Dear @UN_Spokesperson, you and the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila, ought to be aware that there are no ENDF forces inside Tigray at present and haven't been since the humanitarian ceasefire in July.
@UN_Spokesperson If the UN and the UN's special representative wants to condemn something then condemn what is happening by name, i.e. the sexual violence being committed by the TPLF in territories they have been occupying for the past five months.
@UN_Spokesperson It is possible that there is also sexual violence being committed by TPLF forces in Tigray against their own women, and against Eritrean refugees in their territory, but this is not something that the Ethiopian Govt. has any ability to police.
The continual use of "all-sides" language in statements like this in a reflexive manner reflects badly on the UN, its agencies and your office.
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US State Dept spokesman Ned Price @StateDeptSpox briefed yesterday on the WFP suspension of aid in Dessie, and new travel plans for Feltman to visit UAE & Turkey to discourage them from supporting Ethiopia and also Egypt. state.gov/briefings/depa… (Timestamp 39:20 in the video).
Just as with the UN briefing on the this development yesterday, State's briefing makes little sense, and instead repeats the usual mantras, "no military solution", "need to resume aid delivery to Tigray" etc.
And no acknowledgement, as usual, of TPLF crimes committed in Amhara.
The central development in this latest UN/US response to the Ethiopia Crisis is the suspension of WFP aid activities in Amhara, due to causes unknown. Seemingly justified - from UN Statement - on the "commandeering of UN trucks by the military".
Senator Coons tells yet another version of his garbled “Call with @AbiyAhmedAli” before the war story, this time claiming he rang Abiy in the “window” between the attack and the launch of the counter offensive.
This was a very small window as the counter offensive began immediately. If not on Nov 4th definitely by the 5th.
By then the TPLF’s information operations -which @Chriscoons wittingly or unwittingly aided by signing a press release on 31st October - were underway.
And a wider view. Here we can see that the official La Nina weather pattern (supposed to bring dry weather to NZ and Aus) isn't playing like it used to.
And here is a fairly ominous 16-day forecast for atmospheric water in the Southern Hemisphere, remember that the Southern Hemisphere summer is just starting. The current pattern for tropical water flows over NZ is forecast to hold for a week.
Senator @ChrisCoons keeps changing the story and context of his alleged conversation with PM Abiy before the war began. In this new Oped for @ForeignPolicy his explanation is even more contorted than before - and really needs some unpacking. foreignaffairs.com/articles/ethio…
The issue of this alleged call arose initially due to the reporting of the error prone @nytimes reporter Declan Walsh. He published a report in which he claimed that Coons had spoken to Abiy before the war started, warning him not to start a war.
@nytimes This is important because contrary to @nytimes@reuters, @ap, @AFP and numerous other western media outlets the war which began in November 2020 was started by the TPLF in a coordinated surprise attack on the ENDF in which 1000s of ENDF troops and officers were killed.
A closeup of Ethiopia's #GERD and #Sudan's Rosieres dams.
And a close up of the upper reaches of the White Nile showing Lake Albert and Lake Kyoga which are downstream from the Lake Victoria outlet of the White Nile at Jinja.