Day: November 5, 2021

Ethiopia’s Tigray forces are joining with other armed and opposition groups in an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political transition after a year of devastating war, organizers say.

The signing in Washington on Friday includes the Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces, as well as the Oromo Liberation Army now fighting alongside the Tigray forces and seven other groups from around the country.

The alliance is forming as U.S. special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is in Ethiopia’s capital meeting with senior government officials amid calls for an immediate cease-fire and talks to end the war that has killed thousands of people since November 2020. The U.S. said he met with the deputy prime minister and defense and finance ministers on Thursday.

The new United Front of Ethiopian Federalist Forces seeks to “establish a transitional arrangement in Ethiopia” so the prime minister can go as soon as possible, organizer Yohanees Abraha, who is with the Tigray group, told The Associated Press late Thursday. “The next step will be, of course, to start meeting and communicating with countries, diplomats and international actors in Ethiopia and abroad.”

He said the new alliance is both political and military. It has had no communication with Ethiopia’s government, he added.

A spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army, Odaa Tarbii, confirmed the new alliance. When asked whether it meant to force Abiy out, he replied that it depended on Ethiopia’s government and events over the coming weeks. “Of course we prefer if there’s a peaceful and orderly transition with Abiy being removed,” he said.

“The goal is to be as inclusive as possible. We know this transition requires all stakeholders,” he added. But as for members of the prime minister’s Prosperity Party, “there would have to be a process. Many members would have to go through investigation, possibly be prosecuted” for crimes related to the war.

The spokeswoman for the prime minister, Billene Seyoum, addressed the new alliance Thursday evening when she tweeted that “any outliers that rejected the democratic processes Ethiopia embarked upon cannot be for democratization,” pointing out Abiy’s opening-up of political space after taking office in 2018. His reforms included welcoming some opposition groups home from exile.

The spokeswoman said she had no further comment Friday, and had no information on whether the prime minister would be meeting with the U.S. special envoy.

The OLA spokesman in reply to her tweet noted that some of the people who returned to Ethiopia were later put in prison or under house arrest. “A lot of goodwill was lost over the last three years,” he said.

Other groups signing on Friday include the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant People Right and Justice Movement/ Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National Liberation Front and Somali State Resistance, according to organizers.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. State Department on Friday urged all Americans to leave Ethiopia “as soon as possible,” according to a security alert posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.

The alert called the security situation in the country “very fluid.”

According to Reuters, a group of anti-government forces threatened to march into the capital city.

The State Department also warned Americans from traveling to the country on its travel advisory website, saying: “Do not travel to Ethiopia due to armed conflict, civil unrest, communications disruptions, crime, and the potential for terrorism and kidnapping in border areas.”

The warnings come as Ethiopia sinks deeper into a crisis sparked by an ongoing war in the country’s northern Tigray region.

The Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency Wednesday and called on residents to defend their neighborhoods if rebels arrive in the capital.

“Our country is facing a grave danger to its existence, sovereignty and unity. And we can’t dispel this danger through the usual law enforcement systems and procedures,” Justice Minister Gedion Timothewos said during a state media briefing.

Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray region, blamed the Ethiopian government and its allies for causing the suffering of the past year.

“The warmongers decided to continue with the war, and we entered into this war because the only option we had is to destroy our enemies by force,” he said.

Thursday marked the first anniversary of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s deployment of troops to Tigray in response to forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front seizing military bases a day earlier. The ensuing conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced several million from their homes and left 400,000 residents of Tigray facing famine, according to a July estimate by the U.N.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published on Wednesday found that all sides in the conflict have committed human rights violations, including torturing civilians, gang rapes and arresting people based on ethnicity. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said some of those abuses may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Source: Voice of America

Advocates for media freedom say nations in the Southern Africa Regional Bloc, SADC, are enacting restrictive cyber laws that have a chilling effect on journalism and freedom of expression.

In a hybrid forum on the state of internet regulations, Tabani Moyo, the director of Media Institute of Southern Africa, said his organization is worried about a trend toward less tolerance for journalists and dissent in the region.

He said the trend began last year, after a meeting of SADC leaders where heads of state resolved to take pre-emptive measures against what they called external interference, the impact of fake news and abuse of social media.

“In the wake of this resolution, we have seen a dangerous consensus towards crackdown of expression online,” Moyo said. “A number of southern African countries moved with speed to come up with what they referred to as cybersecurity laws and frameworks. To us, [this is] somewhat problematic as the proposed pieces of legislation have serious chilling effect on expression, media freedom and right to privacy.”

The effects have been most visible in Tanzania, where the Uhuru newspaper was suspended in August for publishing what authorities called a false story saying President Samia Suluhu Hassan would not run for office in 2025.

In September, Raia Mwema, a Swahili-language weekly, was suspended for 30 days for “repeatedly publishing false information and deliberate incitement.”

Meanwhile, Zambia’s government under former president Edgar Lungu used cyber laws to block social media, on the pretext the opposition was committing crimes with its posts on Twitter and Facebook.

SADC secretary Elias Mpedi Magosi – in a speech read by SADC director of infrastructure Rosemary Mapolao Mokoena – defended the move toward stronger internet laws.

“As more people get connected to access information, it attracts more cyber criminals to our shores,” Mokoena said. “SADC has already commenced the process to review and modernize the SADC cyber space legal regulatory and institutional frameworks. … Misinformation being spread on the safety of 5G mobile networks risks has caused a negative risk on the ICT industry.”

However, Namibia’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology Peya Mushelenga called on countries to allow free expression online.

“Thus, it is incumbent upon all players – development partners, civil society organizations, government and intergovernmental organizations – to reinforce among each other in order to safeguard and enhance guarantees the full exercise of the right to information and freedom of expression both online and offline, with a particular focus on strengthening media diversity its independence, ability as well as transparency of digital platforms,” Mushelenga said.

Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced this week the government had set up a cyber team to monitor what people send and receive, a move that is being condemned by many rights groups.

Source: Voice of America