(BBC) — A mother and two children are among 25 people and 13 civilians, killed in fierce fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say.
They were killed when a mortar shell landed on their house, neighbours said. The fighting began when 100 insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked three government and Ethiopian Woyanne bases south of the city.
An insurgent spokesman told the BBC they had killed 10 Ethiopian Woyanne troops, while two of their men had died.
Ethiopian Woyanne has not commented on these claims.
Eyewitnesses say the civilians were killed when Ethiopian Woyanne troops fired shells in response to the attack by Islamist fighters.
“The insurgents came with minibuses and other vehicles and immediately started firing at an Ethiopian Woyanne base at the former defence ministry building and nearby government military base,” said local resident Abdi Wahab Kalil.
The insurgents have also attacked Mogadishu’s main football stadium, which is now the main Ethiopian Woyanne military base in the city.
“It was a horrific scene, and we collected the flesh of their bodies which was stuck to the walls,” said Sahara Aden Samow, who lives in the Hamarjadiid district, where several Ethiopian Woyanne mortars landed.
Ceasefire
Staff at Mogadishu’s Medina hospital said they took in 18 wounded people, including six children.
“Most of the wounded were brought here early this morning, because they could not have an access to the hospitals, they are now under treatment,” said one doctor, Dahi Dheere.
On Wednesday, two policemen were killed in an attack which occurred a few minutes after a convoy carrying President Abdullahi Yusuf had driven past.
(Medecins Sans Frontieres) MADRID, SPAIN — Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty. The trip is fraught with danger as people are exposed to violence from the smugglers and receive little assistance upon their arrival in Yemen.
In its report, “No Choice”, MSF has documented the conditions of the perilous journey and calls for increased assistance for the thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants fleeing their home countries.
Due to the escalation of the conflict in Somalia and the drought affecting the Horn of Africa, the numbers of new arrivals are increasing. In 2007, according to the UN, 30,000 people embarked on the dangerous trip. During the first five months of 2008 over 20,000 arrived in Yemen. Many of them never made it: in 2007 over 1,400 dead and missing were reported; so far, in 2008, 400 did not reach the shores of Yemen alive.
The report, released on the eve of World Refugee Day, is based on over 250 testimonies gathered by the MSF teams in Yemen since September 2007.
The refugees arrive exhausted, many of them sick and emotionally shattered. Boats of 8 to 10-meters designed for 30 or 40 people at the most are packed with over 100 passengers. People are forced to sit in the same position without moving during the two or three days of the journey and are, in most cases, deprived of water and food.
The smugglers are extremely brutal, beating anyone who dares to move.
Conditions are even worse for people stuck in the holds of the boat – tiny, windowless spaces meant for storage. Twenty people or more are crowded in these spaces, literally sitting on top of each other. Conditions are so harsh that deaths during the trip were reported from one third of the boats. The main causes were severe beatings, lack of food and water and suffocation from being in the hold. Several of those interviewed also reported cases in which the smugglers threw passengers, including children, overboard.
Landing on the Yemen coast is very dangerous: to avoid being caught by the military, many boats arrive at night and do not come close to the shore. The smugglers force the passengers to jump into deep water. Many people drown: they cannot swim, are unable to move because of numbness or are disoriented and cannot find the coast.
Most of those interviewed are aware of the risks, but told MSF that they had no choice, this being their only survival strategy to escape from violence and destitution. For those who reach the shores of Yemen after the perilous trip, the plight is not over. Yemen is a country with limited resources and assistance is scarce.
“To date, humanitarian response has been inadequate. More international assistance is urgently needed and donor countries should commit themselves politically and financially. The response capacity of those who provide assistance to the refugees needs to be increased and more organisations should intervene”, said Alfonso Verdú, MSF General Coordinator in Yemen.
UNITED NATIONS — The deputy chief of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) arrived in Ethiopia today for the start of a four-day visit to review the humanitarian situation in the south and southeast of the country, which has become parched by drought.
Hilde Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, is expected to meet with Government officials, UN agencies, key donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) while in Ethiopia, according to a statement released in Addis Ababa, the capital.
As many as 4.6 million Ethiopians are now in need of immediate humanitarian assistance because of a lack of seasonal rains, coupled with rising food prices. The worst affected areas are in three administrative states of the Horn of Africa country: Oromio, Somali Region and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR).
Children are among the hardest-hit by the current conditions, with about 75,000 children estimated to be facing severe acute malnutrition already.
Earlier this month the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its appeal for Ethiopia to at least $325 million to meet the growing demand for aid.
You might have noticed the Ethiopian Top Model Liya Kebede in magazines, TV commercials or on the Internet. She has been modeling for a while and thanks to her very successful carrier, Liya was ranked eleventh on Forbes’ 2007 “World’s Top-Earning Models” List and fifteenth on the 2008 list. While some of her peers are busy partying, Liya who was born and raised in Ethiopia is striving to improve the lives of women and children in her native country and around the world through the Liya Kebede Foundation. As the top model points out, there is so much to be done but we will get there. Although she lives in New-York with her husband and their two children, Liya travels to Ethiopia on a regular basis and believes she ought to give back to her community.
PHILADELPHIA — An Ethiopian immigrant awaiting trial in an 8-year-old murder case in Towamencin was in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday as his lawyer attempted to have evidence against him suppressed for use at trial.
Yeshtila A. Ameshe, a former gas station attendant from Adelphi, Md., faces charges that include first- and third-degree murder in the shooting death of his aunt, Haregewene Bitew, inside her Dock Village apartment on the night of June 27, 2000.
The woman was reported to have been counseling Ameshe, 34, about a problem with his girlfriend shortly before the shooting.
Pennsylvania State Police arrested Ameshe that same night at the Mid-County Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Plymouth Township.
He had been undergoing psychiatric treatment at Norristown State Hospital until March of this year when Montgomery County Judge S. Gerald Corso declared him competent to stand trial.
At an evidentiary hearing Wednesday before Corso, Ameshe’s court-appointed lawyer, Scott Krieger, challenged two “issues” of evidence that could be used against his client at trial and sought to have them thrown out.
One had to do with a state trooper’s discovery of a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and accessories in Ameshe’s car at the time of his arrest. The other had to do with statements Ameshe made to Montgomery County detectives who questioned him at the Towamencin Police Department following his arrest.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Maloney, who is prosecuting the case, called three witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing, including county Detective James McGowan and retired county Detective Phil Ridge — both of whom had interviewed Ameshe and read him his rights in the hours after the slaying.
Maloney, who was first to speak with Ameshe, wrote an account of their conversation that Ameshe refused to sign. Several hours later, Ridge took what he called a “supplemental statement” which the suspect did sign.
Krieger’s cross-examination of the two detectives focused on the reading of one’s constitutional rights, the necessity of Ridge’s supplemental statement and the reason for McGowan’s obtaining a search warrant for Ameshe’s car since the murder weapon, a magazine for it and bullets had already been taken from the vehicle.
Retired state police Trooper Jeffrey White testified about apprehending Ameshe at gunpoint at the turnpike toll plaza after the suspect’s car and another car collided there.
White also testified that another state trooper, Gennaro Mitchell, found a magazine for 9mm bullets in Ameshe’s car and also a 9mm handgun in a backpack inside the car.
Krieger’s cross-examination honed in on the position of the magazine and backpack in the car, suggesting that they might not have been in plain view and thus not legally permitted to be searched or seized without a warrant.
Judge Corso adjourned the hearing until 2 p.m. on Tuesday so that Mitchell can testify.
Ameshe is being held without bail in Montgomery County’s prison. His trial is scheduled to begin July 14.
Lou Sessinger can be contacted at 215-345-3050 or [email protected].
EDITOR’S NOTE: Why doesn’t the puppet ‘president’ do some thing about the starving children of Ethiopia before congratulating China’s earth quake relief effort? This entitles him to be named “Idiot of the Day.”.
Girma Woldegiorgis
ADDIS ABABA (Xinhua) — The Chinese government and its leadership’s efficient and timely earthquake relief efforts have gained the praise of the whole world, said Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis on Thursday.
When receiving credentials of China’s newly appointed ambassador to Ethiopia Gu Xiaojie, Girma expressed once again sympathy and condolence to the Chinese side over the devastating earthquakes that hit southwest China’s Sichuan Province on May 12.
He said Ethiopia pays attention to the development of its relations with China, adding that Ethiopia would work together with China to further their bilateral ties to a new high.
In recent years, the relations between Ethiopia and China have been expanded rapidly and bilateral cooperation in all fields has deepened, said the Ethiopian president.
He praised the Chinese firms in Ethiopia, saying that the Chinese firms become more active in Ethiopia’s reconstruction, making greater contributions to the country’s economic and social development.
Girma also said Ethiopia backs China’s efforts to prepare for the Beijing Olympic Games. He said Ethiopia will send a big sports delegation to take part in the upcoming Olympic Games, to be held in August.
For his part, Chinese Ambassador Gu thanked the Ethiopian president for his expression of sympathy to China over the devastating earthquakes.
Gu arrived here on June 2 as China’s newly appointed ambassador to Ethiopia. He said he will exert efforts to further intensify the Ethio-China relations.
