Category: General

A spokesman for forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is denying a report that Tigrayan forces have captured a town in the neighboring Amhara region. Renewed clashes broke out last week between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Ethiopian government after a five-month lull.

On Sunday night, some international media reported that the TPLF had entered the Amhara region town of Weldiya. Speculation also spread on social media.

However, Monday, a TPLF representative told VOA that these claims were false, saying Tigrayan forces have not “yet” entered the town.

So far, the renewed fighting has been centered around the town of Kobo farther north.

Weldiya sits just over 300 kilometers from Addis Ababa and is a strategic point on the road leading south from the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle, to Addis Ababa.

Any movement by the TPLF farther south could set alarm bells ringing for the federal government. Last year, the TPLF came within 200 kilometers from Addis after it took the town of Dessie on the same road.

Both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF have blamed each other for triggering the clashes last week that ended a five-month cease-fire in Ethiopia’s civil war.

On Friday, it was reported that an Ethiopian government airstrike hit a kindergarten in Tigray, killing at least seven people.

The government accused the TPLF of staging images of the attack.

Source: Voice of America

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, in Tunis today:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by congratulating the Tunisian Government for hosting and organizing the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development for the second time only on the African continent.

It is my pleasure to speak to you about the climate-related actions we need for people and for the planet. This year has given us a glimpse of the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. Many corners of the world have faced storms, floods, droughts and raging wildfires. Lives and livelihoods have been lost. Tunisia has not been exempt from the negative impacts of climate change.

In this context, just about a month ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a historic resolution that declared access to a clean and healthy environment a universal human right. I would like to commend Tunisia for their vote in favour of this landmark resolution, as well as all who are acting to ensure a greener and healthier planet for future generations.

Despite this breakthrough, much more remains to be done. Today, I urge everyone, everywhere to employ innovative solutions and mobilize communities, the private sector and Governments to accelerate our pace to taking these solutions to scale. To do this we need young people, including the young people of Tunisia to play a leading role.

From the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development to Africa’s Twenty-seventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations stands committed to amplifying your voice and accompanying you in this journey to a more peaceful and healthier planet.

I wish you a successful Conference.

Source: United Nations

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies this week warned a lengthy war in Ukraine will have severe humanitarian consequences for other global crises.

Devastating secondary effects from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are already being felt six months after Russia’s invasion.

International Red Cross federation officials warned this week that the economic impact on millions of destitute people worldwide will worsen the longer the war drags on.

Ukraine was one of the world’s biggest grain exporters before the war. The Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, however, has prevented grain shipments, triggering a global food crisis. Skyrocketing food and fuel prices have made these and other essential commodities unaffordable, plunging millions of people into acute hunger.

Earlier this month, a U.N.-mediated deal allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports. Nevertheless, the Red Cross says the consequences of the war continue to be felt and will take a long time to undo.

Brigitte Ebbesen is International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies regional director for Europe. She says humanitarian needs remain acute, especially in the Middle East and Africa.

“The food crisis in Africa is something that we already are reacting to as IFRC and we are looking at in the Middle East. Buying food is increasingly difficult for a large part of the population. So, the ripple effects are enormous,” she said.

More than 100,000 local Red Cross volunteers and staff have been mobilized to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine, seven bordering countries and 17 other countries in the region.

Speaking from Kyiv, Ukrainian Red Cross Director-General Maksym Dotsenko says 8 million people are internally displaced and more than 5 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

He says the conflict is likely to go on for a long time and Red Cross staff and volunteers will continue to work to provide critical aid. He says continued support from the international community also will be crucial.

“The renovation of infrastructure, the renovation of houses, the renovation of the industry will require a lot of efforts of global community of Ukrainian people. So, the needs of the civilians are crucial for now and we do not see the tendency that these needs will be decreasing, especially in this winter period,” he said.

The International Red Cross says half of Ukraine’s 44 million population will require humanitarian assistance for a long time. Even if the conflict ends soon, it says it will take years to repair the damage to cities and homes. The Red Cross also says it will take years to alleviate the mental anguish, trauma, and the physical and economic suffering the war has caused.

Source: Voice of America

MP Tony Sleiman Franjieh received today at his Ehden office, the Vice President of the Lebanese Community residing in Cotonou (Benin), Mahmoud Ghazi Kodeih, who conveyed the greetings of the community and briefed him on its conditions, work sectors, cooperation and the extent of its members’ close connection with their mother country, Lebanon, that is suffering from many crises and challenges.

Kodeih stressed that “the Lebanese community in Cotonou and in all of Africa will not abandon Lebanon, no matter the difficulties.”

In turn, MP Franjieh wished the community and its new administrative body all success and progress to the benefit of Lebanon, its people and its diaspora, expressing his sincere greetings to the community.

Source: National News Agency

Unidentified gunmen killed six people and wounded two others in an attack on a convoy from the Boungou gold mine in eastern Burkina Faso, the army said Saturday.

Last week, five vehicles were dispatched from the mine, which is owned by Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining, to help a nearby convoy that had been stuck in the mud for days, the army statement said.

The attack occurred after the convoy was back on the road again. The assailants targeted the five support vehicles when they became separated from the convoy and its security detail.

Endeavour, the biggest gold miner in the West African country, did not respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear if those killed were employees of Endeavour or its partners, or if operations at the mine were impacted.

“The five vehicles, for reasons which remain to be determined, remained behind the convoy, outside the security system put in place by the military,” the army said in a statement.

The attack underscores the dangers of operating in Burkina Faso, where since 2018 Islamist militants affiliated with the Islamic State and al-Qaida have taken over large areas of the north and east, killing thousands and displacing over a million.

Thirty-nine people were killed in an ambush on buses filled with workers heading to the Boungou mine in 2019. Back then, the mine was owned by Quebec-based Semafo, which was acquired by Endeavour in 2020.

Workers at Boungou told Reuters that they had raised concerns about road safety months before the 2019 ambush.

Source: Voice of America

ALGIERS— France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Algeria on Thursday for a three-day visit aimed at mending ties with the former French colony, which this year marked 60 years of independence.

Macron landed at 3.30pm local time at Houari Boumediene Airport, where he was received by his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The two leaders, who wore masks as part of Covid-19 health measures, shook hands and hugged each other at the airport before their countries’ national anthems were played.

After talks with Tebboune at the airport, Macron visited a monument to martyrs of the country’s war for independence, which ended more than 130 years of French colonial rule in 1962.

Accompanied by Algeria’s top diplomat Ramtane Lamamra, the French president laid a wreath at the site and observed a minute of silence, Algerian state news agency APS reported.

Macron, who will meet entrepreneurs in Algiers as well as young people in Oran, Algeria’s second city, is accompanied by a delegation comprising about 90 officials.

His visit comes as Russia’s war on Ukraine has caused a gas supply crisis across Europe, increasing the continent’s demand for energy supplies from North African producers such as Algeria.

Franco-Algerian relations have experienced repeated crises since independence.

French President Emmanuel Macron talks with Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at the VIP lounge of the airport in Algiers at the start of his official visit to Algeria

Last year, the two nations got into a diplomatic spat when the French president accused Algerian leaders of “rewriting history” of their independence from colonial rule.

On his second visit to Algeria since he took power in 2017, the French leader “has chosen to direct this visit towards the future, [focusing on] start-ups, innovation, youth, new sectors”, his office said.

Algerian media said Macron’s visit showed both countries’ desire for relations built on “a new vision based on equal treatment and balance of interests”.

It also reflected “a recognition of Algeria’s central role in the region” and the country’s “return to the international scene”.

France is home to about four million people of Algerian origin

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK