EDITOR’S NOTE: What does this {www:ችጋራም} Woyanne knows about farming? Over 6 million people are starving because of his regime’s mismanagement of Ethiopia’s resources.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – In the past four years the rain fell in torrents, Demeke Hafiso’s crops sprouted like clockwork, his three-acre plot filled the stomachs of his nine children – and millions of farmers like him powered the Ethiopian economy to double-digit growth.
This year the rain came too late, he has abandoned his field of dead maize, and is sitting by the bedside of his motionless son in a medical centre run by Médecins Sans Frontières. The 16-year-old’s hollowed-out cheeks betray the starvation that has brought him here.
A drought in Ethiopia’s southern highlands between January and May led to the failure of a harvest that has left 4.6m people needing emergency food aid and 5.7m in drought-affected areas requiring other handouts, according to the United Nations.
It is another of the hunger crises that have periodically hit Ethiopia since the famine of 1984-85 and before, but the rural country of 80m is not facing starvation on the same apocalyptic scale.
The drought, however, has serious implications for politics and policy. It has punctured the hubris around the government’s agriculture-led development strategy and made it defensive over its commitment to small-scale farming on state-held land.
Steady rain and bumper harvests helped the Ethiopian economy expand by an annual average of nearly 12 per cent over the past four years, a trend that the ruling regime presented as evidence of the agricultural sector getting stronger.
But the withering effect of this year’s drought suggests it may have simply been getting lucky. “We were doing very well and all of a sudden we collapsed,” says Tewodros Gebremichael, country health director of Merlin, a UK-based aid group. One official at the Economic Commission for Africa, a UN body in Addis Ababa, describes the past four years of plenty as a “missed opportunity”.
Assefa Admassie, director of the Ethiopian Economic Association, says: “Ethiopian agriculture needs a structural transformation. If we depend on small farmers and a fragmented, rain-fed system, we’ll always face this problem.”
Dispute over problems
The government bristles at such criticism. Meles Zenawi, the prime minister, says the problems in the south are the result of a “freak event” and he rejects the assertion that the arable farming system has any flaws. The subject is sensitive for his government – which seized power as a group of bush fighters in 1991 and won a disputed election in 2005 – because it has pinned its legitimacy on agricultural development.
The government introduced improved seed varieties, set up a donor-funded welfare programme to help farmers accumulate assets, and built roads so food could be moved from regions with a surplus to those with a shortage. Productivity rose and so did rural incomes as farmers were encouraged to grow cash crops such as coffee alongside their food.
But observers say the official story of an agricultural transformation does not tally with what they see on the ground, where micro-irrigation systems are sparse and the distribution of drought-resistant crops poor.
Population growth as contributing factor
One reason for the intractability of Ethiopia’s hunger problem is the pace of population growth – estimated to be 2 to 3 per cent a year – as well as the custom of subdividing land between children. Over-cultivation in some areas has already damaged the soil irreversibly.
The government is criticised by liberal commentators for not allowing land to be privately owned, leaving farmers with little incentive to invest in improving their plots. It is a policy that can be traced back to the Meles regime’s command-and-control instincts and its suspicion of market forces.
Eyessus Zafu, president of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, is one of several businessmen urging the government to go corporate. “Capital-intensive commercial agriculture would have given you the surplus you need,” he says. Bigger farms would create opportunities for land consolidation and mechanisation.
But Mr Meles says it is “patently stupid” to advocate a wholesale switch to big farms.
For Mr Demeke, the immediate priority is to avoid having to bring another child to the centre: “The government could give us cows and oxen and we hope God will give us enough rain so we can plant our own food again.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dictator Meles Zenawi is begging the international community to save him from his Somalia debacle. Did the international community ask this chigaram Woyanne to invade Somalia in the first place? He cannot even feed his own people in Tigray, but he talks about failure of the Somalia puppet leaders.
(MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS) – Prime Minster dictator Meles Zenawi, called on the international community to contribute in the efforts to find solution to the conflict in Somalia.
PM Meles Zenawi the current chairperson of Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), made the call at the ongoing IGAD meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
Meles said Somali leaders should work together to reconstruct the country.
He said few African countries have been striving to maintain peace in Somalia, however the international community has not given due attention to that country.
He called for the international community on the occasion to provide humanitarian and technical assistance to Somalia.
Meles noted that the Somali leaders should reach consensus to find lasting solution to the problem. He also urged all parties to act as per the agreement reached in Djibouti.
IGAD member states have agreed to work with the international community to find lasting solution to the conflict in Somalia.
They have reached consensus to back the effort of deployment of peacekeeping forces in Somalia and to implement the agreement signed in Djibouti.
Leaders of IGAD member states, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi E. Frazer and Somali MPs took part in the extraordinary meeting convened to deliberate on the conflict in Somalia.
Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi has reshuffled his 15-member cabinet, including key ministries of Defence, Justice and Agriculture.
Zenawi, who returned on Wednesday from an Inter-Governmental Summit in Nairobi, appointed nine new ministers and presented them to Ethiopian parliament on Thursday.
He has appointed Siraj Fergesa, former Federal Affairs Minister, as the new Defence Minister. The position had remained vacant since June when former Defense Minister Kuma Demeksa became Mayor of Addis Ababa.
Information Minister Berhan Hailu now becomes Justice Minister. No replacement was announced for the ministry. The Public Organization Advisor to the Prime Minister Haile-Maraim Desalegn is the new Government Whip.
Former Minister of State for Health, Dr. Shiferaw Tekle-Mariam,was appointed Federal Affairs Minister while Tefera Deribew becomes Agriculture and Rural Development Minister. He replaces Deputy PM Addisu Legesse.
Deputy Chief of the Amhara State Administration, Demeke Mekonnen, is the new Education Minister, replacing Sintayehu Woldemickael.
The Transport and Communication Minister Junedin Sado has been moved to the Science and Technology Ministry.
Diriba Kuma is the new Transport and Communication Minister and Muferiat Kamil is the Women Affairs Minister.
Addressing the Ethiopian parliament, Mr Zenawi said poor performance was the main reason for the reshuffle.
He expressed hope that the appointees would manage to register a good result by discharging the responsibilities entrusted to them.
Since the EPRDF came to power in Addis Ababa in 1991, the Ethiopian army has been dominated by more seasoned Tigrayan officers who are members or sympathizers of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne, hard core of the governing coalition). This preeminence was further confirmed by the
promotion of 12 higher officers announced on September 2 by the office of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Two of the three major generals promoted to lieutenant general are Tigrayans (Se’are Mekonnen Yimer and Tadesse Worede Tesfaye). The third, Bacha Debele Buta is a leader of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO, a member of the governing coalition) suffering from a serious illness. The only brigadier general to be promoted to the rank of major general is the Tigrayan Gebrat Ayele.
Five of the eight colonels promoted to brigadier general are Tigrayans (Kinfe Dagnew Gzebre-Silassie, Gebre-Michael Beyene Tedela, Hintsa Wolde-Giorgis Yohannis, Tekle-Birhan Kahsay Birush and Masho Beyene Desta).
Two others are Amhara (Akele Assaye Asfaw and Wondwosen Teka Agegnew) while a third (Getachew Gidina Wolbana) is from southern Ethiopia.
EDITOR’S NOTE: It is good to see Woyannes get their butt kicked in Somalia. Ethiopian Review would like to remind the world that the war in Somalia is between the Meles crime family and the Somali people since Ethiopia currently has no legitimate government.
NAIROBI (AFP) — Ethiopia Woyanne, whose forces toppled an Islamist regime in Mogadishu two years ago, on Tuesday blamed the failure to restore stability in Somalia on the transitional rulers it helped bring to power.
“Somalia’s problems are not security, but political,” said Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin at a meeting of governments in the region focused on Somalia.
Seyoum said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and his successive prime ministers had “not managed to create any institutions of governance to speak of” since they came to power in December 2006.
“The continuing feud within the leadership… had contributed to the paralysis of the TFG,” he added in reference to the transitional federal government.
The TFG, headed by the one-time warlord Yusuf, was formally established in 2004 but its remit never extended beyond the backwater of Baidoa until the Ethiopian Woyanne army invaded Somalia nearly two years ago.
The toppling of an Islamist group that had taken control of large parts of the country and started to impose a tough form of Sharia law brought Yusuf to power but did little to restore calm to a country that has been wracked by violence since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somalia’s transitional federal charter expires next year when a new constitution is to be drafted and elections held although there is widespread skepticism over whether polls can take place amid the rampant insecurity.
Despite pledges from some African governments, only Uganda has contributed significant numbers to a peacekeeping force which has failed to halt a campaign of guerrilla warfare being waged by an even more radical Islamist faction.
“In all honesty, the international community can hardly be proud of its record in Somalia,” Seyoum said.
“But this is no excuse for the kind of egregious lack of responsible behaviour that we continue to witness on the part of all those in positions of authority in Somalia.”
Yusuf was in open disagreement with Ali Mohamed Gedi, the TFG’s first prime minister who eventually had to resign exactly a year ago.
Gedi’s successor Nur Hassan Hussein has also had his differences with the president and survived a no-confidence vote last month.
On Sunday, a UN-sponsored peace process in Djibouti announced that a deal had been signed by the transitional government and the main Islamist-dominated political opposition group.
The agreement provides for a ceasefire and an Ethiopian Woyanne troop pullback to begin next month, with security responsibilities gradually handed over to Somali police until a UN peacekeeping force is deployed.
The main Islamist insurgent group, which now controls most of southern and central Somalia, rejected the announcement and vowed to continue its armed struggle.
The Shebab, the main insurgent group, accuse the conservative Christian Marxist tribal regime in Addis Ababa of being engaged in a crusade against Muslim Somalia and have refused to negotiate before a full withdrawal is completed. [Since when Woyannes become ‘conservative Christians?]
In recent weeks, Ethiopian Woyanne troops have been less visible on the streets of Mogadishu and Addis Ababa has been sending mixed signals on the future of its presence in the country.
Experts say Ethiopia Woyanne is mulling its exit strategy from the Somali quagmire and argue that a pullback has effectively already started.
“The Ethiopians Woyanne have definitely been planning some form of military pullback. We just don’t know exactly on what scale,” said one expert, who did not wish to be named to ensure his security when he travels to Somalia.
The expert believes the pullback announced on Sunday could entail a redeployment to a handful of locations in Somalia, with a handover of security duties in Mogadishu to the African peacekeeping force and Somali police.
“Of course no one could assume that, speaking now on behalf of my country, Ethiopia Woyanne will continue to keep its troops in Somalia,” Seyoum said in Nairobi.
Yet Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi, who is not attending the Nairobi summit, said earlier this month that he would not hesitate to send his army back in if the Islamists took power.
This must be joke of the year. Meles Zenawi’s wife, Azeb Mesfin, the ‘mother of corruption’ in Ethiopia tells an interviewer that she and her dictator husband have barely enough money to pay for their children’s school.
