ADDIS ABABA: Tensions were rising between rival factions in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray on Thursday, as France warned against travel there.
Tigray was the scene of one of the most devastating wars of the century between 2020 and 2022, estimated to have claimed as many as 600,000 lives.
That war pitted local forces against the federal government and allied militias, as well as the army of neighboring Eritrea.
Despite a peace agreement in November 2022, the region has not found stability and disputes between rival factions have intensified in recent months.
The federal government placed veteran Tigray politician Getachew Reda as head of an interim regional administration but he has been challenged by his former ally, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael.
On Tuesday, forces loyal to Debrietson took control of Adigrat, Tigray’s second largest city.
“The town is under renewed tension, the population fears a return to the bad old days of the war,” a local resident said on condition of anonymity.
Getachew ordered the suspension of three generals of the Tigray Defense Forces, accusing the rival faction of trying to “take over the whole of Tigray” in an interview with Tigrai Mass Media Agency.
“Given the ongoing internal clashes in Tigray, particularly in Adigrat and in the regional capital, Mekele, all travel throughout the Tigray region is now formally discouraged,” the French foreign ministry warned on Wednesday.
It also called on French nationals in Tigray to “stock up on emergency supplies (food, water, medicine, and possibly fuel) and to exercise utmost caution.”
On Wednesday, Getachew’s administration asked the Ethiopian government to “provide necessary assistance,” without specifying what it needed.
Federal authorities in the capital Addis Ababa have not yet commented.
In February, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lamented that Tigrayans “still live in fear and terror amid rumors of war.”
France also urged “the avoidance of all unnecessary travel” to the northern Afar region, which borders Eritrea, at a time when tensions are high between the two Horn of Africa neighbors.
Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray
https://arab.news/nu3kv
Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray
- Tigray was the scene of one of the most devastating wars of the century between 2020 and 2022
- War pitted local forces against the federal government and allied militias, as well as the army of Eritrea
UK seeks tougher term for father jailed over daughter’s murder
Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif
LONDON: The father of a British-Pakistani girl jailed for 40 years for her murder should have been given a whole life sentence from which he would never be released, a top government lawyer argued in a court appeal hearing Thursday.
Urfan Sharif was jailed in December for murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif following years of torture.
Sharif, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool and the child’s uncle, Faisal Malik, are all appealing their sentences at the Court of Appeal in London.
Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif.
The murder trial last year caused waves of revulsion in the UK as the horrific abuse suffered by Sara was revealed.
There was anger too at how the bright, bubbly youngster had been failed by the authorities supposed to be in charge of her care.
Her body was found in bed at the family home in August 2023 covered in bites and bruises with broken bones and burns inflicted by an electric iron and boiling water.
Lawyer Naeem Majid Mian, representing Urfan Sharif, who was 43 when he was sentenced, argued in court on Thursday that although Sara’s treatment had been “horrendous” it did not merit his 40-year sentence.
“There was no intention to kill... and (the death) was not premeditated,” he added.
But documents submitted to the court on behalf of the solicitor general, one of the government’s top legal officers, called for Sharif to have an indefinite sentence imposed.
“It is submitted that the judge was wrong not to impose a whole life order on the offender,” said lawyer Tom Little in a text submission.
“This case does cross that... threshold” of rare cases that can justify a whole life term.
A lawyer for Sara’s stepmother, Carline Carberry, also told the court that her sentence of 33 years was too long and did not “justly reflect her role.”
Passing sentence in December after the trial, judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to “acts of extreme cruelty” but that Sharif and Batool had not shown “a shred of remorse.”
They had treated Sara as “worthless” and as “a skivvy,” because she was a girl. And because she was not Batool’s natural child, the stepmother had failed to protect her, he said.
“This poor child was battered with great force again and again.”
Malik, 29, who lived with the family was sentenced to 16 years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He is also seeking to appeal his term.
A post-mortem examination of Sara’s body revealed she had 71 fresh injuries and at least 25 broken bones.
She had been beaten with a metal pole and cricket bat and “trussed up” with a “grotesque combination of parcel tape, a rope and a plastic bag” over her head.
A hole was cut in the bag so she could breathe and she was left to soil herself in nappies as she was prevented from using the bathroom.
Police called the case “one of the most difficult and distressing” that they had ever had to deal with.
The day after Sara died, the three adults fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, and flew to Pakistan with five other children.
Her father, a taxi-driver, left behind a handwritten note saying he had not meant to kill his daughter.
After a month on the run, the three returned to the UK and were arrested after landing. The five other children remain in Pakistan.
There has been anger in the UK that Sara’s brutal treatment was missed by social services after her father withdrew her from school four months before she died.
Sharif and his first wife, Olga, were well-known to social services.
In 2019, a judge decided to award the care of Sara and an older brother to Sharif, despite his history of abuse.
The school had three times raised the alarm about Sara’s case, notably after she arrived in class wearing a hijab, which she used to try to cover marks on her body which she refused to explain.
Since December, the government has moved to tighten up the rules on home-schooling.
Sara’s body was repatriated to Poland, where her mother is from, and where a funeral was organized.
Nominee for White House briefing role pulled over Gaza war stance
- Daniel Davis called US support for Israel’s campaign a ‘stain on our character’
- Senior Republicans opposed his appointment as deputy director for mission integration
LONDON: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard decided against appointing a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza to a top government post over fears that doing so would anger members of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank in Washington, was under consideration for the role of deputy director for mission integration, in charge of — among other things — putting together the president’s daily intelligence briefings.
However, a source within the administration told the New York Times that Gabbard reconsidered the appointment after Davis’s recommendation received criticism from several of her colleagues, Republican members of Congress, and other right-wing bodies and figures over his stance on Israel.
Davis wrote on social media in January that US support for the Gaza war was a “stain on our character as a nation, as a culture, that will not soon go away.”
On Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League said his appointment would be “extremely dangerous.”
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operations officer, said Davis’s stance on the conflict ran contrary to mainstream Republican positions.
“His overt criticism of Israel and total opposition to any military action against Iran seems to run counter to current administration policy,” added Polymeropoulos, a fellow at the Atlantic Council.
The NYT reported that “allies” of Davis said there was “no hint of antisemitism or opposition to Israel in his work.”
Davis is known to be skeptical of US involvement in a number of overseas conflicts, in line with the position of Defense Priorities, which has called for less American involvement in the Middle East and an end to the war in Ukraine.
Davis has also been vocal about the suffering of Palestinians, calling plans to remove people from Gaza “ethnic cleansing.”
Gabbard is also a skeptic of US overseas intervention, and while she has said little about Gaza in recent months, Davis has been vocal on social media in supporting similar stances to her on conflicts such as Ukraine and the transition in Syria.
However, the Trump administration is known to be split on foreign policy directions the president should pursue, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz known to be more hawkish, especially on US policy toward Iran.
France and its partners will not yield to US threats, says French trade minister
- “France remains determined to respond with the European Commission and our partners,” Saint-Martin wrote on X
PARIS: France and its partners, such as the European Union, will not yield to US tariff threats and France will protect its industries, said French trade minister Laurent Saint Martin on Thursday.
“Donald Trump is launching the escalation in the trade war he chose to start. France remains determined to respond with the European Commission and our partners,” Saint-Martin wrote on X.
US President Donald Trump said earlier that the US will put 200 percent tariff on all wines and other alcoholic products if the EU does not remove tariff on whiskey.
Armenia says peace deal with Azerbaijan ‘ready for signing’
- The Armenian foreign ministry said “negotiations on the draft agreement have been concluded“
YEREVAN: Armenia on Thursday confirmed reports from Azerbaijan that the text of a peace treaty between the arch-foe Caucasus neighbors has been agreed upon and is ready for signing.
“Armenia accepts Azerbaijan’s proposals regarding the two previously unresolved articles of the draft” peace agreement, the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that “negotiations on the draft agreement have been concluded” and “the Peace Agreement is ready for signing.”
No ceasefire reply means Moscow wants to fight on: Zelensky
- Russia says ceasefire would be nothing more than a temporary breather for the Ukrainian military
Kyiv, Ukraine/Moscow: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday the fact there was no “meaningful” response from Moscow to a 30-day ceasefire proposal from the United States meant the Kremlin wants to keep fighting in Ukraine.
“Regrettably, for more than a day already, the world has yet to hear a meaningful response from Russia to the proposals made. This once again demonstrates that Russia seeks to prolong the war and postpone peace for as long as possible. We hope that US pressure will be sufficient to compel Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said in a statement on social media.
Earlier a top Kremlin aide on Thursday criticized the US-Ukrainian proposal for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, saying it would just be a "breather" for the Ukrainian military.
"It would be nothing more than a temporary breather for the Ukrainian military," Yuri Ushakov told state media after speaking by phone to US national security advisor Mike Waltz.
He said President Vladimir Putin would “probably make more specific and substantive assessments” on Thursday.
Ushakov also said that Russia was aiming for a "long-term peaceful solution" that would secure Russia’s “legitimate interests”.
“That is what we are striving for,” he said.
“Any steps that imitate peaceful action are I believe not needed by anyone in the current situation,” he said.
US negotiators travelled to Russia on Thursday to present their plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, as Washington pushed Moscow for an "unconditional" pause to the three-year conflict.
