NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for de-escalation in the Horn of Africa amid fighting in northern Ethiopia and heightened tensions with neighboring Eritrea.
Rubio spoke by phone with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday, urging dialogue under a peace deal agreed between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2018. He said the region could not tolerate more conflict, according to a statement from the State Department.
Renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region in recent weeks has effectively shattered a 2022 peace agreement that ended a devastating two-year war. Ethiopia has accused Eritrean troops of occupying parts of its territory, while Eritrea condemned Ethiopia for what it called a declaration of war.
Human Rights Watch has received reports of civilians killed and injured by shelling in southern Tigray, Laetitia Bader, the group’s deputy Africa director, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.
She said shelling also forced some health facilities to close and called for independent monitoring, restored communications and safe humanitarian access. Her account did not identify who carried out the shelling.
Near the border, a resident reported that Eritrean soldiers withdrew Monday from Fatsi, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Ethiopian border town of Zalambessa.
“The last time I saw Eritrean soldiers was when they left late this morning,” Hayelom Gebretsadkan, a three-wheeled taxi driver from Zalambessa, told the AP on Monday. He said the soldiers headed toward the border and there was no active fighting in Fatsi. Later that day, he said Ethiopian federal forces had moved into the town.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos accused Eritrea of deploying troops across the border and said Ethiopia was taking measures in self defense. He did not specify those measures, identify the occupied areas or provide evidence supporting the allegations. The AP could not independently verify the claims.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh urged the council to condemn what he called a “deplorable declaration of war” by Ethiopia. His response did not confirm or deny the alleged troop crossings.
Rubio told Abiy in their call that “all countries in the Horn of Africa must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their neighbors and avoid cross-border incursions.”
The dispute also reflects tensions over Abiy’s pursuit of access to the Red Sea. Ethiopia became landlocked when Eritrea gained independence in 1993.
The countries’ armies fought together against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front during the 2020-2022 war, which caused about 500,000 civilian deaths from violence, famine and the collapse of health services, according to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium.
Last week government-allied fighters entered Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, after the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front announced its withdrawal. Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights to Mekelle on Sunday after suspending all flights there for days.
Kiyaro reported from Hamburg, Germany. Filmon Equar Hailu reported from Mekelle, Ethiopia. Associated Press journalists Matthew Lee in Washington and Moses Ndungu in Nairobi contributed to this report.
In this photo taken with a smartphone, supporters and soldiers participate in a procession welcoming former Tigray leader Getachew Reda in Mekelle, Ethiopia, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Filmon Equar Hailu)
LONDON (AP) — Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for the rape and sex abuse of two girls decades ago.
The judge said that Donaldson, 63, had expressed no “regret, apology or shame” for crimes that had blighted the victims' lives.
Donaldson was one of Northern Ireland's best-known politicians until his arrest stunned his political colleagues and wider society two years ago.
He was convicted in June of one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 indecent assault charges involving two girls between 1985 and 2008. He had denied the charges.
Donaldson led the Democratic Unionist Party, the biggest party in favor of keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, from 2021 until 2024. He resigned as leader of the conservative DUP after his arrest and gave up the seat in the U.K. House of Commons that he had held since 1997.
The DUP said in a statement that Donaldson “deserves every day of the lengthy prison sentence he has to serve” for his “vile and disgusting crimes.”
Judge Paul Ramsey said that the ex-politician had undergone a “catastrophic descent into disgrace.” He sentenced him at Newry Crown Court, south of Belfast, to 11 years for offenses against one victim and four years for the other, to run consecutively.
“There has not been, and doubtless will not be, one word of regret, apology or shame from this man to at least provide his victims with some crumb of comfort,” the judge said.
Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was found to have aided and abetted her husband’s offenses for witnessing the abuse and doing nothing to intervene. Because of mental health issues, she faced only a fact-finding hearing that couldn’t result in a conviction.
The two victims testified that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age. The older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said that he raped her.
The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and U.K. law protects their identities from the media for life.
During his trial, Donaldson denied all the allegations against him. He testified that the rape “just didn’t happen.”
Catherine Kierans, the head of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Unit, said that Donaldson “has never accepted responsibility for his offending, nor shown any remorse.”
“This case shows that sexual abuse can be hidden behind a facade of respectability,” she said. “It also shows that no individual, irrespective of their position, status or public reputation, is beyond the reach of the law.”
The victims welcomed the sentence, but said nothing could undo the damage of Donaldson's crimes.
“My childhood was stolen from me and I will never get it back,” victim A said in a statement read by a police officer outside court.
“The conviction does not erase the abuse or undo the impact of what happened to me, and I will always carry the consequences of it.
“But those responsible do not control me now. They forever changed me, but they will not take my future. The cycle is being broken and it ends with me.”
Victim B said that “what happened to me as a child has affected everything since then, every day and every relationship I have ever had.
“I stood up, many years later, because for me this is about drawing a line in the sand and knowing that the Donaldsons can no longer hurt anyone else,” she said.
Donaldson’s lawyer, Kieran Vaughan, said at a presentencing hearing that his client had achieved “significant things in his life.”
“These convictions obliterate all those achievements he has made in his life,” he said.
FILE - Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson speaks to the media during a press conference at Hinch Distillery, Temple, Northern Ireland, on Jan. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)
