Source: Associated Press

By CARA ANNAAugust 13, 2021

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FILE – In this Saturday, May 8, 2021 file photo, Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The United States said Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 it is sending a special envoy to Ethiopia as the fast-moving conflict in the Tigray region has spread into neighboring regions and Ethiopia’s government this week called on all able citizens to stop the resurgent Tigray forces “once and for all.” (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States says it is sending a special envoy to Ethiopia as the fast-moving conflict in the Tigray region has spread into neighboring regions and Ethiopia’s government this week called on all able citizens to stop the resurgent Tigray forces “once and for all.”

The widening war in Africa’s second-most populous country, with 110 million people, is also a growing humanitarian crisis. Millions of people in Tigray remain beyond the reach of food and other aid as the United Nations and U.S. say Ethiopian authorities allow just a small fraction of what’s needed. And hundreds of thousands of people in the Amhara and Afar regions are displaced as Tigray forces move in, vowing to go to the capital, Addis Ababa, if needed to stop the fighting and remove the blockade on their region of 6 million people.

“It’s one of these cases where we’ve run out of words to describe the horror of what civilians are being inflicted,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters this week. “More conflict can only lead, sadly, to more civilian pain.”

Here’s a look at the latest in the nine-month war and what pressure the U.S. special envoy might apply.

WHAT IS THE U.S. SEEKING IN ETHIOPIA?

The U.S. announced overnight that special envoy Jeffrey Feltman would travel to Ethiopia, neighboring Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates, a key Ethiopia ally, starting on Sunday. This is a “critical moment,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted. “Months of war have brought immense suffering and division to a great nation, that won’t be healed through more fighting. We call on all parties to urgently come to the negotiating table.”

That seems highly unlikely. Ethiopia’s government this year declared the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which dominated the government for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018, a terrorist group. The Tigray forces have set several preconditions for talks and say Abiy no longer has the legitimacy to govern. They retook much of the Tigray region in June in a dramatic turn in the war as Ethiopia’s military retreated.

What began as a political dispute has now killed thousands of people.

Discussing what pressure the U.S. could apply to encourage negotiations, a congressional aide told The Associated Press that “I understand all options are on the table, from Global Magnitsky (sanctions over human rights violations) to an executive order on sanctions, to removal from (the African Growth and Opportunity Act), to more restrictive measures on assistance,” as well as ways to block Ethiopia’s efforts to get cash from international financial institutions. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on policy discussions.

Officials and lawmakers in Washington have signaled impatience as Ethiopian officials deny widespread human rights abuses such as gang-rapes and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans or blame the Tigray forces.

The Ethiopian government’s prickly dismissal of a new Amnesty International report on shocking sexual violence against Tigrayan women during the war “reflects the tone-deafness with which the government is handling the multiple conflicts and humanitarian crises across the country,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Jim Risch tweeted on Thursday.

WHAT DOES ETHIOPIA’S GOVERNMENT SAY?

Ethiopia’s government has repeatedly expressed frustration, alleging without evidence that the U.S., U.N. and others are taking the side of the Tigray forces or supporting the fighters with aid. It has asserted that disproportionate attention is paid to the Tigray people and not enough is done to address alleged abuses by Tigray forces in the Amhara and Afar regions.

The most urgent allegation was raised by the U.N. children’s agency, which cited “credible information from partners” about deadly attacks last week on a camp for newly displaced people in Afar. A U.N. team plans to assess the scene as soon as security allows, the agency said Thursday. Ethiopia’s government has blamed the Tigray forces, whose spokesman Getachew Reda denied it but said they’re willing to cooperate in an independent investigation.

In the Amhara region, humanitarian groups are having trouble reaching their colleagues in Woldiya, one center of the fighting, amid a communications blackout. Now the Tigray forces have formed a military alliance with the Oromo Liberation Army, also designated by Ethiopia as a terrorist group.

On Thursday the prime minister’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, told reporters that the government’s call to arms this week, signaling an end to a unilateral cease-fire, meant that Ethiopians are urged to stop the Tigray forces by “all means necessary.” She said this is not a result of the military’s inability to take on the Tigray forces, and asserted that “in the millions, people are taking this call.”

WHAT ABOUT THE FATE OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE?

Caught in the middle are civilians, and efforts to reach them with aid are increasingly challenging because of the Ethiopian government’s concern that it will end up helping the Tigray forces.

Just 10% of the aid needed for Tigray reached the region in recent weeks, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, told reporters after a brief Ethiopia visit last week in which the prime minister did not meet her. USAID has estimated that up to 900,000 people in Tigray face “man-made” famine conditions while phone, internet and banking services remain cut off.

The U.N. World Food Program on Friday said at least 30 trucks a day must enter the region to address the need and what has arrived so far is a “drop in the ocean.”

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s government has suspended the operations of two major international aid groups, the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council, accusing them of spreading “misinformation.” This has further deterred many humanitarian workers from speaking openly, worried about retaliation. It also means efforts to respond to the crises in the Amhara and Afar regions could be affected.

“Some humanitarian organizations may now alter their public messaging campaigns or self-censor to avoid facing suspension. This would further contribute to Ethiopia’s closing civic space,” the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote on Thursday.

That means even less knowledge about conditions on the ground as many journalists face government-imposed restrictions, it said, adding that “civilians will suffer.”

Source: Doha News

Source: Aalmeen News

Officials at the Eritrean embassy in London locked one of the Qatari bank’s lawyers in the building to hinder the delivery of court documents in 2018.

Qatar National Bank QPSC [QNB] asked a Washington, D.C. court to order Eritrea to pay about $300 million of debt after the Horn of Africa nation refused to respond to two lawsuits filed by the lender, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Eritrea borrowed $200 from the Middle East’s largest lender in 2009 and 2010 and only returned $45 of the amount in May 2012 without returning the remaining amount.

The bank later sought legal recourse in the UK in 2018 per the loan agreement, and a year later, a judge ordered Eritrea to pay its creditor $254 million in addition to interest. Eritrea stopped responding to lawyers.

This prompted QNB to request a judgement by default from a US federal court on Friday after filing a complaint in the same US legal body in February, saying that President Isaias Afwerki’s government, who has ruled the country for 28 years, allegedly avoided being served with legal documents.

QNB said that Eritrea’s debt has now risen to $295.3 million, which is equivalent to more than 10% of the African nation’s $2.3 billion gross domestic product [gdp].

Avoiding legal action

QNB alleges that Eritrea has not been responsive with court rulings and chose not to defend itself in both the UK and US cases, while responding to lawyers with hostility.

The bank said in the court filings that staff at the Eritrean embassy in London even locked one of the bank’s lawyers in the diplomatic building until he agreed to leave without handing the court documents.

Another representative was also “physically assaulted” as a receptionist threw the court papers on the embassy’s pavement, after which a British judge allowed the documents to be sent via email or post.

“The receptionist physically knocked the documents out of a process server’s hands and threw them on the pavement outside the embassy’s front door,” read the bank’s complaint.

Among the documents filed by QNB was a letter sent in March 2009 by Eritrea’s Afwerki, in which he stated his commitment to repaying the loan to the Qatari bank through tax revenue and income from the Bisha mine, a gold-copper-zinc project currently run by China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. that entered production ten years ago.

Bloomberg said the legal dispute can lead to the discouragement of investments in Asmara, which already stands as the second last economy out of 190 others in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.

The Washington court’s decision would enable QNB identify and seize Eritrea’s overseas assets.

Source=Qatar asks US court to force Eritrea to pay $300 million debt - Eritrea Hub

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WWW: eritrea-focus.org

12 August 2021

Danakali Ltd to leave London Stock Exchange

By Habte Hagos

Australia’s potash miner Danakali (ASX, LON: DNK) has requested a cancellation of its listing on the London Stock Exchange, expected to be effective on 24 September.[1]

Danakali Ltd has been working for nearly a decade to develop the Colluli Sulphate of Potash Project in Eritrea – which it describes as a “Global Game Changer”. The project has an expected life of 200 years and is due to become fully operational in February 2022, subject to the completion of a power plant by Aggreko Plc (a British Company based just outside Glasgow, Scotland).

Dankali is listed in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Australian Stock Exchange. The share price shortly after listing in September 2018 stood at 53.50p but they have been sluggish ever since and steadily dropped, standing at just 21.55p per share today, with an average daily trading volume of between 5,000 and 10,000 shares.

On 28 July 2021, Danakli Ltd issued a “press release” saying “Shares of the Danakali stock can be purchased on either the London Stock Exchange or the Australian Stock Exchange under the ticker DNK. Your purchase of future sale of Danakali stock is completely confidential. Contact your local bank or broker to find out the specific process to purchase your DNK shares today”. The company also bragged about its strong partnerships with: ENAMCO (the Eritrean Government), AFC, Afreximbank, EuroChem, Aggreko and RA International. It added “these key partners are all working with us to bring Colluli into production as quickly and safely as possible”. However, this upbeat rhetoric has not delivered the desired outcome, perhaps explaining today’s announcement.

Eritrea Focus, in partnership with Freedom United and other partner organisations, has campaigned for many years for Danakali Ltd and others to divest from Eritrea. Eritrea is a country that enslaves its people in perpetuity in the ineptly called “National Service”, which the UN Commission of Inquiry asserts to be modern day slavery. There is no private sector in Eritrea, the Government owns the entire workforce and deploys them where it pleases, including sending them to the war front in Tigray with little or no military training.

We wrote on numerous occasions to Danaklai Ltd and its partners stating “as the Colluli project is a joint venture with the Eritrean National Mining Company (ENAMCO), there are allegations that National Service conscripts are working and more will work on this project. Furthermore, it is certain that profits from this project will bolster the state’s ability to sustain this forced conscription system. Much of the government’s income comes from mining projects. Indeed, the UN has noted that “one important and undisputed source of revenue is proceeds from mining operations owned jointly by the Eritrean state and a transnational corporation.[2]” But the company continues with the project, commending Eritrea’s stability and conducive investment climate.

Eritrea Focus and its partners will work hard for a complete divestment from the country until slavery is eradicated for good and the people are granted their human rights under the UN charter, and not treated as commodities that the Government can trade as it pleases.

Habte Hagos, chair, Eritrea Focus

“If we do not see progress in these domains, I think the administration made clear that we will not be left with much of a choice,” said Samantha Powers

Source: Washington Post

Samantha Power has long championed humanitarian intervention. Ethiopia’s crisis is putting her to the test.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 14. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By  Max Bearak and John Hudson Yesterday at 1:59 p.m. EDT

NAIROBI — On the day Samantha Power landed in Ethiopia this week, its civil war — now escalating and spreading beyond the northern region of Tigray — entered its 10th month.

Amid allegations that Ethiopian troops and their allies have committed war crimes and ethnic cleansing and have driven parts of Tigray into famine, the United States has already withheld security assistance and effectively banned travel for top officials.

But Power, who is in charge of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, holds the biggest American lever of influence over Addis Ababa: more than $1 billion in annual aid ranging from health and education support to food and emergency humanitarian response, which makes the United States the largest aid donor to Ethiopia.

It’s a moment seemingly made for Power, the former U.N. ambassador under President Barack Obama who came to prominence in 2002 with her book “A Problem From Hell,” which excoriated American inaction during mass killings in Rwanda and the Balkans in the 1990s, Europe during World War II and the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

“Samantha Power is a world-renowned voice of conscience and moral clarity — challenging and rallying the international community to stand up for the dignity and humanity of all people,” President Biden said in a statement when he appointed her.

Her work inspired a generation of humanitarian activists and helped popularize the notion that Washington bore a unique responsibility to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations, including with military force if necessary.

Power’s one-day trip Wednesday to Ethiopia, which didn’t include a meeting with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, was a test of whether she can restore faith in America’s role in preventing mass atrocities beyond its borders. So far, the U.S. measures curtailing security assistance and sanctioning officials have had little effect beyond turning Ethiopian sentiment against Washington.

“The United States has been working in Ethiopia for 60 years. USAID has spent a billion dollars in the last year in this country, including several hundred million dollars in development assistance. We’re delivering tomorrow 1.4 million vaccines,” Power said in a phone interview from the airport in Addis Ababa as she wrapped up her visit.

“There is so much we want to do together, but this is an own-goal,” she added, referring to the government’s increasingly antagonistic attitude to humanitarian aid groups, journalists and allies in the West.

Unable to control Tigray, Ethiopia isolates region already beset by famine and war

Ethiopia’s government accuses those allies of failing to back its military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a group the government has designated as terrorists but whom the West dealt with over three decades when the TPLF controlled the country before Abiy’s rise.

Members of the military gather during a ceremony for recruits in Addis Ababa on July 27. (Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images)

Top Ethiopian officials have also accused some international aid groups of not just siding with the TPLF but also helping smuggle arms to it, and they have alleged that Western governments and media have overplayed atrocities linked to Ethiopian government forces while overlooking those allegedly committed by the TPLF.

Addis Ababa has responded defensively to allegations that it has committed crimes against civilians and hindered aid. The government puts nearly all the blame on the TPLF.

Inside the Biden administration, the option of using military force to stop the bloodshed in Tigray is seen as a non-starter. But withdrawing substantial amounts of aid is also seen as a poor option, because it is unlikely to change the Ethiopian government’s war strategy and instead deepen what is already one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises.

Pressed on how and when punitive measures on aid might come into play, Power said she was still in wait-and-see mode. As for what she achieved at her meetings in Addis Ababa, she said she only got more commitments.

“It’s not the kind of track record that would give one confidence yet that those commitments are imminently to be met,” she said. Her requests were in line with the State Department’s recent public statements: that humanitarian aid be unhindered in delivery and that government-aligned troops from neighboring Eritrea as well as militias from the country’s Amhara region withdraw beyond Tigray’s prewar borders.The State Department has also called on Tigrayan forces to withdraw from the Amhara and Afar regions, where they have recently gone on the offensive, displacing around a quarter of a million civilians.

“If we do not see progress in these domains, I think the administration made clear that we will not be left with much of a choice,” she said. The European Union has already withdrawn most of its financial support for aid programs in Ethiopia.

The outlook in Ethiopia is decidedly grim. The government initially pushed the TPLF out of Tigray’s main towns, but the TPLF retook most of the region last month in an offensive that analysts say resulted in a large portion of the Ethiopian army being killed or captured.

The TPLF has since moved into neighboring regions with the stated objective of obliterating what’s left of the government and its allies’ military capacity. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the TPLF had taken control of Lalibela, a sizable town within the Amhara region and home to Ethiopia’s famed 12th-century rock-hewed churches.

The Ethiopian government has in turn sought to recruit widely from regional militias, drawing in fighters from parts of the country previously uninvolved in the conflict.

Asked at a news conference in Addis Ababa about Abiy’s recent use of words like “weeds,” “cancer” and “disease” to refer to the TPLF, Power cautioned that “there are many, many people out there who hear rhetoric, hateful rhetoric or dehumanizing rhetoric and take measures into their own hands

Displaced people protect themselves from the rain at a camp in the town of Azezo, Ethiopia, on July 12. The camp hosts Ethiopians as well as Eritrean refugees uprooted by the ongoing war in the Tigray region. (Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images)

Power’s past advocacy for humanitarian intervention, including with U.S. military force, has fallen out of favor in recent years as public confidence in Washington’s ability to reshape distant lands wanes. U.S. forces will conclude a 20-year occupation in Afghanistan in September, and the military will formally end combat operations in Iraq by the end of the year, Biden said last week. The two missions have cost thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and fallen far short of U.S. ambitions to bring about stability, democracy or prosperity. The protracted chaos and bloodshed in Libya following the ouster of Moammar Gaddafi in a NATO-led military operation in 2011 also dampened the appeal of humanitarian interventions.

Defenders of the administration say its lack of bold action in confronting the Ethiopian crisis does not indicate a lack of concern.

“There is a false narrative that the Biden administration does not care about mass atrocities, fueled by its decision to risk mass violence in Afghanistan,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. analyst at the International Crisis Group. “But if you look at Washington’s approach to Ethiopia in particular, you see that the new administration does still have strong humanitarian instincts.”

Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, “have all thrown themselves into efforts to halt the Tigrayan war, which hardly seemed to register with the outgoing Trump team,” Gowan said.

Thomas-Greenfield took to Twitter on Wednesday to denounce the Ethiopian government’s decision this week to revoke the operating licenses of Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council, two humanitarian organizations known for their work in war zones.

“This suspension is unacceptable. I know the work of MSF and NRC well, and they are internationally respected,” she wrote, using the French abbreviation for Doctors Without Borders. “Ethiopia must reconsider this decision.”

At least a dozen aid workers have been killed since November, when Abiy sent troops to Tigray to fight the TPLF after the group allegedly staged an attack on a military base.

The United Nations says the war has left 400,000 people facing famine, while UNICEF estimated last week that more than 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening acute malnutrition in the next 12 months — 10 times the annual average.

Meanwhile, “supplies are just running out,” Power said.

Hudson reported from Washington.