Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region have agreed to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region and form a joint disarmament committee following last week’s truce.

African representation has shriveled at the Winter Olympics.

A war that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian forces and fighters from the country’s Tigray region has killed tens of thousands of people.

Italy has allowed a Spanish-flagged charity ship with 265 rescued migrants aboard to anchor off Sicily on Monday. But migration from outside the EU requires the bloc’s members to stand together, and “solidarity cannot be voluntary,” the statement said. Finding consensus for a common EU policy on migration has eluded the bloc for years. Portugal also wants to reach a comprehensive migration agreement with countries along the Mediterranean Sea’s southern rim, from where many migrants cross to the EU. Legal migration can help some EU countries find answers to low birth rates and aging populations, it said.

Migrants from Eritrea, Egypt, Syria and Sudan, rest on board the Spanish NGO Open Arms vessel after having been rescued in the Mediterranean sea, about 110 miles north of Libya, on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)ROME – Italy allowed a Spanish-flagged charity ship with 265 rescued migrants aboard to anchor off Sicily on Monday. The Open Arms vessel had brought the migrants safely aboard in separate rescues last week in the central Mediterranean. Open Arms said 96 of those rescued had been adrift two days in a wooden boat without life vests in international waters. In an earlier, separate operation, Open Arms had taken aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based.

Migrants from Eritrea, Egypt, Syria and Sudan, are assisted by aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, after fleeing Libya on board a precarious wooden boat in the Mediterranean sea, about 110 miles north of Libya, on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)ROME – A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days. The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based. The traffickers launch vessels, many of them flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety fishing boats, crowded with migrants who hope to reach European shores to seek asylum.

NAIROBI – Rockets were fired at Eritrea's capital on Saturday, diplomats said, as the deadly fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region appeared to spill across an international border and bring some of observers' worst fears to life. At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it might attack. It has accused Eritrea of attacking it at the invitation of Ethiopia's federal government since the conflict in northern Ethiopia erupted on Nov. 4. Eritrea is one of the world's most reclusive countries, and no one on the ground, including the information ministry, could immediately be reached. Tigray regional officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Ethiopia's prime minister says airstrikes have been carried out against the forces of the country's Tigray region, asserting that the strikes in multiple locations "completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons." (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)NAIROBI – Ethiopia's prime minister on Friday said his government has carried out airstrikes against the forces of the country's well-armed Tigray region, asserting that strikes in multiple locations “completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons" and made a retaliatory attack impossible. The prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his sweeping political reforms, now faces his greatest test. The northern Tigray region is now increasingly cut off. The Tigray government and Eritrea don't get along, and the TPLF this week accused Eritrea of teaming up with Ethiopia's federal government to target it.