Below is a letter from Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party and leader of the opposition in Parliament, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab
Keir Starmer on Tigray conflict
Britain’s opposition leader, Keir Starmer, urges British government to take Tigray war to UN Security Council
Wednesday, 10 February 2021 20:25 Written by Eritrea Hub
Ethiopia plans to close refugee camps in Tigray
Wednesday, 10 February 2021 15:38 Written by Martin PlautSource: Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia plans to close two camps in the northern state of Tigray that have been caught in the fighting between the state’s formers ruling party and the federal government, according to the country’s refugee agency.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, head of the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (Arra),Tesfaye Gobezay, said that the proximity to the Eritrean borders and harsh geographical conditions are reasons for the decision to shut the camps.
Nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees lived in four camps in Tigray before fighting broke out in early November. Two of the camps – Shimbela and Hitsats – that had more than 20,000 refugees, have not been accessible for aid agencies recently.
Shimbela is located 20km (12 miles) from the Eritrean border in violation of accepted global principles that a refugee camp should be at least 50km away from borders, Mr Tesfaye said.
He added that the refugees will be moved to other camps or integrated into society.
Recently the UN had said that around 20,000 Eritrean refugees are not accounted for.
According to Mr Tesfaye there have been previous attempts to close the Hitsats camp, but those efforts failed due to a refusal from the state’s former rulers, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the coronavirus pandemic.
“There was a lot of fighting around those camps” and the refugees “were caught in the crossfire”, Mr Tesfaye said.
But further investigations are needed to determine the details of the damages and possible deaths.
PA: Global solidarity is the key to overcoming COVID-19
Tuesday, 09 February 2021 20:29 Written by Progressive Alliance(The statement printed below is being issued by the Progressive Alliance. It was endorsed by all member parties including the Eritrean EPDP which is one of its founding members).
COVID-19 has been and continues to be an exceptional challenge for all of us. The only way forward is a quick and well-coordinated vaccination strategy on a global level with an increase of production capacity and a distribution according to actual need, not based on the size of a country’s wallet. Vulnerable people and frontline workers shall be vaccinated first, regardless where they live in the world.
Hesitation and national self-interest will not bring an end to the global health crisis nor will it lead us out of the economic, environmental and social crisis. Instead, it will be a gross error of misjudgement from both a moral and a medical point of view. Vaccine nationalism causes severe geopolitical as well as economic and social consequences and prevents an effective fight against the virus.
Too many people have suffered attacks on their health and too many have paid the ultimate price. Each loss of life to COVID-19 is one loss too much!
With the successful development of COVID-19 vaccines, a debate has been sparked around sufficient and fair distribution of the limited doses available. While some countries have been quick to secure supplies, others, especially low and middle-income countries have no access yet.
COVAX has been set up as the multilateral answer to this challenge. It aims to achieve global immunization and is central to a global vaccination strategy that shall secure fair and equal distribution.
However, as it stands, these tools have yet to deliver to secure substantial vaccines for the Global South facing two major challenges: a lack of funding and the limited availability of vaccines on the market.
The COVAX funding gap needs to be closed as soon as possible to roll out the ambitious global of COVAX. We must also support the vaccination plan with concrete efforts in diagnostics and therapeutics of COVID-19.
With different vaccines now developed, it is the time to step up vaccine production. Any slow-down in vaccine production is unacceptable, especially when it stems from profit maximization or vaccine-nationalism.
The solutions exist: increase of production is possible if vaccine developers cooperate voluntarily, supply available production capacities, share licenses with other manufacturers and accept to transfer the necessary technology. Countries of patent holders can also issue compulsory licenses in order to speed up production. As a consequence there shall be a binding obligation for partnerships with manufactures in developing countries in all future vaccine supply contracts.
A multilateral understanding at WTO level must avoid unnecessary administrative hurdles, to prevent stockpiling and to put the fast and fair production and distribution of vaccines before profit-making. A possible (timely limited) patent waiver has the benefit as it also provides a clear and consistent direction to patent offices and courts on how to view the grant and enforcement of intellectual property and prevent the possibility of disputes which could delay local manufacturing.
These are the steps needed to go hand-in-hand with strengthening and supporting health systems through social investment, ensuring access to healthcare and social protection systems, and access to education.
The unequal access to vaccines and COVID-19 treatment is a mirror on the inequalities between and within states that are also harming our pandemic response and our recovery. Only when everyone has had the chance to be vaccinated and we successfully achieved immunization for a sufficient share of each population, we are truly safe. The longer the virus is around, the more chances of it mutating and thus the higher the probability vaccines need to be adapted to combat the newest varieties. Then we must acknowledge that competition for vaccines at the global level can never be part of the solution, it is part of the problem.
We progressives unite behind a global strategy to combat COVID-19. This will not be possible without solidarity between continents, countries and people. A world without COVID-19 is possible. We will continue to work together to reach this goal, not as competitors, but as partners on equal footing.
As Progressive Alliance we call for:
- Global solidarity and global partnership against the poison of vaccine-nationalism
- Safeguarding COVID-19-vaccines as a global public good, not a tool for profit-maximization
- Binding obligation for partnerships and building production capacities with manufactures in developing countries in all vaccine supply contracts with manufactures by industrialized countries.
- Increasing the production of vaccines globally through adequate measures including reassessing the TRIPS agreement to see if it is fit for purpose and investigate how technology transfer can be enabled
- Ensuring accessibility to vaccines for all, in particular for vulnerable people, frontline workers and healthcare workers worldwide and in particular in the global South. Industrialized countries should supply the Global South with doses from their overcapacities
- The obligation of vaccine manufacturers, laboratories and producers to sell their products to the Global South and to COVAX at the cost price only and to allow licensing at low cost
- Reject all contractual agreements limiting exports, sharing, and donations of vaccines, which put an end to the global suffering.
European Union joins the United States’ call for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia
Monday, 08 February 2021 22:05 Written by Eritrea HubEthiopia: Joint-Statement by High-Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell, Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen and Commissioner Janez Lenarčič
Brussels, 08/02/2021 – 11:48, UNIQUE ID: 210208_5
Joint Statements
The EU remains very concerned by the tragic humanitarian crisis unfolding in Tigray and its regional implications. Three months into the conflict, despite small openings, the limitations to humanitarian access to Tigray continue to prevent the provision of humanitarian assistance to address the immensity of needs, avert the risk of famine and prevent further loss of life. Central and Western Tigray remain largely out of reach and two Eritrean refugee camps remain completely inaccessible.
Humanitarian access needs to be guaranteed and humanitarian assistance allowed to reach all affected areas and people in Tigray, and border areas of Afar and Amhara regions, in line with the humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity, neutrality and independence.
The EU is also increasingly concerned for the protection of civilians and refugees in Ethiopia, with reports of casualties and serious human rights, international refugee law and international humanitarian law violations. Effective protection of refugees from harm in accordance with international refugee, human rights and humanitarian law, including preventing any act of refoulement or coerced return targeting Eritrean refugees needs to be ensured.
The EU joins the United States’ call for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia, which are fuelling the conflict in Tigray, reportedly committing atrocities, and exacerbating ethnic violence.
The EU expresses its support to the work of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and encourages it to continue its investigations on allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international law. We hope that the Government of Ethiopia will endorse its recommendations, and fully implement the independent investigations and judicial proceedings announced to ensure full accountability for violations and abuses committed. Access of international media to Tigray must be authorised and local journalists must be protected.
Filling of Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam in July Called Threat to Sudan’s Security
Sunday, 07 February 2021 22:55 Written by Eritrea HubFebruary 06, 2021 07:03 PM
FILE – This handout picture taken on July 20, 2020, and released by Adwa Pictures on July 27, 2020, shows an aerial view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River in Guba, northwest Ethiopia.
KHARTOUM – Any unilateral step by Ethiopia to further fill its hydropower project, called the Renaissance Dam, in July would directly threaten Sudan’s national security, Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasser Abbas said Saturday.
Sudan is also proposing a mediation role for the United States, European Union, United Nations and African Union as a way of breaking the deadlock in talks about the dam between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, Abbas told Reuters in an interview.
His comments come at a time of increased tension between Sudan and Ethiopia over disputed farmland near their shared border.
This is on top of tension over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, close to the border with Sudan.
Ethiopia began filling the reservoir behind the dam after the summer rains last year despite demands from Egypt and Sudan that it should first reach a binding agreement on the dam’s operation.
Egypt views the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as a major threat to its fresh water supplies, more than 90% of which come from the Nile. The Blue Nile flows north into Sudan, then Egypt; it is the Nile’s main tributary.
Ethiopia says the dam is crucial to its economic development.
“The filling of the Renaissance Dam by one side next July represents a direct threat to Sudan’s national security,” Abbas said.
He said unilateral filling of the reservoir threatened electricity generation from Sudan’s Merowe Dam and Roseires Dam, as well as the safety of the Roseires Dam and of 20 million Sudanese living downstream of the GERD.
Sudanese drinking water stations could also be put at risk, he added.
The African Union has convened recent negotiations over the GERD between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt but talks have repeatedly stalled. Talks hosted by the United States last year also failed to secure a deal.
“Sudan is now leading a diplomatic and political campaign to clarify its position and reach a legal and binding solution,” Abbas said. “We are optimistic that if there is political will, a mutually agreed solution can be reached.”
Viewpoint: From Ethiopia’s Tigray region to Yemen, the dilemma of declaring a famine
Sunday, 07 February 2021 22:50 Written by Eritrea Hub“Every day, more and more reports of starvation trickle out of the Tigray region of Ethiopia that has been hit by conflict.”
Source: BBC
By Alex de Waal
Africa analyst
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGESEvery day, more and more reports of starvation trickle out of the Tigray region of Ethiopia that has been hit by conflict.
On Wednesday, Mark Lowcock, chief of humanitarian affairs at the United Nations, warned of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in which aid still wasn’t reaching many affected people.
Earlier in the week, his predecessor Jan Egeland, now head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, was more blunt: “In all my years as an aid worker, I have rarely seen a humanitarian response so impeded and unable to deliver in response for so long, to so many with such pressing needs.”
Mr Egeland went on to say: “The entire aid sector . . . must also recognise our failure to define the scale of the crisis.”
In other words, will the United Nations call out “famine” and if so when?
Farming in Tigray’s rocky soils has long been a precarious endeavour, made worse over the last year by a plague of locusts. At the close of the growing season in September last year, international food security assessments were that 1.6 million of Tigray’s seven million people were relying on food aid to survive.
Conflict broke out on 4 November between forces from the region’s now-ousted ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and federal troops following sharp differences over the political make-up of the federal government.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGESThe TPLF opposed the 2019 decision of Prime Minister Aibiy Ahmed to dissolve the ruling coalition, of which it was a part, leading to tensions that spiralled out of control.
The UN is now quietly admitting what others – including the United States – have been saying for weeks, which is that Eritrean troops control much of Tigray. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments continue to deny this.
Most of Tigray has been sealed off from the world since then. Aid agencies are beginning to send their staff back in, and what they describe is disturbing: hospitals ransacked, people living in fear unable to obtain food or money, deaths from hunger and treatable illnesses.
Some Tigrayans who are able to make phone calls tell of massive looting, burning of crops, and literally millions of people beyond the reach of humanitarian aid.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGESIn a leaked internal memo from 8 January, humanitarian staff from the UN, aid agencies and local government warned that hundreds of thousands were at risk of starving to death. They reported that they could not reach 99% of those in need – a number that aid agencies estimate is 4.5 million – more than 60% of Tigray’s population.
The Ethiopian government insists that these reports are exaggerated at best, and that it has the humanitarian crisis under control. It says that only 2.5 million people are in need and says it can reach almost all of them.
Ethiopia’s history of famine denial
It asks the European Union – its biggest donor – not to be distracted by the “transient challenge” of emergency aid to Tigray, and to continue its generous development aid to the country.
However, there is a history of Ethiopian governments hiding their famines.
In 1973, Jonathan Dimbleby’s film The Unknown Famine exposed mass starvation, hidden from the world by Emperor Haile Selassie. About 200,000 people died in the famine.
The emperor’s callous indifference brought Ethiopians on to the streets to protest and he was overthrown the next year.
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGESIn 1984, Tigray and the next-door province of Wollo were the epicentre of another famine, this time caused by a combination of drought and war, that led to between 600,000 and one million deaths.
The Ethiopian government at the time denied the existence of that famine until it was exposed by a BBC film crew, led by Michael Buerk and Mohamed Amin. That news report moved pop star Bob Geldof to record Do They Know Its Christmas? and provoke a global outpouring of charity.
That famine discredited the military government of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam at home and abroad. Ethiopians hated being seen as beggars by the rest of the world.
First there was a war, now Ethiopia faces a debt crisis.
Saturday, 06 February 2021 10:49 Written by Eritrea Hub“The World Bank has stepped in to fill the gap” in the past, said Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence. That’s “become more politically challenging in the wake of alleged human-rights abuses committed during the war in Tigray,” he said.
Source: Bloomberg
The nation’s request to restructure its external debt under a Group-of-20 program highlights how much circumstances have changed for the country and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in just over a year.
In 2019, Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for ending two decades of conflict with Eritrea. After coming to power in 2018, he was hailed for pledging to open up the economy and create more space for democratic expression.
Banner besides a block of new residential buildings in Addis Ababa.
The coronavirus outbreak and a war with the rebellious Tigray region, have stifled that. Little progress has been made on privatization, and civilian casualties and displacement in Tigray has seen the leader of one of Africa’s fastest growing economies condemned internationally.
Now the country is worried about meeting its debt obligations and its announcement that it’s discussing liabilities with official lenders has sparked panic among private creditors. The country’s Eurobonds plunged the most on record last week.
“The World Bank has stepped in to fill the gap” in the past, said Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence. That’s “become more politically challenging in the wake of alleged human-rights abuses committed during the war in Tigray,” he said.
For now, there isn’t an immediate way out for Abiy.
The coronavirus has slashed demand for the country’s horticulture and textile exports and tourism has ground to a halt.
The war, which threatens to drag on in the form of guerrilla resistance, hasn’t helped.
US Secretary of State urges PM Abiy to allow “immediate, full, and unhindered humanitarian access” to Tigray
Saturday, 06 February 2021 10:45 Written by Martin PlautSource: US State Department
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Ethiopia bilateral relationship. Secretary Blinken expressed our grave concern about the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region and urged immediate, full, and unhindered humanitarian access to prevent further loss of life. The Secretary also reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Ethiopia’s reform agenda and our support for upcoming national elections, regional peace and security, democracy and human rights, justice and accountability, and economic prosperity for all Ethiopians.
Human Rights Concern-Eritrea calls for all Eritrean military forces to leave Tigray immediately
Saturday, 06 February 2021 10:40 Written by Eritrea Hub5 February 2021
Ethiopian and Eritrean officials have repeatedly denied that Eritrean forces are operating in Tigray. However, these denials are contradicted by eyewitness accounts. So conspicuous are the Eritrean military in Tigray that Eritrean soldiers have even attended meetings in which humanitarian workers negotiated access to Tigray with Ethiopian authorities.
Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRCE) has been consistently reporting that many thousands of troops from the Eritrean mechanised divisions, infantry, and a commando unit have been participating in the Tigray war since November 2020.
Eritrean forces have been accused of committing crimes in Tigray. Laetitia Bader, the Horn of Africa Director at Human Rights Watch said, “We are investigating credible reports of a whole range of abuses by the Eritrean forces in central Tigray, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, widespread looting and damage of public and private property, including hospitals.” She also called for “immediate international scrutiny, and a U.N. led investigation”. Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, also said, “We receive consistent reports of ethnic-targeted violence, killings, looting, rapes, forceful return of refugees and possible war crimes.”
The Treatment of Eritrean refugees in the camps in Tigray by Eritrean military has already been fully reported by HRCE. Eritrean soldiers have committed many crimes in at least two of the camps, including the deliberate murders in Shimelba refugee camp of four unarmed refugees in one instance and eight unarmed civilians in another. There is evidence of the forced removal of thousands of Eritrean refugees at gunpoint from Shimelba and Hitsats camps, with horrific forced marches for days on end to Sheraro. There the refugees were forcibly loaded into trucks which took them, against their will, back to the very country they had fled. This behaviour by the Eritrean military is directly in contravention of all international codes and legal requirements on the treatment of refugees, which in particular forbid the refoulement of refugees to their country of origin. It is understood that both Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps have been deliberately burned to the ground, thereby destroying the only homes the refugees had, along with all their belongings.
It should be noted that the unelected leader of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, and the permanent officers and commanders in charge of the Eritrean military forces are primarily responsible for these atrocities. The great majority of the ranks are conscripts forced into the armed forces largely against their wills and drafted in large numbers to Tigray to be used as “expendable” troops. They are largely untrained and unable to disobey orders, on pain of death or torture. Witnesses report large numbers of these conscripted soldiers (male and female) are under the age of 20. It is reported that many have died in the fighting. These young conscripts are as much the victims of crimes and injustice as the Tigrayans and the refugees.
The Eritrean military is using the communications blackout to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity against defenceless Tigrayan civilians and Eritrean refugees, killing and executing with impunity. HRCE condemns the alleged widespread looting, sexual violence, killing of civilians, destruction of property, crops and factories in Tigray by the Eritrean military forces, and objects most vehemently to the military’s deportation of tens of thousands of refugees at gunpoint against their will to the very country they fled from in danger of their lives.
HRCE calls on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to heed the call from the US State Department and ensure that all Eritrean military forces leave Tigray at once.
HRCE requests an independent investigation into events in Tigray since November 2020.
HRCE calls on the government of Ethiopia to ensure full protection for the Mai Aini and Adi-Harush refugee camps, and to guarantee that no Eritrean military personnel are allowed to enter them.
The UN Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights in Eritrea has already found evidence of crimes against humanity committed by the Eritrean authorities within Eritrea since 1991. Major crimes against humanity are now being committed by Eritrean forces in Tigray.
HRCE calls on the International Criminal Court to initiate investigations into these heinous crimes immediately. Justice requires that the governing regime in Eritrea, and President Afewerki in particular, face the consequences for the crimes that have been unleashed in Eritrea and Tigray.
HRCE calls upon all members of the United Nations to note the demand by the USA and to make urgent representations to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea to put an end to the “major violations of international law” being committed in Tigray by the Ethiopian Federal forces, Eritrean military and allied militias. It is a matter of life and death.
Member countries of the United Nations must speak out now against these crimes before many more thousands of civilians are killed and more Eritrean refugees are forcibly deported.
—-
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+44 (0) 7958 005 637
U.N. warns Tigray conflict could spark broader destablization in Ethiopia
Thursday, 04 February 2021 20:09 Written by Eritrea HubHundreds of thousands of people in Tigray have not received help and the United Nations has been unable to completely assess the situation because it does not have full and unimpeded access, according to Lowcock’s notes for the closed virtual briefing of the 15-member Security Council.
He said there were reports of increasing insecurity elsewhere, which could be due to a vacuum created by the redeployment of Ethiopian troops to Tigray, and that the United Nations was concerned about the potential for broader national and regional destablization.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered air strikes and a ground offensive against Tigray’s former ruling party – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – after regional forces attacked federal army bases in the region on Nov. 4.
The TPLF withdrew from the regional capital, Mekelle, and major cities, but low-level fighting has continued.
In the region of more than five million people, thousands of people are believed to have died and 950,000 have fled their homes since fighting began.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “seriously concerned” over the situation in Tigray, a U.N. spokesman said late on Tuesday.
Lowcock said Abiy’s government controls between 60% and 80% of the territory in Tigray, but does not have full command of the ethnic Amhara and Eritrean forces also operating in the region.
Dozens of witnesses say Eritrean troops are in Tigray to support Ethiopian forces, though both countries deny that.
The United Nations has received reports that police are operating at a fraction of their previous capacity and Lowcock said he could confidently say that if protection and aid were not quickly increased then the humanitarian situation would deteriorate.
He said there were troubling accusations of sexual and gender-based violence.
Several senior U.N. officials recently visited Ethiopia to push for greater access to Tigray. Lowcock said he was hopeful there would be concrete progress in coming days to allow aid to be scaled up.
Source: AFP
