Year: 2016
- Africa
Qilinto fire: Eyewitness – “They were indiscriminately shooting at prisoners”
Mahlet Fasil In a disturbing e-mail message received by Addis Standard, an eyewitness who said he was on guard the morning of Saturday Sep 3, says that armed prison guards were indiscriminately shooting at prisoners” most of whom were running “frantically to extinguish the fire” that broke at Ethiopia’s notorious prison ward known as Qilinto, in Aqaqi, on the outskirts…
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Death toll, tension rise following PM Hailemariam’s orders for military to take measures in Amhara Region
Several people are reported to have been killed in various parts of the Amhara regional state in Northern Ethiopia, where an ongoing protest by the people is intensifying. The VOA Amharic service quoted a resident in Debarq yesterday that four people were killed when security officers fired live bullets at protesting civilians. Over the last few days several reports on…
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Dire Dawa: From El Niño to La Niña
Tesfalem Waldyes Dire Dawa – For residents of Dire Dawa, a city 515 km East of Addis Abeba, mid-day on May 12, 2016 was not the usual break time. Residents who were on their way home for lunch were forced to stop when they reached the big waterway that divides the city into two parts. Dire, as residents fondly call…
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#USElection2016 – The un-Republican
Tomas Mega The last weeks of July saw Americans enduring eight days of national political conventions, ending in the selection of the candidates to run for President. As conventions go, they were similar in the pomp that cloaks all national political conventions, but they were historic and unprecedented too. American Democrats nominated the first woman to…
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Enforced morality and the banning of Non-Ethiopian school celebrations
Kalkidan Yibeltal It is easy to detect a certain underlying absurdity, and perhaps futility, in Addis Abeba City Administration’s attempt to ban non-Ethiopian celebrations in schools. But the administration is drafting a law to that effect, so we are told. The celebrations in question include Halloween and Crazy Day. Teenage students attending many of the city’s schools, especially the private…
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OPDO: Lost, confused and at a crossroads
Kalkidan Yibeltal &Tesfalem Waldyes Less than a year after the Oromo People’s Democratic Party (OPDO), part of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), celebrated its 25th founding anniversary the Oromo protests took the region OPDO is seemingly in charge of by a sheer storm. The protests, which broke out on November 12, 2015 in Ginchi, a small town…
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Germany gives more support for refugee food assistance in Ethiopia
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has today received confirmation of a contribution of €4 million (more than US$4.3 million) from the Federal Republic of Germany to help provide food needs of refugees sheltered in Ethiopia. The new funding will help WFP to provide monthly food rations and cash-based transfers for more than 600,000 refugees from Eritrea, South Sudan…
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Guest Editorial: The OPDO Challenge: Defining the problem
Ezekiel Gebissa, Special to Addis Standard In the last two years, the Oromia region has gone through tumultuous times. New political realities are emerging. A new generation of Oromos has arisen demanding respect for constitutionally-guaranteed, universally-accepted human rights. The awakening of a new demand-bearing generation is a new political reality signifying the Oromo struggle for human dignity has now reached…
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News: Carnage as Ethiopia forces conduct massive crackdown against anti-government protesters in multiple places
Addis Standard has so far received reports of the death of more than 50 Ethiopians in Oromia and Amhara regions of the country following massive anti-government protests over the weekend, during which the government entirely shut down internet connections throughout the country. According to several tips received by Addis Standard from individuals who want to remain anonymous for fear of…
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Ethiopia braces for massive protest rally called by online Oromo protest activists
Government planning a meeting with opposition representatives by end of this month, Addis Standard learned Online activists of the #OromoProtest, a persistent anti-government protest by Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, have called for massive protest rallies throughout the Oromia regional state, the largest among the nine regional states in Ethiopia. Accordingly, activists are calling on a region-wide protest on…
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