Liyu police are seen on a street in Jijiga, Somali region, Ethiopia, in an undated photo published on Twitter by Addis Standard (@addisstandard). Not independently verified by VOA.
Tension is still running high in Ethiopia’s Somali region after federal and regional forces engaged in clashes last week that killed at least 29 people, leading to the resignation of the regional president.
A temporary successor has been named, and a semblance of normalcy has returned to Jijiga, the regional capital. But the flare-up raises important legal and political questions about Ethiopia’s system of government, known as ethnic federalism, in which the country’s nine states are defined largely by ethnicity.
And the aftermath will challenge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ability to turn inspiring rhetoric into real change for communities that have endured years of violence, according to experts on the region.
Inevitable showdown
Friction between the federal and Somali regional governments has been building since April, when Abiy became prime minister. His reformist vision for the country — which has already led to a historic reconciliation with longtime foe Eritrea — put him at odds with Somali Regional President Abdi Illey, who is known for ruling his territory with an iron fist.
Attempts to negotiate a path forward faltered, according to Zecharias Zelalem, an Ethiopian journalist who writes for OPride.com, a news site focused on the neighboring Oromia region.
FILE – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, attends a rally during his visit to Ambo in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia, April 11, 2018. Tensions in Ethiopia’s Somali region are seen as among his biggest tests since assuming office earlier this year.
Conflict erupted a week ago when Abdi ordered Liyu police, a special force under his command, into Dire Dawa, a federal city outside the Somali region’s jurisdiction.
That was an “illegal act,” Safia Aidid, a researcher and expert on the region, told VOA.
Federal forces responded by confronting the Liyu and entering Jijiga on August 4, leading to dozens of deaths and displacing hundreds of people, according to various media reports.
Across the region, Abdi is deeply unpopular, but Somali region residents reacted negatively to the federal takeover of Jijiga. There are also questions about whether the federal government’s actions were constitutional.
Ongoing conflict
The clash in Jijiga is just the latest incident of conflict in the region, where armed militant groups have for years instigated violence and attacked local populations.
Unrest has been so severe that close to 1 million people in the region have been displaced from their homes since April, according to the United Nations.
Much of the violence has played out along ethnic lines between Somali and Oromo people, although most residents simply want to live in peace.
Following the confrontation in Jijiga, Ethiopian Defense Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Tesema said efforts are underway to restore peace in the region. “The main roads in Jijiga are seeing some movements now, and some of the shops on the roads are reopening,” he said.
Federal forces have entered Degehabur, Kebri Dahar and other nearby cities and are working to calm situations across the Somali region, the spokesperson added.
But residents in Jijiga told VOA that their lives have been upended by the conflict.
“I can say that almost 95 percent of the people [in the city] are self-employed,” a husband and father of three told VOA’s Amharic service. “All of the people have lost their companies, and their money has been looted.”
Other residents described dire living conditions. “The entire city is destroyed and there is nothing left,” another resident told VOA.
New tests
Even as humanitarian concerns deepen, events unfolding in the Somali region may set precedents in other parts of the country.
Experts question the constitutionality of both the federal and regional governments’ moves, and the long-term effects of this past week’s actions could redefine the power structure between the nine regions and the central government.
“The meaning of the federal system and how the regions relate to the federal government has been called into question,” Aidid said.
Since assuming office, Abiy has garnered accolades for his uplifting, inclusive rhetoric and his tangible strides toward democratization. His language of unity has resonated with many Ethiopians, and his efforts to forge regional peace may have far-reaching repercussions.
FILE – Abdi Illey, president of Ethiopia’s Somali region, is seen in an undated photo. Also known as Abdi Mohamoud Omar, he oversees the Liyu police, a special force responsible for a range of abuses against Ethiopians, particularly in the Somali region, according to rights groups.
But some of the country’s fissures run deep, and it’s important to look beyond symbolic language to substantive change, Aidid said.
That includes addressing what’s led to inequity that has lasted for generations.
“Marginalized groups like Somalis, whose relationship to Ethiopia, historically, has been one of exclusion,” must be considered, Aidid said, and there are questions about whether this group is really part of the new Ethiopia.
Rebuilding trust and addressing issues affecting Somalis will be a critical task for the prime minister, Aidid added, particularly since he has not yet resolved the displacement happening in the region.
New opportunities
Abdi’s replacement is part of a new generation of leaders. Ahmed Abdi Mohamed is in his early 30s and was most recently the Somali region’s minister of finance. A well-educated member of the Ethiopian Somali People’s Democratic Party (ESPDP), Ahmed has also made inflammatory remarks on social media.
But the new leader can chart a new path, despite his close ties to the existing power apparatus, according to Aidid. He’ll have opportunities to do things differently and will likely find an ally in Abiy if he chooses a path of reform.
Ahmed will lead on an interim basis for two months, until the party has a chance to formally restructure.
Both Oromos and Somalis have called on the federal government to rein in armed groups and restore law and order, underscoring the need for regional and federal authorities to work together to address the ongoing violence.
Damtew Teferra is Professor of Higher Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Founding Director of the International Network for Higher Education in Africa. He is Founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of African Higher Education. Teferra steers the Higher Education Cluster of the Africa Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA). He may be reached at teferra@ukzn.ac.za and teferra@bc.edu.
At the 16th International Conference on Private Higher Education in Africa organized by Saint Mary’s University and held in Addis Ababa from 25 to 27 July 2018, I proposed that Ethiopian legislators must be holders of a bachelor’s degree. In this article, I argue that as the country enters a new political era, dialogue on a well-informed and better educated class of parliamentarians is timely.
The Argument: Raison d’etre
Parliamentarians are tasked with formulating the laws of a land – with implications for the country and the world. A member of parliament (MP) – more specifically a conscientious, principled, responsible and accountable MP – must be capable of comprehending, reviewing, analyzing, critiquing, sanctioning, endorsing, ratifying and passing a multitude of laws, policies and documents.
The increasingly intricate and complex globalized social, political and economic realities of the 21st century highlight the compelling need for competent and skilled legislators who can effectively navigate these realities. Accordingly, more countries are making efforts to ensure that their parliamentarians have college credentials.
Even in countries where competent and skilled legislators have access to experienced and robust legislative advisors, committees, staff and resources, their roles and tasks are not getting any easier. In countries such as Ethiopia, where this is not the case, and where many legislators have not been college bound, a glaring deficit is evident.
Existing Scenarios
A number of countries, including Ethiopia’s next door neighbor Kenya have proposed that a member of the legislature club must have the minimum of a university degree.
Kenya
In Kenya, MP approved a far-reaching provision in the Election Laws (Amendment) number 3, Bill 2015. But this faced resistance as it went to the House. One of the key arguments by proponents of the Bill is illustrative: “As the country develops, it would be good to have MPs who are more conversant with complex issues, who have a wide scope of world affairs.”
Ghana
In a survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Ghana on Public Perception of Members of Parliament, a great majority of the 2,346 respondents drawn from all ten regions agreed that MPs should be required to have a minimum level of education, with a significant number (67%) stating that this should be a university first degree.
Nigeria
In Nigeria, most of the 360 members of the House of Representatives that make up the 8th National Assembly have at least a bachelor’s degree, with only 26 holding a Secondary School Certificate. The 8th House has at least 13 PhD holders.
United States
In the United States, all members of the Senate have higher degrees, as do all but 19 members of the House of Representatives: 15 Republicans and four Democrats. The only governor without a college degree is from the tiny state of Utah. More than 40% of US voters have a college degree and only three countries – Canada, Israel and Japan – have a more educated electorate.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, 84% of MPs in the House of Commons, which comprises 649 members, are university educated, with 126 holding postgraduate degrees.
The Counter Argument
It is true that a bona fide university degree merely points to one’s caliber and competence in a particular qualification and specialty. Without being drawn into the debate between being learned and being educated, a university degree may not guarantee the requisite qualities of a university graduate.
A number of prominent personalities in Ethiopian society never attended university and such a law would unfairly bar them fulfilling their national duty and, importantly, exercising their citizen’s right.
A few participants at the Addis Ababa Conference and others in subsequent conversations feel that such a law would be unfair, discriminatory and elitist. Some cited examples of other Western democracies where no such laws exist.
It is true that some of the great American success stories such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steven P. Jobs (Apple) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) do not have college degrees. One could add leading entertainers such as Clint Eastwood, Julia Roberts and George Clooney to the list.
However, the counter-counter argument is that one cannot function on the basis of exceptions as these always exist.
Premature?
One could also argue that this proposal may be somewhat premature given Ethiopia’s higher education enrollment rate which now stands at about 10%. However, it is my view that a country of 100 million people—with more than 45 universities and 130 private universities and colleges and an estimated 800,000 enrollment and 100,000 graduation capacity a year—would not have difficulty finding suitable candidates from respective constituencies.
Multiple scenarios could be painted in realizing this proposal. Among others, the requirement could be waivered for a certain period in constituencies considered largely marginal. Limits could also be imposed on the number of contributions of non-degree holders per representative group (or party).
Conclusion
A legislative body with discernible academic and professional deficits is a burden both to a nation and to itself. This scenario creates a situation where a few competent people carry the load and are responsible for the lion’s share of the voice of the legislative body.
While this proposal may be controversial and contentious, it is essential to ask whether Ethiopian legislators are sufficiently competent to execute their enormous responsibilities in writing the laws of the land.
Given criticism of Parliament’s lackluster performance, avenues must be explored to elevate its stature and competence. While I am aware that other factors have impeded parliamentarians and that their performance is not simply the manifestation of a lack of academic credentials, nurturing and sustaining credible and competent legislative and executive bodies is a key component of nation building. Such powerful institutions must be well endowed in terms of human capital to effectively and efficiently discharge their mandated duties and obligations which have become increasingly complex and daunting.
Ethiopian Airlines should be co-owned by African governments, suggested its Group chief executive Mr Tewolde Gebremariam on Friday.
Commenting on the recently announced privatisation plan by the government for the national carrier, Mr Tewolde said it “would be good if African countries such as Nigeria have a share in the company”.
Addis Ababa is seeking to open up its economy by selling a stake in some of its state-run enterprises such as the airline.
Mr Tewolde, however, cautioned that in the liberalisation strategy, Ethiopian Airlines should not be “treated like other state enterprises set for privatisation.”
He said given the airline’s role in connecting Africa, the government should capitalise on that to maintain its position in the continent.
“As a pan-African airline, I don’t see any reason why we should not sell the minority shares of Ethiopian Airlines to African countries if they are interested in buying,” Mr Tewolde said at a press briefing.
He expressed hope that the advisory council on privatisation set up by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed would consider such issues.
Acquisitions
Africa’s largest airline by revenue and profit, according to the International Air Transport Association, has stepped up its expansion plan by setting up hubs across the continent.
The airline has been in talks with African governments such as Chad, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, Nigeria, and Mozambique to set up carriers through joint ventures.
Mr Tewolde said the airline seeks to increase air connection within Africa that currently stands at 20 per cent.
Ethiopian Airlines is set to launch Chadian Airlines and Guinea Airlines later this year in separate joint ventures with the Chad and Guinean governments respectively. It will own a 49 per cent stake in each of the carriers, with the governments holding the remaining 51 per cent.
Mr Tewolde said the airline will also set up a new carrier, Ceiba Intercontinental, in a joint venture with Equatorial Guinea.
It holds a 45 per cent share of Zambian Airways that is set to be relaunched in October after more than two decades.
Ethiopian Airlines already runs Togo-based Asky Airline where it holds a 40 per cent stake and Malawian Airlines where it has 49 per cent share.
Mr Tewolde said the airline is among the frontrunners to set up and run a new national carrier for Nigeria.
In addition, he said it already has contracts for maintenance work with Nigeria’s Arik Air – the largest private airline, and Medview Airline.
In Mozambique, the carrier plans to set up a subsidiary, the Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines.
In Ghana, Mr Tewolde said they have been in talks with Ghana to have direct flights between Accra and London.
Ethiopian Airlines Group chief executive Mr Tewolde Gebremariam (left) addressing the press on August 11, 2018 in Addis Ababa. He is flanked by other company officials. PHOTO | ANDUALEM SISAY
Profits
The airline announced a $233 million net profit for the 2017/18 financial year, a $4 million rise from $229 million it reported the previous year.
Its operating revenue rose 43 per cent to $3.21 billion.
Passenger numbers increased by 21 per cent to 10.6 million.
The airline purchased 14 aircraft in the financial year that ended last month to bring its fleet to 100, and added 21 destinations.
Ethiopian Airlines recently announced a joint venture agreement with German logistics giant DHL which offers the German firm a 49 per cent stake in cargo hauling business.
It is understood that the carrier is already in talks with global electronic giants like General Electric (GE), Samsung and Techno Mobile to set up their storage and distribution centres in Addis Ababa, which will then allow the airline exclusivity in providing shipment services within the continent, with DHL undertaking the last-mile connectivity.
The airline is also set to start operations of a new $350 million high-end hotel that is under construction.
NAIROBI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates plans to build an oil pipeline connecting Eritrea and Ethiopia, the latest sign of the Gulf state’s increasing involvement in the Horn of Africa.
The pipeline will run from Eritrea’s port city of Assab to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian official said.
Landlocked Ethiopia began extracting crude oil on a test basis from reserves in the country’s southeast in June and will need access through Eritrea in order to export it.
Ethiopian broadcaster Fana first reported the pipeline plan earlier on Friday following a meeting in Addis Ababa between Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Reem Al Hashimy, the UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation.
The UAE played a behind-the-scenes role in helping Ethiopia and Eritrea end a two-decade state of war last month, Reuters reported this week.
Hashimy, who last month publicly referred to herself as the UAE’s policy lead on sub-Saharan Africa, said after meeting Abiy that the UAE is keen to exploit investment opportunities in Ethiopia, a country of 100 million people with the fastest growing economy in Africa, Fana reported.
Abiy’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, told Reuters that the talks were largely on investment in “industries, agriculture, real estate, (the) oil pipeline, (and) resorts”.
“Most are under study,” Fitsum said in a text message.
REGIONAL RIVALRY
The UAE is also driven by a fear that rivals such as Iran or Qatar could gain a foothold. Both Qatar and Turkey are strong supporters of Somalia’s government. Earlier this year ties frayed between Mogadishu and Abu Dhabi and the two countries ended a UAE military training programme in Somalia.
Abu Dhabi has a military base in Assab which it uses in its military campaign in the war in Yemen, located just across the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir arrived in Addis Ababa on Thursday and met with Abiy, although there were no detailed announcements from the meeting.
Last month, Reuters reported that Ethiopia had asked Saudi Arabia for a year’s supply of fuel with payment delayed for 12 months to ease severe foreign currency shortages.
Eritrea’s foreign minister and a close adviser to President Isaias Afkwerki arrived in Ethiopia on Friday to discuss progress on implementing the agreement they signed last month.
The rapprochement ended Africa’s longest major military stalemate and holds great potential for both economies, which were held back by the “no war, no peace” status quo.
Though the two countries have re-opened embassies in each other’s capital and resumed flights, details ranging from border demarcation to war reparations have not been worked out.
Kercha (Ethiopia) (AFP) – Bedaso Bora danced alongside his neighbours in the streets of Ethiopia’s lush coffee-growing south after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April promising better days.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Gedeos have fled their homes following clashes with the Oromo ethnicity Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Gedeos have fled their homes following clashes with the Oromo ethnicity (AFP Photo/Maheder HAILESELASSIE TADESE)
But just weeks later, Bedaso and hundreds of thousands of others of the Gedeo ethnic minority were on the run, fleeing those same neighbours from the Oromo ethnicity.
“I saw houses being burnt and people throwing stones,” said Bedaso. He abandoned an Easter meal of goat meat and fresh coffee and fled to a squalid camp in the town of Kercha, about 480 kilometres (300 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa.
Nearly a million people were driven from their homes in the weeks of violence between the Oromos and Gedeos that followed Abiy’s inauguration.
Abiy’s aggressive reform agenda has won praise, but analysts warn that shaking up Ethiopia’s government risks exacerbating several long-simmering ethnic rivalries.
“The speed and magnitude of the change happening in Ethiopia equates to a revolution,” said Ethiopian political analyst Hallelujah Lulie.
“Whenever people think that there is a vacuum of power, they try to capitalise on that to pursue their interests. I think the violence comes from that.”
– Border tensions –
Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnic federal regions, but recently the borders between these regions have been the scene of multiple deadly confrontations.
Last year, long-running tensions between Oromos and neighbouring Somali people over the ownership of farming land in southeast Ethiopia erupted into violence that killed hundreds and forced over a million to flee.
Similar tensions have existed between the Oromos — Ethiopia’s largest ethnicity whose region Oromia is the country’s biggest — and the Gedeos who make up part of the ethnically diverse Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR).
Many Gedeos farm coffee on the Oromia side of the border in towns such as Kercha, but complain that Oromo authorities discriminate against them.
A letter of complaint from the Gedeo community to a regional administrator earlier this year was misinterpreted as a bid to claim Oromo land, said Zinabu Wolde, head of the agricultural bureau in the Gedeo Zone of SNNPR.
Land is always a flashpoint, he said.
“Land has its own value, great value” and when disputes arise “it brings conflict,” he added.
– Running for their lives –
The violence began soon after.
“This is not your region, this is not your country, you should leave,” Shiferaw Gedecho, a Gedeo who farmed coffee around Kercha, recalled being told by men with rocks and machetes who attacked his neighbourhood.
Tit-for-tat, Gedeos targeted Oromos.
“We have no problem with the Gedeos, but they came and attacked us and they killed our sons and daughters,” said Lucho Bedacho, an Oromo who fled to a displacement camp after her 21-year-old nephew was killed on his way home from school.
The International Organization for Migration reports approximately 820,000 people have been uprooted in Gedeo and 150,000 in the West Guji zone of Oromia.
The government has given no death toll but Gedeos told AFP of dozens killed.
Two district administrators accused of inciting the violence have been removed from office and are being prosecuted, Zinabu said.
Meanwhile, aid workers warn of dire conditions and a shortage of shelter with the dispossessed seeking refuge from Ethiopia’s seasonal rains in half-built structures filled with smoke from open fires lit for warmth.
– Aggressive reforms –
Abiy, himself an Oromo, took office after more than two years of anti-government unrest and has moved to placate protesters.
In his four months in office, he has won over many Ethiopians by touring the country preaching unity and criticising heavy-handed tactics used by politicians and the security forces.
But despite the rhetoric, communal violence has flared nationwide.
A western diplomat in the capital Addis Ababa said Abiy’s apparent liberalism may have been interpreted as weakness and emboldened some to use violence to settle local scores.
“My sense is he has inadvertently exacerbated the situation,” the diplomat said.
While the fighting between the Gedeos and Oromos is the most serious crisis, recent weeks have seen bloody ethnic clashes in the western city of Assosa and the Somali regional capital Jijiga.
Gedeos and Oromos lived side-by-side for years. Many say they are willing to do so again, but only if there is accountability.
“The people who committed these crimes are still out there,” said Zeleke Gedo, 32, a displaced Gedeo farmer. “Unless they’re brought to justice, I won’t feel safe.”
The ruthless tyrannical TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) regime which ruled Ethiopians for the last 27 years has back tracked from the front seat of power in Ethiopia in the last 3 months following the peaceful people struggle where many Ethiopians scarified their life. TPLF is still alive and kicking in Mekele. This party which is under the control of few elites doesn’t represent the majority of Tigrayan Ethiopians but it trades under their name. TPLF has been synthesising and applying all the anti-unity and divisive poisonous political tactics and policy since its inception in the last 43 years.
This atheist political entity surprisingly sprang out four decades ago from the decent and kind Tigray Ethiopia where the major religions in Ethiopia (Christianity and Islam) set foot in our country. By applying wicked tactic and fake history, it was able to use the Tigrean youth for war purpose against their Ethiopian brothers until it control central power in Addis. The TPLF which assumed power in 1991 has continued anti-unity, divisive, war monger poisonous tricks among Ethiopians to maintain and prolong its brutal regime.
The regime’s brutal atrocities are countless and it is beyond imagination. It is challenge to admit such kind of culprits were born and raised in our country. Many Ethiopians are tortured, imprisoned, killed, displaced, dispossessed and made to flee from their own country by the TPLF dictatorial regime. The regime has created a shadowy organization of it’s self as EPRDF, in the name of Amhara and Ormoo speaking people which helped it to rule Ethiopia for last 25 years; Since last 2 years many from OPDO (Oromo People Democratic Organization) and some from ANDM (Amhara Nation Democratic Movement) leadership have come to realise the suffering of Ethiopians and joined their peaceful struggle of Ethiopians. Their struggle with-in EPRDF, supported by the mass bear fruits and they are able to come to the front seat of power in Ethiopia though TPLF is still alive and active in Tigray with possession looted billions dollar worth of Ethiopian property, where it is fermenting and organising obstacles against the new progressive leader Dr. Abiy and his team using mercenaries inside Ethiopia through the blessing of criminal old TPLF guards with in the centre and periphery regions.
The new progressive leadership under Dr.Abiy and his team has started tangible changes and progressive measures which enlightened many citizens. This good beginning is at risk from progress by the wicked TPLF sabotage from Mekele using its polished money powered inflammation and inciting its age old poisonous anti-unity tactic. This needs good remedy as it will hinder the progress towards democratic united strong Ethiopia.
This powerful and very rich organisation (TPLF) with all its might is currently dwelling in Mekele where it has been planning and implementing the following wicked anti-Ethiopian measures .
Dismantling the new emerging relationship between Amharic and Oromifa speaking people and creating animosity through false propaganda, confusion, disinformation and exaggeration of past controversial historical accounts. It has formed an army of thousands of paid mercenaries online in social media (face book, twitter, pal talk, etc) for sole purpose to discredit the new leadership and disrupt the new people relationship. By infiltrating radical Oromo and Amhara political wings and unionist political parties, it ferments animosity by calling “New Neftgna Menelik army is coming on you” to the Oromoiffa speaking people; and also calling against Amhara and unionist “You are to be displaced from Oromo land including Addis Ababa,” “Oromo is to secede from Ethiopia to form a country called Oromia “.
Using its strong financial power and its advantage in Security apparatus; it is fermenting and waging conflict and war among different ethnicities and religious members in most part of Ethiopia.
It is overtly and covertly inciting and encouraging those border federal regions to secede from Ethiopia using its old TPLF stooges and criminals who are still ruling the people on those border region.
They are launching a false and defamatory propaganda against the new leadership.
They are intimidating, blackmailing the new leadership and influencing their family members to derail them from progressive measures .They are also recruiting young ladies to trick the young leaders to fall to their beauty to embarrass them while they record them in sexual act.
They are organising and orchestrating car or aeroplane or helicopter accident which the new leadership uses. They pal to tamper the fluid and food ; using wrong medicine or overdose to disable the leaders from their new leadership.
They are organising and paying mercenaries to shoot and kill the new leadership and their influential supporters.
They are using foreign media for confusion and propaganda to create a false perception that Dr.Abiy’s government is not able to administer and control the country.
They are encouraging and financing disgruntled army officers for a coup d’état.
They are encouraging and financing some political organisation to call for early election or power sharing to unsettle the Dr.Abiy’ administration before it set out democratic institution.
They are threatening to use Article 39 of the Constitution (secession) for Tigray and encouraging other federal regions to do so.
They are trying to discourage and create image of weak government by harassing the Federal government involvement in the regional governments where human rights and citizens right are abused as illegal and anti-constitutional.
They are organising and planning accidents and killing spree on opposition leaders who arrive from Diaspora to create confusion among Ethiopians.
They are inciting and fermenting animosity among intra ethnic members with in region (e.g Gonder against Gojam; Wello against Shewa,; Wollega against Hararege Oromo; Sidema against Woliyta etc. Their tactic includes organising mobs to incite violence during sport competition. They would attempt inciting violence against neighbouring border countries.
TPLF’s members and benefiters of the dictatorial regime who live in diasporas would launch demonstration and vigil in the capital cities of great powers ( Washington, Brussels, London etc) to discredit Dr.Abiy’s administration and the Great powers not to support the new leadership.
The new leadership has made bold progressive and tangible measures by releasing political prisoners, inviting banned political parties to operate in Ethiopia, sorting out the division with in Orthodox Christian religious fathers and Muslim leaders, allowing state media to cover major events, forming relationship with Eritrea and neighbouring countries, reaching out to Diaspora Ethiopians, installing hope and optimism in the young Ethiopians. This is great beginning and the final goal should be peaceful, democratic country where power to be achieved through genuine election, a country of equal opportunity for all where its children shouldn’t run away but create wealth in their own land where justice prevail.
The new leadership has to be encouraged and supported as there is no other viable alternative at present to achieve this objectives. All those opposition armed forces in every part of the country at present are either they are for secessionist purpose or gain power to create another dictatorship. The unity political force in Ethiopia was demoralised and dissipated by TPLF in its 27 years rule by killing, torturing and imprisoning its leaders and members who have to fled the country. At present there is no tangible armed opposition force with its objective of uniting and democratising Ethiopia. The current administration should be supported to clear the path to democratic begining and encourage it for installing democratic infrastructure.
The people, especially the Intellectual and great professionals should support the new progressive leadership to avoid derailment of the democratic progressive direction from those power mongers .
Dr.Abiy, Mr Lemma Megersa and other leadership team’s effort for peaceful unifying and love filled messages and speech are encouraging and should include reconciliation among the victim and perpetrators so that Ethiopians can develop the skill of peaceful negotiation without arms involvement.
There are reactionary groups who self-discharged themselves from this unifying and love full peaceful reconciliation process and they should be accounted as they are at helm of power to derail this change. Although most Ethiopians are starting to get rid off the TPLF regime, our Tigrean Ethiopian brothers are still suffering from TPLF rage and yet not free from this elite opportunist regime which trades under their name.
Most of those culprits from TPLF and its affiliate who massacred people, looted property, imprisoned thousands, displaced millions have to be given 15 days period to apologise to Ethiopian people for their sin and the people decide their fate. Those who refuse this offer should face the full force of justice.
The cash milk of TPLF, EFFORT,(Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray) billions worth conglomerate business organisation which was established through blood money is still the main source of finance for TPLF to derail the progressive democratic changes. The Dr. Abiy leadership should dissolve this organization or nationalise it to dry up the illegitimate financial source to TPLF. Allowing more time and opportunity for TPLF culprits is like playing with dangerous snake.
The new leadership, the people and all the opposition political forces have to work together to detoxify the poison buried by TPLF in our country in the last 40 years.
Tensions between the neighboring ethnic groups in Ethiopia have spiraled into a growing humanitarian crisis. Although the conflict is based on traditional grievances, sweeping government reforms may also play a role.
Ethnic violence between the Oromo and Gedeo ethnic groups in Ethiopia shows little sign of ending just over four months since reformist Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed took office.
Although the government has not given an official death toll, Gedeos claim dozens have been killed in the clashes, with many forced to flee their homes as tensions between the two ethnic groups intensify.
Ethiopia is no stranger to ethnic violence — with over 80 different ethnic groups and Africa’s second largest country based on population, it is extremely diverse and disagreements between various groups often spiral into communal violence.
The ongoing conflict is quickly creating a humanitarian crisis in the region, with aid workers warning of grim conditions and a shortage of shelter as those fleeing their homes seek refuge from the seasonal rains.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 820,000 people have been driven from their homes in Gedeo and 150,000 in the West Guiji zone of Oromia — many in the few weeks following the inauguration of Abiy.
Properties belonging to the Gedeo ethnic group have been targeted by Oromos on the other side of the border as ethnic tensions rise
Age-old grievances
Ahmed Soliman, a research fellow on the Horn of Africa with the Africa Program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, says the tensions between Gedeos and Oromos are similar to those that are rife among other borderland groups in Ethiopia who have lived side by side for years.
“Many of these tensions relate to land and resources,” he told DW. “Complaints often center around governance issues and on ill-treatment and secondary treatment by the authorities against Gedeos in the area.”
Many Gedeos farm coffee on the Oromia side of the border, but claim the Oromo authorities discriminate against them. A complaint letter sent earlier this year from the Gedeo community to a regional administrator was allegedly misconstrued as an attempt to claim Oromo land, sparking a wave of violence.
Sweeping reforms to blame?
Prime Minister Abiy — himself an Oromo — has impressed many observers on the international stageby supporting unity between Ethiopians and criticizing the repressive tactics of his predecessors. But although his sweeping reforms have garnered a lot of attention — and criticism — within the country, Ethiopian journalist Eshete Bekele Tekle is not convinced that Abiy’s new policies alone have had a direct impact on the conflict.
“People have been supporting him and what he has been saying,” Tekle told DW. “These [regional] conflicts have their own nature and their own cause. They are not caused by what the prime minister is saying, or his reforms. The nature of the conflict is ethnic, mostly over land ownership or border issues. That is what we are hearing from people on the ground.”
Tekle says there are two likely explanations for why traditional grievances have been exacerbated in recent months.
“Some people say that those who have been in control are trying to protect their interests within the government, so they instigate the conflicts. The other one is that the political and economic problems which have been present in the country for more than 20 years just exploded. Regional government administrators failed to resolve the questions from Ethiopian citizens and this caused the conflict,” she said.
At least 800,000 people have been driven from their homes in Gedeo and 150,000 from the West Guijo zone in Oromia
“It comes down to the pace and the scale of the change that is happening in Ethiopia, which is unprecedented,” Soliman told DW. “It has engendered calls for a growing political space and for better administration by different groups across the country, including from smaller ethnic communities. I think that’s what we’re seeing happening here.”
Tekele agrees that while Abiy’s reforms may be in the best interests of the country, they have not yet trickled down to communities where tensions are running high.
“Conflicts like this are common in other parts of the country,” he says. “But government organizations are not properly operating to resolve the issues which created this conflict.”
Ethnic federalism exacerbating tensions
After taking power in 1991 following a 16-year-long civil war, the ruling EPRDF coalition divided the country into nine ethnic federal regions, with the Gedeo making up part of the ethnically diverse Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) and the Oromo residing in the larger Oromia Region. Soliman believes that Ethiopia’s model of ethnic federalism has only helped to fuel the clashes further.
“I think it has caused historical contention in terms of borders between these regions,” he says. “I think it’s the nature of the ethnic federalism within the country, in terms of the governance structures where you have the parties within the EPDRF who are the ones essentially dictating governance and rule of law within the regional administrations themselves.”
A difficult conflict to solve
Tekle believes quelling violent ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia is not impossible, but will prove a major challenge for both the government and communities, considering how deep the grievances run.
“Maybe if political actors — both those in power and in the opposition — can resolve their differences and come up with a way to respect the rule of law, maybe they can control the damage of these ethnic conflicts,” he says. “But it’s really tough to control these things because it’s directly related to self-administration, borders and land ownership.”
not to buy and spread fake news. Let’s not spread fake news because a lot of people are hurt by it. We need to carefully consider the reliability of their sources of information. I ask everyone to be attentive to the spread of fake news.
In war, truth is the first casualty. Nowhere is this true than in the cyber information wars (infowars).
The Forces of Darkness have weaponized, polarized, desensitized, tribalized and vulgarized social media in their infowars against PM Abiy Ahmed and our peaceful revolution in Ethiopia.
I am calling on all Ethiopian social media warriors to come to the aid of PM Abiy Ahmed and their country in fighting fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories.
The Forces of the Dark Side are using fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories as their weapons of choice in their psychological and information warfare aimed at attacking, delegitimizing and destabilizing the government of PM Abiy Ahmed.
The whole idea behind fake news is simple. It is based on the old saying, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. Or as Mao Zedong said, “A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.”
In the 21st century cyber war language, fake news is called “computational propaganda”.
In Ethiopia in the Diaspora, the Forces of Darkness push so much false information, through sheer volume they make things appear more believable even though minimal scrutiny would show their information is garbage.
I have previously written on the disinformation campaigns of the Forces of Darkness.
Disinformation is “intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately.”
The underlying aim in disinformation is to generate deceptive and false statements to convince others lies are truths. The goal is to create alarm, fear, anxiety in population.
Conspiracy theory is persistent hypothetical speculation that is commonly considered untrue or outlandish but keeps being propagated in the hope that it will be accepted by the public.
The targets and victims of this widespread, organized and intensive psychological and information warfare are ordinary Ethiopians of good will who are supporters of PM Abiy who, for the most part, are not technology savvy or have access to diverse sources of information.
They have used fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories to scare, shock and awe, terrorize and spread panic, alarm, anxiety, fear and stress among those who are not internet savvy, have little access to diverse sources of information and are unable to distinguish garbage that passes of as news on social media and online from fact-based critical reporting.
The trolls (internet hyenas) of the Forces of Darkness have been working in overdrive trying to change the peoples’ love for Abiy into a hysteria about his well-being and safety.
Over the past week, numerous people have contacted me asking about the “well-being”, “disappearance”, “health”, “safety”, “whereabouts”, etc., of PM Abiy Ahmed. They all say he has not been seen in public since his return from the U.S. and concluded “something bad must have happened to him.”
Some of them were crying their eyes out.
Of course, I could only tell them the truth.
PM Abiy is doing perfectly well. He is getting the rest he deserves from his whirlwind trip to America. He is doing his routine official duties and working to resolve the crisis in the Ethiopian Somali region. He is just fine. Thank you!
** This post will be translated into Amharic and widely and repeatedly disseminated on social media and online. I ask all of my cyber friends, web editors and all others to join me in spreading this message of fighting fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories against PM Abiy and Ethiopia every day.**
Abiy mania and Abiy withdrawal: Understanding the peoples’ love for Abiy Ahmed
Why are so many Ethiopians so concerned and anxious about PM Abiy if they don’t see him in public every day and so easily fall prey to fake news and disinformation?
The answer is simple.
Abiy Mania! Abiy addiction!
No one can accuse me of exaggeration for saying all Ethiopians of good will and good faith are crazy about Abiy Ahmed. There is no other way to describe it. They love him as their son, brother, uncle, cousin, best friend and so on.
If PM Abiy’s supporters do not see him on television every day, they go into shock and withdrawal symptoms. Then they swallow hook, line and sinker any garbage information thrown their way and work themselves up into a frenzy about the bad things that could have happened to him.
Abiy Ahmed is genuinely loved by the vast majority of his people.
But this love as not gone unnoticed by the Forces of Darkness.
They too love Abiy Ahmed.
They just love to hate him!
But we must remember three things about Abiy Ahmed whenever we have withdrawal symptoms:
1) Abiy Ahmed is a human being just like the rest of us. He is not made of steel but flesh and bones. He gets tired just like all of us. He needs rest. Between the time he left Ethiopia to visit the U.S. and returned home, he did not get more than two hours of sleep. That is the eyewitness testimony of Deacon Daniel Kibret. When I spent time with him during his visit in Los Angeles, he did not have enough time even to sit down and eat a simple meal.
2) Abiy Ahmed is a political leader. He is not a Hollywood actor or CNN anchorman. He does not need to make public appearances every day. He has important work to do in his office.
3) Abiy Ahmed, like everyone, needs privacy, private space. He needs time to be with his family.
4) We must not assume something bad happened to him if we don’t see him in public for a few days.
The dogs of information wars are crying and causing much havoc in their fake news/disinformation war against our peaceful revolution
In “Julius Caesar”, Shakespeare speaking in the character of Mark Antony warned of Caesar’s ghost searching for revenge and vengeance, and from hell “crying ‘Havoc,’ and letting slip the dogs of war.”
Today, the ghosts of the dethroned kings of Ethiopia are hellbent on seeking revenge against our peaceful revolution.
But they are not only crying “havoc” and letting loose their dogs of cyber war, they are in fact creating, orchestrating and implementing havoc in the country by fomenting conflict, strife, death and destruction.
Let there be no mistake!
Ethiopia’s peaceful revolution is under open and secret attack by the Forces of Darkness who are using the billions they stole from the people of Ethiopia in order to make a comeback.
Their philosophy is the same as the proverbial donkey who proclaimed not to be concerned if grass grows after he passes away.
If Ethiopia’s dethroned kings can’t have Ethiopia as their playground and plaything, she can go to hell!
That is, of course, easy to say for those who have made Ethiopia hell for the past 27 years.
The dogs of cyberwars attacking PM Abiy Ahmed
The dogs of cyberwars of the Forces of Darkness were having a picnic this past week unleashing a fear and smear campaign against PM Abiy Ahmed. They were having a field day peddling panic, alarm and anxiety among PM Abiy’s supporters as they watched laughing their rear ends off.
Here is the parade of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories propagated by the trolls of the Forces of Darkness that has caused much pain, confusion and anxiety among PM Abiy’s supporters:
PM Abiy was not seen in public last week because he fell seriously ill after returning from the U.S. and had to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia (United Arab Emirates) for medical care.
A member of PM Abiy’s security detail tried to attack/poison him.
PM Abiy did not make a public statement about the conflict in Jijiga because he was ill.
The federal government is instigating ethnic conflict in Jijiga to take advantage of the oil found there.
The Federal government’s intervention in Jijiga proves PM Abiy is becoming a dictator.
Because the federal government is not providing protection, people are being stoned to death.
The federal government is responsible for the burning of churches in Jijiga.
Abdi Mohamed Omar (Abdi Iley), the former president of the Ethiopian Somali region cannot be arrested and brought to justice because he has immunity.
Ethiopia is a failed state because PM Abiy is prime minister.
Ethiopia can only be saved by a national unity government (in which the Forces of Darkness will be the singular rulers).
Fact checking the news fakers and disinformationpropagators
The dogs of cyberwars, offer no evidence, not a shred to support their claims. Yet they have managed to wreak havoc in the minds and emotion of many unsuspecting Ethiopians.
They think they can weaken the resolve of the Ethiopian people by waging a sustained psychological warfare using fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories.
I know for a fact no attempt to harm PM Abiy was made during his trip to and from the U.S. by any member of his security detail.
I know for a fact that PM Abiy was not ill nor did he go to Saudi Arabia after his return from the U.S. for any reason.
It is all fake news, or more accurately a bunch of bull crap!
The disinformation campaign about Jijiga deserves more factual attention.
First, the aim of the Jijiga disinformation campaign is to cover up the footprints, handprints and fingerprints of the Forces of Darkness who are fomenting the conflict and crises in Jijiga behind the scenes. This is a well-established fact openly spoken about by the man and woman in the streets of Jijiga.
Abdi Illey, the recently arrested president of the Somali region, whom the Forces of Darkness claim is immune from arrest, is a self-admitted criminal against humanity. He has directly implicated the monstrous security chief of the pre-PM Abiy regime in his criminal activities in the Ethiopian Somali region.
Human Rights Watch in its recent report stated, “The Ethiopian government [TPLF regime] established the Liyu police who have committed a range of serious abuses in Somali Region since 2008. The Liyu police report to the Somali Region president, Abdi Mohamoud Omar, known as Abdi Illey.”
A UN study earlier this year concluded that, “Tensions between Somali and Oromo communities and conflict along the border separating the two regions has displaced around 1.070 million IDPs ([internally displaced persons] representing more than 87% of the total number of conflict-IDPs)”. Thousands have been killed in clashes between Somali and Oromo communities.
Who is responsible for the displacement of over a million people and the deaths and injuries of thousands more?
Who is fueling, orchestrating and financing the conflict and strife in the Ethiopian Somali region, including Jijiga?
The definitive answer to that question comes from Abdi Illey himself who recently confessed:
I was a tool for TPLF. They [TPLF] did have a gun on my head all this time. I was also giving every penny of the Region’s budget as a ransom payment… I will tell you everything today. Every order to kill or cause a crisis was coming from them [TPLF]”. They [TPLF] are the ones who were ordering the killings, I was just doing it to save myself. Every massacre in the Region was also ordered by Getachew Assefa [he said that with a curse word]. He [Getachew Assefa, the notorious and blood-thirsty security chief of the TPLF] is also behind the Oromo-Somali conflict. Do you think that Oromos and Somalis would just go into war without someone being behind it, he asked?” (Emphasis added.)
Now, the dogs of cyber war of the Forces of Darkness are trying to saddle PM Abiy with the long train of crimes committed by themselves and continue to be committed by their hirelings in the Somali region.
How the Forces of Darkness play on our ignorance, naivete and treat us like Chicken Littles
Ethiopians duped on social media feeding on the garbage of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories could learn from the American folk tale of Chicken Little.
One day as Chicken Little was walking in the woods, an acorn fell from a tree and hit her little head. “My, oh, my, the sky is falling. I must run and tell the lion about it” said a panicked Chicken Little as she ran off.
Along the way, Chicken Little met Henny Penny and told her the sky is falling. Henny Penny asked Chicken Little, ““How do you know it?”. Chicken Little answered, “It hit me on the head, so I know it must be so”.
As they both ran to tell the lion about it, they met Ducky Lucky. “The sky is falling” said Henny Penny. “We are going to the lion to tell him about it.”
Ducky Lucky asked, “How do you know that?” Henny Penny replied, “It hit Chicken Little on the head.”
Ducky Lucky joined the run until they met Foxey Loxey who asked, “Where are you all going?”
Ducky Lucky said, “The sky is falling and we are going to tell the lion all about it.” Foxey Loxey asked, “Do you know where the lion lives?” None of them knew. “I do. Come with me and I can show you the way”, said Foxey Loxey and walked them right into his den. They all went in but they never, never come out again.
The scaremongering trolls of the Forces of Darkness have made Chicken Littles out of supporters of PM Abiy and the peaceful change that is taking place in Ethiopia today.
The trolls put a piece of fake news on Facebook, and the gullible Chicken Littles run around clucking, “My, oh, my! The sky has fallen on Abiy Ahmed. He is ill. He is in Saudi Arabia. We must tell the world about it. The world is coming to an end.”
What is amazing is that the trolls of the Forces of Darkness are able to get away with their fake news, disinformation tricks and mind games every single day.
They make suckers out of us every day.
My typical conversation with the Ethiopian Chicken Littles
The truth of the matter is that many Ethiopians fall for the dirty fake news and disinformation tricks of the Forces of Darkness because they think with their emotions instead of their intellect.
So many have called me crying and wrenching their hearts and guts.
After I calm them down, I ask a few questions:
Q. Where did you find the information that a member of PM Abiy’s security detail attempted to poison him?”
A. “They are talking about it on Facebook. I saw something on it on YouTube.”
Q. “Who was talking about it on Facebook? Who produced the video?”
A. “I don’t know. Just people. Actually, I personally did not see it on Facebook but I heard it on video.”
Q. “Did you check any other source to determine if the story is true or false?”
A. “I called you because I think you will tell me if it is true.”
Q. “Why should you believe anything I say?”
A. “Silence.”
Q. “Do you believe everything you hear or read on social media?”
A. “Well, no. But because everybody was talking about it, I thought it must be true.”
Q. “Does the story make sense to you?”
A. “No, but everybody is talking about. So, it is not true?”
Our problem: Herd mentality and group think
Herd mentality can best be described as sheep blindly following the flock no matter where they go just because that’s what the herd is doing. People act on the basis of emotion instead of logical and rational thinking. They don’t ask questions, they just follow the crowd.
Group think can best be described as a process in which individuals hold an opinion in a group believing the group is right. They agree on an opinion without much questioning, critical reasoning or scrutiny of the evidence.
Ignorant people are the easiest to control and manipulate not only because they lack substantive knowledge, but most importantly, because they lack critical thinking skills and do not know how to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
The Forces of Darkness that have launched a coordinated and sustained fake news and disinformation attack on PM Abiy and our peaceful change not only because they think we are ignorant, but much worse.
In the cyber age, Ethiopians need critical thinking to maintain their sanity facing a constant deluge of information.
Ethiopians as thinking rational human beings need to ask simple questions about the things they read and hear.
Minimally, they must ask if what they read and hear passes the “smell test”.
They must always sniff around for the smell a troll rat, or more appropriately a hyena, in what they read and hear?
They must step back and evaluate the information they have received and try to determine if it is reasonable, if there is evidence to support it and if it makes common sense.
They must live by a principle of skepticism. Never believe anything they hear or read without convincing evidence and compelling logic.
Most importantly, they must take everything they hear and read on social media with a grain of salt.
How to fight the trolls (internet hyenas) of the Forces of Darkness
In September 2016, I called for a “campaign of truth against the campaign of lies and disinformation.”
PM Abiy’s recent statements warning of the real danger of fake news in destabilizing the country should be a clarion call to all Ethiopian social media users to educate and empower their compatriots to fight fake news and disinformation.
PM Abiy did not indicate how we should fight the infowars of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories.
But I have “battle plans” for the social media and internet infowars.
First, our choice of weapon in the social media infowars against fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories must be the TRUTH. The Forces of Darkness cannot handle the TRUTH. For 13 years, every single week, without missing a single week, I have been preaching truth to them. Not once were they able to handle the truth I dished out to them!
So, we must fight them by telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about their lies, bare-face lies and damned lies about PM Abiy and our peaceful revolution.
Second, the old saying is, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” We must fight the Forces of Darkness by exposing their lies, their whole lies and nothing but their lies to the whole world.
Third, we must educate our people of good will and good faith. Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Doggone it, let’s educate our people not only on the good things PM Abiy is doing and the outcome of our peaceful revolution, but most importantly the crimes against humanity committed by the Forces of Darkness.
We must use social media to teach and to empower. Let’s pause to think what a waste of time, a waste of life it is, hanging on social media exchanging insults with the Forces of Darkness. Use social media to teach, to learn and to collaborate.
Fourth, we must overwhelm the negative messages of the Forces of Darkness with positive messages of our own. Someone once said, “In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” When we are on Facebook, Twitter and the rest for 10 minutes or one hour, let’s make a positive impact on those who read us. Let’s not waste so much negative energy feeding the trolls. For every negative fake news and disinformation the Forces of the Dark Side put out about PM Abiy and our peaceful revolution, we should post at least three positive and uplifting news.
Fifth, don’t feed the trolls (internet hyenas) of the Forces of the Dark Side. The trolls of the Dark Side feed on our anger, sorrow, fear and anxiety. Show them only our sunny side. Let’s hammer them with the fact that we are happy as a clam with PM Abiy and our peaceful revolution.
Sixth, we must develop emotional intelligence. We must develop the ability to identify and manage our own emotions and the emotions of those around us. We must not be Chicken Littles who get all hysterical simply because someone said something that is silly or stupid, and get everyone around us to become hysterical too.
We must develop heightened awareness that we are constant targets of emotional manipulation by the Forces of Darkness. Let’s not be gullible and suckers. Let’s not be distracted by hocus pocus of the trolls of the Forces of the Dark Side.
Seventh, let’s learn to think for ourselves. We should never allow the internet trolls of the Dark Side to control our minds or hearts. They may make us fools once or twice but we should live by the old saying. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.”
Eight, evil never sleeps. The price of defeating the evil Forces of the Dark Side is eternal vigilance. That means we must be relentless, ferocious, implacable, unflinching and single-minded in our struggle against the Forces of the Dark Side. I have proven that over the last 13 years!
Nine, PM Abiy says we must forgive. He is right. It has been said, “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
We must therefore be charitable to the Forces of the Dark Side. I say we must try and understand them too. We must try and imagine what it means to be the masters of the universe one day and the wretched, despicable and pitiful wretches of the earth the next.
Ten, we must be prepared to make the Forces of Darkness an offer they can’t refuse: If they stop telling lies about us, we will stop telling the truth about them. Fair deal, I say.
Eleven, never wrestle with the trolls of the Forces of the Dark Side in the internet sewer.
It is akin to what George Bernard Shaw said about pigs. “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
Never engage in mudslinging and pissing contests with the trolls of the Forces of the Dark Side because you will lose.
Twelve, never fall victim to click-bait YouTube channels. There are a bunch of trashy YouTube channels that try to make money by putting provocative titles on their videos. They would title their videos, “PM Abiy Ahmed narrowly escaped a poisoning attempt”. Their aim is to get you to click on their garbage YouTube channels. They make money every time you click on their garbage channels. I urge everyone to never click on these garbage YouTube channels!
A call to Social media warriors
For the last 13 years, I have fought the Forces of Darkness in my weekly commentaries. I fought their lies, fake news, disinformation, conspiracy theories every week (sometimes several times a week) without missing a single week.
Today, the Forces of Darkness are rearing their ugly heads on social media and online to propagate their message of hate, division, chaos and confusion.
I am calling on all Ethiopian social media warriors to join me in fighting the Forces of Darkness on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, online. .
We are now facing a new war from the Forces of Darkness.
It is a different war.
It is a psychological war. It is a war of psychological attrition in which they are trying to wear us down. It is a war to manipulate minds, crush hearts, unnerve and spirit .
It is a war to create doubt in our leaders. It is a war to create uncertainty in our peaceful revolution.
We must fight the Forces of Darkness on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, in cyberspace, in the schools, in the colleges and universities, in the streets, in the urban and rural areas, in places of worship and public gatherings, in every hamlet, village, town and city.
I am putting out a call to all Ethiopian social media warriors who support Abiy Ahmed and the peaceful change he has brought to Ethiopia over the past several months to engage the Force of Darkness not by getting down into the sewers of cyber space with them or imitating the cyber thugs, but by educating and informing Ethiopians and raising the standards of civility, cordiality, respectability and responsibility in public discourse and social media.
Let’s join forces against the Forces of Darkness in fighting fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories against our peaceful revolution in Ethiopia.
Ad Victoriam!
About Al Mariam
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. His teaching areas include American constitutional law, civil rights law, judicial process, American and California state governments, and African politics. He has published two volumes on American constitutional law, including American Constitutional Law: Structures and Process (1994) and American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights (1998). He is the Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, a leading scholarly journal on Ethiopia. For the last several years, Prof. Mariam has written weekly web commentaries on Ethiopian human rights and African issues that are widely read online. He blogged on the Huffington post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and later on open.salon until that blogsite shut down in March 2015.
Prof. Mariam played a central advocacy role in the passage of H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007. Prof. Mariam also practices in the areas of criminal defense and civil litigation. In 1998, he argued a major case in the California Supreme Court involving the right against self-incrimination in People v. Peevy, 17 Cal. 4th 1184, cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1042 (1998) which helped clarify longstanding Miranda rights issues in California criminal procedure. For several years, Prof. Mariam had a weekly public channel public affairs television show in Southern California called “In the Public Interest”. Prof. Mariam received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1984, and his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1988.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front launched its bid for a secession of the Somali Region, also known as Ogaden, in eastern Ethiopia in 1984.
Reuters | about 22 hours ago
ADDIS ABABA – An Ethiopian rebel group declared a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday, the latest dissident movement to aim for an end to hostilities in the wake of reforms.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) launched its bid for a secession of the Somali Region, also known as Ogaden, in eastern Ethiopia in 1984. In 2007, Ethiopian forces waged a large-scale offensive against them after the group attacked a Chinese-run oil facility, killing 74 people.
But the ONLF was among two other groups that were removed by parliament from a list of banned movements – part of a reform drive being led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has extended an olive branch to dissidents.
In a statement, the ONLF said it had “taken into account the positive steps taken by the Ethiopian government to lay the groundwork for talks and peaceful negotiations”.
The group “will cease all military and security operations to find an available and lasting solution to the Ogaden conflict”, it added.
The region the ONLF operates in contains four trillion cubic feet of gas and oil deposits, the government says. China’s GCL-Poly Petroleum Investments has been developing two gas fields since 2013.
Abiy, who took office in April, is presiding over a bold push to shake the African nation of 100 million people from decades of security-obsessed rule.
He has also acknowledged and condemned widespread abuses by security forces, likening it to state terrorism, as well as forging peace with Eritrea, with which Addis Ababa has been locked in a lengthy military standoff that followed a 1998-2000 border war in which 80,000 people are thought to have died.
Known locally as “Ye Bego Adragot Hintsa,” the building is a historic old building located near the National Theater in the heart of the city of Addis Abeba
Addis Abeba, August 13/2018 – Addis Abeba city mayor’s office formed a committee comprised of officials from the city’s culture and tourism bureau, private individuals and officials from the Addis Abeba city administration to “inquire and explore ways of sparing” from being demolished, Addis Standard learned.
Last week a news bulletin by Sheger FM 102 reported the impending demolition of the building, known locally as “Ye Bego Adragot Hintsa.” a historic old building located near the National Theater in the heart of the city of Addis Abeba, for private development projects. The news was met by a collective online objection mainly from residents of the city who expressed their concerns that the decision to demolish the building will deprive the city of one of its historical heritages.
Following the reactions, newly appointed mayor of the city, Takele Uma Banti, tweeted on Saturday: “we came short of promoting and marketing our city’s beauty and old city’s culture.” However the mayor didn’t provide further information. Following the tweet Addis Standardattempted to get more information and learned that “the mayor has formed the committee to look into all angles of arguments including legal options to see if the city administration could spare the demolition of the building,”according to one member of the committee who didn’t want to be mentioned by name. “It is part of a new plan being developed by the city administration to preserve the city’s historic landmarks to develop a sustainable tourism industry without affecting the residents of the city,” he added.
We came short of promoting and marketing our city’s beauty and old city’s culture . Many cities have an old block and section to their beauty that attract tourism.
Addis , the melting pot , will soon start new branding tourist attraction activities. pic.twitter.com/egKtQztHF0
The building was built in mid 1930s by then Italian occupying forces. It is believed that the building originally housed a mall and other administrative quarters in its early days. However, through time, the building also became home to about 60 residential households, according to Sheger FM. But beyond providing housing, it is also recognized as a meeting point to the young and old residents of the city who use the cafes, bars and restaurants inside the building as a meeting place to socialize and read newspapers. The residents of the building told Sheger FM that since the news of its demolition first surfaced five years ago following the privatization of the entire building to an individual, they have been living in limbo, unable to renew their houses. Addis Standard learned that the building was bought by a a private investor who also owns the near by Ethiopia Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in the city which was renovated recently.
Kirkos Kifle Ketema land management office, which has the woreda jurisdiction of the area, said the demolishing of the building was decided by the city’s former cabinet and that wereda office was acting to enforce the decision by the former city cabinet.
My first encounter with Tsegaye Ararsa was at the Addis Ababa University in early 1990s. He was one of my campus friends. I was a psychology major when he joined law school.
Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Tsegaye was just one of us, an ordinary student. He never exhibited any outlandish views and behaviour even if he was constantly in crisis. Among his close friends, we was known to be sirening a deep inner crisis. He suffered from self-loathing, mood swings, depressive episodes and suicidal ideations–problems that have followed him to Melbourne, Australia.
Tsegaye, who is Amhara on his mother’s side with an Oromo father, used to make strenuous efforts to speak the English language with a British accent. I also remember that he and Tedla Woldeyohaness were very close. He was fascinated with Tedla’s keen interest in creationism science, a movement against Darwinian evolution. He doesn’t talk to Tedla just because his old friend criticized him for his outrageous deeds and behaviors not expected of a self-anointed scholar and rights advocate.
After he graduated from AAU, he taught at TPLF’s cadre factory, Civil Service College, for many years. He was a misfit in the eyes of colleagues and students. As someone who focused on researching Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism and the constitution, his in-depth analysis and articulation on these subjects is laudable. But his scholarly work is diminished by his hatred-fueled, disparaging and vile tantrums he disseminates online and via OMN.
Tsegaye once appeared on Melbourn-based SBS Amharic and claimed that there was nothing called Ethiopian identity. But he claimed that there was an Australian identity. Anyone who has a glimpse of history realizes that Ethiopia has a more organic identity, regardless of its defects, than Australia. The country now called Australia was founded after European colonizers and settlers, mainly the British, genocidally exterminated the indigenous people, the Aborigines, from the mainland.
For Tsegaye, the victory of Adwa was just a distortion of history. It is insignificant to the history of black resistance against white colonizers that severely dehumanized Africans. Out of ignorance, more than anything, he claimed that Emperor Menelik claimed to be a white man.
The man who crushed colonialists to dust was described by Tsegaye as an assumed white man. “He [Menelik] claimed to be white. He clearly said he is NOT BLACK. He said he is a Caucasian (white). In other words, he viewed himself as some kind of ‘honorary whiteman’. Interestingly, he said this to a delegation of black Americans who came to his home to celebrate him as a black hero. He refused to accept his blackness.”
According to Tsegaye, “To claim that Emperor Menelik II fought a black war is a distortion of history. It’s an insult to any self-respecting black person. What he did was fight an imperial war that happens to be between a white European and a black African empire is a Caucasian (white). In other words, he viewed himself as some kind of ‘honorary whiteman’. Interestingly, he said this to a delegation of black Americans who came to his home to celebrate him as a black hero. He refused to accept his blackness.” This kind of flimsy scholarship is more insulting and degrading to Tsegaye than Menelik. The emperor passed away as a giant historical figure. But Tsegaye the midget remains a hatred-driven ethno-nationalist who is not fortunate enough to make history with negativativity and dishonest scholarship.
Tsegaye’s metamorphosis from an ordinary Ethiopian to an extremist Jawarian ethno-nationalist spreading hatred and inciting ethnic animosity appeared to me a sign of deep trouble. In order to analyse his transformation, I carefully looked at his hateful social media posts and talked to several people who may know whatever happened to him.
His social media exchanges with his critics reveal an unhealthy character. He is disparaging to people who disagree with him calling them ignorant, illiterate,idiotic and stupid. It seems evident that this virulent sociopath suffers from “grandiose delusions.” People who suffer from delusions of grandiose, or megalomania, are more interested in their own greatness more than anything else. Delusions of grandiose is state of mind widely linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a mood swing between mania and depression.
The manic state in bipolar disorder is characterized by elevated thoughts, including the feeling of unrealistic greatness, but reality contradicts the delusion and causes depression and excessive insecurity. Anyone who knows him closely can tell you that Tsegaye is a narcissistic and abusive man who is only trying to project a false image and self-worth at the expense of others.
Tsegaye has mixed ethnic heritage. On his mother’s side, he is Amhara but his father was an Oromo. His close friends consistently say that he used to express shocking dislike to his own mother.
Tsegaye is a man of self-contradictions. On the one hand, he projects himself as a seasoned scholar with a PhD in constitutional law. On the other hand, he is abusive, vulgar, narcissistic and sadistic. This reality is not just based on the words he misuses and weaponizes to harm others, but the abusive and predatory relationships he enjoys perpetrating on others including women and teenage girls.I will return on this with a substantive exposé some other time.
Tsegaye needs to look at himself in the mirror. The mirror he needs is not one that shows him his chiseled face or goggled eyes. He must find one that reflects on internal chaos in the untidy room of his brain. It appears to be messy, chaotic and disorderly. As the saying goes, charity starts at home. If you don’t clean your home, cleaning the streets makes no sense.
The Indian cricketer, Virat Kohli, said: “Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.” Tsegaye has to learn how to love and get loved–in real life rather than the prentions in public squares. As someone who knows how pretentious and snobbish Tsegaye Ararsa is, I feel sorry for this man.
Tsegaye should stop projecting his excessive insecurities and self-loathing on others. Inciting ethnic hostilities and hatred needs no knowledge but ignorance. What is complex and challenging is making peace and instilling love among communities.
Let me conclude with one of Tsegaye’s favorite quotes. “The illiterate in the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” –Alvin Toffler. Spreading hatred, especially at a time of hope and change, is the worst form of ignorance and illiteracy.
In an exclusive interview with Nahoo TV, Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed said two authorities are ruling Ethiopia today.
“We have two governments in Ethiopia: Abiy’s government and Qeerroo government,” claimed Jawar, the outspoken leader of Qeerroo, an Oromo youth movement.
The interview illustrated the sudden transformation of one of the most iconic Oromo grassroots organizer into an Ethiopian leader; as he repeatedly reaffirmed his commitment for his version of Ethiopian unity and state building.
During the interview, Jawar suggested that most Oromo leaders and Oromo people have no interest to separate from Ethiopia. “If we wanted to secede, we could have easily done it four months ago,” he claimed.
“But secession has no benefits for Oromo or anyone. We need not only keep Ethiopian unity but also seek regional economic integration” in the Horn of Africa, he added.
As the shocking pictures of Oromo mobs in Shashemena town “lynching” and “hanging” a man spread around social media, Jawar condemned civilians who take justice into their own hands. “In the past, It was police brutality, now we see some mob justice, it should be stopped,” he warned.
Jawar also praised the ongoing unity between Oromo and Amhara groups in Ethiopia during his interview. “I give Qeerroo credit for our grassroots effort. We worked really hard to unite the two peoples. Oromo and Amhara are the two stems of this country. If we are united, the rest will follow.”
However, he seemed unhappy when Nahoo TV confronted him about a new “Greater Oromia” map, that annexed Somali areas and even includes Wollo, Afar and southern tip of Tigray. Jawar explained that the controversial map was randomly given to him by Oromo nationalists and it is insignificant.
Jawar appeared irritated that some critics focused on symbolic issues like maps & OLF flags used in Minnesota and parts of Oromia where Qeerroo supporters and Oromos congregated.
At one point, Jawar sounded like Meles Zenawi in 1991, who claimed that Ethiopia would “disintegrate” if it was not for him and for his TPLF’s newfound patriotism.
Referring to his Qeerroo movement, Jawar asked “We saved Ethiopia, why nobody appreciates us?”
“Ethiopian nationalists should bow down and praise us,” Jawar declared.
One of Jawar’s most controversial statements during the interview was his claim that there is no connection and “no cultural exchange” between Oromos and Amharas.
“Oromo and Amhara do not really know each other,” Jawar said.
While Jawar explained it in a different context, his inaccurate statement is not a new divisive rhetoric from Oromo elites. It has long been the political strategy of ethnic nationalists to belittle the historic integration among ethnic and linguistic communities inside Ethiopia.
In reality, the country is famous for breaking ethnic barriers to unite and defeat foreign invaders and build one of the biggest nations in Africa. In fact, tens of millions of Ethiopians are born from multiethnic marriages around the country, (most notably from Oromo and Amhara parents) including new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and reportedly Jawar himself. Despite the Oromo language being adopted and remaining dominant in the south over the centuries, many historians also agree that the majority of Oromo population itself is an ancestral fusion of various ancient tribes.
Jawar’s interview displayed a glimpse into future political conflict between ethnic nationalists and Ethiopian nationalist groups like Ginbot 7 and Semayawi Party. Other than pacifying conflicts and resolving the tension with TPLF leaders in Tigray, many analysts see the biggest obstacle for Jawar’s group will be the urban population and Ethiopian nationalists who have a completely different world view.
In 2016, Ethiopian Professor Messay Kebede accused Jawar of promoting “Amhara nationalism” to weaken Ethiopianism.
Professor Messay explained that the ideology of Jawar and Meles Zenawi are similar. “In the eyes of Jawar, Amhara and Oromo have the same foe, Ethiopianism. What is more, there is a reward for dropping Ethiopianism: it will save Ethiopian unity. Jawar wants us to have faith in this extreme paradox: you get to save Ethiopia when you are no longer Ethiopian, that is, when you see Ethiopia as a collection of disparate nations.”
WASHINGTON — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Saturday that Ethiopia would remain a unified country, despite what he characterized as “a lot of people talking” about secession with divisive rhetoric and false accusations.Abiy said on state television that the suggestions of dissolving the federal state were connected to ongoing conversations with government officials in the Somali region to restore calm after the abrupt ouster of the regional president, Abdi Mohamoud Omar.
“The people have social connections and live among each other,” Abiy said. “And to think that the people will separate just like that is a wrong way of thinking,” he added, speaking in Amharic about violence in the region.
Rumors spread
On August 4, Ethiopian federal troops confronted regional forces in Jijiga, capital of the Somali region. That led to dozens of deaths, hundreds of displacements and Abdi’s resignation.
In the wake of the fighting, rumors and hearsay have spread quickly on social media.
In his remarks, Abiy acknowledged widespread rumors and misinformation online and within local communities and urged people to think carefully when presented with information that could be ideologically driven.
“It is important that Ethiopians deal with this with a calm spirit, and when some information comes, take their time to analyze it, and think about it and verify it, after asking questions about where the information comes from,” Abiy said.
Media access remains curtailed in Ethiopia, particularly in the Somali region, making it difficult to verify local reports and purported government statements.
Earlier this week, Addis Standard, an online, independent news organization focused on developments in Ethiopia, published a report about the federal army disarming the Liyu police, a special force based in the Somali region involved in the recent fighting, but then retracted the post after state TV said the information was based on an unsubstantiated rumor.
In a tweet, the news organization said its story came from a “senior military source.”
Update: ETV’s evening bulletin dismissed news of Liyu police as rumor. The news cast, who first appeared to confirm the info, later went on to say the defense force dismissed the new as rumor & misinformation. AS received the tip from as senior military source. Watch the clip.pic.twitter.com/PTXAANvdJu
The Reuters news agency reported that to contain the spread of misinformation — and potentially thwart efforts to organize protests — internet access was blocked for days following the clash in Jijiga.
That step hasn’t been taken since the federal government lifted a state of emergency earlier this year.
Rights groups criticize internet blackouts, but some defend what they consider to be efforts to contain dangerous misinformation that could incite reprisal attacks.
“The internet (social media) has brought out the beast within our soul,” Taye Atske-selassie, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Egypt, tweeted. “The burning question is shall we keep on glamorising the internet or check it so that it isn’t used to incite the killing a fellow human; i.e human rights violations.”
The internet(social media)has brought out the beast within our soul.Has revealed the ordeal & mayhem of mankind.The burning question is shall we keep on glamorising the internet or check it so that it isn’t used to incite the killing a fellow human; i.e human rights violations
Beyond controlling the flow of information, internet shutdowns also affect local economies. Advocacy groups and think tanks estimate that the blackout in eastern Ethiopia has cost more than $125,000.
Heated rhetoric
Other government officials have used social media in an attempt to sway public opinion.
The interim Somali regional president, Ahmed Abdi Mohamed, recently published a Facebook Live video containing incendiary remarks connected to the federal incursion in the Somali region.
“He called on the locals to resist, to fight back. And he used language that could be considered tribal in nature,” Zecharias Zelalem, an Ethiopian journalist who focuses on events in East Africa for the news site OPride.com, told VOA.
That included making thinly veiled references to taking up arms against the Oromos, one of Ethiopia’s ethnic groups.
“He is not someone whom I could see playing a part to reconcile the different feuding entities in Jijiga and in the Somali region,” Zecharias added.
Buildup to clash
Weeks of failed talks and progressively heightening tension preceded this month’s showdown.
Meetings between Abiy and the ousted regional president, known also as Abdi Illey, failed to produce a breakthrough.
“There was no way that an Ethiopia with both Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and (the) Somali regional government(’s) Abdi Mohamoud Omar would be compatible,” Zecharias said.
The conflict spilled over earlier this month, when forces under Abdi’s command stormed Dire Dawa, a city under federal jurisdiction.
That prompted the federal government to send troops to Jijiga, and experts have questioned the legality of both actions.
“By all accounts, it doesn’t seem to have been the best-executed plan on the part of the federal government,” Safia Aidid, a researcher and expert on the region, told VOA.
“On paper, it may or may not be [constitutional],” Zecharias said. But, he added, the regional government has violated the constitution on multiple occasions, with “a president who has gone rogue in many senses.”
Displaced Oromos sit in a temporary shelter at Banco Chelchele site in West Guji, Ethiopia, July 31, 2018.
‘Brotherly people’
For those living in areas affected by violence, whether deliberations in the coming weeks are inclusive and lead to lasting peace is all that matters.
“These are neighborly people. These are brotherly people,” Aidid said.
But a cycle of violence has persisted. Armed Oromos massacred Somali villagers in mid-July, Zecharias said, and days later Liyu police forces massacred Oromos in retaliation.
Abune Merkorios, the 4th Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, arrives in Addis Ababa, Aug. 1, 2018, as he returns from an exile of more than 26 years, in the U.S.
Abiy made his remarks Saturday after visiting the home of Abune Merkorios, a high-ranking leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church who, earlier this month, returned to Ethiopia after nearly three decades in exile in the U.S.
Merkorios’ return follows the resolution of long-standing divisions within the church after deliberations mediated by Abiy.
It’s those kinds of discussions, based on facts and reconciliation, that Abiy hopes will create a path for peace in the Somali region.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – At least 40 people were killed by paramilitary forces in eastern Ethiopia over the weekend, a senior regional official said on Monday, in the latest spate of violence driven by ethnic divisions.
Unrest first broke out along the border of the country’s Somali and Oromiya provinces in September, displacing nearly a million people, though the violence had subsided by April.
On Monday, the Oromiya regional administration’s spokesman Negeri Lencho said heavily armed members of a paramilitary force from the Somali region had carried out cross-border attacks in Oromiya’s East Hararghe district.
“We still do not know why Liyu forces raided the areas on Saturday and Sunday,” he said, referring to the paramilitary soldiers. “But we know that all the victims were ethnic Oromos. At least 40 were killed in the attacks.”
A week earlier, mobs looted properties owned by ethnic minorities in the Somali region’s capital Jijiga. The central government said the unrest had been stoked by regional officials who had fallen out with central authorities trying to address rights abuses in the region.
The spokesman said the officials had said the government was illegally forcing them to resign, and that Liyu forces had taken part in the attacks under their orders.
The forces are seen as loyal to the region’s leader Abdi Mohammed Omer, who has since resigned.
Authorities in the Somali region were not immediately available for comment.
Ethnic violence has spread in the diverse country of 100 million people, where anti-government protests broke out in the Oromiya region over land rights in 2015. Hundreds were killed by security forces over a two-year period.
The violence is the biggest domestic challenge facing reformist prime minister Abiy Ahmed, who took office in April.
In a separate incident, a stampede among thousands who attended a visit by a prominent political activist in the town of Shashemene killed three people on Sunday, officials from the Oromiya regional government said.
The event was held to mark the return to Ethiopia of Jawar Mohammed, an activist who had been in exile in the United States but played a key role in mobilising Oromo youths through social media.
Amid the chaos, another person was beaten to death by a mob after rumours circulated he had carried a bomb, residents said. “Police did not take action while all that took place,” the witness told Reuters. “It is an example of the lawlessness that is taking root in the country.”
Braid at National Army Museum is among artifacts looted during British invasion in 19th century
ewodros II, from El Mundo En La Mano, published 1875. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images
The National Army Museum has quietly removed from display a 19th-century looted braid of hair which the Ethiopian government has requested back as a national treasure.
It came from the head of the Emperor Tewodros II, who killed himself at the end of the British invasion of Ethiopia in 1868 rather than being taken prisoner. He shot himself with a pistol that had been a gift from Queen Victoria.
It was a military expedition to save British hostages, including the British consul, Charles Cameron, who had been kept in chains for more than two years.
The army destroyed the emperor’s Maqdala mountain fortress in northern Ethiopia. It brought back treasures, transported on 15 elephants and 200 mules, that were eventually deposited in various British institutions.
For years, the braid has been held at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. It was removed from view following a visit in April by the Ethiopian ambassador, who made an official call for its return. Ethiopia wants the braid to be interred with the rest of the emperor’s remains at his final resting place at the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Quara.
Sources said the museum discussed the request at its May council meeting and that the director was asked to write a report recommending possible outcomes, which were to be communicated to the Ethiopian embassy before 1 September.
The museum declined to comment on Monday. The Ethiopian embassy in London confirmed that a restitution request has been made.
Ethiopia has long called for Britain to return the looted artefacts. In April, the Victoria and Albert Museum announced that a gold crown was among treasures that could be returned on long-term loan.
Its director, Tristram Hunt, noted that even in the 19th century this episode of British and Ethiopian history “was regarded as a shameful one”. He acknowledged the “objects’ difficult past and their rich Ethiopian cultural heritage”.
The Ethiopian government is calling on the British Museum and other UK custodians of treasures seized at Maqdala to follow the V&A’s example. Part of the problem is that institutions like the British Museum do not have legal powers to deaccession.
In 2010, Westminster Abbey was criticised by campaigners over its refusal to return a looted tabot to the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Tabots – small tablets that symbolise the Ark of the Covenant – are regarded by 35 million Ethiopian Christians as so sacred that only priests are allowed to look at them. The abbey has a stone tabot inlaid at the back of an 1870s altar in the Henry VII Lady Chapel, where it is visible to anyone peering around its left side.
OLF seeks to capitalize on political opening in western Oromia
OPDO needs to reassert control without provoking more unrest
Challenge for Abiy is achieving both Oromo and national goals
The situation was a familiar one in Oromia.
Police shot dead an innocent civilian and the western district responded with a three-day strike.
But this was not a scene from the height of the Oromo Protests that helped sweep Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to power earlier this year. It was in late July after he had been in office for more than three months. Shockingly, the victim in Dembi Dollo was Birhane Mamo, a pregnant mother in a late night Bajaj taxi en route to hospital to deliver her third child.
Since 2015, much Oromo anger has been directed at the federal government, but in recent months the people in western Oromia have been opposing their own regional administration. That occurred after a new struggle emerged between Oromia’s ruling party and a revitalized, if still divided, Oromo Liberation Front, which sees an opportunity to regain the influence it lost over two decades ago. The predicament highlights some of the tricky ramifications of Abiy’s radical opening of political space.
Last week Oromia Chief Administrator Lemma Megersa and Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu travelled to Asmara for successful discussions with a holdout OLF faction led by Dawud Ibsa, who has been supported by Eritrea’s government. Other OLF or former OLF elements have already returned to participate peacefully, including the Oromo Democratic Front’s Lencho Leta, and senior figures Hailu Gonfa and Kamal Gechu. Abiy’s aspiration is to have free and fair elections in 2020, which would present a major challenge for his Oromo party, despite the huge advantages of incumbency in Ethiopia for the four parties of the ruling multi-ethnic coalition.
“Now the reconfigured OPDO government needs to control and rebuild Oromia”
The situation in Ethiopia’s most populous region demonstrates the complexity and dangers lying behind an otherwise highly successful period for Oromo politics. Despite the rivalries, Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO) leader Abiy commands the federal government with passionate support across ideological and ethnic lines. And his power is partly a result of tapping into successful mobilization on the ground by youthful Qeerroo protesters supported by online activists.
But that productive convergence of interests came at a cost. Oromia’s local administrations were ransacked by demonstrators and discredited for their authoritarianism, corruption and alleged subservience to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Now the reconfigured OPDO government needs to control and rebuild Oromia, but at a time when the OLF and others are seizing on the destabilization. Some think the deal with Dawud could be a turning point.
“With a tendency of pushing for chaos as a bargaining mechanism from opposition Oromo political factions, there was a danger of widespread anarchy in Ethiopia, but now there is reason to hope that the situation will stabilize,” said Birhanu Lenjiso, the Deputy Director of the East African Policy Research Institute.
OLF threat
In response to the OLF threat, OPDO firebrands started blaming the liberation front in early July, days after its terrorist designation was removed by parliament. Officials said Dawud’s group— known as OLF-Shannee Gumi Sabaa, which refers to the OLF’s top committees—was causing unrest and working with ‘Woyane’, a colloquial name for TPLF, and ‘deninet’, the National Intelligence and Security Services, whose influential director Getachew Assefa, a TPLF politburo member, was removed by Abiy in early June.
Many Oromo social media users support vocal OPDO officials like Milkeessaa Miidhagaa, in the same way that they backed activists such as Jawar Mohammed during the Oromo Protests. What is less clear is the affiliation of the Qeerroo protesters, a loosely networked group. Qeerroo may be supportive of OPDO reformers known as Team Lemma, Lencho Lata, the OLF, other Oromo opposition leaders like Bekele Gerba, as well as Jawar. Now opposition to the TPLF is no longer sufficient to unite, and the initial victory has been won, there is a struggle to win the hearts and minds of revolutionary Oromo youth.
“What is less clear is the affiliation of the Qeerroo protesters”
Recent OPDO allegations have been about violence in West and Kellem Wollega zones that were traditionally OLF strongholds. The OLF formed in 1973 to fight for Oromo independence and was loosely allied with the TPLF in the long struggle against the Derg. But during the transitional government from 1991 to 1995 the two liberation fronts fell out and the TPLF militarily routed the OLF. Created in 1989, the OPDO was nurtured by the TPLF to run Oromia in the new multinational federation, and, until the advent of Team Lemma, never really recovered from that ignominious beginning in Oromo eyes.
In Nedjo in West Wollega, Getachew Addisuu was killed on July 2 when his house was burned. After accusations from regional officials, OLF-Shannee issued a denial and accused OPDO of blaming it to try and turn public opinion. On July 3, the federal government arrested a Qeerroo called Shanqo Solomon from Nekemte following days of celebration with OLF flags flying when the government was rallying support for the Prime Minister. After the arrest was protested, regional and federal security forces detained influential people.
Fragmentation
Dembi Dollo, capital of Kellem Wollega, became a flashpoint after bridges were painted OLF colours and flags hung throughout the town. The Government deployed soldiers, Federal Police and Oromia police. A military truck was attacked with a grenade on the day it arrived, a resident said. On July 8, an individual fleeing friends of a man he struck with a machete in a jealous rage sought protection in the police camp. Abush Getachew, who was hoping to head to university soon, was killed in a panicked response by officers.
OLF flags, Dembi Dollo, July 2018, contributor
Security forces have been hunting the semi-legendary Abbaa Torbee, who, after issuing warnings, is said to have assassinated perhaps 20 officials responsible for repression during the protests. On July 17, they shot bank security guard Badhaasaa Tesfaaye when he queried the harassment of a shop owner. And then came the killing of Birhane.
On July 23 at around 11.30pm, she was transferring to Dembi Dollo Hospital from a clinic in Sayo Woreda. She was killed on the spot and her family injured when Oromia police shot at the taxi. The town protested in the morning and agreed a market boycott from July 26 to July 28, which was observed throughout the zone.
Now, after the Asmara deal with Dawud, there are hopes of reduced tensions. People in Dembi Dollo have already expressed cautious support. But whether peace prevails depends on the extent of fragmentation and OLF-Shannee’s level of control over events on the ground. The situation elsewhere in Oromia and on its borders suggest there may well be more problems in what is a febrile and anarchic environment.
“People in Dembi Dollo have already expressed cautious support for the accord”
In Goba in Bale region, an argument over statues in mid-July descended into violence that killed seven, apparent evidence of tension between Orthodox Christian and Muslim communities. On July 13, a mob beat a Somali driver for Dire Dawa Mass Media Agency to death in Mieso town in West Hararghe, Tigrayans have been similarly targeted, and reportsare emerging of the mass violence inflicted on the ethnic Gedeo people by Oromo in recent months. Social media was convulsed in debate over the gruesome vigilante killing of an individual in Shashemene on Aug. 12 when crowds gathered for Jawar’s return. Meanwhile, the federal government took forceful action to change the leadership of Somali region, which led to more raids on the Oromo-Somali border, probably provoked by malcontents from Abdi Iley’s regime. Serious fighting was already occurring between the groups around Moyale in the south.
Recognizing the struggle ahead, the OPDO plans to change its name to the Oromo Democratic Party, and an alliance with former OLF leader Lencho Leta’s group looks possible. But while Abiy’s big tent politics have pleased a diverse set of actors so far, his focus on national unity has alarmed some Oromo activists. Instead of inspirational rhetoric regarding Ethiopiawinet, they want, at a minimum, action on creating an autonomous Oromia in a democratic federation; structural transformation to end the unfair extraction of Oromo resources; Afaan Oromo as a federal government language; and Oromia’s constitutional “special interest” in Addis Ababa/Finfinne to be appropriately defined.
The challenge for Abiy and his rebranded party is achieving those regional goals while holding a broad national coalition together.
Main photo: A group at the 2016 Irreecha festival flying OLF colours, Bishoftu, Oct 2, 2016, William Davison
Properties belonging to the Gedeo ethnic group have been targeted by Oromos on the other side of the border as ethnic tensions rise
At least 800,000 people have been driven from their homes in Gedeo and 150,000 from the West Guijo zone in Oromia
“We have two governments in Ethiopia: Abiy’s government and Qeerroo government,” claimed Jawar, the outspoken leader of Qeerroo, an Oromo youth movement.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – At least 40 people were killed by paramilitary forces in eastern Ethiopia over the weekend, a senior regional official said on Monday, in the latest spate of violence driven by ethnic divisions.
ewodros II, from El Mundo En La Mano, published 1875. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images
The situation was a familiar one in Oromia.