Humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's Tigray at "tipping point"
CBSN
United Nations — In his harshest statement yet on the seven-month crisis in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told Security Council members Tuesday "there is now famine in Tigray." He put the blame squarely on forces from the neighboring nation of Eritrea.
"Eritrean soldiers are using starvation as a weapon of war," he said. Lowcock painted a brutal picture. "Rape is being used systematically to terrorize and brutalize women and girls. Aid workers have been killed, interrogated, beaten, blocked from taking aid to the starving and suffering and told not to come back," he told diplomats in a closed briefing at an informal dialogue of the U.N. Security Council that was requested by the Mission of Ireland.Kyiv, Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that American military aid on its way to Ukraine will make a "real difference" on the battlefield, as the top diplomat made an unannounced visit to reassure an ally facing a fierce new Russian offensive. In increasingly intense attacks along Ukraine's northeast border in recent days, Moscow's troops have captured around 40 to 50 square miles of territory, including at least seven villages, according to open source monitoring analysts.
A trove of gold and silver coins that experts believe were swindled out of an ailing population by an 18th-century conman has been discovered in central Poland, officials said. Volunteer metal detectorists found the treasure hidden underground in multiple locations while exploring the Jeleniowskie mountain range with permission from the local government, and the fact that it exists seems to validate a centuries-old legend.
Tel Aviv — Nearly 360,000 people had fled the Gaza Strip's southernmost city of Rafah by Monday, according to the United Nations, in an exodus that tripled in size over just a few days. The Israel Defense Forces sparked the upheaval late last week, issuing evacuation orders by text messages and fliers dropped from the sky to people in the city's eastern half.
Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday. Thousands of civilians fled the Kharkiv region as the intense battle capitulated more land to Russian forces across less defended settlements in the so-called contested "gray zone" along the Russian border.