SITUATION REPORT – HORN OF AFRICA No. 442, 1 June 2023

Situation in Sudan (per 1 June)

• IDPs within Sudan face a severe water crisis in Abu Shouk camp in North Darfur. Maintenance of wells is very complicated due to rising prices of fuel. 
• Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have reportedly bombed the money printing press in order to prevent Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from funding its operations with illegally printed money. 
• A hospital in East Nile which had been under RSF occupation was bombed by SAF.
• Reports show the medical teams are working in fragile conditions with no electricity using their mobile phones as flashlights to care for their patients.
• 19 people were killed and 106 injured by heavy tank attacks in Khartoum’s neighbourhood of Mayo. This part is largely inhabited by people who do not have the financial capacity to flee the conflict. 
• The headquarters of Zain Telecom have reportedly been seized by the RSF. This may bring even more disruption to the connectivity services, state observers.
• The closure of Sudanese airspace has been extended to 15 June by Sudan’s aviation authorities. The humanitarian aid flights are exempted from the closure. 
• Food reserves and humanitarian aid assets of the World Food Program have been looted today in El Obeid. The attack on warehouses was confirmed by the UN WFP executive director Cindy McCain.  
• 60 children have died in Mygoma orphanage in Khartoum due to the lack of food and medical treatment and workers warn that more casualties are expected if evacuation will not take place in the coming days. 

Refugee Situation (per 1 June)

Situation in Tigray (per 1 June)

• Militia and Amhara forces continue harassing and expelling Tigrayans from Western Tigray as part of an ethnic cleansing despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement. 
• Two officials, Col. Demeke Zewdu and Belay Ayalew, have been accused by Human Rights Watch (HRW) of arbitrarily detaining, torturing, and forcibly deporting Tigrayans from Western Tigray. 
• HRW calls for independent investigations to be carried out in Western Tigray and prosecution of everyone implicated in the human rights abuses in the region. 
• Restoring electric power services in several cities across Tigary is stalled due to the lack of supplies, confirmed an Ethiopian Electric Utility official. 
• Some parts of Tigray such as Zalambesa are still in complete black out.  

Situation in Ethiopia (per 1 June)

• The Ethiopian Government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) independently said that no second round of peace talks is planned thus far.
• Demolishing “illegal” buildings across the Oromia region is part of the strategic plan of the regional government, said a regional Communication Bureau official.  
• The ongoing campaign is deemed as “constitutional and legal” by the Oromia regional government and takes place in all cities within the region. 
• Th announcements comes after protests against demolition of the Mosques in Shaggar city in Oromia. 

International Situation (per 1 June)

• The AU Roadmap for the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan was endorsed by The Expanded Mechanism for the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan which gathered for its 3rd meeting in Addis Ababa.
• The meeting was briefed by the reports from the UN and IGAD as partners of the Trilateral Mechanism. 
• Observers warn that Sudan’s conflict can spill over to nChad and the Central African Republic.
• DIfferences in cross border support towards the warring sides in Sudan, as well as presence of the Wagner group in the region, could contribute to the escalation of regional conflict. 
• The UN Security Council (UNSC) held a closed meeting on the situation in Sudan yesterday. UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a briefing to the UNSC.
• Guterres said that it is up to the UNSC to decide if the UN Mission to Sudan will continue for another period or not. 
• He reiterated his support and confidence in Volker Perthes as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sudan. These comments came after Abdel Fattah al-Burhan requested the removal of Perthes last week.
• Russian president Vladimir Putin intends to sign several bilateral agreements with Eritrea, during the visit of Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki to Russia. 
• South Sudan denounced the decision of the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on South Sudan for additional 12 months. 
• The review of the Defense Cooperation Treaty between France and Djibouti is undergoing a review process. The treaty regulates France’s largest overseas military base in Djibouti and secures strategic influence in the Horn of Africa region alongside with other countries such as the US and China. 
• The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church ordered all sub-dioceses across Europe to pay tithes, letters from 2017 show. 
• A festival of the Eritrean diaspora organised by supporters of Eritrean ruling party PFDJ in Belgium was cancelled by the owner of the event location for security reasons. The event  was supposed to take place on 3 June in Eeklo. 
• The PFDJ event in Belgium was reportedly organised for participants coming from The Netherlands, where events were cancelled in several places last weekend.