The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a bloc of eight East African countries, has called on warring parties in northern Ethiopia to immediately cease hostilities.

In a statement, the bloc’s Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu said that he was concerned about reports of hostilities on the border of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

He called on warring parties to prioritise dialogue.

“The executive secretary calls on all sides involved to immediately refrain from hostilities and escalation, and recommit to dialogue to find sustainable peace in the best interest of the people of Ethiopia and the entire region,’’ the statement said.

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The Ethiopian Government accused the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front of resuming fighting earlier on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Ethiopian government’s communications service said that the rebel group started fresh attacks on different positions on the eastern front Wednesday morning, particularly in Bisober, Zobel and Tekulesh.

In response, the group accused the Federal Government of starting the attack on its forces.

Humanitarian aid flow resumed recently to the Tigray region after the Federal Government and rebel forces agreed to a conditional cessation of hostilities in March.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, has seen a devastating conflict between government-allied troops and forces loyal to the rebel group since November 2020.

The situation left millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

(NAN)

Britain Foreign Office on Thursday said it would provide a further 2.5 million euros ($2.96 million) as a support package to Ukrainian prosecutors investigating alleged war crimes committed by invading Russian forces.

It said the package will include the deployment of mobile justice teams to the scene of potential war crimes, the training of up to 90 judges and forensic evidence gathering and support from British experts in sexual violence in conflict.

Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad was due to tell the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague that “in Ukraine, there is mounting evidence of atrocities, including of sexual violence, committed by Russian forces.

“We are working directly with the Ukrainian prosecutor general to ensure all potential war crimes are fully investigated, and those responsible are held to account,” his planned speech said.

(dpa/NAN)

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has called on the international community to be strongly committed to prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.

“Law should not play a secondary role“, Khan said at the opening of an international conference on the prosecution of war crimes in Ukraine in The Hague on Thursday.

“The law cannot be a spectator,’’ Khan said.

Dutch Foreign Minister, Wopke Hoekstra, reiterated the need for a common strategy at the Ukraine Accountability Conference.

He said the action was necessary given the reports of rape, murder and torture in the raging war

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders spoke of a gigantic task.

“It requires a strong Ukrainian judicial system,’’ Reynders said.

More than 30 ministers and prosecutors from Europe and other Western countries are meeting in The Hague to discuss joint strategies for prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.

The conference was convened by the European Commission, the Dutch Foreign Ministry and the office of the prosecutor of the ICC.

Following the first reports of alleged war crimes after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, the ICC launched investigations and sent the largest team of investigators ever to the war zone.

The judiciary in Ukraine said it was investigating more than 15,000 alleged cases.

(dpa/NAN)