ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – National Bank of Ethiopia admitted on Thursday that $27 million has been withdrawn fraudulently from its City Bank account in New York by three Nigerians.
The bank, however, said the withdrawal has not affected its domestic operations.
“We have observed that South Korean police had arrested three Nigerians for allegedly obtaining millions of dollars from Citibank with a forged document purportedly from National Bank of Ethiopia,” the bank said.
It was reported that the suspects were caught on Monday in the Yongsan district of Seoul following a tip-off from a local bank employee.
In August, the trio allegedly sent a forged payment request from the National Bank of Ethiopia to Citibank in New York, according to the Ethiopian bank.
They asked for more than 30 million dollars to be sent to bank accounts in several countries, including South Korea, China and Tanzania.
According to the National Bank of Ethiopia, the money that was withdrawn in the name of the Ethiopian bank will soon be returned to the City Bank in New York.
“This fake withdrawal was carried out with fake photo copy documents and fax messages. There is no connection with the suspected Nigerians and employees of the National Bank of Ethiopia. We have been informed by City Bank that the money will soon be returned to Ethiopian saving account there,” said the bank.
The bank said the Nigerians were arrested while trying to withdraw some few remaining money from the bank in Seoul.
Two of the suspects were in South Korea on business visas while a third was an illegal immigrant. Their names were withheld.
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The United States on Thursday warned Eritrea that it faces “appropriate action” from the UN Security Council if it refuses to cooperate to resolve its border dispute with Djibouti peacefully.
US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said Asmara had defied the world community by attacking its smaller neighbor last June “in a violent confrontation that left 44 Djiboutian soldiers dead and many more missing.”
He said a UN fact-finding mission “has clearly documented the extent to which the Djiboutian govt has worked to resolve the crisis peacefully.”
Khalilzad said that in line with the mission’s recommendation, the United States was calling on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to send a high-level envoy to the area “immediately.”
“Eritrea should be given a clear timeframe in which to accept the assistance of the United Nations, the African Union or any other organization or body that is acceptable to both parties to find a peaceful solution to the crisis,” he said.
“However if Eritrea rebuffs any such effort at resolution, the council must react appropriately,” he added.
France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert for his part proposed that the 15-member council begin early consultations on a text that would “strongly reiterate its demands to Eritrea, notably the withdrawal of its forces (from Djiboutian territory).”
He said such demands should be coupled with “a clear timeframe.”
Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh meanwhile urged the Council to demand that both parties be given three weeks to resolve the crisis.
“Any failure to comply should trigger sanctions from the Council,” he added.
But Eritrea’s UN Ambassador Araya Desta slammed what he called “the series of hostile campaigns” against his country and “the unwarranted statements that followed any concrete evidence.”
He asserted that the June border clashes was “instigated by the unprovoked attack unleashed by Djibouti against our units inside our own territory.”
“Contrary to the claims made, Eritrea has not taken any land that belongs to Djibouti and it does not have territorial ambitions,” he added.
Last June, the Security Council has already urged Eritrea to withdraw its troops from a border area in dispute with Djibouti. A similar demand was made by the African Union in July.
The long-running border row between Djibouti and Eritrea over the disputed Ras Doumeira promontory on the shores of the Red Sea flared up last June after previous clashes in 1996 and 1999.
The clashes have assumed a greater strategic significance because both France and the United States have bases in Djibouti, a former French colony. Some 100 French troops have deployed along the border.
The United States has more than 1,200 troops stationed in Djibouti, which hosts an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa.
NEW YORK – An Ethiopian editor is facing criminal charges today because she accidentally misidentified a judge in a high-profile trial, according to local journalists. Two other journalists have been in police custody since Monday because of the same story.
While covering this month’s resumption of the trial of Ethiopian pop musician {www:Tewodros Kassahun}, jailed since April over a fatal car accident in 2006, Enbilta’s October 3 edition mistakenly identified the judge overseeing the case as Judge Mohamed Amin Sani, Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girma told CPJ. The paper did not publish a correction, but used the right name in the subsequent edition, which is Judge Mohamed Umer, she said.
Launched in January 2008, Enbilta is one of a handful of independent media outlets authorities have allowed to operate in the country since a crackdown on critical media and political dissidents in the aftermath of disputed elections in 2005. That year, Kassahun’s popular song, “Jah Yasteseryal,” was a popular anthem of antigovernment protesters.
“This is nothing but a flimsy pretext to crack down on a critical paper,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on Ethiopian authorities to release Habte Tadesse and Atenafu Alemayehu immediately and drop these bogus charges against Tsion Girma.”
Ethiopian Federal High Court Abraha Tetemke today charged Girma of Enbilta, an Amharic-language weekly, with “inciting the public through false rumors,” under Article 486 of Ethiopia’s penal code, she told CPJ. Girma, Deputy Editor Habte Tadesse, and editor Atenafu Alemayehu were arrested on Wednesday morning after reporting to police for questioning, according to local journalists. She was released today on bail of 2,000 birr (US$200) and ordered to court for trial on Monday. Tadesse and Alemayehu are still being held.
Girma was the second journalist to face criminal charges this year over coverage of the popular singer’s trial. Editor Mesfin Negash of the leading weekly Addis Neger was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for publishing an interview of the singer’s lawyer that was critical of the former judge overseeing the trial.
KHARTOUM, SUDAN – Sudanese security agents stormed the home of an Ethiopian Woyanne diplomat in Khartoum and detained some of the attendees, a newspaper reported today.
The daily Al-Hayat newspaper published in London quoting unidentified diplomatic sources said that the incident happened this week at the home of the Ethiopian Woyanne military attaché during a party he was holding.
Security officials justified their action as saying that some of the people in the party violated the laws because of liquor that was being served.
The diplomats said the incident is the latest of series of recent setbacks in Sudanese-Ethiopian relations. They further said that Khartoum is angry at Addis Ababa Woyanne for allegedly supplying arms to the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).
Earlier this month it was reported that an Ethiopian Woyanne military plane arrived at Juba airport with weapons to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassadors of Ethiopia Woyanne and Kenya to protest the shipment. However the Ethiopian Woyanne government said the weapons were for a military show.
The Ethiopian Woyanne government is also reported to be dissatisfied with the close relations between Eritrea and Sudan. Moreover, some circles in Addis Ababa Woyanne accuse Khartoum of backing Ethiopian Woyanne Oromo rebels and Islamist militants in Somalia.
Last July Sudan’s army accused Ethiopian Woyanne troops of attacking a military camp inside their borders killing 19 soldiers.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The publisher of Inbilta weekly newspaper in Addis Ababa, Wzt. Tsion Girma, and two journalists, Ato Habte Derese and Ato Atnafu Alemayehu, have been arrested yesterday for misidentifying the last name of the judge who is hearing Teddy Afro’s sham trial.
Inbilta newspaper wrote down the judge’s name as Mohammed Umer. His correct name is Mohammed Amin Sani.
The dumb judge took that as an insult and ordered the publisher and her two journalists to be arrested immediately.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This must be Joke of the Week. Djibouti’s government is run by khat-addict whores. They have no respect for international law. They have demonstrated their lawlessness by handing over 8 Ethiopian helicopter pilots — who sought political asylum — to the Woyanne dictatorship in Ethiopia where, according to some reports, were executed.
(BBC) – Djibouti’s president has said his country will have to go to war with Eritrea unless the UN acts to resolve growing tension over a border dispute.
Djibouti has accused Eritrea of invading its territory.
The Eritrean ambassador to the UN denied that his country had taken any land from Djibouti.
Both France and the US have troops in Djibouti, and its border with Eritrea lies at a key strategic point at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Eritrea’s ambassador instead accused Ethiopia of moving troops to the border of the three countries.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the Horn of Africa country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.
Clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti earlier this year left nine Djiboutian troops dead and 60 injured.
On Thursday, Djibouti’s President Omah Guellah appealed to the UN Security Council to help resolve the dispute.
“Continued inaction in whatever form not only will encourage but will benefit Eritrea’s attitude,” he said.
“This would only give my country one option, the option of war.”
In June the UN Security Council called on Eritrea and Djibouti to agree to a ceasefire, stressing that Eritrea should pull its forces back, the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan reports from the United Nations.
France, the former colonial power in Djibouti, is working on presenting a plan to the Security Council reiterating demands for Eritrea to withdraw its forces, she says.
France also wants the two sides to talk to each other about their disputed border.
