EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) – Egyptian authorities shot and killed a Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel for work and detained eight other Africans early Monday, a security and hospital officials said.
Border guards opened fire at a group of nine people south of the Rafah crossing point, killing Adam Othman Mohammed, 29, while he was trying to cut through the barbed wire after they ignored warning shots fired into the air, said a security official, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity.
Mohammed was shot in the head and arrived dead at the Rafah central hospital, said Imad Kharboush, head of the North Sinai’s emergency unit.
One of the detained eight is Abraha Taha, 19, from Ethiopia and the rest are Eritreans including two women, Huda Barakat, 28, and Mariam Sadiq, 26.
In a separate incident, border guards shot and critically wounded Ibrahim Afwerki, 32, Eritrean, while he was trying to get into Israel from the central Sinai border area. He was taken to El-Arish general hospital, Kharboush said.
Dozens of African migrants have been detained over the past year as they have tried to cross into Israel from the Sinai desert, and seven have been killed this year by Egyptian border guards.
The Africans began trickling into Israel in 2005, after neighboring Egypt quashed a demonstration by a group of Sudanese refugees and in recent months, the number has surged as word spread of job opportunities in Israel.
Israel last year asked Egypt to do more to stem the tide.
More than 7,000 African migrants have entered the Jewish state illegally in just over a year, including at least 2,000 since January, according to U.N. officials in Israel.
(Garowe Online) – Five dead bodies were discovered and buried Sunday in the Somali capital after Ethiopian troops vacated 30th Avenue, a major thoroughfare that runs adjacent to Mogadishu’s main Bakara market.
The Ethiopian [Woyanne] army contingent had been stationed at 30th Avenue for the past nine days, residents said.
A local who returned to his home after the Ethiopians [Woyannes] left the area told Garowe Online that he saw the dead bodies, who were all men.
He described dead body parts bit off by wild animals after the corpses lay on the streets for several days.
The troops were dispatched to 30th Avenue last Saturday, when rebels and government troops fought for hours along the road and into Bakara market, killing scores of people.
Police officers stationed at three locations inside Bakara market were abruptly withdrawn today, following several grenade attacks last night and today, officials said.
Casualty reports were difficult to confirm but the police withdrew to the outskirts of Bakara and took control of strategic roads leading into the market.
The free movement of people and traffic resumed after the security forces left the market, although stores did not open for business.
Police spokesman Abdullahi Shasha told reporters later today that security forces had detained several people for attacking the police at Bakara last night and this morning.
His claim could not be independently verified.
Somalia’s Ethiopian-[Woyanne] backed interim government has faced a bloody insurgency since early 2007, with daily shootings, roadside bombings and assassinations.
More than 6,500 people died in the violence last year, with another 600,000 civilians displaced by the conflict, according to UN figures.
(AP) VALENCIA, Spain — World-record holder Haile Gebrselassie is almost certain to miss the marathon at the Beijing Olympics because of the city’s poor air quality.
The Ethiopian long-distance star has asthma and he fears damage to his health running through the streets of the Chinese capital.
Gebrselassie would be a gold-medal favorite if he did take part.
His agent said the athlete will make a final decision after May 24, when he will know if he has qualified for the 10,000m at Beijing.
Gebrselassie won back-to-back gold medals in the 10,000m at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the 2000 Sydney Games. The Ethiopian, who suffered from inflammation of the Achilles tendon leading up to the Athens Games, finished fifth in 2004.
He turned his focus to road racing and the marathon following the 2004 Olympics. Gebrselassie has won several marathons — including in Berlin, where he set a world record — leading up the Beijing Games.
Because of pollution, many countries have based their training camps outside China before the Olympics begin Aug. 8.
Beijing to ban cars during Olympics
(AFP) – Beijing authorities will definitely go ahead with a ban on some cars during the Olympics to help ease pollution during the Games, a city official was quoted in the state press saying on Friday.
“Automobiles, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, are to stay off roads every other day in accordance with the even and odd numbers on the licence plates,” Xinhua news agency quoted vice-mayor Ji Lin as saying.
“The ban is aimed to ensure air quality during the sport events in Beijing.”
A plan to compensate drivers for not using their car was being worked out and would be announced later, he said on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary session. No other details were immediately divulged.
Chinese authorities have said previously in vague terms that cars may be taken off the roads during the Games, but Ji’s comments were the first time concrete measures had been publicised.
Beijing is one of the world’s most polluted cities and some of the 10 000 athletes coming for the August Games, including Ethiopian distance great Haile Gebrselassie, have expressed concerns about the health impacts of competing.
The capital underwent a four-day trial ban on cars in August 2007, one year before the 2008 Games, but the air quality did not show marked improvement.
During the one-year countdown, International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned that endurance events such as the marathon could be postponed to protect competitors.
“The task of bringing environmental pollution and traffic congestion under control remain arduous,” Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong said in a speech to the city’s legislature in January.
Guo said Beijing would enact strict standards on emissions this year and take other steps to curb pollution, such as closing down factories and suspending construction work in the city.
BAIDOA, Somalia (Garowe Online) – The commander of the Somali army’s 17th Brigade said he quit and left the town of Dinsor Monday, citing lack of resources and the presence of a formidable enemy in the region.
Col. Osman Ahmed told reporters that he quit after repeatedly asking for financial and equipment resources from top military commanders, but receiving no response.
He said some of his loyal soldiers backed by battlewagons left for Bardhere, a town in neighboring Gedo region. But the remaining soldiers returned to the city of Baidoa, seat of the Somali parliament.
“The money that should be used to fund Somali soldiers is being used to fund Ethiopian Woyanne troops,” Col. Ahmed said during a radio interview.
He said that his army unit “lost many soldiers” last month, when al-Shabaab guerrillas raided Dinsor town and took control following a bloody battle.
Somalia’s interim government is bankrolled almost entirely by Western donor powers, and critics often say that it has been crippled by weak domestic institutions and lack of coordinated government protocol.
As an Ethiopian, and a person of the African Diaspora in general, it saddens me to see my people–our people–keep routing for our individual differences instead of coming together for our collective enrichment. I don’t know about you, but hollering about my culture, trying to earn distinction as a child of a Gondere and a Menze, or bragging about being Ethiopian has not earned me one break in life. I work like everyone else to make it, if I missed a secret club that offers benefits of being of a “special” ethnicity or culture, please someone let me know. Assuming that there is no such club, why then do we constantly go out of our way to elevate our egos at the expense of another group?
While the unfortunate many are living in an impoverished state in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, etc., the blessed minority of us–whether in the United States or elsewhere–obsess about our ethnic individualism instead of coming together to revive our respective countries. We have been blessed with the gifts of intellect and ambition necessary to advance our cause; instead we use these gifts to attack each other. Trust me, you are not helping out the average Ethiopian, Eritrean, or Somali by constantly disparaging your supposed enemy; the only thing you are doing is enabling the “ruling class” who use these differences to enrich themselves at the cost of the people.
It’s easy to attack someone in the abstract, to denigrate an intangible individual, but next time you feel like uttering a word of hatred–regardless of your nationality or ethnicity–look at the Eritrean woman in the store with two kids who did nothing to you–your words are aimed at her the same as they are at your supposed enemy. Look at the Ethiopian man who is working the midnight shift, trying to put his children in college–your words of ill will are affixed at him the same way they are affixed to your abstract foe. Look at the Somali child who is trying hard to attain the American dream–your word of derision target her as much as it targets some amorphous adversary.
We all know that there have been historical injustices and that no one group’s hands come out totally clean, but how many generations have to fight the same battles before we call a truce. We should not be ensnared by the sins of our fathers or the bitterness of past generations. The vitriolic venom that is spewed in the name of ethnic pride is nothing but empty rhetoric that diminishes our collective aspirations.
The fingers of the hand are weak, a pinkie alone cannot pick up a brick, nor can a thumb by itself build a house, working together, they can move mountains, clenched they become a powerful force to protect our collective rights. Imagine if we banded together in America to advocate for policies that advance our collective interests. After all, we have more in common than we have that sets us apart. The way forward for Africa is not through ethnic exceptionalism, rather it is through economic collectivism—we have to enter into a new age of a post-ethnic philosophy. Think about the impact our unity can have back in Ethiopia , Eritrea , Somalia and the rest of Africa .
Patrick Henry knew of the power of Unity, during the Revolutionary War, he proclaimed, “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”
Next time you want to point a finger in the air to brag about being “number one”, just remember that the finger you point upwards will not do anything to build or protect the very ethnicity you are so proud of. Collectively we are powerful, individually we are always going to be impotent; letting others exploit our resources and historical wealth while we stand apart bragging about our ancestors and past accolades–but hey who cares, at least “we” are number one right?
Whatever else Barack Obama’s presidential campaign signifies, it represents a concerted effort to transcend partisan animosities for the sake of solving problems–both domestic problems like unemployment, housing, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and environment, and a foreign policy that made the nation less secure against terrorism. In addressing such issues, Senator Obama builds on a record of achieving consensus among normally divergent parties. In the primary contests, Ethiopian-, Eritrean-, and Somali-American citizens rallied in large numbers behind Obama’s candidacy. They find him a leader ready to address the nation’s pressing concerns and to restore a positive American presence in the global community. Without muting that enthusiasm, I want to suggest that something else which the senator represents can yield an even greater benefit for Ethiopia and the Horn. This point was broached by Teddy Fikre, in a piece on Obama in the most recent issue of The Ethiopian American: “The possibility of overcoming racial, ethnic, religious, and regional differences has implications in countries throughout the world.” His piece goes on to note that Obama’s approach encourages countries long stymied by historical grievances and unending conflicts to set aside their divisions and unite for the common good… Read more>>
