ASMARA — Three {www:Woyanne} regime soldiers in Ethiopia have defected and arrived in Eritrea. Upon arriving in Asmara, the soldiers said that that the Woyanne regime’s divisive ploys and atrocities against members of the armed forces is intensifying.
The defecting soldiers are Alelo Waj, Mohammed Merhale Chama and Abdelkadir Mohammed Saleh.
They explained that in the event that any army member puts forth opinions and questions as regards his rights and social issues, he is thrown to jail and face inhumane treatment under the allegation that he is ‘collaborator of opposition organizations.’
Private Alelo Waj said that the Woyanne regime falsely claims that it is increasing the salary of soldiers. He disclosed that members of the armed forces are unable to sustain themselves and their families with the kind of salaries the are paid.
GENEVA (AFP) — Thirty-five Ethiopian and Somali migrants have drowned after a smugglers’ boat crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized, the United Nations {www:refugee} agency said in a statement Thursday.
“By midday Thursday, 35 bodies had been recovered by UNHCR?s partner agency, the Society of Human Solidarity. The remaining passengers are believed to have made it to shore,” said the UNHCR.
The ill-fated boat, which was carrying about 117 people, had departed Monday from Somalia.
Some 387 boats and 19,622 people have arrived in Yemen this year after making the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa, fleeing civil war, {www:poverty} and famine.
“A total of 131 people have died and at least 66 others are presumed missing at sea,” said the UNHCR.
Tilahun Gessesse funeral in Addis Ababa. The photo below shows Teddy Afro’s mother Wzr. Tilaye Arage placing a flower wreath near Tilahun’s coffin during the funeral procession Thursday at Mesqel Square. Click here to see more photos. [Exclusive photos by Awramba Times]
London, UK (IAAF) – Olympic bronze medallist Tsegaye Kebede is hoping to bring Ethiopia its second major marathon victory in the space of a week when he takes on one of the best marathon fields ever assembled in the Flora London Marathon this Sunday (26 April).
The Flora London Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
Kebede is still buzzing from his compatriot Deriba Merga’s {www:triumph} in the Boston Marathon on Monday (20), describing it as “wonderful to see” and “an inspiration” coming just seven days before he toes the London start line for the first time in his career.
But Kebede almost didn’t see the race at all thanks to a power cut at his home near Addis Ababa which had him running miles to find an internet café where he could follow his lifelong friend and training partner’s victory in the first World Marathon Majors race of 2009.
“We literally had to run to find an internet café to see the race,” says Kebede with a laugh. “I only got there in time to catch the end, and then I was very happy because I could see Deriba was going to win.
“We grew up together in Ethiopia and we often train together so it was great to see him win. It has inspired me to do well here.”
Last gasp battle for Beijing bronze
It’s not the first time the pair have been thrown together by marathon drama, of course. The two provided one of the most {www:dramatic} moments of an altogether extraordinary Olympic marathon on the last day of the athletics programme in Beijing last summer.
Then, in 30-degree heat and under {www:stifling} humidity, Kebede came from sixth place and more than a minute down on the leaders over the last few kilometres to snatch the bronze medal from Merga’s grasp with just 200m to go in the Bird’s Nest stadium.
It was devastating for Merga, of course, but for Kebede it was a triumph of will in the most trying of conditions.
“Beijing was a very hard race for me, very difficult,” he says. “But I came from behind and when I got to the stadium I could see Deriba ahead of me. He was very tired so it was possible to pass him and become number three.”
Kebede returned home to huge celebrations in a country where marathon running has been a matter national pride ever since the barefoot runner Abebe Bikila shocked the world to win the Olympic marathon title in 1960. Even for a runner as young as Kebede – born in January 1987, 23 years after Bikila’s second Olympic victory in 1964 – the grandfather of Ethiopian distance running is still regarded as an iconic figure.
“I love the marathon because of Bikila and the national pride he brought to our country,” says Kebede. “He showed a positive side to Ethiopia when we needed it.”
Running his family out from poverty
With his Olympic medal in Beijing, and big city victories in Paris and Fukuoka last year, Kebede has done a fair bit for national pride himself. More importantly, perhaps, he’s helped to raise his large family out of the stifling rural poverty he grew up with.
The fifth born of five brothers and eight sisters, the young Kebede was often forced to miss school to collect wood with his mother and helped his father sell wood to make the family living, earning less than 20 Birr (about US$3) a day.
“When I think back to how we used to survive it brings a tear to my eye,” he says. “Now it’s like a dream to be able to help my family out of poverty.”
Now commanding the high earnings of an international marathon star, Kebede has been able to build a new house for the whole family and buy his parents some cattle so they can start to become self-sufficient.
I want to get faster
If he wins on Sunday (26) it will complete quite a journey for the 22-year-old who won his first ever marathon in Addis Ababa in 2007 in 2:15:53. With the likes of reigning champion Martin Lel, Olympic gold and silver medallists Sammy Wanjiru and Jaouad Gharib, and perennial minor medallist Abderrahim Goumri in the line-up, it could be the toughest test yet of his short marathon career.
Coached by Gete Wami’s husband, Geteneh Tessema, Kebede certainly has the pedigree. His victory in Paris last year, in 2:06:40, made him the second quickest Ethiopian of all time behind Haile Gebrselassie, and his course record win in Fukuoka last December, in 2:06:10, was a new Japanese all-comers’ record, eclipsing Wanjiru’s time from the previous year.
As to his chances, Kebede is playing it cagey. “I don’t want to guess,” he says. “Everyone comes here wanting to win, but we will have to see what happens in the race.”
“This is my first time in London so I don’t know the course or what to expect from the weather. But I have done some good training in Ethiopia and will show on the day what I can do.”
“Actually, the most important thing for me is not my position but my time. I can’t guess what that will be but I want to get faster.”
There is every chance he will. With the weather set to be fair, organisers are planning to set a World record pace on Sunday and have asked the pacemakers to take the racers through 20 miles.
It’s always possible Kebede may not be with the leaders by then. Judging by the Olympic race, however, we can expect him to finish strongly and, who knows, when he gets back to Ethiopia he may even have reason to meet up with his friend Deriba Merga for a double celebration.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Piracy off its shores has made Somalia an early {www:challenge} for the Obama administration, which is grappling to devise a new strategy that will not replicate past failed U.S. policies in the Horn of Africa.
The immediate goal, say U.S. officials, is to bolster Somalia’s new government and its moderate Islamist president, seen by many as the best hope of bringing {www:stability} to the lawless country after 18 years of turmoil.
As a starting point, the United States plans to help fund the country’s nascent {www:security} force. An overall review of U.S. {www:strategy} is looking at what else Washington could do to stabilize the capital Mogadishu and surrounding areas while at the same time tackling the piracy scourge.
But if the United States is too public in its support of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, it could backfire and embolden hardliners, with the new leader being branded as Washington’s puppet.
“When the United States embraces a government in Somalia, we de-legitimize it. It is this awful sort of double-edged sword,” a senior U.S. defense official told Reuters.
The State Department’s key Africa diplomat, acting Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Carter, said Washington had learned from its mistakes of the 1990s when a peacekeeping {www:mission} ended in shambles and U.S. forces withdrew.
The United States had no desire to “drive this process” and would let the Somalis push their own peace process forward.
“It can’t be a made in the USA kind of thing,” said Carter, who will be the U.S. envoy at a donors conference for Somalia in Brussels later this week.
SECURITY THREAT
The Obama administration is deciding how to balance U.S. security interests with Somalia’s own political future.
Somalia is seen as a poster child for security threats emanating from Africa, but following the “retributive military strikes” of the Bush administration is not the answer, said Somalia expert John Prendergast.
“Airstrikes during the Bush administration occasionally took out one or two targets on the ground but inspired hundreds more Somalis to join the jihadist insurgency,” Prendergast said.
The Bush administration tacitly approved a 2006 invasion by Somalia’s regional rival Ethiopia to crush supposed al Qaeda activity and this boosted local suspicion of the U.S. role.
“Absent a state-building strategy, muscle-flexing military approaches are counter-productive for counter-terrorism,” added Prendergast, chair of the advocacy group, the Enough Project.
A brazen attack this month on a U.S.-flagged carrier has re-focused attention on fighting piracy off Somalia, with some in the military weighing up hitting pirate camps on land. [nN20517909]
But U.S. air strikes or land raids in Puntland, where most of the pirates are based, were very unlikely, said the defense official, because of the high risk of civilian deaths and the fallout that would follow.
The pirates would then seek common cause with Islamist militants such as Somalia’s al Shabaab group, a powerful al Qaeda-aligned group who control large swathes of territory.
However, the United States is looking for cooperation from the new government in tracking down al Qaeda operatives in Somalia, including those suspected of the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
“There are still a couple of really bad guys out there that we would not mind seeing depart from the planet,” said the defense official.
POLITICAL SPACE
Somalia’s new government is trying to {www:reconcile} warring factions, possibly bringing in militants like Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Mogadishu in 2006
Somali expert Ken Menkhaus said the United States needed to provide “political space” for individuals like Aweys, who is on Washington’s list of foreign terrorists, to make public commitments to {www:renounce} terrorism.
“We need to provide a certain amount of flexibility in these negotiations,” said Menkhaus, a professor at Davidson College and former special advisor to the U.N. operation in Somalia.
The State Department’s Carter said it was unclear what kind of role Aweys wanted to play. “He has been a spoiler and he is a person of concern for us,” he said.
Carter said the United States was banking on a “lot of disillusionment” on behalf of Somalis, both toward groups like al Shabaab as well as spoilers in political reconciliation.
“This is probably the best {www:opportunity} that Somalia has had in a long time to develop a sustainable peace and get the country on some kind of a development path. But it is very risky.” (Additional reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Patricia Wilson and Paul Simao)
Ethiopian Airlines has announced a promotional drive to make travel cheaper in the current global economic {www:distress}.
Ermajechew Regassa, the Airline’s Uganda manager, announced recently that the promotional drive that started on April 4 would last up to May 31 and would have major international routes on special discount rates.
One of the cheapest routes will be a return trip from Entebbe to New Delhi which has a current {www:market} rate of $850 but will now go for $500 in economy class. The other routes on {www:promotion} are Entebbe-Addis Ababa, going from $480 to $400.
The journey to two of China’s key trade cities (Guangzhou and Beijing) has also been made cheaper from $870 and $1000 to $700 and $800 respectively.
The other destinations with discounts are Entebbe to Dubai, Hong Kong and Mumbai.
“The current season is a low season. We feel there is need to offer promotional fares and due to the current economic crunch, we want to make travel less expensive,” said Regassa.
One of the biggest casualties of the current economic meltdown is the aviation industry. It has not only seen profits nosedive but also the drop in the number of passenger.
The situation in Uganda has been aggravated by the falling Uganda shilling, which has affected imports. In recent weeks, the dollar traded as high as sh2,200.
“The Ethiopian market segment is importing traders. Once importers are threatened because of the Uganda shilling versus the dollar exchange regime, things get worse,” said Regassa.
Regassa says despite tough economic times, Ethiopian Airlines is encouraging people to travel.
ASMARA — Three {www:Woyanne} regime soldiers in Ethiopia have defected and arrived in Eritrea. Upon arriving in Asmara, the soldiers said that that the Woyanne regime’s divisive ploys and atrocities against members of the armed forces is intensifying.
GENEVA (AFP) — Thirty-five Ethiopian and Somali migrants have drowned after a smugglers’ boat crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized, the United Nations {www:refugee} agency said in a statement Thursday.
London, UK (