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ETHIOPIA: ABIY’S MISSTEP ON IDPS AND HOW HE CAN FIX IT



Refugees International

Refugees International - Remarkable changes are occurring in Ethiopia. Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in April, he has welcomed back formerly exiled opposition figures, released political prisoners, ousted a regional leader accused of human rights abuses, and forged a peace deal with Eritrea. On the streets of Addis Ababa, the optimism is palpable.

Yet enormous challenges remain. Among them is the explosion of intercommunal violence. This crisis has forced 1.4 million people to become displaced in 2018, the highest number of new internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. And, unfortunately, the government is making things even worse by pushing for premature returns.


One of the areas most affected is in the south, along the regional border of Oromiya and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR). When Ethiopia’s political leadership shifted at the federal level earlier this year, long simmering tensions here between the Gedeo people and Guji Oromo group came to a head. 


Between April and June, armed mobs attacked villages, burned houses, and carried out horrific acts of violence. Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee in the first few weeks.
On a positive note, the Ethiopian government is working with the UN and other humanitarian actors to assist those in need. 


From the onset of the crisis, the government established Emergency Operation Centres to coordinate the response and invited UN investigators to document the atrocities.

But on a more worrying note, the government has also been pressuring IDPs to return before their villages are safe or their homes are rebuilt.


In one town in the south, Refugees International encountered hundreds of people being loaded onto open-air trucks. They had been told by government officials that they would no longer receive relief unless they went home.  


Aid organisations were only informed about the returns the day they were taking place and were scrambling to adjust their response.

In several locations where IDPs had been returned, Refugees International found them not at home but living collectively in fields, market depots, and church grounds. Many lacked mattresses or blankets. Some had created makeshift shelters using sticks and cloth.


One group of IDPs said they had not returned to their houses because they did not feel security had been restored. “We prefer to stay together. We feel safer together,” said one. “The ones who burned our houses, the ones who killed our neighbours, have not been brought to justice.” 


Others said that even if they felt safe enough to go back, they had nothing to return to because their homes and businesses had been destroyed.


Three Steps to Change Track

Going forwards, the government under Prime Minister Abiy can take three steps to remedy its response to IDPs – especially as the potential for internal violence remains.


First, it can refrain from carrying out additional premature returns and allow aid organisations to provide assistance in both areas of displacement and areas of return. This way, IDPs who genuinely decide to go home voluntarily can still receive support, while those unwilling to return will not feel compelled to do so.  

Freedom of movement must be prioritised. IDPs who have already been returned must be informed that they can live where they feel most safe and that assistance will be targeted based on need.

Second, the government can establish a clear and transparent plan for voluntary returns. Among other things, the state should survey the perspectives of IDPs on their intentions to return.  


It should organise systematic ‘go-and-see’ visits in which displaced people can assess the conditions back home. And it should work out options for alternatives for those who feel they may never be able to return home.

Third, the government can make sure to work in close coordination with relief organisations. Aid and development agencies need to be informed of potential population movements so they can be in place to support people who choose to return.


Responding to conflict displacement is a challenge that is likely to persist in Ethiopia for the foreseeable future – and the southern border area is by no means the only region experiencing violence. 


Tensions on the outskirts of Addis Ababa caused thousands to flee at the end of September. Earlier this month, 70,000 people were targeted along ethnic lines in the western state of Benishangul-Gumuz.

The new government of Prime Minister Abiy has made impressive strides to open political space and promote human rights. For this, they are to be congratulated. But at the same time, the new government must ensure that IDPs receive the full measure of its protection. 


For all the obstacles and uncertainties facing Abiy’s administration, it is in their control – and interest – to make significant improvements in their response towards displaced Ethiopians.

With border open, Ethiopia and Eritrea are back in business

Eritrean town
In the Eritrean town of Senafe traders are now doing good business. Michael Tewelde, AFP
(Agence France-Presse) - For 2 decades, little besides soldiers, refugees and rebels moved across Ethiopia and Eritrea's closed border, but today the once-barren no man's land teems with activity.

Horse-drawn carts, buses full of visitors and trucks piled high with bricks and plywood make their way across the frontier, watched by relaxed soldiers from the two nations' armies who just months ago stared each other down from trenches carved into the rocky soil.

After 20 years of bloody conflict and grim stalemate, the Ethiopia-Eritrea border is bustling once again, revitalizing frontier towns and allowing the countries' long-estranged populations to reacquaint themselves.

"We have everything we didn't have before, from the smallest to the biggest products," said Abraham Abadi, a merchant in the Eritrean town of Senafe whose shop is now filled with biscuits, drinks and liquor made in Ethiopia.

Yet the border's re-opening has sparked a surge in refugees and also raised concerns over the black market currency trade that some fear will destabilize the economy.

BACK IN BUSINESS
Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea voted for independence in 1993 after a bloody, decades-long struggle.

A dispute over the the border plunged the neighbors into war in 1998, leaving tens of thousands dead in two years of fighting.

The conflict continued as a cold war after Ethiopia refused to honor a UN-backed commission verdict demarcating the border, a policy Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reversed in June.

Flights restarted and embassies re-opened shortly afterwards, and in September, Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki re-opened the crossing at Zalambessa, an Ethiopian town on a major route into Eritrea.

The opening was transformative for the town, a strip of shops and restaurants damaged in the war and economically paralyzed by the border closure that now bustles with shoppers.

"We're selling sandals and these shida shoes," said trader Ruta Zerai, gesturing to a pile of the open-toed footwear popular with Eritreans.

In Senafe, a trading hub 23 kilometers (14 miles) north of the border, the impact of the rapprochement is clear.

Twice a week, organised groups of Ethiopian merchants cross the border, marked by a bare strip of earth only recently cleared of anti-tank mines, for Senafe's market days.

They bring with them recharge cards for the Ethiopian telecom whose service can be picked up in parts of the town and teff, the once-scarce grain needed to make the staple injera food.

Some even decide to stay.

"I live where I can get a job. As long as I have a job, I'll stay here," Sanle Gebremariam, an Ethiopian currency trader working in Senafe, said at a roadside where buses from both countries congregate.

TROUBLE AHEAD

Ethiopian border
Ruta Zeru sells shoes in the Ethiopian border town of Zalambesa. Michael Tewelde, AFP
Heading in the opposite direction are thousands of Eritrean refugees fleeing the country's repressive government and stagnant economy.

Eritreans, many of whom aim to reach Europe, came across the border when it was closed, but the UN says arrivals in Ethiopia have increased nearly eight-fold since its opening.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian traders are grumbling over the unstable value of the Eritrean nakfa against their birr currency.

"We're trading together, but the exchange rate is unregulated, unstable and illegal," said Taeme Lemlem, a bar owner in Zalambessa, echoing similar complaints, made before the border war, that were never resolved.

Getachew Teklemariam, a consultant and former Ethiopian government adviser, said the unregulated trade at the border, where there appears to be little customs or immigration controls, risks opening a "shadow monetary front".

"The exchange rate is being governed by largely speculative perceptions from both sides of the border," said Getachew. "The overall trade scenario has to be guided by some strategy."

Both countries' governments have said they hope the renewed trade links will boost their economies.

But the neighbors are not equals. Eritrea's economy has underperformed since the war, while Ethiopia has grown at some of Africa's fastest rates, which hasn't escaped the notice of visitors to the country.

"I'm very surprised. I didn't expect this much development," said Simon Kifle, an Eritrean air force serviceman who was hurrying back across the border before its sundown closing after his first visit to Ethiopia.

Clashes kill 20, displace thousands in western Ethiopia

Clashes kill 20, displace thousands in western Ethiopia

Clashes triggered by killing of 2 officials of Benishangul-Gumuz regional state


Anadolu Agency - At least 20 people were killed and 60,000 displaced in ethnic clashes flaring since last week in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz.


A government official said the clashes occurred in the areas of Kamashi zone.

“The number of the deceased could be much higher because some of the clashes occurred in far-off rural areas,” said Negeri Lencho, communication chief of Oromia state which borders the area of conflict, as quoted by Ethiopian Television in its late night bulletin.


The clashes occurred after two officials of the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state were killed by unidentified gunmen, which government later said were armed men operating in the guise of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

The armed men then roamed around Kamashi zone killing people and destroying property, he said.


Since May, the Benishangul Gumuz region has seen a number of ethnic clashes including one in June in the regional capital Assosa in which more than 10 people were killed.


The region is multi-ethnic and houses the site of Ethiopia’s multibillion-dollar Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile.

US Must Support Ethiopia’s ‘Fragile’ Reforms, Diplomat Says (VOA News)

US Must Support Ethiopia’s ‘Fragile’ Reforms, Diplomat Says

The United States should strengthen its ties to Ethiopia following unprecedented reforms in the East African nation, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

Tibor Nagy, the newly appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs, told members of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in Washington that Ethiopia has earned praise for its historic changes.

“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated groundbreaking reforms across most every area of Ethiopian society,” Nagy said. “He deserves tremendous credit for his boldness in tackling issues previous governments have not addressed.”

But Nagy also outlined a number of unresolved concerns and urged the United States to continue to engage with Ethiopia, mobilize resources to provide aid and assistance, and maintain dialog with the country’s leadership in the wake of momentous reforms that, nonetheless, remain “quite fragile.”



Eritrea’s ‘re-emergence’
Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee, outlined Abiy’s accomplishments: releasing thousands of political prisoners, lifting a state of emergency and securing peace with neighbor Eritrea.

Officials at Wednesday’s hearing celebrated the July peace deal that ended nearly 20 years of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, but they expressed concerns about the internal dynamics in Eritrea, a country that has faced U.N. sanctions since 2009 for allegedly supporting the extremist group al-Shabab and a border dispute with Djibouti.

FILE - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki embrace at a peace declaration signing in Asmara, Eritrea, July 9, 2018, in this photo obtained from social media. (Ghideon Musa Aron Visafric/via Reuters)
Smith said Eritrea could become a “critical U.S. strategic partner,” and Nagy welcomed “Eritrea’s re-emergence on the regional and global stage.”

But Nagy also expressed “significant concerns” about the countries’ bilateral relationship, citing the Eritrean detention of American citizens, possible arms deals with North Korea and human rights concerns.

“The United States has deliberately engaged with Eritrea in recent months with both these opportunities and concerns in full view,” Nagy said.

Peace with Ethiopia eliminates Eritrea’s reasons to militarize its population, particularly through the use of indefinite forced conscription, Nagy added. And, although the “atmosphere” between the United States and Eritrea has improved, he said, concrete actions will need to be taken to introduce internal reforms before sanctions can be lifted.

As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, the United States has the power to veto any vote to remove sanctions.

Youth factor

In his remarks, Nagy underscored the importance of Ethiopia’s youth. Some 70 million people — about 70 percent of the population — are under age 30, Nagy said, and they have high expectations of their government.

As the country’s demographics shift, many additional people will enter the workforce, emphasizing the need for new jobs.

So far, Ethiopia has turned to China as a stalwart economic partner, Nagy said, but that may soon be changing, especially as the country’s economic concerns shift from building an infrastructure to supporting a workforce.

“Ethiopians understand that China isn’t the long-term solution to their problems,” Nagy said, adding that the U.S. government should reach out to American companies to forge new relationships with Ethiopia and engage in more trade.

Unresolved threats
Smith; California Democrat Karen Bass, the subcommittee’s ranking member; and Nagy outlined unaddressed concerns with Ethiopian governance and civil society, including ongoing reports of torture, a high incidence of human trafficking, and what Bass described as “hardliners within the EPRDF [Ethiopia’s ruling political coalition] that hope to stall his [Abiy’s] reform agenda.”
FILE - Displaced Gedeo people wait in line with their containers looking for water at Kercha site, West Guji in Ethiopia, Aug. 1, 2018.
Smith emphasized the need to redress victims of torture, repeal laws that encourage gross human rights abuses and resolve a mass displacement that has resulted in 2.5 million people fleeing their homes.

Experts on the region identified other fault lines.

Yoseph Badwaza, a senior program officer at Freedom House, a nongovernmental research and advocacy group in Washington that focuses on democracy and human rights, said Ethiopia faces enormous challenges and is still grappling with much-needed reforms to its judicial system, electoral system and other democratic institutions.

Emily Estelle, a senior analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group in Washington, highlighted the volatile nature of fast-changing regional dynamics.


“The potential for Ethiopia to destabilize persists. It faces a rapid political transition and ethnic conflict across multiple regions,” Estelle said in prepared remarks. The United States must prepare for “worst-case scenarios,” Estelle added, by recognizing “the dangers of rapidly changing domestic and regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa.”

But changes this year indicate just how much can happen when leaders commit to peace, and both committee members and invited experts emphasized the region’s accomplishments in recent months.

Citing a series of rapprochements between Eritrea and its neighbors, Nagy said, “In my 40 years of following Africa, I’ve never seen this type of transition happen.”

Camera: VOA Africa Division’s Betty Ayoub

U.S. Congressmen commends Ethiopia’s ‘great strides’ (ESAT News)

U.S. Congressmen

Two congressmen known for their support for campaigning for the respect of human rights in Ethiopia said they commend the progress and great strides Ethiopia has made in the last few months with the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

At a hearing titled ““Reviewing Current Developments in Ethiopia,” Representative Chris Smith, a senior member of Foreign Affairs Committee of the House and Chair of the Africa Subcommittee, said past hearings at the the U.S. Congress were of condemnation of the Ethiopian government for a range of rights abuses. 


Smith said yesterday’s hearing, however, was “one not of condemnation, but of commendation for the great strides Ethiopia has made since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed assumed authority in April of this year.’

Smith, said H. Res. 128, a resolution “Supporting Respect for Human Rights and Encouraging Inclusive Governance in Ethiopia,” which was introduced by him and passed by the House last April, had “sent a clear message of Congressional resolve on the need for civil and political reform in Ethiopia.”

“But success of this measure was due in largest part to the efforts of the Ethiopian diaspora community in the United States, which came together to demand that egregious human rights abuses immediately cease, and that fundamental human rights must be promoted and protected for all in Ethiopia,” Smith said.

He said the very reforms undertaken by Abiy Ahmed were reforms that H. Res. 128 has called for.

“For what he has accomplished in less than half a year, Prime Minister deserves praise and encouragement. Yet we still must keep in mind that expectations have been raised, and the reforms he has begun must continue,” Smith added.

Chris Smith and Congresswoman Karen Bass visited Ethiopia at the end of last month and met and held discussions with Dr. Ahmed and other government officials as well as representatives of civic, political and religious groups in Addis Ababa.

“What we have seen in Ethiopia over the last few months has been entirely remarkable,” Congressman Mike Coffman of Colorado, also a staunch advocate for rights of Ethiopians has said. He added that “new reforms and changes under the leadership of Abiy Ahmed have started, what I believe to be a stronger path, inclusive democracy and new freedom.”

While progress has been made, Coffman said, troubling issues remain. He said there were still ethnic violence taking place in which many have died and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Witnesses from the State Department, Ethiopian-American Development Council, and Oromo Community of Denver, as well as others testified at the hearing that focused on recent developments in Ethiopia.

Engidu Woldie for ESAT News

Ethiopia capital rocked by flag crisis; PM, police chief warn saboteurs



Ethiopia

(Africa News) - The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is in a tense mood due to a disagreement over the use of specific flags across the city, state and private news portals have reported.

The Addis Standard news portal said the standoff which has already led to scuffles and confrontations in the capital was between youth from the Oromia region and city dwellers.

“The confrontation is over the hoisting of flags symbolizing the Oromo resistance movements and painting of road pavements, roads, fences and other places with similar colors of red and green with a yellow at the center by the youth from Oromia and between city dwellers who want to prevent them.

“Similar practice was first done by the Addis Abeba city dwellers who have indulged rather excessively with the green, yellow and red color, another unofficial flag, during the welcoming ceremony of the leadership of Patriotic Ginbot 7 this past weekend,” the Addis Standard report explained.

Reacting to the incidents, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is quoted by the state-run Fana broadcasting corporate as cautioning against the use of violence in a case where dialogue was clearly the only way out.

Fana added that Abiy deplored what he said was an attempt to incite violence under the guise of a flag. The right of freedom of expression includes a flag as well, he is reported to have said, adding “we should not marginalize political parties coming from abroad.”

“As there will be no a single winner, we should cooperate each other by resolving our differences through dialogue,” Abiy stressed.

On his part, federal police chief Jamal Zeinu is also reported to have called for calm and stressed that his outfit will do all it takes to maintain peace and calm. 


He said whiles Oromia youth were within their means to wave any flag of their choice, it was not right to paint Addis Ababa in their preferred colours.

He also blamed young city dwellers who according to him had taken the law into their hands by taking down flags hoisted by the other party. He confirmed violent incidents like cars being smashed, attempts to burn a police station and other properties.

“The youngsters from Oromia are arriving in Addis Abeba to take part in a welcoming ceremony and an open air concert on Sep. 15th. The event is organized for members of a faction of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) led by Dawud Ibssa.

“The Eritrean based OLF recently reached an agreement with the Ethiopian government to renounce its armed struggle and return to Ethiopia to continue peaceful political struggle,” the Addis Standard report added.

Ethiopia’s new leader is whittling away the old guard’s power



Ethiopia’s new leader is whittling away the old guard’s power

The ‘Abiymania’ that greeted the prime minister’s rise to power has not yet bitten the dust


FINANCIAL TIMES - It is New Year in Ethiopia, a modern republic and former ancient monarchy in the Horn of Africa that still follows the Julian calendar.  

To celebrate, Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s 42-year-old prime minister and the most dynamic leader in Africa, opened the frontier with old-enemy Eritrea, allowing families separated for a generation to pour across the border in tearful reunion. 

These days, it feels like New Year in Ethiopia every day. Mr Abiy has been prime minister for less than six months, after the abrupt departure of his predecessor. Such has been the thirst for political change that his ascendance, and the startling use he has made of his new-found authority, have been greeted with near-euphoria.  

Polls suggest he has a 90 per cent support rate. People in a country with a median age of 19 snap up books about their new hero, the first prime minister drawn from the politically marginalised Oromo ethnic group. The Oromo make up about 35 per cent of the country’s swelling population of 105m. 

Mr Abiy, a former army intelligence officer, speaks all three of the country’s main languages. His father was Muslim and his mother Christian. Educated in computer engineering in Addis Ababa, business studies at London’s University of Greenwich and with a doctorate in conflict resolution, Mr Abiy is an insider with an outsider’s perspective on his country's complexities and contradictions. 

The new prime minister has become a sort of cross between Che Guevara and Emmanuel Macron. Almost inevitably, his rise has spawned the term Abiymania. So far, despite an assassination attempt, Abiymania has not bitten the dust. 
Abiy Ahmed has spent as much time challenging power structures as preserving them 
Since April, Mr Abiy has wasted no time. As well as concluding an undreamt-of peace deal with Eritrea, he has released thousands of political prisoners, legalised opposition parties, and eased restrictions on tight internet controls. 

He has proposed opening the telecoms and airline sectors to foreign capital, a change that would breathe new life into an economy reaching the limits of state planning. Mr Abiy has also begun to dismantle much of the state apparatus that had brought Ethiopia to the brink of political implosion. 

The sudden resignation of his predecessor in February ended a period of popular revolt that had threatened to sweep away the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the four-party coalition that had run the country since overthrowing the Marxist Derg in 1991. The locus of that rebellion was Mr Abiy’s home state of Oromia. 

Though nominally part of the four-party coalition, the Oromo felt — in common with other ethnic groups — that the EPRDF placed too much power in the hands of Tigrayans, who comprised just 6 per cent of the population. 

Under Tigrayan stewardship — some would say dictatorship — Ethiopia had embarked on one of Africa’s boldest experiments in social and economic transformation. Modelling itself on successful Asian economies, the tight-knit leadership began to plot Ethiopia’s escape from poverty. 

It ran a ruthlessly centralised economy, funnelling scarce resources into state priorities including education, health, road, rail, electricity, dams and industrial parks. The results have been impressive, particularly to an international community hungry for an African success story. 

Growth — at least officially measured — has regularly topped 10 per cent. Child mortality rates have plummeted. But the political foundations on which Ethiopia's experiment was built were crumbling. The EPRDF maintained power as much through repression as through social progress. 

It facilitated land grabs, often in Oromia, and was widely accused of corruption. Tens of thousands of people were locked up. Hundreds were shot in the street. Many prisoners — as Mr Abiy daringly conceded in parliament — were tortured in what he likened to state-sponsored terrorism against its own people. 

Mr Abiy’s rise to power looks like an attempt by the EPRDF to save its own skin and keep the experiment in social transformation going. But Mr Abiy has spent as much time challenging power structures as preserving them. The era of Tigrayan domination is over. 

Ethiopia’s new leader has removed prominent Tigrayan figures, including the head of the army and the security services. Last month, he cancelled a contract to install turbines for the $4.8bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam awarded to a military-run company with close links to the ruling elite. 

Day by day, Mr Abiy is whittling down the political and economic power of the old guard. One danger is that he will be stopped. Another is that he will be corrupted by power and adulation. He would not be the first. 

But the story so far has been almost universally positive. The wonder is how on earth he is getting away with it.

david.pilling@ft.com

Abiy's boldness has reshaped Ethiopia holistically – top U.S. diplomat



thiopia holistically

(Africa News) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed deserves plaudits for the manner in which he has reshaped the body politic, a top United States diplomat has stated.

According to Tibor Nagy, an Assistant Secretary for the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, the 42-year-old has achieved a lot since taking office in April 2018.

Nagy said in a series of tweets that for the groundbreaking reforms Abiy had and continues to champion: “He deserves tremendous credit for his boldness in tackling issues that previous governments have not addressed.

“Dr. Abiy has also taken dramatic steps to end the former government’s repression of civil liberties, inviting a diversity of voices – including many who were previously criminalized – to participate in Ethiopia’s future,” he added.

He also hailed the efforts of Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in making peace after decades of hostilities between the two nations. He stressed that Eritrea was finally in a position to take its rightful place in regional and global politics following the peace deal.

“We enthusiastically welcomed Dr. Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki working together to end 20 years of conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea… We support both sides as they explore possibilities for peace & continue to encourage and support their long-term success

“With Eritrea’s re-emergence onto the regional & global stage, we see strong potential for its contributions to improving regional security. Eritrea can also contribute to regional peace & stability, as evidenced by its role brokering agreements among Ethiopian opposition groups,” he concluded.

His views followed a testimony he made before a legislative committee on the U.S. national interests in recent developments in Ethiopia and the regional significance of the improving relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea.


I want to thank @RepChrisSmith, @RepKarenBass, and the Committee for the invitation to testify today on U.S. national interests in recent developments in Ethiopia and the regional significance of the improving relationship between and