ESAT News (December 19, 2016) A former Egyptian official said a visit last week by an advisor to the royal court of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed al-Khatib, to the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was “a dangerous move and said it constitutes an act of public intrigue.” Former Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam described Khatib’s visit by the Saudi official as harmful. ...

ESAT News (December 16, 2016) The government of Kenya has launched investigations into the death of a Kenyan whose brought from Ethiopia on Thursday. Zakayo Muriuki, an engineer, was arrested in Ethiopia on January 10, 2015 when he went to install a VSAT satellite in Jigija. He was accused of committing telecommunication fraud in the foreign country, according to a ...

  ESAT News (December 16, 2016)    The family of Temesgen Desalegn, a prominent journalist serving three year sentence, said they have finally found their son at the Zeway Federal Prison after ten days of searching. For the last ten days, federal prison officers have been telling the family that Temesgen was not under the custody of the prisons. His ...

ESAT News (December 16, 2016) The African Union has expressed concern about Ethiopia’s current State of Emergency against the upcoming Heads of State Summit in the capital Addis Ababa in January 2017. The concerns were raised by the Chairperson Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma who met with the newly appointed Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs at the AU Headquarters on Tuesday, ...

  ESAT News (December 16, 2016) Security forces detained a lawyer for Dr. Merara Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, who is held in solitary confinement. Taba Chufa, a lawyer for several political prisoners, was jailed in Ambo, the Chair of OFC’s International Support Coordinator, Negeso Ada told ESAT on Friday. Ada said Chufa represents at least 300 political ...

ESAT News (December 15, 2016) A bomb hidden inside a teashop in Somalia’s capital exploded Thursday, killing four soldiers and two civilians. Associated Press quoted a Somali military official as saying the attack followed a suicide car bomb that detonated in Mogadishu earlier in the day, killing the driver. Military official Ahmed Ali said the soldiers were gathered at the ...

ESAT News (December 15, 2016) President Salva Kiir has asked the South Sudanese to forgive him for past mistakes. According to a report by the VOA, the president made the appeal Wednesday during an end-of-year speech before the National Legislative Assembly. He also ordered government forces to observe a cease-fire and create a conducive environment for communities to reconcile. The ...

ESAT News (December 15, 2016) A member of the European Parliament called for the European Union to end its complicity with the Ethiopian regime that kills peaceful protesters and jails journalists and political opponents. https://youtu.be/iEWeRYPdvSg Ana Maria Gomes made an impassioned plea to members of the European Union to end their silence over the crimes perpetrated by the regime. Mrs. ...

ESAT News (December 14, 2016) Over one thousand Tigrayan businessmen who were widely accused of taking over land for agriculture in Gambella, displacing the locals, complain of lack of additional loans from the Development Bank. The Tigrayan dominated government in Ethiopia has been a subject of scathing criticism at an international level for favoring Tigrayans who took large tracts of ...

ESAT News (December 14, 2016) Human rights groups are asking Ethiopia’s government to immediately disclose the whereabouts of a prominent local journalist who has been behind bars since October 2014. According to the Associated Press report, the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia and DefendDefenders on Wednesday called it “unacceptable” that the government was unwilling or unable to provide Temesgen ...