Ethiopia’s Unravelling Crisis: Daily Brief
New conflict looms in Ethiopia’s Tigray province while hundreds of thousands of displaced people face famine; another search and rescue vessel detained by Italian port authorities; torture in eastern Ukraine; homophobic protests stop Pride march in Georgia; Hungarian judge forced to quit for questioning legality of country’s asylum law; Hungary’s Victor Orbán listed as "predator of press freedom"; few Afghan women optimistic about the country’s future; and justice at last for murdered Honduran environmental activist.
Insurgent forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray province seem to be mobilising for new conflict despite the government's unilateral declaration of a ceasefire. With its headquarters in the country's capital Addis Ababa, the African Union should have been at the forefront of efforts to condemn and curb the mounting abuses. Its silence and inaction are troubling. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the conflict have little or no access to food.
Hundreds of lives of refugees are being lost in the central Mediterranean Sea while search-and-rescue vessels are detained, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), as the Geo Barents becomes the latest NGO ship to be held by Italian port authorities.
Russia-backed armed groups in eastern Ukraine are torturing and ill-treating people in custody. Many detainees, among them women with serious health conditions, are being held incommunicado, and without access to a fair legal process or proper medical care.
For the second time, organizers had to cancel what was to be the first Pride march in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, after violent homophobic protests broke out in the city centre. The authorities are accused of encouraging the violence.
A Hungarian judge has filed a complaint with the EU Commission, arguing she was forced out of the country's judiciary for political reasons.
Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, and Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam are among the most prominent new entrants in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) list of heads of state or government who crack down massively on press freedom.
As the United States pushes ahead with the rapid and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, very few women seem genuinely optimistic that the peace process could bring the desired combination of an end to the conflict, security and freedom of movement.
And lastly: A court in Honduras has found a former dam company executive guilty of helping plan the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres. Cáceres led protests against the Agua Zarca hydro-electric dam project before being shot dead in her home in 2016.