Nine Ethiopian band members killed, 17 injured

Ethiopia has been plunged into mourning after nine artists were killed and 17 seriously injured in a car accident. Police said the accident happened on Monday in the Amhara region while the artists were travelling to South Sudan for a concert that was scheduled for this weekend. The well known artists are members of the Tigray Cultural Squad who played “significant roles” in the struggle against the military regime in Ethiopia. The injured and bodies of their colleagues were evacuated from the area by helicopter According to the Tigray Culture and Tourism Bureau, all of them are members of the Tigray Cultural Squad who “played significant roles in the bitter struggle to ensure equality, freedom and democracy in Ethiopia.” They are Berhane Gebremeskel (Gano), Berhane Gebrehiwot (handebet), Berhane Andey (Kunama), Letemeskel Gbrehiwot (Agew), Tekie Tesfamariam, Haile Gerlasie, Berhane Gebremichael, Ashenafi Mengistu and Habtome. Ethiopia has one of the highest number of traffic accidents on the continent with around 2,000 people being killed on the roads annually. Source (Africa Report)

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Model wife killed German beer king for money, claims his son

"If my suspicions prove to be wrong, I can live with it," Mr Nerger 64, the son of the deceased told the Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper. "Should I be right, I hope that the culprits get their punishment." Frankfurt's prosecutors are investigating the claims and staff at the hospital where Schubert died have been interviewed. Also under investigation is an accusation that Miss Kifle was "seen dancing in a disco a few days after her husband died". "We are carrying out a death investigation process," said Hubert Harth, Frankfurt's chief public prosecutor. Miss Kifle and her lawyer, Hubert Kestler, have strenuously denied the accusations. Schubert is said to have met his young wife in a restaurant five years ago at a gala lunch he was hosting. Read more…

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Ethiopian athletes smuggled into South Africa

The 15 Ethiopian athletes who disappeared from the Games Village last week at the All-Africa Games in Maputo, are now all in South Africa, according to the Mozambican police.
The spokesman for the General Command of the police, Pedro Cossa, told reporters that all the fugitive athletes are currently in South Africa, and that a Mozambican, whom he named only as Jorge, has confessed to helping them cross the border in exchange for $300 to $400 per athlete. Cossa said the police suspect that this man, who is trained in international relations, has a long track record of trafficking people over the border into South Africa. He claimed that Jorge had been in contact with an individual inside South Africa (whom he did not name) who made arrangements to receive the Ethiopians. The disappearance of the Ethiopians was announced on September 14 by the games organising committee (COJA). The head of the Ethiopian mission himself had informed COJA that 15 of the athletes had vanished from the village, but no names were released. COJA informed the police and immigration authorities, but by this time it was likely that the Ethiopians were already in South Africa.
Ninety-six Ethiopian athletes attended the games, and between them they won 28 medals (six gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze). - Independent Foreign Service source (Daily News)

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Ethiopia reporter flees, other opposition arrested

The New York-based journalists group said late Wednesday that Argaw fled over the weekend after being interrogated over the identity of a government source mentioned in a leaked U.S. cable. Argaw was the local correspondent for Kenya's Nation Media Group. The leaked 2009. cable said Argaw was told by an unnamed source that the government would target six journalists from a newspaper seen as critical of the government. That paper closed later that year after citing harassment and intimidation. Shimeles, the government spokesman, said Argaw was not pressured to name a source and that Ethiopian law allows journalists to protect their sources. Read more…

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Mozambique probing case of missing Ethiopian athletes

The Games Organising Committee deputy director, Penalva Cesar, confirmed at a press conference that the 15 athletes from Ethiopia were reported missing by the chief of the delegation himself Monday. Mozambique News Agency AIM reported that the case was initially taken to the security organising sub-committee. Penalva said that wherever the athletes are staying, their Games identification and entry visa would be valid until the last day of the Games, Sep 18, and after that period other means will be used."If they do not appear until Sunday, the last day of the 10th All Africa Games, their entry visas will also expire, they will be in a condition of illegality which entails a criminal situation," said Cesar.The Games Organising Committee accredited over 20,000 people, among them 4,982 athletes from foreign countries. Sourec (DECCAN HERALD)

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Happy Ethiopian New Year

Dear friends and netters of Ethiopian This Week.com ,
We wish you a happy , prosperous and peaceful new year , መልካም አዲስ አመት::
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Ethiopia: Two Swedish and three Ethiopian born journalists Charged with Terrorism

Ethiopia charged two Swedish journalists with terrorism after detaining them in July with rebels in the Ogaden region, State Minister of Communications Shimeles Kemal said. Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye appeared in court yesterday, Shimeles said in a telephone interview from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, today. Prosecutors have a video showing the journalists handling guns, he said. “They have entered the country with a bunch of terrorists,” the minister said. “They have even taken weapons training. Their activity is a bit more than mere journalistic activity.” The journalists will be tried for engaging in terrorism, assisting a terrorist organization and entering the country illegally, Shimeles said. They were detained with members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which has been fighting since 1984 for self-determination of Ogaden, located in a province that borders Somalia. The Swedish Foreign Ministry hasn’t received official notification of the charges, Teo Zetterman, a spokesman for the department, said in a telephone interview from Stockholm today. Ethiopia also brought terrorism charges against two ONLF members and three other journalists, including Elias Kifle, who runs the Washington-based Ethiopian Review website and Woubshet Taye, the deputy editor of the Addis Ababa-based Awramba Times. “He is innocent, everybody is innocent, it is clear,” Awramba Times’s editor, Dawit Kebede, said in a phone interview today. “I believe it’s a systematic way to put pressure on our newspaper.” Source (Bloomberg)

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Convoy with Gaddafi loyalists enters Niger

As rebel negotiators press Gaddafi loyalists in the town of Bani Walid to surrender peacefully before a September 10 deadline, a long convoy of Libyan Army vehicles was reported on Tuesday to have crossed the country’s southern border into Niger in what could represent a shift in the balance of power after six months of conflict. The convoy’s movements were reported by several news agencies quoting witnesses and military officials from France and Niger. The convoy reportedly comprised of about 200 to 250 vehicles. Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was not part of the convoy from Libya on Monday, Al Arabiya television reported. Arabiya cited Niger’s Foreign Minister Bazoum Mohamed, although no interview was aired.
Libya’s interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) also confirmed that Gaddafi’s loyalists crossed into Niger in a convoy of vehicles, carrying gold and cash. Source ( Indian Express)

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Ethiopia arrests dozens over 'terror plot'

Suspects were detained on August 28 on charges of colluding with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an Eritrea-based rebel group that Ethiopia lists as a terrorist organisation, to plant explosives and conduct bomb-training courses, government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said. He claimed they were members of the OLF. Nine of the detained are members of two opposition prominent parties, Demelash Woldemikael, deputy commissioner of federal police, told the Reuters news agency. Ethiopia has been accused of cracking down on opposition campaigners from the Oromo ethnic group, the Horn of Africa nation's biggest with 27 million people out of a population of 80 million. Rights groups have criticised Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, for crushing dissent. Meles says "terrorists" are using political party membership to hide their activities.Opposition politicians dismissed the charges, saying that the government is "well-known for its fabrications". "[The government doesn't] want to know the facts, so they come up with their lies," Andualem Arage, a senior member of the opposition Medrek coalition, said. "They are doing this to prevent people from standing up for their rights," Arage added, claiming the government is fearful Arab Spring-type protests could erupt in Ethiopia. Demelash denied any political motives behind the 29 arrests. "Their political activity had nothing to do with their incarceration," he said. "They were posing as peaceful activists but were in fact operating with the OLF, which is responsible for past killings of innocent civilians." source ( Aljazera)

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WikiLeak released detail documents on Ethiopia and high profile politicians including the PM.

Scholars describe the weakening of state institutions, escalating corruption and economic mismanagement; Click here to read more

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