Ethiopia
A chink of light in Ethiopia? Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti today indicated talks with Tigrayan rebels could happen if certain conditions were met. “First, stop your attacks. Secondly, leave the areas you have entered [Amhara and Afar]. Third, recognise the legitimacy of this government,” he told reporters. The comments appear to represent a shift from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s previous insistence that negotiations were off the table. TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda has said that withdrawing from the Amhara and Afar regions before negotiations is a non-starter. The TPLF wants the government to lift a blockade on the Tigray region.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Israel-Palestine
Pressure is building on Israel to release five Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike because they are being detained indefinitely without charge. The five men have been on hunger strike for at least 32 days. Kayed Fasfous, though, has been refusing food for 120 days and is in severe condition in hospital, where he only drinks 1.5 liters of water a day and accepts a few grains of sugar. Israel says the practice, known as “administrative detention,” is necessary to protect sensitive intelligence, while Palestinians, rights groups and the UN say it is a denial of due process.
More from AP here.
South Africa
South Africa’s last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, has died at 85. De Klerk is remembered for handing over power to Nelson Mandela, with whom he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. But his legacy is complicated. Some white South Africans saw him as a traitor, and many Black South Africans believed he should have been prosecuted for crimes committed against Black activists during his time in power. In 2020, he said he did not believe that apartheid amounted to a crime against humanity.
More from South Africa’s Mail and Guardian here.