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Tag: air strike

  • TEWU-TUC begins nationwide strike over service conditions today

    TEWU-TUC begins nationwide strike over service conditions today

    The Teachers and Educational Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TEWU-TUC) will commence a nationwide strike today, Monday, November 18, to protest the government’s inaction on addressing their long-standing concerns about conditions of service.

    TEWU-TUC expressed frustration with the government’s prolonged delays in finalizing and implementing revised conditions of service for employees under the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ghana Library Authority, the Museums and Monuments Board, and Public Technical and Traditional Universities.

    Negotiations for these revisions, the union highlighted, have dragged on for several years without resolution, leaving members increasingly dissatisfied.

    The union insists the situation has become untenable, with industrial action now deemed the only effective way to demand progress. TEWU-TUC argues that the unresolved issues are detrimental to the well-being of its members and the smooth functioning of these vital institutions.

    To address the matter, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has called for a meeting on Wednesday, November 20, 2024. The session will involve TEWU-TUC and other stakeholders, aiming to mediate and work toward resolving the union’s concerns.

    Meanwhile, the strike is expected to disrupt services in the affected sectors. TEWU-TUC has emphasized that their industrial action will continue until the government adequately addresses their grievances. They are urging swift action to finalize and implement the revised conditions of service.

  • Air strike kills ‘many civilians’ in west Ethiopia

    Many civilians have been killed in an air strike in the Ethiopian western town of Mandi, about 500km (310 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa, sources have told the BBC.

    Residents said the strike happened around lunchtime on Wednesday in the town where Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) militias have been in control for days after a fight with government security forces.

    A resident anonymously told the BBC that the government was targeting the militias but majority of those who were killed and wounded were civilians.

    He said an OLA vehicle parked by the roadside with some of its members inside was hit by a drone causing bombs that the fighters had to explode, killing civilians around the area.

    His friend and a gospel preacher Tariku Wanna, a father of one daughter, was among those who died. He said they had lunch together at the area before he left him to go somewhere.

    “After five minutes the drone bombed them. When I returned to that place I found his body lying down on the ground. I saw many scattered bodies but didn’t count, but the majority of them were civilians,” he said.

    The BBC tried to reach Tariku’s wife but she was in a state of complete shock and disbelief.

    Another resident of the town, who spoke to the BBC anonymously for the sake of his own safety, put the number of civilians killed in the air strike to at least 20.

    He said around seven to eight people died instantly while another 13 were admitted to hospital and died there from their injuries.

    The OLA’s spokesperson Oda Tarbi put the number of civilians killed at 30, but didn’t mention the number of their soldiers who were killed.

    The BBC couldn’t verify the number of casualties from the hospital sources.

    Politicians have condemned the attack with the Oromo Liberation Party calling it “barbaric” asking the government not to target civilians.

    The Ethiopian government has not commented on the matter. The BBC reached out to the Oromia region’s security official but he declined to comment.

    Source: BBC

  • Amnesty:US air strike killed Somali farmers

    Rights body Amnesty International says its investigation has found that a US air strike in Somalia in March killed civilians and not militants as the US Africa Command (Africom) alleged at the time.

    It says the US failed to investigate claims that the three victims were farmers and had no ties with Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

    The three men were returning from their farms to their homes in Mogadishu and Leego and Yaaq Bariwayne in Lower Shabelle when their car was targeted, Amnesty says.

    Read:Dozens dead after school bus carrying children hit by airstrike

    Eleven people interviewed including co-workers and family of the men killed “were adamant that none of the men was a member of al-Shabab,” it added.

    “It’s bad enough that the US Africa Command appears not to know who its air strikes are actually killing and maiming in its secretive war in Somalia,” Abdullahi Hassan, a Somalia researcher for Amnesty, said in a statement.

    Africom said in March that its assessment had determined that the air strike had “killed three terrorists” and it was aware of reports of civilian casualties.

    Read:Airstrikes kill 7 family members in northern Afghanistan

    Africom spokesman John Manley told news agency AFP that the “US Africa Command arrived at reasonable certainty the vehicle and its occupants were al-Shabab and actively supporting al-Shabab operational activity.”

    “US Africa Command minimises the risk to civilians by following a thorough, reasonable methodology that accounts for weapons effects and mitigates risk to civilians, ” he added.

    US air strikes in Somalia surged in April 2017 after President Donald Trump declared the south of the country an “area of active hostilities”. The rate of air strikes rose sharply in 2019.

    Read:The world goes on strike

    On Monday al-Shabab militants attacked a military base where US soldiers train commandos in Somalia.

    Military officials said the jihadists were repulsed without breaching the perimeter fence.

    Source: bbc.com