(ST – KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese-Ethiopian border committee is due to hold talks Monday at Police Club in Khartoum Monday.
Sudan and Ethiopia Woyanne agreed in 2004 to demarcate the 1,600 km-long border after tension over the distribution of disputed land to Ethiopian farmers after the intervention of the Ethiopian army to clear some Sudanese villages on the border.
The bilateral border talks is expected to last for seven days, said the Director of the Police Border Administration, Maj. Gen. (Police) Mohamed Ahmed Onour.
The joint committee has paid inspection visit to joint border areas.
The Sudanese official referred to agreement between the Sudanese and Ethiopian Woyanne on all issues. He said that the recent talks between the two parties were held in a cordial atmosphere and in the light of the distinguished relations between the two countries.
Onour said that the talks are aimed to reach a final agreement which is to be followed by demarcation of the joint Sudanese – Ethiopian border.
The relations between Sudan and Ethiopia were empoisoned by the issue of border demarcation in the past. The government of the ruling EPRDF is the first Ethiopian government to be willing to talk with Sudan on the border issue.
NAIROBI, Nov 18, 2007 (AFP) – Ethiopia’s Woyanne air force has been “carpet-bombing” villages and nomadic settlements in its oil- and gas-rich Ogaden region, leaving a trail of casualties, separatist rebels in the restive eastern area said Sunday.
“Since Friday the Ethiopian Woyanne air force has carried out continuous air sorties on the area of the lakes called in Somali Haro Digeed,” Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) spokesman Abdirahman Mahdi said.
The air force “has been carpet-bombing the villages and nomadic settlements,” an ONLF statement said.
“Many people are hurt or dead and lots of animals have been killed,” he said, but did not say whether the fatalities were rebel fighters or civilians.
“The army decided to change tactics and use air assault because they realised their ground forces could not make it,” he said, adding the air force was still pounding the region late Sunday.
“Some ONLF fighters were hurt in the air bombardments, but the air force targeted civilian settlements and livestock,” the spokesman said, adding that locals were fleeing the region amid bad weather.
On Friday, the Ethiopian Woyanne army said it had killed some 100 rebels and captured hundreds others in Ogaden, near the frontier with lawless Somalia, over the past month.
But Mahdi said army has an “habit of summarily executing civilians and then counting them as ONLF dead.”
“The Ethiopian Woyanne Army had killed hundreds of civilians are imprisoned thousands and we believe that this is a ruse to fool the UN misson who are starting to investigate the situation in the Ogaden.”
The rebels say they have made military gains in the recent months.
In October, the UN announced that it had been allowed to collaborate with regional authorities to supply relief food, medicine, and veterinary services as well as setting up offices in a key town there.
Addis Ababa has expelled Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee for the Red Cross from Ogaden for allegedly meddling in politics, a charge both deny.
The rebel and army reports could not be independently verified as journalists and aid workers have repeatedly been blocked from accessing vast swathes of the volatile region in recent months.
The Ethiopian Woyanne army launched a crackdown in the region after ONLF rebels attacked a Chinese oil venture in April that left 77 people dead.
Many refugees have since fled to Somalia, saying authorities have imposed a trade blockade, with few goods — including food — permitted into the area.
Human rights groups said the crackdown resulted in numerous human rights violations in the region and subsequent UN fact-finding mission called for an independent investigation.
Addis Ababa routinely rejects rights violation claims, saying its troops are pursuing “terrorists.”
The barren Ogaden region has long been extremely poor, but the discovery of gas and oil has brought new hopes of wealth as well as new causes of conflict.
It is about the same size as Britain with a population of about four million.
Ethiopia Woyanne accuses arch-foe Eritrea of supporting Ogaden separatists, which the authorities in Asmara have denied.
(PressTV) Insurgents armed with machine guns and grenades have attacked a Ugandan base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu and caused serious damages.
Insurgents have attacked Ugandan troops early on Saturday in Mogadishu and briefly entered their base and caused sever damages.
The overnight raid on Ugandan troops in Mogadishu’s K-4 neighborhood led to hours of battle, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.
Showing increasing boldness, some rebels infiltrated the Ugandan base at the strategic K4 junction in the latest attack.
In further violence, the Ethiopian Woyanne troops were mercilessly beating and killing civilians in some parts of south Mogadishu, some eyewitnesses told the press TV.
In Mogadishu, Ethiopian Woyanne and government troops have been conducting a door-to-door search for the insurgents in the capital over the past week, sparking deadly clashes.
Ethiopian Woyanne forces backed by the US fought alongside the Somali government last year to oust the Islamic Courts Union that briefly controlled large parts of the African country.
About 1,600 Ugandan soldiers have been in Mogadishu since March to support a fragile interim government backed by the West and Ethiopia Woyanne.
Ethiopian pair Tamrat Elanso and Adaneche Beyene Jemilu secured comfortable victories as the BLOM Beirut International Marathon went off without a hitch on Sunday morning.
With a controversial presidential election scheduled for Wednesday, organisers turned down a government suggestion that the race should be postponed.
And around a slightly adjusted route, Elanso took advantage to cross the finish line in a personal best time of two hours 19 minutes 46 seconds.
The 30-year-old scorched ahead of his rivals after 35 kilometres with the encouragement of thousands of spectators roaring him along.
He ran in isolation ahead of his opponents for the last seven kilometres and was able to slow after breaking up the field, easily stifling the threat of Kenya’s David Kiplagat Kuino and his own countryman Abraham Yilma Belete – both of whom were more fancied before the race.
Kuino, this year’s Bonn champion, pushed Belete into third place for the second successive year by just three seconds in a time of 2hrs 21mins 51secs.
Speaking through an interpreter, Elanso said: “It was important that I succeeded today. It was a good chance for me to win my first marathon.
“I felt very good and decided it would be right to go ahead on my own.
“I found it hard running the last part of the race on my own, but knew after getting away I would not be caught.”
Jemilu, the fastest woman in the field and third in last January’s Dubai Marathon, also clinched a convincing win in 2hrs 41mins 24secs.
She was far superior to her fellow Ethiopians Meseret Legese Regesa and Etaferahu Tarekegn Getahun, who clocked marks of 2:48.52 and 2:55.14 respectively.
May El Khalil, the marathon’s president, was pleased to have delivered a successful marathon on the scheduled date.
“Lots of people love this event – they believe in this event. We have invested in people’s hearts,” he said.
“We believe in what we are doing in our attempt to put Lebanon on the international map. Every great city has a marathon.
“During these difficult times it unites people and it becomes a space for hope and a time for celebration.
International cross-country race was held in the Basque city of Laudio. In spite of the cold weather, thousands of people attended it.
Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu was the first to get the finishing line on the International Cross-country race of the Basque city of Laudio. Aingeru Gutierrez and Cristina Petite were the two first Basques to arrive.
Kenyan Joseph Ebuya won the cross in its male category. Male race was a Kenyan “monologue” with Ebuya, Menyo and Macharan running together until last lap.
On the other hand, almost 7,000 runners took part in the cross-country running of Bilbao.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopian track heavyweight Kenenisa Bekele on Saturday married 22-year-old Dannawit Gebregziabher, an up-and-coming actress in Ethiopia’s fledgling film industry.
Five hundred wellwishers, including fellow Ethiopian track star Haile Gebresellasie, joined the 10,000m world champion and world record holder and his bride at a plush ceremony in the Sheraton hotel.
Tragedy struck Bekele in January 2005 when his then fiancee Alem Techale, a world champion runner, died while they were out training together in the hills near the tiny trading post of Asela. An autopsy blamed a heart defect.
Bekele, 25, told local media that he would not compete in any more athletics meetings this year because of his marriage but would be ready for 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh next March.
