn of Africa region, Mike Hammer, on Monday, according to a Twitter post from Djibouti’s former ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, who was also present.
The TPLF dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of centralising power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions. Abiy denies this and accuses the TPLF of trying to reclaim power, which it denies.
JOURNALISTS ARRESTED
The conflict has also repeatedly spilled into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.
Two Amhara journalists who publicly criticised the federal government were arrested last week, according to a police document seen by Reuters. The Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second most populous, has been a key part of Abiy’s powerbase.
Gobeze Sisay, the founder of Voice of Amhara, was accused of supporting the TPLF on social media. Meaza Mohamed, a journalist with Roha Media, was accused of encouraging Amhara people to allow the TPLF to pass through their areas, the police document showed.
“Amhara people, especially those close to the Tigrayan border – we are tired of war,” Gobeze said in a Facebook post a week ago.
Efforts by Reuters to contact the two journalists via their Facebook pages elicited no response.
Amhara journalists, politicians and militia members were among thousands arrested during a regional crackdown in May; some remain in prison.
An Ethiopian government spokesperson, the head of the Ethiopian Media Authority and a police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said last month it had documented the arrest of at least 63 journalists and media workers since the conflict erupted.
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Tigrayan forces say ready to accept an AU-led peace process in Ethiopia
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NAIROBI, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Forces in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region that have been fighting the central government for nearly two years said on Sunday they are ready for a ceasefire and would accept an African Union-led peace process.
“We are ready to abide by an immediate and mutually agreed cessation of hostilities,” the Tigrayan forces said in a statement.
Tigray has set up a negotiation team that is ready to be deployed “without delay”, the statement said. The Ethiopian federal government said in June that the African Union (AU) should facilitate peace talks. read more
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Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government has previously said it is willing to enter talks without preconditions.
The United Nations is ready to support the AU-led peace process, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “calls on the parties to seize this opportunity for peace and to take steps to end the violence definitively and opt for dialogue”, Dujarric said.
Tigrayan forces have been at war with the Ethiopian federal government since November 2020. The Tigrayan forces have accused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of centralizing power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions, which Abiy has denied.
Abiy has accused the Tigrayan forces – led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which used to dominate national politics – of trying to reclaim power, which they have denied.
“The next step is to finalize a comprehensive negotiated ceasefire and an all-inclusive political dialogue to resolve issues underlying the current conflict,” the Tigrayan statement said. It said the negotiation team includes Getachew Reda, the spokesperson for the TPLF, and General Tsadkan Gebretinsae.
The TPLF has previously said it wanted free access for humanitarian aid and services such as banking and telephone links restored before starting talks.
The conflict in northern Ethiopia has displaced millions and killed thousands. Fighting re-erupted there last month following a months-long ceasefire. read more
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom with additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Catherine Evans and Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ethiopian, Eritrean troops clash with Tigrayan forces in the north
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NAIROBI, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Allied Ethiopian and Eritrean government troops attacked Tigrayan forces on Thursday inside the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, a Tigrayan military spokesperson said, as the latest flare-up in the conflict entered its second week.
The Ethiopian government blamed the rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) for the renewed violence, saying they had intensified their attacks.
The conflict in northern Ethiopia, pitting federal forces and their Eritrean allies against the TPLF, which runs Tigray’s regional government, broke out in November 2020. Fighting resumed on Aug. 24, breaking a ceasefire in place since March.
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“The enemy, having already relocated a massive force to Eritrea, has now begun a joint campaign with the foreign invading force of Eritrea,” the Tigrayan military command said in a statement.
It said the northern town of Adybayo had been attacked from four directions, while fighting was also ongoing on Tigray’s southern front. TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda spoke on Twitter of “a massive four-pronged offensive” around Adybayo.
The Ethiopian government said intensifying Tigrayan attacks were killing and displacing civilians and destroying property. It also accused the TPLF of diverting food aid meant for hungry Tigrayans.
The government statement did not directly address the TPLF’s allegation of a joint attack by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops in northwestern Tigray.
Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane, the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum and Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not respond to requests for comment.
Eritrea’s ambassador to Kenya, Beyene Russom, tweeted that Tigrayan forces were making a mistake and added “Victory to the Eritrean Defense Forces and the people of Eritrea is inevitable!”
ARRESTS RESUME
A Tigrayan lawyer in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa said he had received reports of dozens of arrests of ethnic Tigrayans, including clergy, since fighting resumed last week.
Hailu Kebede, a senior Tigrayan opposition figure based in Addis, went missing on Aug. 29 after leaving home to see a mechanic, a family member said. Relatives had checked police stations but could not locate him, and an unknown person had answered his phone saying he was not available.
Spokesmen for Addis Ababa police and the federal police did not respond to requests for comment on the alleged arrests or on Hailu’s disappearance.
During previous pivotal moments in the conflict, thousands of Tigrayan civilians have been rounded up and detained with little food or medical care. Dozens died. The Ethiopian government said they were suspected of supporting the TPLF. Most of them were later released without charge.
The conflict in Africa’s second most populous country has killed thousands, displaced millions and pushed parts of Tigray into famine. Almost all of Tigray’s 5.5 million people need food aid, but the latest round of violence has halted all humanitarian convoys.
The war is rooted in old grievances between ethnic groups, built up over decades of turmoil, violent changes of regime, territorial disputes between regions and long periods of authoritarian rule, most recently by a coalition dominated by the TPLF from 1991 to 2018.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has accused the TPLF of seeking to reassert Tigrayan dominance over Ethiopia, while the TPLF accuses him of over-centralising power and oppressing Tigrayans. Each side rejects the other’s narrative.
ERITREA’S ROLE
Verifying claims and counter-claims about events on the ground in Tigray is difficult as reporters are not allowed into the region, which has had few communication links with the outside world since government troops pulled out in mid-2021.
A humanitarian worker in the Tigrayan town of Shire told Reuters that witnesses had reported heavy artillery shelling from Eritrea into Tigray around the town of Shiraro on Wednesday and in the early hours of Thursday.
A militia leader allied to the Ethiopian government, based in Gondar in the Amhara region south of Tigray, cited contacts on the front line as saying there had been “heavy shelling from our side” aimed at Tigrayan trenches around Shiraro.
Eritrea fought a war against Ethiopia, then run by the TPLF, in 1998-2000 and has remained an enemy of the TPLF. It sent troops into Tigray to support the Ethiopian military immediately after fighting broke out in November 2020.
The Eritrean government declared a ceasefire in March, but in May, Eritrean forces fired at least 23 shells at Shiraro, killing a 14-year-old girl and wounding 18 people, a U.N. bulletin said. Eritrea did not respond to requests for comment at the time.
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Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Estelle Shirbon and George Obulutsa; Editing by Robert Birsel and Clarence Fernandez
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Air strike hits capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region – hospital
NAIROBI, Aug 26 (Reuters) – An air strike killed at least seven people in the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Friday, medical officials there said, the first such attack after a four-month old ceasefire collapsed this week.
The officials said three children were among the dead but a a federal government spokesman denied any civilian casualties.
The air strike on Mekelle took place two days after fighting broke out again between the national government and Tigrayan forces on the border of the Tigray and Amhara regions, shattering the ceasefire.
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Tigrai Television, controlled by the regional authorities, blamed the federal government for the strike. No other military aircraft operate in Ethiopian airspace.
The Ethiopian government subsequently urged residents of Tigray to stay away from military facilities, saying it intended to “take actions to target the military forces”.
Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive of Ayder Hospital, said on Twitter the hospital had received four dead, including two children, and nine wounded.
He said the strike had hit a children’s playground. Reuters could not independently verify his account. It was not clear if there were any military facilities nearby.
Federal government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said news of civilian casualties was “lies and fabricated drama” and accused Tigrayan authorities of “dumping body bags”.
He denied government strikes hit civilian facilities and said they only targeted military sites.
Footage published by Tigrai TV showed a building with the roof blown off, revealing a twisted jumble of slides and emergency workers carrying a stretcher from behind a damaged pink wall painted with a giant butterfly.
People inspect a damaged playground following an air strike in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, August 26, 2022 in this still image taken from video. Tigrai TV/Reuters TV via REUTERS
TORN APART
Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at Ayder Hospital, said a colleague at Mekelle Hospital told him it had received three more bodies – a mother and her child and another unidentified person – bringing the total number of dead to seven.
The bodies brought to Ayder included boy around 10, two women and a young teenager, he said.
“Their bodies were torn apart,” he told Reuters. “I have seen their bodies myself.”
The surgeon said that restrictions on medical supplies entering Tigray meant the hospital was short of vital supplies, including intravenous fluids, antibiotics and pain killers.
Ethiopian Health Minister Lia Tadesse did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the shortages.
A humanitarian source in Mekelle confirmed hearing an explosion and anti-aircraft gunfire in the city on Friday.
Government airstrikes have previously killed civilians, investigators said. In January, a drone strike killed 56 people and injured 30, including children, in a camp for displaced people in Dedebit, according to witnesses. The government did not respond to requests for comment.
War erupted in Tigray in November 2020 and spread to the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara a year ago. Last November, Tigrayan forces marched towards Addis Ababa but were driven back by a government offensive.
A ceasefire was announced in March after both sides fought to a stalemate and the government declared a humanitarian truce, allowing badly needed food aid into the region.
When fighting erupted this week, both blamed each other.
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Ethiopia forms body to negotiate with rebellious Tigray forces
ADDIS ABABA, June 14 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Tuesday the federal government had formed a committee to negotiate with forces from the rebellious northern region of Tigray, in the first public confirmation of a key step towards peace negotations.
The nearly two-year conflict in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, has displaced more than 9 million people, plunged parts of Tigray into famine conditions and killed thousands of civilians.
“Regarding the peace … a committee has been established and it will study how we will conduct talks,” Abiy told parliament, the first time he has publicly referred to the body.
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The committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, has 10 to 15 days to hammer out details of negotiations.
Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said his group was prepared to participate in a “credible, impartial and principled” peace process and would send a delegation.
The TPLF – a former rebel army turned political party – dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment in 2018 reduced their rule to Tigray.
“We are not prepared to make secret deals or bargain away our principles for material inducements,” Debretsion said in an open letter posted on Twitter.
The TPLF accused Abiy of wanting to centralise power at the expense of the regions, while he said they were seeking to regain national power.
CONFLICT
Fighting erupted in Tigray in November 2020 and spilled over into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara last year.
Troops from neighbouring Eritrea also entered the conflict in support of Abiy’s force. Eritrean and Ethiopian forces withdrew from most of Tigray in mid-2021 and the Abiy government declared a unilateral ceasefire in March. read more
Legislator Desalegn Chane said on Tuesday that negotiations should not exclude Amhara and Eritrean forces. Both fought on the side of the Ethiopian military, but faced mounting accusations of abuses, which they denied.
Last month, regional state media reported 4,000 people had been arrested in Amhara – including a prominent general, militia members and journalists. Analysts said it appeared that the central government was trying to reassert its authority over some Amhara factions; the government said the arrests were related to “illegal activities” and possible killings.
The war between the national government forces and its allies and the Tigrayan forces has upset Abiy’s plans to modernise Ethiopia’s sclerotic state-run economy.
Widespread reports of mass killings of civilians and sexual violence and allegations of ethnic cleansing also triggered Ethiopia’s suspension from a major trade agreement that gave Ethiopia preferential access to U.S. markets – a move the government said could cost the nation 1 million jobs.
The government has said the reports of rights abuses are exaggerated.
A U.N. investigation found all sides had committed abuses, but although the national rights body has released reports on abuses in Amhara and Afar, the full extent of killings and rapes in Tigray has yet to be documented.
(This story corrects attribution of TPLF reaction in paragraphs 5 and 7.)
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Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Gareth Jones and Deepa Babington
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.