Ethiopia has inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam to produce more than 5,000 megawatts and boost the electric vehicle industry in a country that has banned the importation of gasoline-powered vehicles.

For young Ethiopians hoping for a better life, trying to get to Europe or the Middle East is fraught with the dangers of kidnappings, extortion and sometimes death in the shipwrecks while making sea crossings.

The deadly shipwreck in waters off Yemen’s coast over the weekend is weighing heavily on the hearts of many in Ethiopia.

The interim government of Ethiopia’s Tigray region has appealed for the Ethiopian federal government to intervene after a faction of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front seized control of two major towns, leaving several people wounded and raising fears of a return to civil war.

The United States Agency for International Development says it plans to restart food aid deliveries for millions of people across Ethiopia in December, five months after it halted its nationwide program over a massive corruption scheme by local officials.

The Ethiopian government says it will investigate a report by a human rights group of killings of hundreds its nationals at the Yemen-Saudi border.

A rights group alleges that border guards in Saudi Arabia fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants.

The United Nations World Food Program is slowly resuming food aid to Ethiopia nearly five months after taking the extraordinary measure of suspending aid following the discovery of a massive scheme to steal donated grain.

Leaders from Sudan’s seven neighboring countries agreed to a new Egyptian-led international initiative to resolve the deepening conflict in the Northeast African country.

Ethiopia’s warring sides have formally agreed during talks in South Africa to a permanent cessation of hostilities in a 2-year conflict whose victims could be counted in the hundreds of thousands.

Peace talks between warring sides on Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have been extended into this week.

A South Africa government spokesman says peace talks to end Ethiopia’s devastating Tigray conflict have begun there.

Thousands of people in towns across Ethiopia have staged demonstrations against what they say is interference by outsiders in the country’s internal affairs.

The Biden administration says Ethiopians already in the United States could remain for 18 months amid a war in Ethiopia’s north that pits federal troops and their allies against Tigray’s rebellious leaders.

Dozens of women and girls have been raped and hundreds of civilians killed during fighting in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

Diplomats are calling on Ethiopia’s federal authorities and their rivals in the northern region of Tigray to agree to a cease-fire as heavy fighting raises growing humanitarian fears.

Once home to one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, Ethiopia is struggling as the war in its Tigray region has reignited and weary citizens far from the front are pleading for peace.

Hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Amhara, were slaughtered in a village and its surroundings this month in the latest explosion of ethnic violence in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation.

A senior Ethiopian official says his country is interested in resuming talks with Egypt and Sudan on a huge and controversial Blue Nile dam that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant.

Ethiopia has started generating electricity from the controversial mega-dam being built on the Blue Nile.

Thousands of miles away from the Tigray war a lawsuit between trustees and clergy over the language of services is tearing apart an Ethiopian church in Ohio.

President Joe Biden expressed concerns on Monday to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about detentions and civilian killings in the conflict in the country's Tigray region, while commending Abiy for the recent release of several political prisoners.

A United Nations report estimates that 22 million Ethiopians will require humanitarian assistance in 2022.

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.

Ethiopia’s government has warned the United States against “spreading false information” as fighting in the country’s yearlong war draws closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, while thousands protested outside the U.S. and British embassies.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is already a veteran at surprising the world in just three years in power.

Ethiopia’s government says Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has gone to the battlefront after the leader said martyrdom might be necessary in the yearlong war with rival fighters approaching the capital.

Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister says he will lead his country’s army “from the battlefront” beginning Tuesday, a dramatic new step in a devastating yearlong war.

Ethiopia’s government is marking a year of war by lashing out in response to international alarm about hate speech.

President Joe Biden says he’s moving to cut out Ethiopia from a U.S. trade program.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has begun a second five-year term running a country in the grip of a nearly year-long war against Tigray forces who he describes as “hateful” toward the nation.

The United Nations chief has informed Ethiopia that it has no legal right to expel seven U.N. officials whom it accused of “meddling” in the country’s affairs.

The United States has imposed new sanctions over Ethiopia’s deadly Tigray conflict.

The United States says it's sending a special envoy to Ethiopia as the fast-moving conflict in the Tigray region has spread into neighboring regions and Ethiopia’s government calls on all able citizens to stop the resurgent Tigray forces “once and for all.”.

A militant leader in Ethiopia says his group has struck a military alliance with the Tigray forces now pressing toward the capital, as the conflict that erupted in the Tigray region last year spreads into other parts of Africa’s second most populous country.

Ethiopia’s spreading Tigray conflict faces a dangerous escalation as an Amhara regional official says Amhara forces will launch an offensive on Saturday against Tigray forces who have entered the region and taken control of a town hosting a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Egypt and Sudan are urging the U.N. Security Council to undertake “preventive diplomacy” and call for a legally binding agreement to resolve a dispute with Ethiopia over the availability of water from its dam on the Nile River.

Ethiopians are voting in a major test for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose rise to power initially seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule but who has since waged war in the Tigray region and whose party has been accused of election abuses.

Ethiopians will vote Monday in a landmark election overshadowed by reports of famine in the country’s war-hit Tigray region and beset by logistical problems that mean some people won’t be able to vote until September.

Ethiopia’s U_N_ ambassador says Eritrean troops who have been fighting with his country’s forces in a war against the Tigray region’s fugitive leaders “will definitely leave soon."

Sudanese authorities have deported around three dozen Ethiopian peacekeepers, working in the U.N. mission in Darfur, to a refugee camp.

Ethiopia faces a growing crisis of ethnic nationalism that some fear could tear Africa’s second most populous country apart.

Ethiopian authorities say Eritrean troops have started withdrawing from Tigray, where they have been fighting on the side of Ethiopian troops in a war against the region’s fugitive leaders.

(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)NAIROBI – The United States says it has decided to “de-link” its suspension of millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia from that country’s dispute with Egypt over a massive hydroelectric dam project. The State Department said humanitarian assistance remains exempt from the aid suspension. Ethiopia had left a U.S.-led attempt to mediate the dispute with Egypt, alleging bias. Trump also caused an uproar by saying downstream Egypt would “blow up” the dam project that Cairo considers an existential threat. AdThe U.S. has said Eritrean soldiers should “immediately” leave Ethiopia.

But they were forbidden from burying their dead by the invading Eritrean soldiers. The atrocities of the Tigray conflict have occurred in the shadows. It did not mention Eritrean soldiers. AdEritrean and Ethiopian soldiers had arrived in Axum more than a week earlier, with heavy bombardment. His work remains with his church, where services continue even as he says the Tigray conflict is as fierce as ever.

(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)JOHANNESBURG – Ethiopia took “legitimate” military action in its Tigray province to preserve the country's unity and stability, the chairman of the African Union Commission said. In early November, Ethiopia’s federal government launched a military attack on Tigray’s provincial leaders saying they had provoked the federal forces. The Tigray leaders remained defiant and are still at large. The conflict in Tigray has alarmed the international humanitarian community, as communications have been cut off with large parts of the region. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 50,000 Ethiopians, mainly from Tigray, have fled across the border to Sudan.

(ICRC via AP)JOHANNESBURG – Ethiopia is offering a reward of more than $250,000 for information on the whereabouts of Tigray’s rebellious leaders who fled the regional capital Mekele three weeks ago. The Ethiopian army is conducting operations to capture the regional leaders, according to previous local media reports. In early November Ethiopia’s federal government launched a military attack on Tigray's leaders, saying they had provoked the federal forces. The Tigray leaders remained defiant. The European Union has postponed 90 million euros ($109 million) in budgetary support to Ethiopia over lack of access to the country’s Tigray region to deliver humanitarian aid amid the conflict.

(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)JOHANNESBURG – The European Union has postponed 90 million euros ($109 million) in budgetary support to Ethiopia over lack of access to the country's Tigray region to deliver humanitarian aid amid the conflict. The conflict in Tigray has alarmed the international humanitarian community, as communications have been cut off with large parts of the region. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 50,000 Ethiopians, mainly from Tigray, have fled across the border to Sudan. He vowed to bring the “criminals” who were the leaders of the regional government of Tigray to justice and urged reconstruction to start immediately. Telecommunications and electricity in Tigray have started to function in some locations but large areas in the region remain inaccessible both for aid workers and journalists.

Tigray refugee children sing and dance inside a tent run by UNICEF for children's activities, in Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. The U.N, refugee agency said it hadn't been informed in advance of the Eritrean refugees' return. Aid groups say thousands of Eritrean refugees had fled to Addis Ababa and the Tigray capital, Mekele. It was not clear where, but the group also supports the Eritrean refugees. Tigray remains largely sealed off from the world five weeks after fighting erupted between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray one following a months-long power struggle.

A Tigray woman who fled the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region holds her child inside of her temporary shelter at Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. Another U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said the staffers were stopped at a military checkpoint near Sheraro. Ethiopia's government is making it clear it intends to manage the flow of humanitarian aid, but the U.N. has openly sought unfettered and neutral access according to international principles. Ethiopia's government late last month declared victory in the conflict in the Tigray region against the Tigray People's Liberation Front. The fighting in the region erupted Nov. 4 between Ethiopia’s government and the government of the Tigray region following months of rising tensions.

Sudanese forces stand alert on the banks of the Tekeze River on the Sudan-Ethiopia border after Ethiopian forces blocked people from crossing into Sudan, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)HAMDAYET – Ethiopian forces on Thursday blocked people fleeing the country’s embattled Tigray region from crossing into Sudan at the busiest border crossing point for refugees, Sudanese forces said. Their account follows allegations by refugees in previous days of Ethiopian forces stopping people from fleeing the month-old deadly conflict in Tigray between Ethiopian forces and Tigray regional forces. But refugees told him about the “many checkpoints” and pockets of insecurity they faced as they fled. Many of the refugees, mainly ethnic Tigrayans, have said it was Ethiopian forces they were fleeing.

(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)NAIROBI – The United Nations says food has now run out for the nearly 100,000 refugees from Eritrea who have been sheltering in camps in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has been cut off from the world for nearly a month amid fighting. “The camps will have now run out of food supplies – making hunger and malnutrition a real danger, a warning we have been issuing since the conflict began nearly a month ago. The 96,000 Eritrean refugees are in an especially precarious position. Some 1,000 of the Eritrean refugees have arrived in the Tigray regional capital, Mekele, looking for food and other help, the International Committee of the Red Cross said over the weekend. “For almost two decades, Ethiopia has been a hospitable country for Eritrean refugees but now we fear they are caught in the conflict,” Baloch said.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement. The prime minister has rejected dialogue with TPLF leaders, including during a Friday meeting with three African Union special envoys. The Tigray region of 6 million people has been cut off from the world as the military pursued what Abiy called a “law enforcement operation" with airstrikes and tanks. Ethiopia’s government had warned residents there would be “no mercy” if they didn’t move away from the TPLF leaders in time. The United Nations said some fled as tanks closed in and Abiy's 72-hour ultimatum for TPLF leaders to surrender expired.

There is not enough to feed them in this remote area, and very little shelter. Some refugees have little to protect them from the heat and sun and curl under possessions as meager as umbrellas. Authorities are trying to keep ethnic Tigrayan refugees separate from ethnic Amhara ones, out of concern about possible clashes. The more permanent camps were last used in the 1980s for Ethiopians fleeing a famine worsened by a yearslong civil war. “We felt like we’d made it, and we were happy,” recalled Menas Hgoos, who now finds herself fleeing to Sudan a second time.

Tigray refugees who fled a conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray region, run at Village 8, the transit centre near the Lugdi border crossing, eastern Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. Ethiopia's government again rejected international pleas for dialogue with the TPLF leaders, regarding them as criminals on the run. He also called for “free, safe and unhindered humanitarian access” to the Tigray region, which remains almost completely sealed off from the world with communications severed, roads blocked and airports closed. A humanitarian disaster is unfolding both inside and outside the Tigray region. Food, fuel and medical and other supplies are running desperately low in the Tigray region and the U.N. says around 2 million people there urgently need aid.

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray arrive on the banks of the Tekeze River on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020. The U.N. refugee agency says Ethiopia's growing conflict has resulted in thousands fleeing from the Tigray region into Sudan as fighting spilled beyond Ethiopia's borders and threatened to inflame the Horn of Africa region. The TPLF dominated Ethiopia's ruling coalition for a quarter century before Abiy took office and introduced dramatic political reforms and sidelined TPLF leaders. With communications and transport to the Tigray region almost completely severed, it's difficult to verify the warring sides' claims. And inside the Tigray region, the fighting has come close to camps that are home to nearly 100,000 refugees from Eritrea.

CAIRO – Ethiopia’s growing conflict has resulted in more than 25,300 refugees fleeing the Tigray region into Sudan, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday, as fighting spilled beyond Ethiopia’s borders and threatened to inflame the Horn of Africa region. Most of the refugees arriving in Sudan are children and women who walked long distances on rugged terrain to reach safety. The river, known as the Tekeze in Ethiopia and the Setit in Sudan, divides the eastern Sudanese areas of Lugdi and Hamdayet. Eastern Sudan, which borders Ethiopia’s Tigray region, was the scene of bouts of tribals violence in recent months that claimed dozens of lives. ___Associated Press video journalist Mohaned Awad in al-Qadarif, Sudan, and Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.

NAIROBI – Up to 200,000 refugees could pour into Sudan while fleeing the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, officials said Wednesday, while the first details are emerging of largely cut-off civilians under growing strain. Inside the Tigray region, long lines have appeared outside bread shops, and supply-laden trucks are stranded at its borders, the United Nations humanitarian chief in the country told the AP. Reports grew of the targeting of ethnic Tigrayans across Ethiopia, the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau said in a Facebook post. The standoff leaves nearly 900 aid workers in the Tigray region from the U.N. and other groups struggling to contact the outside world with pleas for help. There were no details of the message, but the officials discussed “current developments” in Ethiopia, the minister said.

NAIROBI – Ethiopia’s deadly conflict with its northern Tigray region spilled over the border Tuesday as several thousand people fled into Sudan, along with soldiers seeking protection, while the Tigray regional leader accused Eritrea of attacking at the request of Ethiopia’s federal government. Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rejected international pleas for dialogue with the Tigray regional leaders, saying there would be no negotiations until the “law enforcement operation” is over. Eritrea, long at bitter odds with the Tigray regional government, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, is more challenging. Several hundred people reportedly have been killed on both the Ethiopian government side and the Tigray regional government side, a diplomat in the capital told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. You need the support of the people.”Aid groups warn humanitarian needs will grow alarmingly as the conflict drags on.

Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership of the country's defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. (AP Photo/Samuel Habtab)NAIROBI – Ethiopia's air force is “pounding targets with precision," a military official said Monday, as the federal government continues its offensive against the heavily armed northern region of Tigray and no clear route to peace is seen. The northern Tigray region is largely cut off from the outside world, making it difficult to verify each side's assertions. Ethiopian Maj. Gen. Mohammed Tssema, who spoke of the “pounding” by the air force, in a Facebook post also denied as “totally wrong” a claim by the Tigray regional government on Sunday that a fighter jet had been shot down. The Tigray regional government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, did confirm the federal government’s aerial assault, saying in a Facebook post that the air force had carried out more than 10 such attacks so far.

Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership of the country's defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's cabinet reshuffle included little explanation but appeared aimed at bringing the most outspoken supporters of the operation in Tigray to the forefront. The Tigray government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, made its own claim. Communications remain almost completely cut off in Tigray, with airports and roads closed, complicating efforts to verify either side's assertions. Concerns are growing that tensions over the conflict could lead to the targeting of ethnic Tigrayans.

JOHANNESBURG – Negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the controversial dam that Ethiopia is building on the Nile River will resume Tuesday, according to the chairman of the African Union, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Egypt and Sudan, however, have expressed concern that the dam will reduce the flow of Nile River waters to their countries. Egypt relies heavily on the Nile to supply water for its agriculture and to its more than 100 million people. Ethiopia celebrated the first stage of the filling of the dam in August, citing heavy rains, to the dismay of Egypt. "The dam already has more than 4.9 billion cubic meters of water in its reservoir,” Abebe Yirga told The Associated Press.

Without naming Trump or the U.S., Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office issued a separate critical statement amid an outcry in Ethiopia over Trump’s latest threat over the dam. Downstream Sudan is a party to the talks with Ethiopia and Egypt over the disputed dam. “They (Egypt) will end up blowing up the dam,” Trump said. Ethiopia celebrated the first filling of the dam in August, citing heavy rains, to the dismay of Egypt. Negotiators have said key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multi-year drought occurs and how the countries will resolve any future disputes.

Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, on Saturday celebrated the annual Thanksgiving festival of Irreecha amid tight security and a significantly smaller crowd due to political tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo)JOHANNESBURG – Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, on Saturday celebrated the annual Thanksgiving festival of Irreecha amid tight security and a significantly smaller crowd due to political tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, people carrying the Oromo Liberation Front and Oromo Federalist Congress party flags were absent in this year’s festival. The Oromo, while the country’s largest ethnic group, traditionally have expressed frustration over perceived marginalization. The Irreecha festival marks the end of the rainy season and the start of the harvest.

ADDIS ABABA – From a filthy cell in Saudi Arabia, the Ethiopian migrant spoke on a smuggled phone, fearing to give his name. A new report released Friday by Amnesty International describes widespread abuses in Saudi detention facilities, including beatings and electrocutions. Amnesty International said thousands of Ethiopian migrants had been working in northern Yemen, earning money to pay for their passage to Saudi Arabia. “I wouldn’t have left my country had I known this hellish condition would await me,” another detained migrant told the AP. The ministry also said migrants suffer sexual abuse, torture, dehydration and hunger on their monthslong journey to Saudi Arabia, and “this makes the repatriation process even more complicated as the psychosocial support is intense.

(AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopians on Friday welcomed what many people around the world might like to see: the beginning of a new year. Following a calendar seven years behind the Gregorian one used by much of the world, Ethiopians marked the beginning of 2013. “The 2012 Ethiopian calendar is a year where we went through a lot. There was a big punishment as a result of (God’s) wrath,” said Emkulu Yiheyis, an Ethiopian Orthodox priest. “But it was not as big as we thought it would be, because of God’s will it was easier, and we are here now.