Ethiopia names negotiators for looming Tigray peace process
Ethiopian authorities have named a team of seven negotiators for possible peace talks with Tigray forces. The announcement comes after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced earlier in June the formation of a committee to handle negotiations with Tigray's ruling party, which the government declared a terrorist group last year. “The ruling Prosperity Party has laid out plans to settle the war in northern Ethiopia peacefully,” Justice Minister Gedion Timothewos told state media late Monday.
news.yahoo.comUN rejects Ethiopian attempt to deny funds for Tigray probe
The U.N.’s powerful budget committee has rejected an attempt by Ethiopia to deny funding for an investigation of violations of human rights abuses in the war between Ethiopian government forces and fighters from the country’s northern Tigray region
washingtonpost.comEthiopian court extends 3-month detention of AP journalist
An Ethiopian court has extended the three-month detention without charges of journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro to give police 11 more days to interview witnesses, saying after that the state must formally charge him or release him
washingtonpost.comEthiopia starts partial power generation from Blue Nile dam
Ethiopia has started generating electricity from the controversial mega-dam that is being built on the Blue Nile. The milestone was reached on Sunday morning when one of the 13 turbines of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam started power generation in an event officiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. “From now on, there will be nothing that will stop Ethiopia,” Abiy said.
news.yahoo.comUN chief: World worse now due to COVID, climate, conflict
As he starts his second term as U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres says the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere.
Ethiopian diaspora torn by ethnic tensions in Tigray war
Thousands of miles away from the war in Ethiopia, the ethnic cracks have started to show in an Ethiopian church in Ohio, in a lawsuit between trustees and clergy. The original trustees of the Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Columbus have accused its clergy of switching the language of services from Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, to Tigrinya, the language of the Tigray region. Church leaders say the changes weren’t political in nature.
news.yahoo.comBiden raises concerns to Ethiopian PM about Tigray conflict
President Joe Biden expressed concerns on Monday to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about detentions and civilian killings in the conflict in the country's Tigray region, while commending Abiy for the recent release of several political prisoners.
Biden raises concerns to Ethiopian PM about Tigray conflict
President Joe Biden expressed concerns on Monday in a phone call with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about detentions and civilian killings in the conflict in the Tigray region, while commending Abiy for the recent release of several political prisoners. The White House said that Biden raised to Abiy recent airstrikes that continue to cause civilian casualties and suffering in Africa's second most populous nation. The statement added that the leaders “discussed ways to accelerate dialogue toward a negotiated ceasefire, the urgency of improving humanitarian access across Ethiopia, and the need to address the human rights concerns of all affected Ethiopians, including concerns about detentions of Ethiopians under the state of emergency.”
news.yahoo.comEthiopia grants amnesty to high-profile political detainees
Ethiopia’s government has announced an amnesty for some of the country’s most high-profile political detainees, including opposition figure Jawar Mohammed and senior Tigray party officials, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed spoke of reconciliation for Orthodox Christmas.
Ethiopia grants amnesty to high-profile political detainees
Ethiopia’s government on Friday announced an amnesty for some of the country’s most high-profile political detainees, including opposition figure Jawar Mohammed and senior Tigray party officials, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed spoke of reconciliation for Orthodox Christmas. “The key to lasting unity is dialogue,” the government said in a statement on the amnesty. “Ethiopia will make any sacrifices to this end.”
news.yahoo.com'I cannot escape': New abuses alleged in Ethiopia's Tigray
New witness accounts allege that thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been forcibly expelled, detained or killed in one of the most inaccessible areas of Ethiopia’s yearlong war in the latest wave of abuses carried out with machetes, guns and knives.
Austria's ex-chancellor Kurz announces departure from politics
Austria's former chancellor Sebastian Kurz announces he is leaving politics after a decade. The former leader said he will be leaving in order to spend more time with his young child and his wife but teased "new professional projects in the new year", just weeks after he stepped down after being implicated in a corruption scandal.
news.yahoo.comEthiopian leader called war 'epitome of hell.' Now he's back
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is already a veteran at surprising the world in just three years in power. Abiy’s rule has been short in the vast sweep of Ethiopian history, but he has spent almost all his life preparing for it. Told as a child by his mother that she believed he would lead Ethiopia, he now speaks of martyrdom, if needed, to hold the nation together.
news.yahoo.comUS: 'Massive' progress in Ethiopia talks could be outpaced
A United States envoy says he sees “massive progress” in talks with Ethiopia’s warring sides toward a cease-fire, but he fears it will be outpaced by “alarming” military developments in the yearlong war in Africa’s second-most populous country.
Ethiopia PM says he will lead army 'from the battlefront'
Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister says he will lead his country’s army “from the battlefront” beginning Tuesday, a dramatic new step in a devastating yearlong war. “This is a time when leading a country with martyrdom is needed,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement posted on social media Monday night. With rival Tigray forces moving closer to the capital of Addis Ababa, his government declared a state of emergency earlier this month.
news.yahoo.com'You can't even cry loudly': Counting Ethiopia's war dead
Tigrayans, a minority of some 6 million, were encircled as a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, turned deadly. It became an ethnic clash when Amhara fighters from a neighboring region allied with Ethiopia’s government poured in. Almost all communication with Tigray has been cut off, and foreign media is banned.
news.yahoo.comPeople fleeing Ethiopia allege attacks, forced conscription
People fleeing Ethiopia say a new round of deadly attacks and forced conscription has begun against ethnic Tigrayans who remain in an area now controlled by Amhara regional authorities in collaboration with soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.
People fleeing Ethiopia allege attacks, forced conscription
A new round of deadly attacks and forced conscription has begun against ethnic Tigrayans in an area of Ethiopia now controlled by Amhara regional authorities in collaboration with soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, people fleeing over the border to Sudan tell The Associated Press as the yearlong war intensifies. Three men who fled the western Tigray communities of Adebay and Humera in the past week described warnings from Amhara authorities against supporting the rival Tigray forces who are approaching Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to press Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to step aside.
news.yahoo.comEye Opener: New vaccine rules for big companies
The Labor Department announces a new vaccination rule requiring companies with 100 or more employees to get their workers fully vaccinated or face weekly testing. Also, the House could finally vote today on President Biden’s agenda. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener.
news.yahoo.comTigray, other groups form alliance against Ethiopian leader
Ethiopia’s Tigray forces are joining with other armed and opposition groups in an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political transition after a year of devastating war, organizers say. The signing in Washington on Friday includes the Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces, as well as the Oromo Liberation Army now fighting alongside the Tigray forces and seven other groups from around the country. The alliance is forming as U.S. special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is in Ethiopia’s capital meeting with senior government officials amid calls for an immediate cease-fire and talks to end the war that has killed thousands of people since November 2020.
news.yahoo.comEthiopian leader calls on citizens to defend his government as Tigray rebels make gains
Weeks after declaring that his army would soon quash rebels in the Tigray province, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tells citizens "dying for Ethiopia is a duty for all," as a war he's accused of starting creeps toward his doorstep.
cbsnews.comEthiopia's PM defiant as rival Tigray forces make advances
Ethiopia’s prime minister has called on citizens to redouble their efforts to combat the rival Tigray forces who claim to have seized key cities on a major highway leading to the capital A move on the capital of Addis Ababa is a new phase in the war that has killed thousands of people since fighting broke out a year ago between Ethiopian and allied forces and Tigray ones who had long dominated the national government.
Ethiopian PM begins 2nd term saying war exacts 'heavy price'
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in Monday for a second five-year term running a country in the grip of a nearly year-long war against Tigray forces he described as “hateful" toward the nation, while a handful of visiting African leaders urged him to hold things together. The Tigray conflict “has made us pay a heavy price,” Abiy told a crowd in the capital, Addis Ababa. Abiy's Prosperity Party was declared the winner of parliamentary elections earlier this year in a vote criticized and at times boycotted by opposition parties, but described by some outside electoral observers as better run than those in the past.
news.yahoo.comEthiopia's Oromo protest, demand freedom for jailed leaders
Members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, protested Saturday against the government and called for the release of jailed opposition figures as they gathered in the capital for their annual Thanksgiving festival of Irreecha. Scores of people in the center of Addis Ababa chanted slogans such as “Down, down Abiy!” a reference to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, after performing ritual ceremonies to mark the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the harvest in Oromia state.
news.yahoo.comEthiopia armed group says it has alliance with Tigray forces
The leader of an armed group that Ethiopia’s government has designated a terrorist organization says his group has struck a military alliance with the Tigray forces who are now pressing toward the capital, as the conflict that erupted in the Tigray region last year spreads into other parts of Africa’s second-most populous country. “The only solution now is overthrowing this government militarily, speaking the language they want to be spoken to,” Oromo Liberation Army leader Kumsa Diriba, also known as Jaal Marroo, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. Talks are underway on a political alliance as well, he said, and asserted that other groups in Ethiopia are involved in similar discussions: “There’s going to be a grand coalition against (Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s) regime.”
news.yahoo.comEthiopia's ruling party wins national election in landslide
Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party on Saturday was declared the winner of last month’s national election in a landslide, assuring a second five-year term for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The National Election Board of Ethiopia said the ruling party won 410 seats out of 436 contested in the federal parliament, which will see dozens of other seats remain vacant after one-fifth of constituencies didn't vote due to unrest or logistical reasons. Ethiopia's new government is expected to be formed in October.
news.yahoo.comNo ceasefire unless our rule is accepted, warn Tigray rebels
Rebels in the war-torn region of Tigray warned on Sunday that they would only agree to a ceasefire if they were recognised as its legitimate government. The rebels, which have been locked in a brutal war with the Ethiopian government since November, also demanded that Eritrean and Ethipian forces withdraw from the area in a statement. Tigray has been the scene of a bitter war since Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed sent the army in to topple regional leaders who had ruled over the territory fo
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