KYIV, Dec 10 (Reuters) – All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people without power, officials said on Saturday.
“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity… It doesn’t take hours, but a few days, unfortunately.”
Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.
Norway was sending $100 million to help restore Ukraine’s energy system, Zelenskiy said.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Odesa’s regional administration, said electricity for the city’s population will be restored “in the coming days,” while complete restoration of the networks may take two to three months.
Bratchuk said an earlier Facebook post by the region’s administration, advising some people to consider evacuating, was being investigated by Ukraine’s security services as “an element of the hybrid war” by Russia.
That post has since been deleted.
“Not a single representative of the authorities in the region made any calls for the evacuation of the inhabitants of Odesa and the region,” Bratchuk said.
Odesa had more than 1 million residents before the Feb. 24 invasion that Russia calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” its smaller neighbour.
Kyiv says Russia has launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at targets in Ukraine, describing the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating effect on civilian life. Moscow says its attacks are militarily legitimate and that it does not target civilians.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said two power facilities in Odesa region were hit by Shahed-136 drones.
Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook that 15 drones had been launched against targets in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and 10 had been shot down.
Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow. Kyiv and its Western allies say that is a lie.
Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that it believed Iran’s military support for Russia was likely to increase in the coming months, including possible deliveries of ballistic missiles.
Reporting by Max Hunder and David Ljunggren; Editing by Ros Russell, Daniel Wallis and William Mallard
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BELGRADE, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Serbia will ask NATO peacekeepers to let it deploy Serbian military and police in Kosovo, although it believes there is no chance of the request being approved, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday.
Vucic told a news conference in Belgrade that he would make the request in a letter to the commander of the NATO force KFOR.
Vucic’s remarks came after a spate of incidents between Kosovo authorities and local Serbs who constitute a majority in northern areas of Albanian-majority Kosovo.
“We will request from the KFOR commander to ensure the deployment of army and police personnel of the Republic of Serbia to the territory of Kosovo and Metohija,” Vucic told a news conference in Belgrade. He said he had “no illusions” that the request would be accepted.
The government in Belgrade would formally adopt the document on Monday or Tuesday, he said.
It would be the first time Belgrade requested to deploy troops in Kosovo, under provisions of a U.N. Security Council resolution which ended a 1998-1999 war, in which NATO interceded against Serbia to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.
The resolution says Serbia can deploy up to 1,000 military, police and customs officials to Orthodox Christian religious sites, areas with Serb majorities and border crossings, if such a deployment is approved by KFOR’s commander.
At the time it was agreed, Kosovo was internationally recognised as part of Serbia. With the West’s backing, Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a declaration not recognised by Serbia.
Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic
Editing by Peter Graff
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KOCHI, India Nov 28 (Reuters) – More than 80 people were wounded in southern India as villagers halting the construction of a $900 million port clashed with police, the latest escalation of a months-old protest waged by a mostly Christian fishing community against Asia’s richest man.
The protests are a major headache for Gautam Adani’s $23 billion ports-and-logistics company which has been forced to stop work on the Vizhinjam seaport that is seen winning business from rivals in Dubai, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Construction, however, has been halted for more than three months after villagers blocked the entrance of the site, blaming the port of causing coastal erosion and depriving them of their livelihoods.
Over the weekend, police arrested several protesters after they blocked Adani’s construction vehicles from entering the port, despite a court order for work to resume.
The arrests prompted hundreds of protesters, led by Roman Catholic priests, to march on the police station, clash with personnel and damage vehicles there, according to police documents and footage on local television.
Senior local police official M R Ajith Kumar told Reuters 36 officers were wounded in the clashes. Joseph Johnson, one of the protest leaders, said at least 46 protesters were also hurt.
Located on the southern tip of India, the port seeks to plug into lucrative East-West trade routes, adding to the global reach of the business led by billionaire Adani, estimated by Forbes to be the world’s third richest man.
Asked about the latest protest, the Adani Group did not immediately comment. The company has said that the port complies with all laws and cited studies that show it is not linked to shoreline erosion. The state government has also said that any erosion was due to natural causes.
FACTBOX – Major industrial disputes in India read more
The protests have continued despite repeated orders by the Kerala state’s top court to allow construction to start. Police have largely been unwilling to take any action, fearful that doing so will set off social and religious tensions.
In the latest clashes, police documents said the protesters “came with lethal weapons and barged into the station and held the police hostage, threatening that if people in custody were not released they would set the station on fire.” Eugine H. Pereira, the vicar general of the archdiocese and a protest leader, said the police pelted the protesters with stones.
The port protests recall the backlash Adani faced in Australia over his Carmichael coal mine. There, activists concerned about carbon emissions and damage to the Great Barrier Reef forced Adani to downsize production targets and delayed the mine’s first coal shipment by six years.
Writing by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Miral Fahmy
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OTTAWA, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Canada launched its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy on Sunday, vowing more resources to deal with a “disruptive” China while working with the world’s second-biggest economy on climate change and trade issues.
The 26-page document outlined C$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion) spending, including to boost Canada’s military presence and cyber security in the region and tighten foreign investment rules to protect intellectual property and prevent Chinese state-owned enterprises from snapping up critical mineral supplies.
The blueprint is to deepen ties with a fast-growing region of 40 countries accounting for almost C$50 trillion in economic activity. But the focus is on China, which is mentioned more than 50 times, at a moment when bilateral ties are frosty.
“China is an increasingly disruptive global power,” said the strategy. “China is looking to shape the international order into a more permissive environment for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government wants to diversify trade and economic ties that are overwhelmingly reliant on the United States. Official data for September show bilateral trade with China accounted for under 7% of the total, compared to 68% for the United States.
The strategy highlighted Beijing’s “foreign interference and increasingly coercive treatment of other countries.
“Our approach … is shaped by a realistic and clear-eyed assessment of today’s China. In areas of profound disagreement, we will challenge China,” it said.
Tensions soared in late 2018 after Canadian police detained a Huawei Technologies executive and Beijing subsequently arrested two Canadians on spying charges. All three were released last year, but relations remain sour.
Earlier this month Canada ordered three Chinese companies to divest their investments in Canadian critical minerals, citing national security.
The document, in a section mentioning China, said Ottawa would review and update legislation enabling it to act “decisively when investments from state-owned enterprises and other foreign entities threaten our national security, including our critical minerals supply chains.”
The document recognized the significant opportunities for Canadian exporters and said co-operation with Beijing was necessary to address some of the “world’s existential pressures,” including climate change, global health and nuclear proliferation.
Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said it is important that the government converts “aspirations to actions and actions into accomplishments.”
The document said Canada would boost its naval presence in the region and “increase our military engagement and intelligence capacity as a means of mitigating coercive behavior and threats to regional security.”
Canada belongs to the Group of Seven major industrialized nations, which wants significant measures in response to North Korean missile launches.
The document said Ottawa was engaging in the region with partners such as the United States and the European Union.
Canada needed to keep talking to nations it had fundamental disagreements with, it said, but did not name them.
($1 = 1.3377 Canadian dollars)
(This story has been corrected to fix the amount to C$2.3 billion from C$2.6 billion in the second paragraph.)
Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Denny Thomas, Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis
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David Ljunggren
Thomson Reuters
Covers Canadian political, economic and general news as well as breaking news across North America, previously based in London and Moscow and a winner of Reuters’ Treasury scoop of the year.
Nov 14 (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) said it bought more than $4.1 billion of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW), , a rare significant foray into the technology sector by billionaire Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.
The news sent shares in TSMC up more than 6% in Taiwan on Tuesday, as it boosted investor sentiment for the world’s largest contract chipmaker, which saw its shares hit a two-year low last month due to a sharp slowdown in global chip demand.
In a Monday regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed equity investments as of Sept. 30, Berkshire said it owned about 60.1 million American depositary shares of TSMC.
Berkshire also disclosed new stakes of $297 million in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LPX.N) and $13 million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF.N). It exited an investment in Store Capital Corp (STOR.N), a real estate company that agreed in September to be taken private.
The filing did not specify whether Buffett or his portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler made specific purchases and sales. Investors often try to piggy back on what Berkshire buys. Larger investments are normally Buffett’s.
While Berkshire does not normally make big technology bets, it often prefers companies it perceives to have competitive advantages, often through their size.
TSMC, which makes chips for the likes of Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Qulacomm (QCOM.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), posted an 80% jump in quarterly profit last month, but struck a more cautious note than usual on upcoming demand.
“I suspect Berkshire has a belief that the world cannot do without the products manufactured by Taiwan Semi,” said Tom Russo, a partner at Gardner, Russo & Quinn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which owns Berkshire shares.
“Only a small number of companies that can amass the capital to deliver semiconductors, which are increasingly central to people’s lives,” he added.
Berkshire has had mixed success in technology.
Its more than six-year wager during the last decade in IBM Corp (IBM.N) did not pan out, but Berkshire is sitting on huge unrealized gains on its $126.5 billion stake in Apple, which Buffett views more as a consumer products company.
Apple is by far the largest investment in Berkshire’s $306.2 billion equity portfolio.
Berkshire disclosed the TSMC stake about 2-1/2 months after it began reducing a decade-old, multi-billion dollar stake in BYD Co (002594.SZ), China’s largest electric car company.
In the third quarter, Berkshire added to its stakes in Chevron Corp (CVX.N), Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N), Celanese Corp (CE.N), Paramount Global (PARA.O) and RH (RH.N).
It also sold shares of Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N), General Motors Co (GM.N), Kroger Co (KR.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N).
Buffett, 92, has run Berkshire since 1965. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also owns dozens of businesses such as the BNSF railroad, the Geico auto insurer, several energy and industrial companies, Fruit of the Loom and Dairy Queen.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Bradley Perrett
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OAKLAND, Calif., Nov 11 (Reuters) – Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META.O) told employees on Friday that it would stop developing smart displays and smartwatches and that nearly half of the 11,000 jobs it eliminated this week in an unprecedented cost-cutting move were technology roles.
Speaking during an employee townhall meeting heard by Reuters, Meta executives also said they were reorganizing parts of the company, combining a voice and video calling unit with other messaging teams and setting up a new division, Family Foundations, focused on tough engineering problems.
The executives said that the first mass layoff in the social media company’s 18-year history affected staffers at every level and on every team, including individuals with high performance ratings.
Overall, 54% of those laid off were in business positions and the rest were in technology roles, Meta human resources chief Lori Goler said. Meta’s recruiting team was cut nearly in half, she said.
The executives said further rounds of job cuts were not expected. But other expenses would have to be cut, they said, noting reviews underway about contractors, real estate, computing infrastructure and various products.
SMART DEVICES CUT
Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who runs the metaverse-oriented Reality Labs division, told staffers Meta would end its work on Portal smart display devices and on its smartwatches.
Meta had decided earlier this year to stop marketing Portal devices, known for their video calling capabilities, to consumers and focus instead on business sales, Bosworth said.
As the economy declined, executives decided more recently to make “bigger changes,” he said.
“It was just going to take so long, and take so much investment to get into the enterprise segment, it felt like the wrong way to invest your time and money,” said Bosworth.
Portal had not been a major revenue generator and drew privacy concerns from potential users. Meta had yet to unveil any smartwatches.
Bosworth said the smartwatch unit would focus instead on augmented reality glasses. More than half of the total investment in Reality Labs was going to augmented reality, he added.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg on Friday reiterated his apology from Wednesday about having to cut 13% of the workforce, telling employees he had failed to forecast Meta’s first dropoff in revenue.
Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic amid a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers. But business suffered this year as advertisers and consumers pulled the plug on spending in the face of soaring costs and rapidly rising interest rates.
The company also faced increased competition from TikTok and lost access to valuable user data that powered its ad targeting systems after Apple made privacy-oriented changes to its operating system.
“Revenue trends are just a lot lower than what I predicted. Again, I got this wrong. It was a big mistake in planning for the company. I take responsibility for it,” Zuckerberg said.
Going forward, he added, he was not planning to “massively” grow headcount of the Reality Labs unit.
Meta shares closed up 1% at $113.02.
Reporting by Paresh Dave in Oakland, California, Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis
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Paresh Dave
Thomson Reuters
San Francisco Bay Area-based tech reporter covering Google and the rest of Alphabet Inc. Joined Reuters in 2017 after four years at the Los Angeles Times focused on the local tech industry.
Companies say do not expect major impact on performance
OTTAWA/BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Canada ordered three Chinese companies on Wednesday to divest their investments in Canadian critical minerals, citing national security.
China in response accused Ottawa of using national security as a pretext and said the divestment order broke international commerce and market rules.
As countries compete to shore up reserves of materials needed for a transition to a cleaner economy, the news pushed down the Chinese companies’ shares on Thursday, although they said in stock exchange filings they did not expect a major impact on their performance.
The three ordered to divest their investments are Sinomine (Hong Kong) Rare Metals Resources Co Ltd, Chengze Lithium International Ltd, also based in Hong Kong, and Zangge Mining Investment (Chengdu) Co Ltd.
The Canadian government ordered the divestiture after “rigorous scrutiny” of foreign firms by Canada’s national security and intelligence community, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement.
“While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad,” Champagne said.
Sinomine was asked to sell its investment in Power Metals Corp (PWM.V), Chengze Lithium was asked to divest its investment in Lithium Chile Inc (LITH.V) and Zangge Mining required to exit Ultra Lithium Inc (ULT.V).
‘UNREASONABLE’
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the Canadian government was using national security as a pretext to block normal cooperation between Chinese and Canadian companies and was damaging global supply chains.
“China urges Canada to stop the unreasonably targeting Chinese companies (in Canada) and provide (them) with a fair, impartial and non-discriminatory business environment,” Zhao told a regular news briefing, adding that Beijing would resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies
Spot lithium prices have risen by more than 200% in the last year, driven by supply constraints that are expected to endure.
Rystad Energy forcast primary lithium minerals supply to be 8.5% short of the total lithium demand 2025, compared with about 10% short of demand this year.
“The latest attitude from Ottawa underscores the global competition of critical battery minerals in light of projected EV battery demand boom,” Susan Zou, a senior analyst at Rystad Energy, said of Canada’s decision.
The share price of Sinomine Resources fell 7.8% to 86.74 yuan ($11.86) on Thursday, while Chengxin’s share price fell by as much as 4% but closed at 0.7% higher at 45.65 yuan. Zangge Mining’s share price slid 3.7% during the day before edging 1.1% up to close at 28.96 yuan.
Last week, Ottawa said it must build a resilient critical minerals supply chain with like-minded partners, as it outlined rules meant to protect the country’s critical minerals sectors from foreign state-owned companies.
“The federal government is determined to work with Canadian businesses to attract foreign direct investments from partners that share our interests and values,” Champagne said.
Canada has large deposits of critical minerals such as nickel and cobalt essential for cleaner energy and other technologies. Demand for the minerals is projected to expand in the coming decades.
Earlier this year, countries including Britain, Canada and the United States established a partnership aimed at securing the supply of critical minerals as global demand for them rises.
($1 = 7.3163 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Siyi Liu in Beijing, additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing
Editing by Chris Reese, Sandra Maler and Barbara Lewis
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WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) – The Biden administration said on Wednesday it is awarding $2.8 billion in grants to boost U.S. production of electric vehicle batteries and the minerals used to build them, part of a bid to wean the country off supplies from China.
Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) is among the 20 manufacturing and processing companies receiving U.S. Energy Department grants to domestically mine lithium, graphite and nickel, build the first large-scale U.S. lithium processing facility, construct facilities to build cathodes and other battery parts, and expand battery recycling.
The grants, which are going to projects across at least 12 states, mark the latest push by the Biden administration to help reduce the country’s dependence on China and other nations for the building blocks of the green energy revolution.
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“As the world transitions from a fossil fuel to a clean energy powered economy, we cannot trade dependence on oil from autocrats like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to dependence on critical minerals from China,” said a senior administration official briefing reporters on the program.
The funding recipients, first reported by Reuters, were chosen by a White House steering committee and coordinated by the Department of Energy with support from the Interior Department.
The funds are being doled out to a range of companies, some of which could self-fund projects and others that will see the grants as a financial lifeline to further expand their U.S. plans. The funding, though, does nothing to alleviate permitting challenges faced by some in the mining industry.
Albemarle is set to receive $149.7 million to build a facility in North Carolina to lightly process rock containing lithium from a mine it is trying to reopen. That facility would then feed a separate plant somewhere in the U.S. Southeast that the company said in June would produce as much lithium for EV batteries as the entire company produces today.
Albemarle, which also produces lithium in Australia and Chile, said the grant “increases the speed of lithium processing and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from long-distance transportation of raw minerals.”
Piedmont Lithium Inc (PLL.O) is receiving $141.7 million to build its own lithium processing facility in Tennessee, where the company will initially process the metal sourced from Quebec and Ghana. Piedmont’s plans to build a lithium mine in North Carolina have faced strong opposition.
Shares of Piedmont rose 7.5% after Reuters broke the news of its funding award earlier on Wednesday. Piedmont did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Talon Metals Corp (TLO.TO) will receive $114.8 million to build a processing plant in North Dakota in a strategy shift for the company, which has a nickel supply deal with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O). Talon now aims to extract rock from its planned underground mine in Minnesota and ship it to a North Dakota processing facility that will be funded in part by the grant.
Talon said the grants are “a clear recognition that production of domestic nickel and other battery minerals is a national priority.”
Other grants include $316.2 million to privately-held Ascend Elements to build a battery parts plant, $50 million to privately-held Lilac Solutions Inc for a demonstration plant for so-called direct lithium extraction technologies, $75 million to privately-held Cirba Solutions to expand an Ohio battery recycling plant, and $219.8 million to Syrah Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Syrah Resources Ltd (SYR.AX), to expand a graphite processing plant in Louisiana.
BIDEN’S GOAL
By 2030, President Joe Biden wants 50% of all new vehicles sold in the United States to be electric or plug-in hybrid electric models along with 500,000 new EV charging stations. He has not endorsed the phasing-out of new gasoline-powered vehicle sales by 2030.
Legislation Biden signed in August sets new strict battery component and sourcing requirements for $7,500 consumer EV tax credits. A separate $1 trillion infrastructure law signed in November 2021 allocates $7 billion to ensure U.S. manufacturers can access critical minerals and other necessary components to manufacture the batteries. The announcement on Wednesday was linked to that 2021 legislation.
The White House said in a fact sheet that the United States and allies do not produce enough of the critical minerals and materials used in EV batteries.
“China currently controls much of the critical mineral supply chain and the lack of mining, processing, and recycling capacity in the U.S. could hinder electric vehicle development and adoption, leaving the U.S. dependent on unreliable foreign supply chains,” the White House said.
In March, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used for EV batteries.
The White House is also launching an effort, dubbed the American Battery Material Initiative, to strengthen critical mineral supply chains as automakers race to expand U.S. electric vehicle and battery production.
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Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Matthew Lewis and Paul Simao
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Ernest Scheyder
Thomson Reuters
Covers the future of energy and transportation including electric vehicle and battery technology, with a focus on lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths and other minerals, politics, policy, etc. Previously covered the oil and natural gas, including a stint living in North Dakota’s Bakken shale oil patch.
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) – French cement maker Lafarge pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a U.S. charge that it made payments to groups designated as terrorists by the United States, including Islamic State.
The admission in Brooklyn federal court marked the first time a company has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Lafarge, which became part of Swiss-listed Holcim (HOLN.S) in 2015, agreed to pay $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of the plea agreement.
U.S. prosecutors said that Lafarge paid Islamic State and al Nusra Front, through intermediaries, the equivalent of approximately $5.92 million.
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Lafarge is also facing charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in Paris for keeping a factory running in Syria after a conflict broke out in 2011.
Lafarge eventually evacuated the cement plant in September 2014, U.S. prosecutors said. At that point, Islamic State took possession of the remaining cement and sold it for the equivalent of $3.21 million, prosecutors said.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday during a news conference that the company’s actions “reflect corporate crime that has reached a new low and a very dark place.”
“Business with terrorists cannot be business as usual,” Monaco added.
The cement maker previously admitted after an internal investigation that its Syrian subsidiary paid armed groups to help protect staff at the plant. But it had denied charges that it was complicit in crimes against humanity.
Lafarge Chair Magali Anderson said in court on Tuesday that from August 2013 until November 2014 former executives of the company “knowingly and willfully agreed to participate in a conspiracy to make and authorize payments intended for the benefit of various armed groups in Syria.”
“The individuals responsible for this conduct have been separated from the company since at least 2017,” she said.
Monaco said that French authorities have arrested some of the executives involved but did not provide names. Court records refer to six unnamed Lafarge executives.
In a statement, Holcim noted that none of the conduct involved Holcim, “which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for.”
Holcim said that former Lafarge executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim, as well as from external auditors.
The SIX Swiss Exchange suspended trading in Holcim shares before the news.
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Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Karen Freifeld;
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker
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Luc Cohen
Thomson Reuters
Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.
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
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