Stung by their inability to end 15 years of conflict in Somalia, African Union leaders prepare to confront the issue with no clear solution except to recite old appeals and re-emphasise the pressing need for stability for the Horn of African nation. Despite fears of the Somali developments, the leaders meeting at a weekend summit appear unlikely to endorse any new proposal to try to halt the unrest.
Ethiopians are awaiting a verdict in the marathon genocide trial of former dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam, who is accused of a plethora of brutal atrocities during his 17-year regime. Ethiopia’s Federal High Court is expected to deliver its ruling on Tuesday after a more than a decade of what has been one of Africa’s longest criminal proceedings.
The African Union on Monday gave two hold-out Darfur rebel groups a 24-hour deadline to sign a peace deal with Khartoum or face United Nations sanctions. AU commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said the pan-African body would ask the UN Security Council to slap sanctions on the the two groups unless they signed the deal by Tuesday.
At least two people were killed and 21 injured on Friday when four blasts, described by police as "criminal acts", rocked Addis Ababa, the latest in a series of mystery explosions in the country. Two people died and seven were hurt, five seriously and two slightly, when a device exploded at a cafe in the capital’s north-west Mercato district.
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/ 2 February 2006
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday accused Eritrea of arrogant war-mongering behavior as border tensions between the arch-rival neighbours intensified after a recent lull. Meles blamed the current frontier stalement on Eritrea, which has warned new conflict is looming because Ethiopia has refused to accept a border demarcation.
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/ 20 January 2006
At least 16 people were injured, three seriously, on Friday as Ethiopian police moved to quell unrest in at least two parts of the capital on the second and final day of celebrations marking the Orthodox Epiphany, or Timkat, hospital officials said. The wounded included three men who were shot in the abdomen, chest and pelvis respectively.
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/ 3 November 2005
At least 27 people were killed on Wednesday as armed police clashed with demonstrators in the Ethiopian capital, prompting calls for restraint from the African Union and the United States. Almost 150 were injured in fighting after the main opposition party called for protests against May elections it insists were rigged.
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/ 1 November 2005
At least five people were shot dead and more than 28 were wounded on Tuesday when Ethiopian police fired on and beat crowds in the capital amid new tensions over disputed May elections. Doctors at four Addis Ababa hospitals said five people had been killed by gunfire and another 28 were being treated for bullet wounds along with an unknown number of others who appeared to have been assaulted by the police.
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/ 1 November 2005
Heavily armed Ethiopian police clashed with stone-throwing rioters in the capital on Tuesday amid soaring new tension between the government and opposition over disputed May elections, witnesses said. Shots were heard as about 250 riot police deployed in the downtown Mercato area where angry mobs had erected barricades of rocks and burning tyres in the streets.
African leaders will meet on Thursday to seek means of averting the disintegration of war-divided Côte d’Ivoire, plunged deeper into crisis with the indefinite postponement of elections meant to bring peace. Côte d’Ivoire has for three years been split into two along truce lines patrolled by French and United Nations soldiers.