ESAT News (January 12, 2016) Reports reaching from Addis Ababa say Ermias Amelga, a prominent businessman, has been put behind bars. Ermias was the founder of the controversial Access Real Estate and Zemen Bank. Ermias was in exile for two years following charges and allegations of financial mismanagement by shareholders and investors of Access Real Estate, which was engaged in ...

ESAT News (January 12, 2016) Farmers in east Hararghe said they fear lives would be lost if they are not provided with an immediate food aid. Residents told ESAT that there is a serious famine in the area and there is no available drinking water as the rivers and springs have gone dry. They said a number of farmers have ...

ESAT News (January 11, 2016) Thirty-three students were seriously injured after a grenade was thrown yesterday at a group of protesters at Jimma University in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Two of the injured were in critical condition and were on life support, Jawar Mohammed, a political activist, said quoting hospital sources. All the injured have fragments of the blast ...

ESAT News (January 11, 2016) 133 illegal migrants being trafficked from Bosaso in Somalia have been confirmed dead after their boat capsized in the vicinity of Erigavo in Somaliland, Somaliland Sun reported on Sunday. 96 bodies, from the same vessel, were discovered ashore by locals on Friday having been washed in with the tide, Falay added. Dozens of Ethiopian and ...

ESAT News (January 11, 2016) News reaching ESAT from Arba Minch town, a key town in southern Ethiopia say government security forces were rounding up several number of the youth in the town for being suspected members and supporters of opposition political parties. Sources told ESAT that security forces have stripped and whipped Yosef Yishak and Endashaw Wondyifraw among others ...

ESAT News (January 08, 2016) Prof. Getachew Haile, a prominent historian and human rights advocate, said   that the demand by Oromo students for economic and political rights was legitimate and need to be supported. Prof. Getachew said in an interview with ESAT that the expansion of cities have left farmers devoid of their land, which is their livelihood, making them ...

ESAT News (January 08, 2016) Students at the Addis Ababa University and a number of higher institutions of learning in Oromia region boycotted food yesterday, on the day of Ethiopian Christmas, to show their solidarity with protesters who are staging rallies for the second month in the Oromia region of Ethiopia against the repressive minority government. Higher learning institutions in ...

ESAT News (January 07, 2016) The Human Rights Watch called on the Ethiopian government on Thursday to release all political prisoners and stop the use of lethal force against protesters. It also demanded the regime to allow peaceful protest. “The Ethiopian government should release unjustly detained opposition figures including Bekele Gerba, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), and ...

ESAT News (January 06, 2016) A court in Kenya sentenced 27 Ethiopian immigrants and their traffickers to 9 months in prison or 15,000 Kenyan Shillings, according to the Star newspaper. The Ethiopians, whom Kenyan police say have entered the country illegally were on their way to South Africa in search of better economic opportunities. The court dropped charges to three ...

ESAT News (January 06, 2016) A technical team from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are holding talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa over the latter’s controversial Grand Renaissance Dam, according to a report by Ahram online. The talks come after the three countries announced last Tuesday –following a week of discussions between top officials – that they came to an ...