EDITOR’S NOTE: The World Bank and U.K. are well aware that the money doesn’t go to ‘cut poverty’. It goes to subjugate and terrorize the people of Ethiopia and Somalia.
ADDIS ABABA ( Reuters) — Donors funding Ethiopia’s programmes to cut poverty said on Friday they would provide $847 million in 2008/09 for projects such as free education and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets.
The World Bank and the UK Department of International Development (DFID) jointly gave the money to Ethiopia’s Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme. Last year, they gave $573 million.
“After reviewing the results of PBS implementation since 2006, both the government and development partners are of the view that the programme has been successful and will be crucial in supporting Ethiopia’s plan towards poverty alleviation,” said Paul Ackroyd, head of DFID in Ethiopia.
Keniche Ohashi, the World Bank head said the PBS was the largest single development assistance in Ethiopia and that it would help the poor country achieve universal goals to halve poverty by 2015.
Under the PBS programme, an extra three million children and 65,000 teachers were now in school since 2006, Ackroyd said.
A total of 24,000 insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed so far in 2008 compared with 2,700 in 2006 and as a result, new malaria cases have dramatically dropped to 370,315 in 2007 from 780,019 in 2006, he said.
Donors had also raised an extra $200 million out of the $420 million that the government says it requires for humanitarian needs. Efforts were also underway to raise a further $150 million, Ackroyd added.
The fund will distributed to the U.N. World Food Programme and other agencies and will be used to purchase food, fertilizers and for other humanitarian purposes, he said.
World Bank’s Ohashi said his organisation was considering helping Ethiopia with additional resources to mitigate against the external shocks of rising oil prices.
WASHINGTON–The teams at this year’s African soccer tournament in Washington are playing to a nearly empty stadium. Ethiopian community groups have been boycotting the annual event until today to protest the tournament’s funder, a member of the party in power in Ethiopia. Watch the video below:
A former Toronto man who had joined Somalia’s fundamentalist insurgents was shot dead by Ethiopian Woyanne troops after he was surrounded and refused to surrender, rebel sources said Thursday.
The sources, who did not want to be identified because they did not have permission to speak, confirmed that Canadian Abdullahi Ali Afrah was killed on Tuesday during an attack on Ethiopian troops.
An Ethiopian A Woyanne military convoy was returning from Gureil, near the Ethiopian border, when Mr. Afrah — also known as Aspro or Asparo — and about 100 other insurgents attacked, although they were soon surrounded.
While most of the rebels retreated, Mr. Afrah was part of a small group that continued to fight. As they ran out of ammunition, some of the rebels took their own lives but the sources said Mr. Afrah was shot by the Ethiopians Woyannes.
Sixteen insurgents died in the gun battle. Twelve of them were members of Mr. Afrah’s Duduble clan, including his cousin, Moalim Farhan, who was described as leader of the insurgency in central Somalia.
The sources described Mr. Afrah as an active member of the Shabab, which is a designated terrorist group in the United States and which serves as the militia of the Islamic Courts Union, a Taliban-like fundamentalist group.
Although based in Mogadishu, Mr. Afrah had gone north to reinforce the Shabab fighters, the sources said. They said his duties also included organizing and co-ordinating the Shabab’s international fundraising efforts.
Mr. Afrah is a naturalized Canadian citizen who ran a money-transfer business in Toronto before returning to his homeland in the late 1990s. He is one of several Somali-Canadians who are believed to have left Toronto and Ottawa and joined Somalia’s insurgents. Although Somali and Ethiopian Woyanne officials have claimed to have killed several of the Canadians, Mr. Afrah is the first to be identified by name.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is still trying to verify media reports about the Canadian’s death. Ottawa has no diplomatic presence in Somalia, one of the world’s most dangerous countries. The closest Canadian mission is in Nairobi.
If the reports of Mr. Afrah’s death are accurate, he would be the latest Canadian killed while fighting abroad for an armed Islamist group. Rudwan Khalil of Vancouver was killed by Russian security forces in Chechnya in 2004. In 2003, Ahmed Khadr was killed in a gunfight with Pakistani forces. Toronto’s Hassan Farhat is believed to have died in Iraq.
Mr. Afrah was born in Mogadishu and moved to Canada in the 1980s. He worked as a carpenter and at a corner store before opening the Canadian branch office of Al-Barakaat, a money-transfer business whose Somali offices have been blacklisted for terrorist financing.
He returned to Mogadishu in the late 1990s and became second deputy chairman of the Shura Council of the Islamic Courts Union. With its Shabab militia, the ICU took control of the capital, Mogadishu, until it was repelled by Somali and Ethiopian Woyanne government forces in late 2006. Since then, the insurgents have been waging an Iraqi-style guerrilla campaign.
A former Somali rebel told the National Post last year he had seen Mr. Afrah at a training camp in Mogadishu firing an AK-47, but his apparent death in a rebel assault is the first indication he was actively fighting with the Shabab.
Fighting between the Islamists and government forces has devastated the former Italian colony, which borders Kenya, Ethiopia and Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. Thousands of Somalis have been forced to flee.
The African Union has sent peacekeeping troops to Somalia. On Tuesday, African leaders extended the mission for another six months but also urged the United Nations to take over the operation.
The Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) has taken a positive step on Thursday to correct its blunder by accepting $300,000 in donation from Woyanne businessman Ato Al Amoudi, a drunkard womanizer and a thief who calls himself “sheik.” (DLA Piper, take that to the court.)
ESFNA president Dawit Agonafer and public relation officer Fassil Abebe had called a press conference at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon to answer questions about the controversy surrounding the donation from Al Amoudi.
Over 20 representatives of the media, including EthiopianReview.com associates, went to the press conference. The two top ESFNA officials have admitted that it was a mistake to receive the donation and that in the future they will be careful NOT to make such a mistake.
Both Ato Dawit and Ato Fassil have presented themselves in a professional and humble manner, and answered all questions with apparent sincerity. Their professional approach and admitting mistake from the outset disarmed all members of the media who went to the press conference to strongly challenge and confront them. Our arrogant, stupid, self-destructive politicians should learn from these two ESFNA officials how to handle crisis and address concerns of the public.
Al Amoudi’s photo was also removed from the stadium on Thursday after disgracing the annual event since Sunday.
The ESFNA officials explained that the money was received without the knowledge of the majority of the Federation’s executives. They said that an interview with one of the Federation’s officials on the VOA Radio broadcast to Ethiopia where he thanked Al Amoudi was uncalled.
Regarding questions about financial corruption, Ato Dawit said from now on the Federation’s financial books will be open to the public for inspection.
ER congratulates the Federation for taking these first positives steps, even though they are a little too late to save this week’s event since only two days (Friday and Saturday) left before it’s concluded.
The Federation needs to take further step and expel from the Federation the culprits, vice president Eyaya Arega, Secretary Samuel Abate, and board member Sebsibe Assefa, who have brought shame to the organization by trying to associate it with a criminal who is helping the Meles dictatorship to brutalize and terrorize the people of Ethiopia and Somalia.
The Federation needs to also keep its promise that it will root out corruption from its midst by instituting a transparent financial accounting system that is open for public inspection.
This is a victory for patriotic Ethiopians in the Diaspora, and a defeat for Woyanne and its hodam servants like Eyaya, Sebsibe and gang.
We encourage the UDJ representatives to study these questions in advance and give us honest answers. We look forward to the discussion the respected human rights activist and his colleague.
1. Is UDJ the old Kinjit with a different name or is it a new organization?
2. If the answer is that it is the old Kinjit
a) what is the status of the Kinjit 8-point proposal?
b) Kinjit does not recognize the Woyanne-dominated election board’s legitimacy. One of the main demands of the Kinjit 8-point proposal is that the election board should be free from Woyanne control. So why are you currently seeking the approval of the illegitimate election board?
c) Why didn’t you keep Kinjit’s name?
If the answer is UDJ is is a new organization, under what authority are you using the funds that were collected for Kinijit to help it carry out its program, including the 8-point proposal which you seem to have abandoned?
3) In more than one occasion you have claimed that ‘peaceful struggle has not started in Ethiopia.’ Following the 2005 elections, 26,000,000 Ethiopians have come out and voted for change, thousands of unarmed pro-democracy protesters have paid the ultimate sacrifice, many more have been detained in Nazi-type concentration camps… So on what basis are you arguing that ‘peaceful struggle has not started’ in Ethiopia?
4) In one of your recent interviews you have labeled some Ethiopians and organizations that are waging armed resistance against Woyanne as “feudal” and “neftegna.” These Ethiopians are defending themselves, protecting their villages, homes, and families. Isn’t self defense a basic human right?
NOTE:
Kinijit Washington DC Metro chapter is hosting a public meeting with Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, UDJ council member, and Ato Asrate Tase, UDJ secretary general in Washington DC, July 6, 2008.
Place: Washington Marriott
Address: 1221 22nd Street NW, Washington DC
Date/Time: July 6, 2:00 PM
More info: 202 541 0556
By Cristina Fernandez-Pereda, New America Media
Editor’s Note: An Ethiopian community thrives in Washington D.C., and is branching out beyond small businesses and cab driving to professional fields. NAM contributor Cristina Fernandez-Pereda is a journalism student. Her profile of Little Ethiopia is generated under the J-school partnership with American University.
WASHINGTON — When Ethiopian immigrants started arriving in the 1970s, 18th Street in Adams Morgan neighborhood was their first home. Then when prices went up, the community had to find a new place. The U Street corridor, an area that was largely abandoned, was perfect for a new community. They revived it with their restaurants and stores, and it became Little Ethiopia, with its heart beating at the intersection with 9th Street.
Dereje Desta is the publisher and editor of Zethiopia, the leading publication among the Ethiopian community in the metro area. For one morning, he became a guide to journalism students to help them immerse in the community and learn what “Little Ethiopia” means beyond the intersection of two streets with more than two dozen Ethiopian-owned businesses.
Washington D.C. is home for the largest Ethiopian community in the country. Other large communities are in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and Atlanta. As Selam Mulugeta, office assistant for Congressman Mike Honda, chair and founder of the Ethiopian American Congressional Caucus described, churches and Ethiopian-owned businesses help authorities locate this community all over the country. And most of them are in the nation’s capital.
The number of Ethiopian citizens in the Washington, D.C. metro area varies all the time and no one has exact data on this population. According to the Ethiopian Embassy estimates, around 200,000 citizens in the metro area are of Ethiopian descent. The Ethiopian Community Center estimates around 150,000 people from the African country.
Most Ethiopian immigrants come to the United States for education purposes as part of the African country’s immigration policy, the Diversity Visa Lottery — an immigration agreement with countries that have low immigration rates to the United States — but economic and political reasons are behind this decision too.
According to Desta, most Ethiopians consider that they are very well integrated in American society. The interaction between Ethiopians and Americans is not only limited to locals’ admiration of Ethiopian restaurants.
“The Ethiopian community is very well integrated in the American culture because of all the business owned by Ethiopians and also because they work with Americans in other fields,” said Hermela Kebede, executive director of the Ethiopian Community Center in Washington, D.C.
However, Ethiopians are waiting to see how the community evolves, as they are in the middle of a transition between the first generation of immigrants and their American-born children, who are now graduating from college.
“As Ethiopian-Americans, they have their Ethiopian side. But they are living in America, so they have an American side too,” Desta said.
The immersion of Ethiopians in the American society and their search for their own identity clashes with a very specific characteristic of the country they come from.
“It’s a very unique country. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized, so Ethiopians are very proud of that,” Kebede said.
Ethiopian youth, after studying with Americans, are now also competing with locals for jobs.
Ethiopians have been traditionally known to work as cab drivers in the area. Even though there is an extended number of them who still do — 11 percent of employed Ethiopians in the year 2000 were taxi drivers, according to Shaller Consulting. Many also hold jobs as university professors or accountants.
“We have also become wiser after living here for a while,” Desta reflects after showing an Ethiopian-owned Italian Restaurant. La Carbonara — the name of an Italian pasta recipe — emerges right next to the Mexican restaurant El Sol, also an Ethiopian property. After some years in the restaurant business, Ethiopian immigrants are now renting their properties to run other kinds of businesses, Desta explained.
Some Ethiopian shops display Barack Obama’s campaign message, ‘Yes, We Can,’ in their windows. It is, after all, something that applies to what many Ethiopian want to say about their community and their younger generation. They want to continue to prosper and thrive.
