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Ghana’s parliament has passed a new law designed to further crack down on LGBTQ ‘activities.’ The new law, if ratified by President Nana Akufo-Addo, carries a jail sentence of up to five years for ‘willful promotion, sponsorship, or support of + activities.’ Ghana already has strict *xuality , with s*x carrying a sentence of up to three years.

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After taking control of the Avdeevka Coke and Chemical Plant, Russian forces found abandoned weapons and supplies. During their chaotic escape, Ukrainian soldiers left behind dozens of NATO gr***de launchers and UAVs with Starlink satellite communication terminals

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Reuters news agency revealed that a secret committee of officials has been giving orders for extrajudicial killings and arrests in the Oromia region.

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A secretive committee of senior officials in ’s largest and most populous region, , has ordered extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions to crush an insurgency there, a investigation has found.

Reuters interviewed more than 30 federal and local officials, judges, lawyers and victims of abuses by authorities. The agency also reviewed documents drafted by local political and judicial authorities.

These interviews and documents for the first time shed light on the workings of the Koree Nageenyaa – Security Committee in the Oromo language - which began operating in the months after came to power in 2018. The committee’s existence has not been previously reported.

Five current and former government officials told Reuters that the committee is at the heart of Abiy’s efforts to end a years-old insurgency by the (OLA), which wants self-determination for the Oromo people and greater language and cultural rights.

Oromos have long complained of political and social marginalisation. When new protests broke out in 2019, the government cracked down hard. The Koree Nageenyaa took the lead, the five officials said.

The violence in Oromiya has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Ethiopia’s government and human rights officials accuse the OLA of killing scores of civilians since 2019, a charge the group denies.

One of the five sources was willing to be identified: Milkessa Gemechu, a former member of the governing Prosperity Party’s central committee. The others, including two people who have attended meetings of the Koree Nageenyaa, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The people familiar with Koree Nageenyaa's activities attributed dozens of killings to the committee's orders and hundreds of arrests. Among the killings, they said, was a massacre of 14 shepherds in Oromiya in 2021 that the government has previously blamed on OLA fighters.

presented its findings to the head of the state-appointed Ethiopian Commission (EHRC), Daniel Bekele. In an interview, Bekele confirmed the existence of the Koree Nageenyaa.

He said its aim was to address growing security challenges in Oromiya, but it “overreached its purpose by interfering in the justice system with widespread human rights violations.”

“We documented multiple cases of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and extortion,” Bekele said, without elaborating on specific incidents.

Ethiopia’s federal government, Prime Minister Abiy’s office and the Oromiya regional government did not respond to detailed questions for this article. Abiy has previously defended his government’s human rights record. On Feb. 6, he told parliament during routine questions: “Since we think along democratic lines, it is hard for us to even arrest anyone, let alone execute them.”

The unrest in Oromiya, home to Ethiopia’s capital , is a reminder of continuing instability in the Horn of Africa nation, a patchwork of many ethnic groups. Ethiopia is scarred by conflict.

A two-year civil war in the northernmost region, , killed hundreds of thousands of people until a peace deal was struck in November 2022.

Fighting erupted last July in another northern region, , between the and local militiamen. There the has imposed a state of emergency.

Violence in Oromiya has continued even after the federal government and OLA rebels held peace talks for the first time in early 2023. Ethiopia’s government has designated the a terrorist organisation – a label that the United States and have not applied to the group.

According to the current and former Ethiopian officials, the Koree Nageenyaa meets in the Oromiya regional offices of Abiy’s Prosperity Party and is headed by Abiy’s former chief of staff, Shimelis Abdisa, the president of Oromiya region.

Shimelis and other committee members are ethnic Oromo. Fekadu Tessema, leader of the Prosperity Party in Oromiya, sits on the committee, as does Ararsa Merdasa, head of security for Oromiya, and half a dozen other local political and security officials, the sources said. None of these people responded to questions from Reuters.

Reuters found no evidence that Abiy attended the meetings or that he issued orders to the committee. People familiar with the matter said the committee was formed at Abiy’s instigation. Abiy was briefed on at least one occasion in early 2022 about the committee’s activities, said a person who was present. Reuters couldn’t independently verify this.

The security committee is little known beyond a tight official circle. Reuters found one reference to it in the public record: a paragraph in a 2021 report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission about abuses of the justice system. The report said the committee – known as Yedehinineti Komītē in Ethiopia’s official language, Amharic – investigated and jailed people with suspected ties to armed groups instead of allowing the justice system to take its course.

Jaal Marroo, the military leader of the OLA, told Reuters in an interview that he is aware of the Koree Nageenyaa’s existence and that high-ranking officials in are its members. He accused the committee of ordering extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, harassment and intimidation, without citing specific examples.

The enemy within

Ethiopia has a long history of using a clandestine security apparatus to quell dissent, Ezekiel Gebissa, professor of history and African studies at Kettering University in the United States, told .

During Haile Selassie’s four-decade rule last century, the emperor created a network of spies known colloquially as the “joro tabi,” or listeners, to hunt his opponents. The communist Derg military junta that toppled Selassie in 1974 set up a vast new security system to eliminate threats to the regime.

At the turn of the century, Ethiopia got a new constitution and parliament. But this government, too, led by Meles Zenawi, grew increasingly repressive and fashioned a top-down structure of surveillance that extended to every level of society. The system was commonly known as “Amist Le And” – one-to-five – because spies were typically assigned five people to monitor.

Abiy became prime minister in 2018. According to the current and former government officials, the Koree Nageenyaa security committee was formed soon afterwards in response to youth protests in Oromiya over inequality and economic mismanagement.

“The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be detained. Then they go and arrest them without warrant or investigation or due process.”

A former judge on the Oromiya supreme court
Milkessa Gemechu, the former member of the Prosperity Party’s central committee, said he first heard of the Koree Nageenyaa at a meeting of Oromo political leaders in March 2019. There Shimelis, newly appointed as president of Oromiya, announced that the Koree Nageenyaa “would direct operations against enemy elements and enemy cells,” said Milkessa. Shimelis and Abiy’s office didn’t respond to questions about the Koree Nageenyaa. Reuters couldn’t independently verify Milkessa’s account of the meeting.

Milkessa now lives in the United States. He says he left Ethiopia after receiving threats from security officials for criticising Abiy and the Prosperity Party, including over their handling of unrest in Oromiya.

From late 2019, the Koree Nageenyaa met in the Prosperity Party’s Oromiya regional headquarters in downtown Addis Ababa as often as three times a week, said the two officials who participated in some of the meetings. The building was emptied of other staff, attendees handed in their phones, and documents were collected at the end of each session, these people said.

Abiy’s father is Oromo and he owes his premiership in part to youth-led protests in Oromiya that forced his predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign. Nevertheless, unrest in the region quickly loomed as a major challenge for the new prime minister.

Ever since Emperor Menelik II’s campaign of conquest at the close of the 19th Century imposed Amhara culture and language on assimilated groups, Oromos have complained of political and social marginalisation. Oromos hoped their lot would improve with Abiy, but many became disenchanted when change didn’t materialise. New protests broke out in October 2019 and the Koree Nageenyaa cracked down.

When a prominent Oromo singer, Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, was killed in June 2020 in an attack the government blamed on Oromo rebels, clashes between protesters and police led to at least 200 civilian deaths and 5,000 arrests, human rights groups have said.

Oromiya president Shimelis and regional Prosperity Party head Fekadu presided over a series of Skype calls with each of the 19 big cities and 21 zones of the region at this time, according to the two people who participated in some meetings of the Koree Nageenyaa.

Shimelis and Fekadu ordered some protesters arrested and others killed, the two people said. According to one of these people, Shimelis told one zonal administrator to have his forces shoot protestors if the demonstrations got out of hand. The sources did not specify numbers of people to be arrested or killed.

A tribal massacre

A former adviser to Shimelis told Reuters that in “important cases, like prominent executions,” orders come from Shimelis or Ararsa, Oromiya’s police commissioner until his promotion last year to head of security. One such case, the source said, was a massacre in early December 2021 of 14 tribesmen.

The killings were reported at the time in Ethiopia, but the blame for the crime has been a matter of dispute. Reuters reviewed previously unreported official accounts of the incident and spoke to a local official who said he witnessed key moments leading up to the slaughter.

On Nov. 30, 2021, suspected OLA fighters killed 11 police officers and wounded 17 in an ambush in Fentale, a rural district of Oromiya that lies in the Great Rift Valley.

Then police commissioner Ararsa and the region’s deputy president, Awalu Abdi, arrived at the district administration’s compound the following day, the local official said. Like Ararsa, Awalu is a member of the Koree Nageenyaa, according to five sources. Also present was the then zonal administrator, Ababu Wako.

The local official recounted that Ababu received a phone call from a military commander whose troops had detained 16 suspected rebels in a forest area near the shallow waters of Lake Basaka. The commander was seeking guidance about what to do with the suspects. The local official said he was present when Ababu took the phone call and heard the discussions that followed.

Ababu consulted his more senior visitors. Ararsa and Awalu said the men should be killed, the local official said, and Ababu passed on the command: “Don’t spare anyone. Shoot them all.”

Two other sources independently corroborated this account. Both said they were briefed on the events by people who were present.

Awalu, Ararsa and Ababu did not respond to requests for comment about the killings.

Boru and the second survivor said they managed to escape by scrambling into a ditch to dodge a hail of bullets.

Word of the killings spread quickly. Oromiya’s regional government blamed the OLA. Two senior Prosperity Party lawmakers from the region disputed that narrative, and in Facebook posts accused police commissioner Ararsa of being responsible. One of the lawmakers is now in jail, accused of conspiring to overthrow the government, which he denies.

An investigation by the EHRC blamed security forces for the killings. It did not specify which forces or name the alleged perpetrators. Two EHRC sources familiar with the case told Reuters that local residents and witnesses said high-ranking officials gave the order to kill.

Nine local officials and police officers, including Gizachew, were arrested, but none were charged. In September 2022 they were all released, four local government officials said.

Prime Minister Abiy was briefed twice about the killings, by an official and by Karayyuu elders, according to people who were present. Reuters spoke to one person who witnessed the briefing by the official and five who attended the meeting with the tribal elders.

In early 2022, the Oromiya government launched its own investigation. The inquiry resulted in a 10-page internal report, reviewed by Reuters, that cited witnesses as saying regional government forces carried out the killings.

Ararsa and Awalu were questioned by Oromiya government investigators. According to the report, they confirmed they were present in the area that day, but they denied ordering that the tribesmen be killed.

Awalu said he told the regional government’s communications office to blame the OLA. According to the report, Awalu recalled saying, “No matter who did the killing, let's just blame it on” the OLA “and put out the statement accordingly.”

In October 2022, massacre survivor Boru was walking his cattle near the spot where the slain tribesmen are buried. Like most men of the Karayyuu, he was carrying a gun.

According to two witnesses, members of the Oromiya security forces pulled up in a pickup truck alongside Boru, confiscated his gun and then beat him.

Moments later, they shot him dead, the witnesses said. Security officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Arrests and detentions

The Koree Nageenya not only eliminates suspected enemies. It also acts preemptively to keep protesters off the streets.

In 2019, the committee started to order that people it deemed a threat to security be arrested or have their prison terms prolonged, according to half a dozen judges and prosecutors who worked on such cases.

One of the sources, an intelligence official, shared an internal document listing more than 1,006 names of men and women arrested on the committee’s orders between 2019 and March 2022. The document lists full names, gender and location of arrest.

“The Koree Nageenya sits down and decides that a person needs to be detained,” said a former judge on the Oromiya supreme court. “Then they go and arrest them without warrant or investigation or due process.”

Prisoners under the authority of the committee are referred to by the police and other security agents as “Hala Yero,” meaning those jailed because of the “current security situation,” according to a dozen prisoners, five judicial sources and the two EHRC sources. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“I was put upside down and then electrocuted on the sole of my foot, five days a week for 45 days.”

An ex-detainee who says he was subjected to torture

Their cases are handled by the police, who have repeatedly defied court orders that they be released, according to the sources. And the detainees are jailed in separate facilities – mostly military barracks and training camps – without access to family members or the courts, they said.

A 2021 report by the EHCR, based on interviews with 281 detainees across 21 police stations in Oromiya, names the Koree Nageenyaa as interfering in the legal process involving people suspected of having links to armed groups.

“Their cases were not handled by courts of law, but rather by what is called the security council,” the report said. “This security council was established under the regional administration bodies and has a mandate to investigate and decide on their cases.”

A test firing of ’s deterrent failed after its booster rockets malfunctioned and the missile crashed into the sea.

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The Trident missile, the delivery mechanism for Britain’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent, was armed with a dummy warhead. Even worse, this marks the second consecutive misfiring of Britain’s nuclear-capable missiles, with the last successful test coming more than a decade ago, in 2012.

The misfiring came from HMS Vanguard, which had just completed a seven-year-long refit after it was discovered to have a leaking nuclear reactor, a refit that ran overschedule by three years and over budget by over £300 million ($380 million) – more than twice the proposed cost.

Despite these many, many setbacks, the insisted that the ‘ deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.’ Meanwhile a source in the Ministry told the that ‘the issue that occurred during the test was specific to the event and would not have occurred during a live armed fire.’ Which is a bit like using the excuse ‘I can do it really well when no one’s watching.’

The confirmed that killed over 150 civilians in a house-to-house hunt in , region and expressed a grave violation of human rights.

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A statement from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), released on February 6, 2024, confirms that over 150 civilians who do not have participation in the conflict were killed.

EHRCO highlighted that the war in the Amhara region of Ethiopia is worsening. Identifying Merawi town in as one of the areas where there has been recurring conflict, it said: “it has received information indicating severe human rights violations during the conflict between government security forces and armed groups on 20/05/2016 E.C. [January 29, 2024].

can’t join
during conflict –

Accession to the US-led bloc is a 'sensitive process' that may require intermediate steps, Dutch caretaker PM has said

Should remove its troops and surface-to-air missile systems from the ? The country has rejected calls to do so.

Rwandan authorities claim they are defending their territory due to Congo's increasing military presence at the eastern border. Yet a number of experts claim to have “solid evidence” linking Rwandan armed forces to rebels, who have caused instability in the for years.

The has issued a warning to and , urging them to halt an escalating conflict between the neigboring nations. The warning comes amid worsening violence in Congo's eastern region, which borders Rwanda.

delivered the warning at an emergency meeting of the Council called by France. He urged Rwanda and Congo to resume diplomatic talks for a sustainable peace solution.

What do you make of the US intervention?

's National Assembly , , has traveled to Kenya seeking clarification on the reported killing of two Cuban doctors, Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández, who were kidnapped by al-Shabaab militants in 2019.

Al-Shabaab claimed the doctors were killed in a strike in . The US is investigating the claim, and Cuba has reached out to the US and Somali governments for details on the military operation and the doctors' status.

The were initially kidnapped in 2019, and after demands for a $1.5 million ransom, they were taken to , leading to the death of an armed policeman guarding them. What could be the potential fallout from this?

The has voted against Algeria's proposed ceasefire resolution for . Both the North African nation's ambassador and the envoy have decried ’s move.

🇾🇪 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Yemen's rebels announced Monday that they had targeted two ships, after having claimed to have hit on a cargo ship earlier.

Amnesty International
https://www.amnesty.org › ...
Amnesty International

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Ethiopia: Authorities must stop using state of emergency law to silence peaceful dissent
Ethiopian authorities have used the state of emergency to silence peaceful dissent by arbitrarily detaining prominent politicians critical of the government and journalists, Amnesty International said today.

On 2 February 2024, Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives endorsed an extension of the state of emergency, which came into force in August 2023 amid escalating violence in Amhara region between government forces and Fano militia. During the last six months, the nationwide state of emergency has given authorities sweeping powers to arrest suspects without a court warrant, impose curfews, restrict the right to freedom of movement, and ban public assemblies or associations.

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Background

Both the current and previous Ethiopian administration have frequently utilized states of emergencies to arbitrarily crackdown on peaceful dissent.

During the armed conflict in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions, thousands were ethnically profiled and detained, under the state of emergency, hundreds of kilometres from their homes in large makeshift camps without adequate food or medical services.

Since the latest state of emergency came into force, Amhara region has been under a command post led by the head of the National Intelligence and Security Service reporting directly to the prime minister.

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in Amhara region in early August, the government has also limited access to information by imposing an internet ban and sporadically imposing complete communication blackouts in this region.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that some rights may be restricted under a state of emergency but must be tailored to the

“exigencies of the situation,” while other rights may not be derogated—suspended—under any circumstances. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent expert body that monitors state compliance with the Covenant, has stated that restrictions on the right to freedom expression should be constructed and interpreted narrowly and the restrictions

“may not put in jeopardy the right itself.” The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights does not allow any derogation of human rights guaranteed under the Charter, even during a time of emergency. Ethiopia has ratified both the Covenant and the African Charter.

Amnesty International has also received reports of extra-judicial executions of civilians by Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) soldiers in the Amhara region and is investigating these allegations.

Somalia and Ethiopia, already at odds over a controversial maritime pact, locked horns again on Saturday.

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Somali claims that Ethiopian security forces tried to block President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud from accessing the African Union summit.

Mogadishu has described the incident as "outrageous conduct" and called for a full investigation by the pan-African body which is headquartered in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

But Ethiopia insists Mohamud was warmly welcomed and said that the Somali delegation was blocked when its security detail tried to enter a venue with weapons.

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Talks in Cairo Aim for a Deal
to Halt Gaza War and Free Hostages

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Negotiators from multiple countries met in Cairo on Tuesday, struggling to reach an agreement to temporarily stop the war in the Gaza Strip, as international concern mounted over Israel’s plan to press its ground offensive into the city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has sought refuge.

Talks involving lower-level officials will continue for another three days, according to an Egyptian and an American official briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They described the negotiations on Tuesday as promising, but Israel and Hamas were still not close to a deal. Read more

Georgia
Fulton county’s systems were hacked.
Already weary officials are tight-lipped

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County won’t say if personal information was stolen but that elections computers are up and Trump case is unaffected

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as Fulton county, Georgia, board of registration and elections meeting began in earnest on Thursday afternoon, the elections director, Nadine Williams, unfurled a prepared statement about a recent hack of county government computers.........
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The Guardian
The Guardian

Dozens of civilians killed by Ethiopian state troops in Amhara region, say reports

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Witnesses claim victims shot ‘execution style’ during house raids after clashes between government forces and Fano rebels

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Ethiopian government troops went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians last month in a town in the country’s Amhara region, according to residents, who said the bloodshed took place after clashes with local militia.

The killings in Merawi appear to be one of the deadliest episodes in Amhara since a rebellion by Fano, an armed Amhara group, erupted last year over a disputed plan to disarm regional forces.

The Fano fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military in the two-year civil war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ended in November 2022. However, the government came to see it and other regional forces as a threat to its authority.

Ethiopia’s government bans journalists from travelling to the increasingly lawless Amhara region and has cut its internet. The Guardian spoke to people in Merawi by phone. Everyone interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution.

The bloodshed started on 29 January, after several hours of fighting between federal forces and Fano militiamen, witnesses said. When the militia retreated, soldiers went into houses targeting civilians, accusing them of being fighters, they said.

One witness said he spent that day cowering at home as “the constant sound” of gunfire rang through the town. He added that artillery hit civilian areas.

The next day he went outside and saw “at least 34 bodies” in the street, which were collected by townspeople. Some had gunshot wounds to the head with “their faces completely blown out”, he said.

Another witness, an Orthodox priest who arrived in Merawi on 30 January, said he saw “around 50 bodies lying on the main road” of the city. Many victims “seem to have been killed execution-style, with a bullet wound to their heads”, the priest said.

The priest’s brother was killed during the violence, shot several times on his doorstep by soldiers who stole money and his phone, the priest said.

A third resident said he knew of at least 45 people who were killed, including his brother, who he discovered “with bullets lodged in his head”. He said the violence happened over two days, with soldiers “barging into homes [and] smashing doors”.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the country’s oldest civil society group, put the total death toll at more than 80 civilians. It released a statement on Tuesday calling for further investigations. It did not say who it believed carried out the killings, but called on the government to “hold the responsible parties legally accountable”.

The US ambassador to Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga, called for a full investigation, saying the US government was deeply concerned about the reports.

On Friday, Ethiopia’s parliament extended a state of emergency introduced in August to quell the unrest. Daniel Bekele, head of the country’s state-appointed human rights body, said he was gravely concerned by the extension of the emergency, citing mounting civilian casualties, pre-trial detentions and humanitarian needs.

Daniel told the Guardian that his organisation had not yet completed its investigation into the Merawi killings, and that it had documented a range of abuses in Amhara since August. These included the shelling of civilian areas, ethnically motivated arrests and killings. In November, Human Rights Watch said: “The authorities have resorted to past repressive tactics to limit access to real-time information and independent scrutiny.”

On Tuesday, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, called on “extremists operating in the Amhara region” and rebels in the neighbouring state of Oromia “to lay down their arms and take part in peaceful political struggle”. Thousands of people arrested under the state of emergency have been re-educated and released, he added.

Since then, they have retreated into the mountainous countryside, waging a guerrilla campaign of hit-and-run attacks and regularly raiding police stations in towns for weapons. The US and the UK advise against all travel to Amhara, which is home to several of Ethiopia’s best known tourist attractions.

Yet the government is determined to press on with plans to hold a high-level peace and security summit, involving heads of state, in the regional capital of Bahir Dar in April, despite objections by some of those invited, according to a western diplomat. Bahir Dar is just 18 miles north of Merawi. The summit was supposed to take place in October, but was postponed by the organisers who cited unforeseen circumstances.

Aid workers say the insecurity is impeding the delivery of humanitarian food in the region, where the federal ombudsman says dozens of people have starved to death recently amid a heavy drought and the after-effects of the Tigray war, which spilled into Amhara. Hundreds more starvation deaths have been reported in Tigray.

Regional Amhara forces including the Fano are themselves accused of waging a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign since November 2020 in western Tigray, an area they claim as their own and moved to annex during the war against the TPLF.

The Ethiopian government could not be reached for comment.

Infoo.

The Guardian
The Guardian