Ethiopia

30 June 2022; MEMO: Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, yesterday called on Sudan and Ethiopia to engage in dialogue, exercise restraint and refrain from military escalation in the Al-Fashqa disputed border area.

27 June 2022; MEMO: African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called late Sunday for an "immediate investigation" after the deaths of dozens of migrants trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Melilla.

"I express my deep shock and concern at the violent and degrading treatment of African migrants attempting to cross an international border from #Morocco into #Spain, with the ensuing violence leading to the deaths of at least 23 people and injuries to many more," Mahamat said on Twitter.

ADDIS ABABA, June 19 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's state-appointed human rights commission said in a statement late on Saturday that a video circulating on social media showed government security forces carrying out at least 30 extrajudicial killings in December 2021.

The video, widely shared since Friday, showed a group of men wearing army combat fatigues forcing men off trucks parked on a rural roadside and shooting them.

ADDIS ABABA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The Horn of Africa could face "unprecedented food unavailability problems" in 2023 due to ongoing drought and food supply shortages caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, David Beasley, the executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), has warned.

"The drought situation in the Somali region of Ethiopia is desperate and extraordinary," Beasley said during a briefing Thursday after his visit to the drought-stricken Gode district in Ethiopia's Somali region.

ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has announced its plan to repatriate 900 Ethiopian migrants from conflict-torn Yemen's Marib province aboard "voluntary humanitarian flights."

In a press statement late Thursday, the IOM said the first 150 of the Ethiopian migrants were returned on Thursday.

Several more such flights are planned to return the remaining 750 Ethiopian migrants home, it said.

21 May 2022; MEMO: Ethiopia warned on Friday that Sudan's invasion of its soil would cause "unprecedented" clashes, accusing Khartoum of working to change the demography of the disputed area, Anadolu Agency reported.

ADDIS ABABA, May 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ethiopia and the World Bank have signed a pact for a grant of $300 million to assist reconstruction and recovery in conflict-hit areas, the finance ministry said.

Fighting that erupted in the northern region of Tigray in November 2020, and spilled over into neighboring Afar and Amhara last year, has eased since a unilateral ceasefire by the federal government in March.

“The resource will be used to finance the activities designed to support … basic services,” the ministry said in a statement late on Monday.

ADDIS ABABA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopia Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) has announced a decision to hike gas prices by 16 percent starting Sunday.

The ministry said in a press statement released Saturday evening that the price hike would see gas prices rise from 31.74 Ethiopian Birr (about 62 U.S. cents) per liter to 36.87 Ethiopian Birr per liter.

"One liter of diesel was similarly hiked from 28.98 Ethiopian Birr to 35.43 Ethiopian Birr," the MoTRI statement said.

ADDIS ABABA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Saturday called on Ethiopian authorities to promptly initiate and conduct transparent investigations into recent inter-religious clashes in Ethiopia.

"I am deeply distressed by the recent violent clashes between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia in which at least 30 people were reportedly killed and more than 100 others injured," an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) statement quoted Bachelet as saying.

ADDIS ABABA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing Ukraine crisis is negatively affecting East Africa's food security through reduced food supplies, accessibility and high prices of food, fuel and fertilizer, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned Thursday.

Export restrictions on grains, vegetable oil and fertilizers have surged since the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the scale having reached the levels of the 2008 global food crisis in terms of share of global trade, the WFP said in its latest situation update on the food security conditions in Eastern Africa.