MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Mortars slammed into a residential area of the Somali capital overnight, killing eight people _ including a pregnant woman _ and wounding more than 20, witnesses said Thursday.
The mortars were launched after a 30-minute gunbattle pitting insurgents against Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops who are protecting Somalia’s fragile government. As in other battles in Mogadishu, civilians were caught in the crossfire.
“A mother and two of her daughters were killed, the father was screaming for a help as three of his family members died before his eyes,” said Mohamed Deeq, who saw two mortars land on his neighbor’s house.
A pregnant woman also was among the dead, said Hassan Madobe, another witness.
Yusuf Osman Hussein, a police spokesman, blamed remnants of the Islamic movement for the attacks.
On Wednesday, a senior United Nations official made an unannounced visit to the capital and said the unrelenting violence is stopping thousands of people who have fled Mogadishu from returning home.
Eric Laroche, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said some Somalis who are living in squalid camps on the city’s outskirts want to stay put until the violence ends.
Fighting in March and April forced about a fifth of Mogadishu’s 2 million residents to flee for safety, and only about 125,000 have returned, the U.N. said last month.
Ethiopian rights groups have expressed outrage at Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit’s calls to halt the aliya of the Falash Mura, Ethiopians whose ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity centuries ago.
Sheetrit said that Israel should focus on being Jewish state, and lashed out at American Jewish organizations for pushing Israel to accept them.
“Something does not smell right here,” Avraham Neguise said, the director of advocacy group South Wing to Zion, which is funded in part by the North American Coalition on Ethiopian Jewry, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“We demand that the minister take back his words,” he continued. “They were irresponsible comments that were made after such a short time in office. He has not even made an effort to meet with Ethiopian-Israeli families whose children or parents are still in Ethiopia and waiting to come here.”
“We will continue our fight for the right of every Jew to make aliya,” Neguise said. “Israel is the home for all Jews.”
This grab-you-by-the-throat speech by Ghanaian economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These “Hippos” (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile “Cheetah Generation,” a “new breed of Africans” taking their futures into their own hands. Click below to play the video.
Eighty Ethiopian immigrant children, whose families transferred in recent months from absorption centers to permanent homes in Petah Tikvah, are still looking for schools that will agree to accept them for the upcoming school year .
The immigrants cannot be accepted to state secular schools as they have yet to finish their conversion process. The state-religious schools — where they are supposed to finish the conversion process — are not willing to accept them either, since the local authorities are concerned that they will scare off other students to private religious schools, leaving only the poverty stricken children in the state-religious schools.
Private religious schools in Petah Tikva are also unwilling to receive them.
“It is inconceivable that independent religious schools, which receive funding from the Education Ministry and the local authority, will refuse to accept children to their schools”, the Ethiopian immigrants said on Tuesday.
“If the schools would refuse to receive children from other communities, the public would shout out. All our children want to do is go to school and then the army to serve their country. But when the state needs to supply them with the education they deserve, they turn a blind eye.”
Abraharm Nagosa, Chairman of an umbrella group of Ethiopian immigrant organizations, said “the Education Ministry has abandoned the Ethiopian immigrant children once again. I call upon the education minister to address this issue herself and ensure that all citizens of the state receive the equal education they deserve.”
The Education Ministry responded, saying “the ministry is aware of the issue and is dealing with it. A meeting took place Tuesday with the local authority and in the next few days a second meeting will take place between all the relevant parties in order to find a suitable solution to the matter.”
The Petah Tikva local authority said in response that “director-general of the Education Ministry Shmuel Abuav met Wednesday with Mayor Yizhak Ohayun to discuss the matter and it was decided that the Abuav would summon the principals of the private schools in order to convince them to accept the children.”
Ethiopian Review and EMF conducted a press conference with Kinijit North America auditor, Ato Tesfaye Asmamaw. Ato Tesfaye, a senior accountant with the U.S. Federal Elections Commission, has also served as the auditor of Kinijit North America. Ato Tesfaye has informed us that he has finished preparing a comprehensive report to be presented to the Kinijit executive committee in Addis Ababa. The report exposes the rampant corruption that went on inside the Kinijit North America committee under the leadership of Shaleqa Yoseph Yazew, in collaboration with his long time friend since their EDU days, Ato Moges Brook of Los Angeles. Between these two individuals, according to the auditor, $700,000 – $1.2 million dollars have been stolen, wasted, or unaccounted for. This figure doesn’t include funds collected in cash that had nevere been deposited in a bank account. Some of the wasteful expenses include $4,000 for just one restaurant bill, $6,000 for unauthorized trip to Kenya, etc. Only $23,000 have been sent to Ethiopia to assist the families of the jailed leaders. But even this money was not given to those who needed it. The money was distributed to the shaleqa’s and Ato Moges Brook’s friends who didn’t need the money.
According to Ato Tesfaye, the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Virginia have now launched investigations in to the financial improprieties by the shaleqa and group of friends.
Shaleqa Yoseph and group have shamed themselves and the party they were put in charge of. They betrayed their party and the people of Ethiopia. What is more sad and telling about all of us is that these individuals are being tolerated and allowed to continue holding leadership positions inside the party. We are condemning the corrupt Woyanne regime, but at the same time, we are tolerating outright stealing of public funds inside Kinijit.
After learning all the hard facts about the corruption that went on inside Kinijit and yet the top leaders fail to take strong actions, then the problem will not be with the shaleqa and his cohorts alone. Kinijit’s name will be irreparably tarnished as a corrupt party.
Click here to listen the full interview with Ato Tesfaye Asmamaw.
