Ethiopia

At least 500 protesters have been killed in Ethiopia over the last year.

In a visit to Addis Ababa on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed her support for Ethiopian protesters — while also offering her nation’s services to help train police and offer mediation to try and quell the rising unrest in Ethiopia.

“A vibrant civil society is part and parcel of a developing country,” Merkel said after visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Merkel’s visit came as Ethiopia is reeling from large scale protests and government crackdowns that have left at least 500 people dead in the past year, though some estimates are much higher. Over 50 people died in a stampede last week, after police used teargas and fired warning shots to disperse protesters. On Sunday, the Ethiopian Prime Minister declared a state of emergency for the first time in 25 years, and local media have said that it will last six months.

Protests arose in Ethiopia after the government attempted to expand the capital city Addis Ababa. Elites in the city are confiscating land from farmers and often turning it for a profit. Protesters not only oppose the land grab but also are asking for greater rights and democracy in a country known for extrajudicial execution of political prisoners and widespread political arrests.

When protesters took to the streets, they were violently suppressed by government forces. To show they were peaceful, many marched with their arms crossed, making an ‘X’ sign. This sign rose to prominence when Olympian marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa crossed the finish line in Rio with his arms crossed. Lilesa is Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group and one of the groups most affected by the government’s land seizures and crack downs. The Oromo Liberation Front, a banned group fighting for self determination for the Oromo people, organized a number of attacks across the Oromia region last week, VOA reported.

‘I have no regrets:’ Ethiopian athlete isn’t backing down after risky Olympic protest
“I would have regretted it if I didn’t take a stand. I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.” thinkprogress.org

“This is not an attempt by the military to take over,” Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda told reporters on Monday, referring to the state of emergency. Nonetheless, the state of emergency could include curfews in certain areas, arrests, search and seizures without court orders, and restrictions on the right to assembly, as well as banning certain forms of communication, VOA reported. The country’s internet is also largely blacked out.

Ethiopian authorities blamed the unrest on Egypt and said the north African nation was training the OLF to cause problems in Ethiopia over a hydroelectric dam. Egypt is concerned the dam will limit the flow of water from the Nile into the country, though they’ve denied getting involved in Ethiopia’s domestic affairs.

In light of the state of emergency, Ethiopia withdrew forces from Somalia that were fighting al-Shabab. Reports say al-Shabab will likely now retake the town.

The United States, who counts Ethiopia as an ally, has called on the government to show leniency to the protesters and the U.N. asked for access to send independent investigators to gather information in Oromia, according to the AP.

Merkel hopes that her visit will serve to open up the country to more democratic practices. “We are already working in Oromia to de-escalate the situation there by offering mediation between groups,” she said.

Desalegn said he may be open to increased dialogue in Oromia. “We have shortcomings in our fledgling democracy, so we want to go further in opening up the political space and engagement with different groups of the society,” he said.

Ethiopia held parliamentary elections in 2015, but opposition parties failed to win a single seat. The lack of success for the opposition led to accusations of government interference. Ethiopia’s president recently said the government would like to open up the democratic political process to more parties. Ethiopia’s last prime minister, Meles Zenawi, gave the ethnic Tigrayans a more privileged position in Ethiopian society and in the government. Zenawi brought in leaders of other ethnic groups’ political parties, but the deal he cut benefited elites and gave the commoners the short end of the stick.

On the violent suppression of protest, Desalegn said, “The government is not using extreme violence. If it happened, we will investigate the units involved.”

Desalegn blames violent opposition groups, though Human Rights Watch has joined U.N. calls for independent investigations after the opposition said police fired tear gas at protesters causing a stampede.

Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia celebrates crosses the line to win silver during the men's marathon. — Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia celebrates crosses the line to win silver during the men’s marathon.

The word “brave” is thrown around a lot during the Olympics. But Ethiopian long-distance runner Feyisa Lilesa showed what true bravery looks like during the men’s marathon on Sunday. Crossing the finish line for a silver medal, it looked like Lilesa was simply raising his arms to celebrate. Yet those paying attention to the Oromo protests in Ethiopia realized it was much more than that.

Since Nov. 2015, the Ethiopian government has killed an estimated 400 people, and injured thousands more, for participating in the Oromo protests, according to Human Rights Watch.

The protests started as an effort to stop the government from expanding the limits of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, into the surrounding towns and villages of the Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group.

What came next was brutal.

“Security forces … shot into crowds, summarily killing people during mass roundups, and torturing detained protesters,” wrote Human Rights Watch, citing a report that included interviews with 125 witnesses. “Because primary and secondary school students in Oromia were among the early protesters, many of those arrested or killed were children under the age of 18.”

In the graphic video below, you can see protesters making the same gesture as Lilesa did when finishing his race.

Speaking at a press conference after the marathon, the runner revealed just how much he risked with the gesture.

“If I go back to Ethiopia maybe they will kill me,” he said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“If I am not killed maybe they will put me in prison. [If ] they [do] not put me in prison they will block me at airport. I have got a decision. Maybe I move to another country.”

After university entrance exams were cancelled because the questions were posted online, Ethiopia’s government has responded by blocking access to social media. The ban applies to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber.

Despite perceived ulterior motives, authorities insist the government has the students’ best interests at heart. “It’s a temporary measure until Wednesday,” Getachew Reda, a government spokesman, said. “Social media have proven to be a distraction for students.”

But most Ethiopians will view that claim dubiously given Ethiopia’s overt caution with internet communications in general. In 2012, a clampdown restricted voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls. With users facing a 15 year jail term, the clampdown included making “unauthorized calls” on Skype. The country also has a history of blocking “opposition and human rights blogs.”

Much of Ethiopia’s attempts to censor the internet is rooted in its laws. A recently proposed legislation which seeks to “criminalize spamming” is feared to be an indirect way to censor journalists and activists online. This follows similar prior legislation believed to be repressive of the internet like the Mass Media and Freedom of Information Proclamation of 2008 and the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation of 2009.

Last month Algeria also temporarily blocked social media platforms claiming it was an attempt to thwart exam cheats who had been posting papers online.

The growing popularity of social media as an outlet for advocacy and criticism of governments has seen it become a target by governments. Elections on the continent have been accompanied by social media bans wrapped in the rhetoric of national security but Ethiopia may be dangerously pushing the boundary with its current ban.

Deji Olukotun, senior global advocacy manager at Access Now, says a nationwide block of social media because of leaked questions is “completely disproportionate” as “shutdowns like this impact broader society as a whole—businesses lose a lot of money, journalists can’t report the news and it creates a culture of impunity.”

Daniel Berhane, an Ethiopian blogger, also cites the possibility of impunity saying the lack of transparency around the block is the biggest concern. “This is a dangerous precedent,” Berhane told AFP. “There is no transparency about who took the decision and for how long. This time it is for a few days, but next time it might be for a month.”

located kids — FILE: A young woman and a child displaced by fighting in South Sudan wait to be registered in the Kule 1 and 2 camps for internally displaced people at the Pagak border crossing in Gambela, Ethiopia.

International Business Times |

Ethiopia’s army has encircled an area in neighboring South Sudan where it believes more than 100 abducted Ethiopian children are being held by armed militants. A government official in Ethiopia’s western Gambela region told local media late Wednesday the children would soon be rescued and reunited with their families. The Ethiopian children may have been kidnapped to be serve as workers.

There are also efforts to bring back the more than 2,000 cattle stolen by the armed group, according to Ethiopia’s government-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate. The Ethiopian government has blamed members of South Sudan’s Murle tribe for the cross-border raid in Gambela last Friday, which left 208 people dead and dozens injured in 13 kebeles, or neighborhoods.

Cross-border raids are not unusual in the Horn of Africa country’s Gambela region, which is situated on the border with South Sudan. Ethnic communities in both nations have frequently clashed over land, livestock and resources such as grazing rights and water. The Murle tribe has been accused of stealing cattle as well as children to raise as their own during previous raids. Those targeted in the raid Friday were members of the Nuer ethnic group, who live in both Ethiopia and South Sudan, BBC News said.

The Gambela region and a neighboring province host more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled deadly conflict in their country. The gunmen responsible for the raid Friday are not believed to have links with the South Sudanese military or the nation’s rebels, who fought the government in the capital of Juba in a civil war that ended with a peace accord signed last year, as Reuters reported.

Ethiopia’s communications minister, Getachew Reda, said his government had good relations with South Sudan and was calling on its neighboring country to help bring an end to the danger.

“We have to neutralize the threat, hold whoever perpetrated these heinous crimes to account,” Reda told CNN by phone Tuesday from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. “People have been displaced from their villages.”

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The state broadcaster in Ethiopia says 28 people have been killed in severe flooding in two remote regions.

The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday that 23 people were killed and 84 more people were injured when a river that crosses Jigjiga, the regional capital of the Somali region, burst its banks on Sunday.

It said intense rains in another drought-stricken region, Afar, led to floods in which five people were killed.

Ethiopian meteorology officials said thick clouds around the Indian Ocean could lead to more flooding in the coming days and the government is taking precautionary measures to assist people in the two affected regions.

At least 500 protesters have been killed in Ethiopia over the last year.

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