Jan 24, 2016

Earthquake reported near Hawassa City. One of the biggest Rift Valley city of Ethiopia, in the Southern part has been irrupted by a massive earthquake on Sunday Evening. At about 9;40 pm local time the residents witnessed shaking of buildings and fall of households in their house. “I was walking to my house and it was very hard to walk for me since I can feel the shaking of the earth,” said a resident on her face book wall. The amount of its rector scale is not yet reported since the national media are not even talking about it.

Bekenat Mekakel Part 34 | Ethiopian Drama

 Public Statement       

January 25, 2016

Long before taking political power in 1991, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) core founders had promised to the Sudanese government led by their friends Gaafar Nimeiry and Omer al-Bashir that they would abrogate the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Border Treaty signed by the then colonial power, Great Britain, and Emperor Menilik of Ethiopia and defended by successive Ethiopian governments and cede immense fertile and potentially mineral and water endowed land resources to the Sudan. This land mass span 1,600 kilometers in length and 20 to 60 kilometers in breadth. All of the country’s ethnic groups will be affected by this treachery. Good and mutually beneficial neighborly relations between the Ethiopian and Sudanese people will be affected for generations to come.

The promise to cede Ethiopian territory to the Sudan offered the TPLF a strategic hub in Khartoum; and the rest is history. Ethiopians remember that the group was able to take political power by mobilizing financial, technical, intelligence and logistics support from numerous Arab countries, most notably Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria and others. Egypt and Sudan have consistently shown fierce determination to control the Nile and undermine Ethiopia’s rights to harness its own rivers for its own people.  Ceding Ethiopian lands makes this possible.

As a consequence of the ceding of Ethiopian lands to the Sudan, its territorial integrity, security, sovereignty and the long-term interests and well-being of its 100 million people is being compromised as we write this commentary. The TPLF has, once again, committed a treachery that succeeding generations of Ethiopians will never forget and must reverse. In short, the ceding of Ethiopian lands is a black mark in the annals of Ethiopia’s long and remarkable history. The current Ethiopian regime is accountable for this national tragedy.

We therefore call on all of the Ethiopian people to reject this national betrayal. In this regard, we want the world community and especially the Ethiopian people to know the following.

Over the past several weeks, an unprecedented 70 Ethiopian religious, civil society, political, media, professional and other organizations unified their efforts to express their outrage and opposition to Ethiopian government’s decision to cede lands to the Sudan.  The Ethiopian Borders Affairs Committee (EBAC) is grateful for this unconditional support and effective engagement by this vast network that represents our country’s rich diversity. This unprecedented support prompted more than 20,000 Ethiopians and people of Ethiopian origin to sign a petition that will be presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in few days.

This unprecedented, illegal and unacceptable transfer of border land is occurring against a background of civil unrest and peaceful resistance that has resulted in state-sponsored wanton killings, disappearances, maiming, torture and imprisonment of thousands of innocent Ethiopians. The government’s deliberate policy of land grab, sales and leases has resulted in the dispossession, displacement and marginalization of millions of indigenous people in Gambella, Beni-Shangul Gumuz, Ogaden, Oromo and other regions of the country.  The ceding of Ethiopian territory by the TPLF that exercises supreme control over the ethnic-coalition government of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) undermines Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, national security, sovereignty and the long term interests of its people.

Sadly, the fact of secret negotiations and the reality that is taking place behind closed doors is not known to the Ethiopian people. There is no independent media. Civil society has been decimated. Opposition parties have been disabled. As a result, information concerning the border, demarcation and transfer of lands to the Sudan comes from one source only, namely, the Sudan and the Arab media. Nothing being said by the government of Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn stands to public scrutiny. Among other things, the Prime Minister mimics his predecessor Meles Zenawi by blaming past governments and Ethiopia’s indigenous people for transgressions and other illegal activities in the borders. We know of no government in Africa or the rest of the world that blames its own people for protecting and defending their lands.

Given the inflammatory rhetoric by both the Ethiopian and Sudanese governments—blaming Ethiopians, accusing Ethiopian opposition groups for misdeeds etc, EBAC has warned the global community and the government of the Sudan that this irresponsible and illegitimate act by the Ethiopian government led by the TPLF aggravates the situation even further. It compromises peace, stability and friendly relations between Ethiopia and the Sudan. It will certainly contribute to the volatility of the entire Horn of Africa for decades to come. Sudan will pay a huge price for implementing a deal that is illegitimate and illegal.

It is unfortunate for Ethiopia and Ethiopians that Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn has followed and is in the process of implementing the strategic guidance on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border articulated by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles was the leader of the TPLF and not of the entire population of Ethiopia. His promise was to package a deal in secret and to cede Ethiopian territories to the Sudan without the consent of the Ethiopian people. Hailemariam’s denial to his own Parliament that his government has not ceded Ethiopian territory turns out to be untrue.

EBAC wishes to summarize what is at stake by relying heavily and exclusively on credible information disclosed by Sudanese officials and the Sudanese media, especially Sudan Tribune. On January 17, 2016, Sudan Tribune provided a clear picture of demarcation process under the title “Sudan, Ethiopia to Complete Border Demarcation this Year.” It opined as follows:

1. Prime Minister Hailemariam and President Bashir had agreed in November 2014 that the border shall be demarcated and had instructed their technical ministers to implement the deal.
2. “The head of the technical committee Abdalla al-Sadig told the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) that the border demarcation between Sudan and Ethiopia doesn’t face any problems.”
3. By excluding the area bordering Southern Sudan, Abdalla al-Sadig intimated that “the length of the border with Ethiopia is about 725 km, saying the process of demarcation is proceeding properly.” No mention is made of objections by EBAC, Ethiopian opposition groups and the indigenous population that has been defending the border and Ethiopian lands for decades. This objection still stands. The TPLF dominated government does not have legitimacy to transfer an inch of Ethiopian territory without public discourse and consent.
4. “Farmers from two sides of the border between Sudan and Ethiopia used to dispute the ownership of land in the Al-Fashaga area located in the south-eastern part of Sudan’s eastern state of Gedaref.”
5. This specific reference suggests that, contrary to claims by Prime Minister Hailemariam, the Ethiopian government has effectively ceded specific territories that belong to Ethiopia. According to the Tribune “Al-Fashaga covers an area of about 250 square kilometers and has about 600,000 acres of fertile lands. Also there are river systems flowing across the area including Atbara, Setait and Baslam rivers.” The specificity of the lands and river basins claimed and gained by the Sudan reinforce our contention that Prime Minister Hailemariam has misinformed and misled the Ethiopian people that no secret deal has been negotiated and no Ethiopian land has been ceded or will be ceded to the Sudan and formalized by the Ethiopian government.

6. “On Saturday, Sudan’s foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour told the Qatar-based Aljazeera TV that Sudan and Ethiopia are working together to curb the activities of Ethiopian gangs inside Sudanese territory. He stressed that Al-Fashaga is a Sudanese territory, saying the government allowed Ethiopian farmers to cultivate its land as part of the cooperation between the two countries.” Ethiopian farmers who use Ethiopian lands, protect and defend their national border at huge costs in life and property are “not gangs.” EBAC is not aware of any member of the indigenous farming population crossing Sudanese borders in violation of the 1902 Agreement and the border lines recognized and defended by successive Ethiopian governments.
7. The reference to Ethiopians as “gangs” reinforces an unwarranted and irresponsible and demeaning characterization by both Meles and Hailemariam. It is tragic that Sudanese officials treat their own citizens with respect and dignity; while Ethiopian officials demean, persecute, marginalize and impoverish their own citizens, all for political gain.

8. We have offered a plethora of evidence from historical, legal, occupation and land use, personal and family account, security and continuity perspectives that the lands ceded are Ethiopian territory. The contention on the part of the Sudanese that their government gave Ethiopian farmers permission to use Sudanese lands is ridiculous and not true. The Sudanese found a willing and ready partner, TPLF, to claim Ethiopian lands as theirs. This documentary evidence will be finalized and presented to the Ethiopian people and future Ethiopian governments that lands are being granted to by the TPLF to the Sudan as payment for hosting the rebel group in Khartoum. This is why the Sudanese official said that “Ethiopia is committed and acknowledges that [Al-Fashaga] is a Sudanese territory.” It is not the Ethiopia under Emperors Menilik and Haile Selassie or the Ethiopia under President Mengistu Hailemariam that “acknowledged Al-Fashaga” as Sudanese territory.  It is the TPLF and the TPLF is hardly representative of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people.

9. It is true that, both Meles and his successor Hailemariam have exceeded their authorities to negotiate this treacherous deal and to transfer Ethiopian lands to the Sudan. This would have been unthinkable under previous Ethiopian Former President Mengistu Hailemariam testified that his government never accepted Sudan’s outrageous claim. He is a living witness. “Ghandour pointed to joint meetings between the two countries at the level of the presidency to discuss borders issues.”

10. The Sudanese government makes an outlandish argument that the problem emanates from the rigidity on the part of the “Amhara regional administration’’. EBAC does not make a distinction between the Ethiopian “federal” and “Amhara regional administrations’’ with regard to the border. Ethiopia’s border is a national matter and not a regional matter. The issue mainly affects the regions of Gondar, Gojam, Wolega, and Ilubabor. In stating the outlandish, the Sudanese are trying to create a wedge between the Amhara nationality and the rest of Ethiopians. “Sudan’s Gadarif and Blue Nile states border Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The borders between Sudan and Ethiopia were drawn by the British and Italian colonizers in 1908.”

11. It is true that Ethiopia and Sudan are bound by the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Border Treaty that provides a clear process by which each country would designate Commissioners to demarcate the border in line with international legal norms and protocol and respecting continuity of the boundaries and land use by the respective populations. In this regard, successive Ethiopian governments have rejected the demarcation unilaterally and arbitrarily made by the British representative Major Charles Gwynn without the knowledge and participation of Ethiopia. Redrawing the border must, therefore, adhere to successive Ethiopian government positions and the utilization of affected lands by Ethiopia’s indigenous population. Any other protocol is null and void and unacceptable to the Ethiopian people and succeeding generations.

12. The assertion that “the Ethiopian opposition accuses the ruling party of abandoning Ethiopian territory to the Sudan” is true. This should remind the Sudanese government that there is absolutely no guarantee that giving a seal of approval to an illegitimate deal entered to by the TPLF will stand. It won’t stand. It won’t bind Ethiopia and future generations. Wisdom suggests that the Sudanese and the Ethiopian regimes stop the charade now.

13. When 70 religious, civil societies, political, media, professional and other organizations sponsor a letter of appeal and petition the United Nations to reject the deal, the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments cannot afford to ignore and dismiss it as empty rhetoric. One theme that binds Ethiopians together is their well-tested determination and unity in defense of their country’s independence, territorial integrity, security and sovereignty.

Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will be defended by her sons and daughters as our forefathers did in the past!

Long live the unity of the Ethiopian people!

Long live Ethiopia!

Ethiopian Border Affairs Committee (EBAC)

1. O. Box 9536 Columbus, OH 43209

E-mail: ethiopianborders@gmail.com

Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam

Author’s Note: My commentary this week follows last week’s comment on the collapse of Karuturi Agro Products, Plc., in Gambella, Ethiopia. In 2010, the T-TPLF handed over 100 thousand hectares of land the infamously  “iconic land grabber”  Sai Karuturi  and “cancelled” its “land rent contract” earlier this month.

On the heels of the Karuturi debacle, it is now being reported that the T-TPLF is ready to hand over “725 km length of Ethiopian land covering 250 square kilometers with about 600,000 acres of fertile lands” to the Sudan. (For a map of the area of land expected to be handed over to the Sudan, click here.)

I am not at all concerned about the legal consequences of any T-TPLF border land giveaway (excuse me, I meant “border demarcation”) to the Sudan, Karuturi or any other land grabbing scammers.  I was not concerned when the T-TPLF handed over up to 300 thousand hectaresto Karuturi. Ipredicted  Karuturi would flop in 2011, and Karuturi flopped spectacularly in 2016.

I am not now concerned about the T-TPLF handing over “600 thousand acres” to the Sudan today. I shall predict that deal will also flop twice as spectacularly as Karuturi’s. I subscribe to the bedrock  international legal principle of “nemo dat quod non habet  (“no one gives what he doesn’t have”).  It is not up to the gang of thugs in the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front to give away Ethiopian land. Nemo dat quod non habet. A robber cannot pass legitimate title to his stolen loot to anyone.

I am as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that whatever the T-TPLF does to Ethiopia today will not matter tomorrow.  The T-TPLF will not only be gone with the wind, the T-TPLF shall inherit the wind!

But I tremble for Ethiopia as did Thomas Jefferson for America: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

I tremble for Ethiopia when God’s justice awakens!

Do all Ethiopians live on borrowed land? (That is an obvious trick question. Of course!)

Last week, Sudan Tribune  reported  that the “technical committee tasked with redrawing the border between Sudan and Ethiopia said it would complete its work on the ground during this year.” According to the report, work on the “border demarcation stopped following the death of Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi.” The demarcation is said to take place “along a 725km length” and involves land in the “Al-Fashaga area located in the south-eastern part of Sudan’s eastern state of Gedaref” and “covers an area of about 250 square kilometers and it has about 600.000 acres of fertile lands.” The Atbara, Setait and Baslam Rivers flow this area.

The head of the demarcation “technical committee”, Abdalla al-Sadig, said the Sudanese “government allowed Ethiopia farmers to cultivate its land as part of the cooperation between the two countries. However, Ethiopia is committed and acknowledges that [Al-Fashaga] is a Sudanese territory.”

The contested land is in the “Amhara region”. Officials of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) have provided no public statements on the details of the demarcation or the land to be “returned” to the Sudan.

Here are some simple questions I would like to ask:

Why would the government of Sudan “allow” its land to be farmed by Ethiopians for decades?

Why would the government of Sudan give Ethiopians 600 thousand acres of “fertile land” to farm in exchange for nothing?

If Ethiopia is “committed and acknowledges that [Al-Fashaga] is a Sudanese territory”, a  fait accompli (a done deal), what is all the song and dance about “technical redrawing”, “discussions” and “negotiations” in 2016?

Does the “Al-Fashaga” handover over Ethiopian territory to the Sudan also mean the handover of Ethiopian territory to the Eritreans as per the so-called award of the “Border Commission”?

Why does the T-TPLF reject the binding Boundary Commission decision yet voluntarily deliver 600,000 acres of “fertile land” to the Sudan?

Article 48 of the T-TPLF constitution guarantees internal sovereignty to the “member states” and mandates they be engaged in dispute resolution concerning their “borders.” Did the T-TPLF conduct a referendum in the affected “Amhara regions” to determine whether their land should be handed over to the Sudan?

Are the T-TPLF and the Sudan scamming (I did not say screwing) Ethiopia royally once again?

The infrequently told history of Ethiopia in the T-TPLF chop shop

My long time readers will recall my implacable opposition to the late Meles Zenawi’s 2008 land giveaway to the Sudan. Back then I gave a speech before an Ethiopian civic group known as “Gasha for Ethiopia” and castigated Meles Zanawi for making a secret deal to give away a large swath of Ethiopian land to the Sudan in the name of  “border demarcation”. I challenged Zenawi for making his personal deal with the Sudanese without public scrutiny and debate over the details of his deal.

Those with a keen sense of history will recall that the single overriding mission of the T-TPLF has been and remains to this day the complete dismemberment and destruction of Ethiopia.

The T-TPLF’s grand design has always been to suck Ethiopia dry and dismember it piece by piece using a variety of methods over a long period of time, and disappear.

The T-TPLF grand strategy is patterned after the proverbial frog in the frying pan metaphor. If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out in a flash. But if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.

That is exactly what the T-TPLF has done to Ethiopia over the past 25 years. They have been working methodically like thieves in an auto chop shop dismantling, dismembering and selling Ethiopia to the highest and the lowest bidders piece by piece.

The T-TPLF rulers’ philosophy in Ethiopia can simply be summarized in the aphorism, “Apres nous, le deluge.” After the T-TPLF, the flood. As in Noah and the flood. (The T-TPLF does not know there will be no flood after it is gone. They say, “God gave Noah the Rainbow Sign: No more water. The fire next time!”

Or in Ethiopian folklore, the donkey said, “After I am gone, I don’t care if grass ever grows.” The T-TPLF “donkeys” do not care if Ethiopia exists after they are gone. As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, they will be gone. They know it. They wake up in cold sweat at night anxious when their departure date will come. Their day will come when it comes “unexpectedly like a thief in the night.”

What happens after the T-TPLF criminals are gone?

I tremble for Ethiopia…

Dismember Ethiopia by giving away its land. The T-TPLF gave away the Port of Asab and made Ethiopia a land locked country. It has been reported that an offer to keep the Port Asab as part of Ethiopia was rejected by the late Meles Zenawi at the so-called London Conference of 1991 which facilitated the establishment of the T-TPLF.

After Ethiopian territory was invaded in and occupied in 1998, tens of thousands of Ethiopian defenders lost their lives repelling and decisively defeating the invading army. In December 2000, the late mercenarial leader of the T-TPLF converted Ethiopia’s battlefield victory into total diplomatic and legal defeat by agreeing to deliver (see map on p. 96) a large chunk of Ethiopian territory to the invaders in arbitration before a so-called Boundary Commission.  This marks the first time in modern world history where a nation that successfully repelled an invasion of its territory at great cost of human lives promptly turned around and delivered that same territory to the enemy on a silver platter in binding international arbitration.

Dismember Ethiopia politically through “ethnic federalism”. The T-TPLF stratagem known as “ethnic federalism” is a political scam aimed at dismembering Ethiopia piece by piece by Bantusnaizing it.  The Crisis Group in its seminal study defined T-TPLF’s “ethnic federalism” as a system based on “ethnically defined national citizenship and self-determination on an ethno-linguistic basis.”

The T-TPLF created a system of “kilil” (ethnic exclusion zones, ethnic enclaves) to help it divide and rule a population of nearly one hundred million and in the process eliminate any sense of national identity and consciousness by appealing and cultivating atavistic (backward) ethno-nationalism. “Ethnic federalism” is a kinder and gentler politico-legal phrase for ethnic segregation. It is a modern variation on the Jim Crow laws of the old American South. The so-called kilils constitutionally and de factofunction on the principle of “ethnic supremacy”.  The members of the ethnic group in the locality presumably maintain and run their own political and legal institutions and other Ethiopians who are not part of the local group can take it the local way or hit the highway. (Of course, that rule does not apply to the T-TPLF.)

Dismember Ethiopia by socially dismembering Ethiopians. The T-TPLF has tried its damnest to create animosity, hatred and sectarianism between and among Ethiopians. It has tried to eradicate any sense of Ethiopianity or Ethiopian nationality by demonizing “Amharas” and making them the object of fear and loathing. The T-TPLF has sought to excavate alleged historical grievances between the various ethnic groups to foment ethnic antagonism and distrust.  It is incredible how the T-TPLF has suckered and “trained” so many learned Ethiopians into thinking they are members of their ethnic groups first and then “Ethiopians” (with a quotation mark). How anyone in the second decade of the 21^st century can define one’s cosmogony so narrowly in terms of their ethnicity is beyond me. Kudos, T-TPLF for infecting not only the gullible but also some of your diehard adversaries with a virulent consciousness disease that their ethnicity is more important than their humanity and nationality.

Dismember Ethiopia by redrawing “kilil ethnic lines”. The T-TPLF has redrawn the “ethno-boundaries”  all over the country. There have been recent protests and outcries over redrawing of ethno-boundaries in  “Gonder” and “Tigray” and various parts of  “Oromo territory”.  The T-TPLF has and continues to arbitrarily redraw ethnic lines to fit its grand scheme of divide, rule and exploit.

Dismember Ethiopia by owning all land in Ethiopia

The 1995 T-TPLF constitution declares, “The right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange.” (Article 40(3).)

If the state has exclusive ownership of rural and urban land in Ethiopia, who has exclusive ownership of the  state in Ethiopia today? Who has exclusively owned the state in Ethiopia for the past 25 years?

If land in Ethiopia “shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange”, how is it that the T-TPLF goes around handing out large swaths of land to the Sudan and hundreds of thousands of hectares to investor-cum-land-grabber-scammers for pennies?

If “land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples”, why did the state (“federal”) override the “regional Gambella government” and hand over up to 300 thousand hectares to Karuturi?

Only the T-TPLF has the final and ultimate authority to dispose of land in Ethiopia because they own all land in Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia today, one could “own” the land, but no one other that a T-TPLF’er has property rights in the land.

To “own” the land without the legal right to freely transact it is like wearing borrowed clothes. When the lender demands the return of the clothes, the borrower is left naked.

Ethiopians are property rights naked! The land they “own” is actually owned by their T-TPLF landlords.

The T-TPLF can call them “nations, nationalities, peoples” and whatever else. None of them own their land. The T-TPLF does. None of them has property rights in their land. The T-TPLF does. To know what it means to be landless, dispossessed and evicted from ancestral lands, ask the Gambellans whose land was handed over to an international land grabber.

The T-TPLF is the new feudal land lord in Ethiopia.

The T-TPLF aristocracy and nobility own all land in Ethiopia. Pardon me, but I am neither impressed nor fooled by foolish talk of land belonging to “nations, nationalities, peoples” and all that nonsense.

The T-TPLF applies a variation of the Golden Rule (he who own the gold rules) when it comes to land. For the T-TPLF, he who owns the land and the gold under the land rules.

All Ethiopians, except the T-TPLF elites, cronies and other parasites that feed off of them, are glorified rural sharecroppers or urban squatters. No Ethiopians, except the T-TPLF elites, cronies and other parasites that feed off of them, have property rights. That is an undeniable fact!!! Deal with it!!!

Dismember Ethiopia by expanding the T-TPLF business empire of evil and calling any local resistance “inter-ethnic conflict”

The T-TPLF recently got its fingers burned when it tried to expand its business empire by annexation, land-grabbing and forced evictions of local farmers through its so-called Addis Ababa Masterplan.

For more than a decade and half, the T-TPLF has evicted and displaced nearly 200 thousands Oromo farmers from areas on the outskirts of the capital. That was the reason for the recent protests in which the T-TPLF massacred dozens of unarmed young protesters. Human Rights Watch commenting on the massacres reported, “The Ethiopian government’s response to the Oromia protests has resulted in scores dead and a rapidly rising risk of greater bloodshed.”

T-TPLF evicted farmers are given pennies for their land and within months the pennies are gone and the former farmers becomes servants and laborers to their T-TPLF masters who now own their land.

What the T-TPLF has done in the “Oromia region” is a form of economic ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity.

According to a study  by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED):

In Ethiopia, for example, enquiries at the state-level Oromia investment promotion agency found evidence of some 22 proposed or actual land deals, of which 9 were over 1,000 ha, in addition to the 148 recorded at the national investment promotion agency. It is possible to speculate that state-level agencies in other Ethiopian states may also have records of additional projects, and that some land acquisitions may not have been recorded at all…. For example, in Ethiopia information about the land size of many deals proposed or concluded in 2008 was missing….

To conceal the real nature of the transactions, the T-TPLF under-records and misclassifies its “leases” and “sales”.

The FAO/IFAD report stated, “An investment by German company Flora EcoPower in Ethiopia was reported to involve 13,000 ha (hectare), while it is recorded at the Ethiopian investment promotion agency for 3,800 ha only.”

Moreover, the T-TPLF intentionally misclassifies the lands “leased” or sold to the foreign “investors’ as vacant “wastelands” (that is unoccupied by anyone or just wilderness) in an effort to conceal the fact that inhabited lands are part of a grand land giveaway scheme to foreign “investors”. The FAO/IFAD report specifically points out:

In Ethiopia, for example, all land allocations recorded at the national investment promotion agency are classified as involving “wastelands” with no pre-existing users. But this formal classification is open to question, in a country with a population of about 75 million, the vast majority of whom live in rural areas. Evidence collected by in-country research suggests that at least some of the lands allocated to investors in the Benishangul Gumuz and Afar regions were previously being used for shifting cultivation and dry-season grazing, respectively.

Such are the facts of T-TPLF land ownership in Ethiopia for those who want to know.

But doggone it!!! What the T-TPLF is doing to poor Ethiopian farmers is a low down dirty shame. To push people off their land, deprive them of a livelihood and top it off by depriving of basic human dignity by making them servants and daily laborers is totally freakin’ messed up!

Dismember Ethiopia by exiling Ethiopians

A key T-TPLF key strategy is to make life in Ethiopia so miserable for non-members of the T-TPLF that those who could afford to leave will go into internal or external exile. The T-TPLF particularly targets those with leadership abilities, intellectuals, the young and able into self-deportation  to the Middle East, Europe or North America. The T-TPLF wants all educated and enlightened Ethiopians who do not agree with them to leave the country so they could lord over the “Benighted Federal Republic of Ethiopia”.

The T-TPLF exiles its opponents internally in its official prisons and secret Gulags. Almost three years ago to the month, I wrote a commentary on the exile and plight of political prisoners in Ethiopia to T-TPLF prisons. The former T-TPLF “Defense Minister”, Siye Abraha, imprisoned 6 years on alleged “corruption” charges for six years by Meles Zenawi in 2008 told an audience in Virginia, “the prison speaks Oromiffa [the Oromo language] and that “99% of the prisoners in Qaliti are Oromos.”

Wholesale persecution of members of an ethnic group driven by ethnic animus (hatred) is a crime against humanity.

The T-TPLF land giveaway to Sudan

The historical shenanigans in the daylight theft of  Ethiopian sovereign territory are well-documented.

In May 2008, I challenged Meles Zenawi on his cloak and dagger operation to give away a large swath of Ethiopian land to the Sudan. (For a map of the area of land expected to be handed over to the Sudan, click here.) Since the T-TPLF has kept the secret land in absolute secrecy, it is impossible to determine with certainty exactly which area is being ceded to the Sudan.

On May 11, 2008, the T-TPLF foreign ministry put out a statement which categorically denied the transfer of any Ethiopian land to the Sudan. That statement accused the “media” and “irresponsible” elements outside the country for creating fear and alarm over something that did not happen.  When Sudanese officials publicly announced acquisition of territory from Ethiopia, Zenawi could no longer keep a lid on his secret deal; and his henchmen began to backtrack on their initial story by mid-May. They said only preliminary work on border demarcation had been done, but nothing had been finalized. Within days, a new lie was invented. They nonchalantly admitted “implementing prior agreements” concluded by the imperial/Derg regimes with the Sudan.

When the Ethio-Sudan Border Affairs Committee began to aggressively probe the issue and investigate what was really happening on the ground in the border areas and Ethiopians victimized by Zenawi’s land giveaway began giving interviews to the VOA and other international media outlets, the Zenawi spin machine changed its tune once again. The victims complained bitterly that they had been driven out of their ancestral lands by occupying Sudanese forces. Their farm machinery and tools had been confiscated by the Sudanese and scores of Ethiopians had been arrested and detained in Sudanese jails.

On May 21, 2008, Meles Zenawi publicly described his agreement with Sudan’s Al-Bashir:

We, Ethiopia and Sudan, have signed an agreement not to displace any single individual from both sides to whom the demarcation benefits…We have given back this land, which was occupied in 1996. This land before 1996 belonged to Sudanese farmers. There isno single individual displaced at the border as it is being reported by some media.

In a WikiLeaks cablegram, Ambassador Donald Yamamoto summarized information he had gathered and confirmed the deal had been done. “He [informant] also argued that on-going tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan, which has cost the Amhara region a large chunk of territory, combined with the GoE’s response of sweeping the issue under the rug may be another aggravating factor driving the dissenters.  (Emphasis added.)

In 2001, the reasons given for the “border demarcation” were quite different.

The Sudanese regime at the time explained the demarcation was necessary to “‘develop and integrate’ Al-Qadarif State with Tigray State in northern Ethiopia… The two regions were agriculturally productive, with Al-Qadarif, considered to be the ‘bread basket’ of Sudan… The existing road from Al-Qadarif to Mekele… is being repaired and upgraded… Tigray State would benefit through having better access to the Red Sea, as the road to Al-Qadarif connected to Port Sudan. ‘That makes Port Sudan closer to Mekele than the Eritrean port of Massawa or the Somali port of Berbera…”

A brazen land grab clothed as a regional economic development plan. Only the TPLF can cook up such a cockamamie story and expect to be believed.

In December 2013, Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti announced that the ruling regimes in Ethiopia and the Sudan have completed their deal on the border:

Sudan and Ethiopia have ended the border disagreement on ‘Fashaga’ area,” the Sudanese minister confirmed. The two presidents will sign a historical document putting the final demarcation lines. ‘The two have also agreed on the controversial Renaissance Dam that Sudan was earlier opposed to.’” (Emphasis added.)

So we now know the real deal. A raw deal was handed to Ethiopia courtesy of the T-TPLF.

In 2016, the T-TPLF will hand over 600,000 acres of Ethiopian land along 725 km in exchange for Sudanese support for the construction of the “Renaissance Dam that Sudan was earlier opposed to.”

Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Ethiopia was betrayed for a white elephant called “Renaissance Dam”.

What the T-TPLF did in its land giveaway to the Sudan gives new meaning to the expression “sold down the (Nile) river”.

The T-TPLF sold Ethiopia down the Nile River (no pun intended) on a leaky boat without a paddle.

Meles Zenawi in 2008 and the T-TPLF today (Hailemariam Desalegn? Who is he?) insists on keeping the actual signed secret agreement secret.

But Meles’ public statement is a treasure trove of information on the basic terms and nature of the secret agreement.

From Meles’s statement, we now know for certain that there is an actual “Agreement” which is “signed”. Obviously, this means that there is in existence a formal document (instrument) which memorializes the detailed terms and conditions of “The Agreement”. We also know that the agreement is “signed” either by Zenawi himself or a minister he has authorized to sign on his behalf.

As to the subject matter of the “The Agreement”, Zenawi has put on the record that it deals with several issues: 1) the question of non-displacement of persons in the giveaway territories, 2) preservation of benefits of all persons affected by border demarcation, 3) restoration of land rights to Sudanese farmers on land supposedly occupied illegally by Ethiopian farmers, and 5) cession of lands (“give back of land”) “occupied” by Ethiopia “in 1996” back to the Sudan.

It is important to understand that “The Agreement” Zenawi “signed” with al-Bashir, by his own description, has nothing to do with the so-called Gwen line of 1902. It also has nothing to do with any other agreements drafted or concluded by the imperial government prior to 1974, or the Derg between 1975 and 1991 for border demarcation or settlement. Zenawi’s agreement deals exclusively with border matters and related issues beginning in 1996, when presumably the occupation of Sudanese land took place under the Zenawi regime.

The agreement signed by Meles Zenawi is an agreement only by Meles Zenawi to hand over Ethiopian land to the Sudan.  That is the simple and incontrovertible fact!

In January 2016, we are being told  that the “technical committee tasked with redrawing the border between Sudan and Ethiopia said it would complete its work on the ground during this year.”

I know for a fact that the T-TPLF ignoramuses think they are smarter than anyone else on the planet. They think they can outwit, outmaneuver, out-trick, out-cheat and out-fox everyone. That may be true in their minds. But we are not as dumb as we look either.

If the T-TPLF leaders really believe they can pull the wool over the eyes of one hundred million people in the land giveaway to the Sudan, they should think again. We will leave no stones unturned to forensically dissect at the subatomic level their crimes against Ethiopia’s territorial integrity!

I will not repeat the preliminary legal arguments I have made on why any T-TPLF agreement or deal with the Sudanese will not be worth the paper it is written on.

Deaf ears and my call for the Legal Defense of Occupied Western Ethiopian Territories

Back in 2008, I called upon all Ethiopian lawyers, scholars and researchers, and all others who wish to help to join hands in the legal defense of the territorial integrity of the Ethiopian motherland. I urged for the establishment of legal defense committees that will undertake the broadest possible factual and legal research to counter Zenawi’s secret Agreement, whatever it is. My call fell on deaf ears.

I said it 8 years ago. I will say it again. The whole “border demarcation” canard (hoax) is fabricated by Meles and his T-TPLF gang. The real deal went down in 2008. There is no question whatsoever that Meles signed, sealed and delivered a “large chunk of territory in the Amhara region” to the Sudan and tried to “sweep the issue under the rug.” We should be prepared to legally, politically and otherwise challenge any alleged agreement by the T-TPLF and the Sudan to give away Ethiopian land.

I am not unaware of the possibility that the T-TPLF is raising at this time the fait accompli (done deal) with the Sudan to distract attention from all of the stiff opposition and resistance it is getting throughout the country.

In 2016, the T-TPLF and Sudan are putting on a song and dance and staging another elaborate political theatre to continue the charade. The T-TPLF are masters of the art of mass distraction.

All I can say is, “Whatever…!”

“Ethiopia shall rise”

I am sure the T-TPLF drones will froth at the mouth babbling about how I am always hating on the T-TPLF, blah… blah….

Thomas Merton, the liberation theologian and social activist said, “The light of truth burns without a flicker in the depths of a house that is shaken with storms of passion and fear.”

The fact of the matter is that the House of the T-TPLF is shaken to the core with storms of passion and fear.

I also believe there are some things that just ain’t worth hatin’.

I decide ten years ago to speak truth to power, abusers and misusers of power. That I must do because as Elie Weisel said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Truth-telling is an act of righteous indignation by those who stand for the voiceless victims of injustice.

I am the voice of the victims of T-TPLF injustice. Who speaks for the victims of the Meles Massacres of 2005 in 2016?

But it is not about victims alone. It is not even about the protection and defense of the territorial integrity of Ethiopia.

It is about the dignity and human rights of the Ethiopian people.

It is about whether Ethiopia shall rise or fall and permanently remain under the boots of thugs.

Kwame N’Krumah decades ago poetically declared:

Ethiopia Shall Rise

Ethiopia, Africa’s bright gem
Set high among the verdant hills
That gave birth to the unfailing
Waters of the Nile
Ethiopia shall rise
Ethiopia, land of the wise;
Ethiopia, bold cradle of Africa’s ancient rule
And fertile school
Of our African culture;
Ethiopia, the wise|
Shall rise
And remould with us the full figure
Of Africa’s hopes
And destiny.

I believe we are Ethiopians first before we are “Tigreans”. We are Ethiopians first before we are “Oromos”. We are Ethiopians first before we are “Amharas” or a member of any other ethnic group. We are Ethiopians before we are “Ethiopian Americans” or “Ethio-Europeans”.

Let us unite around the powerful values that bind us — respect for human rights, love of freedom, establishment of democratic institutions, and above all else, the absolute territorial integrity of mother Ethiopia and the indivisibility of the Ethiopian people.

If we agree to unite on the basis of these values, there is no power on earth that could possibly divide us? Tear us apart? Defeat us!

Ethiopia shall rise and stretch her hands to God and her enemies shall fall!

My credo is simple: One Ethiopia Today. One Ethiopia Tomorrow. One Ethiopia Forever.

Deal with it!!!

Related commentaries:

“Ethiopia: Missing a ‘large chunk’ of territory?”http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/comment/76244

“Saving Ethiopia From the Chopping Block”,  http://ecadforum.com/2014/02/03/saving-ethiopia-from-the-chopping-block/

January 21, 2016

Here are the 62 people who are richer than half the world’s population and what they do:

By Salem Solomon / VOA

After almost two months of clashes between Oromo protesters and security forces in Ethiopia, authorities have scrapped a “master plan” that would have expanded the boundaries of Addis Ababa and, according to protesters, would have displaced Oromo farmers.

However, observers are divided on the significance of the move by Ethiopia and whether it truly represents a change of policy or just a reaction to negative publicity.

Dr. Awol Allo, a fellow in human rights at the London School of Economics, said he believes the government will find other ways to seize land it deems useful.

“I don’t actually believe that the practices of displacement and the eviction and the plunder would cease,” Allo told VOA. “Remember, the expansion of Addis began a very long time ago and it has intensified over the course of the last 10 years because of the influx of investment into the city, both foreign and domestic.”

Compiled by activists

Allo pointed to figures compiled by jailed Oromo activist and opposition leader Bekele Gerba, who said 150,000 Oromo farmers have had their land taken by the government over the past 10 years.

“The practices would continue. They just don’t call them a master plan,” Allo said. “The master plan was basically intended to sort of basically formalize and legalize the processes of annexation and expansion. It may not have that kind of name that gives it a broader mandate, sort of legitimacy and authority, but the practice would nevertheless continue.”

Earlier this week, the European Parliament adopted a 19-point resolution urging Ethiopia to respect the rights of peaceful protesters as well as to cease intimidation and imprisonment of journalists. During a recent visit to Ethiopia, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power urged the government to engage in dialogue with protesters.

Approximately 140 people were killed during the protests, according to activists interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

“What we are urging is that the international community should not turn a blind eye to these gross violations of human rights that have taken place in Ethiopia,” said Mandeep Tiwana, head of policy and research at CIVICUS, a group that works to strengthen civil society and civilian participation in politics.

“They should diplomatically engage with Ethiopia, institute external inquiry into this matter and also bring to court those responsible for excessive force. And it appears that security forces have used excessive force against peaceful protesters, and, in fact, there are reports that even children as young as 12 have been killed,” Tiwana said.

Confirmed deaths

The government has confirmed that 13 security forces died in the clashes. VOA made repeated requests for comment from the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., but has not yet received an official statement.

The protests come at a particularly difficult time for Ethiopia, as the worst drought to hit the area in 30 years has caused a famine that is particularly affecting the northeast region.

The aid group Save the Children says as many as 10 million people need food aid. It calls this one of the two worst humanitarian crises in the world, following only Syria.

But observers hope the international community’s desire to aid those affected by the drought will not prevent it from insisting that Ethiopia respect human rights as it pertains to the Oromo protests.

Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said her organization and others are calling for three additional measures following the master plan’s cancellation.

Release, investigation

First, they want the unconditional release of the people arrested during the protests. They also want an independent investigation of police conduct, and they are calling for a national dialogue about policing and demonstrations and what is appropriate during protests.

“It is a sign of good faith that the government canceled these immediate plans,” Wanyeki said. “I think the pressure from the community and from all of the people that put aid into Ethiopia’s much-wanted development progress need to insist on standards around projects like this.”

Under Ethiopian law, all land belongs to the government, and people who are relocated are entitled to compensation.

However, the constitution specifically protects the rights of pastoralists and their right not to be displaced from their land.

Allo said proper compensation and due process have not occurred in the Oromo region around Addis Ababa.

People’s “entire livelihood is inextricably tied to the land and land means everything,” he said. “Their property is a way of living for them, so to deprive them of that possibility – that prospect of leaving the land that they have known, in the ecologies that they have known, without proper consultation, without appropriate compensation – I think that is a huge injustice.”

From the time of King Pharaoh of Egypt to Queen Sheeba of Ethiopia; from Anwar Sadat to Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana; from King Chaka (c 1788-1828) founder of the Zulu Empire to Uthman Shehu Danfodio, from El-Kanemi Sheikh Muhammad El-Amin (c 1779 – 1835) of Borno to the founder of the Swazis kingdom King Sobhuza (c 1795 – 1836), that Africa in particular and the black race in general has never lacked great minds who defined their generation. And in so doing they became so special that we have no alternative than to elevate them to the position of African heroes.

If truth be told, the greatest challenge that Africa is facing in this 21st Century is leadership. From Egypt, Ghana, Liberia, Uganda, Cameroon, Ethiopia down to Congo; good leadership is what each and every citizen of every nation of Africa aspires to. And over the years, African sit tight syndrome by her leaders wasn’t helping matter. But, in the mist of all these bad examples, We equally have in abundance those whose activities in the past put Africa in a good light like Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyereye of Tanzania, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and few others who by putting the peoples interest first carved an inch in the history of Africa alongside the likes of Kwame Nkruma of Ghana (1902-72), King Abu Hassan 1 of Morocco (1836-94), Paul Hazoume of Benin Republic (1890-1980), Richard Abrom Henries of Liberia (1908-80), Leon Mba of Gabon (1902-67) to mention but few.

The leadership challenge was carried over to this generation and it was the desire to encourage good leadership in Africa that made Mo Ibrahim to set up the yearly Mo Ibrahim Leadership Award with a reward of $5m USD. These are great minds Frantz Fanon had in mind when he said, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it”. That’s where the unavoidable mention of Goodluck Jonathan comes in, for here is a leader who discovered the greatest need of Africans today and did not out of the glory that goes with power betray the mission.

The question today should be, in trying to move democracy forward what should Africa learn from Jonathan?  In attempt to answer this question the Commonwealth Observer Group  recently send him to Tanzania as Head of Commonwealth Tanzanian elections observer.  Coming out the elections in Tanzania, in one of his speeches and his experine he thundered,

“I know people would really want to know how we can progress as a continent.

First and foremost, let me commend African countries because our democracies are still very recent. Most African countries gained independence between 1960 and 1965 although Ghana was the first African country South of the Equator or South of the Sahara that gained independence in 1957. But most countries for instance, Nigeria gained independence in 1960 and others 1965. Zimbabwe was the last in 1980.

So you can see that we are very young democracies. At the beginning at independence, governments were not very stable – with military interventions, territorial activities and so on. Now democracy is stabilizing in Africa and at the beginning of everything there must be issues. And if you read about the democracies of many countries, what they passed through, you will see that we’re even moving faster. Of course we have the advantage because you should think about the concept of not rediscovering the wheel.”

The point is that African leaders need to refined leadership in Africa by establishing institutions away from their selves. So that  after office they will have a global applause;  this will force highly respected organizations and institutions to fall over themselves to recognize and honour them. By only  going round the world honouring invitations and delivering speeches on how to make democracy work in Africa or their tenure experience they will make lots of money to run their foundation.  The sit tight syndrome African leaders are exhibiting is dehumanizing the people in their selfish quest for power.

Talking about building institutions, it’s important to note that democratic principles are not just defined by conducting election. Building institutions away from the leader and having access information are part and parcel of it. Like under Jonathan for five good years there was no single political detainee in Nigeria under any excuse, even when it was noted that he was the most criticized president in the world, he still allow freedom of expression to flourish. This is how democracies are built.

These are some of the positives African leaders can learn from him.

Achieving this is not suppose to be so difficult once our leaders put self apart be like he pointed out,  “we have the advantage because you should think about the concept of not rediscovering the wheel” and continuing in that line of thought after his Tanzania election monitoring he said, “The wheel is already there, so we can now just observe what others do and then modify to suit ourselves. Others discovered the wheel and it is left for us to follow what they do. We cannot go and re-invent the wheel. So that’s what is giving us the advantage. Basically from my experience in government, I think I will share with other governments in the continent and in fact in the country because you did mention of local elections and Nigerian general election.

Election observation has two components. What makes a good election is not what happened on Election Day alone. Most people talk about the election on the voting day. The pre-election activities, election activities and post-election activities give whole concept of election observation. The first thing is have you registered your voters? Make sure that some people have not been disenfranchised. Are you sure 100% of the people who are supposed to vote, who have reached the adult suffrage which is 18 years have been registered? If an election process does not register all the people who are supposed to vote, we have an issue!”

These observations coming from a leader whose main philosophy about power is that the blood of one single citizen is not worth his quest for power. And went on to live by the examples of his advocacy and by so doing refused to be another big embarrassment to Africa, if he had chosen to remain in office by all means. In a polity where in no distance history a leader once thundered that elections are do-or-die affairs, the believe in some circle that President Jonathan chose to build a legacy in Africa is not out of place. As a result, the suggestion that he has taken a noble step like Nelson Mandela is not farfetched. And, in line with his noble step that saved bloodshed in other West African nations like Togo, Ghana, Benin Republic, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Loan, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Liberia has made some institutions to suggest a Noble Peace Prize nomination.

This is against the background of how the refusal to relinquish power led Ivory Coast to a Civil War that devastated the nation and caused thousands of avoidable deaths. This is exactly where and why the Jonathan lesson for Africa comes handy.

This is coming in a continent where the Prime Minister who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979 is still holding firmly to power, just like that of Angola. In a continent where the president of Zimbabwe has been in power in since 1980, and that of Cameroon since 1982.

One of the most disappointing is that of Uganda who has ruled since 1986.While in the bush as a rebel fighting the government of the day, a BBC reporter came to interview him, he wondered what was wrong with African leaders that they want to die in office. He hid his face in-between his legs in shame for such an attitude but, today, he adjusting their constitution each time his tenure expires.

Do we then talk about Omar Hassan Al-Bashir of Sudan who has been in office since 1989 or Blaise Compare of Burkina Faso who fled after failing to extend their constitution after 27 years in office? Look at President of Rwanda, who came to power in 1994, he is now trying to amend their constitution to remain in power. The same power bug is biting President Pierre Nurunziza who after ruling Burundi for 10 years extended their constitution to contest again. One can count how many lives that has been lost in Burundi to help you appreciate President Jonathan the more.

Since elections are the main bane into all these problem after observing the Tanzanian election President Jonathan rightly suggested,  “During their campaigns, are all the parties should be well exposed through the government media? Unless where there are restrictions? And also how do you do your campaigns? Back home here there are certain things we do and we take them for granted. Internationally, they are not right. For example in most of our campaigns, politicians give gifts to people such as matches, biro pens and so on. Internationally these are regarded as inducements to the people. It’s not the best global practice.

So most of our electoral bodies need to come up with guidelines so that political parties and those who do rallies should not go to rally grounds and start distributing items thereby inducing the electorate. Then of course what happens on the Election Day, the election procedure? Well, of course in Tanzania it was quite clear and neat. Then in the post-election process having processed the result we expected any aggrieved person to go to court and get justice.

The post election period and what happens in the courts are very important because if people think there were anomalies in the elections then the courts are the last resort. So the package is total. African countries are moving and I believe they will continue to improve.”

Coming home after the Tanzania experience to meet the Kogi and Bayelsa election, when is opinion was sought he said, ” Kogi elections, I wasn’t there but in Bayelsa elections I was involved. But I was not too pleased because of the security challenges that they couldn’t conclude elections in Southern Ijaw local government. That election was inconclusive and even elections elsewhere what I heard wasn’t too pleasing as well, people were killed, people died in the process.

Why should governorship elections cost the blood of innocent Nigerians? Why should local government elections cost the blood of Nigerians. My take here is that no election is worth the blood of Nigerians. So when I see people with gunshots, even traditional ruler of  Peremabiri Community in Southern Ijaw LGA in Bayelsa is in critical condition in hospital with bullets lodged in his brain! That’s definitely not the right thing to do. So in subsequent elections we need to work very hard to make sure that some of these atrocities don’t come up again.

International observers always comment on these issues whenever they observe elections but unfortunately they don’t have the powers to curtain these in a sovereign nationality and to do what they want to do to stop all these.

These few things I raised are critical in declaring elections as credible, free and fair. So the good news is that African countries are really improving everyday. Even in Nigeria right from 1959 elections till date, INEC or whatever name the electoral body bears at a particular time is improving wit every election. There’s indeed good hope and I believe that it will get better especially as all African countries are democratized.

There may be differences in standards – democracy is not just all about elections. Who and how the election is conducted matters so much. The size and the stability of our democracies in Africa are improving and that’s the only way to stimulate economic growth. Investors will not be willing to invest in an unstable economy. Even in ECOWAS when I was there we emphasized that our states must be very economically and politically stable- so that foreign direct investors will be encouraged to come calling. To get this foreign direct investment, first there must be a stable government which in turn will attract these foreign investors. That’s it, so than you.”

These are some of the issues and actions that made some international scholars to suggest that indeed Jonathan is in a class of his own in a continent where a former democratic president once publicly boasted that elections are a do-or-die affair. And, where leaders are living true to that boast.

And then you have a President who came and said my ambition is not worth the blood of any citizen. According to some global circle such a man should be appreciated.

According to some school of thought,  if President Jonathan had behaved like some other African leaders there would have been no peace in Nigeria and to a larger extend West Africa today. Courtesy of his selfless leadership democracy has gained a solid foot in one big African family. And looking at it from the point of a continent where millions has been killed in quest for power, this single soul that never allowed his personal ambition to put the lives of 160 million people in jeopardy deserves, to a very reasonable extend, any accolades being poured on him to globally.

It is against this back ground that some international observers has proclaimed President Jonathan not just an asset to Nigeria but, to the entire  African continent that is in need of a heroic figure that will step into the giant shoes of Mandela.

Peter Agba Kalu – author, journalist, social critics & human rights activist.

By Tedla / 25-1-2016

Award winning journalist, who has been arrested for over eight times in relation to his work, now serving 18 years sentence in Kaliti prison, Eskender Nega, will be a defense witness of De Birhan‘s co-blogger Zelalem Workagegnehu and his two colleagues on Wednesday 27 January, 2016 at the Lideta Federal High Court, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

Eskinder Nega is expected to defend our co-blogger Zelalem Workagegnehu and his two colleagues Yonatan Wolde and Bahiru Degu, who were charged with applying for a online security, communication and leadership training three years ago. The course never took place. Eskinder is expected to give a professional testimony regarding the nature of such courses.

It is to be recalled that after verbal debates if Eskinder could be a defense witness of Zelalem, the judge finally decided on December 30, 2015 that Eskinder can be a defense witness of our co-blogger. But due to time shortage, the judge had adjourned the hearing for January 27, 2016.

Eskinder Nega, an Ethiopian citizen, who is also a permanent resident of the U.S., who returned to his native Ethiopian over 20 years ago to start newspaper business having been convinced that the current regime’s promise of free press and expression was not skin deep. However, Eskinder remains to be the only Ethiopian journalist in the nations history, who has been arrested more than eight times within 20 years and serving one of the longest sentences handed to an Ethiopian journalist, 18 years.

Zelalem Workagenehu, co-blogg

er of De Birhan Blog, was initially charged in October 2014 with being the local leader of Ginbot 7, conspiring violent revolution with his friends (such as this writer), writing and sending reports that appeared on Diaspora based websites such as this article he

wrote in 2011 using his pen name, receiving money from abroad to recruit members for Ginbot 7, and facilitating asocial media and communication related training course with his friends.

However, the court dropped most of the charges and now he is defending two charges, which are receiving money (10, 000 birr) from abroad to recruit members for the opposition Ginbot 7 and facilitating the social media training.

CBC  News

‘Hunger season’: 350,000 newborns expected in drought-affected areas by August

Ethiopia is facing its worst drought in half a century, Save the Children warns ahead of a meeting of world leaders including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for the 26th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on Monday.

Drought conditions, triggered by the El Nino phenomenon, began in June 2015 in remote northeastern areas of the country, as well as many parts of Somalia and Somaliland, and have spread rapidly to the more populous highlands, leaving an estimated 10.1 million people in need of food aid.

Save the Children currently classifies just two global humanitarian crises at the organization’s highest level of emergency — the ongoing war in Syria, and the drought in Ethiopia.

Families begin their journey home from the Estayesh Food Distribution Site in Denkena Kebele, Meket Woreda, Ethiopia, in December 2015. The UN warns that Ethiopia is facing its worst drought in 50 years. (David R. Kahrmann/Associated Press)

In the Mender local health centre in the Afar region, women are desperately queuing to have their sick children seen before it is too late.

Selamawit (Name changed to protect identity) is a mother of five children, including baby Mahder (name changed to protect identity) who is being treated for malnutrition. Selamawit left her village to find a job at the local sugar cane factory in Mender and her family have been hit hard by the drought, having lost almost all of their livestock and crops.

She now works as a full-time labourer in a sugar cane factory to provide very basic food for her family.

“My name is Selamawit and my baby daughter’s name is Mahder. I have five young children aged five, four, three and two years old. Three live at home and the other two live with their grandmother one hour away.

“I came to Mender Health Centre for treatment and medicines for Mahder. She is here because she is sick with diarrhea and a fever, and she has just been screened for malnourishment. The health professionals here have identified her case and she’s starting the nutritional treatment now,” she said.

Another local resident, Meron (name changed to protect identity), has four children including one-year-old Thomas (name changed to protect identity). Meron’s family, especially her children, have been hit hard by the drought, having lost almost all of their livestock and crops. She also now works as a full-time labourer in a sugar cane factory.

“Thomas started feeling sick two weeks ago and he came here with lots of different problems; he was vomiting, had a fever and diarrhea, and he had also lost his appetite and refused breastfeeding. He has now started the nutrition treatment after screening by the doctors here,” Meron said.

“He’s improving slightly now, and he doesn’t have diarrhea or fever anymore, but he is not gaining weight. I feel for my baby because he has these problems, and because of this I am sad,” she added.

The charity is working in more than 60 of the worst drought-affected districts in Ethiopia, providing food, water, medicine and crucial support to families who have lost their incomes, with immediate focus on:

• Increasing food aid.
• Treating child malnutrition.
• Water trucking.
• Intervening to save livestock and crops where possible.
• Supporting families to keep their children in school through the crisis.

Save the Children estimates 350,000 newborns are expected in drought-affected communities in the six months to August 2016, when Ethiopia’s “hunger season” peaks.

The aid agency says the international community needs to immediately increase funding towards the $1.4-billion US drought appeal — which is less than one-third funded to date.

Anuradha Mittal is the Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.

OAKLAND, California, Jan 25 2016 (IPS) – With the African Union celebrating the African Year of Human Rights at its 26th summit, at its headquarters in Addis, Ethiopia, the venue raises serious concerns about commitment to human rights.

Ethiopia’s so called economic development policies have not only ignored but enabled and exacerbated civil and human rights abuses in the country. Case and point is the ongoing land grabbing affecting several regions of the country. Under the controversial “villagization” program, the Ethiopian government is forcibly relocating over 1.5 million people to make land available to investors for so called economic growth. Since last November, the country’s ruling party, EPRDF’s, “Master Plan” to expand the capital Addis has been the flashpoint for protests in Oromia which willimpact some 2 million people. At least 140 protestors have been killed by security forces while many more have been injured and arrested, including political leaders like Bekele Gerba, Deputy Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, Oromia’s largest legally registered political party. Arrested on December 23, 2015, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Political marginalization, arbitrary arrests, beatings, murders, intimidation, and rapes mark the experience of communities around Ethiopia defending their land rights. This violence in the name of delivering economic growth is built on the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which has allowed the Ethiopian government secure complete hegemonic authority by suppressing any form of dissent.

A new report, Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Law: A Tool to Stifle Dissent, by the Oakland Institute and the Environmental Defender Law Center, authored by lawyers including representatives from leading international law firms, unravels the 2009 Proclamation. It confirms that the law is designed and used by the Ethiopian Government as a tool of repression to silence its critics. It criminalizes basic human rights, like the freedom of speech and assembly. Its definition of “terrorist act,” does not conform with international standards given the law defines terrorism in an extremely broad and vague way, providing the ruling party with an iron fist to punish words and acts that would be legal in a democracy.

The law’s staggering breadth and vagueness, makes it impossible for citizens to know or even predict what conduct may violate the law, subjecting them to grave criminal sanctions. This has resulted in a systematic withdrawal of free speech in the country as newspaper journalists and editors, indigenous leaders, land rights activists, bloggers, political opposition members, and students are charged as terrorists. In 2010, journalists and governmental critics were arrested and tortured in the lead-up to the national election. In 2014, six privately owned publications closed after government harassment; at least 22 journalists, bloggers, and publishers were criminally charged; and more than 30 journalists fled the country in fear of being arrested under repressive laws.

The law also gives the police and security services unprecedented new powers and shifts the burden of proof to the accused. Ethiopia has abducted individuals from foreign countries including the British national Andy Tsege and the Norwegian national, Okello Akway Ochalla, and brought them to Ethiopia to face charges of violating the anti-terrorism law. Such abductions violate the terms of extradition treaties between Ethiopia and other countries; violate the territorial sovereignty of the other countries; and violate the fundamental human rights of those charged under the law. Worse still, many of those charged report having been beaten or tortured, as in the case of Mr. Okello. The main evidence courts have against such individuals are their so-called confessions.

Some individuals charged under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law are being prosecuted for conduct that occurred before that law entered into force. These prosecutions violate the principles of legality and non-retroactivity, which Ethiopia is bound to uphold both under international law as well as the Charter 22 of its own constitution.

A few other key examples of those charged under the law, include the 9 bloggers; Pastor Omot Agwa, former translator for the World Bank Inspection Panel; and journalists Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega; and hundreds more, all arrested under the Anti-Terrorism law.

It has been a fallacious tradition in development thought to equate economic underdevelopment with repressive forms of governance and economic modernity with democratic rule. Yet Ethiopia forces us to confront that its widely celebrated economic renaissance by its Western allies and donor countries is dependent on violent autocratic governance. The case of Ethiopia should compel the US and the UK to question their own complicity in supporting the Ethiopian regime, the west’s key ally in Africa.

Given the compelling analysis provided by the report, it is imperative that the international community demands that until such time as Ethiopian government revises its anti-terrorism law to bring it into conformity with international standards, it repeals the use of this repressive piece of legislation.

Case and point is the controversial resettlement program under which the Ethiopian government seeks to relocate 1.5 million people as part of an economic development plan. Research by groups including the Oakland Institute, International Rivers Network, Human Rights Watch, and Inclusive Development International, among others, as well as journalists.

Perhaps there is hesitation to confront this because it would implicate the global flows of development assistance that make possible rule by the EPRDF. Receiving a yearly average of 3.5 billion dollars in development aid, Ethiopia tops lists of development aid recipients of USAID, DfID, and the World Bank. Staggeringly, international assistance represents 50 to 60 per cent of the Ethiopian national budget. Evidently, foreign assistance is indispensible to the national governance. At the face of this dependency, the Ethiopian government exercises repressive hegemony over Ethiopian political and civil expression.

It is the responsibility of international donors to account for the political effects of development assistance with thorough and consistent investigations and substantive demand for political reform and democratic practices as a condition for sustained international aid. This will inevitably mean a new type of Ethiopian renaissance, one that seeks the simultaneous establishment of democratic governance and improving economic conditions.

(End)

BBC

Kenyan forces have pulled out from two military bases in Somalia, including one attacked by militant Islamist group al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC.

Al-Shabab fighters have seized the southern town of Badhadhe after the troops retreated, a local MP said.

Soldiers also left el-Ade, where al-Shabab said it had killed about 100 Kenyan soldiers 11 days ago.

A Kenyan army spokesman said troops were involved in a “normal operational manoeuvre” and not a withdrawal.

Kenya, which contributes about 4,000 troops to the 22,000-strong African Union force battling the militants in Somalia, has not said how many of its soldiers died in the attack on el-Ade, which is in the south-western region of Gedo.

If al-Shabab figures are correct, it would make it the deadliest attack on Kenyan forces since they crossed into Somalia in 2011.

‘Under siege’

Somali MP Mohamed Ismail Shurie told the BBC it was “unfortunate” that Kenyan troops had withdrawn from Badhadhe, some 100km (62 miles) from the border of the two countries.

“We feel very bad that three years since it was liberated, Badhadhe has fallen to al-Shabab again,” he said.

The town had been under siege, with militants blocking almost all roads leading to it, says BBC Somalia analyst Abdullahi Abdi.

Residents in el-Ade told the BBC they welcomed the pull-out from their town, as they had been subjected to constant harassment and air strikes from Kenyan forces since the assault on the base.

Analysis: Tomi Oladipo, BBC Monitoring Africa security correspondent

The withdrawal of Kenyan troops from the two bases is not unusual in a war situation, especially after the embarrassing al-Shabab assault on el-Ade. Kenyan security has been compromised in the town, and troops could be at risk of another attack. The troops are therefore being relocated, away from the wreckage and possible booby traps laid by al-Shabab in the area.

Wherever the Kenyans pitch their tents, they will be looking to commanders of the AU force to improve co-ordination between themselves and the Somali army, following the contradictory accounts that the two gave of the al-Shabab raid.

Reports from Somalia suggest that the Kenyan army has not been winning the hearts and minds of residents, even though they are recapturing some towns from al-Shabab.

This is something that it will have to address – or residents could end up colluding with al-Shabab, putting Kenyan troops under greater threat in a country where many people are deeply suspicious of foreign intervention.

What happened when al-Shabab attacked el-Ade base?

In a BBC interview, army spokesman Col David Obonyo denied this, saying only an al-Shabab camp had been targeted.

Kenya has said that the bombs used by insurgents at the el-Ade base were three times more powerful than that used by al-Qaeda in the 1998 US embassy attack in the capital, Nairobi, which left 224 people dead.

Col Obonyo said some of the soldiers killed in el-Ade had been identified, but DNA tests were still being conducted to identify the rest.

Image copyrightUPDATED SEPTEMBER 2015

The BBC’s Emmanuel Igunza reports from the Kenyan town of Eldoret that families there have been asked to provide DNA samples to help identify what are believed to be badly mutilated bodies.

The families are anxious, and it has been a long and agonising wait for them, he says.

Col Obonyo, who refused to divulge how many soldiers were killed or wounded in the el-Ade assault, said Kenyan forces were not “withdrawing from any of our positions in Somalia”.

“Nobody says we must be in that camp. We can operate from another site.”

Last week, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta told a memorial service for the fallen soldiers that Kenyan troops would stay in Somalia despite the attack.

It is with heavy hearts and tears that we send out this sad news that our dear friend Ato Taye Reta has passed away today, January 26, 2016. Ato Taye has been a faithful member of Ethiopian Community in Minnesota for many years and served as a Board of Director.

He was instrumental in encouraging all members of the community to be proud of being an Ethiopian and to always be an outstanding citizen.  He brought wisdom to others by sharing his immense knowledge on Ethiopia and world history to those who wanted to learn and expand their horizons.

His passing is a deep and sad loss to the community and will be felt across all generations. His encouragement to do the right thing and be a positive person will be missed and his legacy will be to encourage others to be good citizens.

We pass our deepest condolences to his family on behalf of ECM Board and its members. As information becomes available on funeral arrangements we will continue to send out communication to our members.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors
Ethiopian Community in Minnesota (ECM)
265 Oneida St. Suite 209
Saint Paul, MN 55102
www.ethiomn.org

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(651) 645 9668

In todays’ Ethiopia the word Abay has become a source of worry for a few and brings despair and anger to the many. We have two Abays that are in the news and they are both causing us internal and external problems. Abay the river አ ባ ይ  ወ ን ዝ  is as victim as the rest of Ethiopia. Poor Abay nurthurer of Egypt and the great pramids, the longest river in the world and a name that evokes greatness and pride among Ethiopians is reduced to becoming a prop for Woyane ponzi scheme.

The Dam that will never be built has emboldened Egypt, created a military alliance between Egypt and Sudan and made Ethiopia look weak by submitting to Egyptian demands of how we use our own resource.No long term damage would come of of the current digging orgy carried by Woyane. It is fair to say the mighty Abay would not negativly be affected by the little ditch Woyane is playing with. The human Abay is what is doing the real damage to our country and people.

I am reffering to his Excelncy Ato Abay Tsehaye currently Policy Study and Research Advisor Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Office of the Prime Minister in other words the real power behind the throne. This is the Abay that has been creating havoc in our country for the last forty years. He fought the Derg but for all the wrong reasons and he has been proving that since TPLF took power.

Abay Tsehaye is the founding member of TPLF and is a long time Head of the Political Committee of the infamous organization. It did not take long for Meles to usurp power make a puppet out of Seyoum Mesfin and Abay Tsehaye. They acted as loyal solders to make Meleses dream come true no matter how vile. It must have been the many years of built up resentment that made Abay take side with the losing Seye group during the internal upheaval of the mafia organization. It did not take long for Abay to switch. True to form Abay was one of the first to knell down and ask for forgiveness and swear allegiance to Il Duce.  Meles must have been delighted to have his toy back on a shorter leash. Abay has been a model servant ever since.

He was assigned the Federal Affairs Job including the police, Addis Abeba plus baby-sitting all Kilil leaders. Abay was also what was known as the Sugar Minister. It is empowered with such authority that Abay fired all three hundred workers of Wonji Sugar without notice. He is that crazy and void of empathy. Abay is also the mastermind behind the insane idea of farming on Holy Waldeba Monastery Land. Waldeba is one of the holiest places in our country and instead of preserving and protecting our national treasure this TPLF Cadre decided to hire an Italian outfit to bulldoze Waldeba and grow sugar.

His Federal Affairs Ministerial rank is what gave Abay the real power today. During Meles time he was doing what the boss wished and his really dark side was under control. Today Abay is freelancing. He considers himself as the last guard to carry the torch of destroying Ethiopia from within. I believe one can say he was among equals in the TPLF Politburo until about a month ago. I am not sure about that today.

Meles and Abay raised all Kilil heads some from infancy. Kuma, Aba Dulla, Teferra and Addisu occupy a special place in their heart. They are family. Kuma and Aba Dulla both were peasant solders in the Derg Army and were taken prisoner by the Eritreans who handed them over to TPLF. At that time TPLF was becoming a force and has already mastered running prisons by condemning its own members. The TPLF designed a way to use the prisoners as messengers of TPLF ideology of ethnicity and obedience to a greater force. They were programmed to obey. Abay was assigned their boss and he made sure they stayed on message. Abay is elusive like a shadow doing everything from the background and is considered not merciful and is equipped with a sharp tongue like Il Duce.

Since the death of Meles Abay has been flaunting his new power. Of course he has the backing of Sebhat Nega another dinosaur brimming with hate and fear. The Oromo uprising is costing Abay dearly. He is being shown to be an emperor with no clothes. Losing OPDO that is the biggest and juiciest prize in TPLF basket is causing him lose legitimacy. Are the rumblings from the Amharas Kilil harbinger of things to come is what his friends are thinking? Does the Taxi drivers’ victory in Hosaena another crack in the system? How much should the rest of the Politburo stick with him and what becomes of stripped down Abay? Can he be used as an escape goat? They must have said to him ‘well Abay, the ball is on your court.’

Abay did not wait to find out further cracks in his fake armor. He went on the offensive. The media he chose to redeem himself is itself a riddle inside a mystery. He gave his interview to Horn Affairs a Party (TPLF) sanctioned outfit with a presence on Facebook and nothing of redeeming value other than making random childlike noise. He could have gone to ETV or EBC but he wanted to give this new upstart a leg up and strip it of any legitimacy to the ethics of journalism and conducting interviews.

Daniel Berhane the TPLF Blogger was given the honor of channeling Abay. He was being interviewed to set the record straight and restore his name and honor. What was he denying is a good question? Right around Christmas the Oromo Media Network (OMN) received a secretly recorded media of a meeting Abay Tsehaye attended with the group he is shepherding. The audio recording is clear and Abay Tsehaye’s voice, manner of speech and choice of words is hard to miss. He said some harsh words to the assembled ‘officials’ at that meeting. He threatened them and drew a line in the sand. It is not a pretty picture.

OMN shared this wonderful expose with the Ethiopian public. The issue he was stressing on was the famous ‘Master Plan’ to take land from the tillers. The Oromo people had already expressed their misgivings about the plan. The local people were becoming hip to TPLF’s plan of displacing them and making them part of the urban poor. The hidden ‘voice recording’ showed the people their government is a sham and OPDO was nothing but a foot solder to TPLF thugs. It is nothing new but hearing it like that makes one cringe with shame and boil with anger. To listen to the six million ordering and humiliating the thirty four million is always a little discomforting. The heroic stand by our young Oromo activists is what is why we are speaking of #OromoProtest and Abay’s role in this criminal act.

The interview with Abay by Blogger Daniel serves two purposes. He is deflecting attention from the TPLF while warning all collaborators the kind of defense his group will use if necessary. The video interview is a gem. We see this old and senile cadre squirming to make himself look reasonable and honest. He whispers and does not dare look straight into the camera or the interviewer because he knows his face betrays his heart. He sits side ways to hide his discomfort and the soft lighting makes him look weak shallow.

Needless to say he denied everything that was heard on the recording but he used the same words and sentence structure to deny it. That is how stupid Abay is. He asked where is the video? Really Abay, what do you think the idea of recording you in secret is about? I doubt you would rant like that on TV. Instead of saying that is not my voice, I did not say that Abay decided to argue about the location where it was recorded. Lord have mercy upon us for we are being tested.

The second message was to HMD and the remaining puppets regarding their role in this criminal enterprise. Here in America it would be appropriate to say ‘Abay threw OPDO under the bus.’ It is said when one sacrifices others to escape punishment or blame. Abay threw Kuma, Keder, Aba Dula and others under a moving bus regarding the Oromo land grab fiasco. It also means the puppets are responsible for the hundreds of people killed and thousands in prison. It is their Kilil and their business and the Constitution supports him of that assertion. Never mind the idea originated from TPLF and OPDO just implemented the directive but you see TPLF did not leave any fingerprint behind.

Abay is the true incarnation of Meles. In this situation of great significance where citizens have been killed, young ones are being imprisoned and families are being put in a very stressful situation Abay is just thinking of himself and no one else. Not his comrades, not his people and certainly not his country. A statesman would have come out to calm the situation get everybody to settle down and start a period of healing and finding the cause. That is not the TPLF style. He was willing to set the Oromo people against OPDO his own creation until he could find another solution. It is the usual band-aid approach. The veil is coming down.

It is another wake up call to the other Kilil officials that survive by the good will of Woyane. The Amhara, Southern Nations, Afar, Ogaden, Gambela are being given a warning if they are paying attention. Abay, Sebhat, Debretsion, Getachew and others are not there to protect you or share the crime. You are grown up boys read the writing on the wall and save yourself is what Abay is telling you.

The rest of us we stay the course. Woyane is being bankrupted everyday and they would run out of money to sustain their criminal enterprise. They cannot print money since the inflation that exists now has already made life unbearable for our people. The Diaspora has to cooperate in denying foreign currency and sharpen the boycott to help our people have a fighting chance. Let us act as concerned as the European Union that is forcing the mafia regime to stop and think. Do not let them laugh at our lack of spine and empathy.

DW

The food shortage in Ethiopia is getting worse. Aid agencies say up to 15 million people could suffer because of the El Nino-induced drought. Officials fear donors are neglecting the country in favor of others.

In December 2015, the Ethiopian government appealed for 1.4 billion dollars in aid (1.3 billion euros), but officials claim that only 180 million dollars has been received so far and that over 90 percent of the aid distributed is coming from government coffers.

The NGO “Save the Children” puts the international aid at “less than one third” of the requested sum, and last week stated that the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia is “a code red emergency and it needs to be treated like one.”

“Apart from receiving, and listening to, information on [drought] from time to time, donor countries’ immediate response is very sluggish” Alemayehu Berhanu, spokesperson with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture, told DW’s Amharic service. He added that over 60 of Ethiopia’s donor partners knew of the looming crisis when the number of needy was still at 3.5 million people compared to the 10 million today – but few responded.

Syria or Ethiopia?

Mitiku Kassa, the commissioner in charge of Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Agency, sees a connection between the slow trickle of emergency funds to his country and the response by donor countries to international crises in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. With many refugees entering European countries, in particular Germany, aid budgets are being diverted. “They [the donors] probably assume that the magnitude of the hunger problem in Ethiopia is less serious”, Mitiku said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Ethiopia’s northeastern Somali region has not received rainfall for two consecutive seasons

One of the biggest recipients of foreign aid, Ethiopia has been accused of misspending aid money in exchange for political favors, causing a furious, if short-lived, outcry from donors.

Scientists say the current drought in Africa’s second most populous nation has been triggered by El Nino – a warm weather phenomenon originating from the Pacific Ocean.

Generation hunger

New figures released by humanitarian agencies and the government of Ethiopia show that more than 2.5 million children are expected to drop out of school as a result of the drought, whereas 1.7 million children are in need of nutritional support.

NGO Save the Children last week warned that 350,000 babies are expected to be born into drought-stricken communities in the coming six months.

“If emergency funding doesn’t escalate very soon, there is a real risk of reversing some key development progress made in Ethiopia over the past two decades, including the reduction of child mortality rates by two thirds, and halving the percentage of the population living below the poverty line”, Country Director John Graham said.

The looming hunger crisis in Ethiopia is also trending on social media, with critics lashing out at the government for posting double-digit growth figures when at the same time millions of people go hungry. Kennedy Tamirat wrote on DW Amharic’s Facebook page: “This [the food crisis] is the real picture of our country. This is truth. But our government officials never want to see it.”

Witnessing drought on the ground

After visiting Ethiopia’s badly-affected Eastern Somali region, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) spoke of a “disaster in the making.”

Ahmednur Abdi, NRC’s Country Director told Deutsche Welle that the area had not received rainfall for two consecutive seasons. “In all my life, I have never experienced a worse drought,” a 90 year-old woman in Sitti, a zone in the Somali region of Ethiopia, told the NRC team. Other residents recalled memories of the 1984 drought that left two million people dead.

The Ethiopian government has been criticized for embarking on huge infrastructure projects while ignoring the poor

“It is crucial that the drought-affected communities in Ethiopia are provided with timely assistance,” said Geir Olav Lisle, NRC’s Deputy Secretary General. “We cannot risk that the drought in Ethiopia is overshadowed by the Syria crisis and other ongoing emergencies,” he added. “The outlook for 2016 is very grim,” according to the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “Food overall will become harder to access if we continue to see prices rise, food stocks deplete and livestock become weaker, less productive, and perish.” it said.

Ethiopians now await the arrival of the rainy season in March – if it arrives at all.

http://www.dw.com/en/ethiopias-hunger-c … a-19005738

Leap of Faith – Benny Hinn a Dangerous Fake

BENNY HINN

Benny HinnToufik Benedictus Hinn was born on December 3, 1952 in Jaffa, Israel (modern-day Tel Aviv), the son of a Greek father and Armenian mother who had immigrated from Greece. He was raised in the Greek Orthodox tradition but educated in Roman Catholic schools. After the Six-Day War, he and his family emigrated to Canada and at the age of nineteen he professed faith in Jesus Christ. He immediately became involved in the Pentecostal movement in Toronto and was mentored by Dr. Winston Nunes of Broadview Faith Temple.

In December 1973 Hinn traveled with other Christians to Pittsburgh to attend a miracle healing service led by Kathryn Kuhlman, the foremost faith healer of that day. Though Hinn never met Kuhlman personally, she left an indelible impression on him, and at that service he had a life-changing religious experience. Shortly after, he received a vision of people falling into a roaring fire and heard the words: “If you do not preach, every soul who falls will be your responsibility!” Later that year he began to preach and claimed that at this time God miraculously cured him of a terrible stutter. He soon began to imitate Kuhlman and even to sponsor services endorsed by the Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation. In 1979 Hinn moved to the United States of America, settling in Orlando, where he met Suzanne Harthern, a pastor’s daughter who would become his wife.

He claims to have preached the gospel to over a billion people, either face-to-face or through television.

In 1983 Hinn founded Orlando Christian Center and began to perform miracles and conduct healing services, claiming that God was using him as a conduit for these supernatural deeds. Soon his “Miracle Crusades” were being held around the world and, by 1989, were being televised across America. The daily talk show “This Is Your Day” followed, and is now broadcast in over 200 nations around the world. In 1999 he handed the leadership of Orlando Christian Center to Clint Brown so he could focus entirely on travel and crusades. Millions, or even tens of millions, attend his crusades each year. The largest event to date took place in Mumbai, India, where over seven million people attended over a three-day period. He claims to have preached the gospel to over a billion people, either face-to-face or through television.

In recent days Hinn has been the subject of scrutiny on a number of fronts. In 2010 his wife filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.” This was shortly after the National Enquirer published photographs of Benny Hinn and fellow televangelist Paula White walking out of a Rome hotel hand-in-hand. However, nearly three years later, Benny and Suzanne were remarried at The Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando. His claims of miracles remain unverified despite a host of programs and publications that have looked for evidence. He has also been widely criticized for his lavish lifestyle, which includes a private jet, a multi-million dollar mansion, and regular stays at hotels costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per night. This extravagance led to United States Senator Chuck Grassley announcing that the United States Senate Committee on Finance would be investigating Hinn’s ministry.

FALSE TEACHING – FAITH HEALING

Critiques of Benny Hinn can span a multitude of areas—his Word-Faith theology, his “little god” theology, his claim that each person of the Trinity is actually his own trinity, his outright lies about his accomplishments, and much more besides. But for our purposes, we will recognize him as the world’s most recognized faith healer.

Hinn teaches that God intends for everyone to be healed of all of their diseases. If people simply have the faith to believe they can be healed, God will heal them through the agency of a healer like himself.

Hinn’s crusades are carefully constructed to lead and manipulate those in attendance, with singing and repetitive music that build a particular atmosphere and sense of anticipation. These crusades crescendo in a time where he announces that God has begun to heal people and he then invites those people to come to the stage to tell what God has done, a technique that was mastered by Kathryn Kuhlman and has since become a staple of faith healing. Hinn claims that God is working powerfully through him to heal others and begins to list those miracles, usually starting with ones that are invisible and unverifiable at the moment—diabetes, depression, and the like. As the healings begin, many people come forward, hoping for their own miracle. Generally, though, only people who claim to have already been healed are showcased on the stage where Benny speaks to them and then often “slays” them in the Spirit.

In this way he has manipulated countless people to give money to his cause, believing that giving money will be key to activating their miracle. Not a single one of Hinn’s miracles has ever been verified, though many have been proven to be temporary or false.

FOLLOWERS & ADHERENTS

Hinn’s television show “This Is Your Day” is broadcast around the world and remains regular viewing for millions. He speaks to millions more each year through his crusades. He has also perfected faith healing techniques that have been imitated by a host of others. He is the world’s best known and most notorious faith healer.

This report was made possible by the generous support of the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Schloss Family Foundation, and Kim G. Davis. Freedom House also gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the 21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund, the Reed Foundation, and other private contributors.

Freedom House is solely responsible for the content of this report-—_Read More–the- Freedom House 2016 Annual Report  

Andualem Arage (Kality Prison)

Born in a lifeless desert,

Searching for freedom so desperate,

Traveling day and night,

With no peace of mind,

With no sigh of rest;

Under the hovering darkness,

Walking at a tip toe stance,

Knowing well freedom is ahead of us,

In a journey where there is no going back,

Trying to escape the imminent attack,

The zeal and the pain combined,

We  somehow kept our eyes focused.

       Lest we forget our goal of freedom,

       Lest we be frightened to ask for our rights,

       The indomitable spirit insists we fight a non-violent fight.

Though battered by the storm of repression,

Exhausted by the sweltering heat of dictatorship,

Stifled by the paws of the beast,

So staggering the might of the desert

Somehow, we forged ahead without any respite.

      The whirlwind so stubborn to subside,

      Blocking our direction, our clear sight,

      Disoriented with a last glace of it,

      Very sadly, dinosaurs were quickly lost

As the terror continues to build,

The struggle almost died out;

Like a summit of a mountain,

Dictatorship high above the horizon,

Freedom nowhere to be seen.

A journey so clueless,

A life so lifeless,

A struggle so formless,

A bewilderment total chaos;

      The people under the nagging despair,

      Freedom seeming under immortal danger,

      Fell into the deep of the quagmire.

As the day was getting late,

The attack was ever imminent;

Locked in Iron Chains,

Forgotten like the dead ones,

And meandering became the road,

Quickly shunned by the “Cultivated”,

The struggle, our journey trivialized.

      Shall we go back to our hamlet?

      Shall we succumb to the beast?

      Shall we die in the desert?

      Or, shall we keep the fight?

      What shall we do next?

In the dry, dead desert,

In the dark and dreary night,

Confirming that there is still light,

The indomitable spirit kept us awake;

It simply gave us the go ahead.

      No matter how dark and dreary the night,

      No matter how many of us are lost,

      Dignity and honor of inner being,

      Real freedom is worth anything.

Until the caricature of democracy is removed,

Until the heap of lies is demolished,

Until the camouflage is unmasked,

Yes, we still are in the fight,

Yes, we shall still be in the fight.

Until freedom shines like daybreak,

Until the truth is firmly established,

Yes, we are still in the fight,

Yes, we shall still be in the fight.

      In the dry land of the desert,

      And in the dark and dreary night,

      Though our feet so exhausted,

      Our struggle is our passport,

      The land of freedom in the far off.

As clear is the goal we seek,

So is the path of our trek,

Freedom based non-violent.

Oppressed for so long,

The people, the cajoled,

Though not ideally suited,

Rather than to go ahead,

Had no option in their hand.

      In the lifeless, dead desert,

      In the dark and dreary night,

      For so long lost the way out;

      However, we saw it the way of the optimist.

In the face perverted justice,

While the “tents of the nation are in distress”,

In the face of naked existence,

No matter how chaotic the process,

While freedom is in our glimpse,

No, no, no, there is no going back;

While the red sea is in our sight,

The indomitable spirit once again reaffirmed.

The journey to humanity’s very essence,

The fight against the pervasive meaninglessness,

Determined to transform tragedy into triumph,

Gathered a momentum and persevered;

Drifting into the battle of the shore,

Heard the beast’s last roar,

Saw it groaning and prostrate afar.

The day in our countless dreams,

The reason for our untold sacrifice,

The  day to which we had endured suffering for so long,

The day full of purpose and real meaning,

The day has just dawned;

A brand new day has just dawned.

      O brotherhood our roaring cannon,

      O the radiant sun of freedom,

      O the alluring moon of love,

      O the heavy rain of peace,

      O the mighty flood of justice,

      Gone are the age old misery and strife,

      Gone the age old dreary nights,

      This day, our fate – our destiny,

      It is a  brand new day,

      Oh! Reign supreme in our sky.