Day: January 10, 2022

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Aid agencies have ceased operations in a northwest area of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, near the border with Eritrea, after an air strike there late Friday killed scores of civilians displaced by the conflict.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Sunday that aid groups have suspended their operations in northwest Tigray.

“Humanitarian partners suspended activities in the area due the ongoing threats of drone strikes,” said the statement to media.

Reuters news agency quoted aid workers saying an air strike late Friday on a camp near the Eritrean border killed 56 people and wounded 30 others.

The U.N. humanitarian office told the AFP news agency that the attack in the town of Dedebit had caused “scores of civilian causalities.”

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that has ruled Tigray for decades, condemned the attack.

In statement Saturday, the TPLF accused the Ethiopian government of targeting civilians.

It also accused Eritrean forces of attacking Tigrayan fighters in northwest Tigray on the same day the IDP camp was hit.

Ethiopia’s federal authorities did not immediately comment on the accusations or the U.N. announcement on the aid groups’ withdrawal.

But, since the outbreak of the war with Tigrayan rebels in November 2020, authorities have denied targeting civilians.

The U.N. has been warning of a worsening humanitarian situation in Tigray.

The U.N. humanitarian office said last week that humanitarian agencies operating in Tigray have only one-sixth the amount of fuel needed to distribute limited food aid.

It said they continue to face security, bureaucratic and operational challenges, with aid partners forced to reduce or suspend operations, leaving millions of people without access to lifesaving assistance.

 

Source: Voice of America

ACCRA, GHANA — Mali’s military government on Monday responded to West African sanctions by closing its borders and withdrawing ambassadors from nations imposing the penalties. Regional bloc ECOWAS imposed the new sanctions Sunday, after Mali’s military leaders postponed promised February elections.

In a communique following a summit in Ghana Sunday, leaders of the 15 ECOWAS countries effectively severed economic and diplomatic ties with Mali.

The countries said they are withdrawing all ambassadors and closing land and air transit points with landlocked Mali because they said the military’s proposed five-year transition plan is unacceptable.

International relations and security expert Adam Bonaa has lauded ECOWAS for taking strong action to enforce its charter.

“The military, I keep saying, have no business in governance. If you want to govern, resign from being a military leader, put yourself up to be elected, campaign, spend resources and tell the people what you want to do. If they vote you into power, so be it, and if they don’t want you, keep trying. Let’s not allow this type of impunity to fester on or come back again,” he said.

Bonaa also called on France to respect the authority of ECOWAS and stay away from possibly interfering in Malian affairs.

“France has not taken its hands off Francophone West Africa. And for me this is something we should be looking out for, hoping that France would not interfere and make it look like ECOWAS cannot do anything. If they stay away from this, I don’t see how long the military leaders in Mali will survive from these particular sanctions,” Bonaa said.

In an address on Malian state television, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, a spokesman for the military authorities condemned the ECOWAS sanctions as “illegal and illegitimate.” He said the military government will also retaliate by recalling ambassadors accredited to ECOWAS member states.

“ECOWAS has ulterior motives. The junta deplores the inhumane nature of these measures which affect populations already severely affected by the security crisis and the health crisis. The government wishes to reassure the nation that arrangements have been made to ensure the normal supply of goods and services,” Maiga said.

Innocent Badasu, an expert on regional issues, believes ECOWAS’ approach is not the best. Instead, he said, the bloc should aim at winning the goodwill of the people of Mali and the trust of the coup leaders in order to restore constitutional rule.

“There must be an honest dialogue to win the trust of the Malian military leaders. Trust that will allow them to begin to think that their personal security is not at risk and that they can successfully hand over to a civilian rule and still have a life that they don’t need to be worried about,” Badasu said.

For the moment, Mali’s ECOWAS membership is suspended and members of the transitional authority and their relatives are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

 

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDE — Authorities in Cameroon authorities say at least 25,000 villagers in the northeast who fled communal fighting to neighboring Chad last month have returned. But hundreds were left homeless by the fighting between ranchers and fishers, and more than 75,000 are reluctant to go home.

Cameroon’s ministry of territorial administration says at least 25,000 civilians who fled intercommunal violence along its northern border to Chad have returned home.

A statement read on Cameroon state radio CRTV on Monday said the civilians are returning because the area is once again peaceful.

The governor of Cameroon’s Far North Region, Midjiyawa Bakari, said a December peace mission to convince armed men to drop their weapons was a success.

He spoke to VOA via messaging application from Maroua, the capital of the Far North Region.

Bakari said thousands of civilians who fled to Chad because of the intercommunal violence between Arab Chao and ethnic Mousgoum have been returning to Cameroon each week since December 16. He said the returnees are responding to Cameroon President Paul Biya’s appeal for them to return home, seek peace, and develop their communities.

But Bakari said several hundred returnees were left homeless because their houses were torched in the conflict.

Authorities say clashes between ranchers and fishers over water and land erupted along the border on December 7, leaving at least 10 people dead and scores wounded.

The U.N. says the violence between the two communities pushed at least 102,000 civilians to flee to neighboring Chad.

Among the civilians who escaped to Chad is 41-year-old mother of two Anne Djigoue.

She told CRTV she returned from the Chadian capital N’djamena on January 2 when envoys sent by Cameroon’s government convinced her it was safe.

Djigoue said fighting between Arab Choua ranchers and ethnic Mousgoum fishers has brought agony to both communities. She said a few returnees are privileged to live in tent houses while a majority sleep in the open air. She said all of them need houses, water, and food.

Cameroonian authorities say many of those left homeless were able to stay with relatives or in village mosques or churches.

Mounouna Foutsou is minister of youth affairs and civic education in Mayo Danay on Cameroon’s border with Chad.

He said some of the returnees are seeking help.

Foutsou said as community leader in Mayo Danay, he has an obligation to plead with citizens living in Cameroon’s northern border to help their brothers and sisters returning from Chad. He said people who are not affected by the clashes should share their lodging, food, and water with returning civilians whose houses or farms were torched during the conflict.

Cameroonian authorities say they have rebuilt three markets that were torched in the conflict and are supplying food, seeds, and mattresses to resettle people affected by the clashes.

But community leaders say over 75,000 of the villagers who fled to Chad are still reluctant to return.

The Cameroon Civil Society Organization says it will be difficult to convince many of those who fled to return without the government reconstructing homes and plantations that were destroyed.

 

Source: Voice of America