ADDIS ABABA, Aug 29 (Reuters) – The United Nations plans to send a fact-finding mission to Ethiopia’s Ogaden region.
The mission, due to start on Aug. 30, will assess allegations by the rebels and rights groups of human rights abuses as well as the food, water and health needs of Ogaden’s ethnic Somalis.
The remote region bordering Somalia has come under growing scrutiny since the [Woyanne] government launched a campaign two months ago to flush out Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels after they carried an attack on a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April.
Rights groups accuse soldiers of shooting civilians, burning homes and seizing livestock in its hunt for the ONLF, which wants more autonomy for the area believed to be rich in oil and gas.
“The information coming from the Somali region since the beginning of the [Woyanne] government campaign against the ONLF has been secondhand, and it has been worrying,” Paul Hebert, head of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia, told Reuters on Wednesday.
“This is a humanitarian assessment but we will be looking at protection issues, particularly involving women and children.”
The 14-person team has received the government’s go-ahead to meet whomever they wish.
But, asked if it would meet ONLF representatives, Hebert said: “We will not be seeking out armed groups.”
The ONLF says a trade blockade is choking food supplies and causing starvation in the region inhabited mostly by nomadic herders estimated to number between four to 10 million.
The ONLF welcomed the mission saying it was a first step to addressing the “manmade humanitarian catastrophe” in Ogaden.
“We call on the United Nations not to limit the scope of this mission to a humanitarian assessment but to include a preliminary investigation of war crimes being committed against our people by the current … regime,” it said in a statement.
Local authorities expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross this month, accusing the aid agency, one of the few operating there, of consorting with rebels.
The U.N. mission will include staff from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the agencies dealing with child welfare, food and health.
The host of the Washington DC-based Hager Fiker Radio has announced that he is shutting down his weekly radio program due to lack of funds.
Ato Negussie Woldemariam said on his program (aka Hod Fiker Radio) last Sunday that he is running out of money and that it would be a miracle if he comes back next week.
It seems that he is no more useful for his backers, Woyanne and Al Amoudi.
Norway expressed “surprised and regret” over Ethiopian Woyanne authorities’ decision to request Norway to withdraw six diplomats by 15 September, said reports from Oslo on Tuesday.
Ethiopian authorities have expressed dissatisfaction with Norway’s conduct in relation to Ethiopian Woyanne interests in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian authorities have therefore requested Norway to reduce the number of its diplomatic staff in Addis Ababa to three people, according to Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).
The Ethiopian Woyanne position was communicated to the Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa on 15 August. Since then, Norway has sought to clarity the situation through consultations with the Ethiopian authorities, but this has proved unsuccessful, the Norwegian Foreign Office said in a press release.
“We are surprised and regret the Ethiopian authorities’ unilateral decision,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Stoere, who informed that Norway has urged Ethiopia to reconsider its decision.
“We must now take the consequences of the fact that the Ethiopian authorities are upholding their decision and we are therefore making preparations to withdraw six diplomats from our embassy in Addis Ababa,” Stoere was quoted as saying.
“This sharp reduction in staffing means that we may not be able to maintain our development cooperation with Ethiopia at the current level. We regret the impact this will have on our partners, ” said the Foreign Minister.
However, Stoere underlines that this does not imply a break in Norway’s diplomatic relations with Ethiopia.
The Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia is also responsible for Norway’s relations with the African Union, which has its headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The crisis that has engulfed the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam (DSKM) Ethiopian Orthdox Church in Washington DC continues to worsen. The latest development is that on Sunday, the Church’s board had called police on members and officials of the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam Idir who demanded the board to tell the truth. The DC police with five cruisers rushed to the Church when board member Abebe Aboye made an emergency call. The police left the church premesis grumbling after observing that there was no emergency. But the presence of the police inside the church served as a wake up call to many of the DSKM members who remained silent or indifferent ጆሮ ዳባ ልበስ up to now when their church is being taken over by a rogue group of opportunist individuals who wish to go back home and do business with Woyanne, à la Aba Melaku of another Ethiopian church in DC.
This Sunday’s confrontation started when board chairman Frew Bulbula told the congregation that a new executive committee has been elected to take over the Idir. This angered a lot of people who felt lied to. The fact is that there was a meeting on August 19 that was attended by over 150 members of the Idir. The meeting was held at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Washington DC after the DSKM board refused to allow it to take place inside the church’s meeting hall. At that meeting, the Idir members asked the current executives to remain in their position until the attempted ‘hostile takeover’ of the Idir by the DSKM board is repulsed. Funds were also collected to cover legal expenses. Unbeknown to the Idir members and officials, the DSKM board had also called a meeting on the same day where less than fifty of their collaborators showed up. Bililign Mandefro and cohorts told the participants that they are called to the meeting to elect new officials for the Idir.
Last week, when a relative of one of the Idir members died, Ato Seyoum Garedew, chairman of the Idir, gave $7,000 to the family of the deceased. However, on Sunday, Ato Frew Bulbula told the congregation that the Idir’s new board gave the money to the family. This outright lie inside a church angered several people who were aware of the fact. Some of them shouted: “stop lying!” It was this angry response from the congregation that caused Ato Abebe Aboye to panick and call the police. The church members were angry, and they were shouting at the board that is acting and smelling like Woyanne. But they would not resort to violence or engage in any harmful action inside their own church.
The DSKM board has the backing of some of the priests. After members of the church pointed out Frew Bulbula’s lies on Sunday, the head priest said, let them shout, they will get it in court! What arrogance (ዕብሪት) coming from a ‘spiritual’ leader!
Some who don’t know the story behind the story may wonder why the DSKM board is aggressively going after an independent idir (self-help organization) and its officials. After all, Idir by its definition is an ad hoc group of individuals who get together and contribute some money that is used to pay for funerals and weddings. In Kidist Mariam Idir’s case, they only pay for funeral expenses. The money that is in the bank — $300,000 — also is not that much. The DSKM board could spend close to that amount for legal fees alone by the time the whole thing is over.
The real issue behind the DSKM board’s attempt to take over the independent Idir is politics. As reported previously, the DSKM board that had been slouching toward the Woyanne camp for a long time is now out of the closet. They used to claim that DSKM is an independent church, i.e., they are under the authority of neither the Woyanne-installed patriarch in Addis Ababa, nor the legitimate patriarch who is currently in exile. Now, after … continued to next page >>
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 28 (Reuters) – More than 100,000 people have been affected by floods in Ethiopia and 17 have died of waterborne disease, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
“Approximately 103,000 people in Amhara, Tigray, South Sudan Nations and Nationalities Peoples State and Gambella regions have been affected by floods,” the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report following days of heavy rains.
Seventeen people died of acute diarrhoea, it said.
Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, was continuing to rise, the report added, increasing the risk of more floods.
Ethiopian authorities have yet to comment on the impact of the latest floods, but OCHA said the government had sent 1,121 tonnes of food aid for 60,000 people in the worst-hit areas.
The United Nations estimates up to 900 Ethiopians died last year when several rivers burst their banks. Flash floods typically happen in lowland areas of the country after heavy rains drench the highlands during the June-Sept rainy season.
