News — killings in ethiopia

A 12-year-old Colorado boy, who was left in critical condition after reportedly partaking in a TikTok challenge that dared participants to choke themselves until they lost consciousness, has passed away, his family announced.

According to ABC News, the deceased, identified as Joshua Haileyesus, passed away last Saturday. This was 19 days after he was medically intubated and placed on life support.

A GoFundMe that was initially set up to help raise funds for the Ethiopian American’s medical expenses in the aftermath of the incident said he was found unresponsive on a bathroom floor by his twin brother on March 22. His brother attempted resuscitating him until help came from neighbors and medical officials.

He was later declared brain dead while on admission at the hospital and doctors told his family he wouldn’t make it. “Told me the bad news that he’s not going to survive, he’s not going to make it,” Haileyesus Zeryihun, Joshua’s father, told WXIX in an interview on March 30. “I was begging them on the floor, pleading to see if they can give me some time, not to give up on him. If I just give up on him, I feel like I’m just walking away from my son.”

His family told the news outlet Joshua probably choked himself with a shoelace in an attempt to partake in the challenge and ascertain how long he could hold his breath. Days before the tragic incident, Joshua’s father also said the deceased boy had boasted to his twin brother he could hold his breath for a minute.

“Unbeknownst to his parents, Joshua had been playing this dangerous game completely unaware of the risks involved,” the GoFundMe account stated. The family said they shared their tragic story with the hopes of spreading awareness about such deadly and dangerous games on social media. They said they also want to prevent other parents from experiencing the pain they’re currently going through.

“I’m paying the price right now. I’m living the life, and I hate for other parents to go through this,” Zeryihun said.

Meanwhile, TikTok released a statement last month commiserating with Joshua’s family, ABC News reported. The video-sharing social networking service also said it does not promote such dangerous challenges or content on its platform.

“At TikTok, we have no higher priority than protecting the safety of our community, and content that promotes or glorifies dangerous behavior is strictly prohibited and promptly removed to prevent it from becoming a trend on our platform,” the statement said.

There are currently no search results for the #blackoutchallenge on the social media platform.

Soldiers in the Ethiopian National Defense Force have arrested Sebhat Nega and eight other current and former high-ranking officials Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the ongoing clash with the regional militant group.

Fana Broadcasting Corporate, a private news outlet seen as supportive of the ruling Progress Party (PP), described Nega as “the mastermind behind the destructive strategy of the TPLF junta”. He was said to be hiding in a “ravine” when he was found on Friday, January 8.

Nega is presently in his 80s. His sister, Kidusan Nega, a former Speaker of the Tigray regional state council was also arrested.

The other arrested TPLF members included former allies of departed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, himself a member of the TPLF during the time he was alive. One of them, Abadi Zemo, was a former Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan and a member of the TPLF junta political wing.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has described this stage of the clash with the TPLF as the “last phase“.

Ethiopia’s communications since the altercations began on November 4 appear to recognize that the country is fighting both a war of guns and identity. The TPLF has been Tigray’s regional government since the last decade of the 20th century and it is seen as the political organization encapsulating Tigrayan identity.

The region of Tigray, a vast hilly and arid area, is named after the Tigrinya-speaking Tigray people, Ethiopia’s fourth-largest ethnic group who are less than 10% of the country’s people.

In spite of the relatively small number of Tigrayans in the country, the TPLF has shaped post-Cold War Ethiopia more than any other political organization in the country.

In 1991, the militant group-cum political party led a coalition of militias and movements to overthrow the communist People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. After that, the group was part of governing coalitions, and at a point produced a prime minister in the late Meles Zenawi.

Due to disagreements with Ahmed‘s Progress Party in 2019, the TPLF left his governing coalition.

A Kenyan family of a victim of the 2019 Ethiopian Airline crash has been paid $3 million by U.S. planemaker Boeing. This is the first Kenyan family out of 32 families from the country to receive a payout after losing their relatives in the deadly crash, according to local media.

“We sought and asked for the largest amount possible to be paid as compensation to the families we represent,” Manuel von Ribbeck from Ribbeck Law Chartered, a U.S. law firm that represented the family, stated after the settlement. “It is important to note however that no amount of money in the world will bring our clients’ beloved family members back.

This is the first settlement in a case by Ribbeck Law Chartered which sued Boeing on behalf of some families who lost their loved ones in the crash. A total of 157 people, including 32 Kenyans, died when the Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed in March 2019 in the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia. That accident came on the back of a similar Lion Air jet crash in Indonesia in October 2018 that killed 189 people.

Aviation regulators around the world subsequently grounded Boeing’s 737 MAX planes. This September, an investigative report said the plane manufacturer and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were responsible for “repeated and serious failures.” Boeing’s 737 MAX was however cleared by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly again last month.

Boeing, which has lost more than than $20 billion following the crisis, is also facing a series of lawsuits from families of victims. U.S. law firm Ribbeck Law Chartered filed suits against the aircraft maker in a US Federal Court in Chicago following the two fatal crashes. According to Bloomberg, it would cost Boeing at least $1 billion to settle claims. Von Ribbeck has said the plane manufacturer “should not be greatly affected by it”.

“Most of the payments will be made by their insurance and reinsurance companies and as stated by Wall Street firms, Boeing can afford that cost: Boeing has posted record revenues of $101 billion last year and $10.6 billion in profits,” he said.

In July 2019, Boeing promised to give $100 million to help families affected by the deadly crashes of the company’s 737 MAX planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The company said in a statement that the funds will not go directly to the families but will be given to local governments and non-profit organizations to help families with education and living expenses and to improve economic development in affected communities.

The Ethiopian army warned Sunday of an imminent attack on Mekelle, capital of rebellious Tigray state and seat of the local government that the federal government is seeking to dislodge, calling on civilians to flee while there is still time.

"The next decisive battle is to surround Mekelle with tanks," army spokesman Dejene Tsegaye told government media, threatening to lay siege to the town, stronghold of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) that rules the region.

The spokesman told the city's half a million inhabitants to "save yourselves".

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the start of army operations on November 4 against the TPLF, accusing them of seeking to destabilize the federal government and of attacking two Ethiopian military bases in the region.

Tigray authorities have admitted to attacking a federal army base, calling it 'preemptive action'.

On Saturday, the government claimed that the army was advancing towards Mekelle and had taken control of several towns, including Aksum and Adigrat, some 117 km north of the regional capital.

"Military forces have taken control of the town of Edaga Hamus, which is on the road from Adigrat to Mekelle," and is located 100 km from Mekele, a government agency, Ethiopia State of Emergency Fact Check, said Sunday.

"The forces are currently advancing towards the last objective of the operation, the town of Mekelle," she added.

Neither side's claims are independently verifiable, as Tigray is virtually cut off from the world due to a communications blackout.

The TPLF said Saturday that civilians were killed in an "intense bombing" of Adigrat by the Ethiopian army. The government claims that the military operation does not target civilians.

No accurate account of the fighting, which has resulted in at least hundreds of deaths since November 4, is available from independent sources.

But more than 36,000 Ethiopians have already reached Sudan, according to the Sudanese Refugee Commission.

After dominating Ethiopia's 15-year armed struggle against the militaristic Marxist Derg regime, which was overthrown in 1991, the TPLF controlled the country's political and security apparatus with an iron fist for nearly three decades, before being gradually pushed aside by Abiy when he became prime minister in 2018.