GENEVA (Reuters) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has pulled out from Ethiopia’s restive Ogaden region following a government order, but still hopes to return, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Authorities in Ethiopia last week gave the Swiss-based humanitarian agency seven days’ notice to leave, accusing it of consorting with rebels, an accusation it has rejected.
“We have left the Somali region, our two offices there are closed,” ICRC spokeswoman Anna Schaaf said in Geneva.
Its 10 expatriate staff arrived in the capital Addis Ababa on Monday by road and remain on standby, she said.
“We are determined to have a good dialogue with authorities to see if we can return. We don’t know what will become of the people we were assisting, there will be a hole,” Schaaf said.
The expulsion shocked other humanitarian groups working in the desolate Ogaden area bordering Somalia, where a guerrilla group has accused the Ethiopian authorities of blockading food relief, choking commercial trade and risking “man-made famine”.
The ICRC, which has said it performed its aid work “impartially and on strictly humanitarian grounds”, carried out a variety of relief projects during its 12 years there.
Until the eviction, it provided medical supplies to hospitals and health care centres, trained livestock owners, carried out water and sanitation projects, and visited detention centres to evaluate conditions and treatment of prisoners.
On Wednesday, an Ethiopian rebel group, the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front accused government troops of having killed two local aid workers in Ogaden on July 29.
The dry region, populated largely by nomadic camel herders, is effectively off-limits to most human rights workers and journalists.
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.”
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.
