At least 40 people have died and more than 430 taken ill with highly infectious meningococcal meningitis in Ethiopia over the past five months, the country’s health ministry said on Wednesday. An official with the World Health Organisation said vaccines have been distributed to the ”infected regions”.
Bursting with national pride, Ethiopians this week celebrate the long-awaited return home of the famed Axum obelisk, a huge third-century BC funeral stela plundered by fascist Italy nearly 70 years ago. After decades of wrangling, the first of three pieces of the 160-tonne granite monument will arrive in Addis Ababa from Rome on Wednesday.
More than half of all Ethiopian children are stunted, according to a government report on the state of the country’s health released on Thursday. One in 10 children are described as ”wasted”, and just under half as underweight due to poor diet and malnutrition, said the report issued by Ethiopia’s health ministry.
African Union officials discussed sending troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to forcibly disarm thousands of Rwandans linked to their country’s 1994 genocide. At a meeting, officials said they were considering three options for disarming an estimated 10 000 to 14 000 Rwandan rebels in the DRC.
Governments could allow up to 89-million HIV/Aids infections to develop virtually unchallenged in Africa over the next 20 years by failing to take effective measures and boost funding, a United Nations study issued on Friday warned. Half of these could be averted if leaders take the right steps and significant foreign aid is forthcoming, said the report.
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/ 25 February 2005
Togo’s military-installed president was expected on Friday to announce he is stepping down following fierce regional and international opposition to his rule, a diplomat at the African Union said. Faure Gnassingbe was expected to make the announcement in a speech to the congress of Togo’s ruling party, the diplomat told The Associated Press.
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/ 25 February 2005
Concern is mounting over Ethiopia’s flagship ”safety net” policy set up to end dependency on aid for five million people, the United Nations said. Paul Herbert, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the needy have still not received any food or cash under the scheme.
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/ 24 February 2005
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is to meet to consider further sanctions against the government of Togo, where the military installed Faure Gnassingbe as president to replace his late father. His accession has been deemed a power grab by much of the international community, further isolating the West African state.
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/ 7 February 2005
Jules Benji, a massed choir singing No Woman No Cry over his shoulder from a huge stage in Meskel Square, Addis Ababa, declared: ”We’re doing His Majesty’s work here. This is a historic day for Ethiopia.” His clothes were traditional Ethiopian, shining white, with a ceremonial dagger at his side. But his accent was pure Moss Side, Manchester.
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/ 27 January 2005
Wealthy countries ”deliberately” enlist doctors and nurses from poor nations, costing developing states -million a year in lost training, a top United Nations official said on Wednesday. Ndioro Ndiaye, deputy director general of the International Organisation for Migration, said the loss ”severely affects” Africa’s health sector.
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/ 27 January 2005
Leaders of the African Union’s 53 member states meet next week in Abuja amid growing demands from the continent’s trouble spots that far surpass the organisation’s limited financial resources. From funding its Ethiopian headquarters and managing its South Africa-based Parliament to current and planned military deployments, the two-year-old AU is already in the red.
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/ 25 January 2005
The East African state of Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world, on Monday launched a plan to fight HIV/Aids which will include the distribution of free anti-retroviral drugs. The new strategy is the fifth anti-Aids campaign launched by the Ethiopian government since 1996.
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/ 21 January 2005
India.Arie, Angelique Kidjo and the Marley family join a roster of international music stars in Addis Ababa next month to celebrate the 60th birthday of the late reggae legend Bob Marley — the first time the event has been held outside the singer’s native Jamaica. Hundreds of thousands are expected to participate in a month of festivities.
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/ 14 January 2005
The decision on whether to rebury reggae legend Bob Marley in Ethiopia is private and depends on his family, an official of the Bob Marley Foundation said on Friday. On Wednesday, Marley’s widow, Rita, said she is working on taking her late husband’s remains from Jamaica to his ”spiritual resting place,” Ethiopia.
The African Union has agreed in principle to deploy a peace support mission in the troubled Horn of Africa state of Somalia, which is trying to emerge from 13 years of anarchy, the AU said in a statement on Thursday. The mission will be the first multinational force in Somalia since the end of a failed, United Nations-mandated intervention in 1995.
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/ 23 December 2004
The United Nations on Thursday appealed for relief supplies worth -million to support more than 7,2-million Ethiopians affected by drought in the Horn of Africa country. A total of 387 482 tonnes of food worth -million and non-food assistance worth -million is needed for 2005.
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/ 19 December 2004
In Ethiopia’s plethora of street cafés, above the whistling of steam escaping from ancient cappuccino machines, the talk is of next year’s parliamentary elections. It is no surprise. In a country with a 2 000-year history, this will be only the fifth time that Ethiopians have gone to the polls. And, elections in 1992, 1995 and 2000 were marred by chaos and serious irregularities.
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/ 13 December 2004
Germany is to cancel a 67-million-euro (,68-million) debt owed by following an agreement signed in Addis Ababa on Monday between Ethiopian Minister of State for Finance and economic Planning Mulu Ketsela and German Federal Minister of State Kerstin Muller.
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/ 8 December 2004
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal on Wednesday for ,2-million in food aid for 118 000 refugees in Ethiopia over the next six months. An additional 8 500 tonnes of cereals, vegetable oil, pulses, salt and blended foods were urgently needed to feed the refugees.
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/ 7 December 2004
The African Union agreed on Tuesday on a -million budget for 2005, a fourfold increase, in order to finance a series of ambitious projects. In the budget, -million is earmarked for peace and security — less than half the -million sought for this by the AU Commission.
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/ 25 November 2004
Ethiopia accepts the outline of its frontiers with Eritrea as set by a joint commission after their 1998-2000 border war, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Thursday. Although both countries agreed in a peace accord signed in Algiers in 2000 to accept the commission’s ruling as final and binding, Ethiopia rejected it as ”unjust” in September 2003.
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/ 11 November 2004
One of the world’s ancient alphabets could flash on the screen of cellphones in the third-most-populous nation in Africa, easing communications for millions who can only read and write the Ethiopic script. Ethiopian and United States-based scientists adapted the script, which dates back to the fourth century, for use in text messages.
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/ 5 November 2004
A hasty imposition or deployment of a peacekeeping force to war-ravaged Somalia could ignite renewed conflict, Alejandro Bendana, team leader of the European Union-backed Somalia Strategic Demilitarisation Unit, warned on Thursday. "This is not Iraq," Bendana told journalists at the start of a two-day Somalia planning meeting.
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/ 27 October 2004
Ethiopia has completed the vaccination of 750 000 children against polio as it seeks to eradicate the last traces of the paralysing disease in the country. The campaign comes amid fears that polio could re-emerge in Ethiopia after new cases were discovered close to the border of neighbouring Sudan.
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/ 26 October 2004
Somalia’s newly elected president said on Monday his administration will not remain in exile, but will return to the war-ravaged country before security is completely restored. President Abdullahi Yusuf said once his Cabinet is selected it will return — although it will initially establish itself outside the capital, Mogadishu.
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/ 25 October 2004
Newly elected Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed on Monday asked the African Union to deploy up to 20 000 troops in his country to help disarm tens of thousands of factional fighters and restore stability to a state devastated by more than a decade of lawlessness.
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/ 22 October 2004
Four members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) have been sentenced to death for mass murder committed in Ethiopia in 1992, reports said on Friday. The killings were committed weeks after the OLF left the then Ethiopian transitional government in July 1992 over policy differences.
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/ 21 October 2004
Panic is beginning to set in among drought-hit families in Ethiopia’s Somali region, where poor rains have exacerbated water shortages, the government and aid organisations said on Wednesday. More than four million people live in the dry, remote region, which is made up of nine zones and has a 1 600-km border with Somalia.
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/ 21 October 2004
An Ethiopian high court on Wednesday sentenced three genocide suspects to death and a fourth to 20 years in prison for murders carried out during the reign of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. The court sentenced Iman Kelil Oumar, Beyan Ahmed Ousman and Asli Ahmed to death and Biftu Roba to 20 years behind bars for their role in the death of 207 people.
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/ 18 October 2004
Violent treatment of women in Ethiopia and denial of development opportunities for them ”is a national disgrace,” World Bank chief James Wolfensohn said Sunday. Ethiopian women often are victims of female genital mutilation and bear the brunt of poverty, poor health care and lack of education. More than 70% of marriages in the country are by abduction, the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia says.
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/ 14 October 2004
Africa must brace itself for an Aids time bomb as 8 000 people are infected with HIV a day in the region worst hit by the pandemic, the United Nations warned on Thursday. Seventy percent of the 45-million people worldwide infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa — even though the region is home to only 11% of the world’s population.
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/ 11 October 2004
Africans gave their governments poor marks in a landmark scorecard on the way officials run 28 of the continent’s nations, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. Corruption, poor tax systems and dilapidated public services were the main complaints of about 50 000 African families and 2 000 experts polled.