The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has delivered an update to the UN Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Tigray region and on progress made in the context of the joint UN and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission investigation. Strangely, we noted the presence of Ethiopia’s attorney general, who acts as a spokesperson […]
Dear friend, This newsletter comes with a little bit of positive news: primary and secondary schools will reopen soon in Tigray (section 1). From our side, we published a new edition of the Tigray Atlas (section 2) and analysed the status of cropping in Tigray. The next harvest is anticipated to be “normal” on only 20%-50% of […]
Dear friends, This circular letter highlights the problematics of the investigation on human rights abuses in Tigray (section 1). Further, of course, there is famine in Tigray – we also discuss how the farmers try to avoid a second failed harvest due to the war (section 2). Section 3 is then about the situation of the universities in Tigray […]
‘The famine in Tigray is due to themselves, that’s the reasoning’ English translation of an article published in MO* (Belgium): https://www.mo.be/interview/die-hongersnood-heeft-tigray-zelf-gezocht-de-redenering Erik Raspoet . August 14, 2021 They share a past in Ethiopia’s Tigray region: the Leuven professor of soil science Seppe Deckers and his Ghent geography colleague Jan Nyssen. With great involvement they follow […]
Dear friends and colleagues, This Tigray digest holds an update on Tigray’s universities (section 1), yesterday’s briefs published by the Government of Tigray (section 2), and a link to the latest FewsNet report (section 3). There are also links to press articles (section 4), particularly related to the humanitarian situation and aid that continues only to trickle into Tigray, […]
English translation of the VRT NWS (Belgium) article published on 5 August 2021: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/08/05/volksfront-van-tigray-verovert-de-oude-koningsstad-lalibela-in-d/ In Ethiopia, troops from Tigray are said to have captured the well-known city of Lalibela. That city with its underground rock churches is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but the conquest would mainly show that the TPLF front has now moved […]
English translation of the article published in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the leading newspaper in Switzerland: https://www.nzz.ch/international/krieg-in-tigray-die-rache-der-alten-guerilleros-ld.1636795 Reconstruction of a dramatic – but explainable – turn. Samuel Misteli, Nairobi 23.07.2021 At the end of May, the man some consider one of Africa’s best military strategists gave an interview. He was sitting in front of a stone […]
Dear friends, This 29th digest focuses on some news from Tigray despite the near-total blackout (section 1), the situation at Mekelle University (section 2), the dire conditions of Western Tigray (section 3). We use the German case, as an example to mention the diplomatic efforts (section 4), and further include links to some major press articles (section 5) and opinion pieces […]
Dear friend, First of all it should be reminded that since 28 June, Tigray has been cut off from the world: no telephone, no internet, we don’t have contact to our friends and relatives. Ted Galt (https://twitter.com/Quen10Tarantino/status/1412851384895119363/photo/1) processed night-time satellite imagery showing that power is back partially in Mekelle and Aksum, but everywhere else in […]
English translation of the article published on Knack (Belgium): https://www.knack.be/nieuws/magazine/tigray-uithongeren-is-de-nieuwe-strategie-van-abiy/article-normal-1754189.html The Ethiopian army was driven out of Tigray. Or has it withdrawn for humanitarian reasons, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claims? Eight months ago, a civil war broke out in the Ethiopian state of Tigray, accompanied by massacres, mass rapes, refugee flows and famine. The Ethiopian […]
