Ethiopian Review has obtained an exclusive photo of Ethiopian Princess Kemeria Abajobir and Count de Lesseps that was taken recently on the Count’s yacht.
click photo to enlarge In April, EthioPlanet.com has reported that the Kemeria was identified as the cause for the divorce between the reality TV show star LuAnn from The Real Houswives of New York and her husband Count Alexandre de Lesseps has been identified as Princess Kemeria Abajobir Abajifar.
Kemeria is the granddaughter of King Abajifar, the last King from the Gibe Kingdom of Jimmaa, located in current day Ethiopia.
EthioPlanet’s inside source close to the Count confirmed the details in an email correspondence.
The Ethiopian princess, and granddaughter of the King, is the niece of Ababiya Abajobir, another prominent man in the Oromo-Ethiopian community. He was one of the founding members of the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front), an armed Ethiopian opposition group, and served in various positions in the organization throughout its 35 year history.
(Bloomberg) — The rate of growth in Ethiopia was probably as low as 9.2 percent in the year to July 7 as electricity shortages closed factories, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
The economy grew “somewhere between 9.2 percent and 10.2 percent” and will increase “at least as fast, if not faster,” in the coming year and inflation will remain in single digits, Meles said at a press conference yesterday in the capital, Addis Ababa. The government forecast growth of 11.2 percent in April and lowered that figure to 10.1 percent in June, while the International Monetary Fund estimated an increase of 6.5 percent or lower for Ethiopia during the same period.
Power shortages due to rising demand and a lack of water in the country’s dams led the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. to begin nationwide blackouts of at least twice a week in March. Outages were increased to every second day from June until last week.
Electricity cuts will end in mid-October and “won’t be a major impediment” in the coming year, said Meles. Services have increased, and while “not all factories have 24-hour service,” Meles said he was “sure every factory has a minimum” of eight hours’ supply.
Ethiopia’s trade imbalance, which led to rationing of foreign currency and shortages of imported goods like machinery parts and medical supplies last year, will ease, he said, without providing more detail.
Agricultural output will be “significantly higher” this year because of good rains during the main June to September rainy season, he said.
The Famine Early Warning System Network on July 28 said poor rains earlier this year would hinder crop production with a large swathe of the Ethiopian highlands experiencing drought.
An estimated 13.7 million Ethiopians are dependent on foreign food aid this year.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Human Rights Watch on Thursday warned Britain against relying on Ethiopian guarantees that it will not torture suspects deported to the African country.
The two countries signed an agreement in December allowing Ethiopia to obtain custody of its citizens detained in Britain after giving “diplomatic assurances” that they will not be mistreated.
“The UK government should not rely on unreliable ‘diplomatic assurances’ against torture to deport national security suspects to Ethiopia,” the group said in a letter to the British government.
“Ethiopia’s record of torture of security suspects is all too clear. The agreement is itself a tacit admission that torture continues to be a major problem in Ethiopia,” said Tom Porteous, the US-based watchdog’s director in London.
HRW said concerns are “at their gravest” when individuals are detained on suspicion of affiliation with armed opposition, insurgent or terrorist group.
It said it had documented cases in which suspects were subject to repeated kicking and beating with electric cables, rifle butts, and other materials, as well as having bottles tied to their testicles.
It added that it had evidence that women and girls have been raped while being detained in military barracks in Ethiopia’s Somali region, where a secessionist group has waged an armed struggle.
The deal, similar to those signed by Britain with Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, represents an “effort to circumvent the strict ‘no return’ obligations under the UN Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights,” it said.
Ethiopian rejected the claims.
“Torture is forbidden by law here. Ethiopia is a country where human rights are respected,” government spokesman Bereket Simon told AFP in Addis Ababa.
“The report is nothing but a political gimmick. It has nothing to do with human rights.”
In the face of international human rights criticism of recent killings, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said the deaths of Ethiopian and other African migrants trying to cross from the Sinai peninsula into Israel are justified for security reasons.
Four migrants were killed trying to enter Israel July 9, bringing the death toll in the Sinai to 12 since May.
“Dealing with these migrants is for Egyptian national security and the safety of its forces and Egypt’s international commitment to fight smuggling,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement today. “Egyptian guards only fire in the direction of the migrants when they refuse to stop in this sensitive area of the borders.”
On Sept. 10, Human Rights Watch, the New York-based monitoring group, called on Egypt to “bring an immediate end to the unlawful killings of migrants and asylum seekers.”
“Egypt has every right to manage its borders, but using routine lethal force against unarmed migrants — and potential asylum-seekers — would be a serious violation of the right to life,” Joe Stork, deputy HRW Middle East director, said in a statement. “These individuals appeared to pose no threat to the lives of border guards or anyone else. Attempted border crossings are not a capital offense.”
Migrant traffic through Egypt to Israel largely originates in Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, all beset by warfare in recent years, said Gasser Abdel Razek, Egypt country director for Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance, a U.K.-based legal aid group. “They are heading to Israel because they think they can get better consideration for political asylum than in Egypt,” he said in an interview in Cairo.
Israel Criticized
Human Rights Watch said that Egyptian security forces killed 33 migrants at the border between July 2007 and October 2008. HRW also criticized Israel, saying it was “forcibly returning to Egypt, in violation of international refugee law, some migrants who do make it across the border.”
Since February 2008, Israel has deported thousands of African migrants to Egypt on grounds they are economic and not political refugees, according to media reports from Israel.
Last month, smugglers ferrying migrants to Israel killed an Egyptian policeman at the border, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said. On Sept. 9, the independent Cairo newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted North Sinai Governor Muhammed Shousha as saying of the refugees, “Firing at them is only normal. When an infiltrator is spotted, he has to be fired at. If the soldier asks the infiltrator to stop, he normally won’t be obeyed. That’s why there has to be the use of force by those responsible.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Cairo at [email protected].
(MarieClaire) – Angelina Jolie flew to Ethopia with adopted daughter Zahara as part of her latest UN Goodwill Ambassador tour to Africa, visiting the country for the first time since Zahara’s adoption.
Brad and Angelina were on a goodwill mission in Kenya with their children when Angelina, her Ethiopian-born four-year-old and biological daughter Shiloh took a second flight across to Ethiopia.
According to a friend who spoke to People magazine, the girly trip was ‘the first time Zahara had been back home since her adoption. The trip was about keeping up that culture for her.’
Angelina plans to front the plans to build a TB and AIDS clinic in the country, to be set up in Zahara’s name.
Back in Kenya the UN Goodwill Ambassador visited the largest refugee camp in the world in Dabaab on the Kenya/Somalia border, where she witnessed the condition in which 285,000 Kenyans live.
The camp has been open since 1991 and was originally intended to house 90,000 refugees, but has ballooned to accommodate the growing population which sees 7,000 new arrivals each month.
Jolie described the camp as ‘one of the most dire’ she had ever seen in her eight years working for the UN.
The charity bout between former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and Sammy Retta has been rescheduled to October 30 in Ethiopia. The event was set for to take place in Addis Ababa on July 26 and then set to September 11 and then moved per the request of the Ethiopian government tribal junta regime. The event will benefit AIDS charities. Retta is a blown-up super middleweight who now walks around at 230-pounds. Former champion Ray Mercer and fighters from all over the world are taking part in the event.
“The promoters are working hard to make a real and spectacular event,” Motuma Temesgen, an official from Ethiopia’s government communication affairs office, told AFP. “Holyfield and Sammy Retta will fight in Addis Ababa on October 30 while five other fights will also take place on the same day.”
In April, EthioPlanet.com has reported that the Kemeria was identified as the cause for the divorce between the reality TV show star LuAnn from The Real Houswives of New York and her husband Count Alexandre de Lesseps has been identified as Princess Kemeria Abajobir Abajifar.