The singer-songwriter, whose actual title is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, on Sunday stated that he’ll donate $1 million to Ethiopian aid efforts by the UN World Food Programme.
A current CNN investigation discovered that males carrying Ethiopian military uniforms executed unarmed males in Tigray. A BBC-led investigation additionally printed Thursday corroborated the identical bloodbath close to Mahibere Dego, a mountainous space of central Tigray.
On Friday, Ethiopia’s authorities dismissed proof of those claims.
“My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” The Weeknd, whose dad and mom are from Ethiopia, stated on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
“I will be donating $1 million to provide 2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Programme and encourage those who can to please give as well.”
The violence in Ethiopia has gone on since November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered assaults on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after Ahmed alleged that TPLF had attacked a federal navy base.
The UN introduced on March 25 that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission would launch a joint investigation into potential crimes.
The UN World Food Programme acknowledged that the “outbreak of conflict coincided with (Ethiopia’s) peak harvest season, meaning employment and incomes were lost, markets were disrupted, food prices rose, and access to cash and fuel became very difficult.” The Ethiopian authorities estimated that 4.5 million individuals want “life-saving” help by late this yr, the UN reported.
This is not the primary time The Weeknd has contributed to a trigger.
The singer donated $300,000 to the worldwide Aid for Lebanon marketing campaign final August to assist victims of an explosion in Beirut that killed over 200 individuals, his supervisor introduced on social media.
Following George Floyd’s killing final May, The Weeknd additionally donated $500,000 to racial justice teams: the Black Lives Matter Global Network, Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp and the National Bail Out Collective.
He additionally partnered with TikTok in an August 7 livestream that raised over $350,000 for the Equal Justice Initiative by promoting restricted merchandise.
CNN’s Bethlehem Feleke, Eliza Mackintosh, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase and Nima Elbagir contributed to this report.
