Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 10,028,508 as of Saturday evening, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The specialized healthcare agency of the African Union said the death toll across the continent stands at 231,157 and some 8,916,469 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Libya are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said the Africa CDC.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An air strike in Ethiopia's Tigray region killed 56 people and injured 30, including children, in a camp for displaced people, two aid workers told Reuters on Saturday, citing local authorities and eyewitness accounts.

Military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesman Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's spokeswoman Billene Seyoum did not respond to a request for comment.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government has warned the public over the spike of new COVID-19 infections amid lax precautionary measures.

The COVID-19 positivity rate in Ethiopia has increased from 5 percent two weeks ago to 36 percent amid increasing infection rate, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, under the Ministry of Health, disclosed Friday.

The East African country has registered more than 29,200 new cases over the past week, one of the highest weekly infection rates since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Thursday expressed concern over the ongoing political tension in Somalia.

The chairperson of the pan-African bloc "is following with deep concern the serious current political tension in Somalia," an AU statement read.

Mahamat called for utmost restraint as he emphasized for continued engagements and dialogue between the country's president and prime minister in order to find a political solution to this present situation.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 9,143,184 cases as of late Saturday evening, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) said the death toll across the continent stands at 225,890 and some 8,323,377 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said the Africa CDC.

GASHENA, Ethiopia, Dec 9 (Reuters) - In a roadside village shattered by one of Africa's bloodiest current conflicts, a donkey and its young, turbaned master tiptoe past an unexploded shell rusting by the blasted remnants of a tank, its turret and tracks tossed sideways.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCES) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate end to the fighting in Ethiopia, as the United States warned there was “no military solution” to the African nation’s civil war.

The calls came as Ethiopian media reported that Abiy Ahmed, the country’s prime minister, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was at the front “giving leadership from the battlefield” amid an escalating year-long crisis.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's government has asked the United States to stop spreading falsehoods against the country, the state minister of communication Kebede Dessisa said on Thursday, after the State Department issued an alert about potential "terrorist attacks".

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and rebellious forces from the Tigray region in the north have been fighting for more than a year, in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Africa's second most populous nation.

9 Nov 2021; MEMO: Sixteen UN national staff have been detained in Ethiopia, while six others have been released, according to a spokesman on Tuesday.

"We are, of course, actively working with the Government of Ethiopia to secure their immediate release," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said at a news conference.

"No explanation was given to the international body why the staffers were detained," said Dujarric.

Ethiopian authorities have yet to comment.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian House of People's Representatives (HoPR) on Thursday ratified a six-month sate of emergency rule amid expanding conflict in the northern part of the country.

On Tuesday, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers had announced the state of emergency rule pending endorsement by the HoPR, the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament.

The move came as the conflict that erupted a year ago in the Tigray region between the Ethiopian federal government and forces loyal to the rebel group expanded to neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.