ADDIS ABABA: Residents in the volatile Somali region of eastern Ethiopia on Sunday reported riots, looting and ethnic attacks, as the US embassy in Addis Ababa advised its citizens to avoid the region.
“Everybody is inside his home. Nobody is leaving,” said a resident of the regional capital Jigjiga who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“So many of my neighbors... have lost their hotels, their shops their homes, everything. Each and every house has lost everything,” added the resident, who said he was in danger because of his Amhara ethnicity.
It was unclear what triggered the unrest which began on Saturday but photos circulating on social media showed Ethiopian military vehicles deployed in Jigjiga.
A second resident who belongs to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, said a Somali family was sheltering him from the feared Liyu regional police force, which rights groups have repeatedly accused of abuses.
He added that mobs were emptying bank vaults and torching churches in the majority Muslim region.
The US embassy in Addis Ababa said Saturday the Ethiopian military had “seized control of key highways, government buildings, and the airport in Jijiga.”
“Media continue to report sporadic on-going unrest in various parts of Ethiopia’s Somali region. While the unrest appears to be centered around Jijiga, there are reports of incidents of violence in Dire Dawa and other areas of the Somali region,” it added on Sunday in another travel warning.
“US Embassy personnel are avoiding the region until the situation returns to normal and we encourage Americans to do the same,” it said.
Ethiopia’s defense ministry on Saturday issued a statement saying it would take “necessary measures” to restore order in the region.
“The ministry will not sit by and watch,” it said in a statement carried by the state-affiliated Fana media outlet.
Ethiopia is divided between ethnically demarcated federal regions that are intended to give different ethnicities a degree of self-rule but have been criticized for exacerbating ethnic tensions.
Somali is Ethiopia’s second-largest region and one of its most unstable.
Around 1.1 million people fled their homes last year when ethnic fighting broke out along its border with neighboring Oromia region.
Last month, Human Rights Watch accused the regional government of running a secret prison where it tortured, raped and starved suspected members of a separatist group.
Clashes, looting in eastern Ethiopia: residents
Clashes, looting in eastern Ethiopia: residents
- Witnesses said mobs were emptying bank vaults and torching churches in the volatile Somali region of eastern Ethiopia
- Ethiopia’s defense ministry on Saturday issued a statement saying it would take “necessary measures” to restore order
New York is set to legalize medically assisted suicide with ‘guardrails,’ governor says
- Hochul also said the bill will include a mandatory five-day waiting period as well as a written and recorded oral request to “confirm free will is present.”
ALBANY, N.Y.: New York is set to become the latest state to legalize medically assisted suicide for the terminally ill under a deal reached between the governor and state legislative leaders announced Wednesday.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to sign the proposal next year after pushing to add a series of “guardrails” in the bill, she announced in an op-ed in the Albany Times Union.
Hochul, a Catholic, said she came to the decision after hearing from New Yorkers in the “throes of pain and suffering,” as well as their children, while also considering opposition from “individuals of many faiths who believe that deliberately shortening one’s life violates the sanctity of life.”
“I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be,” she wrote. “This includes permitting a merciful option to those facing the unimaginable and searching for comfort in their final months in this life.”
A dozen other states and the District of Columbia have laws to allow medically assisted suicide, according to advocates, including a law in Illinois signed last week that goes into effect next year.
New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act requires that a terminally ill person who is expected to die within six month make a written request for life-ending drugs. Two witnesses would have to sign the request to ensure that the patient is not being coerced. The request would then have to be approved by the person’s attending physician as well as a consulting physician.
The governor said the bill’s sponsors and legislative leaders have agreed to add provisions to require confirmation from a medical doctor that the person “truly had less than six months to live,” along with confirmation from a psychologist or psychiatrist that the patient is capable of making the decision and is not under duress.
Hochul also said the bill will include a mandatory five-day waiting period as well as a written and recorded oral request to “confirm free will is present.” Outpatient facilities associated with religious hospitals may elect not to offer the option.
She added that she wants the bill to apply only to New York residents. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that a similar law in New Jersey applies only to residents of that state and not those from beyond its borders.
Hochul said she will sign the bill into law next year, with her changes weaved into the proposal. It will go into effect six months after it is signed.
Later on Wednesday, Hochul said supporting the bill was one of the toughest decisions she has made as governor.
“Who am I to deny you or your loved one what they’re begging for at the end of their life?” she said. “I couldn’t do that any longer.”
The legislation was first introduced in 2016 but stalled for years amid opposition from New York State Catholic Conference and other groups. The Catholic organization argued the measure would devalue human life and undermine the physician’s role as a healer.
In a statement after the governor’s announcement, Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the New York’s bishops said Hochul’s position “signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable, but is encouraged by our elected leaders.”
New York lawmakers approved the legislation during their regulation session earlier this year. Supporters said it would reduce suffering for terminally ill people and let them die on their own terms.
