Ethiopia
Fighting has erupted in Ethiopia between government forces and the party that governs the country’s Tigray region, with both sides accusing the other of triggering the violence. Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces seized three federally controlled airports in the region, including in Tigray’s capital Mekelle. The TPLF, which led Ethiopia’s ruling coalition from 1991 to 2018, said it was launching what it called “a defensive war” after reports of government drone strikes against its forces earlier this week. The clashes come just days after the TPLF announced it was joining up with six other armed groups to topple the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The TPLF and Abiy’s administration fought a devastating war from 2020 to 2022, during which up to 600,000 people were killed, according to an African Union estimate.
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Myanmar
Female inmates in Myanmar face sexual violence, torture and life-threatening medical neglect, a report has found, with thousands of women imprisoned since a civil war broke out in 2021. "Women who have been detained as political prisoners in Myanmar paint a deeply disturbing picture of a prison system in which suffering and neglect are both deliberate and routine," Bryony Lau of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which carried out the investigation, said. Prisoners have been beaten with sticks, chains and metal pipes, and subjected to electric shocks, cigarette burns, and prolonged stress positions. Myanmar’s civil war began after the military overthrew a democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has also been imprisoned.
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Naoero
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly today, President David Adeang confirmed his country’s decision to change its name to Naoero. The South Pacific island nation with a population of about 12,000 people was previously known as Nauru. “There are moments in the life of a nation when its people are called to remember who they have always been,” Adeang said. “This is such a moment for us.” Naoero gained independence in 1968 after almost a century of colonial rule under the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Germany. The name Nauru was given to the island by colonizers because they couldn’t pronounce Naoero. Adeang ended his speech with three words: “Say our name.”
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