This Is Our Moment To Be ONE - Follow the 2008 Olympic Games @ Gadaa.com/Olympics
TEAM OROMIA @ The Olympic Games 2008:
- Many Allegiances, but ONE IDENTITY - OROMO!
- The Elite and Greatest Long Distance Athletes!
From Oromia to Minnesota, with love and coffee
Twin Cities Daily Planet - July 24, 2008
Editor's Note: Gadaa.com commends all those who have worked to get this naming project a reality. In February 2008 the new name was being tested in Twin Cities stores; now it has really been named "Organic Oromian" instead of "Organic Ethiopia." Making the "Fair Trade" fair continues ...
The name he received from members of a grateful immigrant community in the Twin Cities is "Jalata," meaning "One who loves." As for the simple and single name that he bestowed, bear with me, this will sound implausible but it is absolutely true.
Riemann distributes Ethiopian coffee to food cooperatives in Minnesota, and he recently changed the label on vacuum-packed bags of the coffee beans he sells from "Organic Ethiopian" to "Organic Oromian." Read More.
Food crisis looms in East Africa - BBC - July 23, 2008
More than 14 million people in the Horn of Africa need food aid because of drought and rocketing food and fuel prices, the United Nations has warned.
The UN World Food Programme says it urgently needs $400m to prevent starvation in the east African region.
Ethiopia is worst hit, with 10 million people - some 12% of the population - in need of extra food supplies.
Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti are also affected, along with northern parts of Kenya and Uganda. Read More.
Large tracts of farm & residential land in Bale, Sebeta, Bishoftu Given Away to Djibouti
Capital Ethiopia - July 21, 2008
Editor's Note: The "Oromia: For Sale by Colonizer" episode continues ...
President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti is set to invest in the agriculture sector after receiving a large tract of land estimated to be over 7,000 hectares in Bale, Oromia Regional State. The multi-million dollar investment would commence in the next few weeks. The plot is slated for a wheat farm.
The president has also received 20 hectares of land around Sebeta to invest in the booming flower sector, on lease basis.
The president also visited a site of 10,000 sq. meters at Babogaya Lake in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) town, 45 kilometers South East of Addis Ababa and has received a free title deed for a plot to construct a home. Read More.
Olympics 2008: Bekele & Dibaba named for double Olympics assault - AFP - July 14, 2008
TEAM OROMIA @ The Olympic Games 2008:
- Many Allegiances, but ONE IDENTITY - OROMO!
- The Elite and Greatest Long Distance Athletes!
Press Violations in Ethiopia and Sanctuary in the United States
RAP21.org - July 17, 2008
Since 2001, more than 100 journalists have left Ethiopia. Now, amid discussion that a new media law will be another impedance to achieve press freedom, there is no sign that this trend will change.
RAP 21 interviewed prominent African news website journalist Habtamu Dugo who left Ethiopia several months ago to live in New York City. His story, unfolding alongside the new media law in his home country, is as a testimony to the hostile environment journalists in Ethiopia work in. Though since his arrival in the United States he has again raised his voice on US national radio and television shows in defense of those still in Ethiopia grappling with injustice.
RAP 21: What is the state of press freedom in Ethiopia?
Habtamu Dugo: Journalists are also not allowed to go into sensitive and major areas where stories are really developing. For instance, the May massacre in West Oromia State in the Western part of the country, which claimed the lives of over 400 children, men and women was not reported on. Journalists were prohibited from going into scenes of gross human rights violations such as Ogaden and Oromia. The situation is the same for foreign journalists in Ethiopia who also get harassed and detained for days or months. In the Eastern Oromia State of Ethiopia, UNICEF reports that 6 million children are threatened with starvation. The government has banned people from taking pictures and going into these areas in order to avoid its own embarrassment worldwide. This worsens the humanitarian crises as donors are blocked from getting information. Read More.
Ethiopians exposed to hungry season - ReliefWeb - July 17, 2008
When imagining a drought affected area, stretches of arid, dusty land is what comes to mind. Yet much of West Arsi zone in Southern Ethiopia is deceptively green.
Here people call it "green hunger" - a period of food shortage following the failure of the first harvest, when the second harvest is months away.
Earlier this year drought resulted in almost total harvest failure and widespread death of livestock in this and other regions of the country.
Now Ethiopia finds itself in the grip of a complex humanitarian crisis, triggered not only by drought but by global inflation of food and fuel prices. The impacts are being felt throughout the Horn of Africa and amongst the worst affected are the 4.6 million people identified by the Government of Ethiopia who require emergency food assistance. The situation is expected to escalate further as the hunger season progresses. Read More.
Oromo Mega Fest 2008 Opens in Minneapolis, MN Today
The Oromo Mega Fest 2008 in Minneapolis opens today - July 18th - with the 8th Annual Tawfiq Islamic Center Conference. The Conference's theme is "Following the Straight Path", and it will be held until July 20th at South High School. Read More.
Moreover, this year's festivities will build upon the success of Oromo Mega Fest 2007, which received a resounding success as people from across the globe descended upon Minneapolis; for two weeks full of festivities. The 2007 event made such a huge impact on the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area, the Mayor of the City of Saint Paul issued a proclamation which declared the week of July 22nd - July 29th Oromo Week. Read More.
Mandela group declares food human right - AP - July 16, 2008
Editor's Note: Over the last five decades, regimes of the Ethiopian Empire have used "hunger" as a weapon to crack down on dissenting regions. By purposely under-developing regions of the Empire with powerful political dissents, these regimes have exposed these "rebelling regions" to starvation. Their motto has been "Surrender or Starve!" To be specific, the Haile-Sellasie monarchial rule had severely underdeveloped Wollo in order to punish political dissents in that region. Similarly, in the 1980's the Derg military junta used "hunger" to unsuccessfully mute the popular uprisings in Tigray. And now, the Woyane regime has continued the legacy of its predecessors by deliberately under-developing Oromia, Ogaden and the South in order to make peoples of these regions surrender to its tyranny through starvation. It was high time that the "freedom from hunger" was adopted as a fundamental human right.
Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and other members of Nelson Mandela's global crisis task force turned their attention to world hunger on Wednesday, focusing on soaring food prices.
The Nobel laureates and human rights activists the former South African president brought together as The Elders at his birthday last year have sent peace missions to the Middle East and Sudan's Darfur and spoken out against sham elections and political violence in Zimbabwe.
With the food crisis, they were taking on an issue that some experts say could lead to new wars, and that has touched all parts of the world, rich and poor.
Tutu, the Elders chairman and former Cape Town Anglican archbishop, called the right to food "fundamental." Read More.
- Related Item: Sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirming that "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." Click here.
Feeding Africa: Key is better farms, not food aid
Guardian - July 15, 2008
Hussein Ibrahim walked solemnly past tidy rows of bright green cabbages, vines bursting with tomatoes and trees weighed down with plump avocados.
This modern, thriving farm - a rarity in drought-ravaged Ethiopia - filled Hussein with envy. Like so many other farmers across the Horn of Africa, he has no hope for his own crops this year.
"We are behind all the other people in the world," said Hussein, who tends his land in southern Ethiopia the way his ancestors did hundreds of years ago - with rain, if it comes; and oxen, as long as they're healthy.
To break out of endless cycles of drought, poverty and hunger, experts say, Africa desperately needs to modernize its age-old farming techniques. But the vast sums in foreign aid to Africa go toward feeding the hungry, and very little is left for improving farming so that Africans will cease to depend on handouts. Read More.
Fighting in the Belo Region & Subsequent Reconciliation
Lambrick Park Church - July 14, 2008
Editor's Note: Despite the futile attempt by the Woyane regime to create animosity between Oromo and Gumuz, elders of the two peace-loving peoples have begun the reconciliation process. Read also about the Michu institution of reconciliation of Oromo. Yet another institution of reconciliation of Oromo is called Burying the Spear: read here for details. We need to preserve and protect these institutions as they are manifestations of the triumph of Gadaa democratic values over Woyane's aggression.
Food for the Hungry/Ethiopia has peen operating child development project in Belo Jeganfoy District since April 2000 and integrating community development project in Sasiga since June 2004. Both districts are situated at the adjacent border regions of Benishangul Gumuz and Oromia Regional States with potential border conflict due to unclear demarcation and claim for more land.
A terrible conflict took place on May 17, 2008 around a place called Shenkora, where hundreds of people were killed since the villagers were not ready either to defend them selves or flee the onslaught. Similarly, Oromia and Gumuz villages - including Belo Central were severely destroyed; as a result of the attack and the counter attacks that took place subsequently.
Yet the process of reconciliation is well progressing. Both community members of Gumuz and Oromo were reconciled and start sharing the same market. In the process of reconciliation three oxen and four lambs were cut. They feast together and main leaders from both communities shake hand with the blood. Besides, they broke a bone. The breaking as one of the leaders explained indicates that anyone who comes either from Oromo or Gumuz to attack the other must be broken like the bone. This indicates that peace prevails in the area. Leaders also confidently informed us that the security situation is reliable. Read More.
Mediterranean Countries Set up Partnership
VOA News - July 13, 2008
Heads of state from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe launched a new Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Sunday, aimed to bring the region closer politically, economically and culturally.
The new partnership aims to bring the Mediterranean region and Europe closer together in concrete ways, namely half a dozen projects agreed to by 43 heads of state after four hours of talks in Paris. The projects range from infrastructure and transport to solar energy and creating a regional university.
The summit's host, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, called the summit a success.
The summit brought together a large number of participants and leaders had agreed to a common declaration and to concrete projects. Read More.
ICC prosecutor to seek warrant for Sudan's al-Beshir
AP - July 13, 2008
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is expected on Monday to seek the arrest of Sudan President Omar al-Beshir on war crimes charges, though Arab and African leaders have warned of the fallout.
The US State Department has confirmed newspaper reports that Moreno-Ocampo will name the Sudanese leader when he unveils evidence to the court in a new case involving crimes in the country's war-stricken western Darfur region.
The prosecutor's office announced on Thursday he would present evidence and name suspects Monday for "crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years", but has so far refused to confirm Beshir would be targeted.
Khartoum, which rejects the ICC's jurisdiction and refuses to surrender two war crimes suspects already named, has warned the move could threaten peace efforts. Read More.
Health risks add to crisis in Ethiopia
World Health Organization - July 11, 2008
In three regions alone (Somali, SNNP and EasternOromiya), the number of government-run feeding centres has risen from 200 three months ago to 605 today. Some 75 000 children aged under 5 need therapeutic and supplementary nutrition support. WHO, UNICEF and nongovernmental organizations are supporting these centres.
Additional major factors affecting people's health and livelihoods are a lack of access to safe drinking water, shortages of drugs and medical supplies and insufficient human resources. The areas affected by shortages are also at significant risk of disease outbreaks: diarrhoeal diseases, measles and meningitis. Cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been reported in 16 districts, and outbreaks of cerebrospinal meningitis in 37 districts. More than 7000 cases of measles have been registered in 38 districts. Read More.
Abebech Gobena: A profile in compassion
Ethiopian Review - July 11, 2008
"I never put a price on a child." - Abebech Gobena
Abebech Gobena's life is a testament to the fact that a woman's truth cannot be bought or sold. Indeed, if she holds her ground, the world can change.
Abebech Gobena is the founder of Ethiopia's oldest orphanage. Her accomplishments stem from an act of faith. She was on a pilgrimage to Gishen Mariam in the Wollo region of Ethiopia, an important site in the Ethiopian orthodox faith. The area was famine stricken and on her way back home she found a baby laying next to her dead mother, at a feeding center. She picked up the baby and brought her home. She subsequently brought a second baby home, who was lying next to his dead father. In one year's time, she brought home 21 children. This simple act of love grew. Read More.
Aid Group Pulls Out of Eastern Ethiopia, Charging Government Harassment
VOA - July 10, 2008
The Swiss section of the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is halting humanitarian operations in a conflict-wracked region of eastern Ethiopia, charging government harassment and intimidation.
The Swiss section of Doctors Without Borders says it decided to withdraw from Ethiopia's Fiiq region in the face of repeated administrative hurdles and intimidations, including the detention of humanitarian staff. Fiiq is in the eastern Somali region, where Ethiopian troops are waging a fierce counterinsurgency campaign against rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
A statement sent to reporters Thursday says medical teams dispatched to the region in December of last year were prevented from providing urgently needed care to vulnerable populations. Read More.
Local taxi driver: "We can't survive - we can't pay our bills"
KBCI CBS 2, ID - July 10, 2008
Boise taxi cab drivers hail from all over the world, but in whatever language they speak, frustration is the key word now.
Cabbies are working longer hours and earning less as soaring gas prices soak up profits.
"We try to make ourselves improve, so we don't have to depend on the government," said Tafese Haile, a refugee from Ethiopia who drives a cab in Boise. "But we can't make anything, we can't survive, we can't pay bills."
One cab driver said he worked from 6 a.m. until midnight Tuesday and made $107. And it cost him $125 to fill up his Lincoln Navigator.
But taxi drivers can't raise their fares by themselves because in most places, including Boise, the price is regulated by local government. Read More.
Rising Food Prices in Kenya
Concern Worldwide @ YouTube - July 10, 2008
This short film features people in Kenya who have seen the price of staples such as maize, beans and oil soar in the last two years. Many families are now getting by on only one meal a day. In the film, one woman says that she often misses her meals altogether so she can feed her children.
Concern is responding to this crisis. In the Kerio Valley, we have successfully piloted a programme that uses mobile phone technology to give cash to the most vulnerable families so they can buy food. Marsabit and Kalacha we are working with partner agency Community Initiatives Facilitation and Assistance (Cifa) to help people manage the effects of drought. Watch @ YouTube.
As Ethiopia boils, Minnesota's Ethiopians feel the heat
Twin Cities Planet - July 10, 2008
Attacks-by-Proxy
Another example that is having repercussions in this state is a bloody clash that occurred in May between the Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups in western Ethiopia, that left more than a hundred people killed.
On the surface, the inter-tribal nature of the Oromo-Gumuz conflict left little trace of Ethiopian government involvement.
Yet Oromo in Ethiopia and in the Minnesota diaspora have charged - as one or another party nearly always does in such cases - that the Ethiopian government instigated the conflict by various means, such as ceding land belonging to one party to another, as a way to foment violence and launch a brutal attack-by-proxy on a targeted ethnic group.
"It's a nightmare what Oromos are subjected to in Ethiopia," says Lencho Bati, a professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, and a native Oromo. "It's exactly what blacks in South Africa suffered under apartheid - lack of access to resources, education, power, cultural enrichment and the right to self-determination." Read More.
Uture highlights opening evening - IAAF World Junior Championships
IAAF - July 8, 2008
Click here for the Medal Table
Utura brilliance
Ethiopia's Sule Utura confirmed her potential as one of the most exciting young distance talents in the world when winning the first track title of these championships.
Even coming from a country that is a conveyor belt of running phenomenon, the 18-year-old was beginning to stand out when she finished fourth in the junior race at last year's IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Here, she used a last kilometre of 2:48 to beat the youngest of the three running Dibaba sisters, Genzebe, into second place.
Utura's winning time of 16:15.59 was more than a minute outside her PB set in Oslo earlier this year, but with finishing speed like hers, she could afford to take it easy over the first three and a half kilometres. Read More.
Mental health fears over khat use
BBC - July 7, 2008
There are fears that the stimulant khat is contributing to mental health problems within the UK's east African communities. Dil Neiyyar of the BBC's Asian Network reports.
In a courtyard, two men sitting on a bench are staring intensely at a pond. The pair appear mesmerized by the gentle and repetitive splash of the water from a small fountain.
This walled oasis in London's East End is the Tower Hamlets branch of the mental health charity Mind. In one of its many rooms, Abdi Rahman is playing pool with a friend.
He explains why he thinks the stimulant khat is responsible for the loss of his job and subsequent slide into mental illness. Read More.
Sudan says Ethiopia attacked military base - Reuters - July 8, 2008
Sudan's army accused Ethiopian troops on Tuesday of attacking a military camp in northern Sudan and killing about 19 people.
A senior Ethiopian official played down the allegation, saying any "minor incident" on the border could be easily resolved.
Sudan's military spokesman said the attack took place early on Monday in the Jabel Hantub area of Sennar state.
"They hit a camp belonging to the central reserve police and they killed about 19 people," the Sudanese army spokesman said. He did not know how many people were injured. Read More.
Help for the Hungry - Reuters - July 8, 2008
The jutting ribs of cattle along the roadside hint at what lies ahead. After two consecutive seasons of poor rains, pockets of farmland in southern and eastern Ethiopia have produced no crops. Many people in these areas now have nothing -- literally nothing -- to eat. And with food prices soaring worldwide, they can't afford to buy the dwindling and increasingly expensive supplies in the market.
This spring, thousands of families in drought-affected regions have begun arriving at the doorsteps of health centers and churches seeking assistance. Mothers carrying their near-lifeless children beg for food as their older children whimper at their sides. Read More.
Bahrain, Qatar Sprint to Olympics on Oil Ethiopian Can't Refuse
Bloomberg - July 8, 2008
Jamal, 24, is an ethnic Oromo, and tribal members oppose Ethiopian rule. She sought political asylum in Switzerland in 2002, so Ethiopia labeled her a traitor, according to her Web site. Switzerland refused citizenship because she didn't meet requirements including 12 years of residency.
She approached the U.S., Canada, France and Turkey before finding a home in Bahrain, where 70 percent of government revenue is tied to oil. She'll seek the kingdom's first Olympic medal.
"Had it not been for the circumstances, I would have competed for Ethiopia," Jamal, the first woman from a Gulf nation to win a world track medal, said in an e-mail. "I feel that I made the best decision because the Bahrain federation gives me a lot of support." Read More.
West condemns Mugabe, ignores other Africa despots - AP - July 4, 2008
Nigeria. Rwanda. Uganda. Ethiopia. Gabon. Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe has plenty of competitors for the title of "least democratic in Africa."
But while he has been singled out for condemnation by the West, leaders of other autocratic states in Africa have largely been able to avoid sanctions and isolation. Many have friends in Western capitals. Or play a strategic role in the war against terrorist groups. Or sit on oil.
With corrupt and authoritarian governments close to the norm on the continent, it is not surprising that African leaders ignored Western demands that they censure Zimbabwe's president at a summit this week and some welcomed him with hugs. Read More.
Rochester celebrates Americans' day of joy
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle - July 5, 2008
For the Oromo Community of Western New York, Independence Day is a day to appreciate what it means to be free. The community, comprised of East Africans, came together at Genesee Valley Park for a picnic to relax on a day off, grill food and remember their fellow East Africans back home suffering from political oppression.
More than 25 men, women and children enjoyed the sunny day while dancing to music and talking about the similarities, not differences, of the Rochester community. Men grilled pieces of goat and beef hot dogs, and rice and tossed salad completed the meal.
It's a "mixed feeling," said Jamal Abdullahi, 50, of Rochester, who has spent 25 years in America. "We miss the community in East Africa, but we find peace and stability here." Read More.
Oromos Bring Appeals For Justice To Heart of Europe
UNPO - July 1, 2008
(Picture Credit: OromiaTimes & UNPO)
Ethiopia's government, led since 1991 by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has used the nature of the diverse multiethnic state to muzzle opposition to the incumbent Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) regime and to perpetrate civil and human rights abuses against the numerous ethnic groups that make up Ethiopia's citizens.
The largest of these ethnic groups, the Oromo, number over 30 million people, but remain largely unrepresented in the major decision-making bodies of the state. Despite a deepening drought and growing food shortages, the abuses against Ethiopia's citizens have continued unabated and the Ethiopian government remains one of the most serious abusers of international human rights conventions.
It was to highlight this fact and to raise the profile of the Oromo representation that members of the Union of Oromo Students in Europe (UOSE) congregated in Brussels on 30 June 2008. Coming from all over Europe, they brought the issues of Oromo human rights to the doorsteps of the major European institutions with demonstration in the Place Jean Rey and outside the European Commission Berlaymont building. Read More.
Twin Cities World Refugee Day - Twin Cities Planet - July 4, 2008
More than 88,500 refugees from around the world have made Minnesota their home since 1979, including one of the largest Hmong communities outside of Asia. Representatives from local refugee-serving organizations gathered at Minnehaha Park to host the Twin Cities World Refugee Day 2008, a celebration of the many local refugee groups and their journeys to Minnesota. Read More.
G8 Leaders Must Take Action to Save Most Vulnerable in Food Crisis
Doctors Without Borders - July 3, 2008
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today called on G8 leaders who will gather next week in Japan to take bold decisions to adequately finance food aid and nutrition programs directed at young children. With the crisis of malnutrition contributing to between three and five million child deaths annually, the summit must commit to providing funds to implement new and effective strategies to address malnutrition. Read More.
Living by Ethiopia's sewage canal
BBC - July 2, 2008
Editor's Note: BBC has also reported that many of Addis Ababan Street Children live "in" (not by) sewage canals (see the pictures here). This is the accomplishment of the EPRDF/Woyane/Meles regime in Addis.
Sanitation in Ethiopia's capital city leaves a lot to be desired - and it is the poor who are most vulnerable as a result.
In a small shack made of iron sheets and pieces of clothing in the slums of Addis Ababa live the Alemu family - Abiy, Marasit Bishaw, and the couple's three-year-old son and 25-day-old baby daughter Yanit.
And just a few metres from their one-room home is a mass of sewage and garbage, mixed with the carcasses of dead chickens and cow and goat skulls.
The Alemus live near the gully where the Kabena river used to meander gracefully through the Ethiopian capital. Read More.
Ethiopia: Government Prepares Assault on Civil Society - Human Rights Watch - July 1, 2008
Ethiopia's government should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The two groups called on donor governments, whose behind-the-scenes efforts to see the bill reformed appear to have failed, to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia. Read More.
OFDM calls for probe into "massacre"
Reuters - June 30, 2008
An Ethiopian opposition party called on Monday for an official probe into what it said was a massacre of 400 women and children in the west of the Horn of Africa nation.
The government, which has put the number of dead at more than 20 from the ethnic clashes in May, called the version by the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) an exaggeration.
Fighting between different communities over scant resources and grazing is common in outlying areas of Ethiopia. Read More.
Press Release: OROMOS IN EUROPE CALL FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ETHIOPIA - Oromia Times - June 27, 2008
On Monday 30 June 2008, over one hundred members of the Oromo Diaspora from across Europe will gather in the Place Jean Rey of Brussels to protest the ongoing and systemic degradation of human rights within Ethiopia under the regime of Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 1991. Read More.
Something stirring in the opposition
Africa Intelligence - June 27, 2008
OFDM, UEDF, Arena Tigray (a group of former TPLF members split from Meles' TPLF group in 2001), Coalition of Somali Democratic Forces, Mr. Seye Abraha and Dr. Negasso Gidada formed a new political alliance called Medrek on June 24, 2008.
Oromo opponents and TPLF dissidents are to form a new political group in Addis Ababa. The former Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada is to join forces with ... Read More.
"Oromoon sirna federaalaa kanarraa waan isaaf tahu hin arganne" - Jimma Times - June 27, 2008
Yeroo- Uummanni Oromoo sirna federaala kanarraa faayidaa isaaf tahu argateera jettanii yaaddu?
Bulcha- Hin amannu. Oromoon sirna federaalaa kanarraa waan isaaf tahu hin arganne. Maaliif yoo jennee biyyaa sirna federaalaan bultu keessaa qomoo adda addaattu jira waan taheef lammin yookiin qomoo adda addaa kun akka lakkoofsa isaaniitti mootummaa Itoophiyaa keessatti hirmaachuu qabu ture. Garuu Oromoon baay'inaan otoo lammii Itoophiyaa keessaa tokkoffaa tahee jiruu dhimmoota gurguddaa biyyitti keeesaatti hinhirmaanne. Akka sirna dimookraasitti uummata guddaatu biyya sana hooggana. Oromoon ammayyuu as hingeenye. Lafa investeriif mootumaa federaalaatu kennaa. Warri lafti irraa fudhatamee ammoo bakka lafa saanii waan argatan hin qaban. Kana duwwaa miti. Mootummaa federaalaa keessa Oromoon jiran baay'ee lakkoofsaan xiqqoodha. Mootummaan bakka Oromootaaf hin laanne. Biyya biraatti ummanni akka lakkoofsa isaatti mootummaa federaalaa keessatti hirmaata. Walumaagalatti mirgi Oromoo hin kabajamne jechuudha. Read More.
MSF Treats 6,500 for Severe Malnourishment
Doctors Without Borders - June 27, 2008
Oromiya region
Three MSF stabilization centers in Shashemane, Senbete Shinquille, and Ropi provide 24-hour medical care to severely malnourished children also suffering from complications such as malaria or pneumonia. To date, 957 children have been admitted to these centers in the Oromiya region, and 314 are currently receiving medical attention. Read More.
Dallas' loss is TFC's gain
Toronto Sun - June 27, 2008
Abdus Ibrahim is just 16-years-old and until last week, he was playing professional soccer in Dallas, some 1,500 kms from his family's home in Minneapolis, Minn.
Sure, he was earning $103,000 US -- an allowance fit for prince -- after being signed by Major League Soccer's Dallas FC, but it came at the price of loneliness for Ibrahim, who is called "Ibby" by coaches and teammates alike. Read More.
Press Release: The Massacre of May 2008
WAFIDO.org - June 26, 2008
Between May 16 and 31, 2008, 400 Oromo infant, children, women and men were slaughtered by Gumuz citizens of the Region of Beneshangul. For centuries, Gumuz and Oromo peoples had lived together in peace. All Oromos believe that Gumuz people were motivated and moved by non-Gumuz people. Some force outside of these two people must have played this heinous role to cause conflict between otherwise peaceful peoples.
In about two weeks, innocent people were mowed down. Pregnant women were slaughtered and their bodies strewn around. Arms and breasts were severed. Men were murdered and their heads were beheaded. There bodies were strewn in the jungle. Women and little girls were repeatedly raped. Hyenas ate dead bodies. Read More.
As famine looms in Ethiopia, only the neediest get food aid
The Christian Science Monitor - June 26, 2008
One by one, the children are placed on a scale hanging from a makeshift wooden stand.
The mothers look pleadingly at the Doctors Without Borders aid worker, but he keeps his eyes on his clipboard, tallying the figures that determine whether each child is sick enough to eat today.
Until more aid arrives, government agencies and international organizations are likely to continue to concentrate their resources in the neediest areas - weighing the indicators by the much more convenient statistical scale. Read More.
- Related News: Aid urgently needed to avert serious famine in Ethiopia: Unicef - AP - June 26, 2008
Tolosa has denied knowingly taking any banned substance - Runner's Web - June 26, 2008
In an exclusive interview with, Tolosa has denied knowingly taking any banned substance. "I have not knowingly taken any banned substance," he said. "I do not even know what morphine is before I was informed by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation that I had taken the substance."
Tolosa says he is yet unsure about his next course of action: whether to accept the ban or appeal the decision with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Read More.
Oromo-Americans for Obama Voter Registration Drive in Washington, DC
Oromo-Americans for Obama will do voter registration of Oromos in the Greater Washington-DC Metro area. We will get together and plan about forming Oromo-Americans for Obama Chapters in Colorado, Minnesota, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland-OR, and Dallas-TX, where we have large Oromo-American Communities. Read More.
Date: Saturday June 28 @ 12:00PM
Duration: 4 hours
Host: Jim Tufa
Contact: 202 436-0300
Location: The Oromo Center, 811 Upshur Street NW, Washington, DC 20011 Google Maps
Tolossa tests positive for banned substance
AP - June 24, 2008
Ambesse Tolossa of Ethiopia has been stripped of his 2007 Honolulu Marathon title and suspended from international competition after testing positive for a banned substance.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says Tolossa tested positive for an opiate in two samples.
Tolossa will be banned from international competition until April 4, 2010. Read More.
Pastoralists in NEP turn to crop farming
The Standard, Kenya - June 23, 2008
All his life, Mr Hassan Abdille, 52, has crisscrossed the vast Mandera East constituency and neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia in search of water and pasture for the family's livestock.
In neighbouring Mandera Central, Mr Aliow Hassan has been trooping to a teeming food distribution centre in Rhamu Division for relief handouts since he lost 120 head of cattle, 57 camels and 132 goats and sheep to drought in 1984.
Early this year, Hassan and Aliow ran into each other on the shores of River Daua where the two constituencies border. "Why don't we use this river to feed our families and transform our squalid lives?" Hassan recalls Aliow suggesting.
On that searing day in February the two embarked on an ambitious venture and became the latest herdsmen to abandon livestock rearing for farming. Read More.
UN looks at disbanding Eritrea/Ethiopia forceReuters - June 23, 2008
The U.N. Security Council considered on Monday a plan to disband its peacekeeping mission to the volatile border between Eritrea and Ethiopia after Eritrea forced most of its troops to go home.
The 1,700-strong force could be replaced by a small military observer mission on the Ethiopian side of the border, under one proposal before the council in a draft resolution submitted by Belgium.
The council took no immediate decision and instructed experts to assess the options, diplomats said.
The United Nations withdrew its peacekeeping force, known as UNMEE, from the border in February after Eritrea cut off fuel supplies. The force had been in place since 2000 after a two-year war between the Horn of Africa neighbors that killed some 70,000 people. Read More.
