Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 25, 2022

Ethiopia

Since Proximities started, no other story has been mentioned more than the absurdly under-reported war in Ethiopia. It’s been bad news on top of bad news for 16 months now. Today, perhaps - perhaps - a chink of light. The government has declared an “indefinite truce” to allow aid into the rebel-controlled Tigray region upon which it has been imposing a ruinous blockade for months. Tigrayan rebels, the TPLF, later welcomed the announcement and said that, if the government follows through on allowing the delivery of aid to the region, they were willing to “give peace a chance.”

Iraq

The police and militias in Iraq are waging war on the country’s LGBTQ+ community, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch and IraQueer. Gay Iraqis have been murdered, tortured, raped and kidnapped, the 86-page report said. "LGBT Iraqis live in constant fear of being hunted down and killed by armed groups with impunity, as well as arrest and violence by Iraqi police, making their lives unliveable,” HRW’s Rasha Younes said. The interior ministry denied any attacks by the security forces.

Somalia

A funeral has been held for an exceptional young Somali MP, Amina Mohamed, who was killed by a suicide bomber in the city of Beledweyne on Wednesday. Mohamed, just 24 when she was first elected to parliament in 2012 and known for her impassioned speeches in which she railed against corruption, died when the bomber targeted her and a group of people traveling with her on the eve of her expected re-election. A car bomb then appears to have targeted survivors being taken to hospitals. Today, officials said the death toll from the two explosions had reached 48.