Tigray - The African Mirror

May

2022

Tigray’s ancient rock-hewn churches are under threat: why it matters

ETHIOPIA’S ancient civilisations are believed to date back more than 3,000 years. Many of the country’s most famous ancient artefacts are found in Tigray. The region has been embroiled in war since November 2020. Fighting between forces allied to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigrayan troops has led to the deaths of thousands of people and displaced millions. It has also caused the destruction of numerous historical monuments. With the region under a blockade, it has been difficult to track the scale of the damage done. Hagos Abrha Abay, a philologist, is documenting the region’s heritage loss. He sheds…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

U.N. aid chief to Ethiopia on famine in Tigray: ‘Get those trucks moving’

NEWS

MCHELLE NICHOLS UNITED Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths has assumed famine has taken hold in Ethiopia's Tigray where a nearly three-month-long "de-facto blockade" has restricted aid deliveries to 10% of what is needed in the war-torn region. Griffiths told Reuters during an interview that his request was simple: "Get those trucks moving." "This is man-made, this can be remedied by the act of government," he said. War broke out 10 months ago between Ethiopia's federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls Tigray. Thousands have died and more than two million people have been…

Aug

2021

By The African Mirror

Tigrayan forces take UN World Heritage Site

NEWS

FORCES from Ethiopia's Tigray region have taken control of the town of Lalibela, whose famed rock-hewn churches are a United Nations World Heritage Site, and residents were fleeing, two eyewitnesses told Reuters on Thursday. Lalibela, also a holy site for millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, is in the North Wollo Zone of the Amhara region in Ethiopia's north. In recent weeks fighting has spread from Tigray into two neighbouring regions, Amhara and Afar, forcing around 250,000 people to flee. Senior officials from the United Nations and the United States government who visited Ethiopia this week raised alarm at the widening…

Aug

2021

By The African Mirror

Fighting displaces 200 000 in Ethiopia’s Amhara region

NEWS

UNITED Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths has revealed that 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Ethiopia's Amhara region and 54,000 in its Afar region. In recent weeks fighting has spread into the two regions neighbouring Tigray, where a war erupted eight months ago between Ethiopia's central government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). "We need 100 trucks a day going into Tigray to meet humanitarian needs," Griffiths told reporters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, adding that the number was a "calculated need" and not "overestimated." The U.N. aid chief said also 122 trucks made it into Tigray…

Aug

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa can prevent Ethiopia from going down Rwanda’s path: here’s how

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHEN Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2019, I congratulated him in a public US and Africa dialogue forum. I thought he deserved the prize, given what he had done. In particular, he showed a calm and responsible interest in listening to all community grievances to avoid outbursts of war. EDWARD KISSI, Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, University of South Florida Today, under Abiy’s watch, Ethiopia has descended into a political and humanitarian crisis that threatens the very survival of the federal state. There are reports of ethnic groups in various regions…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Over 100 000 Tigray children at risk

NEWS

GIULIA PARAVICINI and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE United Nations children's agency has revealed that more than 100 000 children in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray could suffer life-threatening malnutrition in the next 12 months, a 10-fold increase to normal numbers. UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said that one-in-two pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Tigray were acutely malnourished. "Our worst fears about the health and well-being of children... are being confirmed," she told a briefing in Geneva. Spokespeople for the prime minister and a government task force on Tigray - where fighting between rebellious regional and federal forces have continued since November…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Young men mobilise against Tigray forces

NEWS

MAGGIE FICK and DAWIT ENDESHAW RESIDENTS of Ethiopia's Amhara region said some young men were responding to a weekend call to arms by their president, as Amhara's government denied that forces from neighbouring Tigray had advanced further into the region. An eight-month-old war between Ethiopia's central government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls Tigray, has spread to neighbouring parts of northern Ethiopia, risking further destabilisation of Africa's second-most populous nation. On Sunday Agegnehu Teshager, president of the Amhara regional government had called on "all young people" to take up arms against TPLF fighters, who say…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Aid neutrality under fire in Ethiopia’s widening conflict

HUMAN RIGHTS

PHILIP KLEINFELD ETHIOPIAN government accusations that aid agencies are supporting rebel forces in Tigray have left international relief organisations concerned for the security of frontline staff, even as conflict escalates and hundreds of thousands of people face famine. In a statement last week, Ethiopian foreign affairs official Redwan Hussein accused aid organisations of delivering weapons and equipment to rebel groups, and said unnamed UN agencies were “fabricating facts and figures” in a campaign aimed at “disrespecting and defaming Ethiopia”. He also threatened to expel staff members of the agencies. The conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has uprooted about two million people,…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Fighting in Ethiopia’s Afar displaces 54 000

NEWS

DAWIT ENDESHAW AND MAGGIE FICK ATTACKS by Tigrayan fighters in Ethiopia's Afar region have forced over 54,000 people from their homes, an official said on Thursday, and refugees in a camp in southern Tigray described heavy clashes nearby. Tens of thousands of people, meanwhile, rallied in the capital to support Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has faced criticism for his handling of a conflict that threatens to undermine stability in Africa's second-most populous nation. Tigrayan fighters, who want the Ethiopian government to accept their terms before talks on a ceasefire can begin, have taken control of three districts in Afar…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia denies blocking aid to Tigray

NEWS

DAVID ENDESHAW ETHIOPIA has denied blocking humanitarian aid to its northern Tigray region where hundreds of thousands face starvation, and said it was rebuilding infrastructure amid accusations it is using hunger as a weapon. The Tigray People's Liberation Front, provincial authorities which Ethiopian forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea had driven out last year, returned to regional capital Mekelle this week to cheering crowds, in a dramatic reversal of eight months of war. The Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire which the TPLF dismissed as a joke. There are reports of continued clashes in some places as pressure builds internationally…