Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the world, is expanding its operation in Ethiopia by adding two new hotels in Addis Ababa and in the nearby town of Bishoftu, previously known as  Debre Zeyit. The company has signed agreement to open a Radisson Blu in Bishoftu and the first Park Inn by Radisson in capital city, Addis Ababa. Carson already operates Raddisson Blu in Addis Ababa which opened in 2011.

Bishoftu is a popular MICE and leisure destination within Ethiopia. It is located 35km southeast of the country’s capital city, Addis Ababa. It is also within easy access of the country’s first international five-lane highway, leading from Addis Ababa to Djibouti. The hotel will be located on Lake Babogaya, which forms part of the region’s renowned five crater lakes.

“Radisson Blu Hotel, Bishoftu is a great addition to our Ethiopian portfolio as we expand outside of the capital city,” said Andrew McLachlan, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Africa & Indian Ocean for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. “The hotel will be the first internationally branded hotel with the largest meeting and events center in Ethiopia, outside of Addis Ababa.”

The 152-room Radisson Blu hotel will have a restaurant and terrace, a specialty restaurant and a pool bar on the terrace, offering picturesque lake views. The 1,045 sqm meeting and events spaces will include a state-of-the-art ballroom and six contemporary meeting rooms. Radisson Blu Hotel, Bishoftu will also offer a luxurious spa and well-equipped gym.

The Park Inn hotel in Addis is perfectly located on a main road linking the airport, just 2.7km away, to the CBD of Africa’s capital city. Addis Ababa is referred to as “the political capital of Africa”, due to its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent. It is where the African Union hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and numerous other continental and international organizations.

It also houses the third largest concentration of embassies in the world.

“We are delighted to bring our colorful midscale hotel brand to Ethiopia. The country has prepared a five-year strategic plan with a vision to become one of the top five African tourist destination countries in the coming years. With the addition of the Park Inn by Radisson Addis Ababa and our aggressive growth in this country, we will most certainly be positively contributing to achieving this goal,” added Younes.

The 160-room Park Inn by Radisson Addis Ababa will offer a mixture of standard rooms and suites. It will also feature Park Inn by Radisson’s signature all-day dining restaurant and lobby bar. The Smart Meetings and Events area will comprise of six modern and fully-equipped meeting rooms. For those seeking to keep fit or destress, the hotel will also feature a gym and spa.

By Justin Jouvenal 

Washington Post – The former college soccer player was gunned down in his own home, shell casings scattered around his body, police said. His girlfriend’s body was found a couple of miles away, slumped against a tree with a bullet through her head.

Authorities are confident they know who carried out the brutal double slaying in Northern Virginia last December. A witness places an aspiring rapper at the scenes of the killings. A Fairfax grand jury indicted him for murder. Detectives know where he lives.

Yet, nearly 10 months later, Yohannes Nessibu remains a free man. He was spotted strolling down a street in recent months. On Twitter, he still promotes a mixtape that features him rapping about shooting a woman.

Nessibu, 23, is out of reach because he boarded a flight to his native Ethi­o­pia, just before police closed in on him, the victims’ families say. The families say he’s now the subject of an international tug of war: The United States wants him returned to stand trial, but Ethi­o­pia refuses because it bars the extradition of its own citizens.

Nessibu’s case is among dozens in which citizens of foreign countries have allegedly committed crimes in the United States and then sought refuge in their homelands. The United States will extradite its nationals, but a number of countries, including Brazil, Germany and China refuse to turn over their citizens to face charges abroad, even in murder cases.

The State Department declined to comment on Nessibu’s case, but it has previously said such policies are one of the largest stumbling blocks in cases involving international extradition. It has long pushed for countries to drop the bans.

Caught in the middle are grieving families such as those of Henock Yohannes and Kedest Simeneh, both 22, of Fairfax County. With the criminal proceedings frozen, the families are in an agonizing limbo.

Read More from The Washington Post

AP – ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia –  An Ethiopian official says protests in the restive Oromia region left six people dead Wednesday as anti-government demonstrations return to some parts of the East African country.

Oromia regional official Abiy Ahmed says more than 30 people were injured in clashes in Shashamane town and an area called Boke. He did not say who was responsible for the killings.

Blogger and university lecturer Seyoum Teshome says more than 15,000 people rallied again Thursday in Wolisso town against the country’s ruling elite. He says it was mostly peaceful.

Ethiopia in August lifted a 10-month state of emergency imposed after widespread protests.

Oromia is the country’s largest federal state and has seen large anti-government protests since the end of 2015. Rights groups say several hundred people were killed in a government crackdown

VOA News – Ethiopian government forces killed four people and wounded 18 others Thursday in the town of Soda in the restive Oromia region.

Residents, who asked for anonymity out of fear of retaliation by the Ethiopian government, told VOA’s Horn of Africa service that eight trucks escorted by federal forces were stopped by residents of Soda and surrounding villages, suspecting the trucks were transporting weapons to special “Liyu” police in the neighboring Somali region.

Kulultu Fara, security chief of the Dirre district in the Oromia region, said, “The federal forces were angered by the residents’ demand to stop the trucks and opened fire, killing four people.”

He said the eight trucks suspected of transporting weapons remain in Soda, and federal government officials are talking with locals in an effort to resolve the conflict.

Violent protests

In the meantime, protests continued Thursday in several Oromia towns.

Businesses were closed in the restive town of Shashemene, where protesters were killed Wednesday by federal forces, according to a regional official.

Addisu Arega, head of the regional government’s communications affairs bureau, told VOA that at least six people were killed and more than 30 wounded during protests in several Oromia cities and towns Wednesday.

Addisu said three people were killed in Shashemene, 250 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, and three more were killed in Bookee, in the West Hararge zone of Oromia. He added that a fourth death that was reported Wednesday in Shashemene was not related to a political incident.

On Thursday, a funeral gathering to bury those who were slain turned into a demonstration.

A witness to the demonstration told VOA that members of several other ethnicities joined the funeral crowd, expressing solidarity with the Oromos and chanting anti-government slogans.

Addisu blamed unspecified forces for instigating young people to participate in spontaneous protests, which resulted in loss of life.

Witnesses in Shashemene told VOA that federal government forces opened fire on demonstrators who marched past their camp.

Oromia has experienced periodic, sometimes violent anti-government protests since late 2015. The protesters in Shashemene were calling for the release of detained political leaders, economic justice, and ending displacements and expulsions of Oromos from towns and villages of the Somali region.

On Wednesday, the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia issued a security message advising Americans not to travel to Shashemene and adjacent areas at this time.

A large but peaceful protest took place Thursday at Ambo University in the town of Wolisso.

University lecturer Seyoum Teshome told VOA that thousands of demonstrators chanted, “Down, down, Weyane,” a reference to Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF coalition, and demanded the release of political prisoners.

Teshome said police watched the protest but took no measures to stop it, and the town was calm by midday.

Shashememe is a business and transportation hub that connects gold, coffee and other cash crops produced in southern, southeastern, eastern and mid-northern areas of Ethiopia

October 14, 2017 – A new draft bill has been written to amend the existing revised family code proposed the elimination of specific articles granting foreigners the right to adopt Ethiopian children, according to the Reporter. According to a document issued by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Office, the latest draft bill has been designed based on the new National Child Protection Policy, endorsed by Ethiopian Council of Ministers.

The policy was designed with the objective that orphans, vulnerable children, as well as unaccompanied children should grow with discipline only in their homeland honoring their culture and tradition among their community. It also says they should benefit from locally available care and support, and enjoy access to rehabilitation services. Therefore, they should either be adopted locally, or supported by a guardian family, tutor or help them to reunite with biological parents or relatives.

The existing proclamation states that the principle of adoptive filiation may be created by an agreement between a person and a child. It also states that an adopted child shall, for all intents and purposes, be deemed to be the child of the adopter.

However, due to problems especially with foreign adopters, over the past few years the issue of adoption has been stirring heated debates among various members of the community, including MPs. It is to be recalled that MPs have repeatedly grilled the former minister of women and children affairs regarding the status of a number of Ethiopian children that had been adopted by foreigners over the past two decades.

In particular, inability by biological parents to trace their children and adoptees being denied a chance to communicate with their biological parents have been major issues that have been echoed in parliament.

In order to address these challenges and to replace the existing Family Code (The Revised Family Code Proclamation No. 213/2000) with a new policy, a new draft bill was tabled before parliament with a view to banning adoption by foreigners, according to documents reviewed by The Reporter. Hence, the provision which is stated on Article 193 would be repealed fully while paragraph (d) of Sub-Article (3) of Article 194 is to be erased upon revision and further scrutiny by the Women and Children Affairs Standing Committee.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that pending adoption-related court cases by foreigners would be settled as per the old stipulation, according to the draft bill.

In a related development, during parliamentary session Tuesday, MPs unanimously approved the restructuring of standing committees as well as the establishment of two new standing committees that would enable the house “effectively” enhance its check and balance roles.

The newly created standing committees are Democracy, Human Rights and Administrative Affairs Standing Committee and Undertakings Affairs Standing Committee (to oversee customs and revenue) that would enable the house oversee matters under their purview.

Source: Reporter

Join the Conversation on Facebook and Twitter

Ariana Austin and Joel Makonnen were married on Sept. 9 in a lavish ceremony in Temple Hills, Md. Mr. Makonnen is the great-grandson of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia. (Photo: The New York Times)

The New York Times

Few love stories resemble a fairy tale as much as the courtship and marriage of Ariana Austin and Joel Makonnen. Of course, it helped that the groom is an actual prince and the bride has a prominent lineage of her own.

Mr. Makonnen, known as Prince Yoel, is the 35-year-old great-grandson of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia. And Ms. Austin, 33, is of African-American and Guyanese descent; her maternal grandfather was a lord mayor of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.

As the couple noted on their wedding website, their union happened when “Old World aristocracy met New World charm.” The old and new combined on Sept. 9, in a marathon day of events that lasted from 11 a.m. until late in the evening, and took place within two states.

Guests watched as at least 13 priests and clergymen helped officiate the Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony. (Photo: The New York Times)

The festivities began with a ceremony at the Debre Genet Medhane Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Temple Hills, Md. In an incense-filled sanctuary, guests in stockinged feet watched as at least 13 priests and clergymen helped officiate the Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony between Mr. Makonnen and Ms. Austin, who just days before had converted to the religion. Hours after the ceremony, the pair celebrated with a formal reception at Foxchase Manor in Manassas, Va., with 307 guests, amid gold sequins, platters of Ethiopian food and preboxed slices of Guyanese black cake for people to take home.

Their marriage had been more than a decade in the making. In the nearly 12 years since they first met on a dance floor at the Washington nightclub Pearl, in December 2005, Mr. Makonnen and Ms. Austin have pursued degrees, jobs and, at times, each other. Eventually, planning a wedding just became the next item on this ambitious couple’s to-do list.

Read More Here »

Another top advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has resigned from his post.

Bereket Simon according to BBC Amharic submitted his resignation as the PM’s adviser in charge of Policy Studies and Research, leaving a post he has held for the past four years.

Local media reports indicate that Simon, a veteran politician has thus resigned from two top positions in just a week. Last week, he gave up his position as board chairman of the government-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.

A member of the ruling Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), he has served the government in different capacities including as Minister of Communication.

The move comes weeks after two major political shifts around the Prime Minister. The Protocol Chief of the PM, Baye Tadesse Teferi, sought asylum in the United States for fear of political persecution.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abadulla Gemeda, also resigned his post following ‘disrespect’ to members of his ethnic group and his party in the ruling coalition.

October 2017 asylum move of Baye Tadesse and the fear of political persecution

Baye Tadesse Teferi, was part of the Ethiopia’s official delegation to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York weeks ago.

The Ethiopian delegation returned to Addis Ababa but he remained in the U.S. He confirmed to the Voice of America’s Amharic service that for political reasons he had opted to seek asylum in the United States.

The Protocol Chief of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn thus quit a role he had served in for over two years. Ethiopia’s economic successes have long been eclipsed by what political and rights watchers call a systemic and institutionalized crackdown on media and political dissent.

The East African nation has been severally called upon to open their political space and to tolerate dissenting political views.

Source: Africa News

Recent events indicate that Ethiopia’s multi-ethnic governing coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRDF), is at war with itself, and some fear the power struggle could destabilize the country.

Others, however, hope that it could signal the Oromo ethnic majority’s growing influence in politics.

The issue came to light in October when Abadula Gemeda, the speaker of the Ethiopian parliament, said he would relinquish his gavel and resign from his position. Abadula followed up with an extensive interview with state-owned television, in which he said he lost interest in the speakership position because “my people and my party were disrespected” and he explained his plans to fight to “regain the respect the Oromo people deserve.”

Abadula is a founding member of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), one of the four ethnic parties that make up the EPRDF. The remaining three are the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

These four parties purport to represent a particular ethnic group, but they share the same ideology, political association, and policy preferences. Of these, TPLF is the predominant party, billing itself as protector of the interest of the Tigryan people. ANDM and OPDO are perceived as willing accomplices of the TPLF, but they portray themselves as representatives of the Amhara and Oromo communities respectively. SEPDM is an amalgamation of political parties of numerous minority ethnic groups. It is usually considered as a dependent of dependents because it was formed  as subordinate to the other three.

The differences in power wielded by the different parties doesn’t correspond to the size of the communities they represent. In terms of population size, the Oromos are the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to a census conducted in 2007, Oromos make up 34.4 percent of the country’s population, the Amharas account for about 27 percent and the Southern Ethiopian people account for 14 percent.

Though Tigrayans represent only 6.1 percent of the population, they dominate the most high-ranking military offices who control the nation’s security and intelligence.

The marginalization of the Oromo people has in part fueled a large protest movement over the past three years. Daily anti-TPLF demonstrations take place in Oromia, the region of Ethiopia where the majority of Oromo people live, and there’s talk that the rallies are covertly endorsed by the rank-and-file members of OPDO.

That’s why some saw Abadula‘s resignation as highlighting the growing power of the OPDO, a party that has often been accused of dispensing the TPLF’s political agenda in Oromia. Prominent opposition leader , who is based in the diaspora, commented on Facebook:

In my opinion, his resignation is like throwing a gasoline to the fire that is already out of control. It is a historical step that signals and symbolizes end of OPDO’s submission to Tigreans dominance.

Others theorized Abadula‘s departure was propaganda. Abebe Gelaw, a prominent opposition activist, wrote 

TPLF is good at recycling its use-and-throw officials. The “resignation” of Abadula from his ceremonial position in TPLF’s rubber stamp parliament is not as significant as some would like us to think. It is to be remembered that the former prisoner of war, whose real name was Menase Wolde Giorgis, was once made a Major General. In 2005, he was made to vacate his position as Minister of Defense and was rebaptized Ato Abadula Gemeda, “President” of Oromia regional state. It is a folly to expect someone who leads a fake life–with fake name given to him by the TPLF, fake power and even fake degrees he bought for cheap to become a champion of the people he has betrayed throughout his adult life. The plain and simple truth is that Abadula is one of these political prostitutes owned and enslaved by the TPLF. This is a reality he has accepted for far too long. His resignation is not even a symptom of the crisis in TPLF’s tyranny because the crisis is obvious without a puppet’s resignation. We will wait and see what his masters will do with him again.

It does seem, however, that the absolute political dominance of TPLF of the past 25 years seems to be fading, and the ruling coalition is fragile.

The reported resignation of Abbadula, speaker of the house of PR in #Ethiopia, will be the beginning to uncover disagreement within EPRDF.

— BefeQadu Z. Hailu (@befeqe) October 7, 2017

BefeQadu’s tweet above turned out to be prophetic, as Bereket Simon, a founding member of an ANDM, stepped down from his position as an adviser to the prime minister less than a week after Abadula resigned.

An international rights group is accusing the Ethiopian government of literally blackmailing United States as Congress moves to heighten human rights and political reform calls on Addis Ababa.

According to a statement released by Freedom House dated October 16, 2017 and titled “U.S. Congress Should Call Ethiopia’s Bluff,” Senior Program Officer for Africa, Joseph Badwaza, said Congress should go ahead with its efforts and discard the Ethiopian government’s “bullying tactics.”

A bi-partisan human rights resolution by U.S. lawmakers known as the H. Res 128 has been halted by Addis Ababa with the threat of severing security cooperation with the U.S. if it is pursued any further.

Experience shows that Ethiopia would never follow through on the threat to halt security cooperation. The government fully understands who would be the ultimate loser if it did.

The statement quoted Republican Congressman Mike Coffman as confirming that Ethiopia’s position was relayed by its ambassador in Washington who said the country will “stop counterterrorism cooperation with the United States if Congress went ahead with a planned vote on a resolution calling for human rights protections and inclusive governance in the country (H. Res. 128).”

Freedom House is, however, of the view that any such move by the government would be against its interest hence the need for Congress to box on with its efforts at securing the rights of suppressed Ethiopians and the opening of the country’s political space.

“Passing H. Res. 128 would send a powerful message to Addis Ababa to get serious about undertaking reforms, and the Ethiopian government’s bullying tactics should not derail it. Members of Congress should call the bluff, place the resolution back on the House agenda, and approve it.

“Experience shows that Ethiopia would never follow through on the threat to halt security cooperation. The government fully understands who would be the ultimate loser if it did,” Freedom House said.

What is the H. Res. 128 about?

H. Res. 128 is a human rights centered move with strong bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, it has as many as 71 cosponsors.

The resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously in late July 2017 and was scheduled for a vote by the full House on October 2.

One of its authors, Republican Congressman Chris Smith said during the committee mark-up, the resolution is like a mirror held up to the government of Ethiopia, and it is intended to encourage them to recognize how others see them and move forward with reforms.

“While the resolution contains provisions that call for sanctions—under the Global Magnitsky Act—against Ethiopian officials responsible for committing gross human rights violations, the more important reason why the government took the severe step of threatening the U.S. Congress is the damage that this resolution could do to the country’s image,” Freedom House averred.

Ethiopia’s regional and global security capacity and international profile

The country is largely seen as a security and political big boy in the restive Horn of Africa region. Aside Eritrea, it is on good terms with all its neighbours.

Ethiopia despite its security headache back home, also plays a huge role in global security circles, as one of the biggest contributors to international peacekeeping.

It is a current member of the UN’s Security and Human Rights Councils. It is engaged in the fight against Al-Shabaab in Somalia, it is at the forefront of regional diplomacy efforts to restore peace to South Sudan and also hosts the African Union headquarters.

Its legitimacy back home is, however, seen as shaky and highly unsteady. The government employed lethal force against anti-government protesters from late 2015 through the better part of 2016.

A situation that led to deaths and massive detentions even though Addis has refused to allow for an independent probe into the tensions which combine politics and security in a very restive region.

It took a 10 month state of emergency imposed in October 2016 with its draconian rules to quell the protests. There has been recent undercurrents in Oromia region where protests are gaining momentum.

Arriving here after a long drive, 400 hard km down from the capital, Addis Ababa, with Australian-based Peregrine Adventures, we overnight in the nearby city of Goba.

Rising early, we wind up to the Sanetti Plateau in our hardy Land Cruisers, passing the tree line and entering Africa’s largest uninterrupted high-altitude zone. We skirt frozen ponds and spot one of Ethiopia’s highest peaks — Mount Tullu Dimtu, which rises almost 4,400 metres — and quickly enjoy that fleeting glimpse of the wolf. Before descending into more hospitable climes on the other side, where we stop for a pleasant hike through green pastures and forest to a waterfall, we tarry in Rira, a bustling, ramshackle village inside the park, where we buy a few supplies and stop to snap some photos with the residents.

Soon we’re sitting down for lunch at Bale Mountain Lodge, which is set in a valley below a craggy ridge. Unlike more heavily tourist parts of Africa, safari lodges are rare in Ethiopia, but this one, built in 2014, is aiming to place visitors in the heart of the animal action.

The only wolf in Africa, the Abyssinian is facing extinction. According to the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme, which is headed by an Oxford University zoologist, four consecutive rabies outbreaks — the most recent in 2014 — have precipitated a sharp drop in numbers, with the total population plummeting as much as 75 per cent since the early ’90s. Solutions aren’t easy; transplanting the village of Rira outside the park would be difficult, and moving the vast herds owned by local, rural pastoralists, harder still.
Read More Here

President of the United States, Donald Trump, has dispatched America’s United Nations envoy on an Africa mission.

Nikki Haley’s visit which starts today will kick off in Ethiopia, she will be in South Sudan before flying to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In Ethiopia, Haley is expected to hold meetings with government and officials of the African Union (A.U.) Ethiopia is a key ally of the U.S. in the area of anti-terrorism.

The United States has many interests in these war-torn African countries. Our interests are certainly humanitarian, but they are also economic and strategic.

Amb. Nikki Haley, the #US Amb. to the #UN arrived in #Ethiopia for a tour that includes #SouthSudan, & the Democratic Republic of the Congo pic.twitter.com/xKxZVsFNj7

— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) October 23, 2017

She is also expected to meet “representatives of UN agencies and programs, Ambassador Haley will meet with men, women, and children on the ground for whom UN operations are there to protect and support,” a statement from the embassy in Addis Ababa stated.

In an article for the CNN describing why Trump sent her to Africa, she wrote: “The United States has many interests in these war-torn African countries. Our interests are certainly humanitarian, but they are also economic and strategic.

“Throughout the world, we have seen that desperate situations can lead to dangerous results. For this reason, President Donald Trump recently asked me to travel to the region to get a first-hand picture of what can be done.

“I will also visit Ethiopia — which hosts both the headquarters of the African Union and one of the largest communities of South Sudanese refugees in the world.”

U.S. President Donald J. Trump sent his Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on her first trip to Africa. She made her first stop in Ethiopia and met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. On her official twitter page Ambassador Haley said, she discussed about Ethiopia, IGAD, South Sudan and DRC and also discussed the importance of human rights.

We met w PM Hailemariam to talk about Ethiopia, IGAD, S.Sudan & DRC. We discussed the importance of giving the youth a voice & human rights. pic.twitter.com/p7y8phrvIa

— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) October 23, 2017

Africa is traditionally overshadowed by more urgent issues, and the Trump administration has so far been hands-off.

After meetings on Monday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and a senior African Union official, Haley told reporters she hoped this was the beginning of “a stronger relationship with the AU and our African partners.”

“The United States very much sees Africa as a very important part of the world. We see great opportunities in Africa, we see challenges in Africa, but we want to support and help in those situations,” Haley said.

“But most importantly we want to see how we can partner together, whether that is through economic development, whether it is through strategic practices, whether it’s through political solutions,” she said.

Trump has been vocal about North Korea, Iran and tackling Islamic State militants during his first nine months in office, but said little about Africa until he held a lunch last month with nine leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

It was there he announced he would send Haley to South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo to help with efforts to broker peace in both countries. Millions of people have been displaced by ongoing violence, with U.N. peacekeeping missions deployed in both, each costing more than $1 billion annually.

Haley plans to take a critical look at the U.N. operations during her visits.

‘DANGEROUS RESULTS’

Haley said she also plans to meet with South Sudan President Salva Kiir and Congolese President Joseph Kabila to “deliver a strong message that their governments need to stop making the work of aid workers and peace-keepers more difficult.”

Some African diplomats hope Haley’s trip will spark a conversation in Washington on the administration’s broader engagement with Africa.

“We hope that after this trip the administration will sit down and maybe before the end of the year we can hear their Africa strategy,” said a senior African diplomat at the United Nations, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We would have wished it was earlier, but it’s never too late.”

Haley’s visit to Africa comes after four U.S. soldiers were killed during an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger.

“The Niger crisis has shown that they can’t take a hands-off approach to (Africa). They have to remain engaged because they have boots on the ground,” said a second senior African diplomat at the United Nations, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

At his lunch with African leaders, Trump said there was “tremendous business potential” and he has friends “trying to get rich” in Africa. But he also noted the threat from militants such as Islamic State, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and al Qaeda.

“The United States is proud to work with you to eradicate terrorist safe havens,” he said. “And a number of you have told me … that we’ve been doing a very good job over the last six or seven months in particular.”

However, in June the United States said it did not want the United Nations to fund a proposed African force to fight Islamist militants in West Africa, U.N. diplomats said. France on Friday pushed Washington to step up support for the force so it does not fail, leaving French troops to carry the burden.

Haley has been campaigning to cut U.N. peacekeeping costs, since the United States is the largest contributor.

‘NO CLEAR DIRECTION’

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra‘ad Al Hussein bluntly summed up U.S. global engagement on Thursday as “caught somewhere between isolationism and militarism, with no clear direction in foreign policy apart from a few notable, exceptional, files.”

As with most of the key regional bureaus at the U.S. State Department, there is currently no permanent chief diplomat for Africa. Rather, the Bureau of African Affairs is led by career diplomat Don Yamamoto as an acting assistant secretary of state.

While Yamamoto is an experienced Africa hand, diplomats say that leading any of the agency’s regional bureaus in an acting capacity means that an official is not perceived abroad as having the full backing of the White House and has more limited influence at home within the U.S. bureaucracy.

“They seem to be relying very heavily on their ambassadors on the ground and not having a Washington-centric approach to their relationship with Africa,” said the second diplomat.

Haley’s colleague in Trump’s cabinet, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, traveled to the West African nation of Togo in August to review a free trade pact with sub-Saharan Africa, but talks ended with no decision.

In April Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited an important U.S. military base in Djibouti.

Source: Reuters

ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — Unrest in Ethiopia’s central Oromia regional state has left 11 people dead in recent days, regional officials said on Sunday.

Spokesmen for Oromia and Amhara regional states have issued statements on a week of unrest in Oromia that reportedly caused major business disruptions and burning of various locations.

“Three Amharas and eight ethnic Oromos were killed in Buno Bedele zone of the Oromia regional violence perpetrated by bodies trying to create division between the two ethnic groups,” Addisu Arega, spokesperson of the Oromia regional state, said in a Facebook post.

He said the situation has calmed down and individuals suspected of orchestrating the violence have been arrested.

Spokesperson for the Amhara regional state Nigusu Tilahun also said in a Facebook post that an undetermined number of people have been displaced by the violence.

Oromia has seen large anti-government protests by ethnic Oromos since the end of 2015 that have left hundreds dead.

The protests have largely left unaffected ethnic minorities living in Oromia regional state until now, save for periodic flare-ups.

Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group making up a third of the country’s 100 million population, have complained of decades of economic, political and social marginalization by successive governments.

Martial law declared in October 2016 and lifted in August 2017 helped calm Oromia, but renewed anti-government protests earlier this month claimed several lives and caused property damages.

Enel’s green power unit leads a consortium selected as preferred bidder to build a 100 megawatt solar farm in Ethiopia, the Italian utility said on Monday, in its first foray in the country.

Enel, the biggest private renewable energy player in Africa, said the consortium would invest around $120 million in the project. The consortium includes Ethiopian infrastructure company Orchid Business Group, it said.

“Ethiopia has all the potential to become a key market for Enel’s strategy in Africa,” Enel Green Power boss Antonio Cammisecra said.

Ethiopia has all the potential to become a key market for Enel’s strategy in Africa.

Ethiopia, Africa’s most populous state after Nigeria, has an annual economic growth rate of around 10 percent but still has one of the lowest electrification rates on the continent.

Enel, which controls Spain’s Endesa, is keen to expand in Africa where it already operates in Zambia, Morocco, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.

REUTERS

nazret.com – Eye witnesses from the town of Ambo in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, told several news media that government forces fired live bullets at demonstrators killing at least ten people.  According to a resident cited by the Associated Press, the killings occurred around midday on Thursday and several residents reported hearing gun shots since the morning.

The local head of communications, Gadisa Desalenge, told VOA that the federal and special elite “Agazi” forces, who were deployed to the area early Thursday, were responsible for the deaths. Desalenge also told VOA that some of the protesters, “infuriated by the killings,” set several trucks on fire.

The latest protest — which follows on more than a year of deadly protests in the region between November 2015 and December 2016 — was triggered by recent shortages of sugar. According to AFP, protesters blocked the town’s main road after a rumor spread that trucks passing through were carrying scarce sugar, on orders of the government, destined to an area of the town seen as loyal to the government.

U.S. embassy in Ethiopia said the following about the killings in Ambo.

Deeply disturbing reports of violence & deaths in Ambo highlight importance of peaceful expression & conflict resolution by all #Ethiopia

— U.S. Embassy Addis (@USEmbassyAddis) October 26, 2017

Ambo is a hot spot for anti-government demonstrations. Such displays of public dissent earned the town a reputation as the bastion of opposition in a country where political demonstrations are often dealt with brutal force.

Ambo, known as home of Ethiopia’s famous mineral water, is located just 74 miles west of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.  Oromia region, where Ambo is located,  has been at the forefront of the protest movement that initially began over a federal government proposal to expand the capital’s boundaries, which the Oromos feared would lead to them losing their land.  Just last year nearly 700 people were killed in one bout of unrest.