Tuesday, April 19, 2016

South Sudan conflict spilled over into Ethiopia and threaten it' stability

Ethiopian troops on Saturday clashed with South Sudanese tribal militiamen along the border between the countries, killing dozens of fighters who allegedly had carried out a deadly raid into Ethiopia the day before.

The fighters, members of South Sudan’s Murle tribe, launched the attack on the rival Nuer tribe in Ethiopia’s western region of Gambella on Friday, killing 140 people and abducting dozens, including children, according to Ethiopia’s Communications MinisterGetachew Reda. Ethiopian troops responded to the raid on Saturday, killing at least 60 of the attackers, the minister said.

It was the worst violence in the border region since the South Sudan tribal conflict erupted more than two years ago, raising concern that it might spill over into Ethiopia and threaten the stability of one of Africa’s most promising economies.

The Murle tribesmen are closely allied with South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s ethnic Dinka people.

South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei denied any state involvement in the clashes. “We don’t condone such acts,” Mr. Makuei said. “We are ready to cooperate with our Ethiopian brothers to apprehend the perpetrators, but we remain a sovereign nation.”

“Our soldiers are pursuing the attackers; we reserve the right to follow them up inside South Sudan,” Mr. Reda told The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reda said Ethiopia would act to protect its “people and territorial integrity.” He declined to say whether Ethiopian troops had entered South Sudan in pursuit of the attackers.

Both tribes live in South Sudan’s oil-rich Jonglei and Upper Nile states, which have seen some of the heaviest combat in the two-year conflict. The fighting has killed more than 50,000 people and displaced nearly 2.5 million.

Ethiopia’s Gambella region hosts about 280,000 South Sudanese refugees, most of them from the Nuer tribe, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Murle and Nuer tribes have a long history of antagonism and have raided each other’s territory for generations over cattle, grazing lands and water rights.

At the time of the attack this weekend, rebel leader Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, was in the town of Gambella, a rebel spokesman said, and he is expected to fly to Juba on Monday to become vice president in a transitional South Sudan government whose formation aims to end the conflict.

An aid official said the attackers targeted food and cattle. The conflict in South Sudan which has raged on despite several cease-fire deals has worsened the food crisis in the country leaving nearly five million people food insecure according to U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Monday, April 18, 2016

140 people killed after attacks on Jekow in Gambella region of Ethiopia

A map showing Gambella province in west Ethiopia

Ethiopia says armed men have killed 140 people near its border with South Sudan and abducted at least 39 children.

Ethiopia's Communications Minister Getachew Reda said the attackers were members of South Sudan's Murle tribe.

He said security forces were chasing the attackers and had killed 60 so far.

Ethiopia is hosting thousands of South Sudanese refugees who fled the 2013 clashes that began when President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy Riek Machar, accusing him of plotting a coup.

Mr Machar denied the charges, but then mobilised a rebel force to fight the government. He is due to return to the capital Juba to form a transitional government as part of a peace deal.

Mr Reda told the BBC the attackers were not thought to have any links to the South Sudanese government or rebels.

Ethiopia's Gambella province, where the raid took place, has a history of conflict between communities and a sizable Nuer population, Mr Machar's ethnic group.

The Murle have previously been accused of carrying out cattle raids and stealing children to raise as their own.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

At least 75 killed in Ethiopia protests: HRW - Yahoo News

Nairobi (AFP) - At least 75 people have been killed during weeks of protests in Ethiopia which have seen soldiers and police firing on demonstrators, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

"Police and military forces have fired on demonstrations, killing at least 75 protesters and wounding many others, according to activists," HRW said in a statement.

Rights groups have repeatedly criticised Ethiopia's use of anti-terrorism legislation to stifle peaceful dissent, with Washington expressing concern over the crackdown and urging Addis Ababa to employ restraint.

There was no immediate response from Ethiopian government, which has previously put the toll at five dead.

Government spokesman Getachew Reda said the "peaceful demonstrations" that began last month had escalated into violence, accusing protesters of "terrorising the civilians."

The protests began in November when students opposed government proposals to take over territory in several towns in the Oromia region, sparking fears that Addis Ababa was looking to grab land traditionally occupied by the Oromo people, the country's largest ethnic group.

Demonstrations have taken place in the towns of Haramaya, Jarso, Walliso and Robe among others.

- 'Dozens' shot -

"Human Rights Watch received credible reports that security forces shot dozens of protesters in Shewa and Wollega zones, west of Addis Ababa, in early December," HRW added.

"Several people described seeing security forces in the town of Walliso, 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, shoot into crowds of protesters in December, leaving bodies lying in the street."

HRW also said "numerous witnesses" described how "security forces beat and arrested protesters, often directly from their homes at night."

Pictures have appeared on social media, apparently showing bloodied protestors and armed police firing tear gas at student demonstrators.

"The Ethiopian government's response to the Oromia protests has resulted in scores dead and a rapidly rising risk of greater bloodshed," HRW's Leslie Lefkow said.

"The government's labelling of largely peaceful protesters as 'terrorists' and deploying military forces is a very dangerous escalation of this volatile situation."

With at least 27 million people, Oromia is the most populous of the country's federal states and has its own language, Oromo, distinct from Ethiopia's official Amharic language.

- US 'deeply concerned' -

In a statement issued on Saturday, which did not directly refer to the HRW figures, Washington expressed grave concern over the unrest.

"The United States is deeply concerned by the recent clashes in the Oromia region of Ethiopia that reportedly have resulted in the deaths of numerous protestors," said the State Department.

"We urge the government of Ethiopia to permit peaceful protest and commit to a constructive dialogue to address legitimate grievances," it said, also urging protesters "to refrain from violence and to be open to dialogue."

Writing on Twitter on Friday, Washington's UN envoy Samantha Power spoke of "concerning rhetoric" from Ethiopia's prime minister, insisting the government "must use restraint" in its response to the Oromo protests.

Britain's Foreign Office also expressed concern over the protests in a statement issued on Friday, noting that some had "turned violent, resulting in casualties."

"There have been heavy clashes including gunfire between protesters and security forces" on December 17, it said, warning Britons against all but essential travel to western and southwestern parts of Oromia.

Some foreign-owned commercial farms have been "looted and destroyed" in the protests near Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa, HRW said.

HRW said the protests -- and bloody crackdown -- echoed protests in April and May 2014 when police were accused of opening fire and killing "dozens" of protestors. The government said eight people died in the 2014 unrest.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

British Father On Death Row In Ethiopia Tells UK: "Bury Me In England" - BuzzFeed News

In a meeting with the UK ambassador to Ethiopia, Andargachew Tsege told his family to “be brave”.

posted on Oct. 27, 2015, at 11:18 a.m.

Alan White

BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

Andargachew Tsege with his wife Yemi and their three children. Supplied

A British man currently on death row in Ethiopia has asked the UK ambassador to make sure that he is buried in England during a meeting that highlighted serious concerns over the handling of his case and his treatment in prison.

BuzzFeed News has seen a redacted copy of notes written by ambassador Greg Dorey of his meeting with Andargachew Tsege, 59, at Kality prison near Addis Ababa on 15 October.

Tsege, a father of three from north London, was snatched by Ethiopian security forces at an airport in Yemen last June while he was waiting for a flight to Eritrea. He was taken to Ethiopia having been sentenced to death in his absence for allegedly plotting a coup and planning to kill Ethiopian officials, allegations he denies.

Campaigners claim the real reason he faces execution is that he fell out with former prime minister Meles Zenawi after exposing government corruption.

Dorey writes in his notes that Tsege told him his status in Kality Prison was odd, “since he had no ‘warrant number’ (i.e. prisoner number), so he was ‘not even in the system’”.

Nothing had been said to Tsege about charges against him, Dorey writes, and so a formal charge sheet had been demanded. “He had only heard on radio, TV and the internet about previous charges against him,” Dorey says, “and had the right to know why he was in prison.”

The notes continue: “At this point he became a little more emotional. He said he would ‘take his own measures … I will not allow myself to be debased and dehumanised’ (no further details).”

The ambassador’s notes conclude:

I asked if he had messages for the family. He said “Hello, be brave”. He did not want “complications”. Finally, he asked us to ensure he was “buried in England” – it was important for children to know where their parent/s ended up. I said I would come and see him in a month. He commented that I had said that last time and then had been unable to visit until now, but he fully realised that was not my fault. I said I had been given a high-level promise that a visit in a month would be possible.

Supplied

Supplied

Tsege told the ambassador he was sleeping in a small cell with three other people and had not been outside the prison at any point. He said he was occasionally being visited by his 90-year-old father and his stepmother.

He said he picked up news from listening to other inmates’ TVs, and expressed surprise that his MP, Jeremy Corbyn, was now leader of the Labour party – “interesting, obviously the party is moving to the Left”.

He spoke at length to the ambassador about his political views. Dorey’s notes read:

He [said he was] was a prisoner of political masters but they were not applying the relevant regulations properly to him. Yet he was one of their friendliest critics, who understood them better than anyone and they shouldn’t demean him. He had served the regime in the past whole-heartedly and left it on principle. Some problems had since been resolved, others were still real…
When they had beaten and insulted him before in 2005 he had had no reason to go into opposition politics and was not even a member of the opposition – nor had he supported them. And actually Meles himself had said Ethiopia needed a “good opposition”. He had only spoken about politics by peaceful means.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Ethiopia opposition groups say they are uniting for change - US News

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA, Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Five Ethiopian dissident groups in exile said they have formed an alliance to bring a change of government back home, describing Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's government as oppressive.

The new group is called the People's Alliance for Freedom and Democracy, according to a joint statement issued Friday in Oslo, Norway, where the groups met recently.

The alliance was formed by the Benishangul People's Liberation Movement, the Gambella People's Liberation Movement, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front and the Sidama National Liberation Front, the statement said.

"The (alliance) will create an opportunity for all peoples in Ethiopia to co-create a transitional political order that is based on the consent of all peoples, where the outmoded hegemonic culture of a single group dominating the rest is dismantled and a new just political order is established, where the respect of the right to self-determination is genuinely granted to all," the statement said. The group said it "will conduct diplomatic, advocacy, information and other campaigns to change the current undemocratic political culture and oppressive system in Ethiopia."

Ethiopia's ruling party won every seat in parliament in May elections, raising questions about the credibility and fairness of the polls in a country whose government is accused by human rights organizations of harassing and jailing its opponents.

Human rights groups criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for visiting Ethiopia in July, saying his trip lent legitimacy to an oppressive government.

At the time, Prime Minister Desalegn defended Ethiopia's commitment to democracy and said the country needs "ethical journalism," not reporters that work with "terrorist groups."

Ethiopia is the world's second-worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Eritrea, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.