Ethiopia: ONLF officials wary of the new tensions between brotherly nations of Afar and Ogaden region

By Ahmed Abdi | June 16, 2014

Ogaden National Liberation Front’s Official, Rayal Hamoud, urged the two brotherly nations of Afar and Somalis from Ogaden region to take more precautions on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s old tactics of turning one nation against another. “I  urge the two brotherly people of Afar and Somalis to be cautious about the intrigues of the TPLF and remember their unity in religion and blood.

The TPLF / EPRDF is under increasing pressure from opposition and warring factions of  ONLF, OLF, SLM, BPLM, ARDUF and GMD and many other formations from the oppressed nations. So The Tigray ruling Junta will try to use all efforts to turn Benishangul against Oromos, Somalis against Afars, Gambellas against Sidamas, and so on in part of creating chaos among the oppressed nations under Ethiopian occupation, Mr. Rayaale Hamoud a member of the ONLF Central Committee and a former head of Regional vice-president and founder of Issa and Gurgura Liberation Front (IGLF) in 1990s said in an interview with Radio Freedom (Xoriyo).

The fate of migrant workers in Yemeni ‘torture camps’

June 16, 2014 (Middle East Monitor) — A new report from Human Rights Watch revisits the torture camps of Yemen, where the only way out for the tens of thousands of migrant workers interned each year is a ransom payment from back home – and until it arrives, torture, beatings and inhumane conditions.

An Ethiopian child migrant and member of the Oromo community of Ethiopia living in Malta takes part in a protest against the Ethiopian regime in Valletta

June 16, 2014 (Reuters) — An Ethiopian child migrant and member of the Oromo community of Ethiopia

One of the Secret Mass Graves of Oromo Killing Fields Is Exposed at Hammarreessaa

OLF Press Release

June 14, 2014 (oromoliberationfront.org) — The mass murder, arrest, torture, exploitation and oppression perpetrated by Ethiopian regimes against the subject people, has been passing on from one regime to the next unabated. This pattern of the ruling clique well precedes the formation of the Ethiopian empire. This is because the cliques had continually come to power through violence, against the wish of the people, and they had to resort to sheer force of terror to keep the people under control. Ruthless mass murder was the efficient means to terrorize, demoralize and dehumanize the subject people. As no people willfully accept such illegitimate rule the relation between them and the ruling clique remains one of victor and vanquished.

Pictures of Ogaden and Oromo Women protest at the Global summit to End rape and sexual Violence

June 14, 2014, London

The Ogaden and Oromo women held a large protest at the Global Summit to end Sexual violence and demanded the recognition of the plights of the Ogaden women and Oromo women. The protesters complained the Rape and sexual violence used as a weapon against Ogaden and Oromo women at the hands of the Ethiopian military.

Flare-Up in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region

June 13, 2014 (Early Warning Project) – Our statistical risk assessments continue to identify Ethiopia as one of the world’s countries at greatest risk of state-led mass killing, and recent reports of violent repression in Ethiopia’s Oromia region suggest one pathway by which that dismal but still unlikely outcome could happen.

In mid-May, Amnesty International issued a public statement calling out the use of deadly force by Ethiopian security forces against a series of nonviolent protests in Oromia that began in late April. The protesters are objecting to the part of a new development plan that envisions the expansion of the national capital region into parts of Oromia. The central government claims this change will help bring city services to remote areas, but many Oromos fear it will only lead to land grabs and evictions. According to Amnesty,

Sidama is Under Siege following SLM/Medrek’s permission to Demonstrate TPLF’s Unconstitutionality!

June 12, 2014

Kukissa, Sidama Reporter from Sidama Capital Hawassa,

The arduous journey of Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM) and Medrek (the coalition of opposition parties) demanding permission of the rulers to assert their right of peacefully demonstrating the recent massacre of Oromo civilians and others crimes TPLF’s regime has committed and is committing against the Oromo, Sidama, Ogadenia, Hadiya, Gambela, Benshangul, Kambata, Kaffisho and Shakichcho, Gedeo and others peoples of nations and nationalities- was finalised with implausible permission with attached preconditions. The authorities of TPLF’s rulers were eventually obliged to concede after postponing it for over a month due to a hard work of SLM/Mederek coalition whose leadership knocked at the doors of the authorities on daily basis defying odds and intimidation; the reason they were only allowed to hold their demonstration on the 10^th of June 2014.

Jen and Josh witnessed Ambo protests

MESSAGE FOR U.S. CITIZENS: Warning to Americans of Somali Origin Traveling to Ethiopia

June 11, 2014, Addis Ababa (Embassy of the US) –As stated in Ethiopia’s Country Specific Information, following the failed October 2013 bombing attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for which the U.S. government-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, the U.S. Embassy received reports that ALL individuals of Somali origin, including naturalized American citizens, were being stopped for questioning when entering and exiting Ethiopia.

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has been made aware that this practice is not isolated to just ports of entry such as Bole International Airport.  Individuals of Somali origin, regardless of citizenship, may be stopped, arrested, and detained for an extended period of time with no charges by Ethiopian authorities.

Individuals of Somali origin are advised to prepare for this contingency, and are recommended to carry copies of all important documents and the contact information for the U.S. Embassy.  As an American citizen, you have the right to request that the U.S. Embassy be notified you are detained.

Ethiopia’s Police State: The Silencing of Opponents, Journalists and Students Detained

By Paul O’Keeffe

June 11, 2014 (Global Research) — Detention under spurious charges in Ethiopia is nothing new. With the second highest rate of imprisoned journalists in Africa[1] and arbitrary detention for anyone who openly objects to the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime’s despotic iron fist, the Western backed government in Addis Ababa is a dab hand at silencing its critics.

Eskinder Nega and Reeyot Alemu are just two of the country’s more famous examples of journalists thrown in prison for daring to call the EPRFD out on their reckless disregard for human rights. This April the regime made headlines again for jailing six[2] bloggers and three more journalists on trumped up charges of inciting violence through their journalistic work. Repeated calls for due legal process for the detainees from human rights organisations and politicians, such as John Kerry, have fallen on deaf ears as they languish in uncertainty awaiting trial. This zero-tolerance approach to questioning of government repression is central to the EPRDF’s attempts to control its national and international image and doesn’t show much signs of letting up.