(PressTV) At least 41 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers are killed in one of the deadliest battles between allied Ethiopian Woyanne-Somali forces and local insurgents.
The clashes broke out on Thursday afternoon in Hamar Bile district, southern Mogadishu, when a huge number of Ethiopian soldiers entered the area, Press TV correspondent Ahmed Mohamed reported.
The fighting, which has been described as unprecedented in past months, also left more than 60 injured.
During the incident, angry Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers started firing missile and artillery at the insurgents which heavily damaged the Bakara market, the busiest trade center in the country.
The shelling left at least 37 civilians killed and nearly 175 others injured, including women and children.
A large number of people are fleeing from northern Mogadishu, carrying their children and belongings.
Kinijit North America’s Public Relations Committee has scheduled a press conference with the Kinijit Southern Ethiopia coordinator at 12 Noon EST on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. The interview can be heard live via Ethiopian Review Broadcasting Network. Click here.
Also Saturday
Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum will host an Ethiopian media panel discussion Saturday, Jan. 19 at 2:00 PM EST. Representatives of Ethiopian Review, EMF, EthioMedia, Addis Dimts Radio, AbugidaInfo and others will take part in the discussion, which will focus on current issues facing Ethiopia. The discussion will be held live at the ECAD Paltalk room and carried live via Ethiopian Review Broadcasting Network..
We will also try to carry Siye Abraha’s speech in Seattle live starting at 6:00 PM EST Saturday.
NEW YORK – (JIS), A documentary about the life of Emperor Haile Selassie1 of Ethiopia will be screened in New York City for the first time on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at the Oberia Dempsey Center (127 West 127th Street), in Harlem, NY.
Written and produced by 28 year old Ethiopian native Tikher Teferra, “Man of the Millennium”, as the docu-flick is titled, offers footage never before seen about Haile Selassie 1.
The documentary will offer viewers a chance to “set the record straight”.
“This film uniquely provides Ethiopians at home and abroad and locals with the history to prepare for their future. It is a must see for all. ‘Man of the Millennium’ is a candid presentation of facts, yet highly entertaining. Audiences will walk away thoroughly informed about Emperor Haile Selassie 1 of Ethiopia,” notes a statement from 4th Avenue Films, collaborators with Exodus Films on the New York screening.
Voted Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1930, Haile Selassie visited Jamaica on April 21, 1966 and was greeted upon his arrival at then Palisados Airport in Kingston by an estimated 100, 000 Rastafarians from across the country, having heard that the man whom they considered to be God was coming to visit them .
He died on August 27, 1975 following complications from an operation.
To this day, Haile Selassie is still seen as the Black Messiah who will lead the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora to freedom.
A promising filmmaker, Teferra’s other film project, “Back to my Roots-Living in Zion”, has been chosen as one of several films on Reggae and Rastafari that will be featured at the Reggae Film Festival in Kingston, Jamaica, in February 2008 (Black History Month).
Ethiopia Woyanne has dismissed a “virtual” demarcation of its border with Eritrea, just a day after Asmara accepted the move by an independent boundary commission.
The two nations have been deadlocked in a dispute over their 1,000km border since a 2002 decision by the Hague-based commission gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.
The commission, set up by a peace deal ending a 1998-2000 war, “virtually” demarcated the border late last year based on the 2002 decision after the two sides failed to come to an agreement on their shared frontier.
“Virtual demarcation is a legal nonsense,” Wahade Belay, Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Thursday.
“It is invalid and unacceptable … No border demarcation is recognised unless the lines are drawn on the ground and pillars are posted based on the agreement of both Ethiopia and Eritrea.”
Troops demand
On Wednesday, Eritrea said it accepted the ruling and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from Eritrean soil.
“Now after five years of revolving around the basic problem, the matter has finally been resolved through a virtual demarcation of the border,” a statement published in the English-language Eritrea Profile newspaper said.
Thousands of troops face each other along the disputed border.
In the statement, Eritrea said it would pursue legal measures to evict Ethiopian soldiers from territory awarded to Asmara by the 2002 ruling.
“However, if legal proceedings do not result in the appropriate outcome, then the Eritrean people have other internationally approved choices,” the government-owned paper stated, without describing what those options were.
Analysts and diplomats fear an incident along the frontier could spiral out of control and provoke a full-scale war.
Ethiopia Woyanne has dismissed a “virtual” demarcation of its border with Eritrea, just a day after Asmara accepted the move by an independent boundary commission.
The two nations have been deadlocked in a dispute over their 1,000km border since a 2002 decision by the Hague-based commission gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.
The commission, set up by a peace deal ending a 1998-2000 war, “virtually” demarcated the border late last year based on the 2002 decision after the two sides failed to come to an agreement on their shared frontier.
“Virtual demarcation is a legal nonsense,” Wahade Belay, Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Thursday.
“It is invalid and unacceptable … No border demarcation is recognised unless the lines are drawn on the ground and pillars are posted based on the agreement of both Ethiopia and Eritrea.”
Troops demand
On Wednesday, Eritrea said it accepted the ruling and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from Eritrean soil.
“Now after five years of revolving around the basic problem, the matter has finally been resolved through a virtual demarcation of the border,” a statement published in the English-language Eritrea Profile newspaper said.
Thousands of troops face each other along the disputed border.
In the statement, Eritrea said it would pursue legal measures to evict Ethiopian soldiers from territory awarded to Asmara by the 2002 ruling.
“However, if legal proceedings do not result in the appropriate outcome, then the Eritrean people have other internationally approved choices,” the government-owned paper stated, without describing what those options were.
Analysts and diplomats fear an incident along the frontier could spiral out of control and provoke a full-scale war.
