Aqeel: The Ethiopian government continues to practice terrorism against its people, and urgent investigations must be opened

Pasha: We recommend that the African Union look into reports on Turkey sending mercenaries to Somalia

The Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights released its monthly report “The lens of terrorist operations in Africa” for the month of December 2020, which dealt with terrorist operations that occurred in African countries and the consequent injuries or loss of life, in addition to addressing the efforts of African governments in combating terrorism at the level the local. At the end of the report, the report also included a package of recommendations submitted by the Maat Foundation to African governments and the international community to support the implementation of the 16th goal of the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda and the third aspiration of Agenda 2063 of the African Union to spread peace and resolve conflicts.

The report included the terrorist operations that took place on the African continent during the month of December, and there were about 42 bloody accidents, with nearly 480 victims in 13 different African countries, on top of which was Ethiopia, which had 225 health deaths. While the region most affected by terrorism is East Africa, where about 21 terrorist incidents occurred, accounting for 56.8% of the total terrorist operations on the continent, while the State of Somalia was at the forefront of countries that shot down terrorist elements this month.

In this regard, Ayman Aqil, President of the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights stated that The Ethiopian government continues to practice terrorism against its people, amid increasing ethnic tensions. Aqeel recommended the necessity of working on formulating a national policy to prevent this terrorism on the basis of ethnicity, with the opening of fair and completed investigations to reach justice after hundreds of victims fell in the Benishangul Gomes and Tigray regions in December.

On the other hand, the human rights expert recommended the government of Sudan to activate the provisions of the peace agreement that was signed during the year 2020 in southern Sudan, in a way that contributes to maintaining security and community peace and limiting the security crises in Darfur and other regions.

Abdul Rahman Pasha, director of the research team at the Africa Affairs and Sustainable Development Unit of the Foundation, said that in recent months, kidnappings by Boko Haram of civilians have increased, especially against school students. Pasha recommended the Nigerian government to take more steps to secure schools in particular.

While the researcher on African affairs recommended that more attention should be paid to the information received about sending 1,000 mercenary fighters from Syria to Somalia, and the African Union recommended opening extensive investigations to determine the impact of this information on deepening the security crises in this country, which has been suffering for decades.

Notably, Africa is among the issues of concern to Maat for Peace, Development and Human rights, being a member of the General Assembly for the Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the Africa Union (AU). Moreover, Maat serves as an Observer in The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) and as a Northern African Coordinator in the major Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Africa of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).

To view the report via the following link:  https://maatpeace.org/?p=29415