Today is the 57th day since Ethiopia’s khat-addicted zombie dictator Meles Zenawi disappeared. While the regime’s propaganda chief says that Meles will return to work before September 11, Ethiopian New year, very few people within the ruling party TPLF’s hierarchy know even his whereabouts.
Meles Zenawi’s personally appointed gun-totting patriarch, who is actually a TPLF cadre, had suddenly dropped dead yesterday. The cause of his death is said to be a massive heart attack.
Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unit is receiving a report from multiple sources now that Meles Zenawi’s military chief of staff Gen. Samora Yenus is gravely sick and has been transported abroad (probably Dubai) for medical treatment early this week. We are trying to confirm the report from additional sources.
Police may be close to solving couple’s murder, reward retracted
DALLAS (FOX) — Just a few hours after a local business offered a $10,000 reward to help catch those responsible for a couple’s murder, Dallas police announced the reward offer was retracted, because they had a promising lead.
Earlier on Thursday, Oak Farms Dairy offered $10,000 to whoever has information leading to the arrest and indictment of any suspects in the murders of Yayehyirad Lemma and Yenenesh Desta.
However, a few hours later, Dallas police announced the reward offer had been retracted and that “detectives are working on potential information.”
The couple, who own Desta Ethiopian Restaurant on northern Greenville Avenue, were shot by an unknown assailant as they returned home to their M Street house at just after midnight on Wednesday.
Neighbors heard gunfire and called police to the home in the 5700 block of Marquita Street. Inside, a relative was caring for the couple’s 1-year-old son.
Anyone with further information on these murders is asked to call the DPD Homicide unit at 214-671-3661 or Crime Stoppers at 214-373-TIPS (8477). You can remain anonymous and still be eligible for the reward.
* * * * * No Motive In Murder Of Restaurant Owners
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – So far police haven’t arrested any suspects in connection with the Wednesday morning murder of a Dallas couple.
Yayehyirad Lemma and Yenenesh Abayneh Desta owned a popular Ethiopian restaurant. Police say they found the couple shot to death on the doorstep of their home.
Investigators told CBS 11 News there was no obvious motive and nothing was taken from either victim — indicating robbery wasn’t the goal.
David Eseke rents an apartment from the couple and was asleep next-door early Wednesday, but said he didn’t hear the gunshots. Eseke thinks weather had something to do with that.
“There was a ton of lightning last night… thunder,” he said.
Grieving family members visited the couple’s home Wednesday and gathered at church to pray.
A friend described the pair as a, “very beautiful, down to earth couple.”
Lemma’s close friends said they have no idea why anyone would kill the pair.
A number restaurants owners near the Desta Ethiopian Restaurant closed Wednesday to honor the couple. Flowers were placed outside the door of the restaurant.
Police say the investigation into the shooting in the 5700 block of Marquita Avenue is ongoing.
DALLAS, TEXAS – A Dallas couple was shot dead on the front porch of their home in the M Streets area in the 5700 block of Marquita Street. Sources tell News 8 it does not appear the couple was shot in a robbery attempt.
It happened just after midnight as Yayehyirad Lemma, 40, and Yenenesh Desta, 31, were getting home from working at their restaurant, Desta.
Sources said someone drove up, got out of the vehicle and shot the couple at close range. The person then fled the scene.
Family members said the couple had an 18-month-old baby who was not hurt in the shooting. The baby was in the house with other family members when the fatal shooting occurred.
Family and friends gathered Wednesday for traditional prayers at the couple’s church in Garland. It is a holy time for many Ethiopians. It’s their Lent.
“I mean there’s only one way, you pray together when this kind of thing happens to you,” said Teddy Tadesse, a family friend.
Tadesse said he has no idea who would want to harm the couple. Their friends and family called them Lemma and Desta.
“He was shy, quiet,” he said. “She was loving, generous, and very beautiful people. It’s a big loss.”
Dallas police are still searching for answers.
“We don’t have a motive at this time,” said Sgt. Joe Garza, Dallas Police Department. “We know the individuals lived at that location and we are trying to follow up on leads we may have.”
Police say they are still looking for surveillance video in the area.
Sources said robbery may not have been the motive. Nothing appears to be missing.
Their restaurant, Desta, is an Ethiopian eatery located on Greenville Avenue near Forest Lane.
While it is Ethiopian tradition to be buried within three days of death, that will not be possible for the couple, since autopsies will need to be done and police continue to investigate.
So the community will pray every day until Lemma and Desta are laid to rest.
UPDATE: Ethiopian Review spoke with a staff member at Bete Kehenet this morning and was able to confirm that the “patriarch” is dead. Currently the Bete Kehenet compounded is surrounded by police, and several people, including priests and church officials, are going in and out of the compound.
The Bete Kehenet staff member told Ethiopian Review that Aba Gebremedhin was admitted at Balcha Hospital on Tuesday following a heart attack. Yesterday he was completely paralyzed and later on he went into a comma.
* * * * *
Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa reported this morning that the Woyanne-installed fake Patriarch of Ethiopia, Aba Gebremedhin (formerly Abune Paulos), has died this morning at Balcha Hospital.
We called Balcha Hospital and spoke with the secretary who refused to confirm or deny the information and instead advised us to call Aba Gebremedhin’s secretary. The secretary at Balcha Hospital we spoke with sounded agitated and nervous. … more update shortly
The Ethiopian government has suspended the provision of foreign currency in a decision that has been linked to the political uncertainties surrounding Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s deteriorating health.
A notice to this effect has been issued by the regulator, the National Bank of Ethiopia, to the country’s commercial banks as Addis Ababa also appealed for food aid.
According to Agriculture minister Mitiku Kassa, the number of aid recipients was 3.2 million over the last six months, and have now increased due to the failure of rain in some parts of the country.
The country’s foreign currency reserves are running alarmingly low and can only cover the importation of basic goods such as petroleum, medicine and food.
The measure is likely to lead to a black market boom that would further weaken the country’s import-export trade, observers say.
Banking in the Horn of Africa nation of about 85 million people is highly centrally regulated.
Industry insiders say massive capital flight and illegal transactions are the main reasons for the rapid depletion of forex reserves. One of the fastest growing sub-Saharan Africa countries, Ethiopia’s growth has touched seven per cent annually for the last nine years, according to the IMF.
Big businesses owned by Mr Meles’ ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) play a key role in the daily operation of the economy. The EPRDF owns banks, insurance firms, manufacturing and construction giants, hotel chains and media outlets among the more than 85 companies under the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray.
The EPRDF is a coalition of four largely ethnically-based political parties, with the Tigrayan People Liberation Front (TPLF) — representing Tigrays, who make up less than five per cent of the population — running the show and providing the power base for Meles and his government.
Mr Meles, a Tigray, has been absent from the public eye for two months due to an undisclosed illness, fuelling speculation of an internal power struggle his absence.
Government officials refute this and say the long-serving premier would resume office soon. However, the government has to date failed to provide proof that he is alive.
Ethiopia has lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009, a recent Global Financial Integrity report says.
“That is a lot of money to lose to corruption for a country that has a per capita GDP of just $365. In 2009, illicit money leaving the country totalled $3.26 billion, doubled the amount in each of the two previous years,” part of the report reads.
About $194 million in cash or 314 metric tonnes of food is needed for the next four months.
Forty-one per cent of the hungry are located in the Ethiopian-Somali region and the rest in Oromiya, Southern and Amhara regional states.
Today is the 56th day since Ethiopia’s tin-pot dictator Meles Zenawi disappeared.
The patriarch he installed, Aba Gebremedhin (formerly Abune Paulos) died this morning after being admitted at Balcha Hospital in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
Today is also the 21st day since Meles Zenawi’s wife, Azeb Mesfin, aka Mother of Corruption, has disappeared.
