Ethiopia’s army chief, top regional officials killed in northern coup attempt

When fiction is portrayed as fact: a French film is hijacked to stir anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Chechnya. In this edition of Truth or Fake, we also debunk yet more claims that President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife have fled the country.

At least 53 people died after an unidentified armed group attacked a civilian convoy. The previously unreported attack occurred in March. A video appearing to show men in military uniform burning victims alive prompted the government to say it would find those responsible.

Human rights were among the first casualties of the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia. While both sides continue to accuse each other of atrocities, independent organizations find it increasingly difficult to monitor abuses.

Tigray fighters have agreed to uphold a cease-fire in the war-ravaged Tigray region to allow for the delivery of aid. Hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray face starvation.

The Ethiopian Government declared the cessation of hostilities on Thursday, saying that it was to allow aid to reach stricken civilians. Hours later, Tigrayan authorities issued a statement saying that they would do everything possible, to make the humanitarian ceasefire, a success.

Aid convoys have yet to reach Ethiopia's war-ravaged Tigray region almost a week after the government announced a humanitarian truce.

Tigrayans are being targeted with ethnic cleansing in the contested Western Tigray zone, according to a new report by human rights groups. The onslaught of rape and killings amounts to "war crimes," they added.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been running high in recent days. Israeli forces have carried out fresh raids in the West Bank after a spate of recent deadly attacks.

A group of young people in Ethiopia’s Hawassa city is leading the fray to tackle the solid and organic waste menace that has dogged the city for years. The group moves door to door to collect the waste on their donkey carts. They have a recycling plant where they separate the waste and produce natural fertilizer from the organic waste.

The government of Burkina Faso said last week that it had averted a plot by armed forces to take over the country. This attempted coup in Burkina Faso comes hot on the heels of military take-overs in Mali as well as in Guinea.

In Ethiopia's northern Afar region, discarded explosives have been maiming and killing children at an alarming rate, medical workers told Reuters. Fighting that began in November 2020 in the Tigray region and spread last year to Afar has eased in recent weeks. But even as open combat subsides, civilians continue to bear the costs of a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands suffering famine conditions.

The French military left a remote base in northern Mali before dawn for the last time last week, with 100 vehicles forming a miles-long convoy across the barren desert terrain. Helicopters whirred above as air support for hundreds of troops in trucks and armoured cars leaving the camp near the town of Gossi.