Since Thursday in Addis Ababa, the peace and security bodies of the UN and the African Union (AU) have been discussing the financing of peacekeeping operations carried out under the aegis of the pan-African organization on the continent. The member countries of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) are holding their annual meeting on Thursday and Friday in the Ethiopian capital, headquarters of the AU. Opening the proceedings, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Bankole Adeoye called on participants to "specifically address the central issue of predictable, adequate, flexible and sustainable funding" for the continental organization's peacekeeping operations in Africa. Since the establishment of its "African Peace and Security Architecture" in 2002, the AU has struggled to finance its peace operations, which are largely dependent on partners such as the European Union (EU). "Funding AU-led peace and security operations will strengthen the capacity of both organizations to tackle threats to peace and security on the continent", said Mr. Onanga-Anyanga.

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Aim-listed Kefi Gold and Copper has completed the last of many special permissions and policy changes agreed with the Ethiopian authorities over the years since Kefi assumed control of the Tulu Kapi gold project. The Tulu Kapi project is now finally fully permitted with only procedural administrative confirmations remaining. The special permissions and policy changes allow modern project finance arrangements to be applied given there has been no industrial-scale mine development in Ethiopia for 30 years. With all matters of principle for the project now having been resolved with the authorities, the project finance banks can proceed to final credit approval for the project's $190-million secured debt package. This will then be signed off by all parties involved in the project.

KAMPALA: The United States Agency for International Development said on Thursday it is resuming food deliveries to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, four months after assistance was halted over a widespread scheme to steal supplies. "We continue to work with the Ethiopian government on additional reforms that will help ensure that assistance is provided based on assessed vulnerability and need, consistent with international best practice," the USAID spokesperson said.USAID and the United Nations World Food Program in June halted all food aid to Ethiopia after an internal investigation found donated food intended for millions of hungry people there was being diverted on a "widespread" scale. Both agencies had already paused food assistance to the war-torn province ofTigray in March.At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food. Since then, thousands of deaths linked to the food pause have been reported in Tigray.The WFP restarted small-scale distributions in some areas of Tigray on July 31 as it tested "enhanced controls and measures." Last month, the leader of the Tigray region said 480 people had been arrested there over the theft.

Food aid will be restored to roughly 1 million refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and elsewhere. However, food assistance has not resumed for the 20.1 million Ethiopians who rely on it as the country grapples with internal conflict and drought. USAID and the United Nations World Food Program in June halted all food aid to Ethiopia after an internal investigation found donated food intended for millions of hungry people there was being diverted on a “widespread” scale. Both agencies had already paused food assistance to the war-torn province of Tigray in March. At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food.

Food aid will be restored to roughly 1 million refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and elsewhere. However, food assistance has not resumed for the 20.1 million Ethiopians who rely on it as the country grapples with internal conflict and drought. USAID and the United Nations World Food Program in June halted all food aid to Ethiopia after an internal investigation found donated food intended for millions of hungry people there was being diverted on a “widespread” scale. Both agencies had already paused food assistance to the war-torn province of Tigray in March. At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The United States Agency for International Development said Thursday it is resuming food deliveries to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, four months after assistance was halted over a widespread scheme to steal supplies. Food aid will be restored to roughly 1 million refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and elsewhere. However, food assistance has not resumed for the 20.1 million Ethiopians who rely on it as the country grapples with internal conflict and drought. Both agencies had already paused food assistance to the war-torn province of Tigray in March. At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has recorded 100 suspected deaths from cholera and more than 5,000 possible cases since late last month, prompting the government to impose restrictions to stop the spread of the disease, including limiting numbers at funerals and stopping some social gatherings in affected areas. The health ministry announced the death toll late Wednesday and said 30 of the deaths had been confirmed as from cholera through laboratory tests. Zimbabwe has often imposed restrictions during its repeated outbreaks of cholera. In southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique have all had recent cholera outbreaks. More than 4,000 people died in Zimbabwe’s worst cholera outbreak in 2008.

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© 2022 Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images(Geneva) – The European Union and its members have backtracked on their support for continued international scrutiny of the human rights situation in Ethiopia at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Watch said today. In March, Ethiopian authorities threatened to introduce a resolution at the Human Rights Council session that would have prematurely terminated the ICHREE halfway through its mandate. While the EU circulated a draft resolution on Ethiopia to EU member states, the proposal never moved forward. Other Human Rights Council members such as the US and African Group states also did not act in response to the ICHREE report. “Ethiopia’s partners have allowed Ethiopia to drop off the Human Rights Council’s agenda despite the resumption of violence and the complete failure to address accountability,” Hassan said.

The Senate has launched a probe into the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopian prison. This followed a motion by the senate…The Senate has launched a probe into the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopian prison. A report making the rounds on social media said over 250 Nigerians are facing inhumanity and maltreatment in Ethiopia without committing any offense. The minority leader urged the senate to immediately intervene and conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons for the incarceration of the 250 Nigerians in the Ethiopian maximum prison. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, in his remarks, condemned discrimination of Nigerians in other countries and urged relevant authorities to take the issue of Nigerians in the diaspora seriously.

The commission’s experts all but pleaded on Tuesday (Oct. 03) with the council to extend the investigation, warning that atrocities continue in Tigray, Ethiopia’s war-battered northernmost province. European countries had previously supported the probe as a means of ensuring accountability for war crimes committed during the two-year civil war in Tigray. The commission was established in December 2021 after a joint report by the U.N. and Ethiopia’s state human rights commission recommended further independent investigations into abuses. It concluded that all sides committed abuses during the Tigray war, some of them amounting to war crimes. The U.N. probe was the last major independent investigation into the Tigray war, which killed hundreds of thousands and was marked by massacres, mass rape and torture.

Volvo Defense, a business operation within Volvo Trucks, has entered a framework agreement with the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia for the delivery of logistic trucks. Starting in 2024, Volvo Defense aims to begin deliveries of logistic trucks to Estonia and Latvia as part of a framework agreement where Volvo is one of two chosen suppliers. “This is a significant deal for Volvo Defense and a proof point of the reliability of our products and of Volvo as a long-term business partner”, says Andreas Svenungsson, President of Volvo Defense. Estonia and Latvia are well established markets for Volvo Trucks with a stable infrastructure for sales and aftermarket services. Volvo Defense, a business operation within Volvo Trucks, is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

STORY: A U.N.-mandated investigation into continuing atrocities in Ethiopia faces closure. The U.N. Human Rights Council created the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia in 2021, after a motion was submitted by the European Union. Last month it said that war crimes and crimes against humanity were still being committed in Ethiopia. Lucy McKernan, of human rights advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, said that no resolution in the face of the experts' recent findings was "scandalous". It has promoted its own national justice policies as the preferred avenue of investigation, an approach the U.N. Human Rights Commission described as "deeply flawed".

The Falcon 7X of the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, was sold on Tuesday at auction for 7.1 million euros at the Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux, after being seized in June 2020 at the airport of the Gironde capital. The auction of this aircraft produced by Dassault Aviation was ordered by the Bordeaux judicial court in December 2022 and then confirmed in June 2023 by the court of appeal, with an initial price set at seven million euros. The boss of this company, Mohsen Hojeij, a former close friend of President Sassou Nguesso, had won several contracts between 1983 and 1986: construction of a bridge or a village in particular. In 2000 and then in 2013, the International Court of Arbitration in Paris twice ordered Congo to compensate Mr. Hojeij's company. Over the years, the sum claimed by the businessman has swelled, from around 100 million euros when the dispute began in 1992 to around 1.7 billion euros today.