Poor rains and high crop prices have left more than 18-million people with serious food shortages in 10 African countries, a food-security monitoring group said. The food shortages are concentrated in Ethiopia, where more than half of the 18-million affected people live, the group’s report said.
Ethiopia’s two main opposition groups said on Tuesday that probes into alleged mass fraud in disputed May elections had been a ”total failure” and accused the government of harrassing witnesses. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces said that one witness was killed and 11 others arrested after testifying before a panel set up by the national election board.
Ethiopia’s main opposition party, the Coalition for National Unity (CUD), has pulled out of a joint team investigating alleged fraud in disputed parliamentary elections, officials said on Friday. The CUD complained of threats against its members in various parts of the country following post-election violence in which at least 37 people died last month.
A rare and deadly parasitic disease has killed 159 people since late last year during an outbreak in northern Ethiopia, an international aid agency said on Tuesday. A doctor from Médécins sans Frontières said the majority of deaths have been among children under the age of 12.
Ethiopian federal police confirmed on Friday the release of 2 665 people detained during week-long disturbances in Addis Ababa against alleged fraud in the May 15 general elections. At least 36 people were killed by police gunfire during the violent clashes, which the government said were instigated by the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy.
International condemnation of the violence that followed the May 15 parliamentary election in Ethiopia took on new force this week, with news that Britain had suspended -million in aid to the East African country. These funds will be put on hold until Ethiopia’s fraught political climate improves.
Africa needs at least -billion a year to deal with children orphaned by HIV/Aids, the United Nations and the African Union said on Thursday. More than one in 10 children in Africa are already orphaned with numbers expected to hit more than 50-million children by 2010.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council said on Tuesday that police had arrested two of its investigators probing alleged abuses by authorities during a police crackdown on post-election violence. The arrests took place shortly after more than 3Â 000 opposition members had been rounded up by police.
Ethiopian police have arrested more than 3Â 000 opposition supporters in a crackdown following deadly clashes last week during protests over alleged election fraud, a human rights group said on Monday. An official at the capital’s only morgue said the death toll from election-related violence now stands at 36.
Ethiopia’s government has rejected international condemnation of a police crackdown on demonstrators angered over a disputed election, holding opposition politicians responsible for violence that has left at least 27 people dead. International donors have condemned the violence.
Police raided a technical college in Ethiopia’s capital on Tuesday, beating up students and firing rubber bullets on the second day of defiance of a government ban on demonstrations, witnesses said. Clashes between police and student demonstrators on Monday left a girl dead, seven people injured and hundreds arrested.
Ethiopia’s ruling party has won a majority of parliamentary seats in May 15 parliamentary polls with preliminary results in from 85% of the country’s 547 constituencies, electoral updates released on Monday showed.
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition and allied political parties have won a majority in the country’s 547-seat Parliament, according to provisional results, the National Electoral Board said. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s coalition won 269 seats, while four small independent parties affiliated with the ruling party won 14 seats.
The final results in Ethiopia’s parliamentary election may be delayed because of hundreds of complaints and allegations of fraud filed by the candidates, the National Electoral Board spokesperson said on Friday. The board was scheduled to release the final results of the May 15 election on June 8.
International donors have pledged -million in cash and more in kind to help the African Union expand its peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur, according to preliminary figures provided on Friday. A senior official said the -million was pledged in cash during a donors’ conference on Thursday.
The uproar over Ethiopia’s hotly contested general elections last week and confusion and delays in releasing the results have sparked a massive boom for the country’s nascent independent press. The publishers of about 40 general-interest newspapers have reported a huge surge in circulation as Ethiopians clamour for information about the recent polls.
The death toll from a flash flood that hit a town in south-eastern Ethiopia has climbed to at least 27 with rescue and recovery efforts still under way, officials said on Sunday. Police said the bodies of 21 people, including at least six children, who died in the overnight on Friday flood have been recovered.
Ethiopia’s main opposition coalition said on Friday it will not accept election results for 84 seats that may hold the balance of power in the 547-strong Parliament, increasing already high tensions as the nation awaits official results. Both opposition and ruling parties are claiming victory based on their own projections.
The European Union on Tuesday scolded Ethiopia’s ruling party and opposition for premature announcements of their success in the hotly contested weekend elections, but said the process has been relatively smooth. Officials of the National Election Board of Ethiopia cannot confirm any result until Saturday.
Buoyed by early returns suggesting significant gains in the capital, Ethiopia’s opposition on Monday backed off a threat to reject nationwide results from hotly contested weekend elections. As vote counts trickled in, observers said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party appears to have lost parliamentary seats.
Ethiopians voted by the millions, responding enthusiastically to a open parliamentary race between the coalition that ended a brutal dictatorship and an opposition promising greater liberalisation. But on Monday, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declared a ban on demonstrations and open meetings in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia’s opposition on Monday backed off a threat to reject nationwide results from hotly contested weekend elections it says were marred by fraud, saying their complaints were limited to key areas. The boycott threat led Prime Minister Meles Zenawi late on Sunday to ban all post-election demonstrations for one month.
The African Union announced on Friday the deployment of an initial force of 1 700 troops to Somalia to aid the return of the country’s government-in-exile. The AU’s Peace and Security Council endorsed the move on Thursday following a decision by the Council of Ministers of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Campaigning in Ethiopia’s parliamentary elections officially ended on Friday ahead of a weekend vote that will be a critical test of freedom and democracy in one of the United States’s closest allies in Africa. The balloting marks the end of a race that has tested the tolerance of regime that has ruled the Horn of Africa nation since 1991.
Ethiopian authorities said on Wednesday they take ”very seriously” European Union concerns about virulent language being used by rival parties in the campaign for the country’s weekend general elections. The National Election Board of Ethiopia said the concerns expressed by EU election observers in a letter last week will be addressed.
European Union observers on Monday lauded the openness of the run-up to Ethiopia’s upcoming general elections, following peaceful mass rallies at the weekend by government and opposition supporters. ”Never before in Ethiopian history has there been such an open debate in the country,” said the EU delegation chief in Addis Ababa.
As many as 300 000 Ethiopian children will die from malnutrition this year if donors do not come forward with food aid and funds, a United Nations official said. The UN children’s agency urgently needs -million in the next 60 days to feed about 170 000 of those who are now close to starving to death, said Bjorn Ljungqvist, the agency’s head in Ethiopia.
The death toll from more than a week of devastating floods in south-eastern Ethiopia has risen to at least 154 with nearly 260 000 people left homeless, officials said on Wednesday. The raging waters have taken a huge toll on livestock and agriculture in the remote, impoverished region, they said.
At least 134 people have been killed and nearly 250 000 displaced in massive floods that have hit south-east Ethiopia since last week, taking a huge toll on livestock and agriculture, officials said on Monday. The flood’s toll on livestock and farmland in the state has been particularly disastrous for the impoverished region.
No African country is spending enough on defence, a conference on military budgetary processes in Africa heard on Thursday. ”Donor concerns about defence budgets are relative,” African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR) executive director Eboe Hutchful told a gathering at the African Union conference centre in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
At least 72 people have been killed and thousands more made homeless in devastating floods that have submerged more than 30 villages in south-east Ethiopia, an official said on Tuesday. People, houses, and livestock have been washed away by raging waters from the Wabe Shebell river.
Ethiopia is facing serious malnutrition in 25 hot spots around the country and is in dire need of funding to avert deaths, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Friday. Unicef said they need -million to help support tens of thousands of children under a ”child survival” package to provide food, water and vaccinations.