Et bilde er verdt tusen ord: Lønnsforskjeller etter yrkesgrupper over tid
[…] Gjennomsnittlig månedslønn har steget for alle yrkesgrupper og kjønn fra 2015 til 2023, men veksten varierer mellom yrker og kjønn. Militæret har sett størst lønnsøkning, mens menn generelt tjener…
Ethiopia: Persistent, credible reports of grave violations in Tigray underscore urgent need for human rights access – Bachelet
OHCHR | GENEVA (4 March 2021) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday stressed the urgent need for an objective, independent assessment of the facts on the ground in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, given the persistent reports of serious human rights violations and abuses she continues to receive.
“Deeply distressing reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property by all parties continue to be shared with us, as well as reports of continued fighting in central Tigray in particular,” Bachelet said. “Credible information also continues to emerge about serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Tigray in November last year.”
“Without prompt, impartial and transparent investigations and holding those responsible accountable, I fear violations will continue to be committed with impunity, and the situation will remain volatile for a long time to come.”
The UN Human Rights Office has been receiving information about ongoing fighting across the region, particularly in the centre of Tigray region, as well as incidents of looting by various armed actors. Reliable sources have shared information about the killing of eight protestors by security forces between 9 and 10 February in Adigrat, Mekelle, Shire and Wukro. More than 136 cases of rape have also been reported in hospitals in Mekelle, Ayder, Adigrat and Wukro in the east of Tigray region between December and January, with indications that there are many more such unreported cases. The Government has said investigations are under way into the cases of sexual violence.
The Office has also managed to corroborate information about some of the incidents that occurred in November last year, indicating indiscriminate shelling in Mekelle, Humera and Adigrat towns in Tigray region, and reports of grave human rights violations and abuses including mass killings in Axum, and in Dengelat in central Tigray by Eritrean armed forces.
A preliminary analysis of the information received indicates that serious violations of international law, possibly amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, may have been committed by multiple actors in the conflict, including: the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Eritrean armed forces, and Amhara Regional Forces and affiliated militia.
“With multiple actors in the conflict, blanket denials and finger-pointing, there is a clear need for an objective, independent assessment of these reports – victims and survivors of these violations must not be denied their rights to the truth and to justice. We urge the Government of Ethiopia to grant my Office and other independent monitors access to the Tigray region, with a view to establishing the facts and contributing to accountability, regardless of the affiliation of perpetrators,” Bachelet said.
Bachelet also expressed concern at detentions this week in Tigray of journalists and translators working for local and international media. While the journalists have now been released, there have been worrying remarks by a Government official that those responsible for “misleading international media” would be held responsible.
“Victims and witnesses of human rights violations and abuses must not be hindered from sharing their testimony for fear of reprisals,” the High Commissioner said.
Bachelet welcomed recent statements by the Government on accountability and measures taken on access for humanitarian actors. She urged the authorities to ensure that those commitments are translated into reality, and stressed that the UN Human Rights Office stands ready to support efforts at advancing human rights, including efforts by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission aimed at ensuring accountability.
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Rupert Colville + 41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org or
Ravina Shamdasani – + 41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.orgor
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / ethrossell@ohchr.org or
Marta Hurtado – + 41 22 917 9466 / mhurtado@ohchr.org
IPIS Briefing February 2021 – Ethiopia-Tigray Conflict
Ethiopia-Tigray Conflict
Ethiopia Criticizes Amnesty Report on Massacre in Tigray | 27 February 2021 | Bloomberg
Ethiopia’s government criticized a report by Amnesty International that alleged war crimes in the northern town of Axum last year.
Amnesty says Eritrean troops killed hundreds of Ethiopian civilians in Axum | 26 February 2021 | Reuters
Tigray conflict: Joint Statement by HR/VP Borrell and Commissioner Lenarčič on massacres in Axum | 26 February 2021 | European Commission
Atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, press statement Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State | 27 February 2021 | Department of State
Eritrean soldiers killed hundreds of civilians in Ethiopia’s ancient town of Axum between Nov. 28 and 29, rights group Amnesty International said on Friday, one of several mass killings reported during a conflict that erupted nearly four months ago in the northern region of Tigray.
EU envoy says Ethiopia in ‘denial’ over Tigray | 23 February 2021 | Devex
When it comes to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the federal government in Addis Ababa has no common understanding of events and is in “denial” over the scale of the problem, said Pekka Haavisto, European Union envoy, on Tuesday.
Ethiopia’s regional Tigray forces name conditions for peace with government | 19 February 2021 | Reuters
Forces fighting Ethiopia’s military in the Tigray region laid out eight conditions on Friday for beginning peace talks, including the appointment of an international mediator and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid.
‘Horrible’: Witnesses recall massacre in Ethiopian holy city | 18 February 2021 | AP
Eritrea disputes AP story detailing massacre in Tigray | 19 February 2021 | AP
Bodies with gunshot wounds lay in the streets for days in Ethiopia’s holiest city. At night, residents listened in horror as hyenas fed on the corpses of people they knew. But they were forbidden from burying their dead by the invading Eritrean soldiers.
Paul Kagame calls for direct UN Security Council intervention in Tigray | 16 February 2021 | Ecofin Agency
For Rwandan president Paul Kagame, the UN, the USA, and other African countries are not sufficiently engaged in finding a solution to the Tigray conflict. This negligence could worsen the crisis in the coming years, he believes.
Mass Atrocities, Including The Use Of Rape And Sexual Violence, In The Tigray Region Of Ethiopia | 16 February 2021 | Forbes
In recent months reports have emerged highlighting the deteriorating situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The ongoing armed conflict began on November 4, 2020, when “Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF) to militarily engage with the Tigray Regional Paramilitary Police and militia loyal to the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) in what he stated was a response to multiple attacks by the Tigray security forces on the EDF North Command base in Mekelle and other military camps in Tigray Region.”
Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: ‘I lost my hand when a soldier tried to rape me’ | 15 February 2021 | BBC News
An Ethiopian schoolgirl has told the BBC how she lost her right hand defending herself from a soldier who tried to rape her – and who had also tried to force her grandfather to have sex with her.
Ethiopia confirms widespread rape in conflict-hit north | 12 February 2021 | Reuters
Scores of women have been raped in Ethiopia’s northerly Tigray region, authorities have confirmed, in the chaotic aftermath of an armed conflict last year that ousted the local ruling party.
‘We’ll be left without families’: Fear in Ethiopia’s Tigray | 11 February 2021 | Associated Press
As soldiers from Eritrea looted the border town of Rama in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, one home became a dispensary for frightened residents seeking medicine in the midst of war. In return, they shared details of killings in nearby communities. An American nurse visiting her family listened in shock.
Ethiopia: Unlawful Shelling of Tigray Urban Areas | 11 February 2021 | HRW
Ethiopian federal forces carried out apparently indiscriminate shelling of urban areas in the Tigray region in November 2020 in violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said today. Artillery attacks at the start of the armed conflict struck homes, hospitals, schools, and markets in the city of Mekelle, and the towns of Humera and Shire, killing at least 83 civilians, including children, and wounding over 300.
The Conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region: What to Know | 10 February 2021 | Council on Foreign Relations
The military campaign has resulted in a humanitarian crisis and fears of regional instability. A path forward will require international cooperation, careful diplomacy, and an inclusive political process that restores confidence among the country’s diverse population.
‘Emaciated’ survivors hint at worse in Ethiopia’s Tigray | 10 February 2021 | Associated Press
“Many, many severe cases of malnutrition” are being reported in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, Red Cross officials said Wednesday, as 80% of Tigray’s 6 million people are unreachable in the fourth month of fighting and “emaciated” women and children fill displacement camps.
U.N. official warns of high risk of atrocities in Ethiopia | 6 February 2021 | Reuters
A senior United Nations official warned on Friday that “the risk of atrocity crimes in Ethiopia remains high and likely to get worse” if the country does not urgently combat ethnic violence, stigmatization, hate speech and religious tensions.
Ethiopia – Tigray Region humanitarian update | 4 February 2021 | OCHA
With fighting and ongoing clashes reported in many parts of Tigray, including violence against civilians, the humanitarian situation in the region continues to rapidly deteriorate.
Sudan says Ethiopian forces crossed border, raising tensions | 14 February 2021 | Reuters
Ethiopian forces crossed into Sudanese territory in an act of “aggression”, Sudan’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, marking the latest flare-up in a long-standing border dispute.
Source: IPIS Briefing February 2021
House Foreign Affairs Press Release: McCaul Responds to Reports of Ethnic Cleansing and Massacres of Civilians in Tigray Region
Press Release House Foreign Affairs Committee Media Contact: 202-225-5021
Washington, DC – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul has released the following statement in response to reports of ethnic cleansing and mass violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
“The horrors detailed in the reports coming out of the Tigray region are incredibly concerning and I am looking into them further. For far too long, the government of Ethiopia and other armed actors have blocked access by journalists and independent monitors to investigate these chilling accounts. I urge the Biden Administration to take decisive action to hold those accountable for any atrocities committed. This must be a high priority as the U.S. takes on the role of UN Security Council Chair next month.”
UN says malnutrition ‘very critical’ in Ethiopia’s Tigray
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations says Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region faces a “very critical malnutrition situation” as vast rural areas where many people fled during three months of fighting remain out of reach of aid.
The U.N. humanitarian agency also said in a new report that Ethiopian defense forces continue to occupy a hospital in the town of Abi Adi, “preventing up to 500,000 people from accessing health services” in a region where the health system has largely collapsed under looting and artillery fire.
Alarm is growing over the fate of the Tigray region’s some 6 million people as fighting is reportedly as fierce as ever between Ethiopian and allied forces and those supporting the now-fugitive Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government.
“The needs are tremendous, but we cannot pretend that we do not see or hear what is unfolding,” Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said in a statement on Friday after visiting the Tigray capital, Mekele.
In one of the frankest public comments yet by Ethiopia’s government, she noted “significant delays that remain in reaching people in need.”
Ethiopia on Friday said humanitarian aid has reached 2.7 million people in Tigray. But the U.N. report calls the current response “drastically inadequate,” even as some progress is made.
With some 80% of the population still unreachable, according to the Ethiopian Red Cross earlier this month, fears are growing that more people are starving to death.
“Next few weeks decisive to prevent famines,” Germany’s Foreign Office said in a brief statement last week after hearing accounts of a European Union envoy’s visit to Ethiopia.
The new U.N. report released Friday says even in areas that can be reached, a screening of 227 children under the age of 5 showed “staggeringly high malnutrition,” though it did not mention the number of cases.
It also says a screening of more than 3,500 children found 109 with severe acute malnutrition. The World Health Organization describes that condition as “when a person is extremely thin and at risk of dying.”
“Malnutrition (in Tigray) is expected to deteriorate as households are limited to fewer meals every day,” the U.N. report says.
The Tigray conflict began at a vulnerable time, just before the harvest and after months of a regional locust outbreak. The majority of the population is subsistence farmers.
The U.N. report cites “bureaucratic obstacles” and the presence of “various armed actors” as complications in the delivery of aid.
Humanitarian workers have described trying to navigate a patchwork of authorities that include ones from the neighboring Amhara region who have settled in some Tigray communities, as well as soldiers from neighboring Eritrea whom witnesses have accused of widespread looting and burning of crops.
Ethiopia’s government denies the presence of Eritrean soldiers, though the Tigray region’s interim government has confirmed it and accused them of looting food aid, according to a recent Voice of America interview.
The U.N. report describes a “dire” situation in which “COVID-19 services have stopped” in the Tigray region, displaced people in some cases are sleeping 30 to a single classroom and host communities are under “incredible strain.”
Iran denies plotting to attack UAE embassy in Ethiopia
MEMO | Iran has categorically rejected the allegation contained in a New York Times report that it is planning to attack the UAE Embassy in Addis Ababa. The denial was issued by the Iranian Embassy in the Ethiopian capital.
“Neither Ethiopia nor the United Arab Emirates have spoken about Iran’s involvement in these issues,” said the Iranians. “These baseless accusations are fabricated by media outlets that are hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and work as agents of the Zionist entity [Israel].”
Earlier this month, Ethiopia said that it had arrested fifteen members of an underground cell and seized weapons and explosives as part of a plot against the UAE Embassies in Addis Ababa and Khartoum. However, the New York Times claimed that Iran was behind the plot.
Quoting US and Israeli officials, the newspaper said that Iranian intelligence agencies activated a sleeper cell in Addis Ababa late last year to gather intelligence on the US and Israeli embassies in the Ethiopian capital. According to the NYT report, the operation was part of a wider plan by Iran to seek revenge for the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani with an American drone strike last year, and Israel’s murder of Iran’s chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November.
Sudan summons home envoy to Ethiopia amid border dispute
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan has summoned its envoy to Ethiopia home for consultations amid a growing border dispute that has seen military buildup along the two countries’ border in recent weeks, an official said Wednesday.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mansour Boulad did not provide more information about why Ambassador Gamal al-Sheikh was called home. On Sunday, the ministry said Ethiopian troops have crossed into Sudan and warned about “grave repercussions” on the region’s security and stability.
The border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia has escalated in recent months after Sudan deployed troops to territories it says are occupied by Ethiopian farmers and militias. Since December, over a dozen Sudanese, including troops, were killed in cross-border attacks by Ethiopian forces in Sudan’s al-Qadarif province, according to Sudanese authorities.
The dispute centers on large swaths of agricultural land Sudan says are within its borders in the al-Fashqa area that Ethiopian farmers have cultivated for years. The two nations have held rounds of talks, most recently in Khartoum in December, to settle the dispute, but have not made progress.
Khartoum has said it reclaimed most of its territories and called on Ethiopia to withdraw troops from at least two points it says are inside Sudan.
Addis Ababa, however, accused Sudan of taking advantage of the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to enter Ethiopian territory and loot property, kill civilians and displace thousands of people. Ethiopia has called for Sudanese troops to return to their positions before the Tigray fighting erupted in November, pitting Ethiopia’s federal forces against regional fighters.
Sudan has rejected the claim and insists it deployed troops to its own territories, according an agreement that demarcated the borders between the two nations in the early 1900s.