Media Monitoring: Jan 25th-Feb 1st

United Nations

UN chief urges Ethiopia combatants to observe Olympic Truce

Associated Press, February 1st, 2022

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made “the strongest possible appeal” to all combatants in Ethiopia on Tuesday to observe the Olympic Truce and halt hostilities.

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Drought

Millions at risk as drought threatens the Horn of Africa

Associated Press, February 1st, 2022

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The children walk among carcasses of animals dead from hunger and exhaustion, a stark image of the drought threatening millions of people in the Horn of Africa.

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Conflict

Ethiopian Airlines employees are fleeing the country by hiding in the planes they work on

Gianluca Mezzofiore & Katie Polglase, January 31st, 2022, CNN

Yohannes and Gebremeskel knew it would be freezing cold inside the bulk cargo area of the Airbus A350 plane on the long flight from Ethiopia's capital to Belgium.

Report: 5,000-plus deaths under Ethiopia's Tigray blockade

Cara Anna, January 27th, 2022, Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children, a new report by the region’s health bureau says. It cites more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger and disease in the largest official death toll yet associated with the country’s war.

Tigray conflict: What do we know about drone strikes in Ethiopia?

Peter Mwai, January 30th, 2022, BBC

Dozens of people have been killed in airstrikes in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray in recent months.

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Politics

Ethiopian prime minister in UAE as Tigray war rages on

Associated Press, January 30th, 2022

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has traveled to the United Arab Emirates on a state visit amid his country’s ongoing war against Tigray rebels.

UPDATE 1-Ethiopia's cabinet approves lifting of state of emergency

Reuters, January 26th, 2022

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's cabinet on Wednesday approved the lifting of a six-month state of emergency ahead of its expiration in light of changing security conditions in the country, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said in a statement.

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Famine

‘We just sleep and hope we don’t perish’: 2m in Tigray in urgent need of food – UN

Lizzy Davies, January 28th, 2022, The Guardian

At least 2 million people in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray are suffering from an extreme lack of food, with the 15-month conflict between rebel and government forces pushing families to the brink, the UN’s emergency food agency has found.

Nearly 4 in 10 people in Ethiopia's Tigray region struggling to eat: World Food Program

Thomson Reuters, January 28th, 2022, CBC

Fifteen months of war have left nearly 40 percent of the people in Ethiopia's Tigray region without enough food as aid groups struggle to reach cut-off areas, the World Food Program (WFP) said on Friday.

Almost 40% of Tigrayans suffer ‘extreme lack of food’, WFP warns

Al Jazeera, January 28th, 2022

Almost 40 percent of people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are suffering “an extreme lack of food” following 15 months of fighting, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said, also sounding the alarm about rising hunger in neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions.

Hospital staff in Ethiopia’s Tigray region begging for food as UN says aid convoys cut off from war zone for more than a month

GIULIA PARAVICINI, January 28th, 2022 The Globe and Mail

Fifteen months of war have left nearly 40 per cent of the people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region without enough food as aid groups struggle to reach cut-off areas, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.