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By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia's government says its security forces shot at and detained United Nations staffers as they tried to reach part of the embattled Tigray region. Senior official Redwan Hussein told reporters that the U.N. staffers were to blame because they 'broke' two checkpoints to go to areas where 'they were not supposed to go.' He said the staffers have since been released. The shooting occurred amid soaring frustration among humanitarians as aid is still not freely reaching the Tigray region more than a week after the U.N. and Ethiopia's government signed a […]
The post Ethiopia's forces shoot at, detain UN staffers in Tigray appeared first on Black News Channel.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
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Three Guinean opposition figures surrendered to the police on Thursday after being put on a wanted list for their alleged role in post-election violence, one of their lawyers said.
Officers questioned Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, Abdoulaye Bah - both members of Guinea's leading opposition party, UFDG - and Etienne Soropogui separately, lawyer Salifou Beavogui said.
Police on Wednesday also arrested UFDG vice president Ibrahima Cherif Bah as part of a sweep targeting mainly opposition politicians and activists.
At a press conference on Thursday, opposition leader Cellou Diallo called for their immediate release.
The arrests came after President Alpha Conde, 82, won a controversial third term after topping an October 18 poll with 59.5 percent of the votes.
The country slipped into violence in the aftermath of the poll, when UFDG leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, 68, proclaimed himself victorious and alleged voter fraud.
The government said at least 21 people died in subsequent clashes between Diallo supporters and security forces. The UFDG party put the death toll at 46, however.
While observers from other African countries have backed the official election results, France, the European Union, and the United States have cast doubt.
In a statement on Tuesday, a public prosecutor in the capital Conakry said police had detained or tried 137 people.
It said police were actively searching for six people accused of having made \"threats likely to disturb public security and order\".
Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, Abdoulaye Bah, and Etienne Soropogui were among those six people. Only Soropogui, who is from a minor opposition party, is not a UFDG member.
Ibrahima Cherif Bah was also on the wanted list.
Political tension in Guinea centers on Conde's third term, against which there have been rolling protests since October 2019.
The president pushed through a new constitution in March which he argued would modernize the country. But it also allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidents.
A former opposition leader, Conde became Guinea's first democratically-elected president in 2010 and won re-election in 2015, but critics accuse him of veering towards authoritarianism.
Alexandra Olson | Associated Press From the Editor: This story was first published on Oct. 29, 2020. It was updated on Nov. 12, 2020, to correct the name of the CEO of Awaken. She is Michelle Kim, not Michelle Lee. Update also includes Labor Department comments. Three civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging […]
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Ethiopia has confirmed the arrest of leading opposition politician Jawar Mohammed, a move that risks inflaming ethnic tensions that have led to multiple deaths in the Oromia region this week.
Jawar, a former media mogul who recently joined the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, was arrested on Monday in Addis Ababa along with 34 other people, federal police commissioner Endeshaw Tassew said in a statement late on Tuesday.
The arrest came during an altercation with the security forces over the body of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular Oromo singer who was gunned down on Monday night, kicking off widespread protests.
READ | Four dead as protests erupt over killing of Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa
Endeshaw said that as Hachalu's body was being transported to his native town of Ambo for burial, Jawar and his supporters intercepted it and tried to return it to Addis Ababa, where a clash ensued.
Jawar's arrest could exacerbate violence in Oromia, which surrounds Addis Ababa and is the heartland of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromo.
[ENA] Addis Ababa -- A new round of tripartite negotiation between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will resume today, according to Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy.
Meanwhile, in South Africa the death is reported of a two-day-old baby after being born prematurely to a coronavirus positive mother.
The case becomes the country’s first neonatal coronavirus death since the pandemic hit the Rainbow Nation.
Explaining the circumstances leading to the baby’s death, health minister Zweli Mkhize said the premature baby’s condition was critical including lung problems and after birth.
This was a two-day-old baby that was born prematurely and therefore had lung difficulties, which required ventilation support immediately after birth,” the BBC quoted Mkhize at a press briefing.
“The mother had tested positive for Covid-19 and the child subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 as well.
The year two thousand and twenty has been an ongoing saga of life-altering events. Many of the adorned, traditional celebrations, trips, and gatherings were canceled, rescheduled, or modified for the safety of humankind. As the holiday season approaches, COVID-19 restrictions have once again forced us to make drastic changes to holiday family gatherings, but there … Continued
The post The Upside of Downsizing Your Holiday Season appeared first on Chicago Defender.
The funeral of Hachalu Hundessa, the slain Ethiopian singer, was held Thursday in his hometown of Ambo, in the Oromia region.
The singer, whose highly political lyrics expressed frustrations of the Oromo people, who have long considered themselves marginalised, was shot dead Monday night in Addis Ababa.
Demonstrations resulted in the deaths of 81 people and increased political and communal tensions in the country.
Over the past two days, demonstrators have been expressing their anger in the capital and in Oromia, the stronghold of the Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group.
It was a federal government plan to expand the capital into Oromia that triggered the anti-government protests in 2015 that led to Abiy Ahmed’s accession to power three years later.
Minister of labour and social affairs of the federal republic of Somalia Sadiq Hirsi Warfaa and the Commissioner for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons have pledged the work towards creation of job opportunities.
The two spoke during a meeting the minister's office in which they promised to bring home Somalia refugees and create income streams for the internally displaced.
\"The ministry is putting efforts on ensuring continued support and relocation of the Somali Diaspora, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is currently working to create jobs for internally displaced persons and provide them with care,\" Minister Sadiq said.
Also, the director of social and planning departments was present at the meeting.
National name: Jumhouriyya Djibouti
Current government officials
Languages: French and Arabic (both official), Somali, Afar
Ethnicity/race: Somali 60%, Afar 35%, other 5% (includes French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian)
National Holiday: Independence Day, June 27
Religions: Islam 94%, Christian 6%
Literacy rate: 67.9% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $2.505 billion; per capita $2,700. Real growth rate: 5%. Inflation: 2.5%. Unemployment: 59% in urban areas, 80% in rural areas (2007 est.). Arable land: 0.09%. Agriculture: fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal hides. Labor force: 294,600 (2012). Industries: construction, agricultural processing, salt. Natural resources: geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum. Exports: $90.8 million (2013 est.): reexports, hides and skins, coffee (in transit). Imports: $593.3 million (2013): foods, beverages, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum products. Major trading partners: Somalia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Indonesia, UAE (2012).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 18,000 (2012); mobile cellular: 209,000 (2012). Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001). Broadcast media: state-owned Radiodiffusion-Television de Djibouti (RTD) operates the sole terrestrial TV station as well as the only 2 domestic radio networks; no private TV or radio stations; transmissions of several international broadcasters are available (2007). Internet hosts: 215 (2012). Internet users: 25,900 (2009).
Transportation: Railways: total: 100 km (Djibouti segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad) (2008). Highways: total: 3,065 km (2000 est.). Waterways: none. Ports and harbors: Djibouti. Airports: 13 (2013).
International disputes: Djibouti maintains economic ties and border accords with Somaliland leadership while maintaining some political ties to various factions in Somalia; Kuwait is chief investor in the 2008 restoration and upgrade of the Ethiopian-Djibouti rail
Tension between Amhara and Tigray, two of Ethiopia's most powerful regions, is increasing as the country approaches elections next year, says a new International Crisis Group report.
But it is the dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions, the new report says, that “is arguably the bitterest of these contests, fueled in part by rising ethnic nationalism in both regions.”
William Davison, the Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tells VOA that Amhara citizens believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.
Plans to hold a vote have led political elites in Tigray and Amhara to adopt increasingly hardline stances toward each other, the report says, noting a recent warning from Prime Minister Abiy that any such act would “result in harm to the country and the people.”
But Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, chairman of the opposition National Movement of Amhara, said via a messaging app that Ethiopia’s regional map based on ethnic territories has been the root cause of many tensions, not just between the Amhara and Tigray regions, but many others.
A quarter of a million migrants are employed as domestic workers in Lebanon, the majority of them Ethiopians. Most of these migrants face harsh sometimes life threatening conditions in the line of work.
After Birtukan Mekuanint left Ethiopia for Lebanon in 2017 to work as a maid for a family of eight, she managed to call her relatives back home only a few times.
She is one of thousand others who worked in strenuous conditions and says her ‘hands were bruised from hard work.’
“For six months I didn’t know if it was day or night. I worked day and night. They didn’t pay me a salary, I was always told that they didn’t have any money. My hands were bruised from the hard work.”
Her father, said he did not know what to think when his daughter emerged unannounced from a taxi outside their home in Addis Ababa last week.
Abiye Yefru, Birtukan’s father said: “I didn’t hold my tears. My wife cried, even more, she was thanking God because our daughter escaped death and came back to us so that is a big thing.”
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Ethiopia is one of East / Horn of Africa’s least impacted nations as compared to rate of COVID-19 case growth and infection of its neighbours.
A state of emergency lasting five-months has been imposed by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed led government. All land borders have since been shut as a virus control measure with a raft of restrictions and enforcement of physical distancing and mask wearing measures.
Elections planned for May this year were also postponed citing the effect of the pandemic. Ethiopia played an instrumental role in the deployment of virus supplies donated by Chinese businessman Ali Baba. This article will focus on major developments coming from the country.
May 19: 60 cases in two days
Total confirmed cases = 365 (new cases between May 17 – 19 = 60)
Total recoveries = 120 (new recoveries = 8)
Total deaths = 5
Active cases = 238
Ethiopia’s case count spiked on Monday by 35 new cases (a daily record) whiles 14 new cases were recorded today. Added to 11 cases recorded last Sunday, 60 cases have been recorded in the last three days. The tally now stands at 365.
Concerns had been raised by analysts over the spate of new case increases after it took just a week to go from 200 to go past the 300 mark as against a much lengthier period from 0 to 100 and 100 to 200.
The country, however, remains one of the least impacted in a region where neighbour Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan has crossed the 1000 mark. Kenya is past 900 confirmed cases as of today.
Major African stats: May 19 at 6:00 GMT:
Confirmed cases = 88,264
Number of deaths = 2,832
Recoveries = 33,898
Active cases = 51,534
Ethiopian forces blocked people from the country's embattled Tigray region from crossing into Sudan on Thursday at the busiest crossing point for refugees, Sudanese forces said.
Their account follows allegations by refugees in previous days of Ethiopian forces stopping people from fleeing the month-old deadly conflict in Tigray.
The Sudanese forces, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the events, said people tried to cross from Ethiopia around 6 a.m. to Hamdayet in Sudan but were stopped, and refugees waiting on the Sudan side became upset and began throwing rocks.
The Sudanese forces then cleared the area, and on Thursday evening they confirmed that the border crossing remained closed.
Tensions have been rising at the border in recent days as the flow of Ethiopians crossing has slowed to hundreds per day from several thousands.
A senior Ethiopian government official who has served as spokesman during the conflict did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
End fighting
The European Union's crisis management commissioner Thursday urged the Ethiopian government to restore communications in its northern Tigray region and called on both sides to cease hostilities.
\"I urge... the Ethiopian authorities to lift the communication blockade,\" Janez Lenarcic said at Um Raquba camp in neighboring Sudan, where he spoke with Ethiopian refugees who had fled their homeland over the last month.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last month ordered military operations against the northern Ethiopian region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in response to what he said were attacks on Ethiopian federal army camps.
Tens of thousands of refugees have since poured into eastern Sudan, with many complaining that they have not been able to re-establish contact with those left behind or lost on the scramble to leave due to a communications blackout.
\"I spoke with a number of refugees in this camp today and what is perhaps most painful to hear is that they have zero information... about their relatives and friends who stayed behind,\" Lenarcic said.
Abiy on Saturday claimed the conflict was over after federal troops took control of the Tigrayan capital, Mekele, but the TPLF threatened a full-scale counter-offensive on Wednesday.
Lenarcic also urged Ethiopia's government to provide access for humanitarian workers and goods, while calling on both sides to \"cease the hostilities\".
Ethiopia has formally granted the United Nations access to deliver aid to Tigray.
AFP
Only 30 per cent of Ethiopian migrants seeking to find work in Saudi Arabia are aware that Yemen - the one country they must cross --is in its sixth year of conflict, while less than 50 per cent know of the dangers of boats capsizing at sea.
The research found that many of the young Ethiopian migrants on the Eastern Route to the Middle East remained unaware of the risks of the journey.
The study is based on interviews with over 2,000 young Ethiopian youth in Obock, Djibouti, trying to reach Saudi Arabia.
Fifty per cent of migrants reported making about USD 61 per month back home, while the median expected monthly income in Saudi Arabia would be USD 453.
Many migrants are aware of families within their communities who have improved their living standards with remittances from Saudi Arabia.
Analysis - Ethiopia wants to fill Africa's most powerful hydroelectric dam even without a deal with Sudan and Egypt. Talks on how much water will pass through the Nile dam are deadlocked. The spat threatens the region's security.
[Nation] Negotiations among Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) resumed Monday afternoon, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy announced.
As confirmed coronavirus cases continue to rise throughout Maryland and the D.C. region, Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced an executive order Thursday her jurisdiction will reinstitute certain restrictions.
In June 2006, an Islamist militia seized control of the capital of neighboring Somalia and established control in much of that countrys south. Ethiopia, which has clashed in the past with Somalias Islamists and considers them a threat to regional security, began amassing troops on Somalias border, in support of Somalias weak transitional government, led by President Abdullah. In mid-December, Ethiopia launched air strikes against the Islamists, and in a matter of days Ethiopian ground troops and Somali soldiers regained of Mogadishu. A week later most of the Islamists had been forced to flee the country. Ethiopia announced that its troops would remain in Somalia until stability was assured and a functional central government had been established. Battles between the insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops intensified in March, leaving 300 civilians dead in what has been called the worst fighting in 15 years. Amid a growing threat from militant Islamists, Ethiopia began withdrawing troops from Somalia in January 2009. At this point, Somalia was far from stable. Indeed, Ethiopias presence in Somalia sparked increased guerrilla warfare and even further weakened the transitional government. Many feared that the withdrawal, along with Somalias political instability, would provide Islamists an opportunity to fill the power vacuum.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawis Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front won parliamentary elections by a wide margin in May 2010. The U.S. and the European Union said the vote failed to meet international standards, and the opposition refused to recognize the results. Nevertheless, parliament elected Zenawi to a fourth term.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union (AU), participate in a virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Solidarity Summit against Covid-19 co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the AU.
The aim of the Summit, scheduled for today, Wednesday 17 June 2020, is to explore opportunities for African states to leverage multilateral cooperation, through the FOCAC mechanism, so that resources and knowledge can be mobilised in efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
FOCAC is an official forum that coordinates cooperation between the People's Republic of China and African states.
Other participants will include Chairpersons Regional Economic Communities (REC's) with the Republic of Madagascar representing the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); Chad for the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD); the Republic of Rwanda for the East African Community (EAC).
The State of Libya will represent the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), while the Democratic People's Republic of Algeria and the Federal Republic of Nigeria will participate as initiating members of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
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Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe (MDC Alliance)’s trial for breaching the national lockdown regulations will commence on November 24 . HARRIET CHIKANDIWA Mamombe faces charges of contravening section 4(1)(a) of the Public Health (COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order Statutory Instrument 83/2020 as read with section 3 of Statutory Instrument 110/20 for unnecessary movement during national lockdown. It is alleged that Mamombe violated COVID-19 lockdown regulations by leading a gathering of more than 10 people in May this year. Mamombe, together with fellow MDC Alliance activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, are currently appearing in court to answer to a charge of participating in an anti-government protest against hunger during the national lockdown period. The trio is also answering to a charge of publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act as well as defeating or obstructing the course of justice as defined in section 184(1)(f) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. It is alleged that Mamombe, Marova and Chimbiri, who are victims of torture and abduction, stage-managed their abduction in May this year and lied to their lawyers, relatives and friends that they had been abducted by State security agents.
IN THE early hours of November 4, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the...
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May 29: Amnesty accuses Ethiopia of extrajudicial killings
\tEthiopian security forces in the Oromia region have executed 39 opposition supporters and arrested thousands of others accused of being members of an armed group, Amnesty International said on Friday.
The rights group said in a report that victims were accused of being supporters of the Oromo Liberation Army, the breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front, which the government had previously declared a terrorist movement but which has been unbanned by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“Security forces have continued to violate human rights despite reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and this is due to widespread impunity and lack of accountability for those violations,” Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher Fisseha Tekle said.
“The report is further proof that the new administration has not parted ways with the practice of forcefully stifling dissent, committing egregious human rights violations and carrying out extrajudicial killings,” the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress, an opposition party, said in a joint statement, calling on the government to investigate the findings.
Based on interviews with 80 victims or direct witnesses of violence, Amnesty’s report said the Ethiopian army and regional security forces in Amhara and Oromiya were involved in inter- ethnic killings, mass arbitrary detentions and rape.
Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that Maryland will provide an additional $70 million in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic amid a surge in state cases, with the funds going toward items such as personal protective equipment, vaccination supplies and food banks.
As Ethiopia's 2021 election nears, a territorial dispute has flared between Amhara and Tigray, two northern regions.
Tigray and Amhara, the powerhouse regions of northern Ethiopia, are locked in a bitter land dispute exacerbated by national politicking that pits their elites against each other.
In late 2018, in north-western Amhara, local Amhara killed hundreds and displaced thousands of Qimant, an ethnic minority pursuing greater autonomy within the region, amid regional officials' claims that Tigray's ruling party is funding the self-rule campaign.
Were Tigray willing to instead grant political representation and language rights to minority populations in the territories, some Amhara officials have suggested this could help lead to an acceptable outcome.
The Amhara not only assert historical ownership of the land but also charge that TPLF rebels killed and uprooted Amhara in the disputed areas, thus altering the demographic balance in favour of Tigrinya speakers and laying the basis for a TPLF claim to the lands under Ethiopia's ethnic federal system.
[Radio Dabanga] Khartoum / El Gedaref -- Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan Abdallah Suleiman reported yesterday morning that 24,944 Ethiopian refugees fleeing the war in the neighbouring Tigray region have been registered so far. Most of them are women, children and elderly.
By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's top allies on Capitol Hill adopted a combative posture on COVID-19 relief on Thursday, pressing their case for a $2 trillion bill that's a nonstarter for Republicans and faulting the GOP for dragging its feet on acknowledging Biden's victory. The message from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — both of whom witnessed disappointing outcomes in House and Senate races last week — was that Republicans should concede Biden won and immediately return to negotiations on COVID relief, with the Democrats' $2.4 trillion […]
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[Addis Standard] After the devastation, residents of Shshemene are trying to put their lives back on track, as vendors returned to their street market but the view in front is bleak.
As COVID-19 caseload surpassed 225,105 on Saturday across the African continent, 43 African countries are now under full border closure due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Africa CDC said that the northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with a population of about 107 million, reported 268 new cases on Saturday, the highest daily increase so far, taking the country's tally to 3,166, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said.
South Africa, the worst-hit country on the continent, has registered a total of 65,736 cases and 1,423 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.
In addition to the 43 countries under full border closure, the Africa CDC also said Saturday that night-time curfew has been activated across 35 countries in an effort to halt the spread of the infectious virus.
