SHEFFIELD, UK — An ETHIOPIAN man who had sought asylum in Sheffield drowned in the River Don after a night out in the city centre. Efrem Woldemichael, who was in the process of appealing the Home Office’s decision refusing him the right to stay, was found near Effingham Street behind The Wicker, four weeks after he disappeared.
The 33-year-old had been out in Ethiopian restaurant Ethio Cubano in Arundel Gate on December 1 last year, when he was said to be drunk but his usual self.
Restaurant owner Davit Asmelash told a Sheffield inquest Efrem was a regular customer who never caused any trouble.
He said: “He was very decent, responsible and friendly. He was drunk that night but there was no trouble – he was not that kind of person.”
Mr Asmelash said Efrem had arrived around midnight and eaten his usual meal before going downstairs to join in the dancing.
He saw Efrem “unbalanced on his feet” and suggested to one of his pals that he go home – and even took £10 out of the till to pay for his taxi fare.
Freshwa Beranu, who was also drinking and dancing in the restaurant that night, said he had gone outside for a cigarette and helped Efrem into a black cab at around 4am.
He said he saw that the driver was Asian but couldn’t identify him further, and heard Efrem, of Fox Street, Pitsmoor, say to the driver that if he took him to Burngreave he would be able to find his way home.
His body was found 27 days later on December 28 by a member of the public.
Det Con Robert Whiteman told the court Efrem had been reported missing on December 8 and checks were made on his mobile phone and bank activity.
His phone had not been used since he went missing and the wages from his cleaning job had not been withdrawn from his account.
DC Whiteman said appeals were made in The Star and on South Yorkshire Police’s website to trace the taxi driver but they had come to nothing, and CCTV footage could not reveal images in enough detail.
He added the driver’s probable route from Arundel Gate to Burngreave – when roadworks were still taking place on the inner relief road – would have been down Corporation Street and then up to the junction with Rock Street in Burngreave.
He said if Efrem had got out of the cab there he would have been very close to the River Don, and, if he had fallen in, the water would have carried him in the direction of Effingham Street.
Pathologist Dr Christopher Milroy said a post-mortem examination suggested a “long period of immersion” in water. He gave the cause of death as drowning.
Toxicology reports from Dr Stephen Morley also found Efrem had more than twice the legal amount of alcohol in his blood for driving.
Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts-Wood recorded a narrative verdict and added: “Putting together the lack of use of his phone, with the fact that within seven days he was paid but never withdrew the cash as he normally did, it does seem to me he was probably in the River Don shortly after his taxi journey home.”
The Asrat Woldeyes Commemorative 80th Birthday Symposium
On behalf of the Organizing Committee We are pleased to announce the Asrat Woldeyes Altaye (AWA) 80th Birthday Commemorative Symposium to be held at:
Howard University School of Medicine
Washington D.C., USA on Saturday, 28 June 2008
From 10am -5pm
Speakers are from various medical/academic institutions, family and friends of Prof Asrat Woldeyes and include:
Dr. Ahmed Moen, Howard University, Washington D.C.
Dr. Assefa Negash, Netherland, Holland
Ato Youm Fesseha, Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Wendy Belcher, Princeton, NJ
Dr. Getachew Haile, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Prof. Nebiat Tafari, Cleveland, Ohio
Ato Wondayehu Kassa
Poetry: Ato Assefa Gebremariam
Music: Artist Teshome Metiku and friends
If you’re interested to submit relevant papers or video for the Asrat Woldeyes Symposium please contact the organizing committee by e-mail: [email protected]
For additional information please visit the website: www.asratwoldeyes.org
Organizing Committee
The Family of Professor Asrat Woldeyes
Professor Asrat Woldeyes (June 20, 1928 – May 14, 1999) was an Ethiopian surgeon, a Professor of Medicine at Addis Ababa University, and the founder and leader of the All-Amhara People’s Organization (AAPO), as well as a political figure who was jailed by the Derg and later by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Professor Asrat was the founding member of the Ethiopian Medical Association (EMA), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS Edinburgh) and FRCS (England), member of the British Medical Association (BMA), the East African Surgical Association (EASA) and International College of Surgeons (USA). (Source: wikipedia.org)
EDITOR’S NOTE: World Bank, the best friend of dictators and the primary source of Africa’s misery, approves more money to be given to the terrorist regime in Ethiopia led by tribal dictator Meles Zenawi. If and when a government that stands for the interest of Ethiopians comes to power, one of the first things it needs to do is to kick out the World Bank and IMF out of the country.
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World Bank Press Release No:2008/342/AFR
Washington, May 29, 2008 – The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank today approved US$ 80 million International Development Association financing (of which US$56.6 million as grant and US$23.4 million as a credit) to the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) in support of the second phase of the Pastoral Community Development Project.
The project will be implemented in pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in 57 woredas of the Afar, Somali, SNNPs and Oromya Regions. About 600,000 rural households or approximately 45% of pastoral and agro-pastoral woredas in Ethiopia will benefit from the PCDPII project.
The objective of the Pastoralist Community Development Project II is to enable pastoralists to better withstand external shocks and to improve the livelihoods of targeted communities. The project will empower local communities by increasing their engagement in woreda processes and local development decision making. It will also provide them increased access to social services; and better access to support for savings and credit activities. In addition, the project seeks to improve and expand the pastoral early warning system and the responsiveness of the disaster mitigation and contingency funds.
‘PCDP II represents a great opportunity for the Government of Ethiopia to realize its commitment to decentralized development in pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Ethiopia,’ said Ingo Wiederhofer, World Bank Task Team Leader for this project. According to him, the Project will support an approach to local development in which citizens are empowered to determine and implement their social and economic priorities. It will also help to expand and institutionalize systems that will enable the country to better identify and manage disaster risks in these fragile areas in a proactive manner adapted to pastoral livelihood systems.
The project has the following four components:
The Sustainable Livelihoods Enhancement component will further strengthen decentralized and participatory planning at the community/ kebele and woreda levels. Women and men in pastoral communities will identify, prioritize, design, and implement micro-projects that reflect their local development priorities. The Community Investment Fund (CIF) subcomponent will finance micro-projects related to water supply, micro-scale irrigation, health care, education, rangeland management, etc. The Rural Livelihoods Program (RLP) sub-component will finance income generating activities identified by beneficiary community groups, and will help to extend savings and credit cooperatives systems to pastoral areas.
The Pastoral Risk Management component will support the expansion of the participatory Early Warning and Response Program to all pastoral and agro-pastoral communities. The system will provide information to trigger early non-food responses to declines in the welfare of pastoralist communities using the proven Household Economy Approach. In addition, technical assistance and staff capacity building will be provided to support the development of regional Disaster Preparedness Strategy and Investment Programs in four regions.
The Knowledge Management and Participatory Learning component will support Participatory Action Learning pilots in selected woredas to develop methodologies for demand-driven approaches to participatory knowledge generation and innovation development. In addition knowledge management and information exchange will be supported at federal and regional levels.
The last component will support overall Project Management.
The World Bank will support the Pastoral Community Development Project II in partnership with the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD). Implementation of the project will be overseen by the Federal Project Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, with regional governments playing a key role.
For more information on the World Bank in sub-Saharan Africa visit: www.worldbank.org/afr
For more information on the World Bank in Ethiopia visit: www.worldbank.org/ethiopia
For more information about this project click here.
Contacts:
The Ethiopian embassy in South Africa that is currently occupied by the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) has told Ethiopians in South Africa that it can help with evacuation if they wish to escape the anti-immigrant violence that is sweeping the country. But Ethiopian refugees went to South Africa in the first place because the Woyanne fascist regime made it impossible for them to live in their own country.
Thousands of Ethiopians, Somalis, Zimbabweans and other Africans are currently being savagely attacked by South Africans who are blaming the immigrants for their economic woes. The South African government has made half-hearted effort to stop this shameful act by its citizens.
Ethiopian embassy is ready to evacuate nationals from South Africa following anti-immigrant violence there which has killed 56 people, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
“The embassy in South Africa has announced its readiness to work together with the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) if Ethiopians want to return home,” it said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of mainly Zimbabwean and Mozambican immigrants have been forced out of their homes since the onset of xenophobic violence.
Foreigners in the continental powerhouse South Africa, many of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are being blamed for sky-high crime rates and depriving locals of jobs.
HIDALGO (U.S.-Mexico border) — U.S. Border Patrol agents Sunday detained 18 people from the horn of Africa – an uncommon but not unheard of origin for illegal migrants to the United States, officials said.
The east African immigrants – 13 from Eritrea and five from Ethiopia – were walking along a road in Hidalgo on Sunday when they were spotted, said local Border Patrol spokesman Daniel Doty.
Agents peacefully took the illegal immigrants into custody, Doty said. None of them was carrying drugs or firearms.
Doty said illegal immigrants who come from countries other than Mexico either face an expedited deportation hearing or can request political asylum in the United States. Illegal immigrants are typically deported from the country within 14 days, he said.
It is less common for a group of illegal immigrants to come to the United States from nations other than
A Walk to Beautiful may be the most moving documentary of the year. I spent parts of this hourlong Nova installment wiping away tears, contemplating the suffering and resilience of the young Ethiopian women profiled.
A Walk to Beautiful, which aired earlier this month on PBS stations and encores at 1:30 a.m. tonight on WLRN-Ch. 17, lets the women and the doctors who treat them at Addis Ababa’s Fistula Hospital tell their own stories. But sometimes words are not necessary. The look on the face of one woman, Aheyu, as she boards a bus and leaks urine on to the floor, tells how wretched she feels.
Like millions of women in developing countries, childbirth caused major damage to her underdeveloped body. The process punched a hole between Aheyu’s birth canal and bladder. As a result of her incontinence, her community shuns her.
A friend tells her of the fistula hospital, where free operations can fix the damage. “How can they bring you back to life?” Aheyu nervously asks of the surgery. But the fact is, these operations bring these women back to life in any number of ways.
For the Ethiopian women, being shunned by their families and villages is crushing to their spirits. Aheyu’s own mother speaks matter-of-factly about making her daughter live in a rough shelter outside the main house. But in an almost wordless scene, the mother weeps and presses scarce money in her daughter’s hand as she heads off to the hospital.
Finding sympathy and a community of other women with fistula is a revelation for women such as Wubete. “They are not revolted by me here,” says the 17-year-old patient, who talks of being married off by age 11.
This poignant film follows three women’s cases and captures daily life at the hospital, which is supported by charity. Wubete’s journey ends in an unlikely place, and the smile on Aheyu’s face after surgery is heart-piercing. Seeing women like her go from contemplating suicide to choosing colorful new clothes for their trip home is, indeed, beautiful.
