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The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has deployed a monitoring mission to Kaliti Correctional Facility and Kilinto Prison to monitor the situation of defendants in Jawar Mohammed et al case, who have remained on hunger strike since January 27, 2021, and other prisoners.
The Commission’s team visited the said prisons on February 2, 2021 to investigate the current situation of the prisoners on hunger strike and the treatment of Colonel Gemechu Ayana and Tilahun Yemi. EHRC’s monitoring team also talked with the prison administration of both facilities and the prisoners, according to the statement of EHRC.
During the Commission’s visit to Kaliti Correctional Facility on February 2, 2021, Jawar Mohammed, Bekele Gerba, Hamza Adane (Borena) and Shemsedin Taha had been on hunger strike since January 27, 2021. The prisoners informed EHRC that the purpose thereof is to “protest the government’s suppression and violation of rights of people and their party;
Ethiopia: Metekel Zone, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Flash Update No. 2 (29 January 2021)
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HIGHLIGHTS
• On 21 January, the federal Government of Ethiopia declared a State of Emergency in Metekel Zone in Benishangul Gumuz Region (BGR).
• Since mid-2020, 180,000 civilians have been displaced within Metekel and in Amhara.
• These IDPs are in addition to the 28,000 returnees formerly displaced in 2019 by inter-communal violence, whose livelihoods had barely stabilized when unidentified armed groups intensified their activities.
• On 24 January, 1256 ethnic Gumuz asylum seekers reportedly arrived in Sudan’s Blue Nile Province.
• Humanitarian situation may worsen, as access remains severely restricted by insecurity.
• The regional Government has been providing limited life-saving assistance since July 2020 using armed escorts.
English By Eskinder Firew Share on Facebook Print this page
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Calling Ethiopia “the critical actor in Horn of Africa stability,” outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor voiced confidence in a strengthened bilateral relationship but warned that violence – especially in the northern Tigray region – threatens the country’s progress.
“We remain concerned about ethnic violence around the country and the threat it poses to achieving the country’s potential,” Raynor said of Ethiopia, speaking at a press conference Monday in Addis Ababa, the capital.
It was Raynor’s final news briefing as ambassador, a post he has held since September 2017. He has focused on Africa for many of his 30-plus years as a diplomat.
Introduction Few of us will look back fondly at 2020. COVID-19 has killed millions, destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions more, and triggered the worst global economic crisis since World War II. At the same time, few protagonists of the world’s deadliest wars saw reason to stop fighting each other to battle the virus. Indeed, in Afghanistan, despite peace talks, in Yemen, the Sahel and Somalia, violence and human suffering continued apace. The latter part of the year saw wars reignite in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Central African Republic. A new conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region grinds on, this one especially troubling due not only to its human toll but the risk of spillover.