News highlights: Europe’s wall, Fr. Mussie Zerai under investigation, drought consequences

EEPA’s news highlights are back after the summer break. In the past weeks’ news highlights, Eritrean priest living in Italy is under investigation by the Italian prosecutor because he helps refugees and migrants; European Union member states increasingly call for military solutions to migration; in Eritrea, Patriarch Abune Antonios is still held under guard; drought is threatening – among others – people of Ethiopia and Eritrea; and 1 million South Sudanese refugees are now in Uganda, as the peace process is still ineffective.

News Highlights: Eritrean Patriarch Antonios seen at Mass, Italy threatens EU, summer break

This week in the News Highlights: EEPA takes a summer break and the News Highlights will continue 17 August; Italy is keeping the option open of granting temporary visas for migrants; right-wing group aims to help returning migrants and refugees to Libya; Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Abune Antonios, was seen at a Mass but according to witnesses, he was not allowed to speak; shots were fired in a three-hour exchange between the Eritrean and Ethiopian military; negotiations on sanctions US-Sudan continue; and state of emergency is declared in four South Sudan states.

News Highlights: urgency resolution Eritrea, EU ‘reducing migration’, violence in South Sudan

In this week’s news highlights, the European Parliament is about to vote on an urgency resolution about Eritrea, mainly the cases of Patriarch Abune Antonios and journalist Dawit Isaak; the European Commission released new proposals for ‘reducing migration pressures’ in the Central Mediterranean Route; U.S. carried out a drone strike in Somalia aimed at Al-Shabaab; the African Union will send a delegation to Eritrea to discuss the dispute with Djibouti; Amnesty International warns of brutal atrocities in South Sudan; and UNHCR released a new report on mixed migration in Libya.