Marsabit still chasing elusive peace
Standard, Kenya - April 8, 2007

Peace has eluded pastoralists in the upper part of Eastern Province a year after a military plane carrying a delegation to a peace meeting in Marsabit crashed, killing 14 people.

Just two days to the first anniversary (April 10), there are no elaborate plans for the day due to tension. Despite numerous reconciliatory meetings, peace has eluded the Borana and Gabra in Marsabit, Moyale and Isiolo districts.

The Government has also not kept its promise to look after the widows and the children of the fallen leaders ...

Oromo youth: Washington rally was a success, call for another in Minneapolis
Sudan Tribune, Sudan - April 5, 2007

The successful rally led by Oromo youth on Saturday March 31, 2007 in Washington DC marked the Oromo youth fulfillment of Sir Francis Bacon's depiction of the youth. The rally was organized by the International Oromo Youth Association (IOYA), an umbrella organization of all Oromo Youth Associations and Student Unions which was founded in 2006 with the vision of engaging in a multifaceted struggle to bring freedom and justice to the Oromo people. In addition, IOYA is committed to working to alleviate the economic, social, and human rights deprivations of the Oromo nation at no cost to any other nation or country. We, the IOYA, are committed to achieving these goals by investing our time, energy, wealth, and lives. The Oromo youth, want to reaffirm that we are highly committed to the well-being of the Oromo people and will not stop until our people's destiny rests in their own hands ...

Eritrea says ex-Somali speaker in country for talks
Reuters AlertNet, UK - April 5, 2007

Eritrea said on Thursday that Somalia's former parliament speaker and a deputy prime minister were in the Horn of Africa country to discuss ways to help Somalia out of its problems.

Eritrea's Information Minister Ali Abdu said Sheikh Sharif Adan Mohamed Nuur -- voted out as speaker in January for reaching out to the government's Islamist rivals -- and Hussein Aideed, had been in the country for about three days.

"We are talking with them about the way out of Somalia's problems and the bottom line is that Somalia's problems should be solved by the Somalis themselves," Abdu told Reuters ...

Coffee growing, addiction: Ethiopia's blessing and curse
Wilmington Morning Star, NC - April 5, 2007

Jimma, Ethiopia | Inside the coffee plant's corrugated metal fence, men look more like mules as they lug 100-pound sacks of coffee on their backs.

But as midday nears, a heavenly scent wafts from the corner, where Ahmed Achoumeto, 25, pounds a pile of black coffee beans in preparation for the noontime break.

"I am terribly addicted. If I don't get coffee, I can't see properly," he said, standing barefoot in the dirt, grinding the beans with a primitive 3-foot-long wooden pestle and a mortar made of a hollowed tree stump. "Almost everyone here is addicted" ...

Coffee growing, addiction: Ethiopia's blessing and curse
Wilmington Morning Star, NC - April 5, 2007
Jimma, Ethiopia Inside the coffee plant's corrugated metal fence, men look more like mules as they lug 100-pound sacks of coffee on their backs.
But as midday nears, a heavenly scent wafts from the corner, where Ahmed Achoumeto, 25, pounds a pile of black coffee beans in preparation for the noontime break.
"I am terribly addicted. If I don't get coffee, I can't see properly," he said, standing barefoot in the dirt, grinding the beans with a primitive 3-foot-long wooden pestle and a mortar made of a hollowed tree stump. "Almost everyone here is addicted" ...

Relief Bulletin: Weekly Humanitarian Highlights in Ethiopia 02 April 2007
ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland - April 2, 2007

HUMANITARIAN UPDATE ON BORENA AND GUJI ZONES, OROMIYA

A team composed of UNOCHA and UNICEF visited Borena and Guji zones, Oromiya Region from 14-26 March 2007 to assess the humanitarian impact of recent clan clashes. The mission visited displaced populations in Arero, Moyale, and Dire woredas in Borena zone and Shakiso woreda in Guji zone. Among the adverse impacts of the conflicts are displacement, mortalities and disruption to livelihoods. The team briefed the regional bureau on its findings which included an assessment of needs for immediate relief assistance and continued close monitoring of the situation. For more information contact: ocha-eth@un.org ...

English Department announces winners of its annual essay contest
UST Bulletin Today, MN - April 2, 2007

Congratulations to the following students for submitting the best essay in their respective category for this year's annual essay contest. The contest is open to all first-year students enrolled in 100-level English courses during the current academic year. Each winner will be awarded $75 ...

Ethiopians Blossom in 10-Miler
Washington Post, DC - April 2, 2007

Seconds after breaking the tape in a blistering 46 minutes 1 second, Tadesse Tola was in the finishing chute embracing the women's winner, fellow Ethiopian Teyba Erkesso, at the 35th Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile run in West Potomac Park yesterday.

"I was very happy to see he won," Erkesso said through an interpreter. "He has been my friend for a long time -- six years. He is my teammate."

Erkesso, 24, who started with the elite women 10 minutes before the rest of the field, finished a few minutes ahead of Tola with a dominating solo effort of 51:44, the fastest women's time in the Cherry Blossom race since Colleen De Reuck, from South Africa, set the then-world record of 51:16 in 1998 ...

Defar defends title in Carlsbad 5000
International Herald Tribune, France - April 1, 2007

Meseret Defar of Ethiopia became the first woman to successfully defend her title in the Carlsbad 5,000 on Sunday.

The 23-year-old won the 5-kilometer race in 15 minutes, 1 second, falling short in her attempt to lower the world record two years in a row ...

U of M to host event focused on African leaders, human rights & democracy in Africa
UMN News, MN - March 30, 2007

A panel "'The New Breed' of African Leaders and the Future of Human Rights and Democracy in Africa" will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 6, in Room 25, University of Minnesota Law School, 229 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis. The Humphrey Institute, the Law School and the Human Rights Center are proud to present this panel discussion event on African Leaders, the current state of Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, and U.S. Foreign Policy. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, visit http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/africanleaders or contact the Human Rights Center at (612) 626-0041 or humanrts@umn.edu.

The event is framed in the context of the expression, "the new breed of African leaders," coined by U.S. President Bill Clinton. This expression largely refers to late- and post-cold war African rebel leaders who come to power after long and bloody civil wars promising democracy and respect for human rights -- principally in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda ...

New assignments inside OLF
Oromia Times, North America - March 25, 2007

During a recent meeting of its executive committee, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, Ethiopian opposition) gave the task of heading the workgroup created to invigorate the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD, opposition coalition) to the head of its department of external relations, Hassan Hussein ...

The Oliqaa Foundation launches its new website
North America - March 23, 2007

The Oliqaa Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help build Oromo community centers throughout the world, to promote Oromo culture & music, to reduce poverty & injustice, and to provide a wide ranges of supports to all nonprofit Oromo organizations, has announced that its website Oliqaa.com will be available to the public starting March 24th, 2007. Stay tuned and visit the website to learn more about the Foundation's mission ...

Defying orders to surrender illegal guns
Reuters AlertNet, UK - March 22, 2007

The severe drought in northern Kenya last year and cattle rustling have wiped out more than half of Halake Wario's livestock, but failed to dampen his determination to remain a pastoralist.

"Livestock keeping is part of my Borana tradition but it is risky and tough," Wario told IRIN in Marsabit district. "Many people have been killed in the past and livestock stolen, [leaving] many families poor, but I wish the same lifestyle for my children."

Most of the deaths occurred when raiders from cattle-rustling communities in neighbouring Garissa District came to steal livestock from Wario's community in Marsabit. Many of his fellow Boranas died trying to defend their livestock from the raiders ...

Robert Mugabe: down but not yet out
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa - March 22, 2007

Almost every tribe on Earth has a metaphor for the law of unintended consequences. The Oromo people of Ethiopia say, "After you have thrown the spear, you cannot take hold of its end." At the beginning of March, with trademark arrogance, Robert Mugabe's regime launched a physical assault on the Zimbabwean opposition. The unintended consequences of these actions have been sweeping, and are widely considered to herald the ruin of the protagonist...

Cattle rustling goes commercial
Reuters AlertNet, UK - March 21, 2007

Cattle rustling in the Horn of Africa, formerly a means of replenishing animals for subsistence, is now widely practised as a commercial activity, according to a development policy analyst.

"Conflicts among pastoralists are no longer just small feuds to restock cattle after a dry spell. They have become more frequent and intense and are conducted to obtain cattle for sale elsewhere," said Abdalla Bujra, policy director of the Development Policy Management Forum, a regional civil society organisation involved in conflict analysis and resolution in eastern Africa.

Cattle raids were traditionally a communal survival mechanism whereby nomadic pastoralists in mainly arid and semi-arid areas restocked their herds after losing livestock to natural disasters such as drought, Bujra said. Nomadic herders were able to peacefully move across borders in search of pasture but not any more, he said ...

Dibaba's 5,000m record confirmed
BBC, March 20, 2007

The 5,000m indoor world record set by Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia in January is ratified by the IAAF ...

GOLD announces Leadership Through Innovation 2007
Minneapolis, MN - Mar 19, 2007

Go for Oromo Leadership Development (GOLD) is pleased to announce a summer poster session competition among Oromo college students.

A team of 4 students will be asked to work as a group and tackle a specific topic that fits within the theme of "Developing and Delivering Efficient Health Care Services in Oromia"...More Details

Sudan constructs highway to Ethiopia
Sudan Tribune, Sudan - March 19, 2007

Sudan has completed the construction of Gadarif - Doka - Gallabat section of the highway connecting Sudan and Ethiopia, said the federal ministry of transport.

The construction of the 156 km-long section was executed by an Egyptian constructor.

Sudan Tribune has learned that the project has cost 30 million USD, 90% of which was from a grant provided by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) and 10 pct by the Sudanese Government ...

Royalty tiff brews between Starbucks, farmers
Business Report, South Africa - Mar 15, 2007

Ethiopian coffee farmers and exporters yesterday accused Starbucks of using delaying tactics in the country's attempts to trademark its best beans.

Ethiopia, which prides itself as the birthplace of coffee, was trying to win trademarks for its Sidamo and Harar coffees in the US and said the coffee shop giant was stonewalling its bid ...

Kenya blundered in closing Somali border
Kenya Times, Kenya - Mar 14, 2007

The Muslim community in Mombasa recently demonstrated against the government on what they perceive as the marginalization of their community .They blamed the government for sending Muslims Kenyans to Somalia in the name of terrorists.

The closing of the Kenya-Somalia border to stop the fleeing refugees from entering into Kenya was unfortunate. Rafael Tuju Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister did not handle the issue prudently ...

Clashes over pasture continue
Standard, Kenya - March 9, 2007

Almost two years have passed since the infamous Turbi massacre and little has been done to end the frequent clashes between the Borana and Gabra.

The conflict between the two tribes, found in Marsabit, Moyale and southern Ethiopia, is caused by competition for scarce resources: pasture and water.

The communities criss-cross Kenya and Ethiopia in search of pasture and water. Conflicts occur when rival clans try to control water points and grazing fields.

During the Turbi massacre that occurred in July 2005, 70 people were killed when raiders attacked villages. Since then, more than 200 people have been killed and thousands of livestock stolen in conflicts pitting the two communities against each other ...

The Meroitic Ethiopian Origins of the Modern Oromo Nation
American Chronicle, CA - March 7, 2007

The Meroitic Ethiopian Origins of the Modern Oromo Nation

This paper deals, among others, with the development of Meroitic studies, the Meroitic civilization, the destruction of the city of Meroe, the dispersal of the Meroitic people after the collapse of their state, the Christianization of the post Meroitic states, the migration of the remnants of the Meroitic people in the direction of the Blue Nile and their possible relation of ancestry with the modern Cushitic language speaking Oromo nation. It must be stated clearly at the outset that the issue of Meroitic ancestry of the Oromo nation has not been considered, much less published in an academic journal or scholarly books. The paper was first presented in an academic conference organized by the Oromo Studies Association. Footnotes have been added recently.

1. The Development of the Meroitic Studies, the History of Kush and Meroe, and the Efforts to Decipher the Meroitic Scripture

Interest in what was Ethiopia for the Ancient Greeks and Romans, i.e. the Northern territory of present day Sudan from Khartoum to the Egyptian border1, led to the gradual development of the modern discipline of the Humanities that long stood in the shadow of Egyptology: the Meroitic Studies ...

Alien militia take refuge in Kenya
Kenya Times, Kenya - March 6, 2007

ABOUT 500 armed militiamen from Ethiopia have crossed into Kenya territory and settled at Mansine area, 25 kilometres from the border with Kenya, according to a local member of parliament.

Meanwhile unconfirmed reports from Marsabit town show that three people have been shot and killed at Gadamoji village in a dispute over water.

Reports indicate the three unidentified victims were killed by unknown gunmen on Sunday night in a dispute over a water well involving ethnic Gabbra and Borana people ...