Ethiopia

Alleged dissidents from a holdout Darfur rebel group may sign a peace pact for the troubled Sudanese region, diplomats said on Wednesday, as an African Union deadline loomed for the deal’s acceptance. A group claiming to represent a splinter faction of the Justice and Equality Movement arrived at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Hours before the expiry of a May 31 deadline by the African Union to Darfur rebel groups still holding out from signing a peace deal, the pan-African body said on Tuesday it was hopeful the insurgents would beat the ultimatum. ”Until the May 31 deadline expires, we are hopeful that the parties that have not signed will sign,” AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said.

At least 42 people were injured when three blasts rocked a town in southern Ethiopia at the weekend in the latest of a series of mystery explosions to have hit the country, police said on Monday. The simultaneous blasts hit a hotel and two restaurants in Jijiga, about 720km south-east of Addis Ababa around 7pm on Saturday.

Six months after suspending aid to Ethiopia on democracy concerns, two of the impoverished nation’s top donors agreed on Friday to put much of that money to education and health projects. The World Bank and Britain said they had redirected a total of more than -million from suspended support to programmes to help the poorest in Ethiopia over the next two years.

Three explosions rocked the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Friday afternoon, killing a person and bringing the death toll from a total of nine blasts during the day to at least four, with 41 wounded, police said. At least one person was killed and four were injured in the latest blasts.

The African continent has the world’s highest rate of child labour, with two in five children in sub-Saharan Africa engaged in some form of work, the United Nations Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Thursday. Almost 50-million children in sub-Saharan Africa between the ages of five and 14 work, according to <i>The End of Child Labour: Within Reach</i>, an ILO report released on Thursday.

Ethiopia on Wednesday dismissed rebel threats to foreign energy firms considering work in the country’s restive south-east, saying the area was stable with no risk to potential investment. The information ministry said the warning from the Ogaden National Liberation Front that natural gas exploration in the Ogaden region ”will not be tolerated” was hollow and nothing new.

A rebel group issued a warning on Monday to companies that are looking to develop natural gas fields in a contested area of Ethiopia, saying any investment that benefits the Ethiopian government ”will not be tolerated”. The Ogaden National Liberation Front, which wants an independent state in Ethiopia for ethnic Somalis, said a pipeline ”in what is essentially a combat zone is far from reality”.

The United States will provide an additional -million in humanitarian aid to Ethiopia to alleviate the effects of prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa country. Michael Hess, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said on Thursday that the additional funding included -million in food aid and ,3-million in non-food aid.

The African Development Fund (ADF), the soft-loan arm of the African Development Bank, has approved debt relief amounting to ,5-billion to 33 low-income African countries, an ADF statement said on Friday. Thirteen of these countries will receive immediate debt cancellation.

At least six people were killed and dozens wounded when grenades exploded in towns in eastern and western Ethiopia, the latest in a string of mystery blasts in the country, police said on Thursday. Grenades were detonated at two bars and a church in the remote eastern town of Jijiga on Saturday evening.

South African-based railway operator Comazar was declared winner on Thursday of an international tender to administer the 1 000km Ethio-Djibouti railway for 25 years. The line runs from the Ethiopian capital to the small neighbouring country of Djibouti, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

Ethiopia on Tuesday accused its bitter rival Eritrea of trying to foment unrest a day after one person was killed and 15 injured in a series of bombings here. ”The wish of the Eritrean government is to see a divided or at least much weakened Ethiopia,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

A bomb exploded on a packed minibus heading into Ethiopia’s capital on Monday, killing at least one person and wounding several others, police and witnesses said. the vehicle, which was carrying about 10 people into downtown Addis Ababa, was ripped apart in the blast, witnesses said. Ethiopia’s top police official, Demsash Hailu, confirmed the explosion was caused by a bomb.

The African Union has extended the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in the western Sudanese Darfur region by six months, after which it will transfer the operation to the United Nations, a statement issued in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa said.

Ethiopian officials announced on Tuesday that tests are under way at a southern poultry farm after thousands of chickens died of a ”bird-flu-like” disease. The fear is that the disease will turn out to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the bird-flu virus that has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003.

Floriculture has become a flourishing business in Ethiopia in the past five years, with the industry’s exports earnings set to grow to -million by 2007, a five-fold increase on the -million earned in 2005. Ethiopian flower exports could generate an estimated -million within two to three years.

The child malnutrition rate in drought-hit areas of eastern Ethiopia has surpassed 20% and two out of every 10&nbsp;000 children are dying each day, according to a study released on Tuesday. The report, the first nutritional study completed in Ethiopia’s worst-hit Somali region since the effects of the drought have taken hold across East Africa, found more than one in five children to be severely malnourished.

Ethiopian authorities on Tuesday announced a ban on exports of four types of grain in an effort to stabilise the local grain market. The ban, taking immediate effect, includes the indigenous fine grain teff from which the country’s staple flat bread injera is baked.

The United Nations on Monday issued an urgent appeal for -million in emergency aid for multiple humanitarian crises and threats facing Ethiopia, including the risk of famine from a searing drought that has hit East Africa. About 1,7-million Ethiopians are among up to 11-million people throughout four nations in the region in dire need of food assistance to survive.

Ethiopian authorities have disclosed the release of an additional 2 252 persons detained about 11 weeks ago during unrest in cities around the country to protest against alleged fraud in last May’s elections, the local press reported on Saturday.

The United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, monitoring the disputed border between the two countries, said on Wednesday there has been a ”drastic reduction” in clashes between the two sides over the past two weeks. Border clashes had increased over the past three months.