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Including foreign (in this case Chinese) engineers. An embarassment for the Ethiopians to add with the recent kidnapping of British diplomats. Given the ONLF's providence, I think one has to be blind to miss the linkage between this and the ongoing fighting in Mogadishu.
Additional info from NYTIMES.
18 June NY Times - In Ethiopian Desert, Fear and Cries of Army Brutality by Jeffrey Gettleman.
Quote:
... This is the Ogaden, a spindle-legged corner of Ethiopia that the urbane officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, would rather outsiders never see. It is the epicenter of a separatist war pitting impoverished nomads against one of the biggest armies in Africa.
What goes on here seems to be starkly different from the carefully constructed up-and-coming image that Ethiopia — a country that the United States increasingly relies on to fight militant Islam in the Horn of Africa — tries to project.
In village after village, people said they had been brutalized by government troops. They described a widespread and longstanding reign of terror, with Ethiopian soldiers gang-raping women, burning down huts and killing civilians at will.
It is the same military that the American government helps train and equip — and provides with prized intelligence. The two nations have been allies for years, but recently they have grown especially close, teaming up last winter to oust an Islamic movement that controlled much of Somalia and rid the region of a potential terrorist threat...
22 July NY Times - Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region by Jeffrey Gettleman.
Quote:
The Ethiopian government is blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to large swaths of a remote region in the eastern part of the country that is home to a rebel force, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation, Western diplomats and humanitarian officials say.
The Ethiopian military and its proxy militias have also been siphoning off millions of dollars in international food aid and using a United Nations polio eradication program to funnel money to their fighters, according to relief officials, former Ethiopian government administrators and a member of the Ethiopian Parliament who defected to Germany last month to protest the government’s actions...
I wonder how long Ethiopia can hold it together? I have to admit that Meles Zenawi has lasted longer than I ever thought he would. But, it can't last forever and when Ethiopia implodes (or explodes), what happens in the horn?
Aid agency warns of possible starvation in eastern Ethiopia - McClatchy, 4 Sep.
Quote:
A leading relief agency said Tuesday that Ethiopian government forces had blocked relief efforts and food supplies in parts of the rebel Ogaden region, adding the threat of starvation to a rapidly growing humanitarian crisis.
Doctors Without Borders said that Ethiopian forces — which are trying to crush a long-running separatist movement in the eastern region — repeatedly had denied its teams access to two of the worst-affected areas in recent weeks, citing security operations.
Agency staff members who traveled along some main roads in the harsh, rock-strewn Ogaden in June, July and August saw villages burned and abandoned, severe shortages of even basic medicines and widespread signs of malnutrition. They said that at least 400,000 people urgently needed help. Some doctors said Ethiopian troops were enforcing partial food blockades in certain areas ...
Not sure what the policy is on creating new threads, but I didn't see anywhere else to post this.
There's accompanying footage from ETV showing some of the cash and weaponry allegedly seized by the government. I'll provide the link as soon as my computer stops acting up. Also one of the suspects is an active duty BG.
Ethiopia arrests 'coup plotters'
sorry I couldn't find a translated version.
ETV News Says - Ginbot 7 Members Arrested
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03...es-2057387870/Quote:
Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.
At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.
The violence escalated to the point that federal police forces sent to the area two weeks ago were initially overwhelmed by the mobs. Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal told Voice of America police reinforcements had since restored order and 130 suspects had been arrested and charged with instigating religious hatred and violence.
I was startled a few months ago when a BBC TV documentary on Ethiopia referred to the large Muslim minority and that the communities got on well.
Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#ReligionQuote:
Ethiopia has close historical ties to all three of the world's major Abrahamic religions. It was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. It still has a Christian majority, but a third of the population is Muslim.
Ethiopia rarely gets coverage here, although Chinese investment in a railway appears elsewhere and the US has a "drone relationship", well did till recently. I did catch reports on disorder and a government "crackdown" all over a planning dispute; missed the scale:This BBC article is a swift overview of a state that faces "small wars" out in the countryside:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35325536Quote:
Rights groups say that at least 150 protesters have died and another 5,000 have been arrested by security forces.
A long explanation on Ethiopia's governance and wider issues (not the small wars as above post), with more detail than I have seen before:https://www.opendemocracy.net/ren-le...e-warning-shot
It opens with:Quote:
The Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), the strongest component of the ruling coalition, from the middle of 2014 has faced the highest level of Tigrean popular discontent since its inception 40 years ago. That came first. Now the unrest in the most populated region of Ethiopia has sent to the regime as a whole the most shattering warning shot since its arrival in power in 1991.
A BBC backgrounder that opens with:Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37564770Quote:
Political protests which have swept through Ethiopia are a major threat to the country's secretive government, writes former BBC Ethiopia correspondent Elizabeth Blunt. For the past five years Ethiopia has been hit by waves of protest, not only by formal opposition groups but also Muslims unhappy at the imposition of government-approved leaders, farmers displaced to make way for commercial agriculture, Amhara communities opposed at their inclusion in Tigre rather than the Amhara region and, above all, by groups in various parts of the vast Oromia region.
In the most recent unrest in Oromia, at least 55 people died when security forces intervened over the weekend during the annual Ireecha celebrations - a traditional Oromo seasonal festival.
The scale of the deaths:Within a rolling item:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-37390867Quote:
The prime minister said there were at least 170 deaths in the Oromo region and more than 120 in Amhara but admitted that "when you add it up it could be more than 500".
I wonder if internal issues have affected this exit from a town in Somalia? See:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37616973
A long explanation of the crisis, now with a state of emergency, by a French SME:https://www.opendemocracy.net/ren-le...opia-s-crisis?
He provides an answer to the perception within Ethiopia that the regime now finds itself in a new position:Quote:
Why this impotence and loss of credibility?
Have discussed Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia with several sources that made the project Wings over Ogaden possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
They say: this has nothing to do with internal affairs in Ethiopia - but with costs of this enterprise.
They compare the situation with what happened back in 2007, when Ethiopia moved in in order to help the UN, but then nobody helped Ethiopia.
The force withdrawn was the Ethiopian contingent operating outside AMISOM's command, and sponsored by Ethiopian defence budget. Original plan was for this force to hold the specific zone until AMISOM would take over. But, there was simply no reaction - neither from the UN, i.e. AMISOM, nor from regular Somali forces.
Fed up of waiting, Ethiopians withdrew on their own. The AMISOM eventually moved in, but only after ash-Shabaab took over some of places.
With the media focus on President Zuma's removal from power in South Africa, few spotted let alone saw reporting on the resignation of the Prime Minister in Ethiopia.
A French SME is the author (cited before) and he starts with:Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/ren-lefort/crisis-in-ethiopia-elections-and-fast?Quote:
The crisis in Ethiopia has suddenly gained momentum and reached a tipping point. Things could go either way. The country could dig itself even deeper, with consequences that don’t bear thinking about. Or there could be a broad realisation that Ethiopia is “at the precipice”, bringing a surge of realism and pragmatism that would finally start a process of political rebuilding on solid, inclusive and lasting foundations.
Is this important to us, whether the 'small wars' community of that horrible phrase "the West"? Yes, if only out of self-interest, notably access to facilities and whatever the crisis Ethiopia is an example of how change can happen for the better amidst the communal tensions and religious context.