The "Food Flotilla for Myanmar" arrived following a sweeping counterinsurgency campaign in Rakhine state, where most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya live. Last week, U.N. human rights investigators said it was "very likely" that Myanmar forces were guilty of crimes against humanity in the crackdown. Organizers of the aid shipment say they trust the Myanmar government to deliver the supplies as promised despite its record of discrimination. "We have to respect Myanmar's sovereignty," said Razali Ramli, from the 1Putera Club Malaysia, which helped organize the shipment along with a coalition of non-government organizations. "We hand over the aid in good faith." The Rohingya have long faced official and social persecution in Myanmar, a majority-Buddhist country. Most do not have citizenship and are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even when their families have lived in Myanmar's Rakhine state for generations. The conflict has been simmering for years but there are worrying signs that it is escalating into an armed insurgency, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group. The army launched its most recent crackdown in October following attacks on guard posts near the Bangladesh border that killed nine police officers. According to ICG, the border attacks were coordinated by a new insurgent group calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin, or the Faith Movement. Organized by a network of Rohingya in Saudi Arabia and bankrolled by wealthy donors, the militant group is drawing Muslims disillusioned and desperate from years of disenfranchisement by the Myanmar government, the report said. The government has denied abuses and has blocked independent journalists and aid workers from visiting the military's operation zone in Rakhine. On Wednesday, the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said a government-appointed commission on Rakhine will investigate some of the recent accusations of abuse. "Where there is clear evidence of abuses and violations, the government will take necessary measures," she said in a statement carried by the country's state-run newspaper. When Malaysia first proposed the flotilla in December, Myanmar officials said they would turn it away. In January they said they'd permit the vessel, but that it had to dock in Yangon instead of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine. Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority, is an outspoken critic of Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya. Last month, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak slammed Myanmar for letting the abuses continue. On Thursday, dozens of Buddhist monks protested outside the port where the aid ship arrived, denying that the ethnic group Rohingya even exists. Many in Myanmar refer to the Rohingya as Bengalis, suggesting they belong in Bangladesh. "We can accept if the ship is coming to help the Bengalis and we are not trying to stop the donation," said Win Ko Ko Lat, the leader of Myanmar Buddhist Nationalists Network. "But we want them to know that there is no Rohingya in Myanmar. This is our campaign." A detailed report released last week by the U.N.'s human rights agency alleging widespread killing and rape by Myanmar government security forces has intensified international concern about the Rohingyas' plight. On Wednesday, Pope Francis appealed for prayers for the Rohingya ethnic minority. "These are good people, peaceful people," Francis said. "They're not Christians, but they're good, our brothers and sisters. And they have been suffering for years. They've been tortured and killed, simply because they are continuing their traditions, their Muslim faith. Let us pray for them," he said. __ AP writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

By Azam Ahmed MEXICO CITY — Faced with a wave of deadly attacks against journalists, the president of Mexico has vowed to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of journalists in his country, including removing the lead prosecutor responsible for investigating crimes against the freedom of expression. Last year, 11 Mexican journalists were killed, the most in more than a decade, and several more murders have already been recorded in 2017. And yet there is near total impunity for the attackers, in part because the special office responsible for prosecuting cases involving the freedom of expression rarely brings anyone to justice for the crimes. Since its creation in 2010, the office has examined more than 800 cases of serious crimes but has won only two convictions. Ricardo Nájera, the lead prosecutor, has repeatedly failed to take on cases, including homicides, in which evidence exists that the victim’s reporting and writing had provoked the wrath of attackers. President Enrique Peña Nieto’s pledge to replace Mr. Nájera and ensure funding for a federal protection program for threatened journalists follows several critical reports accusing the government of complicity in attacks on the news media and of an inability — or unwillingness — to investigate cases. ©, 2017, The New York Times

By Cara Anna In this Thursday, May 6, 2021 file photo, the city of Mekele is seen through a bullet hole in a stairway window of the Ayder Referral Hospital, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Ethiopia's government said in a statement carried by state media Monday, June 28, 2021, that it has "positively accepted" a call for an immediate, unilateral cease-fire in its Tigray region after nearly eight months of deadly conflict. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) Ethiopia’s government on Monday declared an immediate, unilateral cease-fire in its Tigray region after nearly eight months of deadly conflict as Tigray forces occupied the regional capital, soldiers retreated and hundreds of thousands of people continue to face the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade. The cease-fire could calm a war that has destabilized Africa’s second most populous country and threatened to do the same in the wider Horn of Africa, where Ethiopia has been seen as a key security ally for the West. It comes as the country awaits the results of national elections that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed promoted as the centerpiece of reforms that won him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Abiy’s transformation from making peace to waging war has appalled many observers since the fighting in Tigray erupted in November. Since then, the world has struggled to access much of the region and investigate growing allegations of atrocities including gang rapes and forced starvation. Thousands of people in the region of 6 million have been killed. Ethiopia’s statement was carried by state media shortly after the Tigray interim administration, appointed by the federal government, fled the regional capital, Mekele, and called for a cease-fire on humanitarian grounds so that desperately needed aid can be delivered. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he had spoken with the prime minister and “I am hopeful that an effective cessation of hostilities will take place.” Meanwhile, Mekele residents cheered the return of Tigray forces for the first time since Ethiopian forces took the city in late November and Abiy declared victory. The Tigray fighters, loyal to the former regional ruling party that for years dominated Ethiopia’s government before being sidelined by the new prime minister, undermined the declaration by waging a guerrilla war in the region’s rough terrain. As Tigray forces occupied the airport and other key positions in Mekele and broadcast a message telling residents to stop celebrating and go home, retreating Ethiopian soldiers shot at students at Mekele University, killing two and wounding three, said a nurse at Ayder hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Ethnic Tigrayans, even those who didn’t support the former ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front before the war, say they have been targeted harshly for suspected links with the Tigray fighters. Ethiopia has denied it. But Abiy in an interview aired last week alarmed observers by recalling that aid to Tigray during Ethiopia’s devastating 1980s famine had bolstered the Tigray fighters who eventually overthrew the ruling regime. Such a thing will “never happen” now, he said. Monday’s cease-fire declaration signaled a new approach, at least for a while. The cease-fire “will enable farmers to till their land, aid groups to operate without any military movement around and engage with remnants (of Tigray’s former ruling party) who seek peace,” Ethiopia’s statement said, adding that efforts to bring Tigray’s former leaders “to justice” continue. Ethiopia said the cease-fire will last until the end of the crucial planting season in Tigray. The season’s end comes in September. The government ordered all federal and regional authorities to respect the cease-fire — crucial as authorities and fighters from the neighboring Amhara region have been accused of atrocities in western Tigray. “The government has the responsibility to find a political solution to the problem,” the head of the interim administration, Abraham Belay, said in calling for the cease-fire, adding that some elements within Tigray’s former ruling party are willing to engage with the federal government. There was no immediate comment from the Tigray fighters, with whom Ethiopia had rejected talks. And there was no immediate comment from neighboring Eritrea, whose soldiers have been accused by Tigray residents of some of the worst atrocities in the war. “If Abiy has a genuine desire to find a political solution, first he has to undo the terrorist label against the elected government of Tigray,” said Desta Haileselassie Hagos, who leads efforts to compile a list of those killed in the war. Abiy also needs to order the Eritrean soldiers to leave, he said. Tigray in recent days has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. International pressure on Ethiopia spiked again last week after a military airstrike on a busy market killed more than 60 people, and after Doctors Without Borders said three staffers had been murdered in a separate incident. Amid the upheaval on Monday, the United Nations children’s agency said Ethiopian soldiers entered its office in Mekele and dismantled satellite communications equipment, an act it said violated the world body’s immunity. UNICEF last week warned that at least 33,000 severely malnourished children face “imminent risk of death” without more aid reaching Tigray’s people. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Witnesses say thousands of Tigrayans are being detained and their businesses closed in cities across Ethiopia in a new wave of ethnic targeting by authorities over the eight-month conflict in the Tigray region. FILE - In this Saturday, June 19, 2021, police march during a parade to display new police uniforms and instruct them to maintain impartiality and respect the law during the general election, in Meskel Square in downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) © copyright 2021 The Associated Press. The detentions follow the dramatic turn in the war last month when resurgent Tigray forces marched into the regional capital, Mekele, as Ethiopian soldiers retreated and Ethiopia’s government announced a unilateral cease-fire. An earlier wave of detentions followed the start of the war in November after months of tensions between the government and Tigray’s leaders. Meron Addis, a 32-year-old attorney who has raised money for food and other aid to people in Tigray and has been outspoken about the toll on civilians, told The Associated Press that two plainclothes police officers came to her home in the capital, Addis Ababa, on June 28 and accused her of storing weapons. Then dozens of uniformed officers searched the place without presenting a warrant, she said. After finding no weapons, they took her to a police station where she was charged with expressing support for the Tigray forces and spreading hate on social media. She met several other Tigrayans while in custody and was released a week later. Police told her she was helping the “junta,” a common term used by authorities for the Tigray fighters. “You are causing friction between the government and the people of Tigray by posting pictures on Facebook of children and victims of the war, hunger and rape,” she said they told her. After her release, two of her relatives were detained. Another detainee who was released last week told the AP that several dozen other Tigrayans were held in a center in the outskirts of the capital. “At first we were told that we were suspected of having links with the (Tigray fighters). Once in jail, they began accusing us of sending money to support terrorists and vowed we won’t be released unless Ethiopian prisoners of war under the control of the (Tigray forces) are released,” he said. “None of us were brought to court.” Like many others, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. With Ethiopia’s government having declared Tigray’s ruling party a terrorist group, ordinary Tigrayans across the country are under even more pressure even as they seek to speak out about alleged war atrocities and send aid to the region as hundreds of thousands of people face the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a speech after the Ethiopian forces’ retreat alleged that ordinary Tigrayans had supported the Tigray fighters. The new wave of mass detentions has not been publicly acknowledged by security officials. Federal police spokesman Jeylanr Abdi didn’t respond to questions, but the federal police told the Addis Standard media outlet they don’t arrest citizens based on ethnicity. The governmental Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, however, said it is monitoring the detentions of Tigrayans and media workers suspected of links to the situation in Tigray. “Such measures aggravate the public’s concerns on the risk of ethnic profiling,” it said in a statement. A Tigrayan activist told the AP the detentions appear to be occurring in major cities across Ethiopia. “People who have never set foot in the Tigray region and those who have no knowledge of politics are becoming victims,” he said, adding that some are fleeing the capital out of fear of being detained. A letter from Tigrayan lawyers to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, obtained by the AP, said the fate of thousands of people remains unknown. And “hundreds of Tigrayan businesses in Addis Ababa, including restaurants, bars, cafes and other places, have been closed and sealed with no apparent reason than the claim of security concerns,” it reads. “This campaign against Tigrayans must be stopped because it is a dangerous practice that violates the rights of citizens without sufficient evidence.” One lawyer, Tesfalem Berhe, said he has compiled a list of 103 Tigrayans detained in the capital in the past few weeks. Many were taken at shops, cafes and bus stations because their IDs showed their ethnicity or because they were speaking Tigrinya, he said. Others were taken from their homes. “They are disappeared,” he said, estimating that tens of thousands have been detained. “They are not given access to their families and lawyers. ... There is no allegation of crime. It is purely ethnic profiling.“ A Tigrayan civil servant in the capital told the AP he watched as a colleague was detained by two plainclothes officers at the health center where he worked. When the colleague’s manager asked why, the officers cited unspecified “security reasons.” “I’m very nervous because we hear about lots of people being arrested. I worry the police and security services are monitoring us, so I barely talk on the phone,” the civil servant said. “For every Tigrayan in Addis Ababa, it’s hard for us at this time because of the political situation.” Tsegazeab Kidanu, a volunteer coordinator for a civil society group that campaigns against human rights abuses in Tigray, was detained at his home on June 29 while he was watching TV in his pajamas, a relative said. Again, a warrant wasn’t presented. He wasn’t charged. Authorities later told his lawyer, Tesfalem, that he had been released, but his whereabouts remain unknown. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

By Barbara Surk Laura Boushnak for the New York Times The New York Times ZVECAN, Kosovo — In the densely forested mountains along the contested frontier between Serbia and Kosovo, a patrol of American soldiers under NATO command trudged through snow and mud, keeping an eye out for smugglers or anyone else trying to cross the border. Given the bloody legacy of this area, the situation is quiet now, at least up here. It is down below, in Serbia and Kosovo, where old angers are resurfacing as the Balkan region that spawned so much suffering over the last century is again becoming dangerously restive. And once again, Russia is stoking tensions, as it seeks to exploit political fissures in an area that was once viewed as a triumph of muscular American diplomacy — but that now underscores the growing challenges facing NATO and the European Union. “Russia sees the West meddling in its backyard, and President Vladimir V. Putin wants to show he can reciprocate,” said Dimitar Bechev, an expert on Russia and the Balkans and head of the European Policy Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria. “They see the Balkans as the West’s underbelly, and they use it to throw their weight around and project power on the cheap.” Nearly 18 years after a United States-led intervention ended Serb domination of Kosovo, the border patrols are part of the longest-running mission in NATO history. Even as the European Union has made limited progress in brokering a political settlement between Kosovo and Serbia, the presence of NATO forces has maintained an uneasy peace, with animosity between the minority Serbs and majority Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo still palpable. Yet NATO is now confronting its own challenges, whether it is the seeming ambivalence of President Trump toward the alliance or an increasingly provocative Russia. The alliance has sent reinforcements to Poland and the Baltic States to counter Russian actions, but Russian involvement in the Balkans has gotten less attention. Russia has deep historical ties with Serbia and vehemently opposed NATO’s war over Kosovo in 1999. After an American-led bombing campaign, Serbia lost control over the region but continues to support Serbs there, vowing never to recognize the sovereignty of Kosovo, which it considers the cradle of the Serbian nation and of its Christian Orthodox faith. Mr. Putin has continued to back Serbia, as well as Serbs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina — and continued to dabble in the complex swirl of Balkan politics. For starters, Moscow supported Bosnian Serbs when they held a controversial referendum in November that could lead to more — or even full — independence from Sarajevo. A month later, Russia backed fringe opposition parties in delicate national elections in Macedonia, another former Yugoslav republic. The European Union had organized the election to help bring the country back from the brink of collapse. In Montenegro, Serbia’s tiny neighbor and a former Russian ally now set to join NATO, the authorities said they had foiled an October coup attempt that had been orchestrated by the Russians. Then in January, Moscow moved to help Serbia undermine Kosovo’s independence by supporting a series of provocations that have damaged diplomatic normalization efforts, known as the Brussels dialogue, that are sponsored by the European Union. That process had recently produced a small breakthrough, as Kosovo was about to get its own +383 calling code. Since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, however, the ethnic Albanian-dominated government in the capital, Pristina, has failed to bring the predominantly Serb parts of the country north of the Ibar River under its control, including Mitrovica, Kosovo’s second-largest city. But as Kosovars were celebrating this breakthrough, the Serbs erected a concrete wall separating the northern, predominantly Serb part of Mitrovica from the ethnic Albanians in the southern part. It was built on the Serbian side of the bridge that crosses the Ibar, a project that the European Union funded in hopes of linking the divided communities. European Union officials furiously demanded that the wall come down, but the Serbs remained defiant, forcing the official inauguration of the bridge to be postponed. This month, concrete blocks of the wall were bulldozed, but a metal barrier is still standing, blocking traffic and pedestrians. Most inflammatory, the Serbian government sent a Russian-made train from Belgrade to Mitrovica, adorning its coaches with signs declaring that “Kosovo is Serbia” in more than 20 languages. Kosovo stopped the train at the border, accusing Serbia of wanting to stage an invasion of northern Kosovo, modeled on Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Serbia, in turn, accused ethnic Albanians of laying mines along the railway tracks and planning a bombing campaign of Serbs and their holy sites. Serbia’s president, Tomislav Nikolic, who is thought to be backed by Russia as he seeks a second five-year term in the April election, threatened to send his troops back to Kosovo to protect the Serbs, if necessary. “If Serbs are killed, we’ll send the army to Kosovo,” Mr. Nikolic said after the train episode, which was ostensibly intended to restore a line that had been disconnected since the 1999 NATO bombing of the area. He warned officials in Pristina against attempting to provoke a conflict, saying it would “end badly.” Russia’s ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandr Chepurin, wrote in a recent editorial in Serbia’s daily Politika that Moscow would support “Serbia in preventing attempts to create an artificial pseudo-state of Kosovo.” Milan Nic, a Balkan analyst at the GlobSec Policy Institute, a think tank in Bratislava, Slovakia, said that tough statements on Kosovo were common during Serbian elections but that Serbia could never improve relations with the European Union, let alone join it, by clinging to its former southern province. “If they truly want to improve lives of Serbs in Serbia,” Mr. Nic said, “they do need to give up on this illusion.” Col. Corwin Lusk, the American commander of NATO’s multinational battle group in eastern Kosovo, agreed that the Serbian elections were fueling the angrier statements and that Russia was playing games, though he was skeptical that Moscow wanted a direct confrontation in the Balkans. “It would be very irrational behavior because it’s a fight they could not win,” he said. “It’s a fight nobody would walk away from without scars and bruises.” Many ethnic Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo fear another round of war. Roughly 120,000 Serbs live in northern Kosovo, near the Serbian border, and mostly embrace the nationalistic fervor of Belgrade. But there are 70,000 other Serbs scattered in southern Kosovo who feel more exposed to retaliation. In the town of Decani, in southwest Kosovo, 20 Serbian monks are holed up a 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery, which is recognized as a Unesco world heritage site and is being protected by NATO troops to prevent assaults from non-Serbs. The abbot of the monastery, Father Sava Janjic, said the nationalistic talk from Serbia “often comes back to us like a boomerang.” “Every time they call me from Serbia, they ask: ‘Is there war? Are they trying to kill you?’’’ said Father Janjic, 52. “I tell them, ‘No, they are not.’ There is no war. I can’t lie. But the situation is far from rosy.” NATO’s task in the region is deeply complex. Troop levels have dropped to about 5,000 over the past decade, including 650 American soldiers, and their job includes border patrols as well as navigating the sensitivities of an ethnically divided region. In the absence of an army of their own, most ethnic Albanians see NATO troops as protectors of their state in Kosovo. “They are here to defend us from the Serbs when they want to storm back,” said Belkiza Sahatqiu, 46, a mother of three, who works in a shoe store in the Serbian-part of Mitrovica. Many Serbs living in Kosovo, however, describe the alliance’s forces as occupiers more than protectors, said Lilijana Milic, who owns a farm along the highway between Mitrovica and Pristina. “They are not protecting anybody, certainly not us,” she said. “They came to occupy this land, and now they sit in their bases. Where were they when people were chased out of their homes in broad daylight?” At the same time, Ms. Milic blamed Serbian politicians in Belgrade for the misfortune of Kosovo’s Serbs. “They just talk, talk, talk, talk about defending us,” she said, “but all they ever do is take care of their own interests.” (c) NY Times 2017

By CARA ANNA NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.S. official who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide is visiting Ethiopia next week to press the government to lift what the U.S. calls a blockade on humanitarian aid to the conflict-hit Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands of people now face deadly famine. People joining the Defense Forces gather in Meskel Square, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. A repatriation program is underway for young people from Ethiopia who have decided to join the Defense Forces. (AP Photo) Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, hopes to meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has asserted that “there is no hunger in Tigray,” and with senior officials who blame the aid blockade on rival Tigray forces who have retaken much of the region and vow to pursue “enemies” beyond its borders. The Ethiopian government’s assertion that Tigray forces are to blame is “100% not the case,” a senior USAID official told The Associated Press, adding that “our primary obstacle is the government.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Witnesses have told the AP this has been the problem in Tigray for months. While the senior official said insecurity preventing movement along roads could be an issue, “what we’re seeing is (aid) convoys being turned around at checkpoints manned by Ethiopian soldiers or their proxies ... It’s not a question of being turned around by Tigrayans. I think (the Tigray forces) have been messaging very clearly they’re ready to support humanitarian activities.” Power has requested a meeting with Ethiopia’s prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea but has since joined forces with Eritrea to wage war in the Tigray region after a political falling-out with the region’s leaders. The conflict is now spreading into neighboring regions in Africa’s second most populous country, long a key U.S. security ally. Some 6 million Tigray residents have been caught in the fighting since the war began in November, when Abiy accused Tigray forces of attacking a military base. Thousands of civilians have since been killed. Now the U.S. estimates up to 900,000 face famine conditions after Ethiopian and allied forces destroyed crops, looted food supplies and threatened farmers from planting. Food prices are rising, while banks remain closed. Recently Ethiopia’s government accused humanitarian groups of supporting the Tigray forces, making life more dangerous in a region where aid workers have been harassed and at least a dozen killed. The U.S. earlier imposed aid cuts and visa restrictions over the Tigray crisis, angering Ethiopian officials, and Power’s visit will warn of “continuing consequences” for the government, the senior official said. There were no details, but “the longer that this blockage goes on, the more likely we are to see additional punitive measures.” Tigray remains almost completely cut off from the outside world. The United Nations has said some 200 aid-laden trucks are “stuck” in Ethiopia’s neighboring Afar region on the only remaining road access to Tigray. Bridges on other routes were destroyed as Ethiopian forces retreated from the region in June. “People are starving,” U.N. World Food Program head David Beasley said this week, warning that the agency will run out of food for Tigray on Friday. The AP has reported that scores of people have died of starvation in the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade. Ethiopia’s government on Wednesday said it stands by the unilateral cease-fire it declared in June as its military withdrew, saying it was for humanitarian reasons. The government has said the cease-fire will end once the planting season in Tigray is over, meaning September, and already authorities are supporting military recruiting drives amid concerns over a new offensive. Abiy’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, accused Tigray forces of blocking the delivery of aid. “The international community has been shockingly mute” on the Tigray forces’ actions, which include crossing into the Afar and neighboring Amhara regions, she said. The Tigray forces this week said the establishment of multiple humanitarian aid corridors is a precondition for talks on a negotiated cease-fire. Power during her visit will press for “overland access” for aid, the senior USAID official told the AP. While she is first visiting neighboring Sudan, which borders Tigray and is a potential supply route, “right now the principal focus is on getting the Ethiopian government to allow food convoys through Ethiopia into Tigray,” the senior official said. Other ways are being explored but would be “inadequate to meet the scale of need.” The WFP has said 20 convoys of 100 trucks each need to enter Tigray every month to meet needs and “so far we’ve gotten one,” the senior official said. A second convoy was attacked in Afar earlier this month. The U.N. on Wednesday said 44 trucks are now trying to reach Tigray. The new U.N. humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, on Thursday began a six-day Ethiopia tour and plans to visit Tigray to meet with civilians, the U.N. said, in another sign of renewed international pressure. Because of the fighting, Power is “not permitted” to travel to Tigray, the senior USAID official said. And while Power has been outspoken about Tigray, she will not use the word “genocide” in referring to the region because the U.S. State Department is determining what legal term to use for what’s occurring there, the senior official said. “Certainly, ethnic targeting of Tigrayans, the rhetoric seen from Abiy recently, really dehumanizing rhetoric about his own citizens, is very concerning and certainly reminiscent of other conflicts in which we’ve seen mass atrocities committed,” the senior official said. Ethiopia’s prime minister earlier this month described the Tigray forces as “weeds” and a “cancer,” further alarming ethnic Tigrayans who have alleged that thousands of non-combatants have been detained during the conflict because of their identity alone. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

By CARA ANNA NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — More than 100,000 children in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region could face the most extreme and life-threatening form of malnutrition in the next year, the United Nations children’s agency warned on Friday, as humanitarian aid remains blocked from the region of some 6 million people. A Joint UN and INGOs team carries out a rapid response mechanism in response to the humanitarian needs of communities affected by the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Monday July 19, 2021. (UNICEF via AP) © copyright 2021 The Associated Press. The U.N. estimate, a tenfold increase over the usual caseload in Tigray, is based on “essentially the scenario we’re seeing now, in which the conflict escalates and food access is restricted,” Marixie Mercado with UNICEF’s emergency response team told The Associated Press. The warning comes as high-level officials from the U.N. and United States visit Ethiopia over the next several days to press the government to lift what the U.S. has described as a “siege” of Tigray and as some 200 food-laden U.N. trucks are stuck on the only remaining road into the region. The world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade is unfolding in Tigray, where the U.S. says up to 900,000 people now face famine conditions and international food security experts say the crucial planting season “has largely been missed” because of the war. The UNICEF estimate, based on screenings of more than 430,000 children during the nine-month conflict, comes after a rare visit to two districts in Tigray that had been “virtually inaccessible,” Gijet and Wajirat. While the AP has reported on scores of people dying of starvation in another inaccessible Tigray district, Mercado said she did not hear of any starvation deaths on her visit. But she warned of “horrifying numbers of acutely malnourished” people and expressed frustration as food, fuel, cash and other supplies are in short supply. While access inside Tigray has improved after a dramatic turn in the war in June as Ethiopian soldiers withdrew and the government declared a unilateral cease-fire, the U.N. has said aid workers are running out of the means to help. “You can’t bring services to people without fuel,” an exasperated Mercado said, adding that during the visit to the previously inaccessible districts “we were just overwhelmed by the numbers of mothers and children who showed up and desperately wanted some help.” UNICEF also said screening data shows that 47% of all pregnant and breastfeeding women in Tigray are acutely malnourished, meaning more risk to both mothers and children. Ethiopia’s government has blamed the aid blockade on the resurgent Tigray forces who have retaken much of the region and crossed into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, but a senior official with the U.S. Agency for International Development this week told the AP that is “100% not the case.” USAID administrator Samantha Power is set to visit Ethiopia next week to press for access. Meanwhile, new U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths is visiting Tigray as part of a six-day tour in Ethiopia meant to spotlight the crisis, while there is little sign of negotiations in sight between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray forces who had long dominated Ethiopia’s government and military before being sidelined by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. A U.N. humanitarian update on Friday spelled out some of the latest aid challenges, including harassment and intimidation: No aid convoys have reached Tigray since July 12, even as up to 600 supply-laden trucks are needed weekly. Aid workers on the first U.N. passenger flight to Tigray on July 22 were “extensively searched” and not allowed to bring some essential medicines. And no such flight has received government clearance since then. Also on Friday, the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, condemned “inflammatory statements used by top political leaders and associated armed groups,” saying the use of terms such as “cancer” and “weed” to refer to the Tigray conflict was of “utmost concern.” Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, earlier this month described the Tigray forces as “weeds” and a “cancer,” further alarming ethnic Tigrayans who have alleged that thousands of non-combatants have been detained during the conflict because of their identity alone. And Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda replied by calling the Abiy Ahmeds of the world “cancers to be removed at all costs.” © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

By Aurelien Breeden A general strike and widespread protests over high crime and economic hardship paralyzed French Guiana on Monday, as the government struggled to quell growing unrest that has disrupted travel, closed schools and thrust one of France’s often-overlooked overseas territories into the spotlight of the presidential campaign. The French prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced on Monday that a delegation of ministers would travel to the South American territory by the end of the week to try to address demands by protesters, who have refused to negotiate with lower-level officials. The unrest has shuttered schools and blocked access to the main airport; prompted a travel alert from the State Department of the United States; and even postponed the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket, carrying a Brazilian satellite and a South Korean satellite, from the aerospace center that France and the European Space Agency run off the territory’s coast. Roads to neighboring Brazil and Suriname were also blocked. French Guiana, which has a population of around 250,000, was settled by the French in the 17th century, becoming a slave colony and then a penal colony. The latest protests have been the largest in French Guiana since 2008, when a strike lasting longer than a week shut down schools and the airport, and compelled the government at the time to cut fuel prices. And there is a long history of such unrest, according to Stephen Toth, an associate professor at Arizona State University who has written a history of French Guiana. close story-body “French Guiana has always had a rather unfortunate reputation as an economic backwater whose general neglect by French officials is only periodically interrupted by outbreaks of political protest and acts of violence by various local groups demanding greater economic investment in the region,” Mr. Toth wrote in an email. One of France’s five overseas departments, the territory uses the euro, but the economy is heavily dependent on imports and on subsidies. In 2009, the overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, both islands in the Caribbean, were paralyzed for over a month by similar strikes, which sometimes turned violent. “One gets the impression that the government doesn’t perceive that the population is fed up,” Antoine Karam, a Socialist who represents French Guiana in the Senate, the upper house of the French Parliament, told the BFM TV news channel on Monday. “We are not treated the same way as the French in the Hexagon,” Mr. Karam said, referring to mainland France. He also noted that the proportion of inhabitants without access to drinking water or electricity was much higher in French Guiana than it was on the mainland. Gross domestic product per capita in the territory is less than half what it is on the mainland, and unemployment, more than 20 percent, is about double. Crime is also a major concern. One group of protesters, who wear balaclavas and call themselves the Collective of 500 Brothers, has been behind many of the demonstrations calling for greater security. Mr. Cazeneuve, the prime minister, said that solutions would not be found “amid disorder,” but he acknowledged the widespread sentiment that the territory had been neglected. “There is still much to do to develop French Guiana,” Mr. Cazeneuve said from Paris. “In the French Republic, each citizen must be able to benefit from the support and solidarity of the state.” Mr. Cazeneuve announced several measures, including the construction of a new penitentiary to relieve prison crowding. Over the weekend, the French authorities had already announced police reinforcements and increased funds for the hospital in Cayenne, the territory’s capital. The protests have illuminated the deep economic, social and sometimes racial divide between mainland France and its overseas territories, which are the remnants of the French colonial empire. Lines formed at stores and gas stations over the weekend as people rushed to stock up on goods before the strike, which a group of 37 unions voted on Saturday to carry out for an unlimited period of time. With four weeks to go before the first round of the French presidential elections, the unrest has become a focal point of the campaign, and candidates across the spectrum spoke profusely about a region of France that usually gets little attention from politicians and the news media outside of electoral seasons. François Fillon, the embattled center-right candidate, said last week that the crisis was the “consequence of the failed policies of François Hollande,” the Socialist president. Marine Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Front party, told Europe 1 radio on Monday that French Guiana was “swamped by illegal immigration,” and she accused the government of “averting its eyes.” Ericka Bareigts, the minister for France’s overseas territories, responded on the BFM TV news channel by saying that “Ms. Le Pen discovers the overseas territories every five years and then comes to lecture us.” In his statement, Mr. Cazeneuve also hit back at what he called “demagogy and electoralism.” At a rally in Rennes on Sunday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leftist candidate in the presidential election, called for better access to health and education services. Other candidates have been tripped up by past or new statements illustrating how France’s overseas territories are only marginally discussed in regular political debate. The independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, who is predicted by polls to beat Ms. Le Pen in the second round of voting in May, was widely mocked on social media for referring to French Guiana as an “island” — which, unlike many other French overseas territories, it is not. His campaign later attempted to justify his use of the word by saying that he was referring to the “Île de Cayenne,” or “Isle of Cayenne,” a term used to designate the area surrounding the capital. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a right-wing presidential candidate, was also in the news for statements he made in 2014 suggesting that the authorities create a detention center in Cayenne for jihadists, to “isolate these raving lunatics.” (On Monday, he apologized for the comments.) Miranda Frances Spieler, a historian at the American University of Paris and the author of a book on French Guiana, said that the territory’s legal structure as an overseas territory made it ill-suited to address local challenges like immigration and kept it dependent on the French state. “The people of French Guiana are trapped in an administrative and legal structure that on the one hand guarantees them French-style institutions and benefits and on the other assures that local people will never be able to prosper there,” Ms. Spieler said in an email. “The economic problems that now confront France have led to a decline in the quality of local public services in French Guiana and local people cannot make up the difference because they are poor,” she said. “For structural reasons, the postcolonial economy of French Guiana can never prosper on its own.” ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ©2017 The New York Times

‘Parents are dressing up their children to be buried' Mural artist Hussein Sabbagh, 13, one of 27 children killed in government attacks in north-west Syria in two months By Bethan McKernan Syrian artist Aziz al-Asmar visits the grave of 13-year-old Hussein Sabbagh in Binnish. The teenager had helped Asmar with his political murals. Photograph: Muhammad Haj Kaddour/The Syria Campaign Amid the rubble of bombed homes in Binnish, a town in north-west Syria, a brightly painted mural stands out. The image shows an intact house, with love hearts streaming from the windows. Overhead, however, the dark silhouettes of birds are accompanied by helicopters, warplanes and missiles, and the garden’s red and yellow flowers look like flames. The mural is the work of 13-year-old Hussein Sabbagh, who was eight when his family fled Bashar al-Assad’s attacks on Aleppo in 2016. Like millions of other Syrians, the Sabbaghs ended up in north-west Syria, the last pocket of the country that remains outside the regime’s control. The family tried to build a new life despite the fact that war still raged around them: for Hussein, there was respite in football, and helping the local artist Aziz al-Asmar with his famous political murals. But the teenager’s dreams of being a painter ended last month when regime forces targeted a swimming pool in the town of Fua with artillery shelling. Hussein, along with his 17-year-old brother, 23-year-old uncle, and three more civilians, was killed. A mural painted on a bombed house in Binnish, an opposition-held town in the Syrian province of Idlib, by 13-year-old Hussein Sabbagh. Photograph: Muhammad Haj Kaddour/The Syria Campaign “Hussein was loved by everyone. He helped me in many of the murals I painted … He was talented and had such a beautiful imagination,” said Asmar. “There was one particular drawing that he loved to paint a lot, a house with love hearts … He wanted to say that these bombs kill love and destroy homes.” Hussein is one of 27 children who have been killed in government attacks across north-west Syria in the past two months alone as Bashar al-Assad’s war of attrition takes its toll on the area’s youngest and most vulnerable residents. Seven school buildings have also been hit, adding to the regime’s ugly track record of targeting civilian infrastructure. “We have begun to notice a pattern in recent years, where the bombing gets worse on holidays like Eid,” said Laila Hasso, the director of communication and advocacy for the locally run Hurras Network, a charity that works to protect children in Syria. “Thirteen children were killed in just three days. Now every time Eid comes we are afraid we will lose more children. Instead of giving them new clothes to dress up and celebrate, parents are dressing up their children to be buried.” North-west Syria is mostly ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamist group that seized control from other opposition factions in 2019. While HTS has made efforts to distance itself from its al-Qaida origins, the group tolerates little dissent and enforces religious edicts on those living in its territory. The area is supposedly protected by a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia in March 2020, but the deal is routinely ignored and the area’s residents live in fear of the next wave of airstrikes. A bombed house in Binnish, Idlib. Photograph: Muhammad Haj Kaddour/The Syria Campaign About three-quarters of the estimated population of 3.5 million fled to the north-west to escape fighting in other parts of the country. Living conditions are dire and have worsened since last year’s collapse of the Syrian currency, which sent food prices soaring. A steady stream of aid cuts and the arrival of Covid-19 have also added to the hardships of daily life for people trapped between the regime and HTS. The violence has escalated in the two weeks since the Eid al-Adha holiday. Around the same time, Assad took the oath of office for a fourth seven-year term as president after winning 95% of the vote in May’s fraudulent election, vowing to make “liberating those parts of the homeland that still need to be” one of his top priorities. “The regime calls the people in north-west Syria terrorists. But the acts of terrorism is what the regime does, attacking civilians and schools,” said Hasso. “Sometimes parents ask us to close the school buildings because they are so afraid that their children will die there. In other parts of the world, schools are regarded as safe places … The regime wants to send the message that there is no future in this area for you or your children.” Asmar, the artist, went to leave flowers at Hussein’s grave in Binnish last week. Despite the pain of losing his young assistant, painting remains a way to hold on to hope and remind the world that Syrians still dream of peace and justice, he said. “Since I came back to Syria from Beirut years ago, I seek to draw a smile on children’s faces. I try to make them forget, even for a moment, the terror and war they’ve lived through,” he said. “I let them participate with me so that they are able to express their feelings through art. I want to deliver a message to them that hope still exists.” © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

By CARA ANNA NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development expressed concern Wednesday about the “dehumanizing rhetoric” used by Ethiopia’s leaders amid the nine-month conflict in the Tigray region, whose forces last month were described as “weeds” and “cancer” by the country’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister, Abiy Ahmed. FILE - In this Tuesday, March 23, 2021 file photo, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be the next Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on Capitol Hill in Washington. Power landed Saturday, July 31, in Khartoum, aiming to support Sudan’s fragile transition to democracy before travelling to Ethiopia to press the government there to allow humanitarian aid to the war-torn Tigray region. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP, File) Samantha Power spoke to reporters after pressing Ethiopia’s government to ease a blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray, where hundreds of thousands of people face famine in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade. Just 10% of targeted aid has reached the region since mid-July, she said — 153 trucks as of two days ago, while the United Nations has said 1,500 trucks were needed during that time. Ethiopia’s government in recent weeks has accused aid groups of arming Tigray forces, without providing evidence, and suspended the work of two international aid groups while accusing Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council of “disseminating misinformation.” Meanwhile, Power said, “desperate humanitarian needs are growing more acute with every passing day” in Tigray, where more than 5 million people need help after Ethiopian and allied forces pursuing Tigray fighters were accused of looting and destroying food supplies. Tigray remains cut off from the outside world, with communications links down and just one road available for aid convoys, which have faced numerous checkpoints and searches. While the West is said to be exploring the possibility of a humanitarian aid corridor from neighboring Sudan into western Tigray, the head of Ethiopia’s national disaster risk management commission this week rejected that idea. A USAID spokesman did not respond when asked whether Power, who visited Sudan before Ethiopia, discussed the idea with Sudanese leaders. Power also noted the increasingly heated talk by both sides in the conflict and said the kind of “virulent” language used by the prime minister and other officials, also seen on social media in Ethiopia, “often accompanies ethnically motivated atrocities.” She called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue. Chances of dialogue appear slim as Ethiopia’s government has declared the Tigray forces a terrorist group. The war started in November after a political falling-out between the Tigray ruling party, which had dominated Ethiopia’s government for nearly three decades, and the current prime minister. Now the Tigray forces say they want Abiy out as a precondition to talks. Power also warned that the resurgent Tigray forces’ presence near key roads “is going to obstruct access” as well. She said some 76,000 people have been displaced in the neighboring Afar region and 150,000 in the Amhara region after the Tigray forces entered those areas in recent weeks. Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Wednesday with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok about the “expansion of armed confrontation in the Amhara and Afar regions of Ethiopia, the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Tigray region, and reports of Eritrean troops re-entering Ethiopia, all of which impact regional stability,” the State Department said. Witnesses in Tigray have alleged widespread abuses by soldiers from Eritrea, which shares a border with the region and fought on the side of Ethiopian forces. Abiy for months denied their presence. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

By MOHANED AWAD and CARA ANNA WAD EL HILU, Sudan (AP) — From time to time, a body floating down the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan was a silent reminder of a war conducted in the shadows. But in recent days, the corpses became a flow. In this photo taken from a video shot on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 in Wad el-Hilu, Sudan, a man washes in the Setit river, known in Ethiopia as Tekeze River. Locals and refugees have pulled dozens from bodies from the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan in the past week, many with bullet wounds and their hands bound. Witnesses say that they are ethnic killings committed by Ethiopian government forces of Tigrayans, and that the bodies are being dumped to conceal the evidence. There was no immediate comment from the Ethiopian government but it has denied ethnic killings in the past. (AP Photo/Mohaned Awad) Bloated, drained of color from their journey, the bodies were often mutilated: genitals severed, eyes gouged, a missing limb. The Sudanese fishermen who spotted them, and the refugees from Tigray who helped pull them to shore, found many corpses’ hands bound. Some of them had been shot. The Associated Press reported dozens of bodies floating down the Tekeze River earlier this week and saw six of the graves on Wednesday, marking the first time any reporters could reach the scene. Doctors who saw the bodies said one was tattooed with a common name in the Tigrinya language and others had the facial markings common among Tigrayans, raising fresh alarm about atrocities in the least-known area of the Tigray war. “They are from Tigray,” said Garey Youhanis, a Tigrayan who helped bury several bodies found on Sunday. With a piece of red cord, he demonstrated how their hands were tied behind their backs. He squatted on the rock-strewn shore, crossed himself and prayed. The deaths are the latest massacre in a nine-month war that has killed thousands of civilians and is now spilling into other regions of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and the anchor of the often-volatile Horn of Africa. Though Tigray forces in June reclaimed much of the region as Ethiopian and allied forces retreated, western Tigray is still controlled by authorities from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region, who have cleared out many ethnic Tigrayans while saying the land is historically theirs. Witnesses have told the AP of watching mass expulsions. More than 60,000 Tigrayans fled to Sudan, where thousands remain in makeshift camps a short walk from the river in the hope of hearing news from those who still arrive. Some scrutinized the bodies in the river for clues, and they have asked Sudanese police and the United Nations to exhume them for autopsies. “In the last one week, 43 bodies were buried around this river,” the surgeon from the nearby Tigray town of Humera, Tewodros Tefera, told the AP. He and other refugees believe the bodies were dumped into the river at Humera, which has seen some of the worst violence since the war began in November. “Some had amputated limbs and legs,” Tewodros said. “There was a man which we buried yesterday, his genital area was completely severed. ... So this is the kind of trauma that we’re seeing of western Tigray.” He told the AP they hadn’t heard of any new bodies since Tuesday, when at least seven were found. But he believes an active search along the river could reveal “many, many more,” perhaps hundreds. Ethiopia’s government has accused the rival Tigray forces of dumping the bodies themselves for propaganda purposes. A “fake massacre,” the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Billene Seyoum, told reporters on Thursday. But the discovery has increased international pressure on the prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, at a time when his government is already accused by the U.N., the United States and the European Union of besieging Tigray and blocking food and other aid to millions of people. Hundreds of thousands face famine conditions in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade. Ethiopia’s prime minister in recent days referred to the Tigray forces as “weeds” and a “cancer,” bringing a warning from the U.N. special envoy on genocide prevention that such dehumanizing language “is of utmost concern.” Ethiopia’s government has said such talk is not meant to describe ordinary Tigrayans. But the bodies in the river brought new fears of ethnic cleansing, or the forcing of a population from a region through expulsions and other violence. “We are deeply concerned by the latest developments,” the U.N. refugee agency in Sudan said on Thursday. It confirmed seeing one of the bodies pulled from the river along with “what appear to be several fresh graves.” It said it was unable to confirm the identifies of the dead or how they died. Like other international aid organizations, the U.N. agency said it has no access on the Ethiopian side of the border region. Underlining that absence, the U.N. humanitarian agency on Wednesday tweeted a map showing no foreign aid group active in western Tigray. One that had worked there, the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders, had its operations suspended by Ethiopia on July 30, accused by the government of spreading “misinformation” and illegally using satellite radio equipment. Ethiopia’s government has alleged that aid groups are arming and supporting the Tigray forces, without evidence. “Those who want corridors for weapons and non-humanitarian goods to be brought into them continue to try to manipulate the realities on the ground in an attempt to convince the world that unfettered access is not happening” in Tigray, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said. She called the Tigray forces, who dominated Ethiopia’s repressive government for years but were sidelined when Abiy took office, a “terrorist organization that has hijacked the well-being of the people of Tigray.” Phone, internet and banking services remain down across the Tigray region of some 6 million people, and the U.N. says more than 5 million need help now. The Tigray forces, who have pushed into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions and displaced more than 200,000 people, have said restoring basic services is a precondition to negotiations to end the war. Tigray forces on Thursday entered the Amhara town of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its rock-hewn churches, a resident told the AP. While they entered peacefully, “yeah, we’re scared,” he said, worried about damage to what residents call the “new Jerusalem.” He estimated thousands of fighters were there and “many people are running away.” He spoke on condition of anonymity for his safety. With the Tigray forces pushing south after threatening to go as far as the capital if needed, the U.N. humanitarian chief and the USAID administrator in visits to Ethiopia this week urged a cease-fire and talks. Sudan has offered to play a role in mediation. Sudan also could be a direct aid corridor to Tigray. But the prime minister’s spokeswoman called Ethiopia’s relationship with Sudan “a bit tricky,” pointing to a border dispute. “That element needs to be thoroughly addressed before Sudan can be entertained as a credible party in negotiations,” she said. For the refugees in Sudan, each body found in the river is a reminder of loved ones trapped in the fighting. Horrified, refugees in the Sudanese border community of Hamdayet spotted one body that looked familiar. Like most of the Tigrayans killed in the war, it was a young man. “How can I not feel the death of my brother and friend?” said one of the Tigrayans who buried him, Awet, who gave only his first name. “I’m very sorry.” The dead man’s name was Robel, the surgeon Tewodros said. By the water’s edge, his fingers tapping his graying temple in anxiety, he checked his phone for news of other bodies found. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

© 2021 The Associated Press Elisa Xolalpa. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme) MEXICO CITY (AP) — Elisa Xolalpa has had three daughters and found a job she enjoys since a former boyfriend tried to destroy her life by tossing acid on her when she was 18. Two decades later, she is still seeking justice. Survivors of acid attacks like Xolalpa are banding together and raising their voices in Mexico despite the country’s high rates of violence, which often targets women, and staggering levels of impunity. “I thought I was the only one,” said the 38-year-old, who grows flowers on Mexico City’s south side. “But we’re not alone anymore.” Elisa Xolalpa shows the burn marks at her greenhouse. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme) Earlier this year, the Carmen Sánchez Foundation formed here to provide support and lobby for legal reforms for survivors of acid attacks. It has registered 29 such attacks so far, five already in 2021, but believes that is only a fraction of the real number. Survivors want the attacks classified as attempted femicide, aid with the innumerable surgeries that follow and psychological support. They want to be seen even though their faces hurt. “Mom, what is acid?” 9-year-old Daniela asked Xolalpa one day. For a moment Xolalpa was silent. Then she told her daughter that it was a liquid they used in the greenhouse that is dangerous. Another day Daniela left school in tears. “Some kids told me you’re ugly, Mom, and it’s not true,” Xolalpa said her daughter told her. Xolalpa has a sweet gaze. She enjoys growing flowers in the chinampas — fertile islands interlaced by canals in the capital’s Xochimilco borough — like her ancestors did. She recognizes that one day she will have to explain to her three daughters, product of another relationship, the attack that changed her life and for a time left her wanting to die. These days she is focused on preparing herself mentally for a new court hearing for her attacker, who was finally arrested in February. She has made three complaints to authorities and suffered constant threats from him. For now he only faces a domestic violence charge, but Xolalpa hopes that will hold him long enough to pursue an attempted femicide charge. Her attacker’s lawyer has been dismissive. “He says I’m alright because I was able to have a family,” she said indignantly. She entered the relationship with the father of her three daughters “to feel that I could please someone despite the scars,” Xolapa said. “It was a mistake, I’m still damaged.” Dousing someone in acid means wanting to dissolve a person physically and psychologically. It is always premeditated, according to the United Nations. In Xolalpa’s case, she was tied to a post. The acid dissolved the ropes, but also her clothes and her body as she ran half-naked for help. She has had 40 surgeries to repair her body. Carmen Sánchez, who started the foundation that bears her name, was eating breakfast with her mother and sisters at home in 2014 when her partner entered and threw acid on her face. He fled with a driver who was waiting outside as Sánchez’s chin melted to her chest and her cell phone dissolved in her hand. It took years before Sánchez turned to activism. Carmen Sanchez, who survived an acid attack by her ex-partner seven years ago when she was 30, poses for a portrait in Mexico, Sunday, May 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme) One day in 2017, Sánchez called Gina Potes, a Colombian survivor, whose collective “Rebuilding Faces” helps other women who have survived attacks. Potes happened to be on her way to a doctor’s appointment. “She told me about all her pain, she cried, she talked to me about her surgeries,” Potes recalled. When Potes got to the doctor, “I told Carmen, ‘Look, I’m going to strip, but we’ll keep talking, don’t worry.’” Seeing Potes bare her scars without any shyness shook Sánchez. She understood that trying to hide what had happened didn’t help. So while she sought justice in her case and underwent operation after operation — she’s up to 61 — she began to talk with other survivors, seek out donors, psychologists and doctors. “From the beginning I only had two options: let myself die, something she considered many times, or look at my scars, inside and out, and understand that that was my new reality,” Sánchez told lawmakers in late July when she received a prize from Mexico’s lower congressional chamber. Sánchez made it clear to the lawmakers that women like her face not only violence from their aggressors, but also the “indifference and impunity of the state, revictimization by the media and social and labor exclusion and discrimination.” Martha Avila, who survived an acid attack by her former son-in-law four years ago when she was 59, embraces herself as she poses for a portrait at her home in the state of Mexico, Mexico, June 13, 2021. Avila’s attack happened on International Women’s Day in 2017 while she was at work, two years after her daughter had left her partner and was in hiding from him, burning her hands, face, neck and chest. The attack came after two incidents when he had thrown acid on the family car outside their home. After 15 surgeries, she expects to undergo more to help regain mobility. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme) There are children and men among the victims of acid attacks, but 80% are women, according to The Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI). They are usually attacked by partners or former partners or people paid by them out of jealousy or revenge, according to U.N. Women, the United Nations’ gender equality entity. ASTI documents about 1,500 acid attacks per year, but says the real number could be higher. Acid attacks aren’t limited to any particular part of the world, certain religions or cultures, but rather to conservative institutions and “the deep economic and social inequalities of gender that exist,” said Jaf Shah, the organization’s director. “Many attacks may not be reported,” Shah said. “If they are reported there is a chance that they could be classified under a different offense.” Sayuri Herrera, Mexico City’s special prosecutor for femicides, said that more acid attacks are being registered in Mexico. Her office is currently reviewing older cases that were originally classified as serious injuries to see if they can be reclassified as attempted femicide like Xolalpa’s. Only two of Mexico’s 32 states have classified acid attacks on women as attempted femicide. Violence against women in Mexico extends far beyond acid attacks making it more difficult to gain attention. In the first half of the year, 1,879 women were murdered in Mexico and ore than 33,000 injured, according to federal government data. More than 10,000 rapes were reported and nearly 24,000 cases of domestic violence. “They consider us their property and act under the reasoning that ‘if you’re not going to be mine, you’re not going to be anyone’s,’” Herrera said. In June, Xolalpa and other women protested in front of the capital’s prosecutor’s office to pressure for resolution of their cases. Meanwhile, new cases keep surfacing. Ximena Canseco, a co-founder of the Carmen Sánchez Foundation, recalled one day, July 29, when they learned of a survivor from an attack 30 years ago and they found a message asking for help on Facebook from the mother of a girl who had just had acid tossed on her from someone on a passing motorcycle. That same day, Canseco learned a 30-year-old woman who had recently shared her story had died of COVID-19. “She never made it public, she had lost everything and was still receiving threats,” Canseco said. “We talked for an hour.” Xolalpa said we can’t allow the violence to be normalized and that’s a message she wants to teach her daughters. “I have to turn this pain into something else,” she said. For now, that means demanding justice and not being silent. Elisa Xolalpa poses for a portrait inside her greenhouse. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)