Abiy Ahmed also told Parliament army would not destroy Tigrayan capital Mekelle after capturing it recently. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks during a question and answer session with lawmakers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 30, 2020 [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters] (Reuters) Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said federal troops had not killed a single civilian in their nearly month-long offensive against regional forces in Tigray. Abiy also assured Parliament on Monday that the army would not destroy Mekelle, capital of Tigray, after announcing its capture yesterday. The Ethiopian government has been trying to quell a rebellion by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a powerful ethnically based party that dominated the central government for nearly three decades until Abiy came to power in 2018. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed since the fighting began, more than 43,000 have fled to neighbouring Sudan, and there are reports of armed groups attacking civilians. “Every target has been signed and approved. The House [parliament] can see that. Every missile launched is backed by a signature of authority,” Abiy told lawmakers. “Ninety-nine percent of them hit their targets and 99 percent of them didn’t have collateral damage. No country’s army can show this level of performance. Our army is disciplined and victorious. “They said you will destroy Mekelle and so on. Mekelle is ours. It was built with our resources, we are not going to destroy it. Not even a single person was affected by the operation.” There was no immediate response from the TPLF, which had accused the government of targeting civilians in air raids and ground fighting. Claims from both sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to Tigray have been largely down and access has been tightly controlled. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, said Abiy’s claim contradicts what some humanitarian groups have reported. “Recently, we had a report from the Red Cross who say that in Mekelle, 80 percent of the people in hospitals have trauma injuries even though they don’t say how they got those trauma injuries. They also say there is a serious shortage of medical supplies and of body bags,” Webb said. On Monday, Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael said his forces were still fighting near Mekelle, which fell to government troops after nearly a month of fighting. “I’m close to Mekelle in Tigray fighting the invaders,” Debretsion told Reuters news agency in a text message, which the government dismissed as a deluded claim. Sudan is hosting more than 43,000 refugees fleeing the fighting in Tigray [Baz Ratner/Reuters] Abiy’s government launched an offensive on November 4 against the TPLF, accusing the former guerrilla movement of insurrection. Federal forces announced that they had taken Mekelle, a highland city of 500,000 people, with relatively little resistance, though the TPLF said on Monday it had shot down a plane and retaken a town. Debretsion, a 57-year-old former radio operator, also denied reports he had fled to South Sudan and said his forces had captured some soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea around Wukro, about 50km (30 miles) north of Mekelle. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

Coalition of US Muslim groups, including Council on American-Islamic Relations, says OIC members are being cowed by China’s power. Rushan Abbas of Campaign for Uyghurs speaks to a group gathered near the White House to call on the US government to respond to China's alleged abuses of Uighurs [File: Leah Millis/Reuters] Muslim groups in the United States have pleaded for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to speak out on China’s mass imprisonment of Uighurs, accusing the global body of abetting what some described as genocide. The OIC consists of 57 Muslim-majority nations and frequently takes up cases in which it believes Muslims are mistreated, criticising Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories and, at Pakistan’s behest, speaking on India’s Hindu nationalist government. But the group headquartered in Saudi Arabia has not voiced alarm over China’s western region of Xinjiang, where rights groups say that more than a million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims are being held in camps as part of an effort to stamp out Islamic customs and forcibly integrate the community. In a March 2019 resolution, the OIC said it “commends the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens” after a delegation visited. A coalition of US Muslim organisations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, accused the OIC member-states of being cowed by China’s power. “It’s very clear that China has an economic chokehold on the Muslim world and has been able to isolate every Muslim country into fear of even paying lip service to the Uighur cause,” Omar Sulieman, a Muslim American scholar and rights activist, told a virtual news conference on Thursday. “Whereas some Muslim countries will pay lip service to causes like the Palestinian cause,” he said, on the Uighur issue they will “continue to aid in the oppression,” especially by turning back asylum seekers. Uighur American campaigner Rushan Abbas warned that nations could see the export of policies targeting Muslims as China pursues its massive Belt and Road infrastructure-building initiative. “China has a track record of buying and bullying. The genocide of the Uighurs is not China’s internal issue but is a humanity issue,” said Abbas, who said that her activism led China to detain her sister. The US, which has a rising rivalry with China, has likened the treatment of the Uighurs to the actions of Nazi Germany and voiced disappointment that the OIC has not spoken up. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a rare leader from the Islamic world to have criticised China, while Malaysia has said it will not extradite Uighurs. China describes the camps as vocational training centres and says that like Western nations, it is working to “reduce the allure of Islamic extremism”. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

In mid-May, Ahmed Dicko, a well-known figure in Ouagadougou's business community, gathered with a group of volunteers, health workers and journalists outside the main football stadium in Burkina Faso's capital. They climbed boarded minibuses and four-wheel drives and joined a military-escorted convoy of trucks laden with food, before driving out of the city on the northerly road to Dicko's hometown, Djibo. Since at least February, Djibo, home to some 40,000 people in the country's violence-hit Soum province, has undergone a blockade by armed groups with possible links to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). Along a 35km (22 miles) stretch of road between Namsiguia and Djibo, fighters frequently emerge from the bush to stop unescorted vehicles heading in or out of the town before disappearing again to unknown locations, Djibo residents told Al Jazeera by phone. The passengers of these cars, buses and trucks are either turned back to their destination or murdered by the side of the road, they added. The presence of these temporary roadblocks has scared locals, who avoid using the road without a military escort. It has also severed connections to Ouagadougou, depriving the residents of food and medicine in what is seen as an attempt to weaken the relationship between citizens in the north and the central government. Residents of Djibo said they are desperate for aid, while analysts noted the blockading of towns such as Djibo has emerged as a new tactic for armed groups launching attacks in the country's north and east. Dicko, whose primary business is transport of fuel, said his convoy was able to travel to Djibo and deliver food aid thanks to a military escort - but the availability of these escorts is few and far between, and the journey is still risky. Between Namsiguia and Djibo, Dicko said the sight of abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes and corpses lying beside the road gave the landscape the look of a "war zone". "There were decaying bodies and skeletons. Some had died more recently than others," he told Al Jazeera. Being from Djibo himself and hearing the plight of those trapped without food, Dicko led a fundraising drive for last month's aid mission. "The population [of Djibo] will suffer if this continues, because they were living off farming and animal breeding before," he said, adding that working the countryside outside the town is now impossible. "They can't do that any more, because of terrorism, but they are still obliged to pay for food." Late on June 7, two soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device as they escorted vehicles between Namsiguia and Djibo, just under four hours drive from the capital. The deputy mayor of Djibo was assassinated on the same stretch of road late last year. Al Jazeera spoke to several civilian sources in the town. One, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals recalled an attack which occurred last month inside the town. "They came in and killed people in their houses, including a police officer and his father," he said. Asked what the government was doing about the situation, the civilian said government services in Djibo had shut. "It's not good, because it's affecting the population. We just want the government to come for at least some support. Very soon we will be entering the rainy season and people are afraid." Al Jazeera asked the minister of communications of Burkina Faso what the government is doing to assist the people of Djibo. He referred us to the ministry of humanitarian affairs, which did not respond to phone calls or messages. The government maintains a military garrison in Djibo, but Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world and is struggling to contain the violence with a critically undertrained and underfunded military. The government also lacks the means to address the economic disenfranchisement plaguing the north and east of the country, allowing armed groups to exploit poverty and other grievances to recruit fighters and stoke more violence. About 800,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, which has now killed more than 4,000 people since it began in 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event data project. Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), as well as local bandits, have been killing civilians and members of the security forces alike. Security forces and local defence militias, or koglweogos, have also been accused of carrying out massacres and extrajudicial killings against large numbers of civilians. In January, a law was passed allowing civilians to be armed, in the hope they could assist the military in the fight against the armed groups. Human rights groups have expressed serious concerns that arming untrained civilians will lead to even more violence, as has been the case in neighbouring Mali. The blockade of important towns is now adding to the government's security frustrations, according to Heni Nsaibia, who runs Menastream, a research consultancy monitoring the conflict. "It forces the Burkinabe military to spend a lot more effort in supplying these towns and keeping them afloat. It also hampers the armed forces' own logistic flows, and makes state relations with urban populations living under dire conditions even more fragile," he says. In the past, armed groups' tactics in Burkina Faso have centred around hit-and-run attacks on smaller towns and villages. Maintaining blockades on major towns represents a new escalation. "There is a pattern," says Nsaibia. "For instance, Arbinda, Barsalogho and Tankoualou have all suffered 'embargos'. There have been threats in the past few days to impose one on Tanwalbougou." "Suffocating major towns appears to have become an integrated component in the evolving strategy of militant groups ... I believe it brittles the already weak relationship between civilians and the state," he adds. As for Dicko, he said as long as there is a need in Djibo, he will continue to carry out aid missions despite the extremely dangerous circumstances. He says he is not afraid. "When you're going into a war zone you need to be prepared to encounter anything. The feeling I have is one of comradery with the team [who went on the mission to Djibo]. We are courageous and proud, despite the risk." © Al Jazeera 2020

West African leaders have arrived in Bamako on a high-stakes mission aimed at defusing Mali's weeks-long political crisis that has raised concerns of further instability in a country grappling with multiple crises, including an escalating conflict. The visit on Thursday by the presidents of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal comes days after a mediation mission by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS failed to break the deadlock. The foreign leaders are expected to meet Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and key figures of the opposition coalition behind the protests, known as the June 5 Movement. "It will be difficult to rebuff presidents who come to help bring back peace and stability to your country," said researcher Demba Moussa Dembele, president of the Dakar-based African Forum on Alternatives. "The government and the opposition would likely avoid being blamed if the mission were to fail," Dembele said. Mobilised by influential Muslim leader Ibrahim Dicko, tens of thousands of opposition protesters have in recent weeks poured onto the streets of Bamako to demand Keita's resignation. Although dissatisfaction over the country's economic woes, corruption and worsening security situation has been simmering for a while, the spark for the current crisis was a decision by the Constitutional Court in April to overturn the results of parliamentary polls for 31 seats, in a move that saw candidates with Keita's party get re-elected. The protests turned violent earlier this month when three days of clashes between security forces and protesters left 11 people dead. Several opposition leaders were also briefly detained. An ECOWAS mission last week, led by Goodluck Jonathan, former Nigerian president, proposed setting up a government of national unity that would include members of the opposition and civil society groups. It also suggested, among others, the appointment of new judges to the Constitutional Court, which had already been "de facto" dissolved by Keita in a bid to calm unrest. But the proposals were rejected by the June 5 Movement, with protest leaders insisting that Keita must go and calling for accountability for the killings in the June 10-12 protests. "The gap is currently wide between the demands of the parties - especially the June 5 Movement and what the government is ready to concede," said Ousmane Diallo, Amnesty International's West Africa researcher. Dembele said forcing Keita to step down could be seen as "unconstitutional", warning it could result in Mali's international isolation. In recent weeks, a number of Western diplomats and groups have also been meeting opposition leaders and government officials in an attempt to find a solution. While a level of calmness has now been restored - the June 5 Movement on Tuesday pledged not to call protests for 10 days, until the forthcoming Eid religious festival - "the situation remains tense and could spill over beyond Bamako, to Kati, Gao and Timbuktu", Diallo said. "Beyond the possibility of Mali sliding further into crisis if a middle ground between the parties is not found, the credibility of the ECOWAS mediation itself is also at stake." Regional leaders are eager to avoid further instability in Mali, a country of some 20 million people that has been plagued by a conflict that began in 2012 and has since spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. According to the United Nations, attacks grew fivefold between 2016 and 2020, with 4,000 people killed in the three countries last year, up from about 770 in 2016. The fighting has also forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and led to the closure of thousands of schools. In central Mali, a multitude of armed groups have been jockeying for control while exploiting the poverty of marginalised communities and inflaming tensions between ethnic groups. The presence of thousands of foreign troops has failed to stem the violence, while allegations of abuses and extrajudicial killings by Malian forces have perpetuated deep-rooted mistrust and enmity in parts of the country with little government presence otherwise. "The [regional] security concerns are real," Dembele said. "If the crisis lingers on, Mali is likely to descend into chaos, which will affect the morale of the military and weaken its fight against the terrorist groups. In that case, there is a risk that neighbouring countries, like Senegal and Guinea, will be affected, which in turn will affect other countries." Diallo said the visit by the five presidents, only days after the ECOWAS mediation mission, showed "how important it is for them to have stability in Bamako". "For a long time, Mali was perceived the weak link regarding the insurgency in the Sahel; there is an imperative of preventing the political crisis from impacting very negatively regional security initiatives," he added. "The goal is to prevent a bad situation from getting worse." © Al Jazeera 2020

Tigray troops are fighting ’16 divisions’ of the Eritrean army in addition to Ethiopian soldiers, region’s leader says. The leader of Ethiopia’s Tigray region has said his forces bombed the airport in neighbouring Eritrea’s capital, a major escalation as the heavy fighting in northern Ethiopia between federal government troops and Tigray forces spreads across an international border. Tigray’s President Debretsion Gebremichael did not say how many missiles were fired at Asmara on Saturday but said it was the only city in Eritrea that was targeted. Speaking to news agencies on Sunday, he also said his forces have been fighting Eritrean forces “on several fronts” for the past few days. He did not specify where but did say Eritrean forces were deployed and fighting along Ethiopia’s border. His troops are fighting “16 divisions” of the Eritrean army in addition to Ethiopian soldiers, he said. “As long as troops are here fighting, we will take any legitimate military target and we will fire,” said Gebremichael, denying reports that Tigray regional forces have entered Eritrea. When asked about possibly targeting Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, he replied: “I don’t want to tell you, but the missiles are long-range as well.” Eritrean officials have not responded to requests for comment. No immediate comment came from the Ethiopian government on Debretsion’s claim of the strikes on Eritrea. ‘Huge escalation’ Gebremichael’s comments to news media confirmed earlier reports from diplomats of cross-border shelling in the 12-day old conflict in Ethiopia. At least three rockets were fired at Asmara on Saturday evening, five diplomats told the Reuters news agency. At least two projectiles hit the city’s airport, three diplomats said. Radio Erena, a Paris-based diaspora station sympathetic to the Eritrean opposition, said Asmara residents reported hearing “four explosions in total”. Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from the city of Gondar in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, said one of the rockets fired at Asmara was aimed at a building housing the Eritrean ministry of information and a number of local media outlets. “Eyewitnesses tell us that the rocket that targeted the ministry of information missed its mark and fell outside the building,” he said. “We don’t have any word on casualties. But what we do know is that this is a huge escalation of the conflict that has so far been restricted to the borders of Ethiopia, and particularly to the Tigray region. Now, it has crossed international borders and it is something that could bring Eritrea into the conflict.” Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive in the restive Tigray northern region on November 4. Eritrea’s government has denied involvement in the conflict. Abiy accuses the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the mountainous region of more than five million people, of treason and terrorism and says his military campaign will restore order. Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace deal two years ago, but Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s government remains hostile to the Tigray leadership after their role in a devastating 1998-2000 war. The TPLF, which once dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, had previously accused Abiy of enlisting military support from Eritrea. Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed denied sending troops to Ethiopia on Tuesday. The fighting has killed hundreds of people on both sides, sent thousands of civilians fleeing into Sudan, and raised fears it could destabilize other parts of Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa region. Several refugees arriving in the Sudanese border town of Hamdayat said their areas in Ethiopia had been shelled from Eritrea. “We were shelled by artillery volleys from across the Eritrean border,” said Naksiam Guru, a 22-year refugee who lives near the border. “I saw people dying in the streets.” Hamdayat is home to a camp hosting 8,000 refugees. Several hundred arrived on Saturday morning, some crossing a border river in boats, some swimming or wading through the water. The strikes on Eritrea came on the same day the TPLF claimed rocket attacks on two airports in Ethiopia’s Amhara region “inflicted heavy damage”. TPLF said the attacks were in retaliation for government air raids against their region. Abiy has said government warplanes were bombing military targets in Tigray, including arms depots and equipment controlled by Tigrayan forces. The government says its military operations are aimed at restoring the rule of law. The Amhara government said the airport in Gondar was hit while another rocket aimed at the Bahir Dar airport missed its target. The federal government acknowledged “the airport areas have sustained damages”, adding a doctor said two soldiers were killed and up to 15 wounded. “The TPLF junta is utilizing the last of the weaponry within its arsenals,” the federal government’s emergency task force wrote on Twitter. As the fighting intensifies, fears of ethnic attacks are rising. Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission, appointed by the government but independent, said it was sending a team of investigators to the Tigray town of Mai Kadra to investigate reports of mass killings. Amnesty International said on Thursday that scores and possibly hundreds of civilians were stabbed and hacked to death in the region on November 9, citing images and witnesses. It said it had not been able to independently confirm who was responsible but said the witnesses had blamed fighters loyal to Tigray’s leaders. The Tigray state government denied any involvement by TPLF members or the state’s special police force in “this most tragic event”. The rights commission said in a statement it would investigate all allegations of human rights violations in the conflict. “In this part of the world, any war is immediately a humanitarian crisis because of the socioeconomic situation, the presence of multiple borders and various ethnic groups” said William Lawrence, professor of political science at the George Washington University in the United States. “You’ve got a lot of ethnic animosities and grievances. So, as soon as the killings and the atrocities start, it can spread to other areas rather quickly unless it is contained and de-escalated,” he told Al Jazeera. See the full article and access the videos here. Al Jazeera © 2020

UN refugee agency says 1,800 people have fled into Chad in the past week amid violence in Sudan’s West Darfur. Refugees fleeing recent violence in Sudan’s Darfur region sit in shade near the town of Adre, Chad. [Courtesy: UNHCR] Recent clashes between tribes in Sudan’s West Darfur region have sent more than 1,800 people fleeing into Chad over the past week, according to the United Nations refugee agency. The majority of refugees are women, children and senior citizens who have fled villages near the border since violence erupted on April 3, said Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some refugees have been forced to relocate several times when previous clashes killed more than 200 people, two weeks after a joint peace mission to the region by the UN and the African Union ended in January. “The refugees arriving in Chad talk of the destruction of their homes and possessions and targeted attacks on refugee sites,” Baloch said in a statement, describing conditions in eastern Chad as “disastrous”. “Families are living in the open air or are sheltering under trees or in makeshift huts,” he said. “They have almost no protection against the elements in a region where temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees Celsius during the day,” he said. The vast Darfur region was previously ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003, leaving about 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations. A UN spokesperson told reporters on Friday that the latest bout of violence erupted between Massalit and Arab tribes in the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, when assailants shot dead two men of the Massalit tribe. In response, armed elements from both sides mobilised. The Massalit are mainly farmers, while the Arab tribes are mainly herders, with the violence and divisions rooted in disputes over land, pasture and water resources, according to the UN. The UN said it was “appalled” by the resurgence of violence, saying all tribes responsible for the bloodshed must be disarmed, with the Human Rights Office calling for independent investigations. © Copyright 2021 Al Jazeera

Violence surrounding last month’s presidential vote forces 30,000 people to flee CAR and tens of thousands more to become internally displaced, says UN. Published by Al Jazeera on January 9, 2021; Updated on January 10, 2021. A soldier takes position at daybreak in Bangui (Andreea Campeanu/Reuters) Correction - January 10, 2021: | A previous version of this story wrongly attributed a quote about the presidential election in the Central African Republic to Romain Desclous, UNHCR spokesman. It has now been removed. | French fighter jets have flown over the Central African Republic (CAR) for the first time since last month’s disputed presidential election amid rising concern as violence and insecurity has forced tens of thousands of people to flee into neighbouring countries. The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday the flight took place at the request of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and with permission of the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) in the country. Macron had condemned recent acts of violence during a phone call with Touadera, his office said, an apparent reference to a rebel advance which Touadera and the UN say has been mounted by former President Francois Bozize to thwart the election. Touadera was declared the winner of the December 27 election with more than 50 percent of votes cast in a single round, avoiding a runoff against any of 16 challengers. Many of the opposition candidates have demanded the election be annulled and for the vote to be repeated, citing irregularities and low turnout following violent clashes. The electoral commission declared Touadera the winner with a voter turnout of more than 76 percent. However, only half the country’s 1.8 million eligible voters were able to register to vote due to the rebel offensive. On Saturday, MINUSCA spokesman Abdoulaziz Fall said government forces were attacked by “armed elements” in the western city of Bouar, which lies around 340km (210 miles) from the capital Bangui. UN peacekeepers who came to the aid of the government troops had themselves come under fire, he told AFP news agency. The city is the base for the Leclerc camp, the army’s headquarters in the western region. In November, six of the most powerful armed rebel groups, who between them control two-thirds of the country, announced an alliance against Touadera’s government. They launched a series of attacks in a bid to disrupt the presidential and legislative elections. French fighter jets also flew over CAR four days before the polls. France has a history of repeated military interventions in the CAR, most recently from 2013-16. The UN now maintains nearly 13,000 peacekeepers there. Macron reiterated condemnation of former President Bozize on Saturday. Thousands flee due to unrest The disputed election could further destabilise a country whose population of 4.7 million has endured waves of armed group violence in recent years that has killed thousands of people and forced more than a million from their homes. Bozize was removed in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias and plunging the CAR into a civil war. Touadera, who was prime minister under Bozize, was first elected in 2016. He has worked to restore state institutions and signed an agreement with armed groups in 2019, but has failed to bring lasting peace. Vast swathes of the country remain under militia control. The UN said on Friday that more than 30,000 people had already been forced to flee the CAR due to violence surrounding last month’s vote, and tens of thousands of others were internally displaced. The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said those who have left the CAR for neighbouring countries needed urgent assistance with water, shelter, healthcare and sanitation. Goniwar Maxime, who fled with his family to Cameroon after armed groups took over control of Bouar, said armed group members had robbed him of his belongings. “I was on my motorcycle when they chained my legs, look they stabbed me in the stomach and in the back, then they stole all that I had,” Maxime said. As a result of the violence, more than 24,000 crossed into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while nearly 4,500 arrived in Cameroon, a further 2,200 in Chad and about 70 in the Republic of Congo, according to the UNHCR. “Inside CAR, 185,000 people from at least 25 localities have fled, mostly as a preventative measure, into the bush and forests since December 15,” spokesman Boris Cheshirkov told reporters in Geneva. While thousands have since returned home, some 62,000 people remain newly internally displaced, he said. UN staff said they were overwhelmed by the number of refugees. “A staggering amount of people [are] in need of assistance and help and any improvement in the security would mean people could return home but they can’t do that at the moment,” said Romain Desclous, UNHCR spokesman. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network.

Rebel coalition says it is calling off a three-day ceasefire, already dismissed by the government, ahead of a tense general election on Sunday. Published by Al Jazeera on December 25, 2020. United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic - Pacome Pabamdji. (AFP/Getty Images) A rebel coalition that has been fighting the government in the Central African Republic (CAR) has called off a three-day ceasefire ahead of a tense general election scheduled on Sunday. The Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which began an offensive against the government a week ago, said in a statement it had “decided to break the 72-hour truce it had imposed on itself and resume its unrelenting march towards its final objective”. In the statement, which was confirmed to AFP news agency as authentic by two of the six groups in the coalition, the CPC said it made the decision “faced with “the irresponsible stubbornness of the government”. The ceasefire’s signatories had “invited the authorities to observe the ceasefire over the same period” and called on President Faustin Archange Touadera to suspend Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections. But government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui dismissed the ceasefire on Thursday, saying it was “a non-event” and that “we haven’t seen these people stop what they’re doing”. During the weekend, the government accused Touadera’s predecessor, Francois Bozize, of fomenting a coup with the rebels – a charge he denies. The rebel coalition on Friday said the government had “cavalierly rejected” this “chance for peace”. “Several attacks followed on positions occupied by the patriots of the CPC,” its statement said. The authenticity of the CPC statement was confirmed by two armed groups – the 3R and the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa (FPRC). General Bobo, the leader of 3R, told AFP that “now either the government disperses us, or we march on Bangui, which is our final objective”. The CPC was created on December 19 by armed groups who accuse Touadera, the frontrunner in the Sunday’s election, of trying to fix the vote. Its components are drawn from rebel groups that together control two-thirds of the country. Meanwhile, fighting resumed in Bakouma, about 250km (155 miles) east of the capital Bangui, according to Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN’s MINUSCA peacekeeping force. Gunmen had sought to advance down the main highways towards Bangui but were stopped, according to MINUSCA. Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from Bangui, said people “do not have an appetite for any kind of conflict … and want to exercise their right to vote”. “When you go outside Bangui, to the countryside, people are very afraid. We are hearing of fighting in various places, people being displaced,” she added. The oil-rich CAR has been battered by conflict for years, with clashes between a predominantly Muslim rebel coalition and Christian militias after Bozize was toppled in 2013. A French military intervention together with a UN peace mission temporarily stabilised the country with a peace accord signed in 2019, but there are recurring violent flare-ups. The recent rise of violence has prompted Russia and Rwanda to deploy military consultants and troops in the country. Paul Melly, a fellow at the Africa Programme at Chatham House, said it will be “very difficult” to expect the government to halt the Sunday elections. “The United Nations, MINUSCA and the government have put a huge effort into organising in mobilising the electoral process,” he told Al Jazeera from London. “They got everybody registered, they have been distributing or starting to distribute voter cards … a lot of people in Bangui want to go ahead and exercise their right to vote.” © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

UN says at least 70 people or so living in the Bedouin community, including 41 children, face displacement in Humsa Al-Baqaia district. The United Nations and European members of the Security Council on Friday called on Israel to stop demolitions of Bedouin settlements in the Jordan Valley, and for humanitarian access to the community living in Humsa Al-Baqaia. In a joint statement at the end of a monthly session of the Security Council on the conflict in the Middle East, Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom said they were “deeply concerned at the recent repeated demolitions and confiscation of items, including of EU- and donor-funded structures carried out by Israeli authorities at Humsa Al-Baqaia in the Jordan Valley.” It said the concern was also focused on the 70 people or so living in the Bedouin community, including 41 children. “We reiterate our call on Israel to halt demolitions and confiscations,” the statement said. “We further call on Israel to allow full, sustained, and unimpeded humanitarian access to the community in Humsa Al-Baqaia.” Humsa al-Baqia sits in the Jordan Valley, a fertile and strategic patch of land that runs from Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea, which has emerged as a flashpoint in the struggle over the West Bank. The Jordan Valley is home to approximately 60,000 Palestinians, according to the UN, but nearly 90 percent of the land is part of what is known as Area C, the three-fifths of the West Bank that is under complete Israeli control. It includes closed military areas and about 50 agricultural settlements housing some 12,000 Israelis. Seizure of properties Palestinians are barred from those areas and from the lands they own. They are forbidden from digging wells or building any kind of infrastructure without hard-to-get military permits. From 2009 to 2016, less than 2 percent of more-than-3,300 permit applications in Area C were successful, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group, citing official statistics. Anything built without a permit, from home extensions to tents, animal pens, and irrigation networks, is at risk of demolition by the Israeli military. Almost 800 Palestinians, including 404 minors, have already lost their homes in 2020. Throughout the entire previous year, 677 lost their homes – up from 387 in 2018 and 521 in 2017. On Friday, the UN envoy for the region, Norwegian Tor Wennesland, also voiced his concerns about the demolitions and land confiscations. He said Israel security forces had “demolished or confiscated 80 structures” in the Bedouin community “in an Israeli declared firing zone in the Jordan Valley”. He said that the actions had “displaced 63 people, including 36 children multiple times, and followed a similar demolition in November 2020”. “I urge Israel to cease the demolition and seizure of Palestinian property throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to allow Palestinians to develop their communities,” he said. Access the video and the full article here. Al Jazeera © 2021

Security forces open fire, use tear gas and make mass arrests as they seek to disperse people demonstrating against the military’s power grab. Police use slingshots as security forces crack down on protests against the military coup in Yangon [Sai Aung Main/AFP] World leaders have strongly condemned the bloodiest crackdown yet by Myanmar’s security forces against peaceful anti-coup demonstrators, in which at least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded in several cities across Myanmar, according to the United Nations’ human rights office. UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday led the chorus of international condemnation against the actions of the military, which grabbed power on February 1 and declared a year-long “emergency” after alleging electoral fraud in a November election that was won by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in a landslide. About 1,000 protesters demanding Aung San Suu Kyi’s government be restored to power are believed to have been detained on Sunday. “The use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and arbitrary arrests are unacceptable,” Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman, said in a statement. “The Secretary-General urges the international community to come together and send a clear signal to the military that it must respect the will of the people of Myanmar as expressed through the election and stop the repression.” Meanwhile, European Union diplomatic chief Josep Borrell confirmed in a statement the bloc would “take measures in response to these developments shortly”. “The military authorities must immediately stop the use of force against civilians and allow the population to express their right to freedom of expression and assembly,” Borrell said in a statement. European ministers have already agreed on sanctions against Myanmar’s military over the coup and have decided to withhold some development aid. The sanctions are expected to be finalised in the coming days and will take effect once an official notice has been published by the EU. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he described as “the Burmese security forces’ abhorrent violence against the people of Burma”, using the country’s former name. The United States announced new sanctions on Monday against two more generals involved in the February 1 military coup in Myanmar, after protesters were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations last weekend. “We stand firmly with the courageous people of Burma & encourage all countries to speak with one voice in support of their will,” Blinken tweeted on Sunday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said the “violence must stop and democracy must be restored”, while also noting the UK had already imposed sanction on the coup leaders. “Working with the US and Canada, the UK has taken action by imposing human rights sanctions against nine Myanmar military officers, including the commander-in-chief, for their role in the coup,” the spokeswoman said. Turkey also strongly condemned what it called disproportionate use of force by Myanmar’s army. “We observe with deep concern that the stability in Myanmar is deteriorating after the coup,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “We call for the necessary steps to be taken for the restoration of democracy without delay for the maintenance of peace and stability in the country and the immediate cessation of violence against the peaceful protesters,” it added. ‘We’re in this together’ Earlier on Sunday, the UN human rights office said in statement police and military forces had confronted peaceful demonstrations in several locations across Myanmar, using “lethal force and less-than-lethal force” that left at least 18 people dead and more than 30 wounded. “Deaths reportedly occurred as a result of live ammunition fired into crowds in Yangon, Dawei, Mandalay, Myeik, Bago and Pokokku,” it said, referring to several cities, adding that the forces also used tear gas, flash-bang grenades and stun grenades. The crackdown came after state television announced that Myanmar’s envoy to the UN had been fired after he urged the global body to use “any means necessary” to reverse the coup. A woman shows the three-finger salute and holds up a poster against Myanmar military coup as part of the Milk Tea Alliance united rally in Taipei [Ann Wang/Reuters] Meanwhile, activists in a number of Asian countries and elsewhere held rallies on Sunday to support the anti-coup protesters in Myanmar. Following a call for help from Myanmar pro-democracy campaigners, some 200 people in Taipei and dozens in Bangkok, Melbourne and Hong Kong took to the streets waving #MilkTeaAlliance signs and flags. The hashtag, which originated as a protest against online attacks from nationalists in China, was used millions of times on Sunday. Its name originates from the shared passion for the milky drink in Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Activists in Indonesia and Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia expressed their solidarity by posting messages and artwork online as part of a social media campaign. “Myanmar activists have been very active in engaging with Milk Tea Alliance since the coup,” said Thai activist Rathasat Plenwong, who went to show his support for the Myanmar protests in Bangkok. “We feel like we’re in this together.” © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network

PM Abiy Ahmed says Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is a ‘criminal clique’ that has been ‘thoroughly defeated’. Members of the Amhara state's militia in Dansha, Ethiopia [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP] Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has denied a rebellious northern force his troops have been battling for more than a month would have the capacity to mount an armed offensive from the mountains of Tigray. Federal troops have captured the regional capital Mekelle from the former local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and declared an end to an offensive that began on November 4. But TPLF leaders say they are fighting back on various fronts around Mekelle. Ethiopian experts fear a drawn-out armed campaign with a destabilising effect across the wider Horn of Africa region. “The criminal clique pushed a patently false narrative that its fighters and supporters are battle-hardened and well-armed, posing the risk of protracted insurgency in the rugged mountains of Tigray,” Abiy said in a statement. “It also claimed that it has managed to undertake strategic retreat with all its capability and regional government apparatus intact. The reality is the criminal clique is thoroughly defeated and in disarray, with insignificant capability to mount a protracted insurgency.” There was no immediate response from the TPLF. With most internet and telephone communications in Tigray down and access to the region severely restricted, it is difficult to verify the statements by either warring side. Meanwhile, two diplomatic sources told Reuters news agency on Monday that a United Nations security team seeking to access Shimelba refugee camp, one of four for Eritrean refugees in Tigray, was blocked and fired at on Sunday. The sources declined to give more details, saying the full circumstances were unclear. There was no immediate comment from the government, TPLF or United Nations. Aid needed fast The conflict, which has its roots in Abiy’s pushback against Tigrayans’ past dominance of federal government and military posts, is thought to have killed thousands of people. It has also sent nearly 50,000 refugees fleeing to Sudan, seen TPLF rockets fired into Eritrea, stirred ethnic divisions, and led to the disarming of Tigrayans in Ethiopia’s peacekeeping contingency combating al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Somalia. An Ethiopian refugee who fled the Tigray conflict cooks dinner as her child holds playfully on to her back, at the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan’s eastern Gadarif state [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP] The UN and aid agencies are pressing for safe access to Tigray, which is home to more than five million people and where 600,000 relied on food aid even before the war. However, two senior aid officials told Reuters over the weekend that looting and lawlessness meant the region was still too dangerous to dispatch convoys. Shimei Abra Adiko, an Ethiopian refugee in Sudan, said: “The [pro-government] militia said they would kill us because we are from Tigray. They told us, ‘You have 24 hours to leave’, and they began to loot our animals and property.” The TPLF has also accused Abiy’s forces of looting in Mekelle. “[They are] looting civilian properties, hotels and damaging factories after looting,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told a TPLF-owned TV station. The Ethiopian government says that, with peace restored, its priorities are the welfare of Tigrayans and return of refugees. However, some residents, diplomats and the TPLF say clashes persist, with protests and looting also reported in Mekelle on Friday. The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s government for nearly three decades until Abiy took power in 2018. The party accuses him of seeking to centralise power at the expense of Ethiopia’s 10 regions and says Tigrayan officials were unfairly targeted in a crackdown on corruption and rights abuses. The government denies that and accuses TPLF leaders of treason for attacking federal forces in early November. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

Published by Al Jazeera on January 6, 2021. (Al Jazeera) At least 22 civilians have been killed in a rebel attack on a village in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local officials. The violence in Mwenda village of the Beni territory was perpetrated by the Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Donat Kibwana, the administrator of the Beni territory, told Anadolu news agency. “ADF rebels attacked the village of Mwenda on Monday about 19:00 GMT, killing 22 civilians with machetes,” Kibwana said, adding the death toll is provisional. Local leaders Ruwenzori Bozy Sindiwako and Iteni Muvunga Kimwele told the dpa news agency by telephone on Tuesday the rebels used machetes and bladed weapons to carry out the massacre and systematically loot the settlement. Fulbert Kasairo, a local official, said a dozen other villagers were also kidnapped by the attackers in order to transport stolen goods to other localities. “Our region is a powder keg, a cemetery. We live in a dying house while the authorities are disinterested,” Kasairo said. The army intervened too late to push back the rebels, Bozy Sindiwako and Muvunga Kimwele said. “These repeated killings … are causing massive displacements of the population of this sector towards secure [areas], including, in particular, the city of Beni,” Bozy Sindiwako said. “At the moment, the whole village is crying, my constituents are killed, it sickens me,” Muvunga Kimwele said. Lieutenant Antony Mwalushayi of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) confirmed the attack without giving details. More bodies recovered On Monday, authorities said they discovered 21 bodies “in a state of decomposition” in the localities of Loselose and Loulo in the same region after a passage of the rebels. The ADF, which originated in Uganda’s northeast in the 1990s, has been attacking and killing civilians in eastern DRC for decades. The illicit exploitation of natural resources continues to be a root cause and driver of conflict in the east of the country, according to the UN. Most of the militia groups have set aside their political demands and are involved in mineral trafficking. © 2021 Al Jazeera Media Network