In an interview with Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum (ECADF) Sunday, a resident of Mekele said that food prices are skyrocketing in Tigray region except for party supporters. The elderly gentleman, whose house was confisicated by the Tigray region government, said that one quintal (100 kg) of teff in Mekele costs 900 birr, but Woyanne supporters are provided with food at much lower prices. Click here to listen the interview.

Ethiopians in Ottawa, Canada, are organizing a protest rally on May 23, 2008, to commemorate the fallen heroes of May 15 elections, and also to express opposition to the Ethiopia-Sudan secret boarder agreement. More in Amharic >>

የኢትዮጵያን ሉዓላዊነት ለማሰከበርና የግንቦት 2005ን እልቂት ለመዘከር የሚደረግ የሰላማዊ ሠልፍ!

የሠልፉ መነሻ ቦታ፡ ከOttawa ማዘጋጃ ቤት ፊት ለፊት የሚገኘው የህዝብ መናፈሻ
ስለሠልፉ ዝርዝር ጉዞም በመነሻው ቦታ መግለጫ ይሰጣል።
ለተጨማሪ መረጃ በስልክ ቁጥር፡ (416) 824-7858 ወይም (613) 867-9292 ይገናኙን
የሠልፉ አዘጋጅ ኮሚቴ

A Resolution from the Public Meeting held in Dallas Fort-Worth in Commemoration of the Victims of the 2005 Ethiopian Election Aftermath

A coalition of major opposition party supporters, civic organizations and patriotic individuals held a meeting on May 17, 2008 in Dallas, TX at Radisson Hotel. After hearing presentations:

* On the memoriam of the victims who were murdered by Melesse’s Agazi forces for peacefully protesting against the stolen election of May 2005
* On the deteriorating human rights and political condition of the country
* On the growing economic hardship prevailing in the country that is driving the majority of our people in to ever growing abject poverty and hidden famine
* On the currently revealed land ceded to Sudan from Ethiopia

The participants of the meeting have adopted the following resolutions:

1. The meeting reaffirms its commitment not to forget our fallen brothers and sisters and vowed to continue the struggle until the goal of establishing democratic Ethiopia is achieved.

2. The meeting also vowed to frustrate the existing ploy of the TPLF/EPDRF regime for dividing our people on the basis of ethnic and regional affiliations.

3. The meeting declares its awareness of the regime’s attempt to infiltrate the rank of the Ethiopian Diaspora through its paid agents, Embassy and Consulate officials. The objective of this attempt by the regime is to “bribe” some amongst us by promising land and property in Ethiopia to silence the growing voice of the Diaspora on behalf the Ethiopian people. The meeting declares that it will fight this attempt of the regime and will make sure that this will not succeed.

4. The participants of the meeting demand that the governments of the United States and England to stop aiding the dictatorial regime of Melesse for the sake of short term benefits. Instead it urges these governments to stand on the side of the Ethiopian people in their aspiration for democratic and stable Ethiopia.

5. The meeting calls upon all Ethiopians to protest vigorously against the recent land give-away of Ethiopian land to the Sudan.

6. Finally, the participants of the meeting called upon all opposition forces, civic organizations and patriotic individuals to come together for a united struggle.

The meeting ended after adopting this resolution unanimously.

DALLAS & FORT-WORTH OPPOSITION FORCES COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR COMMOMORATION OF THE MAY 2005 ELECTION

Ato Temesgen Zewdie, an executive committee member of the Union for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), has asked the Woyanne rubber stamp parliament to investigate the reported give away of Ethiopian land to Sudan by the Meles regime. In a letter to the parliament, Ato Temesgen, who is the parliamentary leader of UDJ, said that currently Sudanese soldiers are occupying several Ethiopian towns and villages, including those located in Methema, Tach Armacheo, and Quara woredas (districts). The letter also states that Sudanese troops have recently killed 17 Ethiopians in these woredas. Another group of 20 members of parliament is circulating similar letters asking discussion on the Ethiopia-Sudan border agreement. Read more in Amharic below.
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Source: Reporter
ሱዳን ወሰን ጥሳ በመግባቷ ፓርላማው እንዲወያይ ተጠየቀ

የሱዳን ወታደሮች የኢትዮጵያን ወሰን ጥሰዋል መባሉን በተመለከተ ለሕዝብ ተወካዮች ምክር ቤት በደብዳቤ መገለጹንና ምክር ቤቱ ውይይት እንዲያደርግበት መጠየቁን ለጉዳዩ ቅርብ የሆኑ የሪፖርተር ምንጮች ገልጸዋል፡፡

ሱዳን ነጻነቷን ካገኘች ጀምሮ የቀደሞው ንጉስና ደርግ ከተለያዩ ዓለም አቀፍ አካላት ጋር የሁለቱን አገሮች ድንበር ለማካለል ጥረት ሲያደርጉ መቆየታቸውንና ጥረቱ እስካሁን አለመሳካቱን ማመልከታቸውንና በዚሁ ጉዳይ ሁለቱ አገሮች እየተነጋገሩበትና በጋራ እየሰሩ መሆኑን ጠቁመዋል፡፡

(Garowe Online) — Islamist rebels ambushed an Ethiopian Woyanne army convoy in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, Radio Garowe reported Sunday.

At least 8 people, including four Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers, were killed after the rebels ambushed soldiers on foot.

Three rebels and one villager were also killed during the fighting, witnesses said.

Muse Ibrahim, a villager who fled after the fighting started, told Radio Garowe that the battle started slowly but intensified quickly.

“Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers who left [the town of] Burhakaba were attacked,” Muse said.

The troops were guarding Ethiopian Woyanne army trucks that left bases in Burhakaba and were reportedly heading towards the capital, Mogadishu.

The ungoverned area etched between Bay region, where Somalia’s parliament sits, and neighboring Lower Shabelle region has been the scene of insurgent ambushes at least three times in recent weeks.

By Peter Heinlein, Voice of America

Shashemene, Ethiopia – Humanitarian agencies are rushing emergency aid to drought-stricken central Ethiopia, where a sudden deterioration in food supplies has led to surge of child mortality. At least 23 children have died at hospitals and emergency feeding centers during the past three weeks, and authorities say countless others have died at home for lack of treatment. In this first of two reports from the hardest-hit area around the town of Shashemene 250 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, VOA’s Peter Heinlein reports conditions are expected to worsen over the coming months.

It is bedlam inside a tent on the grounds of the Shashemene hospital. Thirty severely malnourished children, their mothers, and assorted other siblings are scattered over the bare ground, with nothing to do but wait for the next feeding.

Three-year-old Chemeni is a tiny wisp of bony flesh with black eyes wide as saucers. Her mother, Buqre Hussein softly strokes Chemeni’s face, a younger daughter strapped to her back. She says her children are among the fortunate ones.

“I am glad my children are recovering,’ she said. ‘And I expect they will recover. I am glad to see this.”

Every four hours, each child in the tent receives a red cup filled with a high-nutrition supplement known as F-75. But Shashemene’s regional health officer, Dr. Abebe Megerso says many more malnourished children are having to be turned away.

“The supply is not enough because we did not know the problem is this much overwhelming,’said Megerso. ‘And now as the people with problem are appearing, the supply we have at hand is becoming short, and even now, we do not have F-100 and F-75, particularly F-75 is very scarce now.”

This makeshift therapeutic feeding center was erected nearly three weeks ago when health officials realized they had an emergency on their hands.

Dr. Megerso says regional health officials tried to prepare for the effects of the drought, but could not imagine the shortages, and the flood of malnourished children, would be this bad.

“It is unusual,’ he said ‘We have never had problem before because this zone is known by surplus production. We are simply admitting the severely malnourished ones, and we are referring the children with high complications to hospital. But we cannot refer all of them to hospital because we can create high overcrowding in hospital and we are not well prepared.”

Ethiopian officials last month issued an international appeal for enough emergency food aid for two-point-two million people. But U.N. agencies say at least three-point-four-million people, and possibly many more, are already severely affected by the drought.

Viviane Van Steirteghem, deputy country director for the U.N. Children’s Agency, UNICEF, says tens of thousands of children are in danger of starvation.

“We estimate now, and this is a best estimate, that 126,000 children over the country are in immediate need of this therapeutic care to avoid mortality,’ said Viviane Van Steirteghem.

The United States provides the bulk of the food aid to Ethiopia. The U.S. Congress approved an additional $100 million of aid this month, boosting the total for the year to more than $300 million.

But the U.N. World Food Program estimates 395,000 metric tons of food will be needed to get through the immediate crisis. That will cost $147 million more than is currently available.

The WFP’s Lisette Trebbi says the way conditions are deteriorating, the month of June is going to be especially difficult.

“We have new donations coming in, but it is a question of timing,’ said Lisette Trebbi. ‘And we therefore foresee we will have some shortfalls… during the month of June, which will be a critical month, for the population, because they will still not have recovered, we anticipate the crisis to get worse, so we are taking every measure that we can, we are short and will probably have to prioritize the worst and most affected area.”

There has been some rain in central Ethiopia in recent weeks; not enough to produce the desperately needed bumper harvest in September, but enough to spark fears of an outbreak of water-borne diseases among a weak and vulnerable population.

Officials here are predicting many difficult months ahead.