News Highlights: Mass detentions in Amhara, UK Asylum seekers detained ahead of Rwanda, 100 million displaced worldwide

The News Highlights are sent out on Wednesday due to the Ascension Day holiday. In this week’s News Highlights: Concern over mass detentions in Amhara, Ethiopia; Repression of protests leads to another death in Sudan; Aid to Tigray increasing, but shortages remain; Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights speaks on the situation in South Sudan; 85 migrants and refugees lost at sea, 4 found dead between Libya and Tunisia; 148 “vulnerable” Gambians returned from Libya by IOM; Sub-Saharan migrants living in fear of pushbacks in Morocco; Asylum seekers detained in UK before being sent to Rwanda; Two migrants and refugees wounded by gunshot near Dunkirk; A third of migrant workers on fishing boats in the UK facing abuse; Eritrean refugees acquitted by the Italian supreme cassation court in illegal migration trial; Greek shelter for unaccompanied minor migrants and refugees attacked; 100 million forcibly displaced people, a concerning record for UNHCR; Polish president Andrzej Duda warns about a global migration wave following hunger caused by war in Ukraine.

Ecological and political factors are stacking the deck against the population in Ethiopia amidst severe drought

On 19 April, the World Food Program announced that the number of people pushed to hunger by the severe drought in the Horn of Africa could rise from the current 14 million to 20 million by the end of the year. This is the latest in a long list of warnings from various international organisations that have been drawing attention to the agropastoral and food crises caused by this drought  since 2020. But contrary to the 2016-2017 drought in the Horn, sufficient measures have not been put in place upstream, organisations warn. Although the whole region faces alarming consequences, with for example half a million already starving people in Kenya, Ethiopia is currently the most affected country with more than 7 million people already affected by famine. This is due to various climatic, but also political circumstances.

Horn Highlights: Aid convoys reach Tigray, 26 militiamen killed in ambush in Oromia, South Sudan leaders unify command security forces

In this week’s Horn Highlights: First aid convoys reach Tigray, more aid needed; WFP states 40% of Tigray faces “extreme lack of food”; Troops mobilising at Tigray borders; former government-appointed Tigray officials released; Asena TV says Eritrean refugees attacked in Amhara, 8 wounded; Amhara forces kill 26 Oromo militiamen and police in ambush; Eritrea replaces ambassador to Ethiopia with Chargé d’affaires en pied, AS reports; Ethiopia and Kenya reach agreement on bilateral and regional security issues; Sudan’s Burhan threatens to expel UN Envoy; and Security deal reached in South Sudan.