Daily Times
April 11, 2021
Pakistan is on the verge of receiving around $1 billion debt relief under the G20 plan. A much-needed good news for Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtyar. This loan suspension will, undoubtedly, provide fiscal space to our economy so that Islamabad can focus on the already-hardening battle against COVID. While indicators of a severe debt crisis were present in Pakistan long before the pandemic, being forced to completely shutter down has taken a great toll on its finances. With the third wave knocking on our doorstep with full force, we need all the help we can get.
It is for this reason alone that PM Khan is repeatedly making a case for debt relief for stressed countries. His call for suspension of debt payments until well after the pandemic if not debt cancellation was echoed by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. As Khan is taking his bedridden economy to important UN gatherings, Ahmed wrote in The New York Times, “if the world is to survive t
Humanitarian Situation in Ethiopia Remains Dire, UN Official Says
Humanitarian Situation in Ethiopia Remains Dire, UN Official Says
The humanitarian situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, remains “dire”, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General has said.
This is even as the UN early last December announced that agreement has been reached with the Ethiopian Government to allow “unimpeded, sustained and secure access” for humanitarian supplies to reach those in need across areas now under its control in Tigray.
Confirming details of the deal at UN Headquarters in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the safe passage of aid supplies and staff also extends to the Ethiopian regions of Amhara and Afar, bordering Tigray, where fighting between federal and regional forces, has impacted hundreds of thousands amidst an overall population of six million in Tigray, during the past month of hostilities.
Standard Entertainment - Entertainment News in Kenya standardmedia.co.ke - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from standardmedia.co.ke Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Activists gather outside the United Nations to protest the Tigray conflict
Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
In early February, the crash of shells and bullets in the remote Jawmaro mountains in northern Ethiopia seemed to have stopped.
Civilians in Abi Addi, a town in the Temben region of Central Tigray, were relieved. At last, a small measure of peace.
But on February 10, all the terrors of Ethiopia’s civil war descended on the town and at least a dozen surrounding villages.
In exclusive testimony shared with the
Telegraph, 18 witnesses told how Ethiopian federal soldiers and Eritrean troops surrounded the area and went from house to house killing a total of 182 people.
Eritrea Has No Plans to Exit Tigray After Ethiopia Pact: TPLF
Samuel Gebre, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) A week after reaching an agreement with the Ethiopian prime minister to withdraw from the countryâs Tigray region, the Eritrean forces havenât showed signs of leaving.
The forces havenât vacated the area or shown any intention to leave, according to Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the Tigray Peopleâs Liberation Front, whose forces have been fighting against a coalition of Ethiopian federal forces, Amhara regional and Eritrean forces in Tigray for the past five months.
âThey havenât left,â Getachew said in an interview with Al Jazeera. âIn fact, there is no intention on the part of the Eritrean regime to withdraw its forces.â