Tag: Ethiopia

Africa

Ethiopia: food aid to Tigray plundered

EthiopiaThe World Food Program has suspended aid deliveries "until further notice" to Ethiopia's northern Tigray region following the discovery of the large-scale theft of relief food and its sale on local markets. USAID has also paused its funding of food assistance over the issue. According to USAID, "parties on both sides" of the two-year civil war have colluded to steal food through a "criminal network" established since last November's ceasefire. Tigray is still facing "severe" food insecurity, despite improved humanitarian access. (Map via EthioVisit)

Africa

Ethiopia: clashes erupt in Amhara region

EthiopiaGun battles and mass protests broke out in Ethiopia's Amhara region over the government's decision to absorb regional special forces into the national army. Some units refused to disarm and resisted the federal military. Amhara's security forces and allied militia played a key role in the government's two-year war in neighboring Tigray. A peace deal signed in November was heavily criticized in Amhara, with some believing rival Tigrayan forces had not fully disarmed. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that integration will be carried out by force if necessary. (Map: Political Geography Now)

Africa

Oil contracts at issue in Somaliland conflict?

SomaliladFighting continues in Somalia's northern breakaway state of Somaliland, where three administrative regions—Sool, Sanaag, and Aynaba—have taken up arms in a bid to rejoin the internationally recognized Mogadishu government. Somaliland accuses the government of Ethiopia (which is officially attempting to broker a dialogue in the conflict) of intervening on the side of the re-integrationist rebels, headquartered in the town of Las Anod, Sool regoin. Somaliland has been effectively independent since 1991, and has seen a more stable and secular social order than the regions controlled by the Mogadishu government. But now Mogadishu is asserting its right to grant oil contracts to foreign companies within Somaliland's territory. Local media note that the new conflict erupted just after Mogadishu announced the issuing of an exploration lease to Turkish Genel Energy in Somaliland—indeed, within Aynaba, one of the contested regions. The move was protested as "illegal" by the Somaliland government, based in the city of Hargeisa. (Map: Siirski via Ethiopia Insight)

Africa

Clashes over contested Somaliland regions

SomaliaMore than 200 people have died in three weeks of fighting around a disputed town in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Somaliland. More than 95,000 refugees have reportedly fled into neighboring Ethiopia after three weeks of clashes. Local militias around Las Anod are fighting to pull three administrative regions–Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn–away from Somaliland, with the aim of rejoining Somalia. Meanwhile, Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia that is also in a territorial dispute with neighboring Somaliland, has sent in troops to support the militias. (Map via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Ethiopia: violence ebbs in Tigray, flares in Oromia

EthiopiaThe war in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has cooled down since the signing of a peace deal in November. But a separate conflict is intensifying further south, in Oromia, where civilians are suffering as anti-government rebels step up attacks. Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) guerillas were previously confined to the fringes of western and southern Oromia, Ethiopia's largest region. But analysts say the Tigray war created a security vacuum that has helped the OLA expand its long-running insurgency. The security situation is now "fast deteriorating," the UN's aid coordination agency, OCHA, warned in a report last month. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been uprooted and essential services are not functioning in some conflict-affected areas. (Map via EthioVisit)

Africa

Ethiopia: continued fighting hinders Tigray aid

EthiopiaA month after the two parties signed a ceasefire agreement, the truce between Ethiopia's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) is holding. But while aid flows into Tigray are scaling up, deliveries still aren't matching needs. The World Food Program reports that while corridors into Tigray have reopened, access to some areas in the region remains off limits. Essential services, including banking and the internet, remain switched off, with no date set for restoring them. And while plans are proceeding for the disarmament of TPLF fighters, that process is complicated by Eritrean and Amhara forces, which were allies to the government during the conflict—and are reportedly still carrying out attacks on civilians in Tigray, including killings, kidnapping and looting. (Map: Political Geography Now)