Category: Medical

Ethiopia for the first time accused troops from neighbouring Eritrea of killing 110 civilians in a massacre in the war-hit Tigray region.

The attorney general’s office sharply contradicted law enforcement officials who claimed earlier this month that the “great majority” of those killed in the city of Axum were fighters, not civilians.

The killings in Axum in late November represent one of the deadliest incidents of the six-month-old war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

The Tigray conflict erupted in early November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to detain and disarm leaders of the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Abiy said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.

In earlier reports on what happened in Axum, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty blamed Eritrean troops fighting in Tigray and said the dead were mostly civilians.

Amnesty said the Eritreans “went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood.”

In Friday’s statement, the attorney general’s office said the Eritreans engaged in reprisal killings after pro-TPLF forces attacked them.

“The investigation indicates that 110 civilians have been killed on these dates by Eritrean troops,” the statement said, referring to Nov 27-28.

“The investigation shows that 70 civilians have been killed in the city while they were outdoors. On the other hand, 40 civilians seem to have been taken out of their homes and killed in home-to-home raids conducted by Eritrean troops,” it said.

Eritrea’s information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Eritrean troops, who teamed up with the Ethiopian military, have been implicated in multiple massacres and other atrocities during the Tigray conflict, allegations Asmara denies.

The US and EU have repeatedly called for the Eritreans to withdraw.

“The continued presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray further undermines Ethiopia’s stability and national unity,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement last week.

“We again call upon the Government of Eritrea to remove its forces from Tigray.”

Ethiopia has said it is committed to investigating human rights abuses committed during the conflict.

Friday’s statement said that while Ethiopian troops had tried to minimise civilian casualties, “several allegations concerning the killing of civilians, sexual violence, [and] the looting and destruction of property have since been reported.”

It said the government takes those allegations “seriously” and has begun prosecuting suspects.

Military prosecutors have pressed charges against 28 soldiers “suspected of killing civilians in a situation where there was no military necessity,” it said.

“The trials of these suspects are underway and the verdicts are also expected to be handed down shortly.”

An additional 25 soldiers have been charged with “committing acts of sexual violence and rape.”

Three soldiers have already been convicted and sentenced for rape, while one soldier has been convicted and sentenced for killing a civilian, the statement said, without providing details. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Lava from a volcanic eruption approached the airport of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s main city of Goma late Saturday, and the government urged residents to evacuate.

As the red glow of Mount Nyiragongo tinged the night sky above the lakeside city of about 2 million, thousands of Goma residents carrying mattresses and other belongings fled the city on foot, many toward the frontier with Rwanda.

Nyiragongo’s last eruption in 2002 killed 250 people and left 120,000 homeless. It is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and is considered among the most dangerous.

Rwanda’s Ministry in Charge of Emergency Management said more than 3,500 Congolese had crossed the border. Rwandan state media said they would be lodged in schools and places of worship.

‘Goma is the target’

New fractures were opening in the volcano, letting lava flow south toward the city after initially flowing east toward Rwanda, said Dario Tedesco, a volcanologist based in Goma.

“Now Goma is the target,” Tedesco told Reuters. “It’s similar to 2002. I think that the lava is going towards the city center.

“It might stop before or go on. It’s difficult to forecast.”

Emmanuel de Merode, head of Virunga National Park, asked park employees in parts of Goma to evacuate, according to a note seen by Reuters. He said lava had reached the international airport on the eastern edge of the city but that it was not likely to reach other parts of Goma.

Celestin Kasereka, head of scientific research at the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG), told reporters he did not think the lava was flowing fast enough to reach Goma.

A U.N. source said all U.N. aircraft had been evacuated to the city of Bukavu to the south and Entebbe in neighboring Uganda. The power was also out across much of Goma.

Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde convened an emergency meeting in the capital, Kinshasa, where the government activated an evacuation plan for Goma.

“We hope that the measures that have been taken this evening will allow the population to reach the points that were indicated to them in this plan,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in comments broadcast on national television.

President Felix Tshisekedi will cut short a trip to Europe to return to Congo on Sunday, the presidency said on Twitter.

In the grip of panic

On the streets of Goma, panic spread quickly.

“We are panicked because we have just seen the entire city covered by a light that is not electricity or lamps,” said John Kilosho. “We don’t know what to do. We don’t even know how to behave. There is no information.”

Others fled to the city center from villages and neighborhoods threatened by lava on the northern outskirts.

“We looked at the sky and saw the red color of the volcano,” said Richard Hazika Diouf from the Majengo neighborhood. “We have fled to seek shelter in town.”

Volcano watchers have been worried that the volcanic activity observed in the last five years at Nyiragongo mirrors that in the years preceding eruptions in 1977 and 2002.

Volcanologists at the OVG, which monitors Nyiragongo, have struggled to make regular, basic checks since the World Bank cut funding amid embezzlement allegations.

Source: Voice of America

Somalia this year was hit by a double punch: a second wave of coronavirus and political turmoil over elections that threatened to spark armed conflict. But while political tensions cooled, the impact on the economy is ongoing, as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu.

Source: Voice of America

YUMBE, NORTHERN UGANDA – Uganda, which hosts nearly 1.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers, began coronavirus vaccinations this week in the camps and settlements. But vaccine hesitancy among refugees poses a challenge.

Ugandan authorities have received 964,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine and inoculated 453,000 people as of May 16.

Now, the government is extending COVID-19 vaccinations to refugees, most of whom are from South Sudan.

In Bidibidi settlement, the vaccination team is first targeting older people, age 50 or higher.

To get them to the clinic, the health team is going to door to door. Moses Lomoro, a village health team member, says face to face interactions helped erase a lot of fears among the elderly.

“After getting a vaccine, some people have a reaction,” he said. “Someone can have a fever and vomiting. So, these rumors have scared some of the community members. And also, other people, they have access to social media and give false information.”

Before the vaccination, health workers carry out a counselling session in which each recipient reads and signs a consent form.

The consent form reads, in part: “As with any vaccine, there is no certainty that I will become immune or that I will not experience any adverse events from the vaccine. I voluntarily assume full responsibility for any events that may result due to vaccination.”

Mary Nyoka, 65, has concerns over the form.

She says, I have pressure, ulcers and malaria. We are already old enough, are they giving us a vaccine to kill us? She says, so, I’m scared, they are making us sign a consent form.

Dr. Charles Onek, a medical officer with the International Rescue Committee says the community has had many fears that have affected the vaccination process.

“People have been wondering, if I get a severe form of reaction and maybe, I succumb to it, or I die. Will I be compensated? So, that answer has never been very clear,” he said. “People are talking that if you receive a COVID vaccine, especially for men, you become impotent. No, this has been a myth and we have always been talking about it.”

In the settlements, the different health centers use what they call, “boda boda talk talk” to pass on messages about coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease.

Balizina Emmy, a clinical officer at Swinga Health Centre III, says they are making progress through these messages.

“It is kind of challenging, because, it has not been happening with other vaccines. This is somehow special. This is a new thing in the vaccination system. We try to talk to them and explain to them the reason as to why they should consent. More so, because of these side effects,” he said.

Ugandan doctors say they will have to reset their messages to show and convince not just refugees, but even locals that any risks associated with the vaccine are minimal compared to getting COVID-19, which carries the risk of death.

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region is facing a horrifying situation with people dying of hunger, health services destroyed and rape “rampant,” the WHO chief, himself from the region, said Monday.

“The situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, is, if I use one word, horrific. Very horrific,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November after accusing the once-dominant regional ruling party of orchestrating attacks on federal army camps.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy declared victory later that month when the army entered the regional capital Mekele.

But fighting continues and the six-month conflict has sparked allegations of massacres and rape by Ethiopian forces and troops from neighboring Eritrea.

Tedros pointed out that some five million people in the region are now in need of humanitarian aid, and especially food aid.

“Many people have started dying actually because of hunger, and severe and acute malnutrition is becoming rampant,” he said.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes with over 60,000 fleeing into Sudan.

At the same time, health services have been looted and destroyed, he said, adding that “the majority of them are not functioning.”

Aid access key

The WHO chief also condemned indiscriminate killings and the widespread use of sexual violence in the conflict.

“Rape is rampant. I don’t think there was that scale anywhere else in the world actually,” he said.

Asked about the COVID-19 situation in his home region, Tedros said there were no services to rein in the disease, but said it is not a priority given the other crises.

“For the most part, we’re not even in a position to discuss about COVID, to be honest, because there are more pressing issues.”

One of the most urgent problems to address is getting full access for humanitarian workers and for aid.

World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly called for full humanitarian access to the crisis-wracked areas as fears grow of impending disaster.

On Friday, the European Union condemned the ongoing blocking of aid to the region, denouncing “the use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.”

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan warned Monday that “access to victims in Tigray remains highly unpredictable.”

This, he said, was creating “a huge barrier to access to the populations that need our help.”

With most health facilities destroyed, the U.N. health agency was concerned about rising risks of cholera, measles and other outbreaks, he said.

“We have also issues of continuing to get (cholera) vaccines in,” he pointed out, stressing the need to “get those doses in there” and to plan immunization campaigns “to avert a cholera disaster.”

Source: Voice of America

Nigerian officials say the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the economy and social distancing have tripled the number of mental health cases. In response, Nigeria has launched the first toll-free, 24-hour helpline staffed by trained psychologists and counselors. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.

Source: Voice of America