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Lelisa Desisa started with cool judgment, held on with stern resolve, and finished with blazing passion to win the New York City Marathon today. The Ethiopian’s 2:05:59 is the second fastest time in the race’s 48 years. His training partner and protégé, Shura Kitata, chased him to the last drop of willpower up the draining final incline to Tavern on the Green, and will follow Desisa in the record book, as the third fastest ever on this demanding course, 2:06:01.
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Both disappeared after the finish into a gleeful three-man hug with their coach, Haji Adillo Roma. They had plenty to celebrate. It was Ethiopia Strikes Back, a dramatic riposte against what until today seemed total Kenyan dominance of the world men’s marathon in 2018.
Mary Keitany, Lelisa Desisa Win 2018 New York City Marathon
by Runner’s World US
Everyone read this race wrong, except Desisa. Prerace, Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya was universally the hot favorite. He was the defending champion, possessed of stellar track and road times, close friend of the godlike world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge, whom he has recently matched in training. Through 24 miles, moving smoothly, he appeared to have things under control, just as we all expected.
We were wrong. While Kamworor was leading the anxious-looking Desisa through Central Park with three miles to go, he seemed to be holding the pressure, waiting for his moment to break the chain. In cold stats reality, in mile 24 Kamworor slowed to 4:45, after running 4:29 for mile 23. He was hurting. It was Desisa who chose the moment. Near mile 25, as we waited for Kamworor to thrust in the sword, Desisa looked ahead, tossed away his woolen hat, and threw in the fierce surge that seized the race.
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Desisa knew what he wanted, and only he believed possible. He has twice won the Boston Marathon, and is beloved there for returning his 2013 medal to the city as a gesture of support after the bombings that year. But in five attempts at New York, he has always been the gallant loser, three times standing on the podium, without a victory. He neatly summed up his New York history after the race, in willing but less than perfect English.
“I think this year to be champion,” he said. “In New York, I am number 2, number 3, one year I did not finish, again number 3. This year I decide to be the champion. I am tired for champion here. This is my dream.”
While Desisa has been winning marathons since 2013, Kitata is the rising force. He hit the headlines in April as the surprise challenger and runner-up to Kipchoge in London in a personal best of 2:04:49, burned a fast solo 59:16 half marathon in Philadelphia in September, and started out today with youthful confidence and aggression. Perhaps youthful folly. It’s not often that anyone risks putting a gap on a world-class field up the quite steep first mile on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
“I did everything my coach told me,” Kitata said through an interpreter. “I was extremely confident of a fast time, so I was happy to lead the race. Later I felt that effort in my legs, so dropped behind Lelisa and Geoffrey. But when my legs felt better, I was confident I could be second.”
Lelisa Desisa falls to the ground after claiming his first NYC Marathon victory.
Kamworor had no response, though he has the consolation that his 2:06:26 for third is the fourth-fastest New York time ever, and four minutes faster than his winning time in 2017. At the postrace media conference, Kamworor looked more disappointed than he was willing to admit.
“I am happy. I gave out the best I could,” he said. But he will need a bit more of the Kipchoge magic if he is to emulate his mentor.
Or perhaps Kamworor was simply outsmarted by a well-drilled team. The early miles were a display of collaborative running by the Ethiopians. At three miles, they had the first four places. Kitata was usually out front by about 30 yards, arms pumping, smiling cheerfully, sometimes even seeming to interact with Ethiopian spectators. Training buddies Desisa and Tamirat Tola sometimes moved alongside, most often when Kitata slowed at drink tables, exchanging hand signals. All are coached in Addis Ababa by Roma, who told Runner’s World before the race “they are all well prepared.”
Desisa described how carefully they ran their accelerating race.
“We ran halfway on pace for 2:06-plus. Then we increase after halfway, especially after 35K,” Desisa said. The “we” is significant. Kamworor had no Kenyan company, once former London champion Daniel Wanjiru drifted back at halfway, and then the little-known Festus Talam just before 20 miles.
The Ethiopia/Kenya rivalry in major marathons is unofficial and usually unnoticed, but when Desisa won Boston in 2013 and 2015, the way he worked with his compatriots shaped both races. This time it looked as if Kitata, 22, was the star, and the older Desisa, 28, was there to support and protect him.
Wrong again. When Kamworor first attacked at 22 miles, it was Desisa who moved right with him, and Kitata who drifted. In the last 800 meters, when the resurgent Kitata swept past Kamworor into second, and closed within strides of Desisa, it took one glance for Desisa to dig even deeper and drive himself to the tape, two seconds clear. It was the closest men’s finish at New York since 2005.
“At 800 to go, I saw him. I know him. We train together. He is a young and strong guy. I am afraid of him. But this is my dream,” Desisa said.
Desisa won $100,000 for the victory, plus a $45,000 bonus for going sub-2:06.
More from Oromian Economist sources,
Lelisa Desisa, who won the Boston marathon in 2013 minutes before the bomb attack and in a loving gesture gave his medal to the city and then return back to win it again in 2015. Won the NYC marathon today! This is what hero’s look and act like! pic.twitter.com/E2kdwz1tfT
<span title="The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon was fast, historic, and decisive. ">El maratón 2018 TCS New York City fue rápido, histórico y decisivo. <span title="The 2018 TCS New… https://t.co/WjCPHdkgro
The Council of Southern Nations region yesterday accepted Sidama Zone’s request to become a state and restructured other administrative districts.
A referendum in the zone of perhaps four million people now needs to be organized before August. London-based activist Seyoum Hameso believes the course is set for the Sidama to form the tenth federal state.
“The demand for regional status is long-standing. It is the first time in over two decades the democratic and constitutional order is being implemented. The reformist government of Dr Abiy Ahmed is walking the talk to democratize Ethiopia and uphold the rule of law,” he said in an interview.
Ethiopia’s federal constitution provides for “unconditional” self-determination including secession for communities that share a “large measure” of language, culture or other traits and inhabit the same territory.
A request to pursue statehood was accepted by zonal authorities on July 18, although the campaign also reached that stage in 2006.
Federal restructure
SNNP’s Council restructured the region of around 20 million people and more than 80 groups, adding three zones and 44 woredas. Konso was made a zone in a split from Segen Zone, which was itself a 2011 amalgamation of three special woredas. Alaba Zone was created from out of Kembata Tembaro Zone and Gamo-Gofa Zone has been split into two.
Ethiopia has nine federal regions and two self-governing cities, Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. Each state has its own legislative chamber and revenue-raising powers. They range in size from Oromia’s population of around 40 million to Harari, which has less than 300,000 people. Zonal authorities are generally responsible for planning services, while woredas primarily delivery them. Elections for woreda leaders and also for the councils of kebeles, the lowest administrative tier, were postponed this year due to instability. Ethiopia’s four-party region-based ruling coalition and affiliated parties virtually monopolize the federation’s millions of elected seats. According to a 2007 census, the population of Sidama Zone, which has an area of 10,000 square kilometers, was three million people who were 93 percent Sidama. The district is bordered by Oromia region and SNNP’s Gedeo Zone on the south, Wolayta Zone to the west, and on the north and east by Oromia. Click here to read more
Breaking: The #SNNP Regional State Council has decided #Sidama Zone’s request for a regional state to be implement in line with the Constitution. AS learned that the Council okayed the request after securing more than 2/3 of the required votes pic.twitter.com/Q5PAxszq94
#Sidama Region becoming official. The next will be Wolaita Regional State formation. CONGRATULATIONS to all My Brothers of Sidama Origin pic.twitter.com/NI9FYfgcBS
They were tortured for their political beliefs. They saw friends shot dead by security forces. They were forced to cut their hair and give up other cultural traditions. This year, they say, they caused a revolution.
Young men from Ethiopia’s Oromo, the country’s largest ethnic group, proudly declare “we won” when describing their role in the rise of 42-year-old reformer Abiy Ahmed, also an Oromo, to become prime minister.
Across the Oromiya region, many of those young men claiming victory now want Abiy to deliver – and fast. The “Qeerroo”, an Oromo term meaning “bachelor” adopted by politically active young men, are demanding answers.
Will there be justice for friends who died during strikes and protests over the past three years? Will their rights as Oromos be respected? When will Abiy’s pledges of change help their impoverished communities?
Whether Abiy can answer those demands without favouring his home region over the rest of the country will dictate whether the young men remain an asset to him or become a dangerous liability. Before he came to power, the Oromo youths had already demonstrated they could shut down parts of the country with protests and strikes, and that pressure on the ruling EPRDF culminated in the resignation of Abiy’s predecessor in February.
Even as they celebrate Abiy, the Oromo youth are still frustrated with life under the EPRDF, a one-time Marxist-Leninist movement which has controlled nearly every aspect of Ethiopians’ lives since seizing power 27 years ago.
Frustration has spilled into violence. In September, Oromo youths were reported by Amnesty International to have carried out deadly mob attacks on other ethnic groups near Addis Ababa. Police said 28 died.
Elsewhere in Oromiya, young men are starting to challenge the state. They want local officials sacked and have booed them out of rallies.
“I appreciate Abiy for the reform he brought, and blame him for not removing those corrupt and evil killers from their positions and bringing them to court,” said unemployed accountant Dambal Dejene, 26, at a rally in the town of Woliso.
Abiy became prime minister in April after the EPRDF decided reforms were essential for its survival.
His appointment was a small step towards breaking the power of the Tigrayan elite who have controlled the state since they took power in 1991 and founded the EPRDF as a coalition with other ethnic political parties.
Youths wearing traditional Oromo costumes attend an Oromo Liberation Front rally asked what they want from the government, more than a dozen young Oromo men told Reuters:
“Freedom.”
“No more torture.”
“Justice.”
“Economic opportunity. Jobs.”
“End to corruption and unfair land deals.”
“Respect for our culture. Dignity.”
“Democracy.”
“Free and fair elections.”
A man wearing traditional Oromo costume rides a horse during an Oromo Liberation Front rally.
Abiy announced reforms several months ago but these have stalled in part due to a spike in ethnic violence.
More than one million people have been forced to flee their homes since Abiy took office. In the most serious violence, Oromo communities have clashed with other groups.
Acknowledging a breakdown of the rule of law, the EPRDF said last month: “Anarchy is witnessed in the country.” In a speech to parliament, Abiy said: “Lawlessness is the norm these days. It is something that is testing the government.” He has reshuffled his cabinet and formed a “Ministry of Peace”.
Gelana Emana (right), 36, the leader of a group of politically active youth from the Oromo ethnic group, sits in a cafe with fellow activists Alemu Kumarra (center), 26, and Dinaol Dandaa, 27.
Some young Oromos seem emboldened to settle old ethnic scores, said Felix Horne, Ethiopia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Since Abiy came to power, things have changed,” he said. “The ethno-nationalist narrative is much more dominant than it used to be … a lot of the young Oromos are not willing to take ‘second place’,” Horne said.
“The youth have already shown that they can be very influential. How they choose to be influential is an important question,” said a senior western diplomat in Addis Ababa. “Their support, or non-support, for the reform agenda will directly impact how quickly and how well the reform agenda succeeds.”
Abiy’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for Abiy’s political party said changes were needed at the grassroots.
“Anyone who was slapping you, shouting at you, seeing that face may dissatisfy the people. We feel it,” said Taye Dendea, public affairs head for the Oromo Democratic Party.
He requested patience from the youths while the ruling coalition implements change.
Magarsa Kanaa teaches in his classroom.
But like many young Oromos, Magarsa Kanaa, a 28-year-old teacher, said he is still very upset at the crimes committed by security forces against his friends.
He named one who was shot dead at a protest last year, and said he and other young men “are starting a committee to seek justice for him and other guys”.
Magarsa Kanaa stands on a hill.
Proud to be wearing his hair in an Afro, he spoke bitterly of how the government had not allowed Oromos to practice their culture. Men his age, he explained, like to wear their hair in the shape of the “Odaa”, the Oromo word for the sycamore tree that is significant as the site of rituals and meetings to resolve disputes.
Instead, he said: “We were forced to cut our hair.”
The 32-year-old with 1.4 million Facebook followers returned to Ethiopia in August from the United States. He told Reuters that although he used social media to coordinate Oromo youths in strikes and protests, he also “built a solid ground network” in every town in the region. Jawar is the movement’s hero.
“Jawar Mohammed is my pride,” said Dambal, the accountant. “He took the Oromo struggle to the next level. We were lacking someone to lead the youth … he made us line up all together all over Oromiya and win.”
Interviewed in a villa in Addis Ababa surrounded by bodyguards provided by the government, Jawar justified Oromo nationalism: “When the state particularly represses an ethnic identity, you are forced to defend it.”
But his “Qeerroo” are disciplined, he said, and will stick to non-violent resistance.
At a rally in the town of Kemise, north of the capital, Jawar told thousands of young men chanting “Qeerroo’s Father is here!”: “Obey Abiy. Don’t be emotional in order to help the reforms.” But on social media, his language is often less restrained.
Speaking to Reuters, he argued that Ethiopia is experiencing a “promising and terrifying” moment where the “power of the people” is rising and the state’s legitimacy has collapsed.
“People power” – particularly from the Oromo – is a strength for Abiy, but rebuilding and controlling the state is an urgent problem, Jawar said.
“If (Abiy) doesn’t move quickly to take full control of state power, so that he can use it to answer some of the demands of the youth … these people will turn against him.
“They think this is their government … So it’s just a ticking time bomb. We’ve gotta move fast,” he said, referencing elections that are due in 2020. He said Abiy “has good intentions, but he has no plan, no deadline.”
“The youth moved the struggle we have been undertaking for the last 50 years one step forward,” said Merera Gudina, 62, leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress. “The PM makes a lot of promises. If he cannot walk his talk, then he’ll face the youth, definitely.”
French president Emmanuel Macron (R) and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are both keen to present themselves as reformist leaders
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hailed “unprecedented” moves by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to transform his country as the young African leader makes his first trip to Europe.
Abiy, 42, has won global praise for forging peace with neighbouring Eritrea, announcing economic reforms and reaching out to dissidents, but is grappling with bloody ethnic disputes which have displaced some 1.4 million people.
Macron offered “all my support and that of France” in reforming Ethiopia and “in calming domestic tensions”, telling Abiy at a press conference in Paris: “You have here a country which loves yours but also admires the transformation you are carrying out”.
“I know how much he has risked to see these reforms through and how much these reforms are fraught with difficulties, but also how much Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has chosen a courageous path,” Macron told reporters.
“The political, economic, social and cultural transformation that you are in the process of carrying out and that you’ve committed to in Ethiopia is unprecedented,” added Macron, another leader keen to present himself as a reformer.
Abiy vowed to tackle the violence gripping Ethiopia, saying it would be resolved through “greater peace-building in the whole country”.
“The communal conflicts cannot undo the reform agenda,” he added, arguing that economic reforms would help end the violence by bringing greater prosperity.
“The reform process is contributing to greater peace in the country,” he said.
Analysts see no single cause for the killing that has stretched from the countryside to the capital and left scores of Ethiopians dead.
But they say Abiy, who inherited a vast, ethnically diverse nation used to the iron-fisted rule of his predecessors, has his work cut out for him as he seeks to impose his leadership without tipping into authoritarianism.
French officials signed a string of cooperation deals with their counterparts from Africa’s second most populous nation, in areas ranging from transport and energy to culture.
French experts are set to advise Ethiopian officials on how to open the national palace, dating back to the rule of Haile Selassie who was emperor until 1974, to tourists.
Related, Oromian Economist sources,
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has started his tour of Europe. He will start in France where he will meet with President Emmanuel Macron. Ahmed will then proceed to Germany to attend the G-20 meeting. CGTN’s Girum Chala has more…
He was received by German’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Prime Minister is expected to have bilateral discuss with Merkel shortly.
The Premier will address 25,000 Ethiopians drawn from different European countries in Frankfurt tomorrow.
Moreover, he will attend the second edition of the Compact with Africa (CwA) meeting schedule to take place later today. At least 12 African heads of state will also attend the event.
The CwA was initiated under the German G20 Presidency to promote private investment in Africa, including in infrastructure.
The CwA’s primary objective is to increase attractiveness of private investment through substantial improvements of the macro, business and financing frameworks.
It brings together reform-minded African countries, international organizations and bilateral partners from G20 and beyond to coordinate country-specific reform agendas, support respective policy measures and advertise investment opportunities to private investors.
The initiative is demand-driven and open to all African countries. Since its launch in 2017, the CwA has sparked great interest.
So far, 11 African countries have joined the initiative- Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. Click here to read from the source, Fana
— FBC (Fana Broadcasting Corporate S.C.) (@fanatelevision) October 30, 2018
HE PM Abiy Ahmed had a productive discussion with Chancellor Angela Merkel. #Germany committed to support #Ethiopia’s reform process. The partnership includes cooperation on the reintegration of former combatants, agricultural mechanization, financial & technical cooperation. pic.twitter.com/0oN7eNi9UM
HE PM Abiy Ahmed attend the #G20 Investment Summit in #Berlin where he made a case for investing in Ethiopia. He outlined key priorities for #Ethiopia including the urgent need to create more and better jobs through an expanded space for the private sector. #Ethiopia. pic.twitter.com/KS1BI1uPvG
In this second instalment of Ethiopia Insight’s podcast, William Davison talks with Addis Standard‘s Editor-in-Chief Tsedale Lemma about Ethiopia’s media landscape and the impact of social media.The podcast was recorded exactly a month ago on Sep. 26. That was not long after the confusing and deadly events that occurred around the time of the OLF and G7 rallies in Addis Ababa, which generated plenty of heated exchanges.
We go over the negative and positive aspects of the online conversation on Ethiopia current affairs and consider how the issue of a weak private press contributes to the more problematic elements.
Looking ahead, we discuss what the Government can do to improve its communications and the environment for the media, and talk about the prospects for such positive change occurring in time to affect the 2020 elections. Click here to listen to the Audio
Marathoner who sought exile after making protest gesture at 2016 Olympic Games returns amid political reforms at home.
Feyisa: ‘I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain’ [File: Athit Perawongmetha/ Reuters]
An Ethiopian marathon runner who made global headlines with an anti-government gesture at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics finish line has returned from exile.
Feyisa Lilesa’s return on Sunday came several months after Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy took officein the East African nation and announced sweeping political reforms.
The runner held his arms over his head, wrists crossed, as he finished second in the 2016 Olympicsin solidarity with protesters in his home region, Oromia.
He sought asylum in the United States, saying he feared he would be imprisoned or killed if he returned home.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu received Feyisa at Addis Ababa’s airport, where relatives – clad in traditional attire from the Oromia region – and fans had also gathered.
Athlete Feyisa Lilesa, the man who brought the voice of Ethiopians to the ears of the world, is back home after 25 months of exile in the US. #Ethiopia
PHOTO CREDIT: @ebczenapic.twitter.com/gd1Jm9Cmot
Feyisa said the new government is “a result of the struggle by the people” and he hopes it will address concerns after years of repression.
“I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain,” the medal-winning runner told the Reuters news agency upon arrival.
‘Loved by my people’
The unrest in Ethiopia was originally triggered by protests over a government development plan for Addis Ababa, which critics said would lead to expropriation of farmland in the surrounding Oromia region.
Hundreds were subsequently killed by security forces as the demonstrations evolved into rallies against perceived political and economic marginalisation of ethnic Oromos.
In April, the EPRDF coalition which has ruled the country since 1991, elected Abiy – a 42-year old ethnic Oromo – as prime minister.
“I knew the dictatorship would eventually fall down,” Feyisa said. “I was expecting this day, but I did not know if it would be today or tomorrow, but it has been clear in my mind that I would go back to my father’s land alive.”
As well as making peace with neighbour Eritrea, Abiy has pursued a reconciliation strategy, extending an olive branch to dissidents and rebel groups, although the changes have not stopped bouts of ethnically charged violence.
After Rio, 28-year old Feyisa competed in a number of marathons, winning some. He told reporters he planned to focus on training for his sport.
“I can still bring good results for my country in my field,” he said. “I was loved by my people because I am a sportsman not because I am a politician. I only brought their suffering to global attention by using my profession.”
More from Oromia Economist sources:-
The best news of the day.
791 days after he protested the Ethiopian government for his #Oromo people while crossing the finish line at the 2016 Olympics, Feyisa Lilesa has returned home to Ethiopia.
#Ethiopia: #FayisaLelisa, who brought the story of #OromoProtest to the global attention at the finish lines of #RioOlympics & subsequently lived in exile, has arrived home today. He was welcomed by Foreign & Finance Ministers Workneh Gebeyehu Ahmed Shide & thousands of his fans pic.twitter.com/jtLRB0xsLL
Marathoner Feyisa Lilesa, who held his arms over his head, wrists crossed, as he finished second in the marathon in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, has returned home from exile. #NTVAtOnepic.twitter.com/OwMpwXMojr
Welcome home Feyisa Lilesa Gemechu . You gave a global voice to the struggle. Your contribution was this success has been immeasurable! Nagaayan biyyaa abbaa isaatti galeera. pic.twitter.com/0GEAlXWkxf
Our Hero Feyisa Lilesa Gemechu is back home. He is not only an Athlet but also a Freedom Fighters. Congratulations to his family and the #OromoNationpic.twitter.com/3RvIzk3XES
“I knew this day was coming." Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa, exiled since making a protest gesture against government violence at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, returns home amid reforms https://t.co/UAehapl9xr
Inaugural conference of Finfinnee Renaissance Association –a civic organization of Oromos from Finfiinnee, 14 October 2018, huge turnout at Oromo Cultural Center.
Ulaagaan hoggantoonni muudaman kunneen ittiin filatamanis ga’umsa isaanii qofa akka ta’e Ministirri Muummee Dr. Abiy Ahimad himaniiru, BBC Afaan Oromoo
Ethiopia’s new cabinet is now a record 50 percent female, including the country’s first woman defence minister, after legislators unanimously approved the nominations put forward by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Al Jazeera News
Addis Abeba, Oct. 16/2018 – For the second time since becoming Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed formed a new cabinet today. But unlike the first one, PM Abiy has downsized the number of ministers from 28 to 20 and equalized the gender composition to 50% women and 50% men; he also gave key positions, such as minister of peace and defense, to women ministers, a move applauded by many.
The prime minister presented his new cabinet members to the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) this morning, and secured the house’s unanimous approval for the new draft bill No. 1097/2018, authorizing the power and responsibilities the new executive organ.
Breaking:PM #AbiyAhmed due to announce his new cabinet. The new ministerial portfolio will have a record number of female ministers consisting 10 out of the 20 ministers. This include the position of ministry of defense, which will be held by a woman for the first time in history
Accordingly the following are list of the ten women ministers
Muferiat Kamil -Minister of Peace
Aisha Mohammed – Minister of Defense
Adanech Abebe – Minister of Revenue
Fetlework Gebregziabher – Minister of Trade and Industry
Dagmawit Mogess – Minister of Transport
Hirut Woldemariam (PhD) – Minister of Science and Higher education
Yalem Tsegaye Assfaw -Minister of Women’s’, Children’s’ and Youth
Ergoge Tesfaye (PhD) -Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
Hirut Kassaw (PhD) -Minister of Culture and Tourism
Fitsum Assefa (PhD) – Minister of Planning and Development Commission
The following are list of the ten men ministers
Workneh Gebeyehu (PhD) – Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ahmed Shide -Minister of Finance and Economy
Umer Hussien – Minister of Agriculture
Amir Aman (PhD) – Minister of Health
Dr Getahun Mekuria -Minister of Innovation and Technology
Engineer Seleshi Bekele (eng.) Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity
Jantirar Abay -Minister of Urban Development and Construction
Samuel Hurko (PhD) – Minister of Mines and Petroleum
Berhanu Tsegaye – Attorney General with the Rank of a Minister
Tilaye Gete (PhD) – Minister of Education
In addition to appointing the reshuffled cabinet, the new draft bill No. 1097/2018 mandated the new ministry of peace to be led by former house speaker Muferiat Kamil to oversee the National Intelligence & security Service (NISS); Information Network Security Agency (INSA); Federal Police Commission; & Finance Security & Information Center; National Disaster Risk Management Commission; the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs; Ethiopian Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute; and the Main Department For Immigration & Nationality Affairs. Ministry of Peace will also assume the roles and responsibilities of former Federal & Pastoralist Development Affairs.
The bill also placed the following agencies under the auspices of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR): Ethiopian News Agency (ENA); Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority (EBA); Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA); Federal anti corruption commission; & Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.
Breaking:HPR speaker Muferiat Kamil will assume the new ministerial portfolio, Ministry of Peace; Workneh Gebeyehu will remain as minister of Foreign Affairs; and Ahmed Shide will become minister at Ministry of Finance,where he was a state minister before moving to communication pic.twitter.com/nZJ6Cuur8l
Addis Standard@addisstandard
Breaking: PM #AbiyAhmed dissolved the Government Communication Affairs Office, which was led by Ahmed Shide with ministerial portfolio and instated it under the Prime Minister’s office. Ahmed Shide will be announced the new minister of finance. Parliament is in session. pic.twitter.com/39ia7v17y5
The other major reshuffle is the dissolving of the Federal Government Communication Affairs office led by Ahmed Shide with ministerial portfolio. GCAO is no more and its mandate is restructured as press secretariat under the prime minister’s office. AS
Read more from the Oromian Economist sources:-
Ethiopia’s New Cabinet 50 Percent Women, Including Defense, The New York Times
Women win half of Ethiopia’s cabinet roles in reshuffle
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed creates new peace ministry in the latest in a string of changes, The Guardian
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back – and determined to see democracy in his country
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A man holds an Oromo Liberation Front flag as people in Addis Ababa celebrate the triumphant return of Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital’s main university, entourage in tow.
Nothing demonstrated the breathtaking transformation in Ethiopian politics over the past four months quite like the red-carpeted return of a figure who was once the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) most wanted man.
From a studio in Minneapolis, where he founded the controversial Oromia Media Network, Jawar has spent the past decade agitating over social media for political change back home in Ethiopia, which he left as a scholarship student in 2003. This was his first time in Ethiopia since 2008.
Jawar Mohammed addresses a news conference upon arriving in Addis Ababa in August. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
So effective was he as an activist that by late 2016, as anti-government protests billowed across the country compelling the EPRDF to impose a state of emergency, the Oromia Media Network was labelled a terrorist organisation and Jawar accused of crimes against the constitution.
By early 2018 the revolutionary fervour had grown so loud that Hailemariam Desalegn was forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for his enormously popular successor Abiy Ahmed, a young reformist from Oromia, Jawar’s home and the country’s largest and most populous region.
The Oromia Media Network, along with some smaller outlets and activists, has used social media to devastating effect over the past few years, coordinating boycotts and demonstrations and bringing Ethiopia’s large and often brutal security apparatus close to its knees.
“We used social media and formal media so effectively that the state was completely overwhelmed,” Jawar says. “The only option they had was to face reform or accept full revolution.”
During the course of a triumphant homecoming, the former terrorist (charges were dropped in May) toured the country, mostly around Oromia, where he was welcomed by vast and jubilant crowds. On his first day he led a tub-thumping rally in the capital’s main concert hall.
Later he travelled to Ambo, the epicentre of the Oromo protest movement – a struggle for political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures, which Jawar played a main role in orchestrating. Tens of thousands arrived to greet him, more than when Abiy visited the town shortly after his inauguration in April.
As Jawar had promised his supporters – mostly young, politically active Oromo men known as the Qeerroo – he took off his shoes and walked prophet-like through the streets of the city. He then planted a tree at the site where a young man was killed by security forces nearly 15 years ago, long before the rise of the movement that threw him into the national spotlight.
“They used to make me so happy and proud with what they did,” he said of Ambo’s Qeerroo. “So I told them: ‘One day I will come to your city and show my respect by walking barefoot.’ That day came and I had to deliver.”
Few doubt the importance of Jawar in recent Ethiopian history. Perhaps more than any other single individual, he took the once-marginal politics of Oromo nationalism and made it mainstream. Today, Oromos – the country’s largest ethnic group – dominate the highest offices of state, and Jawar enjoys significant personal influence over the country’s new leaders, including Abiy himself.
In a recent interview with local media he claimed – to the dismay of many Ethiopians – that the country now effectively has two governments: one led by Abiy, the other by the Qeerroo. This puts him in a position of extraordinary responsibility, since he is “one of the Qeerroo” and “a significant portion of the country listens to me”, he admits.
Many are uncomfortable with the whiff of demagoguery that accompanies Jawar. One Ethiopian journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) notes his “Trumpian sense of truth when inconvenient facts surface”.
He has been accused of inflating the numbers of protesters killed by security forces and, infamously, telling his followers (73,000 on Twitter and more than 1.4m on Facebook) that army helicopters fired live bullets at civilians during the tragic stampede that occurred during an Oromo cultural festival in October 2016. Independent journalists present confirmed this did not happen. He has a history of smearing journalists he disagrees with as government “agents”.
He has also been accused of inciting ethnic and religious violence. In a 2013 video, for example, he is heard saying: “My village is 99% Muslim. If someone speaks against us, we cut his throat with a machete.” Jawar says the clip was doctored, adding that he would not say such a thing because his father was a Muslim and his mother a Christian.
In recent years, he has whipped up his supporters against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the once dominant ethnic Tigrayan wing of the ruling coalition, which critics argue led to attacks against Tigrayan civilians as well as those of other ethnic groups. Jawar says that he has long sought to steer his supporters towards “non-violent resistance”, and adds that “even when TPLF was in power and actively killing our civilians we ensured Tigrayan civilians were not subject to attacks”.
These days, Jawar comes across as a more moderate and conciliatory figure. He says he plans for the Oromia Media Network to set up offices across Ethiopia and become a professionalised outfit. He points to the BBC and NPR as models. He insists he has no intention to enter formal politics, preferring to remain an activist.
“I want to help us in the next couple of years transition to democracy. And for that I want to use my influence over the population so that they can calm down, contain themselves, and ensure peace while the political leadership works out arrangements for transition,” Jawar says.
The last point is especially significant. In recent weeks instability across Ethiopia has escalated sharply, especially in his own region. The day after his interview with the Guardian a rally in the town of Shashamene turned violent, as a crowd of Jawar followers publicly hung a man they suspected of carrying a bomb. Two more died in the carnage that followed. Many Ethiopians blame him for the unrest, and he was compelled to cancel the rest of his tour.
Jawar nonetheless remains optimistic about the country’s future, and about the prospect of a peaceful politics free from violent expressions of ethnic identity. “I do believe if we democratise the Ethiopian state – allowing people of all ethnicities to participate in the political process and to get a fair share of power and wealth – there is a possibility the next generation will be proud Oromo and proud Ethiopian at the same time. I think that is possible.”
This story was amended on 21 August to include a response from Jawar Mohammed and to clarify claims against his organisation.
The Brazilian government has introduced the compulsory study of African History and Yoruba Language into the primary and secondary schools curriculum; should this be a welcome development for Africa?
It is no news that there is an age-long relationship between Brazil and the Yoruba Language. Yoruba is a language spoken across West Africa, it is the main language of the people from the Oyo Empire, and was exported to communities along the West African coast as far as Liberia, through trade and military expansion. According to ‘Metzler Lexikon Sprache,’ written by Helmut Gluck, Yoruba is the native language of about 30 Million Africans.
Although the relationship between the language and Brazilian heritage dates as far back as the Pre-colonial era, adopting it as an official language was indeed a bold step by the Brazilian authorities.
The Brazilian Minister of Culture, Dr Sérgio Sá leitão, while speaking at the Institute of African Studies, University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil paraded important dignitaries including Nigerian artists and historians, as well as professors of arts and African studies at a lecture on the importance of Yoruba language in the Brazilian culture and tradition.
According to him, the inclusion of African History and Yoruba Language in the curriculum would help bring the African Brazilian people close to their roots, and thus encourage the understandings of the language among other important languages in Brazil apart from Portuguese which is the official language.
The Minister highlighted the role played by Brazil during the festival of arts and culture, ‘FESTAC 77’, held in Lagos, Nigeria in 1977; the constant intercultural programmes between Nigeria and Brazil; the annual carnival of arts, music and cultural displays featuring prominent African artists and Yoruba writers such as Yinka Shonibare, Adeyinka Olaiya, El Anatsui among many others, including the highly respected Yoruba writer, Professor Wande Abimbola.
Brazilian Minister of Culture flanked by 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature Winner, Professor Wole Soyinka | Photo Credit: Konbini.com
Also speaking at the event, Peruvian Nobel Laureate, Prof. Mário Vargas Llosa made mention of the African community in Peru where the African Peruvians are settled till date. Vargas Llosa, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, is known as one of Latin America’s most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading writers of his generation.
According to Vargas Llosa, Yoruba people and their culture have helped the universe. He said the Yoruba language should no longer be approached as an ethnic language, but a universal language that is alive in the culture and tradition of African and her roots around the universe.
Speaking in Yoruba and Portuguese, Prof Katiuscia Ribeiro of the Institute of African Studies drew attention to the African philosophical practices introducing the constant representation of the Yoruba culture and religion in the Brazilian traditional beliefs.
A Nigerian carnival artist, painter and illustrator, Adeyinka Olaiya, also expressed the benefits the Yoruba language would bring to the Brazilian culture if fully integrated into the Brazilian educational curriculum.
According to Olaiya, living in Salvador, Brazil, is like living in any of the western states of Nigeria where the Yoruba are predominantly located.
He said:
“Most of the cultures and traditions in evidence in Brazil are all of the heritages brought along to the Latin American country by the majority Yoruba families, victims of the BARCO NEGREIROS, the NEGRO BOAT that forcefully brought the enslaved West Africans to Brazil in the 13th century.
“The Yoruba heritage that represents the majority of the African cultural practices in Brazil today is having several words in Yoruba roots. Akara, Dendê, Iyalode, Babalawo, Iyalawo and lots more are all derived from the Yoruba roots.”
Many Africans, both those living in the continent and in the diaspora have welcomed the news saying it will give the ‘lost sons’ of Africa in Brazil a sense of belonging.
Occasionally, the Nobel Committee gives a prize which is unexpected, surprising, yet deft in how it points out underappreciated research. This year, they did no such thing. Both William Nordhaus and Paul Romer have been running favorites for years in my Nobel betting pool with friends at the Federal Reserve. The surprise, if anything, is that the prize went to both men together: Nordhaus is best known for his environmental economics, and Romer for his theory of “endogenous” growth.
On reflection, the connection between their work is obvious. But it is the connection that makes clear how inaccurate many of today’s headlines – “an economic prize for climate change” – really is. Because it is not the climate that both winners build on, but rather a more fundamental economic question: economic growth. Why are some places and times rich and others poor? And what is the impact of these differences?…
As a continuation of the celebration of Oromo national and Cultural Holiday annual season, massive people turned out on 7th October 2018 to celebrate the colorful Irreechaa season at Malkaa Ateetee, in Buraayyuu. The event was colorfully and peacefully held and concluded with full of joy at Hora Gafarsaa in Buraayyu, Oromia, 10 km west to Finfinnee, the capital of Oromia. This is the 2nd biggest Irreecha Birraa celebration a week after the grand festival at Hora Harsadii, Bishoftuu, on 30th September 2018.
The Gamo people also celebrated Irreecha at Malkaa Ateetee with Oromo people.
Irreechi Malkaa Ateetee Onkoloolessa 7 bara 2018 haala bareedaa fi nagayaan irreeffatame. #Irreecha2018
“የቡራዩ የመልካ አቴቴ ኢሬቻ በሰላምና በፍቅር ተጠናቋል። የአከባቢው አሮሞ ህዝብ ከጋሞ ወንድሞች፣ እህቶችና ከሌሎችም ወንድሞች ጋር አብረው አክብረዋል.” Milkeessaa Miidhagaa
Torban Irreecha Hora Arsadeetti kabajametti, Irreecha Malkaa Ateetee Buraayyuutti, Irreecha Biyya Ameerikaa kutaa Miniyaapoolis magaalaa Lakkuutti, Awustraaliyaa magaalaa Melboornitti, akkasumas kan Keenyaa Naayiroobii ammoo Siitii Paark bakka jedhamutti kabajamee ooleera.BBCAfaan Oromoo. Goodayyaa suuraaHirmaattota Irreecha Keeniyaa magaalaa Naayiroobii, kan bara 2018Irreecha namoota 6 irraa hanga miiliyoona 6ttiIrreecha Arfaasaa AwustiraaliyaattiIrreecha biyyoota addunyaa gara garaa keessatti
Irreecha Hora Arsadee bara kanaas kan adda taasisan taateewwan hedduutu jiru. Isaan keessaas:
Sabaaafi sablammoonni obbolaan Oromoo hedduun irratti hirmaachuudha. Gareedhaan gurmaa’anii uffataafi waan eenyummaa isaanii calaqqisiisuun faayamanii sabaafi sablamoonni Kibbaa irratti argaman, saba Sidaamaa, saba Koonsoofi saba Alaabaa akka jiran gabaafnee turre.
Lakkoofsi namootaa irreecha Hora Arsadee bara kanaarratti argamees dabaluun olitti namoonni sababa gara garaan biyyaa baqatanii turan wagoota hedduun booda deebiyanii irratti argamanii galata galfataniiru.
Irreecha bara kanaa waanti adda taasisu kan biraan namoonni gaa’ela isaanii guyyaa galataa kana raawwatan baayyeen jiraachuudha.
Goodayyaa suuraaHirmaattota Irreecha Hora Arsadee kan bara 2018 keessa
Namoota Irreecha Hora Arsadee kanarratti cidha isaanii raawwatan keessaa misirroonni nuti dubbifne maaliif akka guyyaa kana filatan yeroo dubbatan, guyyaa tokkummaafi jaalalaa waan ta’eef jedhu.
Itti karoorfatanii Jimmarraa akka dhufan kan dubbatan warri walfuudhan kun, carraa namoonni miliyoonaan lakkaa’aman amaamota isaaniif ta’ellee ni dubbatu.
Irreecha 2018: Horri Finfinne hora jahan keessaa isa angafaati.
Irreechi bakkawwan kabajame maratti galata galfachuun alatti ergaan tokkumma cimsachuu, jaalala qabaachuufi quba walqabaachuu akka ta’e hirmaattonni Irreecha kan Naayiroobii irratti hirmaatan ni dubbatu.
Irreechi waltajjii aadaafi eenyummaa ta’uurra darbees kan tokkummaafi jaalalaa ta’uu isaatiinis maqaa gaarii horachaa deemuun dagagaa jiraachuu hirmaattonni ragaa ba’u.
VIIDIYOO ‘Irreecha’ Naayroobii VOA Afaan Oromoo irraa as tuquun ilaalaa.
Irreecha Aanaa Ammaayyaa Horaa Gaangooti irreeffatameera. https://www.facebook.com/tesfaye.assefa.739/posts/2357724517788071Irreecha malkaa Sabbataa haala gaariin Irreeffatame.
As confirmed by multiple media outlets and government officials, tens of thousands have been displaced and several killed in Western Oromia, Ethiopia. The whereabouts of many family members (children, pregnant women, elders and disabled) who were unable to escape is still unknown. The number of victims is rising quickly, and those who escaped need immediate humanitarian assistance at temporary sites. Click HIRPHA here to support the displaced in Western Oromia:
HIRPHA (Humanitarian Initiative to Relieve the Plight in the Horn of Africa) International is an independent, non-profit organization whose effort is solely to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of natural and man-made disasters in the Region by collecting donations from its supporters. It is registered with non-profit status under IRS Publication 557 Section 501(C), and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). For more information please visit www.hirpha.org/.
The latest round of deadly ethnic violence in Ethiopia is said to have hit the western Benishangul-Gumuz region – specifically in the Kamashi zone. The incident is said to have happened last week.
Turkish media outlet, Anadolu Agency, AA, cited a government official as confirming that 20 people had been killed with about 60,000 others displaced.
“The number of deceased could be much higher because some of the clashes occurred in far-off rural areas,” head of Oromia regional state communication bureau, Negeri lencho, told local press. He added that the perpetrators had also destroyed properties.
Reports said the cause of the clashes was after officials of Benishangul-Gumuz were reportedly murdered by unidentified gunmen. The assailants are said to have been operating disguised like the Oromia – based, Oromo Liberation Front, OLF.
OLF is an erstwhile terrorist group that was de-listed months back by the federal government. Originally operating from Eritrea, the now ex-rebel group agreed to return from exile and participate in peaceful politics.
OCHA_Ethiopia@OCHA_Ethiopia
More than 70,000 people displaced from Benishangul Gumuz region due to ethnic conflicts need urgent humanitarian assistance:https://bit.ly/2Ixzh9Y
Ethiopia’s overall internal insecurity has directly contributed to growing internally displaced figures which indicate that the country has about 1.4 million displaced – 200,000 more than Syria, according to Geneva-based International Displacement Monitoring Center, IDMC.
Ethiopia’s figures included: 171,000 persons displaced by floods in four regions. New conflict in West Guji and Gedeo zones, along the border between the Oromia and Southern Nations, Peoples and Nationalities (SNNPR) regions, triggered more than a million new displacements.
Intercommunal violence along border areas of the Oromia and Somali regions also played a role. Going by the figures, the overall number of new displacements increased sharply compared to the 213,000 reported during the same time period last year.
Somali regional state experienced its share of violence as government went in to oust former leader, and more recently in Oromia’s Burayu on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa.
Benishangul-Gumuz region has had its fair share of violence in the first half of this year with 10 people being killed in its regional capital, Asosa.
The region is multi-ethnic and hosts the country’s flagship hydroelectric project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, GERD. It will be the biggest dam in Africa after its completion. It is however the focus of a diplomatic back and forth between Ethiopia and Egypt as well as Sudan.
#Ethiopia: We call on the government to investigate the killing of at least 40 people in Kamashi Zone, Benishangul and bring to justice those responsible for killings and assassination of 4 Zone officials during the conflict. Cc @fitsumaregaapic.twitter.com/b4jE5bymJY
More than 70,000 people displaced from Benishangul Gumuz region
A new wave of violence in Kamashi zone of Benishangul Gumuz has left more than 70,000 people displaced to East Wollega and West Wollega zones of Oromia region according to a statement made by the Oromia Region Government Communication Affairs office. People displaced by the violence are seeking for immediate food and non-food assistance.
Reportedly, more than 20 people were killed due to the ongoing violence. As the number of displaced continues to grow, the Oromia Region Disaster Prevention and Preparedness
Office is working to find the actual number of the displaced and needs associated with it.
The recent clash was triggered by the killings of four high ranking Benshangul Regional
State officials on 26 September along the Ghimbi-Kamashi route (in Oromia near the
regional boundary). The officials were heading back home after attending an inter-regional security meeting between Oromo and Benshangul regional states. The Oromia Regional Government will dispatch a team (on 02 October) to assess the situation. Humanitarian partners are also monitoring the situation and will continue to work with the Government in assessing the needs and providing assistance.
The blessing and colorful Irreecha Thanks Giving Annual season that started in mid August and continue to be celebrated in Birraa (September- October). Over six million from all over Oromia, Sidama, Konso, Burji, Gaamo, Alaba, Aga’u and other nations have attended Hora Harsadi (Bishoftuu, Oromia) with success on Sunday 30 September 2018. Irreecha of peace, love and unity is the symbol of multicultural, peace and unity in diversity of ethnic federal Ethiopia. Irreecha is the most important annual event in Oromo people national calendar. #Irreecha2018.
Irreecha jaalalaa fi Tokkummaa: Irreecha (Irreessa) Birraa Oromoo kan Bara 2018 (akka lakkoobsa Oromootti kan Bara 6412) akka gaariitti karooreffatamee, haala oo’aa fi bareedan kabajamaa jira. Haaluma kanaan kan Hora Harsadi Birraa 30 Bara 2018 nagaan irreeffatameera. Saboonni Kush kan akka Sidaamaa, Koonsoo, Aga’u, Alaabaa, Burjii fi Gaamoo aadaa isaanii guutuun irratti argamuun bareedinatti bareedina dabalanii jiruu.
HE PM Abiy Ahmed sends warmest wishes on the occasion of Irreecha—Thanksgiving day of the Oromo people. As we celebrate Irreecha, let’s all cherish our rich cultural heritages and unite in a shared purpose to build a bright future for our children.#Ethiopia. pic.twitter.com/Sl3CBVYvZD
Irreecha (Irreessa) Birraa Oromoo kan Bara 2018 (akka lakkoobsa Oromootti kan Bara 6412) Fulbaana 30 Bara 2018 Hora Arsadeetti Irreeffatama. Irreecha Oromo Thanksgiving 2018 (6412 in Oromo Calendar) Celebration at Hora Arsadee, Bishoftuu, Oromia, on Sunday 30 September 2018.
Abiy Ahmed (PhD), Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and leader of the ruling EPRDF & OPDO, delivering a message of peace & unity. Key moments so far: reflecting on Oromo struggle, acknowledging struggle stalwarts such as Baro Tumsa and Haile Fida. pic.twitter.com/jjg249lxJo
Oromia State Pres. Lemma Megersa underscores the importance of OPDO’s 9th Congress in an opening address. It’s a new chapter for his party as it rebrands by changing its name and party emblem. Other regional presidents, opposition reps and diaspora activists among observers. pic.twitter.com/GHnqX2PwoA
Until the full ownership and territorial integrity of Oromia is fully and completely restored on Addis Ababa as an Oromia city, the Oromia Regional State and the Oromo people should start taking the following preliminary measures to force the submission of the prodigal city of Addis Ababa to the full legislative, executive and judicial power of Oromia National Regional Government, with immediate effect.
1. Oromia National Regional State should immediately and unilaterally delimit and demarcate the boundary between this prodigal city and Oromia National Regional State based on the 1991 border of this city, and ban this city from collecting any form of tax outside its borders and jurisdiction.
2. Oromia National Regional State should immediately adopt Afaan Oromo as the working language for all official and business communications with this prodigal city.
3. Oromia National Regional State should stop using Addis Ababa as the market hub for all Oromia business, and relocate to Oromia cities. All Oromia markets including but not limited to grain markets, vegetable and fruit markets, meat and live animal markets, coffee markets, hid and skin markets and all other resources of Oromia should be relocated to Oromia cities. Oromia should license Oromia based exporters for all Oromia resources and products; and ban Addis Ababa-based exporters from exporting Oromia commodities, goods, and products.
4. Oromia National Regional State should immediately stop using Addis Ababa general distributors and wholesalers, and start licensing Oromia general distributors and wholesalers to distribute imported goods and services throughout Oromia. Oromia National Regional State should immediately license Oromia importers of all goods and services sold in Oromia markets.
5. Oromia National Regional State should immediately issue laws that will impose tariff, taxes and sale price on water and electricity supplies Oromia provides to Addis Ababa, and start rebuilding Oromia from these proceeds.
6. Oromia National Regional State should immediately impose a toll on all Addis Ababa licensed cars including private and commercial cars, taxis, trains and buses that use Oromia roads. The proceeds collected from these road tolls will be used to rebuild Oromia infrastructures and maintain Oromia roads.
7. Oromia National Regional State should immediately issue laws that will impose dry port service fees for all imports and exports passing through the inland dry port at Mojo to Addis Ababa.
8. Oromia National Regional State should start charging lease and real estate taxes on all Addis Ababa owned properties located in Oromia including factories, businesses, and other facilities.
9. All Addis Ababa waste disposal facilities in Oromia should be closed until the health effect and environmental sustainability of those facilities are studied and Oromia determines the appropriate cost and fees Addis Ababa should pay to continue using these facilities, if at all.
10. Oromia National Regional State should issue laws that will totally ban Addis Ababa from getting any land either in the form of a lease or sale from private or government entities in Oromia except through limited term rent!
Millions converged at Hulluuqoo Kormaa, Dirree Masqalaa (Meskel Square) in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) from all corners of Oromia to welcome OLF/ OLA top leader. 15th September 2018. Former rebels in triumphant return to Ethiopia
The awesome Oromo horseman (Obbo Siidaa Dabalee) is the picture of the day on this very jubilation and victory day for freedom, democracy, unity in diversity and multinationalism for the oppressed nations in Ethiopia.
Oromoo fi firooni saba Oromoo miliyoona hedduun lakkaawaman Finfinnee, Hulluuqoo Kormaatti walga’un ABO/WBO gammachuun simatan. Fulbaana 15 Bara 2018.
7 million strong freedom-loving #Oromo have converged on Dirree Masqalaa (Meskel Square) in Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) from all zones of #Oromia to welcome the top leadership of rebel OLF and members of its army (OLA) returning home from #Eritrea after 26yrs of exile #Ethiopiapic.twitter.com/kEa95LTfPI
Impressed with the increased maturity the leaders of different opposition groups are showing . Ato Dawuid has pronounced that his party will pass on the responsibility of defending current gains and building on it to the public . A lot of work ahead of us but hugely encouraging! https://t.co/HhniQFGocA
7. Tokkummaa mul’isaa, suuraan fi Vidiyoon guyyaa sana waraabamu sabaahimaalee Addunyaa hedduu irratti waan darbuuf Wanta saba oromoo Qeeqsisu hin hojjetinaa.
8. Kanneen farda Gulufsiistanii fi konkolaachistoonni warra lafoof Eegumsa godhaa.
9. Wal dhaggeeffadhaa Abba Abbaan hin fiiginaa. Suuta socho’aa.
10. ABO dhaaba Qabsoo Ganamaa jaallatamaa fi sabi oromoo yoo itti hirkate shakkii irraa hin qabne ta’uusaa mul’isaa.
ERGAA KANA YOO XIQQAATE NAMA 20F QOODI. SABASAAF MEDIA TIIN KAN QINDAA’E. YAADI FI ODEEFFANNOON KAN ROOGEYYII FI SABAAHIMAALEE GARAAGARAA IRRAA WALITTI QABAME.
Ethiopia arrests ex-Somali region head over rights abuses
Abdi Mohamed Omar arrested on charges of human rights abuses and stoking deadly ethnic clashes in restive region. Click here to read Aljazeera news
Update: The police have said they have found five Kalashnikov and four pistols at the house where former #Somali state president Abdi Iley was arrested earlier. The fire arms were placed under police jurisdiction. pic.twitter.com/ZfDn69tsXd
HRW on arrest of ex Prez of Somali Regional State,"Hopefully, arrest of Abdi Illey is start to justice for victims of serious crimes in region.Other officials who directed n supported abuses, incl crimes against humanity&war crimes, shld also be held to account- @MariaHRWAfrica
Today’s arrest of Abdi Iley is a step in the right direction towards accountability and justice for all those who have suffered under his brutal dictatorship. He has left a bitter legacy of pain & suffering for which the noble people of the Ogaden region must be healed. pic.twitter.com/e6GeUcuAid
Ethiopia must end its political, economic and social exclusion and marginalization of Afaan Oromo speakers from federal institutions and the Addis Ababa city administration claiming non-existing language laws and language policies as the basis of these exclusions.
Ethiopia never had formal language laws and language policy in its history to exclude the use of Afaan Oromo. The so-called language related provision in the federal constitution is not self-executing law. It needs language policy and language law for it to be legally enforced in the court of law or followed by any government institutions.
Alternatively, even if one claims that there is constitutional self-executing law, it does not bar the use of Afaan Oromo by federal institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration.
More importantly, Addis Ababa city administration does not need any federal authorization to adopt right away Afaan Oromo as its working language on equal footing with Amharic.
There are many Ethiopia’s own language use practices that will enable the federal government to adopt Afaan Oromo as its working language without needing any law or policy.
For instance, there is no law or language policy that says Ethiopia will use English in its international communication. Yet, the country is using English in its international communication in spite of the absence of language law or language policy.
Similarly, if we look at Ethiopia’s medium of instruction both at secondary and university levels, there is no language law or language policy issued to mandate Ethiopian academic institutions to teach in English.
If we look at the past practices of the Ministry of Education, there is no law that mandated the inclusion of Geez, a language used in church liturgy with zero living speakers, on Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Exam(ESLCE) while willfully excluding Afaan Oromo or other languages with tens of millions of speakers from ESLCE.
If there is any legal basis for all these unregulated language uses, the only document one may find is the educational curriculum prepared by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. That means, all these messes were done at the free will of unelected and unauthorized experts at the Ministry of Education whom the Ethiopian people have zero knowledge even about their existence.
Similarly, there is no clearly drawn language use policy that regulates the Ethiopian federal media outlets to broadcast in any given languages including in Afaan Oromo. It is pretty much the discretionary decision of these entities.
If unelected, unauthorized and obscure curriculum developing experts at the Ministry of Education or media companies were given so much power in deciding on what languages our educational system or media uses or not uses; we expect our elected, legally authorized and publically known officials including the Ethiopian federal parliament, the federal judicial and executive organs to use Afaan Oromo in conducting their business.
Afaan Oromo speakers who constitute more than 50% of the Ethiopian population cannot wait until the constitution is amended or language use laws or policies are issued to get services from the federal government and Addis Ababa city administration.
The degree of exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people in Ethiopia is unbearable. The Oromo people cannot remain excluded from their own country. All cities, religious institutions, media outlets and federal government entities in Oromia, including in Addis Ababa, must serve the Oromo people in Afaan Oromo.
Furthermore, since both the federal government institutions and Addis Ababa City Administration are exclusively located in the Oromia National Regional Government where the working language is legally Afaan Oromo, there is no federal law or policy that prohibits the federal government and the Addis Ababa City Administration from conducting their Business in Afaan Oromo.
In fact, both the federal institutions and the Addis Ababa City Administration must use Afaan Oromo, the official working language in Oromia, to conduct their business in Oromia Region according to the Ethiopian federal constitution which recognizes the rights of regional governments to use the language of their choosing as their working language.
“Unlike International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, Chinese loans are collateralized by strategically important natural assets with high long-term value (even if they lack short-term commercial viability). Hambantota, for example, straddles Indian Ocean trade routes linking Europe, Africa and the Middle East to Asia. In exchange for financing and building the infrastructure that poorer countries need, China demands favorable access to their natural assets, from mineral resources to ports.”
Police in Sri Lanka use water cannon to disperse people protesting a government plan to grant a 99-year lease of Hambantota port to a Chinese company on Jan. 7. Nations caught in debt bondage to China risk losing both their most valuable natural assets and their very sovereignty. | AP
This month, Sri Lanka, unable to pay the onerous debt to China it has accumulated, formally handed over its strategically located Hambantota port to the Asian giant. It was a major acquisition for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — which President Xi Jinping calls the “project of the century” — and proof of just how effective China’s debt-trap diplomacy can be.
Unlike International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, Chinese loans are collateralized by strategically important natural assets with high long-term value (even if they lack short-term commercial viability). Hambantota, for example, straddles Indian Ocean trade routes linking Europe, Africa and the Middle East to Asia. In exchange for financing and building the infrastructure that poorer countries need, China demands favorable access to their natural assets, from mineral resources to ports.
Moreover, as Sri Lanka’s experience starkly illustrates, Chinese financing can shackle its “partner” countries. Rather than offering grants or concessionary loans, China provides huge project-related loans at market-based rates, without transparency, much less environmental or social impact assessments. As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put it recently, with the BRI China is aiming to define “its own rules and norms.”
To strengthen its position further, China has encouraged its companies to bid for outright purchase of strategic ports where possible. The Mediterranean port of Piraeus, which a Chinese firm acquired for $436 million from cash-strapped Greece last year, will serve as the BRI’s “dragon head” in Europe.
By wielding its financial clout in this manner, China seeks to kill two birds with one stone.
First, it wants to address overcapacity at home by boosting exports. Second, it hopes to advance its strategic interests, including expanding its diplomatic influence, securing natural resources, promoting the international use of its currency and gaining a relative advantage over other powers.
China’s predatory approach — and its gloating over securing Hambantota — is ironic, to say the least. In its relationships with smaller countries like Sri Lanka, China is replicating the practices used against it in the European-colonial period, which began with the 1839-1860 Opium Wars and ended with the 1949 communist takeover — a period that China bitterly refers to as its “century of humiliation.”
China portrayed the 1997 restoration of its sovereignty over Hong Kong, following more than a century of British administration, as righting a historic injustice. Yet, as Hambantota shows, China is now establishing its own Hong Kong-style neocolonial arrangements. Apparently Xi’s promise of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” is inextricable from the erosion of smaller states’ sovereignty.
Just as European imperial powers employed gunboat diplomacy to open new markets and colonial outposts, China uses sovereign debt to bend other states to its will, without having to fire a single shot. Like the opium the British exported to China, the easy loans China offers are addictive. And, because China chooses its projects according to their long-term strategic value, they may yield short-term returns that are insufficient for countries to repay their debts. This gives China added leverage, which it can use, say, to force borrowers to swap debt for equity, thereby expanding China’s global footprint by trapping a growing number of countries in debt servitude.
Even the terms of the 99-year Hambantota port lease echo those used to force China to lease its own ports to Western colonial powers. Britain leased the New Territories from China for 99 years in 1898, causing Hong Kong’s landmass to expand by 90 percent. Yet the 99-year term was fixed merely to help China’s ethnic-Manchu Qing Dynasty save face; the reality was that all acquisitions were believed to be permanent.
Now, China is applying the imperial 99-year lease concept in distant lands. China’s lease agreement over Hambantota, concluded this summer, included a promise that China would shave $1.1 billion off Sri Lanka’s debt. In 2015, a Chinese firm took out a 99-year lease on Australia’s deep-water port of Darwin — home to more than 1,000 U.S. Marines — for $388 million.
Similarly, after lending billions of dollars to heavily indebted Djibouti, China established its first overseas military base this year in that tiny but strategic state, just a few kilometers from a U.S. naval base — the only permanent American military facility in Africa. Trapped in a debt crisis, Djibouti had no choice but to lease land to China for $20 million per year. China has also used its leverage over Turkmenistan to secure natural gas by pipeline largely on Chinese terms.
Several other countries, from Argentina to Namibia to Laos, have been ensnared in a Chinese debt trap, forcing them to confront agonizing choices in order to stave off default. Kenya’s crushing debt to China now threatens to turn its busy port of Mombasa — the gateway to East Africa — into another Hambantota.
These experiences should serve as a warning that the BRI is essentially an imperial project that aims to bring to fruition the mythical Middle Kingdom. States caught in debt bondage to China risk losing both their most valuable natural assets and their very sovereignty. The new imperial giant’s velvet glove cloaks an iron fist — one with the strength to squeeze the vitality out of smaller countries.
Beijing’s plans for Africa do not stop there. President Xi Jinping is keen for China to serve as an economic and political model for the developing world. He hopes that China’s infrastructure finance and manufacturing investment in Africa will spur industrialisation and development. But to be productive and contribute to economic development, infrastructure needs to be high-quality and high-performing. And the evidence shows that China’s infrastructure-driven economic model has been far from efficient and is one to avoid rather than emulate. Over half of China’s infrastructure projects are under-performing, damaging rather than fuelling growth and leaving an enormous debt burden for the domestic economy.
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back – and determined to see democracy in his country
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A man holds an Oromo Liberation Front flag as people in Addis Ababa celebrate the triumphant return of Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital’s main university, entourage in tow.
Nothing demonstrated the breathtaking transformation in Ethiopian politics over the past four months quite like the red-carpeted return of a figure who was once the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) most wanted man.
From a studio in Minneapolis, where he founded the controversial Oromia Media Network, Jawar has spent the past decade agitating over social media for political change back home in Ethiopia, which he left as a scholarship student in 2003. This was his first time in Ethiopia since 2008.
Jawar Mohammed addresses a news conference upon arriving in Addis Ababa in August. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
So effective was he as an activist that by late 2016, as anti-government protests billowed across the country compelling the EPRDF to impose a state of emergency, the Oromia Media Network was banned and Mohammed declared a terrorist.
By early 2018 the revolutionary fervour had grown so loud that Hailemariam Desalegn was forced to resign as prime minister, paving the way for his enormously popular successor Abiy Ahmed, a young reformist from Oromia, Jawar’s home and the country’s largest and most populous region.
The Oromia Media Network, along with some smaller outlets and activists, has used social media to devastating effect over the past few years, coordinating boycotts and demonstrations and bringing Ethiopia’s large and often brutal security apparatus close to its knees.
“We used social media and formal media so effectively that the state was completely overwhelmed,” Jawar says. “The only option they had was to face reform or accept full revolution.”
During the course of a triumphant homecoming, the former terrorist (charges were dropped in May) toured the country, mostly around Oromia, where he was welcomed by vast and jubilant crowds. On his first day he led a tub-thumping rally in the capital’s main concert hall.
Later he travelled to Ambo, the epicentre of the Oromo protest movement – a struggle for political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures, which Jawar played a main role in orchestrating. Tens of thousands arrived to greet him, more than when Abiy visited the town shortly after his inauguration in April.
As Jawar had promised his supporters – mostly young, politically active Oromo men known as the Qeerroo – he took off his shoes and walked prophet-like through the streets of the city. He then planted a tree at the site where a young man was killed by security forces nearly 15 years ago, long before the rise of the movement that threw him into the national spotlight.
“They used to make me so happy and proud with what they did,” he said of Ambo’s Qeerroo. “So I told them: ‘One day I will come to your city and show my respect by walking barefoot.’ That day came and I had to deliver.”
Few doubt the importance of Jawar in recent Ethiopian history. Perhaps more than any other single individual, he took the once-marginal politics of Oromo nationalism and made it mainstream. Today, Oromos – the country’s largest ethnic group – dominate the highest offices of state, and Jawar enjoys significant personal influence over the country’s new leaders, including Abiy himself.
In a recent interview with local media he claimed – to the dismay of many Ethiopians – that the country now effectively has two governments: one led by Abiy, the other by the Qeerroo. This puts him in a position of extraordinary responsibility, since he is “one of the Qeerroo” and “a significant portion of the country listens to me”, he admits.
Many are uncomfortable with the whiff of demagoguery that accompanies Jawar. One Ethiopian journalist (who asked to remain anonymous) notes his “Trumpian sense of truth when inconvenient facts surface”.
He has been accused of inflating the numbers of protesters killed by security forces and, infamously, telling his followers (73,000 on Twitter and more than 1.4m on Facebook) that army helicopters fired live bullets at civilians during the tragic stampede that occurred during an Oromo cultural festival in October 2016. Independent journalists present confirmed this did not happen. He has a history of smearing journalists he disagrees with as government “agents”.
He has also been accused of inciting ethnic and religious violence. In a 2013 video, for example, he is heard saying: “My village is 99% Muslim. If someone speaks against us, we cut his throat with a machete.”
In recent years, he has whipped up his supporters against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the once dominant ethnic Tigrayan wing of the ruling coalition, which critics argue led to attacks against Tigrayan civilians as well as those of other ethnic groups. Jawar says that he has long sought to steer his supporters towards “non-violent resistance”, and adds that “even when TPLF was in power and actively killing our civilians we ensured Tigrayan civilians were not subject to attacks”.
These days, Jawar comes across as a more moderate and conciliatory figure. He says he plans for the Oromia Media Network to set up offices across Ethiopia and become a professionalised outfit. He points to the BBC and NPR as models. He insists he has no intention to enter formal politics, preferring to remain an activist.
“I want to help us in the next couple of years transition to democracy. And for that I want to use my influence over the population so that they can calm down, contain themselves, and ensure peace while the political leadership works out arrangements for transition,” Jawar says.
The last point is especially significant. In recent weeks instability across Ethiopia has escalated sharply, especially in his own region. The day after his interview with the Guardian a rally in the town of Shashamene turned violent, as a crowd of Jawar followers publicly hung a man they suspected of carrying a bomb. Two more died in the carnage that followed. Many Ethiopians blame him for the unrest, and he was compelled to cancel the rest of his tour.
Jawar nonetheless remains optimistic about the country’s future, and about the prospect of a peaceful politics free from violent expressions of ethnic identity. “I do believe if we democratise the Ethiopian state – allowing people of all ethnicities to participate in the political process and to get a fair share of power and wealth – there is a possibility the next generation will be proud Oromo and proud Ethiopian at the same time. I think that is possible.”
Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has electrified his country with a range of reforms since he took office in April, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners. But recent incidents of ethnically and religiously-charged killings in Ethiopia’s Somali and Oromia regions point to ongoing tensions in the country. Much more government attention to these killings, including investigations and justice, is critical to ensuring all citizens can benefit from Abiy’s bold agenda for change.
In Jijiga, capital of the restive Somali region, a youth group known as Heego, which is loyal to the region’s former president Abdi Illey, and the region’s paramilitary Liyu police carried out attacks earlier this month that left many people dead. The Ethiopian Orthodox church said eight of its churches were burned, and more than 15 people, including 7 priests, were killed. Hundreds of people reportedly took shelter in a church compound after their homes were destroyed. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said its Jijiga office was also attacked, with offices burned and staff beaten. Officials said they believe the attackers were trying to stop the Commission’s recent investigation into human rights abuses in the area.
Ethiopian authorities established the Liyu police in 2007 to combat the insurgent Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF); the paramilitary force has frequently been implicated in extrajudicial killings, torture, and rape. In response to Abiy’s reforms, some members of the ONLF declared a unilateral ceasefire on August 12.The government has yet to announce concrete plans for substantially reforming or eventually disbanding the Liyu police, despite their involvement in cross-regional attacks. For example, Liyu police reportedly killed 41 people and injured 20, in Oromia’s Eastern Harerege a few days ago.
The political and ethnic dynamics around these recent killings show that despite reforms and improved rhetoric on human rights from the federal government, insecurity is still a problem – particularly where Liyu police roam unchecked. Bringing perpetrators swiftly to justice is the only way to not only stem the violence, but also signal to Ethiopians that the country is changing for good.
Read Related Articles from Oromian Economist sources:
The spectre haunting Ethiopia: Unbridled torture, impunity in Somali region,– The East African
Ethiopia: At least 37 people killed and more than 44 wounded after attack by the Liyu police in at least three separate localities in Eastern Hararghe zone of the Oromia State. Over 30,000 Oromos displaced from Djibouti.August 13, 2018, Oromian Economist
The makeshift camps/home that were burned down near Adama belonged to Oromo internally displaced persons who were displaced from the Somali region in 2017.
ONN August 15: Followers of Orthodox Church near Adama have mobilized and burned down makeshift homes of #Oromo internally displaced persons near the city based on a false/fake news distributed in the community.Federal and regional authorities have not condemned this #Ethiopiapic.twitter.com/mHuVx0Qu4x
HARARHGE :
This week at least 50 people have been killed and tens of thousands are displaced and are once again facing catastrophic situations in East Hararghe zone. They need different humanitarian support. Among these a top urgent is medical support. I demand Federal Ministry of Health and Oromia Regional Health Bureau to provide immediate medical assistance to those injured and internally displaced in different districts of East Hararghe Zone of Oromia National Regional State. – Oromo Federalist Congress
Six people have also died in Shashemene city and in East Wellega zone of the Oromia regional state on Sunday and Saturday respectively. See the scoop below.
The number of people killed after attack by the Liyu police in at least three separate localities in Eastern Hararghe zone of the Oromia regional state has climbed to 37, according to Tizita Abay, communication officer of the Mayu Muluke Wereda where more than 30 of the causalities were from. More than 44 have been wounded. Abdulahi Ahmedi Kawo, another official from Mayu Muluke Wereda also told the BBC News Afaan Oromo service that ten of the wounded were currently receiving treatment at Gara Muleta hospital, in Gara Muleta town while some 36 are being treated at a local clinic.
The attacks happened on Sunday from 10 AM to late afternoon and Sunday to Monday night, in what Mohammed Aliyi, a police officer in the Mayu Muluke town said were a military assault by members of Ethiopia’s controversial Liyu Police “for reasons we are not clear with yet,” he told Addis Standard by phone. However, Taye Dendea, the region’s justice bureau communication head wrote on facebook page yesterday that 31 people were killed, of whom five were women. Children and the elderly were among the victims. Negeri Lencho, Oromia region communication bureau head, confirmed to OBN this afternoon the number of victims and said the attack was in line with the larger pattern of the Liyu Police’s track record in attacking civilians. But the government was working to bring a lasting solution, he said.
Ibsa Abdella, a nurse who is currently coordinating the emergency section for the wounded, told Addis Standard that eight of the victims were admitted yesterday and two were admitted on various times since Friday afternoon. According to Ibsa, sixteen people were also treated for light injuries. “All of them have sustained bullet wounds; of the ten currently being treated at the hospital two are in critical condition: one who is shot is his genitalia area and a second who was shot in his chest area,” Ibsa said by phone from Gara Muleta hospital. “The second who was hit in his chest is Sergent Mustefa Jamal, a member of the Oromia region riot police.” Three more of the wounded are also police officers, he said.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters 13 August 2018) – At least 40 people were killed by security forces in eastern Ethiopia at the weekend, a senior regional official said on Monday.
“The victims were all ethnic Oromos. The perpetrators were members of a paramilitary force,” said Negeri Lencho, spokesman for the Oromiya state administration.
The area has been plagued by instability.
Reporting by Aaron Maasho; editing by John Stonestreet
At least 37 people were killed in a Sunday morning raid in Ethiopia’s eastern Oromia region by the Somali special paramilitary force known as Liyu police, a local official has told the BBC.
More than 40 others were injured, the head of communication for Mayu Mulukke district, Tizita Abay, said.
Women, children under a year and blind elders are among the dead, officials say.
A witness, who survived several shots and a cut on his ear, said the paramilitary troops left him, thinking he was dead.
‘‘While we were sleeping they opened the door and killed my wife, son and neighbour’s child [who was sleeping at his house],’’ he added.
Somali officials have not yet commented on the allegations.
Human Right groups have long accused the special paramilitary force of killings, rapes and other abuses.
The border conflict between the Somali and Oromia region has left thousands of people dead and has forced more than one million to flee their homes in the past year.
Federal government troops have set up a base in the region as they carry out operations to curb the conflict.
Furthermore, using their former influence, strong ties with security and police agents and other groups, they will spare no efforts to bring chaos and upset peace and order in Ethiopia (for example the present instability in Somali region) by instigating protests, killings, riots and stirring up street politics, to say the least.
Finally, holding all the aces of Ethiopia enabled the nefarious group of the TPLF to feather their nest quite comfortably. In addition to this, they are now attempting to destabilize Ethiopia by sponsoring and financing violence in many parts of the country to create another Yugoslavia in the Horn of Africa. … Click here to read more
The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia & the OLF have signed a Reconciliation Agreement today in Asmara.The Agreement, reached between President of the Oromo Region, Mr. Lemma Mergesa & OLF Chairman, Mr. Dawd Ibsa,provides for i) termination of hostilities; pic.twitter.com/J3rnqFAgLQ
Good governance exemplars in Africa continue to evolve, even if slowly. An African country, Ethiopia, has the youngest democratically elected Head of State on the continent; who happens also to be one of the 20 youngest Heads of State in the world. Africa should be proud. Yet it seems Africa failed to take sufficient notice.
In the past 18 months, Africa has seen 15 leadership changes averaging approximately one per month. One of the remarkable transition was in Ethiopia. Its run up was not seamless, but the end result is predictably remarkable. Ethiopia’s leadership evolution started with the former Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, who decided to step aside in the aftermath of mass protests on the streets of Ethiopia, and evident failure to quell the restiveness, despite deploying various drastic measures. In surrendering power, he yielded to the voice of reason and democratic dictates.
In stepping aside, Desalegn was cognizant that such gesture had the capacity to create the political and conciliatory space required to bring about new solutions and certainly stem the bloodletting and wanton killing of Ethiopian defenseless civilians from Oromo ethnic stock, who would not stop protesting.
By resigning, the former Prime Minister gave Ethiopia a new lease of life to move forward. In comparative terms and given African realities, he deserves credit. After all, when last did an African Head of State willingly resign from office. Robert Mugabe and Jacob Zuma remain very awkward examples. Desalegn leaving stoke the embers of effective succession planning amidst conflict.
Inevitably, the question became who will replace him? Who will the nation accept? And had the capacity and persona to quell turmoil and rally the nation to reconciliation and healing? The lot fell on Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who was chosen by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, as its Chairman with 108 of 180 possible votes. Ethiopia’s ruling party is made up of four ethnic parties including Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organisation, (OPDO), Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM); the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Indisputably, with Abiy Ahmed’s emergence, Ethiopia struck the proverbial gold and netted four giant birds with one cage. First, Ahmed is of the Oromo ethnic stock, which has been at the root of the antigovernment protests.
The Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia constituting about 34% of the country’s 100 million population, but have never ruled the country. They have accused the government repeatedly of neglect and humiliation. Now, their son, who interestingly was the chairperson of the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organisation (OPDO), is now the Prime Minister. Psychologically, his emergence ought to solve at least half of the problem, or nothing else will.
Ahmed is a pacifist thrown up by conflict. He is also a paradox. In him, Ethiopia has her first Muslim Prime Minister who interestingly, hails from a home with a Muslim father and a Christian mother. Suffice to say that while he checks off on both boxes, he had consistently identified with his Muslim roots. This latter disposition underlines his broad acceptability. But there’s more to his bonafides.
Ahmed arrived at his new job, wellschooled and with the requisite expertise. He served as a former Minister of Science and Technology under Desalegn, he just completed his doctorate in peace and security from Addis Ababa University in 2017 and comes from a military/intelligence background where he last ranked as a colonel in the Ethiopian army. Add to that the fact that he speaks fluent English and three Ethiopian languages, you find sufficient expertise written all over him. He possesses the skill and grit that is of immediate need to Ethiopia. Also, you have a Prime Minister with all expertise at 42. He’s dynamic, energetic, thinking and the youngest in the continent. He is well-equipped to drive an already progressive Ethiopia to the next level. Ethiopians must be beating their chest in cheers to such a win.
There is much for Nigeria to learn if she truly yearns for a way forward. Hardly in our national history have we been as divided along ethnic lines as today. There are alleged cases of ethnic cleansing going on in some states including Benue, Taraba and Zamfara under the watch of the government, yet the troubling silence from quarters that should defend justifies Nigerians’ suspicion of conspiracy.
Nigeria is not officially at war, but the number of deaths recorded from the killing of the Fulani herdsmen in the last three years is more than enough casualties for most wars. In the face of these all, and with the latest killing in Plateau State, President Muhammadu Buhari continue to give credence to criticisms that he is incapable of finding solutions to Nigeria’s problems. Even changing cabinet members or appointees who have failed in their responsibility seems too arduous. Increasingly, there is pressure for the President to resign both from those who mean well and those who are purely politicking. However, if the President truly cares about Nigeria, he knows the choice to make.
For Nigerian youths who are getting ready to contest elective positions on the basis of the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ bill allowing them to do so now that the bill have been passed into law, becomes imperative. Age is not necessarily the problem. It’s about competence and experience. Look at Ahmed. He served previously as minister and led his own party before becoming the Prime Minister. He was close to power and understood the challenges; now his experience is evident in his reforms. He’s taking the bold step of putting a limit to the tenure of Prime Ministers, which was hitherto unchecked. There’s great optimism in Addis Ababa that the right man is on the saddle.
Look at Emmanuel Macron: he served first as minister; formed and led his own party with which he became the President. We witnessed his meetings with President Donald Trump a few weeks ago in the U.S. He bossed it despite being 32 years younger than Trump.
If you’re serious about taking back your country, chat little about age on Facebook and go to work. Form your party or join existing ones. Reform them to suit modern ideologies and lead them. Stay genuinely close to power. Fight for the Youth Minister position to be truly yours first. Fight for a percentage of National Assembly positions in your party. Slowly, you will take over. Nobody will hand you power, there’s no free lunch anywhere. Being young will never win you an election; there must be a story to your youth that stands you out, something that clearly defines you and that can easily predict what the future will be with you. You must be strategic fellow young people.
A look at Ethiopia’s party structure reveals something interesting. In all the parties, there are four ethnic/regional parties that form the coalition. Leaders of each party stand the chance of becoming the next Prime Minister. In the Nigerian context, that should mean there will be a leader for the Northern group in APC, PDP and all other parties, same for Middle Belt, South-East, South-South and the West. With the regional leaders, you already know who is likely to emerge as the President and begin to fight early if that choice will not do the country any good. It does look like a great example but it reminds us one thing, we can’t escape restructuring for Nigeria to become functional. Ethiopia looks set to continue in its development trajectory especially in infrastructure.
Despite the protest against the previous government and internet shut down, the country continued to implement her development plan building top infrastructure for its cities. Every visit to Ethiopia, offers one the chance of encountering incremental development, especially in infrastructure. Recently, Ethiopia opened Africa’s first energy plant that converts trash into electricity.
It will incinerate 80 per cent of Addis Ababa’s waste and supply electricity to 30 per cent of its household. It will also recover 30 million litres of water and averting the release of 1.2 million tons of carbon emissions. It was opened casually. The Prime Minister didn’t even attend. Such a project in Nigeria will leave the Presidency on the brink of inviting God to physically attend the lavish commissioning. Ethiopia is leading; Nigeria, when will you Arise?
•Udeh is a Research Associate at Selonnes Consult Ltd; Obaze is MD/CEO Selonnes Consult Ltd
Thousands of Ethiopians in the United States’ city of Minnesota packed the Target Center to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Clad in bright national and traditional colours, the crowd packed the center long before the arrival of the PM and his team. Abiy’s call for peace and unity of Ethiopians has been a common message on his tour and he was supposed to reiterate that message.
The PM and his entourage comprising the Foreign Affairs Minister, Information Minister and President of the Oromia regional state arrived in the state for the final leg of Abiy’s diaspora tour.
The tour took him first to Washington DC – where he held high-level political and economic meetings before addressing the Ethiopian diaspora. Next stop was in Los Angeles before arriving in Minnesota on Monday.
Photos courtesy TargetCenterMN and Opride [Mohammed Ademo, a pro-democracy activist]
Tsedale Lemma@tselemma
If you can’t understand & try to accept the collective images coming out of #Minnesota as the image of #Ethiopia, you will have failed the mini litmus test of understanding the Ethiopia to come; the Ethiopia we will be negotiating to build & the Ethiopia we will be settling for.
So proud of Minnesota (aka little Oromia) right now. Thus far, it is looking like a showpiece of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. I hope it ends that way – as an outstanding example of the type.
PM Abiy Ahmed and his delegation landed at Minneapolis International Airport for the final leg of a three-state diaspora tour. He was welcomed by members of the community and prominent individuals, inc. @Jawar_Mohammed
Lensa, the daughter of Bekele Dewano, a veteran OLF fighter kidnapped by TPLF & disappeared in early 1990s, asks #TeamLemma help her find the whereabouts of her dad. What an agonizing story she endure till date! pic.twitter.com/Ne9TRvrhLE
So proud of Minnesota (aka little Oromia) right now. Thus far, it is looking like a showpiece of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. I hope it ends that way – as an outstanding example of the type. pic.twitter.com/SyWBsvVf72
If you can't understand & try to accept the collective images coming out of #Minnesota as the image of #Ethiopia, you will have failed the mini litmus test of understanding the Ethiopia to come; the Ethiopia we will be negotiating to build & the Ethiopia we will be settling for. pic.twitter.com/jy1QHKEt4Z
The prime minister of Ethiopia received a warm welcome when he visited Minneapolis Monday. Thousands of supporters and overjoyed members of Minnesota’s large Ethiopian community celebrated the visit.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was scheduled to appear at Target Center at 2:30 p.m. but did not appear until nearly 5 p.m.
That didn’t diminish the crowd’s enthusiasm, though. As the prime minister spoke supporters applauded and cheered. There were groups that also danced and carried large Ethiopian and U.S. flags.
On his U.S. trip, Abiy is inviting Ethiopians who fled the country due to decades of political violence and turmoil to get involved again with the country’s development. One of his stated goals is to bring democracy to Ethiopia by opening up the country’s political landscape, liberalizing its economy and reviewing ethnic federalism — the country’s way of dividing districts and towns into zones under the control of particular ethnic groups.
1 Supporters of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed wave Ethiopian and American flags while waiting for him to speak inside Target Center in Minneapolis on Monday, July 30, 2018. Evan Frost | MPR News2Yusuf Ahmed lowers his glasses to peer at the stage before Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks. Evan Frost | MPR News3Supporters of the prime minister wave flags from the VIP section as he takes the stage. Evan Frost | MPR News4The floor of Target Center in Minneapolis is filled with supporters. Prime Minister Ahmed was scheduled to appear at 2:30 p.m. but did not show up until nearly 5 p.m. Evan Frost | MPR News5Two attendees dance with the flag of the Oromo people in the crowded arena. Evan Frost | MPR News6People carry giant Ethiopian and Oromo flags around the floor of Target Center. Evan Frost | MPR News7Rado Ali cheers for Prime Minister Ahmed during his speech. Evan Frost | MPR News8Attendees of a speech by Prime Minister Ahmed wave flags and cheer before he takes the stage. Evan Frost | MPR News9Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other government officials look out at the crowd inside Target Center. Evan Frost | MPR News10Dancers perform on stage for Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed. Evan Frost | MPR Newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyPz89iAAtshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbXFMPM3qJI
![Feyisa: 'I knew this day was coming because I know the blood spilled by all these people was not going be in vain' [File: Athit Perawongmetha/ Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/10/21/59afe31f71ed4a50819d23ea85d3bc82_18.jpg "Ethiopia: Exiled Olympic runner Feyisa Lilesa returns home")
Torban Irreecha Hora Arsadeetti kabajametti, 
Oromian Economist 
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