African representation has shriveled at the Winter Olympics.

A war that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian forces and fighters from the country’s Tigray region has killed tens of thousands of people.

Italy has allowed a Spanish-flagged charity ship with 265 rescued migrants aboard to anchor off Sicily on Monday. But migration from outside the EU requires the bloc’s members to stand together, and “solidarity cannot be voluntary,” the statement said. Finding consensus for a common EU policy on migration has eluded the bloc for years. Portugal also wants to reach a comprehensive migration agreement with countries along the Mediterranean Sea’s southern rim, from where many migrants cross to the EU. Legal migration can help some EU countries find answers to low birth rates and aging populations, it said.

Migrants from Eritrea, Egypt, Syria and Sudan, rest on board the Spanish NGO Open Arms vessel after having been rescued in the Mediterranean sea, about 110 miles north of Libya, on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)ROME – Italy allowed a Spanish-flagged charity ship with 265 rescued migrants aboard to anchor off Sicily on Monday. The Open Arms vessel had brought the migrants safely aboard in separate rescues last week in the central Mediterranean. Open Arms said 96 of those rescued had been adrift two days in a wooden boat without life vests in international waters. In an earlier, separate operation, Open Arms had taken aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based.

Migrants from Eritrea, Egypt, Syria and Sudan, are assisted by aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, after fleeing Libya on board a precarious wooden boat in the Mediterranean sea, about 110 miles north of Libya, on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)ROME – A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days. The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based. The traffickers launch vessels, many of them flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety fishing boats, crowded with migrants who hope to reach European shores to seek asylum.

Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership of the country's defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. (AP Photo/Samuel Habtab)NAIROBI – Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership of the country’s defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. Clashes began early Wednesday when Abiy accused the TPLF forces of attacking a military base in Tigray. A new United Nations assessment lists eight “recent military confrontations” across Tigray, most near its southern border with the Amhara region. Dino Mahtani with the International Crisis Group, in comments posted Friday, said that if the Tigray forces come under pressure they may "punch into Eritrea, which would then internationalize this conflict."

Ethiopia's prime minister says airstrikes have been carried out against the forces of the country's Tigray region, asserting that the strikes in multiple locations "completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons." (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)NAIROBI – Ethiopia's prime minister on Friday said his government has carried out airstrikes against the forces of the country's well-armed Tigray region, asserting that strikes in multiple locations “completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons" and made a retaliatory attack impossible. The prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his sweeping political reforms, now faces his greatest test. The northern Tigray region is now increasingly cut off. The Tigray government and Eritrea don't get along, and the TPLF this week accused Eritrea of teaming up with Ethiopia's federal government to target it.

OSLO, Norway - The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister who helped end his country's 20-year war with Eritrea. Announcing the prize in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Abiy's "efforts deserve recognition and need encouragement." "As Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed has sought to promote reconciliation, solidarity and social justice," she added. He released the country's political prisoners, denouncing their torture, and freed jailed journalists. "In Ethiopia, even if much work remains, Abiy Ahmed has initiated important reforms that give many citizens hope for a better life and a brighter future," said Reiss-Andersen.