Attack on boat near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait leaves 31 people reportedly carrying ‘official UNHCR documents dead.

The refugees were reportedly on their way from Yemen to Sudan [Reuters]

At least 31 Somali refugees have been killed off the coast of Yemen after a helicopter attacked the boat they were travelling in, according to a local coastguard officer in the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah area.

Mohamed al-Alay told Reuters news agency that the refugees, carrying official UNHCRdocuments, were on their way from Yemen to Sudan when they were attacked late on Thursday by an Apache helicopter near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

A sailor who had been operating the boat, Ibrahim Ali Zeyad, said 80 refugees were rescued after the incident.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

Hodeidah, on the Red Sea, is controlled by Iran-allied Houthi fighters who in 2014 overran Yemen’s capital Sanaa and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.

An Arab coalition was assembled by Saudi Arabia in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who have fired missiles into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The Bab al-Mandeb is a strategic waterway at the foot of the Red Sea through which nearly four million barrels of oil are shipped daily to Europe, the US and Asia.

The post Somali refugees killed near Bab al-Mandeb Strait appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News 24/7 Your right to know. .

Mahlet Fasil

Addis Abeba, March 17, 2017 – For the second time in less than six months, the Ethiopian ruling party EPRDF-dominated parliament has declared a three-day nationwide mourning. This time it is for the victims of a devastating collapse of a mountain of solid waste located 13 km southwest of the capital Addis Abeba on Saturday, March 9.

As late as Wednesday and Thursday more excavators were arriving

The story of the growing numbers of Ethiopians (115 as of yet) who died buried under a pile of Addis Abeba’s solid waste first broke nearly 12 hours after it struck. For such a story about Ethiopia’s “forsaken” [“we are the forsaken; why would anyone care, right?”], it was neither surprising nor unexpected.

In the shadow of death

Officially known as “Reppi” landfill (commonly called by its local name Qoshe in Amharic) the area is a mountain of an open dumpsite where millions of tons of solid waste collected from the sprawling capital, home to some four to five million inhabitants, has simply been disposed off for more than half a century.

Established 54 years ago, and occupying 37ha surface area, Qoshe is not your ideal landfill. For starters, its surroundings on all four sides is home to both plastic makeshift shelters and poorly constructed mud & wood houses that shelter hundreds of people, a figure by far bigger than what the government admits as ‘houses’ with registered title deeds; and unlike repeated media reports that followed the tragic incident, the residents of the plastic makeshift and mud & wood houses are not all rubbish scavengers. “I work at the Ethiopian electric power corporation,” said Alemayehu Teklu, a father of four who, as of this writing, is still looking for his three children and his wife. “Only my first born son survived because he was not at home the night the garbage mountain caved in.”

Alemayehu and his family resettled in the area ten years ago when several shanty towns were demolished in many parts of Addis Abeba city to give way to new high rising buildings. “We had a two bedroom old house near Kazanchis that belonged to the families of my wife. The Kebele administrators had told us we should evacuate in two months but our house was demolished within three weeks after we were served with the notice,” Alemayehu said, “we were paid 70,000 birr [roughly $2, 500 in today’s exchange rate] as value for our house and were told we would be given a plot in one of the outskirts of the city. No one ever responded to our repeated pleas afterward and I settled my family here after buying the plot for 10, 000 birr.” Struggling to contain his tears, Alemayehu said: “we are the forsaken; why would anyone care, right?”

The people living around Qoshe are not only waste pickers who come from the city

The massive scale of decades-old evictions of the poor from the center of the city, which is, by all measures, a corruption-infested practice by city administration officials, means there are countless stories similar to Alemayehu’s. None of the dozen interviewees approached by Addis Standard say they become residents of an area surrounding a mountain of waste by choice. These include Mintiwab Gushe, a mother of four who lived in the area for the last 35 years, gave birth to all her children in the same mud & wood house they now remain buried under. Mintiwab is unable to compose herself to talk. And others, such as Gurmu Kidane and his now missing family of two have come to Qoshe as recently as June 2016, when more than 200 special police task force units have started demolishing houses in Nefas Silk Lafto Kifle Ketema in western Addis Abeba, which city authorities claimed were built illegally since 2005. “My family and I came here after losing our house because my sister who got a new condominium unit and had rented her house here in Qoshe gave it to me so I can shelter my family,” said Gurmu. He owns a cement mixer and lives off renting it to construction sites. His 16 years old daughter and his wife are now among the missing.

But the area surrounding Qoshe is not just home to the 200 or so households known to the city Administration; there are at least “500 households most of which also rent additional quarters to tenants,” said a young man who wants to remain anonymous. Here is where the story of Hadya Hassan, 72, fits. She rented her house to 13 different people who came from different parts of the country in search of labor. They are unregistered anywhere hence unknown to city officials. “We have been submitting requests to be relocated to our respective Kebele officials for years. Today, they came to see us mourn,” Hadiya told Addis Standard.

A sign posted at a tent erected to mourn the victims show the presence of unregistered tenants

Haunted by collect and dump

Until 2014, Qoshe has consolidated its notoriety as the only open dumpsite that outlived its original purpose. For 54 years, it served as a dumpsite while having no facilities such as fences, drainage systems, odor control, or recycling methods.

“The present method of disposal is crude open dumping: hauling the wastes by truck, spreading and leveling by bulldozer and compacting by compactor or bulldozer,” admitted a research overview paper commissioned by the Addis Abeba City Administration in 2010 and was delivered to the UN Habitat. It also estimated that about 200,000 tons of waste was annually produced in Addis Abeba alone, of which 76% is generated from domestic households.

The ten-years-old commissioned review is an early sign that city authorities have long been haunted by the black mountain of dumpsite they have created half a century ago and have subsequently failed to manage properly. Nor have they been short of policy recommendations from think-tank organizations funded by foreign governments.  “Adequate planning of waste management is essential if communities and regions are to successfully address the challenge of a sustainable development, including resource conservation, climate protection, and pollution prevention,” reads one such action brief written in 2010 and was partially funded by the German government’s ministry of education.

The Addis Abeba City Government Cleaning Management Agency, an agency accountable to the city administration, began taking the ensuing disaster at Qoshe a little more seriously around 2009, according to an official in the agency who spoke to Addis Standard but wants to remain anonymous because “now is a sensitive time.”

“At that time, authorities have begun to discuss selecting alternative sites and the closure and eventual transformation into a public park of Qoshe. Project proposals were submitted to several donors to conduct feasibility studies to open a modern dumpsite, which would also be used to generate green energy,” he said. Several donors, including the US, have responded positively and have provided large amounts of grants to the city administration,” he said, without mentioning the exact amount of money. “It was a lot.”

This was followed by a binge of workshops, both by the city administration and donors, research works, study tours to foreign capitals for high-level city officials including the Mayor, Diriba Kuma, and proposals on alternative sites and type of a state-of-the-art dumpsite.

As the spree of talks and workshops began to take shape, in a process the details of which is shrouded in backdoor negotiations, in 2012 the Addis Abeba city administration decided to obtain 136ha land in Sendafa, some 30km northeast of Addis Abeba, and is home to hundreds of farmers. As of now, Addis Standard is not able to verify the availability of documents, if any, detailing the process and eventual decision by the city administration to acquire this plot of land in Sendafa.

Be that as it may, with a US$337 million grant secured from the French government, and a  project office assigned to do the job – Addis Abeba Waste Recycling & Disposal Project Office – the city administration looked poised to turn Sendafa Sanitary Landfill become everything Qoshe was not in more than 50 years of its history.

Sendafa Sanitary Landfill had a US$27.6 million initial budget; it is supposedly guided by an elaborated Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report;  it had a 40 million birr [roughly US$1.8 million] compensation scheme for the farmers to be displaced by the project; it was benefiting from the rich experience of VINCI Grands Projets, a French construction company (coincidence?); it was to be assisted by four separate waste transfer stations for preliminary treatment of waste; and city officials determined to change the city’s face defiled by the solid waste its residents keep on producing and dumping carelessly.  Sendafa Sanitary Landfill had everything to become a modern-day landfill.

Simultaneously, city administration officials have assigned a US$158 million for a project to turn Qoshe into a 50mw waste-to-energy plant and have awarded the contract to the UK-based Cambridge Industries; this was to be followed by yet another ambitious work to turn Qoshe into a green public park. This plan to green Qoshe was receiving institutional guidance, including from the Addis Abeba University (AAU) and the Horn of Africa Regional Environmental Center and Network (HoARE&N).

If the French government came to the financial rescue of the Sendafa Sanitary Landfill, turning Qoshe into a waste-to-energy plant and a green park is enjoying a large sum of donors’ money Ethiopia is receiving in grants as part of its newly designed Climate–Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) planned to last for 20 years at cost of US$150 billion. One of the four pillars stated in this new lucrative project is the government’s wish to expand “electricity generation form renewable energy for domestic and regional markets.” Among the major contributors to this project are the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs) and OECD countries.

However, reminiscent of delays the Sendafa Sendafa Sanitary Landfill experienced, the Qoshe waste-to-energy project has already missed its opening deadline several times.

What really went wrong?

Delayed as it may, Sendafa Sanitary Landfill opened in February 2016; Qoshe took its first break in 53 years. But six months into its service, Sendafa Sanitary Landfill imploded, leaving Addis Abeba to explode with its waste.

In July 2016, farmers living in and around the new landfill have forced garbage trucks to stop dumping the city’s unsorted, crude waste in the landfill.

At the heart of the matter is the US$27.6 worth landfill which looked nowhere close to its plans on paper. “VINCI Grands Projets was paid may be half of the initial amount it won the contract for and even that, it was done in bits and pieces with several delays. The company was also not able to receive the hard currency it needed to import some of the equipment it badly needed” said a project team member at the Addis Abeba Waste Recycling & Disposal Project Office, who also spoke to Addis Standard on conditions that he remains anonymous. “And yet authorities from the city administration have rushed the opening of the landfill before it was fully completed.”

in Less than six months, households in Sendafa were exposed to toxic fluid

Addis Standard is unable to hear from VINCI Grands Projets representatives because its office is nowhere to be found in the addresses it listed was its location: “Sendafa Subcity – Woreda 13 and Yeka Subcity – Woreda 13 (Ayat Village Zone 06) Legetafo road.” And there is no registered telephone line under the company, or at the very least, operators at the state owned telecom giant are not aware of it.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Sendafa Sanitary Landfill was not only incomplete when it started receiving the city’s solid waste, but also none of the four waste transfer stations incorporated in the plan were built. These were sites designed to serve as preliminary waste treatment sites and were planned to be built simultaneously in four separate sites including Akaki sub city and Reppi itself.

“And yet, in Oct. 2016, the Addis Ababa City Government Cleaning Management Agency spent close to US$5 million to purchase 25 compactors and ten road sweepers designed to be given to all sub-cities to boost the existing, old compactors in order to dispose off the city’s waste in an efficient manner at the designated waste transfer sites. This was the second time the agency made such huge investment to buy compactors. Already in 2012, it bought 19 compactors at a cost of US$3.9 million; almost all of them were sitting idle by the time Sendafa Sanitary Landfill was opened,” our source at the Agency said.

Having consumed millions of dollars, but being not much of use in a city that never knew how to sort its garbage, Sendafa was quickly becoming just another Qoshe and the farmers were a storm in wait.

A truck pushing the pile of trash in the new Sendafa Sanitary Landfill

Under-compensated (of the 40 million birr originally assigned as compensations package, an official from the Solid Waste Recycling and Disposal project Office admitted having disbursed only 25 million – but the actual payment is even less than five million birr); dispossessed of their land; lied to as they were told their land was needed for future construction of an airport; and forced to live near a landfill that already started to stink, the Sendafa farmers have refused to accept nothing less than the total closure of the landfill.

And as the yearlong anti-government protests that started in Nov. 2015 continued to gather momentum, questions also began popping up; questions that probe the tumultuous power the city of Addis Abeba exercises over its surrounding villages administratively belonging to the Oromia regional state. Authorities both from the city administration the Oromia regional state were locked in last minute discussions to avoid the fallout, and find ways to re-open a US$27 million worth new landfill, to no avail.

A city threatned by trash

As the pile of solid waste threatened Addis Abeba in the middle of the summer rainy season, the city administration decided to quietly reopen Qoshe.

Not the old Qoshe anymore

But in the six months since Qoshe was going through its eventual closure, Reppi as an area has completely changed. The real estate market in its surroundings, hyper inflated by the promise of a future public park and the ever increasing land value in Addis Abeba, has boomed. Construction sites near Qoshe have mushroomed, and bulldozing excavators have begun working aggressively for several projects the poor residents of the area know nothing about. “One day before the collapse of the trash, several bulldozers were ploughing the earth for what one of the operators carelessly told us was an ‘important government project’,” said Gebresselasie Mekuria, a resident at the western end of Qoshe landfill. “The smell was getting worse and we have filled our complaints to the Kebele officials asking them to relocate us; they responded to us as if we were mad people; as if living in this hell on earth is our preordained destiny.”

Meanwhile, while the planned constriction of the 50mw waste-to-energy plant is still ongoing, the plan for earlier promises to turn Qoshe into a green public park has stalled. With the collapse of the black mountain, its residents are now left with nothing but unknown numbers of victims.

The new waste-to-energey plant from outside

For the hundreds of these people who lived in the shadow of death, death is a routine exercise; and every time it happens, it leaves in its devastating wake a trail of lives altered forever. That is what happened on Saturday night to Bethlehem Yared, 16, who feels the burden of not been able to save her six years old brother who “decided to hide under the sofa when I ran for my life and asked him to follow me; I had to leave him behind”. Another one, Ayalew Negussie, who survived with his family, is deeply disoriented because “I lost all of my neighbors and friends whom I knew longer than I knew my children”; and Bedria Jibril, who is unable to “think anymore” after losing everything she has in less than 25 minutes. “I only left the house to buy milk for my one-year-old son and when I came back, I couldn’t find where my house was; I lost my husband and my two children all in less than 25 minutes.”

The collapse of this mountain of waste also deprived a means of income to no less than 300 waste pickers who scouring it every day. Some of these are residents of the area, but many come from the city in search of something valuable, including food.

 Qoshe is not new to life-devouring accidents. In 2015, a flashflood had displaced more than 70 households, man of which are plastic makeshift; in 2014, shortly before the closure of the dumpsite, a small collapse triggered by waste pickers had killed about 13 of them.

But on Saturday March 9, the black mountain of dirt finally decided to end sheltering the people who have taken refuge in it from a city that loathes them but loves their labor. Sadly, their story is not only a story of a waste mountain that collapsed on them, but has a trail of corruption and criminal negligence that left  survivors with nothing but counting the bodies of their loved ones.

AS

The post IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS: QOSHE GARBAGE DUMP COLLAPSE: A TRAIL OF CORRUPTION, CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE AND COUNTLESS VICTIMS appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News 24/7 Your right to know. .

For more than a quarter of a century, the government of the United States whose relations with Ethiopia spans more than 100 years, felt persuaded by the cunning and con-artists of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (the TPLF) who literally run Ethiopia as family enterprise to pour tens of billions of dollars in development and humanitarian assistance without making a dent in changing the structure of the Ethiopian economy. American bilateral assistance is estimated at more than $30 billion and Official Development Assistance (ODA) at more than $44 billion. Each year, my former employer, the World Bank, where I spent 30 years, continues to pour hundreds of millions of dollars in ODA without an ounce of effort to evaluate social impacts in a meaningful and accountable manner. The Bank uses government make-believe data to inform the world that Ethiopia is growing at a remarkable rate. The issue is never growth; it is social and economic impact. Has the structure of the Ethiopian economy changed through aid? Does Ethiopia have a middle class comparable to its African peers? Is Ethiopia food secure? Not at all.

Read the full story in PDF – Urging change in American policy

The post President Trump’s Administration Can “Confront” Ethiopia’s Repressive Regime By Aklog Birara (Dr) appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News 24/7 Your right to know. .

The quote is taken from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran Pastor who participated in the resistance against Nazism; he was clearly saying do not sit back and tolerate evil.  We believe the quote is timely for all Ethiopians facing government-sponsored terrorism, especially during the current martial law.

It has been six months since Ethiopians have been subjected to complete isolation and terrorization by a terrorist government that has never been democratically elected.  This should be noted as there was no fair election in the country since 2005 when people completely rejected the current government that killed peaceful demonstrators, put opposition members in prison and played stupid games with legitimate votes to come out as the leader despite the overwhelming rejection.  As Dr. Merera Gudina puts it clearly, the two weapons that allowed TPLF to survive for over twenty years are (1) TPLF controlled election Board that has no shame allowing elections without real opposition and keeps cheating and stealing votes to claim 100% win and (2) TPLF controlled killer Police and Military force with 90% of its leaders from a single ethnic group that are also TPLF members.

Over the years Ethiopians in various parts of the country demanding democratic rights have faced assassinations, imprisonments, and tortures.  Mass killings have been carried out in Gambela, Ogaden, Amhara, and Oromo regions to suppress opposition. Police have been given orders to shoot directly on peaceful demonstrators and families have lost their loved ones and some of us are still silent as if the killings are justified.

It is not secret that the government has given discriminatory employment preference based on political affiliation and ethnic association.  There are a lot of cases where a person from one ethnic group is selected for important positions just because of ethnic association.  This has been going for a long time now, and Ethiopians have been very patient and have given TPLF a chance to mature and grow beyond its narrow ethnic interests , however the ego to control and suppress others became more notable over the years than the desire to democratize and be fair.  This was also well describes by Dr Merera when he said “TPLF did come out of the jungle, but the Jungle has not left TPLF”  Over the years there is a calculated move by these corrupt leaders to control resources in all over the country via displacement and elimination of indigenous people.  The Anuak massacre of 2003 is a good example where the government incites ethnic cleansing and kills thousands to overtake the land for Tigray Ethiopians that are complicit with its crime and most of us were silent.

The so called EFFORT (Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray) is another example of a ploy to use government as a mafia type organization rather than a neutral governing body.  It is no secret for Ethiopians that the government has been involved in unprecedented corruption doing businesses in the country.  EFFORT which is organized in the name of the people of Tigray was allowed to become an economic dominant force in the country favored by tax breaks and intentionally created loopholes.  All business dealings have been done using more than sixty organizations under it. No conflict of interest is known to these hoodlums, banks have been pouring money in the name of loans for these organizations (illegal), and businesses run by others have intentionally been weakened to facilitate big market share and bankrupt competitors (illegal).  In some instances money borrowed from banks for purposes of development has been funneled directly to foreign banks.  A lot of foreign aid for farmers has been tunneled to benefit EFFORT and its affiliates in the name of development and poverty reduction.  In short EFFORT is used to steal resources to enrich few TPLF members and their families.  Again when TPLF is and has been stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from poor Ethiopians most of us are silent.

Most Ethiopians hoped this narrow minded party will learn from its mistakes and change its strategy.  People have hoped that when ruling a big, diverse and resourceful country TPLF would improve itself and get out of purely ethnic based interests and be inclusive.  However more than twenty years of TPLF rule have shown the party and its cronies are entrenched in ethnicity and there is nothing that will make them change. So it is inevitable for the good of Ethiopia and Ethiopians TPLF be removed from power. There will not be peace between Ethiopians and TPLF leadership as it is synonymous with Evil and stands for Terrorize People & Lie Forever (TPLF).

As one of the poorest countries in the world subjected to unimaginable poverty over the years, the promotion of ethnicism by TPLF as the ideology for organizing Ethiopians is leading the country to extreme poverty and a dangerous path of destruction.  Not only are things getting worse for more than 98% of its people but ethnic politics is also a threat to the existence and development of Ethiopians and Ethiopia as a country. An article written by Professor Worku Abera of Dawson College defines ethnic politics as “the art of devising, promoting, and exploiting ethnic discord to appropriate scarce resources for a narrow end. Resources include political power, land, capital, and employment, specifically employment in government bureaucracies and state-owned enterprises.” (http://ethiopianunitydiasporaforum.com/news/the-perils-of-ethnic-federalism-part-i-the-dangers-of-ethnic-politics/).  Therefore, ethnic politics legitimized by the ruling party is not the answer rather a bigger problem to Ethiopia; as a result we should all stand up against and fight it for the good of our people and the existence of our country.  All ethnic groups in Ethiopia should be united and organized to fight and condemn divisive ethnic politics perpetrated by TPLF which could lead to ethnic cleansing.  We should celebrate our diversity and unite under Ethiopian nationalism or “Ethiopiawinet” which is the cement that holds us all together and which gives a voice to all Ethiopians including millions that are of mixed ethnicity whose existence is not even considered by the sitting government.  We should all say no to second class citizenship and work hard collectively to solve problems and alleviate poverty and prosper together as one nation.

At this time, people all over the country are crying for help, and the intention by TPLF to terrorize Ethiopians and crash any opposition in and around Oromia and Amhara regions is resulting in imprisonments of thousands of youth in malaria infested areas.  Amhara and Oromo youth are being used for hard labor left to die without food and drinks and tortured and terrorized every day to prove to them that their demand for democratic rights is controlled and will not be allowed by the current Ethnocratic government.  Under TPLF humanity is lost, terrorizing and intimidating people while talking about fake democracy has become very common.  The imprisonment of prominent leaders like Dr. Merera, Bekele Gerba, journalists like Eskinder Nega, Khalid Mohammed, Darsema Sori and bloggers like Temesgen Desalegn, Seyoum Teshome is clear indication that TPLF doesn’t care about people’s demands and intends to rule by force as long as it could.

All atrocities’ are committed without anyone looking.  While there is only less than 5% internet access and limited number of cell phones, the government closed all communications so that others will not witness its cruelty.  It removed dishes and broke TV in individual houses so that people could not access news from outside newscasters like ESAT, Aljazeera and BBC.  No UN or other independent human rights groups are allowed to check on living conditions of political prisoners.  And no investigations by independent bodies were allowed on killings of peaceful protesters.  Some of us are still quite.

Untold horror stories that came out recently include dragging of corpse of Amhara youth killed in Welkait.  Ethiopians consider the dead as closer to God and dead bodies are treated with a lot of respect and burial of dead family members involves days of traditional ceremonies, putting dead family member to rest is a sad but very important part of life, however even that God given right is taken away from Ethiopians by TPLF.  This is extreme punishment and terrorization of anyone who dare to speak against it.  How could anyone justify this cruelty and most of us are still silent.

TPLF has never told the truth since day one, and is a known chief data manipulator (population, economic growth etc).  It never disclosed its intentions to dismantle the country in ethnic lines to empower itself, but has done it and is proud of it.  It always says it is democratically elected however that never happened and more than 90% of Ethiopians will testify to that.  It always says it is against corruption however it is operating like a mafia organization rather than a governing body, tunneling all resources and capital via ethnic association.  Never cared about conflict of interest in the way it operates for 25 years.  It says it allows for demonstrations, but gives its military and police an order to kill and terrorize protestors. It encourages ethnic cleansing to keep itself in power and yet talks about possible ethnic cleansing if it is removed from power. When TPLF talks about negotiations, it is always negotiating with made in TPLF parties (with small parties created by TPLF for the sake of appearances intended to skim western countries for AID money and other support).

Based on its own fake statistical data, experts conclude the fact that when TPLF admits it has imprisoned 12, 000 Oromo and Amhara youth the real number is close to 48,000.  When the killer government admits it has killed close to 200 peaceful demonstrators it could be close to 2000.  As there is no statistical data on the number of tortured and assassinated there is no way to estimate those causalities.

Despite our ethnic affiliations, Ethiopians living in democratic countries and enjoy/witness the fruits of democracy and unity should condemn the extreme brutality, ethnocracy and corruption by TPLF.  TPLF is standing on shaky grounds, and we do believe its days in power are numbered.  We should all break the silence, rise and say enough is enough and hope Ethiopians will soon have a day in court with the real terrorist in town (TPLF).

Martin Luther King. Jr. once said: In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends

The post SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL (Ethiopian Task Force of NY/NJ) appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News 24/7 Your right to know. .

ESAT Yetsehafian Demitsoch Reeyot with Dr Aklog Birara Thur 16 Mar 2017

The post Yetsehafian Demitsoch Reeyot with Dr Aklog Birara Thur 16 Mar 2017 appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News 24/7 Your right to know. .

Friday, March 17, 2017 – 1:15pm

Reprieve

Andargachew ‘Andy’ Tsege with Yemi and children

The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has said that on his first trip to Ethiopia, he has received assurances that a British man who is illegally held on death row has been permitted to see a lawyer.

Mr Johnson said today that he had received undertakings that Andargachew ‘Andy’ Tsege, who is held illegally under sentence of death in Ethiopia, would have “regular access to a lawyer” in Ethiopia.

The announcement comes nine months after a similar promise of legal access was made by Ethiopia to Mr Johnson’s predecessor, Philip Hammond.

Mr Tsege was kidnapped from an international airport by Ethiopian forces in 2014, and rendered to Ethiopia. He has been held there unlawfully for nearly 1,000 days, and is currently held at a prison that has been described as ‘Ethiopia’s gulag.’

Mr Tsege – who is a prominent critic of the Ethiopian ruling party – was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009, in a trial that the US State Department said was “lacking basic elements of due process.”

The Foreign Secretary appears today to have refused calls to seek Mr Tsege’s return, which have come from MPs, British legal experts and others such as legal charity Reprieve.

In a recent letter to the Foreign Office, former Attorney-General Dominic Grieve, Labour Lord (Charlie) Falconer and Lib Dem peer Ken MacDonald argued that Mr Tsege’s kidnap and rendition are grounds for a UK request for his return to Britain.

Their letter pointed out that the Ethiopian Government has said that Mr Tsege has no prospect of appealing his death sentence. The legal experts asked the Foreign Secretary to “call for Mr Tsege’s immediate release to his family in London.”

Commenting, Maya Foa – a director at Reprieve – said: “Boris Johnson appears to have missed a vital opportunity to press for the return of a British dad who has been subjected to a shocking litany of abuses over the past 1,000 days. It’s clear that there can be no just process for Andy Tsege in Ethiopia, where he is held under an illegal death sentence. Boris Johnson must urgently listen to his own MPs and to Andy’s family – he must secure the return of this British citizen without delay.”

by Dibie Ike Michael
East Africa News

Ethiopia and Russia on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism and Culture and Protocol of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Trade Cooperation.

The agreement was signed by the two countries at the end of the 6th meeting of the intergovernmental Ethio-Russia Commission.

The Ethio-Russia Commission also agreed to boost the two countries trade exchange and diversify tradable commodities in both countries markets.

Ethiopia and Russia also come to terms to bolster ties in science and technology, energy and mining sectors as well as commercial air transport services.

At the signing ceremony, Co-Chair of the Commission and Minister of Cabinet Affairs Alemayehu Tegenu said the meeting was crucial for Ethiopia in terms of extending and taking measures in enhancing its relation with Russia.

He noted that the two countries also agreed to diversify areas of cooperation in trade and investment fields and to establish industrial, education and agricultural partnership.

“Ethiopia and Russia also come to terms to bolster ties in science and technology, energy and mining sectors as well as commercial air transport services,” he said.

Co-chair of the Russian side of the commission and Deputy of Natural Resources and Environment Evgeny Kiselev on his part said his country is concerned with strengthening its economic relations Ethiopia.

He reiterated that he had discussion with officials from Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural gas on ways his country’s investors could involve in the energy and mining sectors.

The co-chair further expressed his conviction to the joint commission’s roles in luring more Russian investment to Ethiopia.

The joint technical group agreed to establish follow up mechanism of the protocol and agreed to hold the 7th meeting of the Commission in Moscow in 2018.

Associated Press

Rescue workers search for those buried by a landslide that swept through a massive garbage dump in the Kolfe Keranio district of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 12, 2017. Minasse Wondimu Hailu / Anadolu Agency – Getty Images

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia –  Ethiopia says it will turn the landfill where 113 people were killed in a garbage collapse into a park and green space.

Government spokesman Negeri Lencho on Saturday said survivors of the disaster will no longer live there.

Hundreds of people had been thought to be living or working at the Koshe landfill where the collapse occurred March 11 on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa. Most of the victims were women and children.

City officials have said people who had been living at the landfill have been relocated into temporary housing.

Negeri says the government’s focus has been on search and rescue work and it is not yet known what caused the deadly collapse.

By Siddharth Chatterjee
IPS

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.

President Kenyatta of Kenya and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn lay the foundation for the Kenya-Ethiopia cross border program in the border town of Moyale on 07 Dec 2015. Photo Courtesy of PPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 17 2017 (IPS) – Consider this. The communities around the Kenya-Ethiopia border in Moyale-Borona area, have long been associated with internecine violence, extreme poverty, and environmental stress. These have led to disastrous societal consequences, including displacement, criminality and violent extremism.

The 2012-2013 intercommunal clashes in Moyale town, claimed the lives of over 200 people, destroyed thousands of properties, including schools and other social amenities. The region has been viewed as largely peripheral, both economically and politically, and therefore attracted limited public and private resources.

However, an innovative, comprehensive and integrated cross-border programme initiated by the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments, in partnership with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the United Nations (UN) is changing this narrative.

During the recent visit to Kenya by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, President Uhuru Kenyatta specifically mentioned, the Kenya-Ethiopia cross-border programme and noted the importance of this innovative area-based development programme, which he said has the potential of being replicated elsewhere.

President Kenyatta hoped that the initiative would help transform the region. “The programme will see Moyale being turned into the Dubai of Africa,” he said.

The strong commitment of the two governments is reflected in an article the Foreign Ministers of Kenya and Ethiopia, co-authored. Kenya and Ethiopia: A cross-border initiative to advance peace and development.

The initiative is driven by the need to foster peace and sustainable development in the cross-border area of Marsabit County, Kenya, and the Borana/Dawa Zones, Ethiopia. It was launched in December 2015 by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia.

The European Union Ambassador to Kenya, Dr Stefano Dejak remarked, “I am seeing positive signs of change and therefore the European Union has decided to partner with the UN and IGAD, to expand the cross-border programme to include Mandera Triangle (Kenya-Ethiopia-Somalia), the Omo (Kenya-South Sudan) and Karamoja (Kenya-Uganda) clusters”.

Among the positive signs is a determination to establish peace as the basis for integration. Local peace committees, comprising of different ethnic groups, have been working relentlessly to maintain the peace and promoting harmonious coexistence. The elders also testified to the fact that the number of young people getting radicalised and tempted to join extremist/terror groups had declined significantly.

Devolution has also empowered local authorities and communities, and has contributed to poverty reduction and effective service delivery in Marsabit County. The Isiolo-Merille-Marsabit-Moyale road, is now complete; and it will be a transformational as it will link the region to Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa, and promote cross-border trade. In addition, this completes the Trans-Africa highway linking South Africa to Egypt.

The region’s socio-economic development potential is great. The large numbers of livestock can be harnessed for leather, meat and dairy industries. The cross-border trade between the border communities could generate tremendous revenue for both countries. The region’s diverse and rich culture and heritage, evidenced by its historical and geographical sites, present huge tourism potential. There is also a latent resource for clean and renewable energy exploitation, as proven by the recent launch of the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project that is expected to generate 310MW into the national grid and power one million households.

The UN is collaborating with development partners to tap this enormous potential to reduce poverty and spur development in various ways. This will especially benefit women who are significantly involved in cross-border trade. The UN will soon launch a “HeforShe” initiative/campaign to empower women and address the problem of gender inequality, and enhance women’s participation in the development process in both regions.

A UN supported “Biashara Centre” – a business incubation centre – was opened in Marsabit Town to empower the youth and address the problem of youth unemployment, and promote small and medium enterprises.

Studies carried out, in collaboration with the communities, are helping to understand the causes, drivers, dynamics and impacts of conflict in the cross-border areas, and possible factors or stakeholders that could contribute to sustainable peace in the region. This is an important parameter of the African Union vision on peace and security in the first plan of action under the progressive Agenda 2063.

The UN has worked with Marsabit County to review and mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP). The revised CIDP aims at improving the living standards of the people of Marsabit County through employment creation, reduction of poverty and creation of wealth and expanding public service delivery in general.

Though integration and trade along the border is still in nascent stages, there is reason for optimism that it will have long-term positive macroeconomic and social ramifications such as food security and income generation, particularly for populations who would otherwise suffer from social exclusion.

Ms Ruth Kagia, in the Office of the President of Kenya who coordinates the programme says, “This initiative if properly executed may well be a game changer by turning cross border barriers into bridges of opportunity. Especially among the marginalized and poor communities to expedite the achievement of a core goal of the SDGs and ending poverty by 2030”.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Family and friends gathered to mourn the loss of their loved one after he was killed in a targeted shooting inside a business he owned.

South Nashville restaurant owner Gitem Demissie, age 41, was fatally shot overnight as he was preparing to close his business.

Metro Police responded to Ibex Ethiopian Restaurant in the 2500 block of Murfreesboro Pike after midnight, early Sunday morning, where they discovered Demissie who had been shot multiple times.

First responders transported him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

“We were really broken,” said Father Mesfin Tesemma, who leads the Ethiopian church where Demissie was an active member. “We didn’t expect this to happen to him. He doesn’t deserve to die like this. He is a very nice person.”

Tesemma said Demissie was a hard-working businessman who was well-known in the area. Tesemma said he sometimes put in 16 or 17 hours a day at his businesses.

Demissie had lived in Nashville for more than ten years. He first opened Ibex Mart on Bell Road, selling Ethiopian groceries, including spices, fresh meat, and vegetables.

According to Tesemma, Ibex Mart was the only Ethiopian grocery store in Nashville, meaning a lot of people knew Demissie and relied on his business.

In January 2015, Demissie opened a second business, the restaurant and bar, where he was shot and killed early Sunday morning.

Friends said Demissie had been working hard to sell his bar in hopes of taking time to travel home to Ethiopia to see his parents. His death has left many in the Ethiopian community fearing for their safety.

“What happened to him means a lot for everybody. So are we safe here?” Tesemma said. “Those are the kinds of questions it raises in the minds of a lot of Ethiopians.”

Detectives remained on scene until sunrise collecting interviews and evidence.

The shooter was described as a masked gunman wearing a black long sleeve shirt and black jeans. A witness said the suspect went up to Demissie, shot him multiple times, and fled from the building. The witness added the man had light skin and a thin build, and he stood around 5’7’’ tall.

Anyone with information on this fatal shooting has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463.

By prof. Alemayehu G. mariam

Author’s Note: The purported prime minster of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, is a sanitary engineer with a master’s degree from Tampere University of Technology (TUT) in Finland. The sanitary engineering profession is concerned with the removal and disposal of human waste and finding ways of supplying safe potable water.

Last week, under Desalegn’s personal watch nearly 200 people were buried when a “mountain of garbage” at a landfill commonly known as “Qoshe”, some 13 miles southwest of the capital, collapsed on an adjacent neighborhood.

In May 2017, Desalegn is slated to receive an honorary doctoral degree from TUT.  An honorary degree (honoris causa) is given to an individual for outstanding contributions to a specific field of human endeavor or for exceptional contributions to a particular society or the world community.

It is mind boggling for me to consider how a renowned university such as TUT could even consider presenting an honorary doctoral degree to a sanitation engineer who sat at the pinnacle of power and watched in depraved indifference for years and did nothing to prevent the needless deaths of some 200 persons from a collapsing mountain of garbage.

For what accomplishments TUT is awarding Hailemariam an honorary degree?

What has Hailemariam done to improve sanitation in Addis Ababa? What has he done with the education, training and expertise he acquired in sanitary engineering from TUT to improve the sanitation system in Addis Ababa or anywhere else?

Hailemariam casually brushes it all off. He says he knew nothing about the Qoshe dumpsite issue despite the fact that the dumpsite had collapsed on a number of previous occasions with significant injuries and property damage.

Hailemariam specializes in denying responsibility. He said he did not know when his troops massacred over 500 people during the Irreecha Massacres in October 2016.

TUT is now honoring a man who has presided over, if not authorized, at least two documented  killing fields.

Shame on TUT, its president and the TUT Foundation Board!!!

I shall promptly serve, and make public, a strongly-worded note of academic protest on behalf of the Qoshe victims and their families on TUT’s president Mika Hanula, Ph.D.,  and TUT’s Foundation Board Chairman Tero Ojanperä, Ph.D., for their  University’s complicity in honoring a man singularly responsible for failing to prevent a great tragedy and for the deaths of 200 poor Ethiopians at their official street and box office address: Korkeakoulunkatu 10, FI-33720 Tampere, FINLAND; PO Box 527, FI-33101 Tampere, FINLAND. I urge all Ethiopians throughout the world, and particularly Ethiopians and their friends in Finland, Norway and Sweden, to protest the award of the honorary degree to Desalegn.

Addis Ababa, the Potemkin Village

A Potemkin village is a metaphor for “something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance.” It is a village of smoke and mirrors. It is like the back lot sets at the movie studios with an attractive exterior façade and nothing in the interior. A Potemkin village is a game of deception complete with illusions, make-believe props and sleights of hand. It is a dog and pony show which is staged to impress, to thrill, to overawe and to grandstand.

In a Potemkin village, everything is masked to divert attention from the truth and distort the hard realities and ultimately deflect responsibility. In a Potemkin village, the aim is to manipulate public opinion and when that fails disorient, confuse and frustrate the public.

The ruling Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) has created a Potemkin village in Ethiopia, and particularly in Addis Ababa.

The T-TPLF has done everything it can to 1) conceal the true picture of the dire and miserable socio-political and economic situation in the country, 2) create an imaginary and deceptive narrative of Ethiopia as the rising “developmental state” modeled after Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia and 3) paint a picture of Ethiopia as the shining “middle income country” to become by 2025.

The late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi proclaimed a public relations campaign called “Ethiopian Renaissance” to cleverly discredit the great Ethiopian Emperor (Emye) Menelik II and project himself as the “father of modern Ethiopia”.

The T-TPLF has created the Potemkin village of Ethiopia to distract prying and probing eyes from the truth. The T-TPLF has done it with a media campaign of lies, damned lies and statislies. They have done it by spreading  junk data like horse manure. They have used garbage in, garbage out data to prove double-digit growth. They have done it with trash talk about democracy and winning 100 percent of the seats in parliament. Suffice it to say that I have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the claims of double-digit growth is a doggone lie fabricated in the T-TPLF’s statistics factory.

In creating the Ethiopian Potemkin village of double-digit growth, the T-TPLF has colluded with the brown-nosing expert international poverty pimps who ingurgitate the aid and loans given to the Ethiopian people like blood-sucking ticks on farm animals  and the mindless and lazy foreign media who would rather propagate official lies than challenge the bold-faced liars who use them like five-dollar tricks.

What is the truth from which the T-TPLF is running away?

Under the T-TPLF, Ethiopia has become the second poorest country  in the world and the beggar nation of Africa panhandling for handouts year after year after year.

The T-TPLF wants to hide the fact that it has drained the lifeblood of Ethiopians over the past 25 years.  In 2011, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) reported,

The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”

The GFI report further documented that “Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365,  lost US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009.”

Under the T-TPLF, Ethiopia has become bankrupt and a deadbeat nation mooching off international donors.

The African Development Bank in its “Country Strategy Paper for 2016-2020” says Ethiopia is  drowning  in debt. “Ethiopia’s external debt stock has soared fivefold, from USD 2.8 billion in 2008/09 to USD 19 billion in 2014/15, up from 12.1% of GDP in 2009/10 to 26.2% in 2014/15. Yet, the T-TPLF crew sucks the financial lifeblood of Ethiopia.

As part of its public relations efforts, the T-TPLF has installed a barely functional light rail system in the Potemkin village of Addis Ababa. It has also launched a long haul railway system; but both rail systems today teeter on the verge of bankruptcy.

The T-TPLF has embarked on various public relations white elephant projects including a dam on the Blue Nile River and another dam which has destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in the Omo River Basin in Southwestern Ethiopia. Constant power outages in the capital are a daily fact of life in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.

The T-TPLF has built shiny glass buildings and rudimentary infrastructure in the capital, which according to various engineering reports are described “low quality” and constructed with “insufficient attention being paid to issues of environmental performance and life-cycle analysis” and in the “absence of any consideration for pedestrians in urban design and construction management.”

Nowhere is the T-TPLF Potemkin village in Ethiopia more glaringly visible than in the urban infrastructure housing and sanitation sector.

A 2011 U.N. Human Settlements Programme report stated Addis Ababa needed 300,000 new homes with only 30% of existing properties in “fair condition”.

A 2015 U.N.-HABITAT  report described “70 percent” Addis Ababa’s housing stock as “informal”.  As rural migration in to the capital increases by nearly 4 percent annually and the T-TPLF uses eminent domain to take property from the poor to hand it over to its cronies, supporters and others who are prepared to “grease its palms”, housing shortages have increased sharply and the masses of the urban poor are forced to construct informal housing in backyards of existing housing stock, while others are forced to relocate to the periphery of the capital. To add insult to injury, the T-TPLF calls the urban poor it has displaced “squatters” and “illegal settlers” , when in fact it is the T-TPLF that is creating illegal settlements by its criminal use of the powers of eminent domain to give its rich supporters the land that once belonged to the poor.

The Qoshe “garbage mountain” disaster

On March 9, 2017, under Hailemariam’s watch, dozens of people died when, as the Washington Post described it, an “artificial mountain of garbage, where people scrap out a living combing through the refuse” collapsed.  According to a Reuters report, 115 persons were exhumed from the “mountain of garbage” at the Qoshe landfill and emergency workers “expect to pull more bodies” in the coming days. Residents reported  “at least 80 people remained unaccounted for.”

The Qoshe landfill is over one-half century old and occupies some 37 hectares. It is the site for the disposal of millions of tons of waste every year from the capital city. Surrounding the landfill are makeshift shelters constructed from mud and wood and plastic sheeting. The residents include not only the urban homeless poor scavenging for food and recyclable items but also the working poor whose properties have been demolished  by the T-TPLF, paid pennies in compensation and their land handed over to T-TPLF crony land developers.

What caused the March 9 garbage collapse disaster?

There appear to be at least two persuasive and compelling explanations.

One survivor of the Qoshe disaster gave the following shocking account to the Voice of America- Amharic program:

This situation could have been changed from the very beginning. This is not the first time this thing [collapse] has occurred . It is not the second time. It is not the third time. In six years, it is a disaster that has occurred repeatedly for the fourth and fifth time. The accumulated trash had collapsed even before six years ago. We have spent our money and pooled our labor to try and fix the problem.  We planted trees and other defenses to prevent the trash from collapsing but the government demanded that we turn over the land for development and so we did. As a result, there was nothing to defend against soil erosion which triggered the collapse of the trash and as a result caused a disaster in the neighborhood. The trash did not collapse because too many people live close to the trash site or because of excess of trash accumulation. From the beginning when they [government] began digging to build a road, residents of the area expressed concerns about the situation but the [government] ignored warnings that the road construction [on side of the accumulated trash] could loosen the ground creating a collapse. The plea of residents in the area that beginning construction on the side of the trash heap without  removing the trash could result in a disaster was ignored.

In an “in-depth analysis of the Qoshe garbage dump collapse”, Addis Standard in its March 17, 2017 report provided a number of clues to the mixture or corruption, fraud, abuse and waste in the management of  solid waste in Addis Ababa and the deadly interplay of T-TPLF’s urban renewal (confiscation) policy and poor people’s removal consequences from the highly lucrative urban areas:

The massive scale of decades-old evictions of the poor from the center of the city is by all measures, a corruption-infested practice by city administration officials.

Qoshe as the only open dumpsite in the city had outlived its original purpose and had no  facilities such as fences, drainage systems, odor control, or recycling methods.

A decade-old commission established  to manage the dump site had failed to manage it properly.

The city government of  Addis Ababa was fully aware of the gravity of the Qoshe situation after a major disaster in 2009.

Instead of mitigating the Environmental and human impact of the Qoshe dumpsite, the “authorities” (that is the T-TPLF) began selecting alternative sites and closure and conversion of Qoshe into a public park.

In 2012, T-TPLF officials went on their usual panhandling spree to beg money for the construction of a state-of –the-art solid waste management operation. They visited various European and other capitals and engaged in “shrouded backdoor negotiations”.

As a result of the negotiations, several donors, including the US, responded positively and  provided large amounts of grants to the city administration to improve solid waste disposal. With a US$337 million grant secured from the French government and the work given to  VINCI Grands Projets, a French construction company,  the T-TPLF launched work on the Sendafa Sanitary Landfill.

VINCI Grands Projets was paid may be half of the initial amount it won the contract for and even that, it was done in bits and pieces with several delays.

The Sendafa Sanitary Landfill opened in February 2016 giving respite to Qoshe in 53 years, but  six months into its service, Sendafa Sanitary Landfill imploded, leaving Addis Abeba to explode with its waste.

The Sendafa Sanitary Landfill was not only incomplete when it started receiving the city’s solid waste, but also none of the four waste transfer stations incorporated in the plan were built.

The T-TPLF made another USD$158 million with U.K.-based Cambridge Industries to turn deal Qoshe into a 50mw waste-to-energy plant.

and a  project office assigned to do the job – Addis Abeba Waste Recycling & Disposal Project Office –f VINCI Grands Projets, a French construction company (

Simultaneously, city administration officials have assigned a US$158 million for a project to turn Qoshe into a 50mw waste-to-energy plant and have awarded the contract to the UK-based Cambridge Industries; Sendafa Sanitary Landfill experienced, the Qoshe waste-to-energy project has already missed its opening deadline several times.

In October 2016, the Addis Ababa city government spent close to US$5 million to purchase 25 compactors and ten road sweepers. This was the city government second time the agency made such huge investment to buy compactors. Already in 2012, it bought 19 compactors at a cost of US$3.9 million; almost all of them were sitting idle by the time Sendafa Sanitary Landfill was opened.

The evidence in the Qoshe disater and solid waste management in Addis Ababa clearly points to corruption, waste, fraud and abuse and depraved indifference and bureaucratic incompetence of T-TPLF officials in the prevention of the Qoshe disaster on March 9, 2017.

There is no question that T-TPLF officials were factually aware of the high likelihood of a recurrence of  collapse that Qoshe dumpsite as they had established a special committee to deal with it in 2009.

Why did the T-TPLF regime allow settlements around the Qoshe landfill?

The Qoshe dumpsite emits methane gas from decomposing trash. There are even smoldering fires with visible smoke. The putrid smell emanating from the landfill is intolerable. Yet, for years the T-TPLF turned a blind eye as thousands of citizens rummaged through the trash and built make-shift shelters.

Hailemariam Desalegn knew of the Qoshe dumpsite both as a sanitary engineer and as the putative prime minister.

Neither Hailemariam nor his T-TPLF bosses have an explanation for their failure to take preventive or protective action to safeguard public health and safety in the hazardous operation of the Qoshe dumpsite.

But the chief researcher for Amnesty International in Ethiopia, Fisseha Tekle, has a clear explanation:

The government claims it has been developing for the last decade but was not able to take residents out of this deplorable situation. And those people are living in the middle of that [Koshe landfill] location. It’s not a landfill anymore, it’s like a mountain. Whatever kind of country you are, you cannot let people live in this situation. The government is fully responsible for the people living on this site and for their condition of those people who died, and for their lack of safety.”

In a formal statement, Amnesty International declared:

The Ethiopian government is fully responsible for this totally preventable disaster. It was aware that the landfill was full to capacity but continued to use it regardless. It also let hundreds of people continue to live in close proximity to it.  These people, including many women and children, had no option but to live and work in such a hazardous environment because of the government’s failure to protect their right to adequate housing, and decent work.

Qoshe garbage mountain collapse is only the tip of the iceberg of Ethiopia’s environmental collapse

In his 2005 book, “Collapse”, Prof. Jared Diamond identifies five factors that contribute to societal collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt to environmental issues. (For those not interested in reading the book, I recommend Diamond’s Ted Talks presentation HERE.)

The T-TPLF’s final solution to the Ethiopian problem is to “Collapse” it through massive scale environmental degradation, uncontrolled high population growth, massive population displacements and land grabs, construction of unsafe, poorly designed and low quality dams, provoke water wars with neighbors, turn a blind eye to environmental pollution and accelerate deforestation all in the name of economic development.The “Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute” says Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, what could happen in 2025 or 2050?

I have always been more deeply concerned about environmental collapse in Ethiopia more than political collapse. Governments and regimes come and go, but damage to the environment impacts generations to come.

I first wrote about the T-TPLF’s crimes against nature in March 2009. In that commentary, I discussed the enormous human toll resulting from the toxic waters of Lake Koka, once a pristine lake located some 50 miles south of Addis Ababa. A health worker at the time explained that the people in Ammudde [Lake Koka area] “are more sick than the other people who are not using that water. It will be about two-thirds more… Most of them have stomach disease and diarrhea is common. They are drinking the water that is contaminated from the [leather] factory, so they get sick from that chemical.” Those people today are still dying.

In 2012, I joined the efforts of international conservationists to protect the indigenous people of the Omo Basin in Southwestern Ethiopia from the serious hydrological risks posed by the construction of the so-called Gibe III dam.

In 2011, I sounded the alarm on population growth in my commentary, “Ethiopia: Apocalypse Now or in 40 Years?”. I tried to call attention to the July 2011 U.S. Census Bureau’s frightening population forecast: By 2050, Ethiopia’s current  90 million population will more than triple to 278 million, placing that country in the top 10 most populous countries in the world.

Ethiopia did not produce enough food  to feed 25 million people in 1974;  or 40 million in 1984; or 55 million in 1994; or 74 million in 2004 and 100 million people in 2017.

Will it be Apocalypse in Ethiopia in 2025? 2050? That should be food for thought for all of those who are today fighting to get into or cling to political power.

Hear! Hear! You will all be fighting to rule over a nation of corpses!!!

The right to a safe environment

Article 92(1) of the “Ethiopian constitution” written by the T-TPLF provides, “Government shall endeavor to ensure that all Ethiopians live in a clean and healthy environment.” Like every single one of the 106 “articles”, the T-TPLF ignores the commandment of Art. 92 with depraved indifference.

The T-TPLF’s Proclamation No. 513/2007  aims to regulate “solid waste management” in urban areas. Like everything else, the T-TPLF leaders think that writing words in the constitution or a proclamation will make it happen magically. Of course, neither of these legal authorities have any meaningful application under T-TPLF rule. Indeed, I will bet my bottom dollar that none of the top T-TPLF leadership have ever read their own constitution or the proclamations they crank out like cheap hamburgers.

The T-TPLF’s Perverted Logic

For the T-TPLF, large trash production is a sign of economic development because it shows high consumption .

One rather dubious 2015 study which appears to support of the T-TPLF’s “developmental state” approach argues that Ethiopia “like any agriculturalist economy at the early stage economic growth inevitably contribute for environmental degradation. Later on environmental degradation starts to decrease with increasing economic growth.”

In other words, the study, stripped off its intellectual pretensions, the study effectively argues that environmental degradation is a necessary precondition of development in Ethiopia. Reading George Ayittey’s piece in this regard may prove to be enlightening.

Land grabs, mass displacements and sanitation in Ethiopia

The T-TPLF would do anything to conceal the data presented below, but the facts are just the facts, bogus claims of double-digit economic growth and all of the other fairy tales to the contrary.

The data on sanitation in Ethiopia and the capital city are simply appalling. A 2015 study based on a “nationwide inventory” revealed:

more than half of the Ethiopian population (52.1%) still used unimproved sanitation facilities in 2014. The majority (35.6%) practiced open defecation, implying that the country is far from the MDG target for access to improved sanitation (56%). Most people in urban slums (88.6%) used unimproved sanitation facilities, indicating that the urban poor did not receive adequate sanitation services. Trend analysis shows that access to ISC has increased, but Central Statistical Authority (CSA) data reveal a decline. This discrepancy is due to differences in data collection methods and tools. Dry pit latrines are the most widely used toilet facilities in Ethiopia, accounting for about 97.5% of the ISC.

The sanitation data on Addis Ababa, the hub of the African Union and other international organizations, shows:

Open defecation is practiced by 8.2%, 5.8%, and 8.0% of slum residents in Addis Ababa, the total Addis Ababa population, and all urban areas of the country, respectively. The majority of Addis Ababa’s slum dwellers (88.6%) and 73% of its total population use unimproved sanitation facilities, showing that the urban poor are the population segment with the poorest access to sanitation services. In conclusion, urban sanitation coverage is far from the MDG target and the majority of urban residents live with high health and environmental risks.

A 2015 USAID study of  30 cities/towns of Ethiopia showed:

Open-field urination and defecation were highly practiced among the urban community. Organizational setups for proper urban municipal sanitation and waste management were not fully functional because of low salary, placement, and motivation.

The management of liquid waste at household level was very poor. About half of the households handle grey water (household liquid waste) by openly discharging into any accessible public properties, such as streets, and nearby open space. The overall USWM (urban sanitation waste management) situation was grossly poor, characterized by poor linkage between policies/strategies and operational practices.

Another 2015 study of “trends of access to sanitation in Ethiopia” showed the majority of urban slums (88.6%) used unimproved sanitation facilities including open field defecation. The “Ethiopian-Central Statistics Agency”s” 2014 survey estimated 82.5% of urban and 95.5% of national population have no access to improved sanitation. According to the study, “safe and resource recovery oriented FSM (fecal sludge management) system is totally absent in Addis Ababa.” These problems have persisted for and documented over  a very long time.

In 2008, the World Health Organization estimated that 64% of people in Ethiopia defecate in the open, although that was down from 91% in 1990. That report indicated that the lack of toilet facilities and general poor sanitation in the city are some of the leading causes of disease and death in the country.

In 2005, according to the World Health Organization, only 22 per cent of Ethiopia’s 81 million people had access to safe water and only 13 percent of the population had access to sanitation . USAID recommended the “next step in Ethiopia’s WSS (water supply and sanitation) sector development must be focused on local WSS service provider capacity building so that national policies and strategies are effectively implemented and sustainable service expands to semi-urban and rural populations.”

At the time, even USAID expressed considerable doubts on the T-TPLF’s ability to properly use the money to improve sanitation. “It is not known whether Ethiopia has the capacity to effectively and efficiently utilize even the current available amounts, much less any additional allocations, although additional capacity to absorb new funding is being scaled up through donor coordination.” Aha! There was a time when USAID was able to call a spade a spade and tell the truth. Peter Ustinov, the eminent English dramatist, intellectual and diplomat once observed, “Corruption is nature’s way of restoring our faith in democracy.” Is that what Trump means when he says, “Drain the swamp”?

The T-TPLF’s “National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy”, published in December 2005, claims “To Enable 100% Adoption of Improved Hygiene and Sanitation”  based on “three pillars” (pp. 34-37): 1) creating a framework to develop policy consensus, legislation, political commitment, intersectoral co-operation, partnership and capacity building; 2) promote sanitation and hygiene through participatory learning, advocacy, communication, social marketing, incentives or sanctions, and 3) improved access to strengthen the supply of sanitation through appropriate technology solutions, product and project development, and support to local producers and artisans.

Over a decade, later there is little evidence that the T-TPLF has even attempted to implement the strategies let alone implement them effectively.

According to a 2007 UNICEF report, “Water-borne diarrhoea results in over 500,000 child deaths each year, and 60 to 80 per cent of all diseases in Ethiopia are water and sanitation-related. It is hoped that the rapid construction of latrines in this region will curb deaths and create a healthier environment for women and children.” Today millions of Ethiopian children and adults die or are severely disabled from sanitation and hygiene-related diseases.

A 2014 assessment of environmental awareness education on solid waste management  in one particular district of Addis Ababa showed, “The practices and implementation appear at low level. Some of the factors that hindered the proper practices of solid waste management [include] lack of waste management facilities in the locality, lack of stake holders participation and commitment, and lack of adequate community participation.” So much for the “National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy”.

A 2014 report in the Guardian made the stunning revelation that “Addis Ababa has more than 3 million people, but there are just 63 public toilets.”

That means there are 63 certified locations for the breeding and propagation of untold types of infectious diseases.

As far as I am concerned, there is no better statistic that is more telling about T-TPLF’s Potemkin village of Addis Ababa.

The T-TPLF boasts of 10-12 percent annual growth in Ethiopia over the past decade. Yet it has only 63 public toilets for 3 million people, that is 1 toilet for every 47, 620 persons.

What more can I say!!!!!!

Ethiopians are dying by the tens of thousands every day under the T-TPLF mountain

To me, the Qoshe mountain of garbage collapse is merely a metaphor for what is happening in Ethiopia under the putrid T-TPLF mountain.

The T-TPLF mountain is collapsing on Ethiopians every day and killing and maiming thousands.

There is no question the 50 plus year-old mountain of trash at Qoshe needs immediate disposal.

So does the 25 year-old political trash!

I wonder if TUT is honoring Hailemariam for making Ethiopia one large Qoshe!

Interview with Journalist Senay Gebremdhin – Pt 2

The Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF) expresses its heartfelt condolences to the families of victims of the preventable and inexcusable landslide in Addis Ababa that claimed the lives of at least 72 poor Ethiopian citizens, most of them children and women.

The regime’s declaration of three days of national mourning does not bring back their lives. Nor does it address the fundamental structural development problems in the country, including gross and inequitable distribution of incomes, which characterize the desperate and degrading lives of millions of Ethiopians in urban and rural areas.   ——– Read More —–

Adewa Dr Haile Larebo Interview By Journalist Zewdu Mengiste Lucy Radio U K

ESAT Radio 20 Mon Mar 2017

Senior Senator on Judiciary Committee drops hint she knows more than she can say ‘right now’

• Rachel Roberts

Dianne Feinstein hinted she may know more than she can currently disclose about Donald Trump AFP

Donald Trump is going to “get himself out of office soon”, a leading Democratic senator has claimed.

Dianne Feinstein suggested the President would quit before he was potentially forced out of office after anti-Trump protesters in Los Angeles demanded to know why more wasn’t being done by Congress to remove him from office.

“We know he is breaking the law every day,” a protester asked the 83-year-old political veteran. “He has obvious dealings with Russia. There’s so many things he’s doing that are unconstitutional. How are we going to get him out?”

Hinting she might know more than she is able to let on, Ms Feinstein, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, replied: “We have a lot of people looking into this. I think he’s going to get himself out.”

She went on to cite several potential conflicts of interests surrounding the Trump business empire, but she declined to say whether she thought the President had done anything that was worthy of impeachment.

“I can’t answer that right now,” she said.

Referencing recent trips to Dubai by Mr Trump’s sons, Donald Jr and Eric, where they opened a new golf club, she said: “I think sending sons to another country to make a financial deal for his company and then have that covered with Government expenses, I believe those Government expenses should not be allowed.

“We’re working on a bill that would do that now … We’re working on a couple of bills that would deal with conflicts of interest.”

Ms Feinstein is not the first to suggest the billionaire tycoon may decide to quit the White House of his own volition.

Left-wing film-maker and social commentator Michael Moore – who predicted Mr Trump would win the election, went on to incorrectly suggest he could quit before his inauguration.

Several commentators have predicted Mr Trump will be impeached at some point, including Allan Litchmann, dubbed the “Prediction Professor” after he correctly called every US election since 1984.

Richard Nixon is the only US President in history to have resigned before his certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal.

Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were also impeached by the House of Representatives but both were acquitted by the Senate.

Hiber Radio Daily Ethiopian News March 20, 2017

By Keffyalew Gebremedhin
The Ethiopia Observatory (TEO)

Ethiopia under the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is quietly experimenting its mini-nationalization of investor properties and enterprises.

Addis Abeba, Washington’s yet unsorted ally, its move would be seen as one of the most bizarre anomaly of our time. Given that the United States now is under the most hawkish business tycoon, in his own right the first United States billionaire President Donald Trump, members of his cabinet of similar wealths, the Ethiopian regime’s move is likely to smack the new US Administration on the face.

Such nationalization, anathema to the United States, the Trump Administration experiences in less than two months since assuming power could irk many, coming as it does as the most despicable political eccentricity under their early watch.

The fact remains, however, Ethiopia’s only state-owned English daily The Ethiopian Herald, lauded this in a piece dated March 3, 2017 as “economic revolution to fundamentally overhaul its [Oromia Region’s] economy through research based public-private partnership investment strategy aiming at ensuring economic justice among Oromo people.”

As if that is not enough, to put the official ruling party imprimatur to this misguided action, already under implementation within the TPLF-cobbled false and perfidious federal system of governance, the paper quotes the regional state’s communication head Addisu Arega, who in his own confusion claims, “the initiative would encourage domestic investment which in turn benefits the youth and farmers together with Foreign Direct Investment.”

Of course, in a nation where political propaganda and lies do not make a difference between fact and fiction, bear in mind here that over 40 of the businessmen whose properties were nationalized were local investors, according to the Ethiopian Reporter.

The TPLF systematically gave it its sanction to this horrid experiment through its opinion-maker page – the Horn Affairs, published by a wheeler dealer rumoured as part of the security establishment. The Horn article denounced an opponent of the Oromia nationalization measure as ‘pseudo activist’ who as ‘supporter of narrow democracy’ – whatever that means:

“Usually focuses only on the regime change than improving the living standard of the people. These people they do not have modern attitude or thinking that transforms the life of their people. They are not interested to show the experiences of developed country social and economic transformation to bring modern thinking and institution to their beloved people. Their objective is denying and preventing the economic development of Oromo people in the name of freedom and resistance. Practically there is no freedom without economic development.”

It is worrisome that insanity should prevail on this scale and nakedness in one of the poorest and badly injured nations on Earth at this time. This mad action is likely to drive businesses out of the economy and hurt mostly the poor and without recourse. How come they cannot see, or are uncaring about the huge risks for fresh investments, especially as the country’s growth and stability are signalling red – partly due to the ongoing less confrontational rebellions in most parts and the rising insecurity and deaths on both sides?

I should hasten to clarify that, if the title of this article sounds a lament about the death of the human sense of right and wrong in Ethiopia’s politics, especially at the highest levels of the TPLF regime, the author’s objective has been partially achieved.

Similarly, if those who read this article understand its purpose to be to make a small contribution toward the resolution of the multi-faceted problems our country has been facing, I consider it a step forward. Note that the nation’s situation is progressively deteriorating with every passing day – most hated regime, state violence, armed struggle on many fronts, poor economic performance, food insecurity, drought, corruption, what not! There is also the threat of drying foreign exchange, which today the regime revealed its industries are starving due to inability to import the chemical inputs manufacturing industries need.

Unfortunately, our nation’s dilemma is such that while it is even in this difficult situation, the TPLF continues to try to sustain itself in power by any means, including through political deceits, horrendous rights abuses and its costly means of divide and conquer that is now bleeding the country.
Massive youth unemployment

That being the reality, I worry about the ruling party’s exclusive focus at present on the problem of youth joblessness. Job seekers data in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, quoted by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), shows that there at present over three million employment seeking youth. Most of them are not so well educated, as part of the failure of the standard and quality of education, for which efforts to improve it has not proceeded beyond mere talks and propaganda.

Of course, in Tigray, which benefits from all technical assistance and foreign aid has improved vastly, it being the regime’s political objective. This is shown by the vast differences of the outcome of comparisons between lower grade pupils standards of learning in Amhara and Tigray regional states, as revealed recently in an article with pictures (below) by Samson Asfaw:

What we see through the regime’s youth employment policy here is a n attempt to create an agenda that would show it is concerned, when the TPLF has no iota of concerns for Ethiopian youth in particular. It is, therefore, only shedding crocodile tears. While seemingly intended to address the unemployment problem through establishment of a revolving fund, its past experiences should amply remind the nation with a trove of evidences of its disastrous failures, owing to incompetence, nepotism and the corruption its ethnic politics has fostered.

To my mind, our pressing problems at the moment are more political in nature than economic, though the latter is a constant a given problem, which cannot be effectively addressed without political solutions. The regime presumes that mere technocratic economic planning, zeroing on youth unemployment, as if that could address our nation’s more complicated political problems. This is a wrong diagnosis and a wrong solution too.

Ethiopia has been successfully sold to the outside world as a country with legendary ‘double-digit’ economic growths. Nonetheless, not adequate attention has been given – both by citizens and foreign scholars – to the problems and implications to Ethiopian daily lives of the crushing land grab, home demolitions, state violence and human rights abuses and lack of respect for property rights, etc.

The fact of the matter is that these human and state power cruelties have pushed significant proportions of Ethiopians, especially those not belonging to the ruling ethnic group in particular, such as Amharas and Oromos and those that have been considered backward (in Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, SNNPR) to be pushed, further and further away from the narrower growth centers where TPLF members easily pluck the fruits into places the fruits and benefits don’t reach. Those with fertile lands have been beaten, dislocated and pushed off into the margins of existence.

Evidently, in a land where poverty has been profound and land grab has pushed millions more into further poverty. This has badly affected the nation’s health and its future prospects for balanced growth and development.

Today, the just-revived youth employment fiction would not take the country any distance as a nation. Nor could it ease its pain and the anger of vast section of the population. Hence in the midst of the worst political crisis, right at this moment Ethiopia finds itself in a vacuum of political will and realism, entangled by the TPLF foolhardy, which is only intended to distract attention from the real solutions – just to prolong its stay in power.

My intention here is not to foreclose the policy door or deny sympathy to the difficult situation of massive youth joblessness across our nation. As stated above, I am persuaded that this would not work in an environment where there is no political will and commitment to the nation and its people.

Accordingly, my view aims at exposing the TPLF’s political chicanery – I like this word, which, according to its dictionary definition, it underlines the TPLF’s goal of trying to utilize the jobless problems as means for political deceit, its subterfuge to achieve its own political objectives of political and economic control of Ethiopia.

For a country that first established its National Youth Policy in 2004, with the express aim of bringing about “the active participation of youth in the building of a democratic system and good governance as well as in the economic, social and cultural activities […] and to enable them to fairly benefit from the results”, this policy initiative, just like the TPLF democracy, has surely been castrated from the get go.

If not, to what could one attribute, for instance, the sudden yield by the TPLF to its repressive impulses last week to imprison 19 Blue Party leaders and 10 senior members of the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), who were in the midst of foreign-powers-induced talks with legal opposition political parties.

Unlike the European Union’s (EU) confusion, High Representative and Vice President Madm Federica Mogherini betrayed during her visit last week in Addis Abeba, this lawlessness and violence by the ruling party must be understood against the backdrop of the over year old political crisis that has aroused the nation with angrier about its misgovernance. At the time of her visit, I sincerely reacted with the following twitter message:

I am prompted to write this piece to urge the TPLF to realize that it entirely relies on use of force as its means of continuation and that the free will of the people has been completely trampled. Now as the nation’s impatience is further building once again, even under an environment of the martial law, time is almost running out.

Consequently, in the interests of our common homeland, its people and the future of our children, the time to act is now to turn to explore possibilities for mutual tolerance, as the road toward peaceful coexistence and a modicum of consensual governance, lest there would not be anything left for regret.

That in view and to shed more light on our national problem, Part II of this article would focus on this TPLF bankrupt youth policy. The first step is to expose why Ethiopians suffer from lack of income; why they have to become migrants all over the world, or are being pushed into prisons even at home, etc.

Part II would also make a few both specific and general recommendations for the TPLF regime to act upon, in its self-interests.