Ethiopia troops enter strategic Somali town-locals

Reuters
By Mohamed Ahmed MOGADISHU, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops in heavily armoured vehicles crossed into central Somalia on Saturday, witnesses said, ... read more

Captured in Oromia: An American nightmare

By: Rory Linnane /The Daily Cardinal Rory in traditional dress with her host brother after his graduation from kindergart

Daily Cardinal - Madison,WI,USA
While we were never given an official reason for our deportation, many of us believe it had to do with the ethnicity of the students we were teaching: Oromo. Every Oromo person I talked to felt that the government actively oppresses the Oromo ethnic group as a means of maintaining power. The ruling party of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, has proven it will go to great lengths to protect its power. After the 2005 national elections threatened the party’s majority in parliament, Ethiopians accused the party of intimidation at the polls and forging ballots. Hundreds were injured, killed or arrested. ...read more
www.dailycardinal.com

Ethiopian Athletes Vanish On Trip to Seek Asylum - Reports

Addis Abeba — Four athletes from Ethiopia have gone missing during a visit to Britain for an international athletics event, according to reports from UK.Addis Abeba — Four athletes from Ethiopia have gone missing during a visit to Britain for an international athletics event, according to reports from UK.

The athletes who have vanished in the UK are believed to be seeking asylum, Mirror reported yesterday. The two men and two women were among a team of 10 due to compete in a televised competition in Scotland, the report said...read more

allafrica.com

More Than 20 Killed in Fighting in Somali Capital

By Alisha Ryu Nairobi 21 August 2009

Dead bodies lay near a street in southern Mogadishu's K4 junction, 21 Aug 2009

Islamist militants in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, launched a pre-dawn raid on African Union peacekeepers Friday, triggering fierce fighting that killed more than 20 people. Meanwhile, government-led military efforts to take control of insurgent-held towns in the country's central and southwestern regions have reportedly suffered setbacks.

As Somalis prepare to observe the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, al-Shabab and Hisbul Islam rebels appeared to have made good on their vow to mark the start of Ramadan with intensified attacks against the government and the African Union mission in Mogadishu known as AMISOM. read more
Voice of America

Eritrea takes advantage over Ethiopia in war damages rulling

August 24, 2009 -- After the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission awarded Ethiopia USD 174 million and Eritrea USD 161.4 million in damages over the 1998-2000 border war on Monday, Ethiopia said it shall further study the details of the final award and measures that could be taken to ensure what is owed to Ethiopia by Eritrea is settled. The largest part of the award to Eritrea was USD 46 million for expellees’ losses of property on account of Ethiopia’s "wrongful actions". Similarly, Ethiopia was awarded USD 45 million for human suffering and lost income associated with internal displacement of persons. Following eight years' hearings, the final award of the Commission says Eritrea has to pay Ethiopia over USD 10 million. Ethiopia complained with the amount, and Eritrea said it would respect the ruling..... read more

Climate Change Meeting Will Undermine Meles Zenawi's Democracy

August 24, 2009, 10:20 am

By Roger Bate

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has always been shrewd in his courting of world leaders and deflection of his own failings. By talking tough over Somalia and terrorism he has won over many hawkish conservatives, who have been happy to gloss over his oppressive domestic record in order to have an ally in the Horn of Africa. He has done little to improve property right ownership in his country and so kept the likelihood of famine ever-present and himself in power, while managing to blame others for the poverty of his people. And now he’s hosting a meeting on climate change in order to further his Western and African credentials. Regardless of the stated aims of this meeting—to provide an African coordinated position on climate change—it is more of the same; deflection of the causes of famine and poverty and holding out a begging bowl to the West, which will be further used to undermine Ethiopian democracy. He and his African Union colleagues will once again use our largesse to suppress their masses—and all in the name of climate change. And of course Western leaders will love pressure from Africa on why they need to reduce their greenhouse emissions. Expect more of this tragic drivel in the run up to Copenhagen’s December climate jamboree.
The American

Oromian Kenenisa Makes History in Berlin

Gadaa.com Oduu - News
It's a men's 10000m race in a major championships and Kenenisa Bekele wins in a sprint finish: sounds familiar? Well actually it does, ..full report

Oromia fertile lands for sale

In Summary

• United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India, China and South Korea among states seeking farms in Ethiopia.
• India leads the "land grabbing" race, with more than $2.5 billion in agricultural investment
• Currently, more than 5.2 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid

Ethiopian government has defended its plan to offer 2.7 million hectares of farmland to foreign companies despite millions of citizens who need food aid from the international community. graping O

According to Ethiopia's Agriculture Ministry officials, the country delineated around 2.7 million hectares of land, available for foreign companies from Middle East and East Asia countries.

The government will hand over 1.7 million hectares of arable land to the foreign investors before the coming harvest season.

World's top oil producing countries including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and giant economies like India, China and South Korea are queuing in Addis Ababa to start big commercial farming to feed their own people. read more

Kenya kicks out Eritrea diplomat

Kenya's Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula.
Kenya revealed on Friday that it had deported an Eritrean diplomat
“for security reasons”. Photo/FILE
A day after Mrs Clinton warned of unspecified action against the country, Eritrea dispatched Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed to Nairobi who immediately went into a meeting with Kenyan counterpart, Mr Moses Wetang’ula.Read more
Daily Nation

Canada pressured to cut foreign aid to Ethiopia

The Province
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC), which calls itself independent, said Bashir was not a member of the ONLF and not involved in politics. ...Read more

Ethiopian government deported 15 U.S. students

By David Arnold Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 04/08/2009

The federal government of Ethiopia deported 15 American students who were teaching English in small, rural communities in eastern Hararghe region of Oromiya for several weeks.

They had been volunteering in several communities not far from the Ogaden and an off-limits region of Ethiopia where government forces are battling Ogaden National Liberation Front rebel forces. The trip was organized by Learning Enterprises International in Stanford, California. This was the third year the project had been in operation...read more

Source: VOA Horn of African News

A Critical Assessment of the Oromo Liberation Fron

Source: www.OromoIndex.com
Some may take this as an obituary (the end of an era); some others as a call for a new organizational approach. Like it or not; agree or disagree; here is Jawar Siraj Mohammed's self-review of the Oromo struggle under OLF: "Failure to Deliver: The Journey of the Oromo Liberation Front in the Last Two Decades"

PART-1 PART-2 PART-3 PART-4

Zenawi’s Government to Finance a Million Dollar Boxing Match As Millions Starve to Death

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the government of Ethiopia has made the move to finance the bout between Evander Holyfield and Sammy Retta for publicity - an event that will cost millions with all the extravaganza that goes along with it. All this while 12,000,000 people require humanitarian food assistance as reported by the World Food Program. All this while 90% of the country’s budget comes from foreign aid as reported by Canada’s CBC. Zenawi’s regime has, in recent years, engaged in marketing blitz focused on covering up the real issues of the country with such wasteful events. In a country that lacks basic democracy and the rule of law and in a country plagued with corruption, a boxing match beamed at starving audience will not bring any change. Here’s the report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Full Story (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Clinton to meet Somali President on Africa visit

PRESS TV - ‎Jul 29, 2009‎

The US secretary of state plans to hold talks with the Somali president in an attempt to embolden the Mogadishu government in the lawless Horn of Africa state....read more

Related news:

Clinton to meet Somali president Aljazeera.net

Clinton meets Kenyan and Somali leaders next week: ISI - Emerging Markets

HRLHA: Plight of Oromo Political Prisoners Under the Repressive Ethiopian Regime

We, Oromo nationals from all walks of life - farmers, students, teachers, business persons, entrepreneurs, government employees, engineers, medical doctors, youths, elderly, men, women, children etc brought from all over Oromia and accused of being either members or supporters Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) have been subjected to brutal tortures, ill treatments and very harsh prison situations the TPLF/EPRDF government of Ethiopia. read more
Gadaa.com

Woyane jails ex-official Benishangul Gumuz region

Addis Ababa - An Ethiopian court on Tuesday sentenced a former regional official to 20 years in jail for supporting rebel groups operating around the country's border with Sudan.

Sebil Albekhit, former vice-president of the Benishangul Gumuz region in western Ethiopia, was jailed along with 23 others by the high court.


President of Benishangul-Gumuz
regionYaregal Aysheshim
State-run Ethiopian Television said most of them were caught earlier this year while trying to flee to neighbouring Sudan.

The Horn of Africa country's porous frontier with Sudan was in the past home to several Ethiopian rebel groups, mainly in the eastern and southern part of the country, but recent crackdowns by the government have weakened them. - Sapa-AFP

OLA , WBO

An Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel stands guard in their training camp in southern Ethiopia, near the border town of Moyale, July 17, 2009. ...
View Picture

Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels from the front-line hold their weapons as they return to their training camp in southern Ethiopia, near the border town of ...
View Picture

Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels walk from their training camp in southern Ethiopia, near the border town of Moyale, July 19, 2009. ...
View Picture
source: reuters.com

Wayane to import power to Kenya, Sudan

Daily Nation
By ARGAW ASHINE, NATION CorrespondentPosted Tuesday, July 21 2009 at 15:37 Sudan's national Electric agency is set to buy power from Ethiopia early next ...read more

An Interview with the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent

By jimluce
October 1978, inside the main police station in Addis Ababa.Bekele Geleta is hanging upside down, his feet being beaten bloody by interrogators. They insist he belongs to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); he insists he doesn’t. He is a civil servant, not a politician or an activist.

It does not matter. Bekele has been caught in another purge... of the socialist dictatorship... in an effort to eliminate the OLF. Many of his friends and relatives have been arrested.

"At that time there were roundups in the country, lots of killings left and right," says Bekele. "Anybody who was reported to be politically anti-government was rounded up and sent to prison."

Finally he is brought before a special investigator, who declares a sentence of five years in jail, no trial.

Bekele is transferred to the Central Prison in Addis Ababa, known informally as Karcheli prison. The inmate population numbers in the thousands, with as many as 1,500 political prisoners alone.

Pickpockets, activists, academics, businessmen, murderers, civil servants -- all are penned together behind the imposing walls and iron bars of the prison building in the city’s downtown, "right behind the offices of the Organization of African Unity," says Bekele.

When he first arrives, he is put into a cell with 200 inmates and two hole-in-the-floor toilets. There are no chairs, no tables, no beds except for some mattresses on the floor....(read more)

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1. Bekele Geleta: From Refugee To Red Cross Boss

2. Bekele Geleta Receives Honorary Doctorate

3. Bekele Geleta | Honorary graduations 2009 | Media | University
   

4. Introducing Bekele Geleta
   

Ethiopia: Woyane suspends 42 ngos as hunger worsens

Daily Nation

Daily Nation - Nairobi,Kenya
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi speaks to the media at his office in Addis Ababa, April 13, 2009. Ethiopian authorities have suspended the....(read more