By Damo Gotamo

TPLF’s ill-conceived and arbitrarily imposed ethnic federalism has been the reason for a  multitude of problems in Ethiopia. Since its introduction in the country, it has ruined the lives of millions of Ethiopians. The TPLF separatists used it to divide and rule the country for twenty-seven years. While various ethnic groups were fighting over minor differences, the TPLF goons plundered everything in the country, making it one of the poorest country in the world.

Last year, the country was on the brink of civil war. The new leadership has restored some semblance of order and prevented the country from total collapse. It has introduced serious reforms and undertook some tangible changes.

The country has also descended into lawlessness under the new leadership. We have witnessed mob and vigilante justices rendered against innocent people. Ethnic lords in all corners of the country have tried to take advantage of the leadership change in the country, and wreaked havoc killing and displacing many people.

Lawlessness is still prevalent in many parts of the country. The federal government is either incapable of containing the lawlessness or simply chose to ignore it while ethnic extremists are distributing the peace and security of the people.

Motivated by their own self-interest and unable to feel the misery of millions of Ethiopians affected by ethnic federalism, ethnic entrepreneurs everywhere are working tirelessly agitating people to ask for a new language based regions.

Sidama extremists are even openly boasting and warning the government that they will declare their own Kelil on July 18, 209 unilaterally. They are claiming that they have prepared their own constitution and offering administrative training to people for the new.

Among the fifty-six ethnic groups in the so-called southern Kelil, nine zonal administrations have already made their intentions clear to have their own language based independent regional statehood. A week ago, the Wolitas held a huge rally asking for the establishment of their own region. It followed a gathering in Awassa by Sidama women for a similar cause.

The Gurage, Kembatta, Hadeya, and Kefecho people have also been holding rallies asking to have ethnically based regions. In addition to demanding for the creation of their own Kelil, many ethnic groups, led by ethnic lords, are also asking for their language to be the national language of the country. The number of questions that are popping out from all corners of the country seems to have no endings.

Instead of working together and find solutions to our common problems, each group is advancing its own interest. It is doing so at the expense of the others. Dividing the country further into small ethnic enclaves will make the existing situation worse, and the government must not allow the further Balkanization of the country. Language based federalism has many pitfalls our people have experienced for nearly three decades.

Ethnic federalism is very divisive. It has divided Ethiopians, destroying their long held-bond. Sporadic conflicts over grazing lands and borders existed before. The deep divisions and animosities that have manifested themselves in the country in the last twenty-eight years between different groups were hatched in Dedebit pit and introduced into the country by the TPLF.

The ethnic politics the TPLF gang had brought from the Dedebit pit has shaken the country to its core. Differences rather than similarities among groups have been preached using news media funded by the tax payers money. People who lived in love and harmony for centuries have been made bitter enemies. Even happily married couples divorced because of ethnic differences.

One of the ugliest features of Kelil is its exclusion of citizens from living in peace in their own country. It doesn’t allow people living in places where they were born and prevents them from taking part in their own affairs. Those who were born and lived in different parts of the country are constantly reminded to leave the only homes they know. Millions of people are asking themselves every day if Ethiopia is really their country.

Because of ethnic politics, millions of people in different cities of the country have been living at the mercy of ethnic entrepreneurs. For example, people who were born in cities like Diredaw and Awassa are treated like second and third class citizens. As I write this piece, ethnic entrepreneurs in Diredaw are rounding up members of the Satenaw, who oppose the so called 40/40/20 system.The system is similar to the defunct apartheid system, which excludes citizens from participating in economic and political affairs of their country. In Awassa, the city’s police are rounding up and throwing into jail the non-Sidama residents of the city. Innocent citizens are rotting in jail in the pretext that they a security threat to the upcoming Fiche Chambalala holiday.

Language based ethnic federalism is the source of constant conflicts and wars between different ethnic groups in the country. The Oromo fought with Somali causing the death and displacement of more than a million people. The Gujis in Borena fought with the Somalis, destroying the lives of thousands of people. The Gumuz clashed with Oromos, causing the death and displacement of many people.

There is no peace between the Afar and Somali Kelils, as we have seen frequent clashes between the Afar and Issa tribes in the border areas of the two Kelils. The Amhara and the Tigraye Kelils are at loggerheads because of the TPLF’s illegal annexation of the land of the Amharas. The confrontation may lead to a full blown war at anytime.

The human tragedy of the Gideon people that is unfolding in the so-called southern region is the product of ethnic federalism. Less than a month after the Gedeon extremists had displaced different ethnic groups from Dilla and surrounding areas, the Gedeon tribe became a victim of mass displacement in the hands of Guji Oromo extremists. In Awassa, some Sidama extremists killed and displaced the Wolitas because they thought the Wolitas had sabotaged their desire of becoming a Kelil. Is it practical to divide the country into further ethnic enclaves?

The country has eighty ethnic groups. What will be the fate of the country if every ethnic group is granted a status of Kelil? The ill-conceived article 47 of the current constitution of the country clearly states that any ethnic group in the country has the right to ask for its own Kelil. If the Wolita Zone is allowed to create a Kelil, why not the Sidama or Gurage zones? Once a Pandora box is opened, there is no way of closing it.

Those who are asking for Woreda today will undoubtedly demand to have their own Zone tomorrow; those who want their own Zone today will demand to have their own Kelil tomorrow. Can the country survive by dividing itself into Eighty Kelils? What is the guarantee if those who ask for Kelil today won’t demand their own separate country in the future? In fact, article 39 of the TPLF manual allows a Kelil to declare independence if it deems necessary. Abdi Eli, the deposed Somali Kelil president, cited article 39 and tried to separate the region before he was stopped. The TPLF criminals are using the article as a propaganda and fear mongering tool to wage psychology war after they ran to Dedebit pit.

The Kelil questions in the so-called southern region will raise many difficult questions. What will be the fate of Awassa? When it comes to Awassa, every Ethiopian is a stakeholder. All Ethiopians have invested in the city and have a role in developing it. The 56 ethnic groups under the current ethnic southern region, and the Amharas, Tigers, Oromos, and many others have a share in Awassa.

Besides, the federal government has a huge stake in the city and has invested in billions.

It has constructed one of the largest Industrial Park in Africa. A state of the art international Airport is near completion. The express highway that will connect Addis Ababa to Awassa is under construction.

The Sidama extremists are also lamenting over Awassa everyday. They want to have complete control over the city, and to snatch properties from people, who have worked hard for it. Anything short of making Awassa a federal city will have a devastating effect on the entire nation.

The madness of Kelil has to stop somewhere before the country disintegrates into small states.

Allowing each group to have its own Kelil is adding fuel to a burning fire. Million Mathewos, who is the current president of the Souther Nations Nationalities and People’s Region( SNNPN recently said that granting a status of Kelil to all fifty-six ethnic groups in the south will make administrating very difficult. He was right. The problem with Million is that after making a statement like this, he immediately flip-flops and tries to lecture people on the importance of having a Kelil.

Many extremists in the south raise the Kelil question not because it will help the people grow and prosper better. They raise the question because some groups have their own Kelil, and it is better than a Zone to enrich their pockets. For extremists everywhere asking for Kelil is a fashion.

What has Kelil brought to the people of Somali, Oromo, or Amhara? Haven’t we seen millions of Oromos displaced from the Somali region? What about the Amharas who have been harassed and displaced from all corners of the country? The Somalis, Wolitas, Kembatta, and others have been victims of Kelil. For the last twenty-eight years, no ethnic group has been immune from displacement and death as a result of ethnic Balkanization.

Some of the reasons given for having a Kelli are preposterous. Many leaders of the ethnic groups claim that once they have their own kelil, Industrial Parks will pop up in their region. Can the country afford to build Industrial Parks in every Kelil?

When new Kelils are created conflicts and displacement are inevitable. The new Kelil will try to assert its power over its territory and ventures to annex more land from bordering regions.

For example, the Oromos are claiming that some areas of Sidama region, particularly Tula and Abela belong to the Oromo Kelil. If Sidama becomes Kelili, there is no guarantee that the Oromos won’t go to war with the Sidamas to take the land that they claim is theirs. I heard the Oromos had filed a petition to the prime minster’s office pertaining this matter. The Sidama also has borders with Gedeon and Wolita. We have seen frequent border clashes between the Sidamas and the Wolitas in past years. It very likely that they will wage war at each other once they have their own Kelils. The members of the TPLF and Oromo extremists are trying to tell us that there is no inherent problem with the existing ethnic federalism. For them, the deaths and displacements that have been taking place everywhere in the country are not caused by ethnic federalism. They engage, in futility, to convince us that the problem is with the implementation of the system.

How can one make ethnic federalism work, which confines Ethiopians to live in one area like wild animals and forces people to leave the areas they were born? How does the current federal system prevent mass deaths and displacements, which are still going to these days?How can it protects people from being discriminated in places where they call home?

Will the OLF make the current ethnic federalism in Ethiopia work for everyone? Shall we expect the second coming of the TPLF to make ethnic federalism it had established work? Is Bekele Gerba, who publicly says to business owners ‘don’t sell merchandises to people who don’t speak Ormigna,’ will make the ill-conceived ethnic federalism serve everyone?

Many believe Federalism is not an option for Ethiopia. I do agree. Alternative forms of federalism like federalism based on geography should be explored since the current ethnic federalism has become a disaster for the country. Articles 47 and 39 must be expunged from the constitution with other divisive articles.

In conclusion, ethnic federalism has been the cause of death and displacement in Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, three million people have been displaced because of ethnic federalism. The country ranks first in the world in the number of internally displaced people. For a country, which boasts as a cradle of mankind and a history of three thousand years, the matter is an absolute disgrace. The government must declare a state of emergency if necessary and stop ethnic entrepreneurs, who are working tirelessly to dismantle the country. Our poor country can’t afford another Kelil and deaths and displacements that come with it.

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May 28,2019

EthiopianAmercans in the great metroplitan Omaha NE and the surrounding celeberate  the Memroial Day with recognition of  OPS honored students and passing the  legacy of EThiopian and Amercan vetrans who served  our nation USA and their native Ethiopia at Elm Wood Park.

During the celeberation  the community and  spiritual leaders motvated the partcipants to rememeber their  begining at a historical anicient nation Ethiopia and their destination USA who  both conributed for the peace  keeping of  the world by sedning  vetrans  during World War II,UN  peace missions of Afghanistan,Iraq,Congo,Korea,Rwanda and Somalia.

A message  sent from General Taye Tilahun, 4th Ethiopian Air Force commander and the story  of another Ethiopian vetran general Demissie Bulto read.Laura Thomas, a community activist from Omaha, a grand daughter of vetrans gave  lesson on the meaning of Memorial Day with admiration of Ethiopian anicient  cities and churches she visited,the food and the culture.

The two  church leaders from Ethiopian  Orthodox Church presented a historical message  and advice for the community   based on the history of Ethiopia from the time of  Queen of Sheba and remind the generation to keep up that great heritage  for caring each other and others.

The community also  recognzed those Amercan volunteers ,churches and social services who help families and students for life transition of citzens  in the great nation USA in many ways.

Finally, Ms Alana Shriver a specialist from OPS gave an educational message to those new Americans and awarded the recognition certificates to the students  and volunteers.

The Ethiopian Amercan community is a non profit entity established to cooperate  natives of Ethiopia for a mutual purpose  in the life transtion of  Ethiopian Amercans.The Community  have been participating in  all aspects of human care for those natives of Ethiopia during crisis  at Middle East and involved in restoration of  citzenes during the Hurricane  disaster in USA.

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BOULDER, COLO.

Ethiopia repeated a sweep in the men’s and women’s team competitions at the 41st annual BolderBoulder 10-kilometer road race Monday.

Kenya’s Benard Ngeno won the men’s race in 28 minutes, 29 seconds, well ahead of Terefa Delesa, who was runner-up in 28:59 but paced the Ethiopians to their 10th team win with 20 points. Tanzania was second with 22 points and Eritrea was third with 29.

The Ethiopian women won for the 13th time overall and for the 10th time in the past 11 years with a 1-2-5 finish for eight total points. Hiwot Yemer edged teammate Meseret Tola for the title, winning in 32:49, six seconds ahead of Tola.

Led by Aliphine Tuliamuk’s third-place finish (33:00), the U.S.A. placed second in the women’s race with 24 points, ahead of Kenya’s 29 points in third place.

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By Tesfu Telahoun Abebe – I concluded Part 1 by stating that I believe the PM has been irretrievably losing considerable political capital, since at least the second half of his stay in office, so far. I continue today by declaring that I fear that he will never be as wildly popular as he had first been nor are we Ethiopians likely to ever again be fortunate, even for a brief time, to embrace a leader/ruler with such fervent love and wholehearted support.

Having rather empathically stated the above, then how and what do I feel about my perhaps fallen idol, the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed today? A complicated question will get a complex answer so here I go.
I sense that I speak for many when I say that my current sentiments towards the embattled PM are a strange blend of bitter disappointment interspersed with genuinely felt sympathy for him, not to mention a general sense of that feeling of, “is this product I obtained as advertised?

I would express these three emotive responses-disappointment, sympathy and perceived betrayal, as follows. Disappointed that, after a short, fleeting ‘too good to be true’ period of boundless optimism, so many things have soured so terribly and so tragically in Ethiopia. Disappointed for my compatriots whose determination that exile and illegal immigration are the answer has been reaffirmed by the alarming turn of events over the last 16 months or so.

Disappointed that so many politically passive but intensely socially engaged people like myself have had to eat our words in front of the scoffing ‘I told you so’ segment of society. Disappointed that many professionals, budding talents, creative youth and many others who had welcomed the emergence of the charismatic Abiy and the ‘new EPRDF’ as guarantors of a brighter future have had dreams shattered.
At the same time I do feel sorry for Abiy.

Ever the optimist I still feel he is as committed to the One Ethiopia cause despite glaring obstruction and devious acts by forces close to home. Powerful forces are working in the open and in the shadows to shatter this now brittle nation. The PM is the juggler at the center point of this vortex and try as he might, has too many balls up in the air at the same time.

The sense of having been betrayed is still something of an open question. It might also be a situation in which he over-promised too many things when he apparently did not possess sufficient authority to deliver and we the people over-expected too much from man who cannot deliver.

Previously I made an unscientific assumption that the TPLF would be responsible for at least 50% of Abiy’s (and Ethiopia’s) present predicament. The rest of the blame must surely lie with those ethnic movements, fronts and individuals who have either stabbed the PM in the back and/or have been given tacit leeway by certain embedded elements to commit grievous and shameful acts targeting mainly non-Oromo people.

Fueling this man made calamity is the line that Oromo are an oppressed people under the yoke of tyranny and conquest. This is a royal fallacy. The Oromo have never been singled out for particular discrimination. In fact, even a cursory reading of Ethiopian history will reveal that Oromo rather routinely participated and held authority at the highest levels of state and the military.

We have had emperor s, Kings and queens, princes and princesses, renowned generals, writers, warriors, singers and more who were/are Oromo, born to an Oromo parent or related to the Oromo by marriage, etc.
As for injustice and oppression these are the lot of all of Ethiopia’s people.

I must remind this to the distant foreign observers who had long ago been sold on the claim by radical Oromo separatists that the Oromo have been down trodden and disenfranchised. We hear this narrative on international news channels as a sort of ‘background’ to any given story about unrest in Oromo areas.
I urge all to desist from such commentary as it has been and continues to be used by radicals to break up the nation.

There is no such thing as an Oromo problem or an Addis Ababa problem. The PM would do well to refocus his own party’s political views in the pan-Ethiopian perspective. By doing so, he may stand a chance to emerge as a true leader who has been tested and found worthy.

On the other hand if Abiy continues to demonstrate that his government is in effective control of the country, then he will surely fail. God help us then.

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The former head of a notorious Ethiopian prison has been arrested and is expected to face trial.

Hassan Ismail Ibrahim, also known as Hassan Dhere, was arrested in neighbouring Somalia in a town where he had been hiding, following a tip-off.

Campaigners say inmates were routinely tortured at “Jail Ogaden”, which he ran in Ethiopia’s Somali region.

Many prisoners were accused of being linked to the separatist group the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

But that group signed a peace deal with the government in October, following the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Former prisoners interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they saw people dying in their cells after being tortured.

The authorities closed the prison last year and announced plans to make it into a museum.

The new president of Ethiopia’s Somali region, Mustafa Omer, told Al Jazeera news in April that he was chasing the people who allowed the torture.

Source- BBC

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Bernard Condin, The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Just days after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max nosedived in Indonesia and killed all 189 people aboard, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot began pleading with his bosses for more training on the Max, warning that crews could easily be overwhelmed in a crisis and that one of their planes could be the next to go down.

“We are asking for trouble,” veteran pilot Bernd Kai von Hoesslin wrote in a December email obtained by The Associated Press, adding that if several alarms go off in the cockpit at once, “it will be a crash for sure.”

That prediction proved all too accurate.

What Ethiopian Airlines did in response to his warnings is unclear, and whether it made any difference is a matter of dispute. But within weeks, an Ethiopian Max indeed went down, killing all 157 people on board. It slammed into the ground amid a flurry of alarms as the pilots struggled to control a malfunction in the automatic anti-stall system.

While that system has gotten most of the scrutiny in the two Max crashes five months apart that have led to a worldwide grounding of the planes, the concerns raised by von Hoesslin have added to a debate on the role pilot error played and whether Ethiopian’s pilots were as prepared as they could have been to avert disaster.

Von Hoesslin, a Canadian citizen who resigned from Ethiopian Airlines last month, argued in three emails to senior managers that after the anti-stall system came under suspicion in the first crash, crews flying the airline’s five Max jets should have been given more information and training on how the system worked and drilled on the steps to override it if it faltered.

Von Hoesslin’s emails were first reported by Bloomberg.

MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, automatically pushes the plane’s nose down when it is at risk of stalling. It misfired in both fatal crashes, with pilots losing control of the plane as they fought against it.

According to the email chain obtained by the AP, Ethiopian responded to the Oct. 29 Lion Air crash with a few emails to pilots detailing bulletins from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing on what do if the anti-stall system malfunctioned. Other Ethiopian pilots who spoke to the AP say those emails required no sign-offs that pilots actually read and understood the directives and no mandated additional training.

“Ethiopian Airlines is a rapidly expanding airline and they have extremely inexperienced crews,” von Hoesslin said in documents obtained by the AP. “You need to spoon-feed them the information and make sure they understand.”

To underscore his point, von Hoesslin made a video shortly after the Ethiopian crash in which he quizzed a Max pilot on a Boeing list of warning signs on the stall system that crew members were required to commit to memory. That video, obtained by AP, shows him going blank on most of it.

“You have to have confirmation that they opened it, that they read it and that they understood it,” von Hoesslin said in a document obtained by the AP. “They should have done a little online test with 10 questions. You don’t pass until you get the 10 questions.”

Ethiopian Airlines tweeted Wednesday that “the source of these false allegations is a disgruntled former employee … who has left the airline after many administrative problems.”

Von Hoesslin’s lawyer, Darryl Levitt, issued a statement saying the pilot was not fired but “resigned due to legitimate concerns he had raised that he felt were not adequately addressed.” He added that von Hoesslin will be cooperating with regulators and authorities “with his sole objective of contributing to make air travel safe.”

Ethiopian has said that the requirements for warning and training Max pilots after the Lion Air crash were set by the FAA and Boeing and that their directives were used to “brief all our pilots” and incorporated into flight manuals.

CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said in an interview shortly after the Ethiopian crash, “Today we believe that might not have been enough.”

GebreMariam declined to say whether the pilots on the doomed flight took additional training after the Lion Air crash on Ethiopian’s Max simulator, a multimillion-dollar piece of equipment most airlines don’t have, but said “it wouldn’t have made any difference” because the simulator wasn’t designed to imitate problems in the new jet’s flight-control system.

Ethiopian has said both the pilot and co-pilot followed all the steps Boeing laid out in its bulletin on how to respond to a malfunction in the anti-stall system.

But the preliminary report on the March 10 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi showed that the pilots deviated from the directives and made other mistakes, notably flying the plane at an unusually high speed and inexplicably reactivating the anti-stall system shortly after manually overriding it.

Six minutes into its flight, the plane with passengers from nearly a dozen countries cratered into the ground about 40 miles from the airport.

Former FAA administrator Randy Babbitt said the Ethiopian pilots clearly bear some of the blame.

“So Boeing was at fault because a light came on or this thing tripped mistakenly, but it shouldn’t have brought the airplane down,” Babbitt said of the anti-stall system. “That was very fixable and a pretty simple solution. And they didn’t come to grips with it. … They let the plane get away from them.”

Von Hoesslin, a 56-year-old pilot with three decades of flying experience, initially wrote to his bosses Nov. 11 in response to the airline’s five-sentence email to dozens of pilots alerting them to the Boeing bulletin and reminding them about the checklist of steps to perform should something similar go wrong.

He urged Ethiopian to give more information because pilots are not “fully or even aware of how” the MCAS works. That prompted a second email from the airline with more detail.

A month later, on Dec. 12, von Hoesslin sent another email, urging a close reading of a preliminary report from Indonesian regulators on the crash there. He pointed out several potential problems with the Max and recommended steps be taken to make sure pilots knew the checklist.

The next day, he sent a third email recommending new simulator training designed to roughly re-create what went wrong in the Indonesian flight, adding that he had already practiced in a simulator rigged in such a way and his experience with all the alarms going off was frightening.

“Throw in a GPWS PULL UP,” he said, referring to a cockpit alarm urging pilots to pull up the aircraft, “and it would be a crash for sure.”

Boeing has said that its fix to software on the Max’s anti-stall system will be accompanied by additional training for pilots. The acting chief of the FAA, Daniel Elwell, said last week that his agency hasn’t decided whether that training should be conducted on computers or in flight simulators.

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Teklemichael Sahlemariam’s Event for immigrants who want to come to Canada from the USA

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By By Fisseha Tekle, Amnesty International’s researcher for Ethiopia and Eritrea
28 May 2019

A loud explosion shook the ground in the early afternoon of 28 May 1991 and was followed by a massive fire visible from afar off. Half an hour later, the Sheh Hojalle neighbourhood was filled with wailing. News had filtered back to this north western Addis neighbourhood that the explosion was from a nearby military depot. Many of their family members had been ransacking the military depot for wooden crates and metal containers used for transporting gunpowder. Rebels had set the depot – more of a military junkyard –  on fire trapping and killing hundreds of civilians.

I was 12 years old then. I witnessed the explosion and its aftermath. A family of seven was wiped out by the explosive-charged fire. Many families were not able to hold funerals. Completely charred by fire, it was impossible to identify the bodies of the dead. Human Rights Watch reported 400 to 500 civilians were killed, most of them teenagers and young people from Sheh Hojalle.

28 May 1991 was the day the then rebel Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) marched boldly into Addis Ababa, taking the capital over without meaningful resistance from government soldiers. On this day, the Provisional Military Administration Council, the Derg headed by Mengistu Haile Mariam, was toppled 17 years after its establishment.

A family of seven was wiped out by the explosive-charged fire. Many families were not able to hold funerals. Completely charred by fire, it was impossible to identify the bodies of the dead.

What followed thereafter was the quick arrest of former Derg officials including soldiers, police and intelligence officers, an exercise characterized by extrajudicial executions, torture and unlawful detentions.

Between 1992 and 1994, 20,000 Derg civil servants and politicians were arrested and detained without charge in military camps for between six months and three years.

Amnesty International’s 1995 report Ethiopia: Accountability Past and Present detailed harrowing stories of enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, and extrajudicial executions.

After lengthy investigations, about 1,800 of them were prosecuted for various crimes in 1997. For many, the Derg was synonymous with brutal repression and heinous crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But 28 years after EPRDF took power, the story is not very different as human rights continue to be violated with impunity.

But 28 years after EPRDF took power, the story is not very different as human rights continue to be violated with impunity.

There has been no official explanation or investigation into the catastrophic deaths of civilians at Sheh Hojalle. The way I see it, there was no military necessity to besiege the depot. Government soldiers were in disarray and did not put up much of a fight to repulse the EPRDF soldiers.

Taking this military junkyard did not seem to be necessary for EPRDF’s occupation of Addis Ababa as there was no threat from it, or the surrounding areas. The attack on the depot could only be read as a show of might, or an exercise targeting civilians who took advantage of the absence of government authority to loot the unsecured depot.

Days later, high schoolers took to the streets of Addis to protest peacefully against the university students’ nasty treatment and this time police unleashed lethal force killing at least 31 people, including students.

When students of Addis Ababa University protested on-campus on 10 April 2001 demanding academic freedom, the police used unnecessary and excessive force that left more than 40 injured. Days later, high schoolers took to the streets of Addis to protest peacefully against the university students’ nasty treatment and this time police unleashed lethal force killing at least 31 people, including students, on 17 and 18 April.

In the post-election violence of 2005, more than 190 mostly peaceful protestors were killed, including by being shot in the head and strangled to death by security officers in the capital, according to reports on findings of an Inquiry Commission established by Parliament. Members of the Commission had to flee the country following threatening demands from a senior government official to alter their findings.

On 6 and 7 August 2016, at least 97 more protesters were killed in Amhara and Oromia regional states by security officers after they came to the streets demanding political reforms, respect for the rule of law and justice for past human rights violations.

Between November 2015 and early 2018, security forces killed at least 2,000 people in long-drawn out protests over an Integrated Addis Master Plan, perceived by the ethnic Oromo as a tool for political and economic marginalization.

Despite these nauseating recurrent killings of largely peaceful protestors, subsequent EPRDF governments are yet to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities.

Despite these nauseating recurrent killings of largely peaceful protestors, subsequent EPRDF governments are yet to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities.

Several moves to reform the security forces between 1991 and 1995 failed to institutionalise mechanisms and procedures for promptly addressing human rights violations.

Worse yet, enforcing the human rights provisions of the 1995 constitution and guaranteeing the respect for human rights is difficult because the Upper Chamber of the Federal Parliament is assigned to interpret the constitution, instead of independent and impartial courts.

While Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, now the Chairperson of the EPDRF, publicly apologised for past human rights violations during his inaugural speech in April 2018, this has not stopped violations.

While Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, now the Chairperson of the EPDRF, publicly apologised for past human rights violations during his inaugural speech in April 2018, this has not stopped violations.

On 17 September 2018, security officers shot at and killed at least five protesters as they demonstrated against deadly inter-ethnic violence that rocked Burayu, on the outskirts of Addis.

That even the current Ethiopian government is yet to thoroughly, independently and impartially investigate these killings points to the possibility of a continuation of dangerous past trends of ignoring human rights violations and allowing impunity to prevail.

While it is notable that some investigations and trials for alleged human rights violations are ongoing, these are a drop in the sea of historical gross human rights violations of the past 28 years of EPDRF’s rule.

As the country commemorates the fall of the Derg, the government should seize the opportunity to ensure justice and reparations for both past and present human rights violations.

This article was first published in the Mail & Guardian.

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Ethiopian Airlines has confirmed that its aircraft, Boeing 737-300 made a “go-around” at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos on Wednesday.

The General Manager, Ethiopian Airlines, Nigeria, Firihiewot Mekonnen said that the aircraft, which departed from Addis Ababa on its way to Lagos had encountered bad weather during landing and made a go-around the airport for a better and smooth landing.

She said the decision of the pilot was in accordance with the industry procedure.

She added that on “a second attempt, it made a safe and normal landing.

“According to safety standards, pilots are encouraged to make a similar go-around in such cases.”

Lucky Escape

Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president and other Nigerians escaped death on Wednesday at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport when an Ethiopian Airlines plane almost crashed.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that other prominent Nigerians in the Ethiopian airline passenger aircraft, Boeing 777-300, included the Director General of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni.

Also in the plane was Prof Samson Tunde Adebayo, the Director of Ports Inspection, National Agency For Food And Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) as well as scores of Nigerians and other nationals.

The passenger aircraft, ET-901, had departed the Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, at about 9:10 a.m., Ethiopian time; 7 a.m Nigerian time.

No casualty was reported in the incident.

The post Ethiopian Airlines Explains What Happened On ‘Almost Crashed’ Aircraft appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

SafetyDetective’s research lab discovered a leak online regarding the Ethiopian National Security Agency (INSA).

The hackers managed to easily scrape a few hundred of INSA agents’ email addresses and passwords, allowing them to potentially log in to INSA’s email server (and personal emails using the same credentials).

INSA notoriously monitors and intercepts all Ethiopian citizens’ communication, in an attempt to ‘safeguard the country’s information and information structures’, according to their website’s mission statement…

Political hacking is nothing new: While the fact that hackers could so easily hack a security agency – and the Ethiopian INSA especially – is alarming, what was even worse was that the passwords we discovered in use by INSA were basic (and hackable) beyond belief. Basically, they weren’t salted and hashed. While big databases usually have their data protected and encrypted (in case someone breaks in), this one didn’t and had common passwords easy to decrypt.

Just take a look for yourself:

Screenshot of 42 of the 300 secure email addresses and passwords of Ethiopian INSA employees

Of the 42 passwords screenshotted above (of 300 overall), 9 of those are ‘p@$$w0rd’ – AKA, one-step above ‘password’ which we also saw 3 uses of in total (of 300). That’s really secure, security agents!

In fact, out of the 300 agent email addresses we scraped, we counted 142 uses of ‘p@$$w0rd’ (that’s almost half), and 62 passwords containing a `123’ sequence, similar to another surprising set of unchanged default passwords that were discovered by our team. It goes without saying that, even had the server not been hacked, the passwords we saw post-scraping were easily hackable.

As the most tech-savvy people in Ethiopia, whose entire careers literally revolve around online and national security, their lack of secure passwords is absolutely shocking, although major security breaches affecting ordinary citizens are nothing new.

That and the fact that, when we tried to verify the hack, we were able to use these leaked login credentials again and again.

Since the data was scraped a while ago, it now seems that these credentials no longer work, meaning INSA has either reset these passwords or changed the internal email server.

But, sensitive INSA data is still available to even the most low-level of hackers: taking the leaked usernames and using a brute-force attack on the new email server would still easily hack agents’ new passwords especially if they are as insecure and hackable as they were previously.

We suggest the agents set new, stronger passwords that are as secure as their employment requires them to be: Safety Detective’s Password Checker will allow INSA agents to strengthen their preferred passwords (other than ‘p@$$w0rd’) to prevent any further hacks.

It is recommended that databases encrypt sensitive info, then if the worst happens, attackers will be left with useless hashes.

Because all matters of national security deserve to be securely ‘p@$$w0rd’ protected.

About Us

SafetyDetective.com is the world’s largest antivirus review website. The Safety Detective research lab is a pro bono service that aims to help the online community defend itselfagainst cyber threats, while educating organizations on protecting their users’ data.

You may be interested in reading about a major security breach found in hospital and supermarket refrigeration systems, and how Anonymous hackers took down over one million pages on hundreds of corporate websites.

source -+SafetyDetective

The post Ethiopian INSA Agents Hacked: 142 agents chose the predictable password ‘P@$$w0rd’ appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — East Africa Metals Inc. (TSX-V: EAM) (“East Africa” or the “Company”) In order to provide clarification of the Company’s May 21, 2019 press release announcing the receipt of government approval of mining licenses for the Mato Bula Gold Copper and Da Tambuk Gold Projects (the “Adyabo Project”) at the Company’s 100% owned Adyabo Project located in the Tigray National Regional State of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (“Ethiopia”), this revised and amended version is being filed today.

With the acquisition of the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mining licenses, East Africa now controls three advanced projects in Ethiopia and Tanzania that include four, fully permitted, development-ready gold and copper-gold deposits with identified mineral resources and exploration upside (see East Africa news releases May 15, 2012, April 30, 2018. See Mineral Resource summary below).

The mining license agreements for Mato Bula and Da Tambuk have been formally approved by the Ministry of Mines Petroleum and Natural Gas (the “MoMPNG”), the Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers. The Company will now focus on closing its previously announced Project Financing (refer to the Company’s news release dated February 8, 2019) and proceed with the development of the Ethiopian Projects.

Andrew Lee Smith, East Africa’s C.E.O. stated, “The awarding of the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mining licenses marks an important milestone for East Africa, the Government of Ethiopia and the MoMPNG.  East Africa’s management will now focus on negotiations with development partners to advance all of the Company’s assets in Ethiopia and Tanzania and engage further exploration programs to continue the growth of the Company’s mineral resources and shareholder value.”

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS (See East Africa news release: April 30, 2018)

Mato Bula Gold Copper Project:

• Post-tax NPV of US$56.6M for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au, US$3.00/lb copper and US$17.00/oz silver, at an 8% discount rate.
• Payback of pre-production capital in 3 years from start of production.
• C1 cash operating cost of US$412/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$620/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.
• Average annual metal production of 34,750 ozs. gold, 1.67 million pounds copper and 4,780 ozs. silver.
• Pre-production capital cost of US$54.2M million including contingency of 38% on direct costs and 26% on total of direct and indirect costs.
• Open pit mining utilizing drill blast, trucks and shovels, waste stripping ratio of 9/1.
• Processing rate of 1,400 t/day using conventional crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and flotation to produce a copper-gold concentrate. In addition, a gold bearing pyrite concentrate will be produced and treated off-site by Carbon in Leach (“CIL”) technology.
• Life-of-mine metal recoveries of 86.4% for gold, 87.4% for copper, and 50% for silver.
• Concentrate grades average 132 g/t gold, 25.5% copper and 28 g/t silver.
• Minimum 8-year mine life based on proposed open pit depth of 190 metres.
• Significant potential exists to extend mine life as drilling has identified mineralization along strike and to 370 metres down dip.

Preliminary economic assessments are preliminary in nature and include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves.  Further, mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.  There is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized.

Da Tambuk Gold Project:

• Post-tax NPV of US$13.0 M and IRR of 28.6% for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au and US$17.00 /oz silver, at 8% discount rate.
• Payback of pre-production capital in 1.9 years from start of production.
• C1 cash operating cost of US$420/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$642/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.
• Average metal production of 24,000 ozs. gold per year and 6,000 ozs. silver per year.
• Pre-production capital cost of US$34.1 M including contingency of 36% on direct costs and 26% total of direct and indirect costs.
• Underground trackless mining utilizing ramp access, cut and fill and open stope mining.
• Processing rate of 550 tonnes per day using crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and CIL technology.
• Average life-of-mine metal recoveries of 93% for gold and 50% for silver.
• Minimum 4-year mine life based on mining plan depth to 200 metres below surface.
• Excellent potential to extend mine life as drilling has intersected significant mineralization to 260 metres down dip.

Preliminary economic assessments are preliminary in nature and include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves.  Further, mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.  There is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized.

Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo and CEO of the Company, a Qualified Person under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

More information on the Company can be viewed at the Company’s website: www.eastafricametals.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:
Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo., CEO

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “project”, “budget”, “schedule”, “may”, “will”, “could”, “might”, “should”, “indicate” or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: closing of the Tibet Huayu Transaction; obtaining all required approvals for the Tibet Huayu Transaction; the ability of Tibet Huayu to develop and operate the Ethiopia Projects and Properties within the required laws and agreements; the outcome of the arbitration case with the Developer; if the arbitration case is successful that the Company can occupy the site and advance the Tanzanian projects; if the arbitration is successful the Tanzanian Definitive Agreement payments are not refundable; recoverability of the Ethiopian and Tanzanian VAT receivable; early exploration; the ability of East Africa to identify any other corporate opportunities for the Company; the possibility that the Company may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service its planned operations and may be force to take other options; the risk the Company may not be able to continue as a going concern; the possibility the Company will require additional financing to develop the Ethiopian Projects into a mining operation; the risks associated with obtaining necessary licenses or permits including and not limited to Ethiopian Government approval of EAM Mineral Resources extensions for the Company’s Ethiopian Properties and Projects; risks associated with mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; availability of capital; accuracy of the Company’s projections and estimates, including the initial and any updates to the mineral resource for the Adyabo, Harvest and Handeni Projects; realization of mineral resource estimates;  interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; availability of drilling equipment and access; actual results of exploration activities; government regulation; political or economic developments; foreign taxation risks; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; the speculative nature of strategic metal exploration and development including the risks of contests over title to properties; and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, as well as those risk factors set out in the Company’s listing application, East Africa’s financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018, and East Africa’s listing application dated July 8, 2013. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues.  The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources as the estimation is uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define any inferred mineral resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading inferred mineral resources to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. The contained gold, copper and silver figures shown are in situ. No assurance can be given that the estimated quantities will be produced. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to the price of precious and base metals; the demand for precious and base metals; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the timely receipt of any required approvals; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner; and the regulatory framework including and not limited to license approvals, social and environmental matters, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein.  Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not update or revise forward looking information even if new information becomes available unless legislation requires the Company to do so. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

2.3 (3) Despite paragraph (1)(b), an issuer may disclose the results of a preliminary economic assessment that includes or is based on inferred mineral resources if the disclosure (a) states with equal prominence that the preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature, that it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized;

3.4 If an issuer discloses in writing mineral resources or mineral reserves on a property material to the issuer, the issuer must include in the written disclosure (e) if the disclosure includes the results of an economic analysis of mineral resources, an equally prominent statement that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Source: East Africa Metals Inc.

The post East Africa Metals Awarded Mining Licenses for Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects, Ethiopia – Revised and Amended appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

VOA

Editor’s note: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave his first interview to a Western news organization when he spoke to the Voice of America’s Horn of Africa service reporter Eskinder Firew, in Addis Ababa, in Amharic. These highlights from their conversation have been edited for brevity and clarity.

The post Ethiopian PM: ‘It’s not proper to stay in power for long’ appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Africa News

American plane maker Boeing says it will tailor its compensation to airlines for the 737 MAX grounding around customer preference, and might actually pay back in services rather than cash.

Boeing’s planes of the model in question were grounded all over the world after an Ethiopian Airways Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed killing all 157 people on board, less than five months after a similar disaster involving a Lion Air 737 MAX 8 that killed all 189 people on board that plane.

The company’s Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg has said the compensation could include tweaking plane delivery schedules, or offering additional training or services, as well as cash in some cases.

“We know we’ve impacted the summer schedules for many of them, and it’s difficult, it’s painful,” he said, speaking at a New York investor conference.

“I don’t see this as an additional material event for us, but it’s something that’s going to require individual attention customer by customer.”

Muilenburg acknowledged that the MAX crisis had shaken public confidence in the company and inconvenienced key customers, but the company is unlikely to take a big financial hit.

The efforts to return the plane to the skies has taken longer than expected, so the timeframe for resuming flights on the troubled planes appears to be slipping further.

Alexandre de Juniac, head of the International Air Transport Association, said Wednesday the plane will remain grounded “at least 10 to 12 weeks” while regulators review Boeing’s proposed fix to a software problem that has been linked to both crashes.

Muilenburg described last week’s meeting of international regulators as a “key” event in returning the plane to service, but acknowledged that it may take more time before global regulators are ready to approve the plane’s return.

He said the company continued to cooperate with US Federal Aviation Administration information requests.

“Our hope is that we’ll have a broad international alignment with the FAA,” he said at the conference.

“But there may be some international authorities that will operate on a different schedule. So we’ll have to tailor our plans, depending on the regulatory approval to get the airplane back up and flying.”

The FAA will be the first regulator to clear the plane for service, but aviation analysts say the agency wants at least some other countries to approve the plane soon after.

The post Boeing shares compensation plans after fatal Ethiopian, LionAir crashes appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Published on United Nations Population Fund

Just about the worst thing that can happen to a teenage girl in this world is to develop an obstetric fistula that leaves her trickling bodily wastes, stinking and shunned by everyone around her. That happened four decades ago to Mamitu Gashe.

But the most amazing thing about Ms. Mamitu is not what she endured but what she has become.
Ms. Mamitu’s story begins when she was an illiterate 15-year-old in a remote Ethiopian village. She married a local man, became pregnant and after three days of labor, she lapsed into unconsciousness and the baby was stillborn.

“After I woke up, the bed was wet” with urine, she remembers. “I thought I would get better after two or three days, but I didn’t.”
That’s typically how an obstetric fistula arises: a teenage girl, often malnourished and with an immature pelvis, tries to deliver her first baby. The fetus gets stuck, and after several days of labor it is stillborn — but some of the mother’s internal tissues have been damaged in that time, and so to her horror she finds herself constantly trickling urine or sometimes feces from her vagina.

Soon she stinks. Her husband normally abandons her, the constant trickle of urine leaves her with terrible sores on her legs. Some girls die of infections or suicide, but many linger for decades as pariahs and hermits — their lives effectively over at the age of about 15.
Fistulas were common in America in the 19th century. But improved medical care means that they are now almost unknown in the West, while the United Nations has estimated that at least two million girls and women live with fistulas in the developing world, mostly in Africa.

A $300 operation can normally repair the injury. A major effort to improve maternal health in the developing world should be a no-brainer, for it could prevent most fistulas and reduce deaths in childbirth by half within a decade, saving 300,000 lives a year.

But maternal health is woefully neglected, and those suffering fistulas are completely voiceless — young, female, poor, rural and ostracized. They are the 21st century’s lepers.
Ms. Mamitu was exceptionally lucky in that she was brought to a hospital here in Addis Ababa that offered free surgery by a saintly husband and wife pair of gynecologists from Australia, Reginald and Catherine Hamlin. Reg is now dead, while Catherine is the Mother Teresa of our time and is long overdue for a Nobel Peace Prize.
After that operation, 42 years ago, Ms. Mamitu was given a job making beds in the hospital. Then she began helping out during surgeries, and after a couple of years of watching she was asked by Dr. Reg Hamlin to cut some stitches. Eventually, Ms. Mamitu was routinely performing the entire fistula repair herself.
Over the decades, Ms. Mamitu has gradually become one of the world’s most experienced fistula surgeons. Gynecologists from around the world go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to train in fistula repair, and typically their teacher is Ms. Mamitu.

Not bad for an illiterate Ethiopian peasant who as a child never went to a day of school.

A few years ago, Ms. Mamitu tired of being an illiterate master surgeon, and so she began night school. She’s now in the third grade.
The Fistula Hospital where Ms. Mamitu works is nicknamed “puddle city” — because patients stroll around dripping urine — but it abounds with joy and hope.
Ms. Mamitu shows us what a tragedy it would be to write them off. A couple of Australians once gave Ms. Mamitu a break, and so today Ms.
Mamitu is not a victim at all, but an inspiration.

The post The Illiterate Surgeon, a miracle story about women who changed her life appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Rita was born in Romania in 1927. She emigrated to the UK with her parents in 1938. After attending the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge she studied modern languages (French & Russian) at Oxford (LMH) & obtained her MA in 1948. She spent the next year in Paris boarding with Russian-speaking Armenians & attending the Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes, obtaining a Diploma in Russian.

During this period, she was instrumental in acquiring the library of the Fawcett Society for the Polytechnic. The Fawcett Library later formed the core of the present Women’s Library, erected on the site of the Old Castle Street Baths. Through the negotiations with the Fawcett Society she became involved with that wing of the women’s movement & came to know Mary Stott & other stalwarts of the Society.

The post Rita Pankhurst Short Narrative appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

VOA

GENEVA — The International Organization for Migration reports two flights carrying an estimated 250 Ethiopian migrants are expected to depart Yemen Saturday for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as part of a larger ongoing repatriation operation.

The UN migration agency says it hopes to repatriate another 1,968 Ethiopian migrants who are being detained under horrific conditions in a sports stadium in the Yemeni port city of Aden.

IOM Yemen

@IOM_Yemen

Yesterday, 124 Ethiopian Migrant departed Aden Airport as part of IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return.This is the first batch of migrants currently being detained in 22 May Stadium in Aden.

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But the operation, which was to have begun last Saturday got off to a late start. And this says IOM spokeswoman, Angela Wells, might pose a problem.

“The operation was only cleared for eight days. So, because it was delayed, we are now waiting to see if we can continue it past that date, ” she said. “We will do our best to work with the authorities to find sustainable solutions and start another round of VHR (Voluntary Humanitarian Returns) and to help people where we can.”

With the approval of the Saudi-led coalition and Government of Yemen, 347 migrants have been flown home on three IOM chartered flights this past week. Wells says women and children were among the first to be repatriated as they are seen to be the most vulnerable.

At the end of April, Yemeni authorities rounded up more than 2,000 irregular migrants in Aden, most Ethiopians. They are among an estimated 150,000 migrants who have made the arduous journey to war-torn Yemen in hopes of finding work and a better life in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Wells tells VOA the migrants are being held under appalling, life-threatening conditions in Aden’s Al Mansoura Football Stadium. She says delays in repatriating the migrants are likely to result in more suffering and more deaths.

“Already eight people have died from acute watery diarrhea and one migrant was shot by a guard. So, the result if we are not able to get everyone out that we can could be quite catastrophic. And, so that is why we are urging the authorities to work with us and help us get as many people home as possible,” Wells said.

In the meantime, IOM reports Yemeni authorities are continuing to round up more migrants and bring them to the sport stadium. It warns the growing number of people being detained under sub-standard conditions is worsening an already acute humanitarian situation.

The post 250 Ethiopian Migrants Detained in Yemen Fly Home appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY STEPHANIE JAY

Ethiopia’s prime minister is making headlines as a Trudeau-like liberal reformer. But behind his progressive sheen, his economic policies are set to accelerate inequality and poverty.

What happens in Davos, stays in Davos — at least for the majority of the Ethiopian public, who takes little interest in the exclusive annual gathering of the global financial elite. This year, however, the speech by Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, at the 2019 World Economic Forum was shared widely on social media. Its spread highlighted the pop-star-like status that the country’s new, charismatic leader enjoys among Ethiopians, especially the country’s youth.

The forty-four-year-old prime minister addressed the World Economic Forum’s jet-setting global rich in their own language: literally, in English, but also in their neoliberal language of removing red tape for business, the power of the private sector, open markets, and integration (including Ethiopia’s commitment to joining the World Trade Organization).

Ahmed’s speech epitomized the usual pitch for global capital to come to cash-strapped developing countries (high returns! tax holidays!). But it also provided important insights on where the country may be headed, following its change of leadership in 2018 after years of protests.

The liberal establishment’s story of last year’s change in Ethiopia is a familiar one, told and retold countless times across the globe since the end of the Cold War. In 2018, this story goes, after decades of authoritarianism and a closed state-led economy, a new, enlightened leader finally arose to usher in a period of liberalization and the free market. Soon after, the World Bank approved US$ 1.2 billion in grants and loans in return for the standard package “towards supporting reforms in the financial sector including improving the investment climate.”

The new government already embarked on a partial privatization of key state-owned enterprises, as well as a hasty overhaul of the country’s regulatory framework in the hope of securing foreign capital for development. US trade delegations are ready to pounce on the lucrative state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which will sell 45 percent of its stake to foreign investors.

Recently, the German development minister complained that Germany could not just sit back and watch the US and China making billion-dollar investments in Africa: Germany should be involved too. Earlier this year, the German president and key German industrialists visited Addis to signa memorandum of understanding between the Volkswagen Group and the Ethiopian Investment Commission to set up an automotive industry in Ethiopia. Nine months into Abiy’s new leadership, the new scramble for Ethiopia has already taken off.

The post The New Scramble for Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Laws have changed and crimes are increasingly reported but survivors, activists and politicians say stigma remains.

by Elias Gebreselassie

3 Jun 2019

 

Addis Ababa – Twin sisters Dagim and Yeabsera were young children when their uncle first sexually assaulted them.

The abuse continued for years, as their father was absent – he left when they were born, and their mother worked as a domestic helper in a Middle Eastern country.

“Our uncle used to take turns to rape us, especially at middle of the night, when he was usually either drunk or high from taking drugs,” said Yeabsera.

They had been living with their uncle and maternal grandmother, who they say also physically abused them and failed to acknowledged her son’s devastating actions.

When the uncle was imprisoned for two years for shoplifting, his friends took turns abusing the children.

Dagim developed a heart problem, caused by stress. A school teacher referred her to a hospital for treatment where, finally, the twins’ trauma was revealed.

They are now 15 and, for the past two months, have been living in a refuge in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, run by the Association for Women’s Sanctuary and Development (Awsad),  the only local NGO offering shelter and rehabilitation to women and girls.

“We used to think we had no mother and father,” said Yeabsera, “but the care given by Awsad staff has got us feeling we have a real family.”

In socially conservative Ethiopia, the sexual assault of children, who make up around half of the population, is largely a taboo subject.

Ethiopian society tends to cover up the abuse, with victims often blamed for having ‘loose morals’ or for somewhat triggering the abuser

LENSI KASSAHUN, AWSAD EMPLOYEE

Chaltu, 15, worked as a domestic helper and was abused by her employer.

“Me and my sister used to get taunted in school by classmates because of our poverty, so I dropped out and got employed as a domestic maid in a stranger’s home,” she said.

The abuse started more than two years ago, with the home owner scaring her into silence by threatening to kill her family if she talked about it.

“The sexual abuse I endured was only revealed after my closest classmate persuaded me about two months ago to tell my teacher about the rape,” she said.

Awsad also provides shelter to survivors of domestic violence.

Meseret Wosenyeleh needed a safe space after her abusive husband’s family blamed her for his suicide.

Pregnant with her third child, the mother of eight-month-old twins said: “My husband’s family are threatening me with violence, accusing me of having a hand in his own suicide.”

Lensi Kassahun, who works at Awsad, said “victim blaming” is prevalent and harmful in society.

“Most of the abuse victims we treat at the centre were hurt by people close to them, especially family members,” she said. “Ethiopian society tends to cover up the abuse, with victims often blamed for having ‘loose morals’ or for somewhat triggering the abuser.”

“Victim-blaming [and the] fact that many of the abusers are sole breadwinners in households adds another layer of trauma to the psychological and physical scars victims endure.”

But there is a positive shift.

Lensi noted that domestic abuse is being increasingly reported by survivors and witnesses.

Awsad trains law enforcement officials on how to handle abuse cases and offers workshops in raising awareness and battling stigma in community centres, religious institutes and at schools.

“The most difficult case I have dealt with was of a girl that was raped daily by her father from elementary school,” said Lensi, who added that the child suffered a serious injury. This kind of abuse can be “reduced substantially” by improved laws and campaigns, she said.

Meseret Wossenyeleh is recovering from a brutal physical attack by her husband at Awsad [Michael Tewelde/Al Jazeera]

Awsad is planning more advocacy work, thanks to new civil society legislation Ethiopia adopted earlier this year.

But Maraki Tesfaye, founder of Jegnit (the Amharic word for heroine), a women’s movement, said structural problems must be tackled.

“Do victims know of a government centre they can go to file a complaint? Do they know abuse reporting methods and do health facilities have enough rape kits?” she said. 

Acknowledging the progress made so far, she added: “My mother gave birth to me at 15 years old, after being married off at such a young age. For her, issues of rape and consent were unfamiliar things. 

“My generation, however, is fighting for women’s rights and I have seen domestic abuse victims increasingly standing against their abusers and against a society that wants to coax them into silence.”

Adinew Abera, spokesperson at the Ministry of Women, Children and Youths Affairs (MoWCYA), said the government has added street children and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to the list of groups that are vulnerable to domestic abuse. 

“We’ve identified street children and internally displaced people as particularly prone to domestic abuse,” said Adinew. “Our ministry is working on education, sensitisation activities on domestic violence, as well as toughening laws on perpetrators of domestic violence.”

The Ethiopian government has recently amended its legislation by excluding rape crimes from pardon and amnesty laws as it lengthened jail terms for sex offenders.

“We consider domestic abuse, be it physical or sexual, as primarily an issue of moral failure,” said Adinew. “Ultimately, the society needs to be the guardian of vulnerable people among us. The Ethiopian society needs to play a proactive role in protecting the vulnerable sections of the society.”

Haymanot Abebe, mentoring and evaluation officer at Awsad, says domestic violence survivors still lack enough support [Michael Tewelde/Al Jazeera]

The ministry is currently conducting a survey to determine the extent of domestic abuse in Ethiopia.

A UN Women report in 2016 estimated that 28 percent of women endure physical and sexual violence and around 65 percent of Ethiopian women and girls have experienced female genital mutilation.

Back at the shelter, Dagim and Yeabsera – the twin sisters, and Chaltu, discuss their future. 

All three want to work in jobs that support survivors like themselves.

“We want to work in counselling services to help future rape survivors as well as help our families economically,” said Chaltu.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

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By Teshome M. Borago

 When it comes to the liberal obsession with global warming or the Democrat party’s “Green” agenda, US President Donald J Trump has always depicted them as being out of touch from reality. Case in point, New York’s Congresswoman Ocasio helped Trump and embarrassed her own party when she recently mentioned banning airplanes and “farting cows” to fight climate change. Ironically, what happened in the impoverished Ethiopia last week also became another sample of elitism behind the pro-green movement.

Last Saturday, the smooth talking Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed organized an extravagant dinner party in the capital Addis Ababa, where the entrance fee was a whopping $5 Million Birr in local currency ($173,000 dollar) per a person. According to the government, it was a fundraising event to help pay for an expensive urban project that would allocate a large area for parks, bicycle path and entertainment around the capital city.

The optics of a multimillion per plate exclusive event would not have looked that bad if Ethiopia was not one of the poorest countries on earth, with an annual income per person under $750

It was mind-boggling that there were so many super rich Ethiopians, who can afford millions for one dinner, enough to make it a well-attended legitimate event. Ethiopians wondered where are our priorities and how did all these people became millionaires, or perhaps billionaires, in a country where millions depend on food aid to survive. And many Ethiopians questioned the wisdom of prioritizing green space and bicycle paths in the city, while the government has often ignored droughts in the rural as well as small-scale irrigation, water conservation and modernization of farming in this ancient country.

But this picture looks familiar for the populist crowd across the Atlantic Ocean in the United States who elected a brash non-politician in 2016. President Trump has made a living exposing the hypocrisy of anti-Trump celebrities, elites and politicians driving around in gas-guzzling and polluting SUVs; while preaching about green energy. That was the case with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here in New York City, where a large Ethiopian-American population lives in its Bronx district. In addition to advocating for an unrealistic green economy at the expense of jobs of today, she is famous for kicking out of New York billions of dollars worth in AMAZON investment, the biggest company in the world.

Trump was successful in exposing such anti-business policies and the suffering of American jobs under too much regulation as more and more companies leave the country. He pointed out the failure of international treaties like the Obama-era Paris Agreement in lowering carbon emissions from countries like China who pollute our environment the most. As if America is a planet on its own, many US Democrat politicians self imposed a strict environmental regulation that crippled American economy, putting US companies in more competitive disadvantage globally. These politicians ignored the financial suffering of Americans in rural and industrial midwestern states while providing no alternative or transitional employment to US communities who lost income because tech-heavy few “green jobs” replaced thousands of Coal and other mining jobs. After Trump won the presidential election, Hillary Clinton even admitted in 2017 that her elitist slogan – “we are going to put coal miners out of business!” – was one of her biggest mistakes for why she lost.

Ethiopia and the United States are not unique cases. Worldwide, in the eyes of the working-class globally; electric cars, fancy parks, urban bicycle paths and pro-green policies are still foreign concepts. They are a luxury for the lower middle-class masses because green energy policies are often job-killing ideas for the developed world and investment deterrent for the developing world. But this has not stopped some dictators in third-world countries like Ethiopia from embracing the liberal talking points. In 2009, Ethiopia’s authoritarian ex-leader Meles Zenawi became the African champion fighting climate change; which rewarded him favorable media coverage in the WEST.  Meles quickly became a darling in Obama’s White House which openly defended his dictatorial actions in Ethiopia, compared to the Bush White House that casually turned a blind eye to Meles’s abuses. Obama’s office even gave an emotional eulogy and idolizing statement for the 2012 funeral of dictator Meles Zenawi, who was the first black leader to institutionalize tribal segregation and apartheid under the guise of “ethnic federalism.”

Thus it is no surprise that the Ethiopian ruling party’s new Prime Minister has adopted similar tactics; with gender-equality and pro-green rhetoric for western media consumption, while the rest of the country is burning in ethnic conflict. Ethiopia is now ranked number one in the world having the most internal displacement of its own citizens in 2018.

When the new Prime Minister is not busy doing photo-ops while digging holes to plant a tree or dinning with progressive millionaires, he is welcoming in new refugees from Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, as if Ethiopia has no overpopulation problems and feeding its own people. Not surprisingly, he was praised for allowing more refugees from neighboring countries and used by western liberal media as a tool to shame Trump’s policies for refugees at the Mexican border. The media conveniently ignored the fact that the weak Ethiopian state is forced to have open-borders policy, due to its incapacity to control its long porous borders. It seems like most of the media is willing to overlook the widespread human suffering in Ethiopia, as long as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expresses their set of beliefs.

With Ethiopia in chaos nationwide, Western elites know they have Abiy’s reputation on its knees and in their hands so they will maximize their dividends, including by pushing a long sought liberal agenda of pushing gay rights in Africa. Thus, it is no surprise that a British company has recently planned a culturally insensitive trip of planting the LGBT flag in the heart of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church – Lalibela. The group is well aware that a trip to Addis Ababa would be relatively tolerated by the Ethiopian capital’s progressive crowd and less risky for their safety; thus not newsworthy. The local Orthodox Church in the rural already refused the LGBT group entry into Lalibela. But during a BBC interview, the UK gay group leader sent a threat to Ethiopia that “the world is watching” and there will be consequences. Yet, knowing that these Western elites tolerate and make excuses for homophobic middle eastern nations nearby who are more brutally against homosexuality, there is often a racial dimension to these threats, due to racism and bigotry against the cultural sovereignty of black African nations. Nonetheless, PM Abiy is likely to comply and he will be happy to have this distraction from the unraveling security and erratic carnage through out Ethiopia.

After all while Prime Minister Abiy was fundraising by wining & dining with the super rich elite to make Addis Ababa greener; hundreds of thousands more Ethiopians were displaced due to fresh tribal conflicts like Somali vs Afar and Amhara vs Gumuz. It seems like Abiy has forgotten his national priorities as a leader, which is to fix the economy, provide safety and peace for citizens. Even optimistic Ethiopians, who admired Prime Minister Abiy’s tactics to acquire dollars from the diaspora and foreign governments, are now puzzled by his reckless plan to selloff Ethiopian Airlines to Western investors (a checklist for neo-liberalism) despite EAL being a successful national company that already operates like a private entity excelling in a global market and bringing in hundreds of millions of much needed foreign currency. Over a year since gaining power, the PM does not seem to have a clear strategy on how to stabilize the economy, nor guarantee the security of citizens around the country.

Externally, the Prime Minister is still viewed as a champion for change and considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. But domestically, the new image of the ABIY-era has become violent nativism, rabid tribalism and mass killings by vigilantes; with a little bit of public hangings in Oromia, lynchings in Sidama and outlaws in Tigray. Just in case we forget how backward Ethiopia has become, a college student was this week stoned to death by a mob in Amhara region, just because of his tribe.

If the Ethiopian people were allowed to vote between one leader who promises food & safety for citizens; or another leader who promises more gender equality & trees; they will certainly elect the first one. Similar to what happened during the 2016 US election. But it is not too late in Ethiopia. Despite the growing crisis and the massive challenges ahead, Ethiopian Premier Abiy still has time to fix his priorities by addressing the urgent problems of the common man today, instead of the future theoretical concerns of the elite.

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By Alemayehu G.. Mariam

4 Billion Trees? But I asked for only for 110 million!

It is so wonderful to see one’s dream come true!

In February 2019, I shared a dream about the rise of a youth environmental movementin Ethiopia.

As an environmentalist and proud tree hugger, I have always had deep concern for environmental conservation in Ethiopia. I am proud of the fact that Ethiopia is home to many species of plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else on Earth. But many of them are endangered. It is my dream to see the day when an Ethiopian youth environmental movement shall rise and plant 110 million trees (one for every Ethiopian) and join hands to save our endangered species!!!

In June 2019, “the day” I dreamed about arrived out of the blue; perhaps I should say out of the green.

Last week, H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed launched the National Green Development Program (NGDP) with the aim of planting 4 billion trees throughout Ethiopia.

I could not have been happier if I had won the California SuperLotto.

Ethiopia is the 27^th largest country in the world.

The tree planting campaign is expected to cover 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres).

Government nurseries are expected to raise 3 billion seedlings and the rest will come from private suppliers.

I was deeply moved watching PM Abiy scooping dirt with his bare hands and plating trees with his knees braced in the mud.

When was the last time an Ethiopian leader got his hands and knees in the dirt planting trees just like the millions of dirt-poor farmers ploughing the land?

Never!

The “leaders” before PM Abiy did not have dirt on their hands.

They had blood on their hands.

They had blood not only on their hands but also in their minds.

I remember in February 2013, when they broadcasted a fear-mongering three-part propaganda “documentary” entitled “Akeldama” (or Land/Field of Blood) in an attempt to create a bloodbath between Ethiopian Muslims and Christians.

Ramadan Mubarak, Eid Mubarak today to all of our Ethiopian Muslim brothers and sisters.

I will forgive, but forget? Never!

But what is the big deal about trees?

Trees are the “tree of life”.

It is written that a tree in the Garden of Eden produced food which gave everlasting life.

Human life would be impossible without trees.

Trees filter the air we breathe.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses to human health from the air and release oxygen. One large tree can supply a day’s supply of oxygen for four people.

Trees create homes for untold species of plants and animals, including humans who cut tree to make homes and cook their food.

Trees are our first line of defense against climate change.

Ethiopia is green today, not red. Thanks to PM Abiy.

The grass is also greener on the Ethiopian side.

But there are also many who cannot see the greenery in Ethiopia over the past year because they walk with the green-eyed monster.

PM Abiy in his twitter message lamented, “Over the past years, Ethiopia’s forest coverage has decreased in recent years and the initiative is set to mobilize national reforestation at 40 trees per head.”

Gimmie “40 trees and a shovel”

I am like a kid in candy store when it comes to tree planting.

I have been told I have a green thumb. I like growing plants.

I just can’t wait to go back and plant my share of 40 trees as a diaspora Ethiopian from America.

Maybe I will plant 40 trees for myself and 50 more for each state in the United States.

Well, I am so happy and excited about PM Abiy’s tree planting campaign, I have decided to plant 40 of my own, 50 for each U.S. state and 195 trees for every country in the world.

Now, top that!

By the way, that is my challenge to any Diaspora Ethiopian!

It is said there are between 1-3 million Ethiopians in the diaspora. We could easily plant at a minimum anywhere between 40-120 million trees.

After the American Civil War, African Americans had a favorite phrase: “40 acres and a mule” signifying their intent to reclaim the slave plantations.

I will be promoting the NGDP in the Ethiopian Diaspora with the tagline, “40 trees and a shovel” to reclaim the all of the lost tree cover in Ethiopia.

Gimmie 40 tress and a shovel and I will be alright!

Ecosystem degradation in Ethiopia

In a recent statement, USAID reported, “Ethiopia is a classic example of how severe degradation of ecosystems and productive agricultural lands and poor utilization of water resources increase poverty, food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, and even conflict.”

In other words, we are in deep environmental crises!

The data on environmental degradation and deforestation in Ethiopia is heart breaking.

Only 11.9% —or about 13,000,000 hectares—of Ethiopia is forested.

Between 1990 and 2000, Ethiopia lost an average of 140,900 hectares of forest per year, or an average annual deforestation rate of 0.93%.

Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change increased by 10.4% to 1.03% per annum.

In total, between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover, or around 2,114,000 hectares.

Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 interval, Ethiopia lost 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat.

Between 2001-2017, 902,000 acres lost their tree covers.

In Ethiopia, the top 5 regions were responsible for 81% of all tree cover loss between 2001 and 2017.

The major causes of deforestation in Ethiopia “are the expansion of arable land, resettlement, deliberately placed and naturally occurring forest fires, and commercial farming.”

On the other hand, when the people do not own any land, they have little motivation to plant trees on “government owned” land.

In 2002, the regime of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front TPLF enacted the “Environmental Protection Organs Establishment Proclamation No. 295/2002”.

That proclamation merely catalogues responsibilities and aspirations in 26 areas ranging from environmental impact assessments to enforcing international environmental agreements.

It is full of clichés about “sustainable development”, “efficient use of natural resources” and  “protection of the natural environment from any harm”.

But there is nothing that proclamation that can be of practical use for environmental protection or conservation.

Suffice it to say, the proclamation was drafted for window dressing and to panhandle the West for aid by individuals who are clueless about environmental legislation.

Revising that proclamation should be a top priority.

In 2011, the TPLF regime declared “the forestry sector as one of the pillars of the green economy that the country is planning to build by 2030.”

The TPLF regime “set specific targets for the forestry sector: afforestation on 2 million ha, reforestation on 1 million ha and improved management of 3 million ha of natural forests and woodlands.”

By the time the TPLF got a swift kick in the rear end, it had done to the forestry sector what it did to the country’s treasury!

By 2019, PM Abiy had to go out and shovel dirt with his bare hands to pull back Ethiopia from a total ecological disaster just like he pulled Ethiopia from a total political disaster in 2018.

And that is a fact!

Volunteerism and environmental conservation in the NGDP

To me, PM Abiy’s 4 billion tree planting campaign is much more than enhancing the tree cover of Ethiopia.

By launching the NGDP, PM Abiy has set in motion a massive volunteerism and environmental conservation program in Ethiopia.

The NGDP plants not only trees but also the seeds of a national environmental movement that is sorely needed and long overdue.

The NGDP could be the first and largest volunteerism program in Africa.

When the French political commentator Alexis de Tocqueville traveled in the U.S. in the 1830s, he was most impressed by the fact that Americans organically created voluntary civil associations with friends and neighbors to accomplish personal, social and economic  goals.

de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America (p. 581), “Americans group together to hold fêtes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries to the antipodes. They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method. Finally, if they wish to highlight a truth or develop an opinion by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association.”

de Tocqueville felt the spirit of volunteerism shaped America as a democratic society with egalitarian values.

Today, American children are taught the virtue of volunteerism at home and school from an early age.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 62.6 million Americans volunteered in 2015 with a median number of 52 volunteer hours per year.

One of the oldest volunteer service activities in the U.S. is saving and planting trees.

Since 1882, Arbor Day (day of celebrating and planting trees) is celebrated in nearly every state in the U.S. in different months.

In 2004, Congress passed legislation making oak America’s National Tree.

I am hopeful Ethiopian children will also be taught at home and school the value and virtue of volunteerism and offer their services in all areas of social need.

I am hopeful next year Ethiopia will officially join the dozens of countries that celebrate Arbor Day.

I am also hopeful Ethiopia’s parliament will declare a national tree in the foreseeable future.

There is a large list of unique trees in the “The Red List of Endemic Trees & Shrubs of Ethiopia and Eritrea” from which to choose.

My life as a tree hugger goes way back

I pride myself as a committed environmentalist. A tree hugger is a committed environmentalist who would hug a tree to prevent it from being cut.

The first movement I joined when I came to the U.S. nearly fifty years ago was NOT the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, the free speech movement or even the hippie counterculture movement. Those came later.

The first movement I joined in America was the environmental movement.

The early 1970s marked the beginning of  environmental activism in America.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established the year I came to the U.S.

Massive dumping of toxic waste on land and in the water were highly controversial issues.

By 1980, Congress had established the Superfund program to cleanup sites highly contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.

There were popular movies such as the China Syndrome dramatizing the runaway meltdown of a nuclear plant and destruction of the environment.

But the reason I joined the environmental movement was not because of environmental disasters in the U.S.

The real reason was DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).

DDT was something that was close and personal to me.

I was deeply moved by Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, a beautifully written book about the indiscriminate use of pesticides, and specifically DDT, and the disastrous ecological consequences for life on the planet.

In the first chapter of the book entitled, “A Fable for Tomorrow”, Carson talked about an unnamed American town, in gut-wrenching terms, where all life had been “silenced” by the effects of DDT, “the most powerful pesticide the world had ever known.”

DDT was extremely effective against malaria and other pests.

The problem was DDT not only killed birds, fish, bees and other animals by the tens of  millions, it also remained potent in the soil and surfaces for a prolonged period of time causing ecological devastation.

Carson’s message was if we continue to use such chemicals we will end with a silent world as insects, bees and food chain would collapse.

Carson’s book made environmentalism a personal issue for me.

I remember DDT as a child in Ethiopia in the mid-1960s.

The white powder of DDT was not only used to kill malaria mosquitoes in the countryside but also given widely to the population, including children, for delousing and sprayed on houses and crops.

Despite its proven toxicity one-half century ago, even today, TODAY, DDT is illegally sold on the black market in Ethiopia and bought by some unscrupulous farmers who raise khat.

In college, one of my dreams was to return to Ethiopia after completing my studies and help start an environmental movement.

(Oh, yes! The younger generation today should know back in those days no Ethiopian ever wanted to go to America or anywhere else for education and remain there. To the last man and woman, all of us wanted to go back and help our country! But as the poetic line goes, “The best laid plans of mice of men often go awry…”)

For nearly five decades, I have been a member of various environmental organizations (civic associations) including the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, The Environmental Defense Fund, Audubon Society, The National Geographic and others.

I enjoy hitting the back-country trials in Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon or the Mojave Desert or the switchbacks of Southern California’s mountain ranges.

When I returned to Ethiopia in 2018 after 48 years, save a few months in 1974, I had a chance to travel to many parts of the country by plane and car.

The forests of Bale Zone were breathtaking. But even there deforestation and forest fires had taken their toll.

In many part of Ethiopia, the effects of deforestation from an aerial view was heartbreaking.

Nearly one-half century ago when I left Ethiopia, I recalled seeing  trees throughout the countryside. There were many forests (chakas).

Today, it feels like all the trees are but a memory. Gone!

But with the 4 billion tree campaign, they shall make a comeback better than before!

Fighting against crimes against nature in Ethiopia

Over the past 14 years, I have been fighting not only against crimes against humanity in Ethiopia but also crimes against nature.

In March 2009, I wrote commentary entitled, “Cry me a Lake: Crime Against Nature.”

I was crying about the plight of tens of thousands of Ethiopians who were getting sick and dying from drinking  the polluted waters of Lake Koka, once a pristine lake, located some 50km south of Addis Ababa.

At the time, a prominent scientist from the University of Durham, U.K., had analyzed water samples from Lake Koka and found “high concentrations of the microcystis bacteria”, which he said are among “some of the most toxic molecules known to man.”

Other studies have sounded the alarm on the health effects of pollutants and destruction of the Lake Koka ecosystem and called for immediate action, to no avail.

The nightmare of Carson’s “Silent Spring” came back to me.

As I researched the issue of environmental degradation, the scope of the ecological disaster of the “developmental state” of the TPLF became clear to me. It was far more than pollution of one river. I argued:

The Lake Koka environmental disaster is only the tip of the iceberg.

Ethiopia is facing an ecological catastrophe: deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, overgrazing and population explosion. The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute says Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11 years, by the year 2020.

In December 2009, I wrote a commentary (updated in 2011) entitled, “The Toxic Ecology of African Dictatorships”.

In that commentary, I argued dictatorship and ecological disaster in Africa go hand in hand:

The inconvenient truth about Africa today is that dictatorship presents a far more perilous threat to the survival of Africans than climate change. The devastation African dictators have wreaked upon the social fabric and ecosystem of African societies is incalculable…. Africans face extreme privation and mass starvation not because of climate change but because of the rapacity of power-hungry dictators.

In my December 2009 commentary, “The Mouse That Roared in Copenhagen”, I criticized the “delegation of African negotiators” who went to Copenhagen to load up tens of billions of dollars in carbon blood money from the West.

In March 2012, I defended the environmental rights of Ethiopians living in the Omo River Basin in Southwestern Ethiopia who were facing an existential threat from habitat destruction in my commentary, “The Dam and the Damned: Gibe III Ethiopia”.

In that commentary, I exposed the lies of the TPLF’s Environmental Protection Authority which had issued a bogus Gibe III Environmental Social Impact Assessment approving the project.

That report was a shameless whitewash which unabashedly concluded there will be little adverse environmental impact and that the reservoir area for Gibe III is unfit for human habitation because it is infested by deadly mosquitoes and tsetse flies (which cause “sleeping sickness”).

I have followed with interest allegations of environmental pollution by the MIDROC Gold Mine company Lega Dembi, Oromia Regional State.

On April 27, 2019, it was announced the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum will issue a report on the MIDROC allegations.

I have not been able to find that report online.

But it is a new day in Ethiopia.

With a revised environmental protection proclamation, massive youth volunteer engagement in environmental conservation and especially tree planting, I expect in 10 years Ethiopia will be a model for environmentalism for the rest of Africa.

I remember: Meles Zenawi’s weaponization of environmentalism and population displacement

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Therefore, I must remember.

In April 2012, I challenged the late capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of the TPLF Meles Zenawi in my commentary, “Green Justice or Ethnic Injustice?”

Meles Zenawi weaponized environmentalism and made it a tool of population  displacement.

Meles Zenawi’s decision as the highest authority in the land to remove those he called “some 30,000 sefaris (squatters) from North Gojam [who] had settled in Benji Maji (BM) zone [in Southern Ethiopia]” caused me a great deal of grief and anguish.

Meles Zenawi declared, the “North Gojam sefaris” must be forcibly removed because the

squatters settled individually and haphazardly and in an environmentally destructive way.The squatters want land that can be easily developed and cultivated. They don’t care if it is a forest or not. They cut the forest and used the wood to make charcoal to aid in their settlement. As a result, massive environmental destruction has occurred…. Settlers cannot move into the area and destroy the forest for settlement. It is illegal and must stop.

But Meles Zenawi was silent (as Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring) when his friends, comrades, supporters, liberation front members and cronies ravaged the Gambella and Omo regions and wreaked ecological havoc.

Meles Zenawi gave an Indian “investor” land in Gambella region “2,500 sq km (1,000 sq miles) of virgin, fertile land – an area the size of Dorset, England – for 50 years, plus generous tax breaks 150 pounds a week displacing tens of thousands and devastating the ecology.

In the end Meles Zenawi and his TPLF “realized the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Including environmental justice!

A call to “Generation Abiy”

In April 2007, I issued a call to “Diaspora Ethiopian Firefighters” in a commentaryentitled, “The Hummingbird and the Forest Fire: A Diaspora Morality Tale.”

That commentary was based on an allegory about a forest fire and the animals that were beset by it.

In the story, there were big animals wind bagging about how they can easily put out the forest fire.

But it was the tiny hummingbird that was carrying droplets of water from the river trying to put out the fire.

In 2007, I made a “call for Ethiopian Diaspora Fire Brigades” to rise up and save their homeland that has been set on fire by the TPLF.

In my call, I urged them “not fight fire with fire” but to “spray hope and optimism over the despair and misery inflicted upon our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia”.

In 2007, I reminded Diaspora Ethiopian youth to never have doubts that though they

may  inherit a society devastated by decades of political repression and human rights abuse,” they will one day help “build a City Upon a Hill — a just, humane and pious society — where no man or woman will fear his or her government, where government will dutifully respect the rights and liberties of its citizens, where every person can stand tall and freely speak his or her mind, and where no man, woman or child will ever lose life, liberty of property without due process of just laws.

Today, I remind “Generation Abiy” that “one day”, I prophesied about in 2007 has arrived.

We will need tens of billions of trees to build that City Upon the Hill.

In 2007, I urged young diaspora Ethiopians to “plant the seeds of freedom and libertyon a land charred and ravaged by political violence, corruption, savagery and lawlessness.” I concluded:

Young Firefighters, Lead the Fire Brigades… My favorite people in the world are young people, young Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans. They are the most courageous, audacious, tenacious and passionate Ethiopians I know. God bless them all! They are the only ones who can fight this fire and put it out. The rest of us are water carriers.

In 2019, I am issuing a call to action to “Generation Abiy”.

I say to “Generation Abiy”, you have put out the fire that consumed your country for the last 27 years.

You did not fight fire with fire. You fought fire with life giving water, with resolute defiance, peaceful protest and resistance.

You have saved your country from a bloody civil war.

You now have a big job ahead of you.

You must now save the ecosystem of Ethiopia.

You must plant trees and to replace the trees burned in the forest fire that lasted for 27 years.

You must save the trees. You must plant new trees.

In 2019, I call upon “Generation Abiy” to launch environmental civic associations just like those in America.

In 2019, I call upon “Generation Abiy” to lobby and mobilize to have Arbor Day celebrated in Ethiopia.

In 2019, I call upon “Generation Abiy” to educate themselves about environmental conservation and teach the people.

In 2019, I call on “Generation Abiy” to take the lead in planting 4 billion trees.

In 2019, I tell “Generation Abiy”, “Hold on, I’m coming!”

With “40 trees and a shovel” in hand!

In 2007, I told the TPLF that they have troubled the Ethiopia House and they shall inherit the wind.

In 2019, I shall prophesy that We, the meek and salt of the earth have inherited the land and We “shall delight ourselves in the abundance of peace.”

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