Category: Politics

The United States imposed sanctions Monday on a top Eritrean defense official, citing Eritrea’s actions during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that it is sanctioning Filipos Woldeyohannes, the chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), accusing the forces of carrying out abuses in Tigray.

The Treasury Department said the EDF engaged in “despicable acts” in Tigray, including “massacres, looting and sexual assaults.”

“The EDF have purposely shot civilians in the street and carried out systematic house-to-house searches, executing men and boys, and have forcibly evicted Tigrayan families from their residences and taken over their houses and property,” it said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a separate statement Monday, “The United States will continue to identify and pursue action against those involved in serious human rights abuse in Ethiopia and prolonging the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis.”

The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the U.S. allegations, calling them “utterly baseless.”

“Eritrea calls on the U.S. administration to bring the case to an independent adjudication if it indeed has facts to prove its false allegations,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November, saying it was a response to attacks on federal army camps by forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Both Ethiopia and Eritrea denied for months that Eritrean troops were also in the region. Eritrea later acknowledged their presence, but denied they were involved in human rights abuses.

Tigrayan forces retook the regional capital Mekele in June, forcing a withdrawal of some Eritrean troops from the region. However, Blinken said in his statement Monday, “the United States is concerned that large numbers of EDF have reentered Ethiopia, after withdrawing in June.”

The United Nations says the fighting in Tigray has killed thousands of people and put hundreds of thousands of people in danger of famine.

Source: Voice of America

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on an Eritrean official it accused of being engaged in serious human rights abuse in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where thousands have been killed and over 2 million displaced.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it had blacklisted Filipos Woldeyohannes, the chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces, accusing the forces of being responsible for massacres, sexual assaults and purposely shooting civilians in the streets, among other human rights abuses.

The United States has repeatedly called for Eritrean troops to withdraw from Tigray.

“Today’s action demonstrates the United States’ commitment to imposing costs on those responsible for these despicable acts, which worsen a conflict that has led to tremendous suffering by Ethiopians,” Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in the statement.

“We urge Eritrea to immediately and permanently withdraw its forces from Ethiopia, and urge the parties to the conflict to begin ceasefire negotiations and end human rights abuses,” Gacki added.

Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not return calls and text messages seeking comment.

War broke out in November between the federal army and forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that controls the region.

The government declared victory at the end of that month, after seizing the regional capital Mekelle. But the TPLF kept fighting and at the end of June retook Mekelle and most of Tigray after government soldiers withdrew.

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON – Cameroon says its military has killed seven self-proclaimed separatist generals who blocked traffic for a month on roads in the central African state’s English-speaking western regions. The military says during a two-week operation, it recovered 70 vehicles the fighters had seized from civilians and rescued several women and children held hostage in separatist camps.

Cameroon said Friday its military had eliminated separatists from roads the fighters had illegally occupied in the English-speaking North-West region since July. Lieutenant Conrad Onana says he commanded government troops in one of several operations to neutralize fighters blocking roads.

Onana says a heavy exchange of fire lasted for over two hours starting at 1 a.m. Friday, when government troops attacked the fighters in Bafut. He says many of the separatists and their five self-proclaimed generals killed by government troops had been wanted by the military.

Onana did not give the total number of separatists killed in the raid.

He said the military rescued several women, including a pregnant woman, and a nursing baby held hostage by the fighters. He said at least six men were arrested for collaborating with separatists.

General Nka Valere is commander of government troops fighting separatists in the North-West region.

Nka says several hundred government troops took part in operations in which two self-proclaimed generals were killed in Bali in addition to the five in Bafut, towns in the North-West region’s Mezam Division. He says the generals killed by the military are called Small Pepper, Stone, Small Bible, Ibobe, Prince, Kobet and Babilla. He says his troops recovered many weapons and seized material the fighters were using for homemade bombs.

Nka said he is asking civilians to collaborate more than ever before with the military by reporting suspected separatist fighters hiding in their communities.

Separatists have said on social media that some of their fighters and generals were killed but have given no further details. The fighters say many government troops were also killed.

Nka said a few government troops sustained light injuries, but none were killed.

In July, Cameroonian officials prohibited use of motorcycles in Mezam. The officials accused separatists of using motorcycles for crimes, including the ambush and killing of five police officers in Bali July 18.

Cameroon said the separatist fighters also used motorcycles to attack and raze military positions, police stations and government offices.

On social media, separatists claimed responsibility for killing the police officers and burning buildings occupied by the military. The fighters also imposed a ban on motor vehicle traffic and promised to lift the ban when government officials allow motorcycle traffic.

The military said the separatists seized over a hundred vehicles that defied the ban and used the vehicles to erect road barricades.

The government said it ordered the military to clear the roads of separatist fighters because thousands of people who use the roads daily were stranded.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the North-West region, said 70 vehicles were removed from the road. He said all the roads blocked by separatist fighters are now safe and useable. Tchoffo said Cameroonian President Paul Biya has reiterated that fighters who surrender and drop their weapons will not be prosecuted.

Twenty-four-year-old truck driver Innocent Njikong says it is the sixth time since 2015 that the government is assuring travelers that roads in the North-West region are safe. He says he is very certain that the fighters will not drop their weapons.

“How do you meet and convince them [fighters] when they are still staying outside? They [the military] have burned their [fighters’] houses,” Njikongsaid. “We are pleading to the government, let them [the military] drop their guns. We need to sacrifice in order to bring peace.”

Njikong said by sacrifice, he means that the government should declare a cease-fire.

Cameroon has always said its military is not involved in any wrongdoing and that it will crush separatists who refuse to surrender.

Violence erupted in 2017 in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination by the French-speaking majority. The military reacted with a crackdown and separatist groups took up weapons, claiming that they were protecting civilians.

The United Nations says over 3,000 people have been killed and 550,000 displaced in Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria since the conflict began.

 

Source: Voice of America

KAMPALA – Ugandan officials have confirmed the country will be receiving 145 evacuees from Afghanistan on Sunday.

After days of discussion, Uganda has confirmed it will receive evacuees from Afghanistan Sunday.

The latest developments come a day after evacuations in Kabul were temporarily halted due to overcrowding at an evacuee receiving center in Qatar.

Esther Anyakun, Uganda’s deputy minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, spoke to VOA.

“IRC (International Red Cross) and other development partners have been working with U.S. government also to see the people who we are going to evacuate by tomorrow. Just 145,” said Anyakun.

Earlier this week, Anyakun said Uganda would accept up to 2,000 Afghan refugees, but other officials said at that time the matter was still under discussion.

On whether all the evacuees will be Afghans or Ugandans, Anyakun had this to say.

“You cannot tell whether it is a Ugandan. Because people are just like, trying to fight through those walls in Afghanistan to get into the plane,” said Anyakun. “So, they can’t even categorize and say that we are taking probably diplomats, or Ugandans alone. So, the moment you manage to succeeded to penetrate and you get there then you will be lucky. I think when they’ve already reached here is when we shall now categorize.”

Appearing on a local radio show Saturday morning, Uganda’s Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Hillary Onek, explained that those arriving from Afghanistan are mainly women and children.

He said they won’t stay in Uganda forever, adding that the East African country will be used as a transit point before they are taken to the United States.

Minister Onek said officials have already booked hotels in the city of Entebbe, where the 145 evacuees will stay.

 

Source: Voice of America

N’DJAMENA, CHAD – Chad has decided to recall half of its 1,200 troops battling Islamist militants in the tri-border area of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, a spokesperson for Chadian authorities said Saturday.

Chad deployed the soldiers in February to support a France-backed regional fight with insurgents linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State who have destabilized swaths of territory in West Africa’s Sahel region in recent years.

The decision to withdraw 600 of these soldiers was made in agreement with Chad’s Sahel allies, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna said, speaking on behalf of the Transitional Military Council in Chad.

The recalled Chadian troops would be redeployed elsewhere, Agouna said, without giving further details.

The authorities in Chad have faced a separate conflict this year with insurgents in the north.

France has also said it plans to reduce its presence in the Sahel to around half the 5,100 soldiers there, although it has given no timeframe.

The former colonial power has hailed some successes against the militants in recent months, but the situation is extremely fragile with hundreds of civilians killed in rebel attacks this year.

Mahamat Idriss Deby, who leads the Transitional Military Council (CMT), has run Chad since his father, the former president, was killed while visiting the front line in April.

Earlier in August, Deby invited the rebels to participate in a national dialogue.

A military source said the 600 troops would be sent to Chad’s northern border with Libya and Sudan to disarm rebels seeking to return to take part in these talks, which are scheduled for the end of the year.

On Saturday, Deby said the talks would not succeed unless all stakeholders were represented.

 

Source: Voice of America

The impoverished Sahel state of Burkina Faso was plunged once more into mourning on Thursday after suspected jihadis killed 49 people in an attack that raised fresh doubts about its armed forces.

The national flag was lowered to half-staff for three days of mourning at the parliament, presidency and government in offices in the capital Ouagadougou, an AFP journalist said.

Several television and radio channels changed their programming, mostly broadcasting songs paying tribute to the defense and security forces.

Newspapers and online media placed a black edging of mourning around their front pages, although some raised pointed questions over the country’s security crisis.

“Over the past five years, the days have come and gone but look the same to the Burkinabe public,” online outlet Wakatsera said.

“The flags are raised and then almost immediately dropped to half-mast to mourn new dead, civilians and/or troops, in attacks by armed individuals who are usually never identified,” it said.

The landlocked country has been battered for the past six years by jihadi attacks from neighboring Mali, epicenter of a brutal insurgency that began in 2012 and has also hit Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the three countries, while according to United Nations figures more than 2 million people have fled their homes.

In Burkina Faso, the toll stands at more than 1,500 dead and 1.3 million displaced.

In Wednesday’s attack, 30 civilians, 15 police and four anti-jihadi defense volunteers were killed and 30 wounded near the town of Gorgadji in Burkina’s Sahel region, a security source and a government source told AFP.

The attack was in the three-border area, where the frontiers of the three countries converge and gunmen linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State roam.

The security forces killed 58 terrorists and the rest fled, according to the government.

It was the third major attack on Burkina troops in the past two weeks. The country’s armed forces are poorly equipped, ill-trained are face a highly mobile foe.

Since the start of August, more than 90 people have died in attacks in the north and northeast of the country.

“With each new attack, we say we’ve hit bottom, but then another one comes along, reminding us that there is always something worse,” said Bassirou Sedogo, a 47-year-old businessman.

“We observe national mourning, but we also wonder how an ambush against a military convoy … can leave so many casualties. If they can kill so many civilians who are under escort, that means no one anywhere in the area is safe from these killings,” he said.

The police and volunteers in the Gorgadji attack had been providing a security escort for civilians who were returning to their homes after earlier attacks, the authorities say.

Source: Voice of America

Saturday, August 21, is the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, a day that is unfortunately relevant in Burkina Faso which is engaged in fighting Islamist militants. One Burkinabe nonprofit, Go Paga, is helping widows and orphans grappling with the loss of husbands and fathers to rebuild their lives.

Some 1.3 million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso’s conflict since it began in 2015, and more than 6,000 killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Burkinabe military personnel are among the dead, killed fighting terror groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Loretta Ilboudou is the widow of a soldier killed in that fight. She says it was on December 24, 2019. She and her family were preparing for Christmas. Her husband’s uncles arrived in the morning, but she wasn’t informed of his death until that evening. She said she suspected something but wasn’t told anything to begin with.

Her husband died during a terrorist attack on the town of Arbinda. The couple had a daughter who was just a few months old at the time.

Her husband was a nice person, she says, a bit shy, and very serious about his work. He spent a lot of time with his family. They used to go on outings on his days off.

A nonprofit called Go Paga is helping widows like Ilboudou. Its pilot project, launched in February, provides them with support so they can make a living.

Fadima Kambou, the founder of Go Paga, says the program is about teaching the women to fish, not giving them the fish. It’s about empowering themselves and their children afterward. The aim is for Burkina Faso to have a system of care that supports what the state already provides for these widows, Kambou adds.

Terrorism victims like Ilboudou face complex issues, says Fionnuala Ni Aolain, United Nations special rapporteur for protecting the human rights of terrorism victims.

“So, we get a lot of good wishes for victims of terrorism, and we get a lot of expressions of great sorrow for their sorrow. But in many ways — and I think both speak directly about widows — the reality is that victims of terrorism, particularly women who have been victims, need concrete and practical support,” she said.

Today, IIboudou is an intern at an insurance company. She hopes to be fully employed so she can support her daughter.

Now, she says she feels ready to move forward and she says she wishes other women had this chance.

Beginning in September, Go Paga plans to roll out its program to support all military widows in the country.

Source: Voice of America