Requesting urgent intervention to uphold the rights of refugees in Nairobi

April 10, 2014

Advocacy for Oromia (AFO), a non-profit advocacy organisation working to ensure that the Oromo people’s rights and wishes are respected, is highly concerned at the wave of arrests that have taken place during the week end in Nairobi, following recent terrorist attacks in the capital.

EU not financing Ethiopia Renaissance Dam: EU ambassador in Egypt

EU ambassador underlines union’s support for negotiated solutions in international disputes; says Egypt has requested presidential poll supervision

A general view shows construction activity on the Grand Renaissance dam in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz region March 16, 2014. Egypt fears the $4.7 billion dam, that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people, who mostly live in the Nile valley and delta. Picture taken March 16, 2014 (Photo: Reuters)

April 10, 2014 (Ahram Online) — The European Union (EU) is not funding the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, said EU Ambassador to Egypt James Moran in a press conference, the MENA state news agency reported.

Moran underlined that the EU is looking into the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam since it affects many countries. He also said the EU is ready to help any country that seeks its assistance related to this issue.

Moran underscored the importance of negotiations between countries in dispute, in order to reach solutions that benefit all parties.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan formed a tripartite technical committee to study the possible effects of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. But the committee’s discussions were thwarted in December when Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir announced his support for the dam during a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Barattooti Oromoo Uni Adaamaa 20 ta’an Kabajaa Yaadatnoo Anooleef Osoo Deemanii Isin ABOn dha Sababa Jedhuun Hidhaman

Ebla 9, 2014, Adaamaa (Qeerroo) — Dargaggoonni seenaa dhugaa dhaale,kutannoo fi murannoo onnee irraa madden seenaa Oromoo irraa kanneen hubatnaa gahaa qaban ilmaan Bilisummaa Oromoo fi Walabummaa Oromiyaaf boqonnaa hin qabne   seenaan bu’ura hundaa ta’uu isaa warri adda durummaan beekaan Yaaddannoo wareeggamtoota haadhoo fi abboolee(Anoolee)f jecha Adaamarraa hanga Aanoleetti lafoo deemsa taasisaniin km 66 miilaan(lafoo) kanneen kabajaaf deeman 120 keessaa barattoota Oromoo 20 mootummaan Wayyaanee hidhaatti galche.

Kanneen keessaa 17 shamarree Oromoo yeroo ta’an,Yaadatnoo Anooleef jecha amna dheeraa miillaan deemuun gochaa hammeenya diinaa yeroo yaadatan,bakka kabajaa sanii gahuuf km 9 duwwaan yemmuu isaan hafu bulchiinsa magaalaa Heexosaa aanaa Heexosaa Itayyaatti qabanii kaayyoo kamabajaa Anooleef jecha miillaa luqa’anii dhiigaa kanneen achi gahan keessaa nama 20 alaabaa ABO qabattanii jirtu sababa jedhuun dabarsanii loltoota Wayyaaneetti kennan.

EU Holds Discussion on Ethiopian Human Rights Crisis in Ogaden and Kality Prison

By Ahmed Abdi

EU House of Parliament opened a hearing on the worsening Humanitarian and Human Rights crisis in the Ogaden region by the Ethiopian government

April 8, 2014 (Tesfa News) —  EUROPEAN Parliament opened hearing about the Ogaden Human Rights violations and the Ethiopian prisons in Addis Ababa. The hearing, which was invited to participate in the Ogaden whistle-blower, Abdullahi Hussein, and Swedish Journalist, Martin Schibbye, was held on April 2nd by the group the progressive Alliance of Socialist and Democrats in European Parliament and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“Ethiopia is one of the largest humanitarian and development aid receiver yet these donations are used incorrectly and corruptly. Western governmental Organizations and Western Embassies to Addis Ababa ignored the stolen donations and humanitarian aid that are being used as a political tool by the Ethiopian regime, which is contrary to EU rules on the funding”, said Anna Gomes, MEP Head of international Unit party Socialist democrat.

ETHIOPIA’S BORDERLESS CYBERESPIONAGE

by Felix Horne

Chinese- and European-made spyware is enabling Addis Ababa to silence dissent

April 8, 2014 (Al Jazeera) — I met Abdi (not his real name), a 32-year-old primary school teacher from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, last July while in Nairobi. Abdi had been arrested a year earlier in his hometown for organizing a protest against local government corruption. He was already under the eye of Ethiopian security officials because he refused to provide information on the activities of his students to local authorities.

Over the course of two weeks in detention, Abdi was repeatedly beaten and accused of belonging to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which originated in nationalist movements fighting for increased autonomy in the 1960s. The Ethiopian government considers the OLF a terrorist organization and uses the threat of an armed struggle to justify repression of ordinary Oromos, who constitute Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.

Aaddee Toltu Tufaa Kurfii Kaaba Ameerkaa Kan duraa Torontoti Geggeesite

Egypt presidential hopeful threatens to use force over Ethiopian dam

April 6, 2014 (WASHINGTON) – A potential candidate for the Egyptian presidency announced today that he will order the use of military force against Ethiopia if the latter does not suspend the construction of the Grand Renaissance dam.
In announcing his presidential bid at a press conference on Sunday, lawyer Mortada Mansour said that “water for Egypt is Egypt’s life”.

Lawyer and head of a renowned Egyptian soccer club Mortada Mansour speaks during a press conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on 6 April 2014 (AP)

“There” are signed international conventions … There are two agreements, one in 1929 and the other in 1959 to regulate water usage between Egypt and Sudan,” Mansour added.

The controversial figure, who was elected last week as head of Cairo’s Zamalek Club, accused Israel of standing behind the Ethiopian dam project and dismissed popular initiatives to resolve the dispute with Addis Ababa.

“There are international organisations that failed [to mediate] and Ethiopia stuck to its position. Just like they threatened to use their army, Egypt has an army. If Israel which is inciting Ethiopia learned a lesson from the Egyptian army in 1973 [war], you are threatening my life. I will not allow you to build your dam and block water from me and in the end famine occurs among the Egyptian people and we kill each other for a drop of water,” Mansour said.

Abusing Legitimate Refugees Is Violation of Human Rights and International Conventions

April 7, 2014

OLF statement regarding the Oromo refugees in Kenya

Citizens flee their own countries for different reasons. Some of the causes are short term incidents while others are long term, requiring radical solutions. Natural calamities like drought, flood, earthquake and the like; and man-made causes like civil war, economic and political crises can force people to flee their own countries. Everyone wants to return to one’s own country once the cause for the flight is solved. Of the huge number of the current refugee in the Horn of African countries the Oromo predominates. The majority of them fled their country for none other than a deep-rooted political crisis that cannot be solved overnight. They apparently began this flight, right after the conquest during the last century,to save their lives and human dignity. Thus the Oromos have managed to survive in all the neighbouring countries for a long time. The OLF likes to express its gratitude to the countries that had harboured these refugees for such a long time. However, some developments of the last two decades are worrisome.

Saving Oromia from the TPLF Gluttons

By HGoche | April 6, 2014

There are many Oromo Scholars, past and present who advocated the urgency of coordinating our multi-faceted struggle for liberation of Oromia before the TPLF gluttons consume Oromia’s resources. By resources, I mean Oromia’s natural and human resources.

TPLF is doing what is humanly possible to win the next election to continue pillaging what is left of Oromia and selling what they cannot gluttonize to anyone who can pay them the highest bid to fatten their overseas bank account, because deep-down TPLF leaders know very well their days in Oromia and the South will end one day. That day depends on how, we, the Oromos will over-come our petty differences and mobilize as one people. The TPLF gluttons also know that they can continue their destruction of Oromia as long they can disfranchise the Oromo Liberation movements Organization’s, as they did for the last twenty odd years, and it is up to each and every one of us to arrest their evil agendas and save our nation, Oromia.

IN PICTURES: The Unveiling of the Aannolee Oromo Martyrs’ Memorial Monument in Hetosa, Oromiyaa

The Aannolee Oromo Martyrs’ Memorial Monument was unveiled in Hetosa, Arsi, Oromiyaa, on April 6, 2014 – also inaugurated was the Aannolee Cultural/Historical Museum. The Monument commemorates the Oromo martyrs whose limbs and breasts were cut off atrociously by the invading Abyssinian/Shoan Amhara army of Menelik II in 1886. Known as the harmaf harka muraa Aannolee, the Menelik’s Abyssinian/Shoan Amhara army mutilated an unknown number of Oromo men’s right hands and Oromo women’s breasts for resisting Abyssinia’s conquest of the Oromo land.