Hiber News Analysis: Jersualem | Donald Trump | Israel | Palestine

 

Hiber News Analysis: Jersualem | Donald Trump | Israel | Palestine

The post Hiber News Analysis: Jersualem | Donald Trump | Israel | Palestine appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

 

Ethiopia is legendary for its medieval, rock-hewn churches, the cruciform and colorful frescoes of which have attracted tourists from across the world. The ancient kingdom of Abyssinia, which we now know as modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, was probably the site of the first Christian nation, and the churches still serve as religious sanctuaries and draw pilgrims celebrating the Ethiopian Christian calendar.

Ethiopia: The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom celebrates the unique artistic and architectural achievement of 66 of these churches with more than 800 color photographs. The book delves into their history, documenting not just their exteriors, but their interior artwork, the panoply of religious festivals they host, and the lives of the monks and priests who call them home.

Published in November by Ludwig Publishing and the American University in Cairo Press, the book is a collaboration between academics, journalists, and photographers living both in and out of the continent. The captivating pictures are a testimony to the architectural mastery and uniqueness of Ethiopia’s medieval and post-medieval civilizations.

Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox.

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Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

The Executive Committee of Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has finally accepted the resignation of Abadula Gemeda as Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives.

The former Oromia State premier cited lack of respect for his people as the main reason for his decision but continued to hold his post as a lawmaker. The resignation of Gemeda in October this year came as a shock to most political watchers in the country.

His decision came in the wake of an escalation in deadly violence between Oromia and Ethiopia-Somali regional states. The crisis which has ethnic underpinnings and battle for resource control led to deaths, massive displacement of people with federal security forces blamed for their complicity.

The government did not immediately accept his decision with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn stating that there were talks ongoing to have Gemeda rescind his decision. “We will be happy if he reconsiders his decision,” PM Hailemariam said at the time.

Since submitting his resignation, the 59-year-old has not presided over proceedings in the parliament. He was, however, part of a group of Oromo and Amhara MPs who recently boycotted sittings over a security crisis in the Oromia region.

Gemeda’s resignation was followed by that of another top official, Bereket Simon – then a policy analyst to the premier. Desalegn in speaking on the resignations dispelled claims that they were connected.

According to him, the two needed to be taken in context. The government accepted that of Simon – a former information minister who Desalegn said had severally asked to quit in the past but had been talked out of it.

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By Nicolas Niarchos

The other day, on the outskirts of Fantahero, a small village in the desert of northern Djibouti, Sebhatou Mellis was sheltering from a-hundred-and-four-degree heat in the shade of an acacia tree. Mellis, who is twenty-six and has the rangy build of a runner, was about a thousand miles away from his home, in the impoverished Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. There, he and his family had taken a government loan to help improve his farm, tried to invest it, and failed, he told me. “At the end, the money was finished, and all the people began to insult us and say that we took the money from the government and used it badly,” he said.

Migrants taking shelter from the heat in the town of Fantahero, Djibouti. Ethiopian migrants withstand harsh conditions and harsh treatment on the journey to Saudi Arabia.PHOTOGRAPH BY LEX NIARCHOS

Mellis had come to Fantahero four days earlier, walking and hitching rides through the Danakil Desert with about a dozen other Tigrayans, a journey that took them about three weeks. Mellis’s ultimate destination, he hopes, will be Saudi Arabia, where, if he’s lucky, he’ll be able to work illegally. To get there, he will have to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Middle East from the Horn of Africa, and navigate his way through war-torn Yemen. “I left to repay my debts, not to die,” he said. “But if I die, at least I will liberate myself from poverty.”

The route through Djibouti and Yemen to Saudi Arabia is an ancient one. Some seventy thousand years ago, early man left Africa across the Bab el-Mandeb. The migration began the process by which modern humans settled the Eurasian continent. The historical connection between this part of Africa and the Middle East stretches through history. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Ethiopian Aksumite Empire extended into the modern Middle East and controlled parts of Yemen.

The modern flow of people to the Middle East waxes and wanes as wars and crises afflict the countries surrounding Djibouti. Over the past decade, though, the number of migrant arrivals in Yemen from the Horn of Africa has increased more than threefold, to about ninety-two thousand last year. That figure is small compared with the million or so irregular entries into Europe last year, but the journey is made more difficult by the harsh conditions crossing the desert. Most of the migrants crossing from Djibouti are Ethiopian, from the Oromia and Tigray regions, though some are from Somalia, which has been locked in civil war since 1991.

In Ethiopia, global warming and the El Niño heating effect in the Pacific have contributed to the worst drought in decades. Livestock is rapidly dying, and more than ten million people are now in need of food assistance. Mellis says that poverty and the lack of agricultural equipment contribute to the problem. “We have the farms, but we don’t have suitable equipment to develop them and stay there and eat from our own farms,” he said. “In our place, there’s no irrigation for the farms and there are no water holes. If we had water, I would have planted many things, like tomatoes and vegetables, and I would be able to live in my own land.” There are occasional bursts of ethnic violence and reprisals by state security officers. Since the end of last year, government forces in Oromia have killed around two hundred people who were protesting a development plan that they believed would cut them out.

Once the Ethiopian migrants leave home, they risk being arrested by their own government. About a hundred and seventy thousand Ethiopians were deported by Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2014, and Ethiopia responded with a ban on labor movement. (Negotiations have stalled because Ethiopia has asked for a minimum wage for its laborers of about twelve hundred riyals, a little more than three hundred dollars a month. The Saudi government will only agree to pay seven hundred riyals.) The migrants often have to endure days or even weeks of trekking through the desert. Even at the most blistering hours of the day, people with little more than flip-flops on their feet and empty plastic bottles in their hands, which they hope friendly passersby will refill, make the walk between Lake Assal, in Djibouti’s west, to Fantahero, in the east. “It’s something that you cannot imagine,” Mellis said, of the walk through the desert. “But you think about the reasons why you are making the journey.”

In Fantahero, a village of traditional aris, huts made from fabric and palm mats by the local Afar people, the migrants wait beneath the acacia trees for smugglers who will take them across the sea. Sometimes they live like this for weeks, taking water from points set up by the International Organization for Migration, which also houses some people coming through. The I.O.M. has twelve full-time staff members in the town of Obock, near Fantahero, who describe the dangers of continuing on to the Gulf and ask migrants to consider turning back. The organization also helps them return home if they have a change of heart.

Ali al-Jefri, the manager of the I.O.M.’s center in the town of Obock, said that few of the migrants—no more than a fifth of them—decide to turn back once they have reached Djibouti. I asked Mellis whether he was scared to cross Yemen, and whether he thought of returning to Ethiopia. “Of course I’m afraid, but if I arrive I will have the opportunity to have a better life,” Mellis told me, almost angrily. “Why should I go back? How will I pay my debts and my travel bills?”

The journey across the sea to Yemen, which costs migrants about a hundred and forty dollars, is one of the safer parts of their trip, if they manage to find an adequate boat. Unfortunately, many of the ships are small, old, and do not have adequate equipment to make the crossing. Groups of migrants can find themselves stranded at sea until they are picked up by the Djiboutian Coast Guard. Many of the migrants cannot swim, and the Bab el-Mandeb is known for rough seas; almost three and a half thousand have died making the crossing in the past ten years. The dangers at sea, however, hardly compare to what they will face when they get to Yemen.

Since March of last year, Yemen has been in a grinding civil war, between Houthi rebels and the government of Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia. The fighting has been brutal in many parts of the country: almost seven thousand people have lost their lives in the fighting, and large parts of cities have been flattened by bombing and rocket attacks. The conflict, however, has not deterred the migrants. “Some of them, especially the women, don’t have any awareness that there’s a conflict in Yemen,” Fatouma Ali, a nurse who works with the I.O.M. in Fantahero, told me. Petra Neumann, the temporary head of the I.O.M. in Djibouti, said that the number of migrants was going up despite the civil war in Yemen, and perhaps even because of it. “We also see, actually, an increasing number of people who are still going from Ethiopia through Djibouti, through Yemen, trying to reach the Gulf States,” she said. “What we can tell is that either they’re not even aware that there is a conflict in Yemen, or that they actually—and maybe this is something the traffickers tell them—think that they can use the conflict in their favor.”

Many Ethiopian migrants have been shot and wounded by groups in Yemen, or kidnapped and detained when they arrived in the country because they couldn’t afford to pay smugglers. Mellis said that he had not brought money to cross Yemen, though he estimated that the trip would cost him around five hundred and thirty dollars; he would ask his family to send him the money as the need arises, he told me. Situations like these are particularly dangerous. “In Yemen, if you don’t have the money, you’ll be detained, you’ll be beaten, your family will be made to send you money,” Jefri said. In the previous month, the I.O.M. had helped negotiate the release of twelve hundred and fifty migrants who had been imprisoned by Houthi rebels, he told me. Many of them were in bad shape. “So many of them whom we have evacuated had broken limbs, broken legs, broken hands,” he said.

Neumann and Jefri both told me that some of the rescued women reported that they had been sold into sexual slavery in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia. Neumann added that she suspected that human-trafficking rings could be moving women through Djibouti. “When you go to Obock, you see men walking, but you wouldn’t see women walking. Women are usually on trucks. For me, that looks quite organized,” she said. Those Ethiopians who do arrive and find work in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries often have their passports taken away by their employers, which is a violation of international labor conventions, and are subjected to debt slavery, beatings, and other forms of abuse. Some are forced to work extremely long shifts and are not given days off. Still, “there are opportunities,” Mellis told me. “They’re not satisfying, but we can take it in turns—someone could work today and someone else could take his place tomorrow. It’s better than nothing, I will be waiting for that.” He was going to Saudi Arabia, he said, “to change my life.” Once he earns enough money there, he plans to return to Ethiopia.

The Ethiopians I met in Fantahero are planning to immigrate to Saudi Arabia illegally. There are periodic mass expulsions from the country, which, according to reports by Human Rights Watch, are often violent. Recently, Ethiopians have been deported from the Kingdom back to Yemen instead of being deported home, according to the I.O.M. There, they once again face the dangers of the war and detention by rival militias. All of this, of course, depends on whether they can even make it to Saudi Arabia. In a Trumpian gesture, the Saudis are building a thousand-mile-long wall along their southern border with Yemen. Jefri told me that he thought the construction project would have little effect. “It’s not going to stop people migrating,” he said. “They’ll always find a way to get to Saudi Arabia.”

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addisstandard 2017-12-26

The post Hailemariam puts ongoing executive meeting on hold to meet parliamentarians, remains mute on the details appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Global Alliance for the Rights of Ethiopians (GARE)
Press Statement’

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Ethiopians (GARE) has been in the forefront in defending the rights of Ethiopians within and outside the country. Thanks to the generosity of supporters in the Diaspora, GARE has provided financial support to those in greatest need: families of those killed through extrajudicial measures by the regime in Ethiopia, victims of famine, migrants expelled from the Middle East and those murdered in Libya, persons displaced because of ethnic conflicts, activists stranded in various countries, residents in Addis Ababa whose livelihood were shattered because of government neglect and measures, etc. However modest, such support will continue.

Ethiopian society has been going through the most tumultuous and horrendous period in the country’s history since November 2015. Continued assaults on civil society and ordinary citizens instigated principally by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that dominates the governing party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in general and its key federal institutions such as security, federal police, the Agazi and special units, has compounded targeted and selective ethnic killings of the Amhara, Annuak, Oromo and indigenous people in the Omo valley.

Ethnically targeted and selective killings continue to occur throughout the country since October 22, 2017. An estimated 30 Amhara nationals, including children and women were murdered in Buno Bedele, Illubabor of the Oromia region. Many of them were hacked to death in a manner reminiscent of what happened in Rwanda in the 1990s. Targeted and selective killings continued in Adigrat, the Tigray region where Amhara and Oromo college students were murdered. No one has been held accountable for the deaths.

Atrocities against Oromo and Amhara nationals continued unabated since November 2015. More than 1,000 Oromo and Amhara were killed, most of them through extrajudicial measures. More than 11,000 were arrested. No one really knows the number of disappearances. The most recent flares are, in fact a continuation of unresolved grievances among Ethiopians. On December 11, 2017, federal troops commanded by Tigrean officers massacred 16 innocent civilians in the town of Celenko, Oromia. Of those murdered, five were from the same family. Reports show that these federal forces came to the town and region uninvited. Those responsible for these massacres should be held accountable for crimes against humanity.

The murders of innocent Oromo in Celenko compounded the ethnic-conflicts between Oromo and Somali Ethiopians who have lived side by side peacefully for generations. This conflict resulted in the deaths of large numbers of Oromo nationals and the tragic so-called “revenge killings” of more than 30 Somali nationals.

Whether revenge or not, such killings of innocent Ethiopians of any nationality or religious group is inexcusable and must be condemned. Human life has equal value.

It saddens members and supporters of the GARE organization to note that the norm in Ethiopia is for federal forces to massacre innocent people; and for the world community and for ordinary Ethiopians to move on as if nothing has happened. It saddens us to note that recurrent ethnic killing has now reached a level in which no one is secure or safe.

On October 3, 2016, GARE released a press statement condemning TPLF/EPRDF-sponsored terrorism and massacre of innocent Oromo civilians in Bishoftu, Oromia. We ‘expressed our condolences to the families and relatives of those who were massacred. We have expressed similar sentiment to Amhara nationals murdered.’

GARE therefore condemns the murders of innocent Somali nationals regardless of the culprits. We condemn those high officials within the TPLF/EPRDF who instigate interethnic murders and violence; and call for a UN independent investigation of all murders and killings.

GARE calls on all Ethiopians within and outside the country to condemn targeted and selective killings; and urge Ethiopians to reject such violence that might lead to a Rwanda-like genocide.

GARE calls on all Ethiopian opposition groups within and outside Ethiopia to reject ethnic-based killings and marginalization; and condemn the governing party, state and government system dominated by the TPLF that prolongs its political and economic grip through ethnic divide and rule, targeted and selective killings and brutality.

Once again, GARE expresses its deepest condolences to the families and relatives of those who were massacred.

There is nothing in the annals of modern Ethiopian or African or world history that depicts the barbaric, cruel and inhumane nature of the recurring atrocities perpetrated by Ethiopian government authorities directly or indirectly. They are accountable for the tragedy.

GARE urges the global community, especially the governments of the United States, the European Community and the African Union to have the courage and demand that the TPLF- dominated regime to stop murdering its own people either directly or through proxies.

Once again, GARE calls upon all Ethiopian civic, political, spiritual and other stakeholders within and outside the country to set aside minor differences and offer the Ethiopian people a better government alternative before Ethiopia becomes the next Rwanda or Syria.

GARE will do everything within its means to support the families and relatives of those killed and wounded and calls on all Ethiopians to collaborate in this national effort.

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Photo provided by Egypt’s state news agency MENA shows Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (3rd-L) meeting with his counterpart Workneh Gebeyehu (3rd-R) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Dec. 26, 2017.

Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — 

Egypt said Tuesday the World Bank should be brought in to resolve tensions with Ethiopia over a massive dam on the Nile River that Egypt says threatens its water security.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry spoke in Addis Ababa after a 10-month impasse over technical negotiations for the dam, which will be Africa’s biggest hydro-electric plant. The talks also involve Sudan.

“Egypt has recognized the importance of economic development to Ethiopia . but science should be the determining factor on how we manage this important issue,” Shoukry said.

He called the World Bank “neutral and decisive” and said it could facilitate negotiations “devoid of political interpretation and manipulation.”

Ethiopia maintains that the Grand Renaissance Dam’s construction will not reduce Egypt’s share of the river. It insists the dam is needed for development, pointing out that 60 million citizens don’t have access to electricity.

Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu said Ethiopia will consider Egypt’s new proposal and that “this dam is not going to cause any significant harm.” The project is now 63 percent complete.

Tuesday meeting comes as Ethiopia’s leader is expected to visit Egypt next month to address lawmakers.

While Ethiopia has said the dam is a “matter of life or death” for its people, Egypt has said water is a “matter of life or death” for his country.

Associated Press writer Hamza Hendawi in Cairo contributed.

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December 26, 2017

Press Statement from the Ethiopian Dialogue Forum (EDF)

The Ethiopian Dialogue Forum, a not-for-profit think-tank established more than a year ago, represents a cross-section of intellectuals, academics, civil society activists and others residing in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora. It has sponsored a dozen public forums on critical policy issues such as ethnic-federalism in Ethiopia and its pitfalls as well as prospects.

Over the past few months, EDF has studied the governance environment in Ethiopia and identified numerous policy and structural issues that affect the country and its diverse population adversely. Among these are the top-down, opaque and exclusionary policy, decision making and budgetary allocation processes that bestow enormous power and privilege to a few while marginalizing and dispossessing the vast majority of the Ethiopian people.

Ethiopian citizens are alienated from the policy and decision-making process. For example, 99 percent of Ethiopia’s rubber stamp parliament is dominated by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Aside from its façade, the EPRDF does not consult with or seek feedback from Ethiopian citizens on any substantive policy issue. The outcome of this dictatorial system of governance is that citizens do not trust its leaders or its institutions.

EDF is deeply concerned about the escalation of ethnic-based conflicts throughout the country; and most prominently in the Oromia and Amhara regions. EDF

recognizes that the current wave of popular resistance against oppression began in earnest in November 2015 and has continued unabated since. Sadly, the root causes for the popular uprisings namely, the politically motivated, mechanically designed and flawed ethnic-federal system, recurrent and gross human rights violations, the suppression of civic, political and religious freedoms remain unresolved. For all practical purposes, the ruling party is detached from the people.

During the period 2015-2016, peaceful protests for justice, the rule of law and democracy were met with brutality in the Oromo, Amhara, Konso and other locations. More than 1,000 innocent people, most of them youth were killed through extrajudicial measures. More than 11, 000 Ethiopians were jailed. No one really knows the number of disappearances. No one has been held accountable for the atrocities.

The popular resistance was temporarily contained by security and military command posts, mechanisms deployed during the State of Emergency that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) dominated regime imposed throughout the country. Extrajudicial killings, tortures and arrests became routine. The rubber stamp parliament said nothing and did nothing to question brutality by the state on citizens.

The unwillingness and inability on the part of Ethiopian authorities to acknowledge the core governance problems of the country and its 105 million people, absolute closure of civic, political, social and religious space; nepotism, bribery, corruption and massive illicit outflow of capital and, the competing interests of elites and political parties dashed the hopes of millions. Pent up anger and frustration led to the current wave of protests, killings, arrests and inter-ethnic conflicts, most notably in Oromia. Compounding the deep-rooted socioeconomic problems are deliberate incitements of ethnic-conflicts between the Amhara and the Tigray ethnic-groups in the north and between the Oromo and Somali ethnic groups in the south and southwest. In the later, scores of innocent Oromo and Somali were killed. More than half a million Oromo have been displaced. Villages were burnt.

There is a plethora of evidence that shows that atrocities against Oromo and Amhara nationals have continued unabated since November 2015. The number of Oromo and Amhara political prisoners keeps climbing. Promising political and community leaders, human rights activists, journalists and others including Professor Merera Gudina, Andualem Aragie and Journalist Eskinder Nega continue to suffer in jail.

The most recent flares are, in fact, a continuation of unresolved grievances. In November 2017, 30 Amhara, including children and women were hacked to death in

Illubabor, Oromia. On December 11, 2017, federal troops commanded by Tigrean officers massacred 16 innocent civilians in the town of Chelenko, Oromia. Of those murdered, five were from the same family. Reports show that these federal forces came to the town and region uninvited. We do not know for sure who instigated these massacres; but someone should be held accountable for crimes against humanity.

The murders of innocent Oromo in Celenko worsened the ethnic-conflicts between Oromo and Somali Ethiopians who have lived side by side peacefully for generations. This conflict resulted in the deaths of large numbers of Oromo and the tragic so-called “revenge killings” of more than 30 Somali.

Earlier in December this year, Amhara and Oromo students in Adigrat, Tigray were targeted, selected and killed. Many colleges and universities have since closed their doors and those that are open are sealed off by TPLF-led forces. The TPLF’s exclusionary policy has deepened and worsened ethnic polarization.

EDF is especially repulsed by the instigation of deliberate policies and programs to divide Ethiopia’s youth that constitutes 65 percent of the population. Following the killings in Adigrat, the TPLF-dominated and managed Ministry of Education informed non-Somali students in the Ogaden region to vacate colleges and universities. Ethiopians in the Diaspora attend institutions of higher learning in Scandinavian countries, in Europe and North America, in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa, in Israel and other countries with a level of freedom that they are unable to enjoy in their own homeland. This is simply shameful for the proud Ethiopian people.

EDF condemns targeted and selective killing of innocent students, their expulsions from schools of higher learning anywhere in the country; and demands that Prime Minister Hailemariam’s government stop assaults on students and education.

EDF appreciates the courage of a cross-section of Ethiopians who continue to demand justice, freedom and the rule of law. In small and large towns in the Oromia and the Amhara regions protestors, including farmers, businessmen and women, taxi drivers, children, girls and boys and the elderly have joined hands together demanding an end to “TPLF rule and hegemony.” The hashtag “NO MORE TPLF” has become a national slogan.

EDF is outraged again that the popular and ongoing peaceful protests have been met with cruel and inhumane treatment by federal troops and security, most prominently by the feared Tigrean Agazi. As a result, insecurity, fear and hopelessness permeate Ethiopian society.

Atrocities are underreported or not reported at all. The regimes bars foreign and domestic media and independent journalists access to conflict areas and to victims of atrocities.

EDF appreciates the attention given to the Ethiopian insecurity situation by the European Union and the government of the United States; and their urgent call on all Ethiopian stakeholders to begin serious dialogue towards a national consensus on the future of the country, on peace and reconciliation, on all-inclusive, just and democratic governance.

Accordingly, EDF draws attention to the following principles:

1. Calls for serious and all-inclusive dialogue, conversation, consultation and negotiation on an appropriate transition of government that will ultimately lead towards a free and fair election;

2. Calls for unfettered support to the people of Ethiopia and their struggle to achieve justice, genuine equality among all citizens, the rule of law and democracy;

3. Condemns ethnic-based, targeted and selective killings and conflicts and urges the Ethiopian people to continue their distinguished history of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence;

4. Calls on Ethiopian political elites, opposition parties and the governing party to listen to the demands of the Ethiopian people; and demands that the regime stop inciting ethnic violence, hatred and division now;

5. Demands that Ethiopian authorities meet their primary and historical obligations to the Ethiopian people; and remove draconian proclamations such as the Anti- Terrorism Proclamation;

6. Urges members of Ethiopia’s armed forces and security to side with the people and desist from serving as an agency of the TPLF and its loyalists;

7. Urges Ethiopian teachers, professors, researchers and students to continue their principled struggle for justice and democracy and unify their efforts beyond ethnic and religious affiliation;

8. Urges Ethiopian faith communities and leaders to reflect on their obligation to serve as a bridge for national consensus, peace and reconciliation;

9. Urges civic societies, professional organizations, political parties and others to set aside minor differences and coalesce around a national unity of purpose that will lift-up Ethiopia from its current morass; and,

10. Calls on all opposition groups within and outside the country to set aside their differences and unify their talents, wealth of experience and expertise and offer the Ethiopian people a compelling alternative in governance;

EDF believes that the donor and diplomatic community can no longer afford to pay lip services to the unfolding tragedy in the second most populous country in Africa.

We therefore call on:

1. The European Union, the government of the United States, the African Union and China to heed to the demands of the Ethiopian people for freedom, justice, the rule of law and democracy and translate their statements into concrete programs;

1. All foreign stakeholders to push for the convening of an all-inclusive dialogue for a transitional government of national unity that will ultimately lead towards a free and fair election;

1. The diplomatic and donor community to urge Ethiopian authorities to stop ethnic- violence, conflict and extrajudicial measures as well as in lifting the draconian Anti- Terrorism Proclamation without delay; and,

1. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to send special Rapporteurs to conduct an independent investigation on killings, maiming, tortures and other crimes against humanity in

Long Live Ethiopia!

Long Live the Unity of the Ethiopian People!

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Cairo fears that hydropower project will reduce access to water

Heba Saleh in Cairo and John Aglionby in Nairobi

Nothing illustrates the extent of Egypt’s dependence on the Nile as much as an aerial view of the country. Amid vast deserts, the river and its cultivated banks appears a narrow green ribbon snaking its way to the north where it widens into a delta before reaching the sea. This is where the vast majority of Egypt’s 94m people live. The rest of the country is uninhabitable sand.

Now Cairo fears that an Ethiopian plan to build a huge hydropower dam on the Blue Nile, the source of most of the water reaching Egypt, will reduce its access to water. In recent weeks, tensions have risen between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

As the rhetoric escalated, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s president, said the Nile was “a matter of life and death” for his country and that “no one can touch Egypt’s share of the water”. Ethiopia retorted that the dam was a matter of life and death for it, too. Khartoum suggested Cairo was angry because the dam would enable Sudan to utilise more water from its own agreed allocation instead of allowing it to flow downstream to Egypt.

In November, talks between the three countries on how best to manage the impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — a $4.8bn hydropower project that will be the largest in Africa and a linchpin of Ethiopia’s plans for economic development — broke down. Ethiopian officials have declined to comment. But Egyptian officials say the three countries failed to agree on the terms of reference of a study commissioned by French consultants on the effect on downstream countries.

On Tuesday, Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, flew to Addis Ababa for talks. He underlined Egypt’s concerns about water security and said the issue was too sensitive for his country to rely solely “on promises and assertions of good intentions”. He proposed the inclusion of the World Bank as a “neutral party” in the negotiations.

At the heart of the dispute lies Egypt’s fear that, once the dam is built, the country will receive less than the annual 55.5bn cubic metres of water it says is the minimum it needs, especially during the initial phase when the reservoir is being filled.

“The 55.5 bcm we currently use are not enough,” said Khaled Abu Zeid, secretary-general of the Egyptian Water Partnership, a non-governmental group. “Egypt already recycles water several times and uses treated and untreated drainage water and it also desalinates seawater.” Most of Egypt’s current usage of 55.5 bcm comes from the Blue Nile on which the dam is being built.

Ethiopia is adamant that the dam will not adversely affect downstream countries once the 74 bcm reservoir has been filled. But it has refused to officially recognise what Cairo considers its right to 55.5bn cubic metres of water every year. This volume is specified under a 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan to which Ethiopia was not a signatory. Addis Ababa has long argued that its two northern neighbours divided up the entire flow of the river taking no account of its needs. Analysts say Ethiopia’s current stance is partly fuelled by this decades-old resentment. Long an Egyptian ally, Sudan has now sided with Ethiopia against a background of strained relations with Egypt over a disputed strip of border territory. But experts also point out the new dam will end the seasonal fluctuations of the river and allow Sudan to expand its agriculture.

“Sudan stands to benefit a great deal,” said Salman Salman, editor of the International Water Law Journal. “There have been lots of floods this year, but those will stop after the water flow has been regulated. Instead of having one crop rotation, there will be two or three.”

Work on the dam is already advanced — it is 62 per cent built, says Ethiopia. The Ethiopians are due to start testing the first two turbines next year, with construction in theory set to be completed by the end of 2018. But the three riparians have yet to overcome their mistrust of each other and agree mechanisms to contain the impact on downstream countries both during the filling period and once the dam comes into operation. Egypt’s immediate concern is how long Ethiopia will take to fill the reservoir. “If they try to fill it as fast as possible, they could fill it in three years under average hydrologic conditions,” said Kevin Wheeler, of Water Balance Consulting. “But I don’t think they would do that. I think if Egypt is willing to show some level of compromise, Ethiopia would be willing to show some level of compromise.”

He warns that the countries need to start co-operating soon, because setting up systems to share information and develop protocols will take time. In an ideal situation, the operation of dams and reservoirs on the Nile would be co-ordinated between the three states, for example to ensure the water in Egypt’s Aswan High Dam lake was at the level needed to operate the turbines for electricity generation. “If they don’t reach an agreement until the very last minute, it may be poorly structured and difficult to implement,” said Mr Wheeler.

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ESAT Daily News Amsterdam December 27 ,2017

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Addis Ababa

WRITTEN BY  Tom Gardner

Quartz

Ethiopian children study in a classroom. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Thomas Yilma didn’t last a day as a teacher in an Ethiopian government school. After graduating from university he was packed off to a small village in a remote corner of the Ethiopian highlands with scant electricity or phone signal, let alone internet connection, where he was to begin his career. “I felt like I was being abandoned in the middle of nowhere,” he says now. After one restless night he turned around and headed back to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, leaving the country’s state education sector behind him.

Thomas’s story—extreme though it is—sheds some light on the troubles plaguing Ethiopia’s rapidly expanding school system. Though he eventually found a job in an American-owned private school, this too proved only temporary. After six years he did what many of his colleagues—and thousands of teachers across Ethiopia—so often end up doing, and quit the profession entirely. “I never had any desire to become a teacher,” he says. “You could guess what their lives were like. I wanted to be a doctor or an engineer—like everybody else.”

At first sight this is surprising. Education in Ethiopia over the past decade is in some senses a success story. Government statistics are not wholly reliable—the ruling party does a good job of steering clear of most international surveys, making regional comparison difficult—but many of the headline figures are impressive regardless. Few governments in Africa—or elsewhere, for that matter—spend as much of their revenues on education as that of Ethiopia. In a continent which today directs a higher proportion of government expenditure towards the sector than any other—18.4%—Ethiopia has consistently been in the top rank for the past decade. Between 2000 and 2013 it almost doubled the share of its budget allocated to education, from 15% to 27%. For example, the United States’ federal government spends just over 6%.

Measured in terms of access to primary education (which is now free), the results are striking. Ethiopia now has one of the highest enrollment rates in Africa, up from the nadir in the early 1990s when it had one of the world’s lowest. The number of primary schools almost tripled from 1996 to 2015, while student enrollment grew from less than 3 million to over 18 million within the same period—almost universal. Youth literacy meanwhile jumped from 34% in 2000 to 52% in 2011.

According to the UN’s Education For All Development Index, which provides a snapshot of the overall progress of national education systems, Ethiopia came second only to Mozambique in terms of size of the improvement over the previous decade, and made fastest progress in terms of expanding universal primary enrolment. Between 2001 and 2008, the number of out-of-school children fell by more than 60%.Compare this to Nigeria, which at the same moment experienced a lost decade: the percentage of children out of school showed no improvement whatsoever by the end of it.

Teacher status

But all this masks a deep-seated malaise. According to the government’s own figures, for every 1,000 children who begin school, around one-half will pass uninterrupted to Grade 5 and only one-fifth to completion of Grade 8. Soaring enrolment at secondary level in Addis Ababa—statistical quirks mean the figure here is actually over 100%—contrasts with less than a tenth in the sparsely populated, largely pastoralist region of Afar, which stretches eastwards towards Eritrea and Djibouti.

Those who do manage to stick it out struggle, consistently under-performing what the curriculum expects of them. According to Belay Hagos, director of educational research at Addis Ababa University, students at various grades are learning on average only 40% of the material they are supposed to master. National Learning Assessments, conducted every four years, reveal a stubborn lack of progress. The average score for a Grade 4 student, for instance, dipped from 41% to 40% between 2010 and 2014, and remains stuck below 50% in all regions except Addis Ababa. Comparing 15-year-old children who correctly answered comparable maths questions in 2009 and 2016, Young Lives, a British charity, also found no overall improvement. “I think the education system is in crisis,” says Alula Pankhurst, the charity’s country director.

Why? Part of the answer lies in Thomas’s story. Ethiopia’s brightest and best don’t want to be teachers, and those that do rarely last long. The country’s teachers were once high status: in the northern region of Tigray, the word itself is a title, used to indicate social respect. But this respect has “declined over time,” says Hagos. The profession has been progressively been de-professionalized, ever since the days of the Marxist regime known as the Derg, during which teachers were either co-opted or purged.

Today, teachers are mostly selected from poor-performing students: those who graduate Grade 10 in the top 30% or so go on to Grade 11; those in the tier below join the police; the rest who pass can go to teacher training college. “This is not a good strategy,” says Hagos. “They can’t be good teachers because weren’t good students in the first place.” His latest research has uncovered what he calls a “professional identity crisis”. 70% of those surveyed reported feeling bad about the profession, while 98% said the pay was too low. “They are teachers but they don’t want to be called teachers,” he says. “They are ashamed of it.”

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By ELIAS MESERET, ASSOCIATED PRESS
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Undocumented Ethiopian migrants who are being forcibly deported from Saudi Arabia by the thousands in a new crackdown say they were mistreated by authorities while detained.

In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 22, 2017, Ethiopian women sit on a luggage conveyor belt as they wait for family members after being deported from Saudi Arabia, at the airport in A

In interviews with The Associated Press upon their arrival home, the returnees described beatings, theft and stays in dirty prison camps. Their accounts brought to light one of the world’s busiest and most dangerous migrant routes but one that remains overlooked amid the larger rush toward Europe.

Saudi Arabia, like other rich Gulf nations, is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of people from impoverished East African nations like Ethiopia and Somalia. They pay traffickers for rides in boats across the narrow waters to Yemen, where they make their way by land through a war zone.

In August, traffickers heaved scores of migrants into the sea off Yemen, leaving more than 50 to drown. In March, more than 30 Somali migrants, including children, were killed — apparently in a helicopter gunship attack by a Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen.

More than 111,500 migrants landed on Yemen’s shores last year, up from around 100,000 the year before, according to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat. Those who make it to Saudi Arabia often find employment as domestic workers and farm workers, sending money to support families back home.

Saudi Arabia’s latest wave of deportations began Nov. 11 after several months of warnings by the government. Saudi authorities say the kingdom has detained around 250,000 people violating its residency laws in the crackdown, with approximately 50,000 already forcibly flown out of the country.

Of those who entered the country illegally, 72 percent were from Yemen and 26 percent were Ethiopians.

Those arriving home in Ethiopia described the process as jarring and unfair. The six who spoke to the AP at the airport in the capital, Addis Ababa, said they were robbed of their possessions by “Saudi police officers” who shared their money between them. Some of the returnees said they saw compatriots being shot and wounded when they tried to escape police roundups.

“The prison cell I was put into was so dirty that some of us were severely sick. It was like a toilet,” said Sadiq Ahmed, a former teacher who went to Saudi Arabia five years ago and was detained for 11 days before his deportation. “As if this was not enough, we were robbed of our belongings. I came here with nothing. I know lots of people who went insane because of this torment.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle said that in interviews with dozens of Yemeni migrants in a previous Saudi crackdown in 2014, many “described serious abuses during the process of detention and deportation, including attacks by security forces.” The rights group has not documented the current campaign, he said.

Saudi authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

Ethiopia’s government says more than 14,000 of its citizens have been deported since mid-November and 70,000 have returned voluntarily, but the International Organization Migration says the number that has left forcibly or voluntarily since the amnesty period ended in June has reached 96,000.

Saudi Arabia ordered all undocumented migrants to leave voluntarily in March, an order later extended until June. The majority of the migrants chose to remain and now face forced deportation.

“I stayed in Saudi Arabia for five years just to support my family and other siblings,” said deportee Fozia Omar, adding that she spent one month in prison but was allowed to bring her luggage. “We have suffered a lot. I would like to beg my brothers and sisters not to repeat the mistake we already made, in the name of Allah.”

An estimated 400,000 Ethiopian migrants had been living in Saudi Arabia.

“The number of returnees could rise even higher in the coming weeks,” the IOM said, adding that around $30 million is needed to cover their immediate needs. Those include transportation to final destinations for many of the most vulnerable such as unaccompanied minors, single mothers and those who said they had been abused.

The spokesman for Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs, Meles Alem, said the government continues to work with Saudi officials to bring citizens home safely.

———

Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed.

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addisstandard 2017-12-28

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By AFP

PUBLISHED: 22:22 EST, 27 December 2017 

Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro

He may be Ethiopia’s biggest pop star but Teddy Afro hasn’t held a concert in his country for years, some of his songs have been effectively banned, and the launch party for his last album was broken up by the police.

But sitting in the living room of his spacious house outside the capital, Addis Ababa, the 41-year-old musician is relaxed and says he is focused on promoting peace and unity in Ethiopia.

“As a child, I remember that we lived as one nation. We knew a nation that is called Ethiopia,” Teddy said.

“But nowadays, we are identified and called by our ethnic background. And this has already become dangerous.”

Ethiopia has been rocked by widespread anti-government protests over the last two years, killing hundreds and leading to a 10-month state of emergency that was only lifted in August.

In this context, Teddy’s latest album, “Ethiopia”, was released in May and shot to the top of Billboard’s world music chart — despite his songs not being played on state radio and TV.

His lyrics and music videos have often been controversial, and viewed by many as critical of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a formerly Marxist guerrilla movement that has ruled the country since 1991.

While fans adore Teddy’s catchy melodies and nationalistic, often historical songs, written mostly in the national language Amharic, the authorities — who brook no opposition — view him with suspicion.

– Protest anthem –

Teddy — real name Tewodros Kassahun — first crossed the authorities in 2005 when his album “Yasteseryal” came out days before an election that descended into violence after the opposition denounced it as rigged.

+4

Teddy’s single “Jah Yasteseryal” about the country’s last emperor has become a protest anthem

That album was a homage to the country’s final emperor from 1930 to 1974, Haile Selassie I, and its lead single “Jah Yasteseryal”, questioning whether the government was improving the country, became a protest anthem.

In 2008, the musician was jailed for more than a year over an alleged hit-and-run killing in a case that many fans believe was politically motivated. He has always protested his innocence, saying he was not even in the country at the time of the accident.

While Teddy’s songs can today be heard blasting from bars and buses across Addis Ababa, Ethiopians still fear playing “Jah Yasteseryal” in public, lest they be seen as agitating against the government.

In 2012, Teddy released “Tikur Sew”, an album that took as its theme Emperor Menelik II, whose victory over 19th century Italian colonial invaders is a defining moment in Ethiopian history.

Yet among the country’s largest ethnic group the Oromos, “Tikur Sew” was seen as an affront because it glorified an emperor who brutally absorbed Oromo territory into Ethiopia’s borders.

The backlash was fierce enough that Heineken — whose beers are popular among Oromos — backed out of a deal to sponsor Teddy’s concerts.

But Teddy says he is unbowed.

“There may be groups that have a negative attitude towards the last Ethiopian kings and history,” he said, sat with a sword belonging to Menelik mounted on a wall nearby.

“While respecting their views as a perspective, the fact that they like or dislike my views will not change the truth.”

– Break-ups and bans –

Ironically, it was the EPRDF’s takeover of the country that allowed Teddy’s music to flourish, as it ended the brutal communist dictatorship of the Derg, during which nightlife was suppressed.

Teddy was jailed in 2008 over an alleged hit-and-run killing, despite insisting he was not in the country at the time of the incident

While some musicians went on to reimagine traditional styles of jazz or dabble in rock, Teddy distinguished himself by making nationalism a centrepiece of his compositions.

When a rumour spread early in his career that he committed the taboo deed of autographing the breasts of female fans, Teddy batted down the allegation by saying that as an Ethiopian he could never do such a thing, a remark that won him admirers across the country.

His songs have urged harmony between Muslims and Christians and lampooned members of the diaspora who return home with nothing to show.

“He’s preaching what he’s living. We like that, Ethiopians like that,” said Eyuel Solomon, programme manager for the capital’s Afro FM radio station.

But the authorities remain firmly opposed to helping Teddy showcase his music.

Not only did police halt his launch party for “Ethiopia”, but a planned concert to celebrate the Ethiopian new year was refused permission and he is still waiting for approval to play a concert marking Ethiopia’s Christmas, in early January.

+4

The 41-year-old singer says he hopes to perform some day in Ethopia’s bitter foe, Eritrea

He insists the restrictions and setbacks do not damage his resolve to use his music as a force for good in Ethiopia.

However, his plans to spread his music more widely are likely to anger the government even more.

Teddy says he hopes to perform in the capital of Eritrea, a one-time territory of Ethiopia that is now a bitter foe, believing a performance in Asmara could improve relations between the two countries.

“What we need is the spirit of love, peace and forgiveness. This is because the current problems are the results of historical resentments,” he said.

“We have to shake them off. We have to leave it behind.”

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Life and Legacy: Dr Aberra Molla – Pt 1 and 2 – SBS Amharic

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Hiber Radio interview with Muluken Tesfaw

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More than 96,000 Ethiopians have been deported by Saudi Arabia since June, many of them forcibly [Mulugeta Ayene/AP]

Al Jazeera

A group of undocumented Ethiopian workers have said they were subject to serious abuses by Saudi police before they were expelled, including physical and psychological torture and being forcibly held in “dirty” prison camps.

Six Ethiopians told The Associated Press news agency that after being captured by Saudi police officers, some of them were beaten, robbed of their possessions and saw their compatriots shot at and wounded when they tried to escape roundups.

“The prison cell I was put into was so dirty that some of us were severely sick. It was like a toilet,” said Sadiq Ahmed, a former teacher who went to Saudi Arabia five years ago and was detained for 11 days before his deportation.

“As if this was not enough, we were robbed of our belongings. I came here with nothing. I know lots of people who went insane because of this torment.”

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of people from Ethiopia and other impoverished East African countries.

We have suffered a lot. I would like to beg my brothers and sisters not to repeat the mistake we already made, in the name of Allah

FOZIA OMAR, ETHIOPIAN DEPORTEE

The number of Ethiopians being smuggled into the kingdom has surged in recent years, with repeated droughts in Africa’s second most populous country leaving 8.5 million people in need of food aid.

According to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, more than 111,500 refugees and migrants crossed into war-ravaged Yemen last year, in the hope of using it as a transit point to enter the kingdom.

The route is popular because it is cheaper than others, but migrants often fall victim to abuse.

Hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali migrants were forced from boats into rough seas off Yemen in August by smugglers trying to avoid authorities or armed groups on shore in war-torn Yemen, IOM said. At least 60 migrants drowned.

Humiliated and abused

Upon reaching Saudi Arabia, many work as domestic workers, often for more than 20 hours a day, with few legal rights. 

According to rights groups, many have their phones and passports confiscated and endure physical and sexual abuse.

“I stayed in Saudi Arabia for five years just to support my family and other siblings,” said deportee Fozia Omar, adding that she spent one month in prison but was allowed to bring her luggage.

“We have suffered a lot. I would like to beg my brothers and sisters not to repeat the mistake we already made, in the name of Allah.”

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said it will deport or jail the 400,000 or so Ethiopians it believes live there illegally, as it seeks to reduce its reliance on millions of foreign workers.

It ordered all undocumented migrants to leave voluntarily in March, but the order was extended until June.

Despite the risks, most have chosen to remain.

Around 250,000 undocumented foreigners have already been detained, of which, 96,000 Ethiopians have been sent home – many of them forcibly.

In a previous crackdown, Saudi authorities had dumped many Ethiopians in the desert near the Yemeni border.

Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle said that in the 2013 crackdown, many “described serious abuses during the process of detention and deportation, including attacks by security forces.”

One deported Yemeni worker said that when he handed himself in to police in Jeddah in 2013, he was remanded at the Briman Prison for 15 days and humiliated by Saudi officers.

“Sometimes they brought food but it was very little, and people fought over it. There was no medical care. Sometimes they slapped us with belts,” he said.

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Families of thousands still waiting to make aliya were left wondering when their family members would also be approved to make the move.

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Worldwide Ethiopian Joint Task Force

December 29, 2017

To all Ethiopians who are concerned about the dire fate of our country and eager in shortening the suffering of our people under the brutal Woyane regime.

Credible evidences coming from various sources indicate that the TPLF-led regime is immersed in a major political, economic, and security crises. It has come to light that, by all indicators and measures, the regime is in big economic collapse.

A recently leaked document authored by the so-called National Security Council confirms the regime’s anxiety about the economic crisis it has faced in recent months.  This document admits that:

• Foreign aid has been reduced due to the regime’s worst human rights record;
• Tourism has shrunk due to the instability throughout the country;
• Wealthy people and foreign investors have started migrating their money out of the country; and

The regime is therefore convinced that these and other factors are contributing to the general economic crisis.

Meanwhile, in his report to TPLF parliament early November 2017, the Governor of the National Bank highlighted the serious shortage of foreign currency and warned that unless this shortage is resolved in a short period of time, it will aggravate the economic crisis.

Currently, the foreign currency shortage has reached to a level where even regime-run organizations including those which are used for surveillance and repressive purposes, such as Ethiotelecom, are defaulting on their foreign financial obligations. Further, these organizations reported that their inability to import equipment and hardware due to lack of foreign currencies has hampered their operations. As the foreign currency reserve of the country plummeted from $3 billion to $700 million, importers revealed to domestic media that they should wait for more than a year before they receive a Letter of Credit for their imports and even then, they only get a fraction of what they ask for.

As other sources of foreign currency dry up, the regime is placing its hope on the remittance of Diaspora Ethiopians to pick up the slack. The regime has publicly stated that the magnitude of the remittance from Ethiopians living and/or working abroad reaches over $4 billion per year.

There are a few fundamental facts that each Ethiopian needs to keep in mind when discussing the issue of foreign currency in relation to Ethiopia:

1. The wealth and economy of the country including the foreign trade sectors are vastly controlled by TPLF-owned and affiliated entities such as Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT); Tigray Development Association (TDA), and Relief Society of Tigray (REST);
2. Those who benefit or hurt by the availability or shortage of foreign currency are mostly the above mentioned TPLF organizations and numerous companies owned by them;

• The economic/financial crunch the regime is facing currently will undermine the material, technological and economic capability of its security and police forces that are used to suppress, maim and kill Ethiopians;

1. Crippling the regime’s economic backbone is a necessary form of struggle to shorten its political lifespan, and depriving the regime access to foreign currencies plays a critical role in this respect.

As every Ethiopian would note, at this moment our people are paying huge sacrifices to regain their freedom and ownership of their beloved country. The popular uprising of the past two years has dragged the regime into a huge crisis despite the fact that it is costing our people very dearly. The political and economic crises the regime is facing right now are in one way or another the fruits of the tenacious popular struggle. However, to ensure that this ever-growing popular struggle becomes victorious, it requires everyone’s action and involvement.  In this regard, we must recognize that Diaspora Ethiopians have a unique opportunity and capacity to undermine the regime’s economic and political power.

At this point, the money we Ethiopians in the Diaspora remit to our relatives back home is the only source of foreign currency for the regime.  Depriving the regime access to this hard currency is a power we have in our hands that we can and must use to exacerbate the regime’s economic crisis and constrain its ability to stifle and repress our people. It must be remembered that we have the responsibility and the ability to weaken the economic muscle of the regime, to shorten the suffering of our people, and ensure that their dear sacrifices are leading to victory.

The Worldwide Ethiopian Joint Task Force is therefore calling upon fellow Ethiopians in the Diaspora to stop remitting money through money transfer channels that allow the regime to acquire the hard currency.

Respectfully and on behalf of the people of Ethiopia, the Task Force calls up on everyone who wants to see an end to the suffering of our people to implement the following strategies and actions:

1. Stop sending foreign currencies through the formal channels such as Western Union and Money Gram. The following alternative ways are suggested to send money that are deemed to minimize the chance of the regime accessing the hard currency:
   • Ethiopian-owned convenience stores and individuals in your community who are providing money transfer services; ensure they are not regime-affiliated.
   • Individuals in your community who have relatives in Ethiopia that are keen on exchanging Ethiopian birr for hard currency, often at a much better exchange rate than what the banks in Ethiopia offer. These folks often use the hard currency to import goods and services directly for their domestic businesses.
   • Send money through friends and acquaintances travelling to Ethiopia. This allows your relatives to exchange the hard currency in the black market at a higher rate than what the banks offer.
   • Send goods such as laptops and cell phones instead of money; your relatives will sell them for a much better value than they will gain by exchanging the dollar to birr in the bank.
2. If the formal money transfer channels such as Western Union and Money Gram are your only option and you must send money to Ethiopia, depending on the financial needs of your relatives, the Task Force encourages you to consider reducing the amount and/or the frequency of your remittance by up to 30 percent.
3. If your relatives in Ethiopia are financially well-off and your remittance has a relatively minimal impact on their economic well-being, the Task Force encourages you to consider stopping sending money altogether for at least a limited time as a show of support to the life-and-death struggle of our people.
4. As the leaked National Security Council document admitted and the reality on the ground attests, the two-year long political and economic uncertainty is forcing wealthy Ethiopians (most of whom are regime-affiliated) to migrate and money-launder their wealth abroad. Considering this and the desperate need of the regime for hard currency, transferring money to Ethiopia now for commercial or investment ventures will do more harm than good to Ethiopia and Ethiopians. The Task Force therefore calls up on Diaspora Ethiopians who plan to invest in Ethiopia to cancel, delay, or limit their plans or activities for the time being. Doing so will not only support the popular struggle; it will also safeguard your hard-earned money given the uncertain economic and political climate in the country.

The people of Ethiopia will be victorious!

Long Live Ethiopia in glory!

Worldwide Ethiopian Joint Task Force

Cc: All Ethiopian-owned and administered media institutions, local radios, websites and social media outlets

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African News

Activists in Ethiopia are making use of social media platforms – Twitter/Facebook in a campaign for the release of persons under detention or in jail for supposedly political reasons.

With the hashtag #FreeAllPrisonersOfConscience different Twitter users shared photos of persons ranging from journalists, politicians, religious preachers and activists.

The forum also offered a number of people who had faced detention to share their experiences as was the case with one Nagessa Dube, whose Twitter bio describes him as a human rights activist and member of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress.

“I was prisoner of conscience: arrested 5 times between 2000- 2012 in #Ethiopia. The longest is from 2004-2007. I suffered severe torture but I am still alive, thank God.

“My friends Gadisa Hirphasa and Alemayehu Gerba were killed in the prison,” he alleged.

 

 

Ethiopia’s human rights record has over the years been slammed by activists and political watchers. Issues of prolonged detention and prison abuse have been reported especially by persons who have been back from the facilities.

The country made mass arrests 2016 spreading anti-government protests in mainly the Oromia region. Even though mass releases were announced, it is believed that hundreds remain behind bars.

Political opponents are also locked behind bars as their cases move at snail pace. Leading opposition figures Bekele Gerba and Merera Gudina remain behind bars with painfully slow and protracted trials. Gerbe – who is reported to be sick was granted bail last month.

His daughter said the family remained skeptical of his release because prison authorities have often acted above the law. Barely 24 hours later, the courts overturned the bail and Bekele remains in jail.

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