UN Roundup - Worsening security in Ethiopia

16 November 2020.

1 : News - Worsening humanitarian and security situation in Ethiopia with fighting and reported missile strikes on Eritrea from the northern Tigray region. Amid reports of mass killings in the Ethiopian town of Mai-Kadra, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has expressed increasing alarm at the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Tigray region.

She warned on Friday in a statement that if the Tigray regional forces and Ethiopian Government forces continued fighting, “there is a risk (that) this situation will spiral totally out of control”.

“There is a risk this situation will spiral totally out of control, leading to heavy casualties and destruction, as well as mass displacement within Ethiopia itself and across borders…While the details of the alleged mass killings reported by Amnesty International in Mai-Kadra in south-west Tigray have not yet been fully verified, the High Commissioner is calling for a full inquiry. If confirmed as having been deliberately carried out by a party to the current fighting, these killings of civilians would of course amount to war crimes and there must be an investigation and full accountability for what has happened.” - Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

2 : World Children’s Day (20 November). Please check out the virtual exhibit: One Day, I Will, ahead of Featuring the aspirations of children facing extreme hardship and displacement in some of the world’s worst trouble-spots.
https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/exhibit/one-day-i-will

3 : Wednesday 3.30pm: open debate on the role of “Radio & Reconstruction” – exploring radio’s role in historic tragedies such as the Holocaust and the Rwanda Tutsi genocide – and how radio helped in rebuilding communities in the aftermath too. Register for the event here: https://bit.ly/2IzdnYn