Category: Key Issues

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

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

A group of Somali opposition presidential candidates has rejected the government’s plan for upcoming elections. The rejection could result in yet another delay for the Somali polls.

The opposition Council of Presidential Candidates, or CPS, released a statement Monday saying they reject a new election roadmap proposed by the federal government and regional leaders.

The opposition argues that the process would give five regional leaders too much power in selecting the electoral delegates who will choose 275 members of parliament.

Opposition leader Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said there is need for a clear path towards the process on who will select the delegates and whom they represent since the parliamentary polls is based on the 4.5 power sharing formula. The former head of state adds they don’t want another delay on the polls, which were already delayed twice before, and thus demands a clear timetable.

The 4.5 formula refers to a plan for sharing power among Somalia’s dominant clans.

The indirect election of the parliamentarians is scheduled to commence early next month before the crucial presidential poll on October 10th. But, analysts say this new stalemate will delay the presidential polll if not urgently resolved.

Abdifatah Hassan, a Somali political analyst, said the new grievance by the opposition members will further push back the process to an unspecified date. He recommends urgent dialogue by the political stakeholders to avoid another election setback in the fragile nation.

Somalia’s election process was originally scheduled to start last year, but has been repeatedly delayed by political disagreements, in spite of pressure from the international community.

In April, Somali lawmakers voted for an extension of the president’s mandate, only to reverse that decision in May following violent clashes between opposition and government supporters in the capital Mogadishu.

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

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok arrived in Juba on Thursday for two days of talks aimed at bolstering peace efforts in South Sudan amid a political crisis that ousted South Sudanese First Vice President Riek Machar as leader of the opposition party.

Officials from Khartoum and Juba are expected to discuss bilateral ties between the two countries and the implementation of the Juba peace deal signed last year between Sudan’s transitional government and several armed groups.

Sudanese Foreign Affairs Minister Mariam al-Mahdi, who accompanied Hamdok, told reporters at Juba International Airport that the Sudan leadership is concerned about the slow implementation of the South Sudan peace deal.

“We are observing the very positive development that is taking place, but there is still very observed slowness,” al-Mahdi said. “People are very concerned to revitalize and to support further the government of South Sudan to implement the agreement.”

Hamdok is scheduled to meet with South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Machar and other political players as well as diplomats from the United States, Britain and Norway.

Hamdok’s visit comes after one by Workneh Gebeyehu, the head of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional group trying to advance the peace process.

During his visit to Juba last week, Workneh said that the internal troubles within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) needed to be resolved quickly.

Fighting broke out within the SPLM/A-IO after Simon Gatwech Dual, Machar’s former chief of general staff, declared on August 4 that Machar was ousted as the party’s leader.

Top members of Machar’s faction, including former deputy Henry Odwar, later switched their allegiance to Gatwech, accusing Machar of single-handedly running all party affairs.

Following a meeting of IGAD ministers last week, the regional body said in a statement that the SPLM/A-IO split is beyond an intraparty crisis and could have significant immediate and long-term implications for the 2018 peace deal.

South Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Beatrice Khamisa, speaking Thursday while standing alongside Hamdok, said officials would discuss the SPLM/A-IO and bilateral issues.

“We have over the years signed cooperation agreements between South Sudan and Sudan,” she said. “I think those will be examined by various ministers in South Sudan and their counterparts.”

Juba and Khartoum have signed cooperation agreements on citizenship, border issues and trade.

Source: Voice of America