The African Union, whose contingent of peacekeepers has struggled to restore stability in Darfur over the past three years, voiced relief on Wednesday at the decision by the United Nations to send troops to the war-torn western Sudanese region. The resolution authorises the deployment of a robust 26 000-strong contingent.
Ethiopia has never forgotten its boy prince, captured by the British army and taken to England where he died more than a century ago, a lonely, royal orphan and curiosity who still lies entombed in Windsor Castle. Officials in Addis Ababa have stepped up a push to have the remains of Prince Alemayehu repatriated.
Ethiopian authorities have ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to pull out of the volatile Ogaden region for allegedly interfering in political issues, officials said on Wednesday. ”We have asked the ICRC to leave the region within seven days because they have been meddling in the region’s affairs,” said Jema Ahmed Jema, the vice-president of the region.
Ethiopia on Tuesday gave the Red Cross a week to leave the Ogaden region in the country’s volatile east, saying the aid group had been talking to rebels who operate there. The Red Cross workers ”are interfering with the political situation”, said Jama Ahmed, a vice-president of the Somali region.
Ethiopia on Friday freed 38 opposition members sentenced to jail this week for treason, inciting violence and trying to overthrow the government, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. Rights groups and donor governments had complained the trial was politically motivated.
The Ethiopian government is looking into pardon requests filed by dozens of opposition members whose heavy jail terms drew a barrage of international criticism, a senior official said on Tuesday. ”The government received the request for pardon by the detainees almost three weeks ago,” Bereket Simon said.
An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison on Monday, rebuffing a prosecution request that they be executed for trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. The remaining eight defendants were ordered to serve terms of between 18 months and 18 years.
Floods caused by abnormally heavy rains have affected nearly 7Â 000 people in southern Ethiopia, disaster officials said on Wednesday. "Almost 7Â 000 people are already affected by the floods caused by heavy rains in the south of the country for more than a week, especially in the Omo region," said Sisay Tadesse, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Agency for Disaster Prevention.
Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3,5-million and 3,8-million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution. Archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton.
Rescuers used motor boats on Tuesday to try to reach at least 4 000 pastoralists marooned by floods in Ethiopia’s remote south-east. A senior official in South Omo region said 1 800 people had been moved to safety so far since hundreds of families were surrounded when the Wotio River burst its banks last week.
Ethiopian prosecutors demanded the death penalty on Monday for 38 opposition officials convicted of trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. ”Since they have been found guilty on all counts, they should be punished with the highest penalty,” prosecutor Abraham Tetemke told the court.
Ethiopian prosecutors on Tuesday appealed for a death sentence for former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, saying the life sentence he was given for genocide was not equal to his crimes. An Ethiopian court in January sentenced Mengistu to life in prison for killings thousands of people during his bloody 17-year rule.
Ethiopia said on Thursday it was making military preparations for any possible invasion by arch-foe and neighbour Eritrea, against whom it fought a devastating border war. ”It is deemed necessary to make the necessary military preparation for deterring a possible Eritrean invasion,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Parliament.
A United Nations Security Council team and African Union officials on Saturday discussed the speedy deployment of a hybrid force in Darfur following Khartoum’s long-awaited nod for the peacekeepers. Khartoum had previously rejected attempts to send large numbers of UN peacekeepers to Darfur.
Sudan on Tuesday accepted the deployment of a hybrid African Union-United Nations force to its war-ravaged region of Darfur, according to a joint statement by the AU, UN and Sudan. It said the Sudanese government had ”accepted the joint proposals of the hybrid operation”.
Thirty-eight opposition activists were convicted by an Ethiopian court Monday in a trial stemming from violent unrest that followed disputed elections in 2005. The 38 members of the Coalition for Union and Democracy were all convicted of breaching Ethiopia’s Constitution after a trial that they refused to recognise and where they opted not to defend themselves.
Ethiopia has charged 55 opposition members with trying to launch a rebellion, a government prosecutor told said on Wednesday. More than one hundred opposition figures are already on trial, accused of plotting a coup after disputed 2005 elections.
Ethiopia said on Thursday it had detained 50 government and company officials for graft in one of the East African nation’s largest crackdowns. Ethiopia has a relatively clean image by the continent’s standards, managing to avoid the sort of major public corruption scandals plaguing neighbour Kenya, for example.
A blast ripped through a crowd in Ethiopia’s volatile Somali region on Monday, killing at least five people and setting off a stampede that saw up to six more die, according to witnesses and aid-workers. The Ethiopian government quickly blamed the attack on the Ogaden National Liberation Movement, separatist rebels who have been increasingly active in the remote east.
China will spend -million to expand the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the pan-African body said on Monday. The new premises will stand on the site of an infamous prison where former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam summarily executed by firing squad 60 top officials of the late Emperor Haile Selassie.
Ethiopia said on Saturday its troops backing Somali government forces killed nearly 1 000 insurgents in Mogadishu in March and April during some of the heaviest clashes in the city’s bloody history. Renegade Somali leaders living in Eritrea last month vowed to intensify insurgent attacks despite their retreat following the Mogadishu clashes.
African leaders are to meet in Ghana for an African Union summit at the end of next month to discuss ways of working towards a ”United States of Africa”, the bloc said in a statement on Friday. The summit, from June 25 to July 3, will be devoted to a ”grand debate on the union government”, the statement said. ”The ultimate goal … is full political and economic integration.”
Ethiopian rebels freed seven Chinese workers on Sunday who were seized in a deadly oilfield raid that was one of the worst attacks to date on Beijing’s growing interests in Africa. Officials said separatist gunmen killed 65 Ethiopians and nine other Chinese in last Tuesday’s pre-dawn assault on the exploration field in the barren eastern Ogaden region.
Ethiopian rebels who killed 74 people and seized seven Chinese workers in an attack on an oilfield said on Thursday they had no plans to hold the foreigners. But a London-based spokesperson for the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which claimed responsibility for the raid, gave no details about when the Chinese would be freed.
Ethiopia on Wednesday accused arch-foe Eritrea of supporting the rebels behind an attack on a remote Chinese-run oil field that killed 74 people, including nine Chinese workers. Eritrea immediately denied the claim — the latest in a string of accusations and counter-accusations between the rival neighbours.
Scores of gunmen attacked a Chinese-run oil field in Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 74 people, including nine Chinese nationals, a government spokesperson said. ”It is a terrorist act, ordered by a terrorist alliance that includes ONLF,” said the prime minister’s spokesperson, Berekat Simon, referring to the Ogaden National Liberation Front separatist group.
The Ethiopian government on Monday again accused Eritrea of ”terrorist activities” aimed at destabilising the region and of orchestrating the kidnapping of a group of Europeans and their Ethiopian guides. In a statement, it ”urged the international community to condemn the ever-worsening terrorist activities of the Eritrean regime”.
The Ethiopian government acknowledged detaining 41 suspected international terrorists from 17 countries and said foreign investigators were given permission to question them, said an official statement published on Tuesday. The statement comes a week after an Associated Press investigation into the transfer of terror suspects from Kenya to Somalia and eventually to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia accused Eritrea on Thursday of arming anti-Ethiopian rebels and urged the United Nations to take action against its long-time Horn of Africa foe. Eritrean officials were not immediately available to comment, but always deny such allegations. Addis Ababa and Asmara have routinely fired harsh rhetoric at each other since a 1998 to 2000 border war.
Thousands of Ethiopians who say their Jewish roots entitle them to live in Israel are stuck in a squalid camp in Ethiopia, their dream of a promised land fading as Israel scrutinises their family ties. Known as <i>Falashas Mura</i>, the descendants of Ethiopian Jews have reverted to Judaism since their late 18th and 19th century forbears converted to Christianity, sometimes under duress.
Ethiopia on Friday called for international pressure on Eritrea, which it accuses of holding eight Ethiopians still missing after the release of five European captives this week. A British embassy group of five people was released on Tuesday in Eritrea, but eight Ethiopian drivers and guides accompanying them are still missing.
Ethiopia demanded on Wednesday that Eritrea free eight Ethiopians being held by kidnappers, saying they were victims of Eritrean ”terrorism”. Five Europeans were freed from the kidnapped group on Tuesday in Eritrea after a 12-day ordeal. The victims were seized in remote northern Ethiopia in a case which has stoked tensions between the Horn of Africa rivals.