World

The United States on Friday dispatched an envoy to Ethiopia to seek an end to renewed fighting, and condemned neighboring Eritrea for re-entering the conflict in the northern region of Tigray.

Mike Hammer, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, will head this weekend to Ethiopia and “convey that all parties should halt military operations and engage in peace talks,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“We condemn Eritrea’s re-entry into the conflict, the continuing TPLF offensive outside of Tigray and the Ethiopian government’s air strikes,” she told reporters, referring to the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Fighting resumed last week in the northern region after a five-month lull, dashing hopes of peacefully resolving the nearly two-year war and of ending a humanitarian crisis in which Tigray has suffered widespread hunger.

“There is no military solution to the conflict,” Jean-Pierre said.

“All parties should exercise restraint and we urge de-escalation by all actors, particularly so that there can be a resumption of humanitarian relief and basic services to all parties in need.”

The State Department said Hammer, a veteran diplomat whose assignment also covers troubled Sudan and Somalia, would travel from Sunday through September 15 in the Horn of Africa.

He will meet both Ethiopian and African Union officials as well as political players from elsewhere in the country, it said.

Hammer took on the role in June and the following month visited Ethiopia in a bid to help launch peace talks, which never began due to disputes between the government and TPLF even while the ceasefire was holding.

The two sides have traded blame for starting the latest round of hostilities.

The TPLF, once Ethiopia’s dominant force, has said that historic rival Eritrea again sent in forces as part of a major offensive with Ethiopian troops.

Eritrea, one of the world’s most closed nations with one of its most authoritarian governments, has been accused of heinous violence in the conflict.

Amnesty International said that Eritrean forces at the start of the conflict in November 2020 massacred hundreds of civilians in the ancient city of Axum.

After months of denial that Eritrean troops had crossed the border, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in March 2021 admitted to their presence and promptly announced their departure.

– US distance from Ethiopia –

Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation with Eritrea but has fallen out of favor with the United States, a longtime Ethiopian ally which voiced revulsion over the violence in Tigray, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken of “ethnic cleansing.”

President Joe Biden’s administration as of January 1 booted Ethiopia out of a key trade agreement that allowed duty-free access, outraging segments of the growing Ethiopian-American community which said the United States was ceding influence to rival powers such as China.

Ethiopia’s ambassador in Washington, Seleshi Bekele, met Thursday with senior officials including Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and called on the United States to condemn the TPLF, which he said was to blame for breaking the ceasefire.

Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year.

TPLF spokesman Kindeya Gebrehiwot earlier told AFP that a major offensive was coming from Eritrea.

Combat had been concentrated around the southeastern border of Tigray, with the rebels pushing into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, sending residents fleeing.

The fighting so far has not terminated relief efforts, with UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying that 17 trucks distributed fertilizer in Tigray this week for farmers in their planting season.

Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF in November 2020 in response to what he said were rebel attacks on federal army camps.

Western powers and Moscow hit back at each other Friday with painful pressure measures on energy as Ukraine said it bombed a Russian base near a nuclear plant that has caused growing concern.

The Group of Seven major industrial democracies vowed to move urgently to set a price cap on Russian oil imports, a crucial source of revenue for Moscow and its war in Ukraine.

“Russia is benefitting economically from the uncertainty on energy markets caused by the war and is making big profits from the export of oil and we want to counter that decisively,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in a press conference after the move was announced.

The aim of the price cap on oil exports was to “stop an important source of financing for the war of aggression and contain the rise in global energy prices”, he added.

Ahead of the decision, the Kremlin warned that the move would destabilise oil markets. It has shown it is willing to use gas supplies to Europe as leverage in what the United States has denounced as “weaponisation” of energy.

As if on cue, Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had halted gas deliveries to Germany for an indefinite period as there were leaks in a turbine.

Gazprom earlier said it expected a resumption on Saturday of gas shipments through Nord Stream, a pipeline — denounced at its inception by Russia’s critics — that links St Petersburg to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

“The reliability of the operation, of the whole system, is at risk,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, blaming a lack of spare parts.

Siemens Energy, the German manufacturer of the turbine where Gazprom said it identified problems, said that the leaks identified by the Russians were not a reason to stop operation.

– Fighting near nuclear plant –

The showdown on energy comes amid growing alarm over Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, which is under occupation of Russian troops.

Ukraine said it bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Energodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot.

Dmytro Orlov, the pro-Kyiv mayor of Energodar in southern Ukraine, told AFP from his location in exile that phone services in the town were badly disrupted.

A 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is visiting Zaporizhzhia, with the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, saying that the site had been damaged in fighting.

The Ukrainian army charged the Russian forces had removed their equipment from the site before the UN team arrived on Thursday.

Russian troops seized control of the site in early March. There have been repeated attacks in the vicinity but both Moscow and Kyiv have denied responsibility and blamed each other.

UN inspectors spent their second day at Zaporizhzhia on Friday. Russia’s envoy to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said six IAEA inspectors would stay behind for several days and that two more would remain there “on a permanent basis”. 

“We welcome this because an international presence can dispel the many rumours about the state of affairs at the nuclear power plant,” he told Russian news agency RIA Novosti. 

– ‘Stop playing with fire’ –

Red Cross director general Robert Mardini on Thursday warned the consequences of hitting the plant could be “catastrophic”, saying “the slightest miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades”.

“It is high time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete measures to protect this facility … from any military operations,” he told reporters in Kyiv.

Ukraine has accused Russia of storing ammunition at Zaporizhzhia and deploying hundreds of soldiers there. 

It also suspects Moscow is intending to divert power from the plant to the nearby Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops pressed ahead with a counter-offensive in the nearby region of Kherson to retake areas seized by Russia at the start of the invasion.

The president’s office said explosions had been heard across Kherson throughout Thursday night and that “heavy fighting” was taking place in two areas just up river from Kherson city, the regional capital. 

In the eastern Donetsk region, four people were killed and 10 wounded in various shelling incidents, while another died in the north east when a village was hit near Kharkhiv, Ukraine’s second city.

Despite the conflict, now in its seventh month, children started a new school year on September 1, although in several regions that meant lessons online due to the ongoing fighting.

“I’m happy to be back at school but I would be even happier if there was no war because I miss my teacher and my friends,” nine-year-old Antonina Sidorenko, told AFP, with the distant crackle of gunfire in the background. 

Russia has halted gas deliveries to Germany via a key pipeline for an indefinite period, after saying Friday it had found problems in a key piece of equipment, a development that will worsen Europe’s energy crisis.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said Friday that the Nord Stream pipeline due to reopen at the weekend would remain shut until a turbine is repaired.

In a statement, Gazprom indicated it had discovered “oil leaks” in a turbine during a planned three-day maintenance operation.

Gazprom added that “until it is repaired… the transport of gas via Nord Stream is completely suspended”.

Resumption of deliveries via the pipeline which runs from near St Petersburg to Germany under the Baltic Sea, had been due to resume on Saturday. 

Gazprom said it had discovered the problems while carrying out maintenance with representatives of Siemens, which manufactured the turbine in a compressor station that pushes gas through the pipeline.

On its Telegram page it published a picture of cables covered in a brown liquid.

Earlier in the day, the Kremlin warned the future operation of the Nord Stream pipeline, one of Gazprom’s major supply routes, was at risk due to a lack of spare parts.

“There are no technical reserves, only one turbine is working,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“So the reliability of the operation, of the whole system, is at risk,” he said, adding that it was “not through the fault” of Russian energy giant Gazprom.

The turbine-maker Siemens Energy said in a statement that the oil leaks blamed by Gazprom was “not a technical reason for stopping operation”.

“Such leakages do not usually affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site,” it said, adding that it was “not contracted for maintenance work”.

Following the imposition of economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has reduced or halted supplies to different European nations, causing energy prices to soar.

The Kremlin has blamed the reduction of supplies via Nord Stream on European sanctions which it says have blocked the return of a Siemens turbine that had been undergoing repairs in Canada.

Germany, which is where the turbine is located now, has said Moscow is blocking the return of the critical piece of equipment.

Berlin has previously accused Moscow of using energy as a weapon.

The announcement by Gazprom comes the same day as the G7 nations said they would work to quickly implement a price cap on Russian oil exports, a move which would starve the Kremlin of critical revenue for its war effort.

Gazprom also announced the suspension of gas supplies to France’s main provider Engie from Thursday after it failed to pay for all deliveries made in July.

– ‘Much better position’ –

As winter approaches, European nations have been seeking to completely fill their gas reserves, secure alternative supplies, and put into place plans to reduce consumption. 

A long-term halt to Russian gas supplies would complicate efforts by some nations to avoid shortages and rationing, however.

Germany said Friday its gas supplies were secure despite the halt to deliveries via Nord Stream.

“The situation on the gas market is tense, but security of supply is guaranteed,” a spokeswoman for the economy ministry said in a statement. 

The spokeswoman did not comment on the “substance” of Gazprom’s announcement earlier Friday but said Germany had “already seen Russia’s unreliability in the past few weeks”.

German officials have in recent times struck a more positive tone about the coming winter.

Before the latest shutdown, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was now “in a much better position” in terms of energy security, having achieved its gas storage targets far sooner than expected.

Europe as a whole has also been pushing ahead with filling its gas storage tanks, while fears over throttled supplies have driven companies to slash their energy usage.

Germany’s industry consumed 21.3 percent less gas in July than the average for the month from 2018 to 2021, said the Federal Network Agency.

Agency chief Klaus Mueller has said such pre-emptive action “could save Germany from a gas emergency this winter”.

Europe as a bloc meanwhile has been preparing to take emergency action to reform the electricity market in order to bring galloping prices under control. 

Fear of shortages of natural gas has driven futures contracts for electricity in France and Germany to record levels.

European consumers are also bracing for huge power bills as utilities pass on their higher energy costs.

burs-rl-sea/har