by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 14, 2018) A number of political prisoners were freed today and were welcomed at the gates of Ethiopia’s notorious jails by thousands of people, a scene that is uncommon in a country that holds unarguably the highest number of prisoners of conscience anywhere. Thousands of people have gathered at the gates of Kaliti and ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 13, 2018) A prominent journalist and an opposition leader will walk free on Wednesday as pressure mounts against a regime that holds thousands of dissidents in its notorious jails. Eskinder Nega, Andualem Arage and 746 political prisoners are to be released tomorrow, according to a regime controlled news agency in Addis Ababa. The duo ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 13, 2018) A three day “stay-at-home” strike that began yesterday in the vast Oromo region of the country turned into street protests in some towns and districts in the outskirts of the capital. In Jimma, protesters set two buses on fire. Selam Bus has been targeted by protesters in the past for it is ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 13, 2018) A leading Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba and six other members of the Oromo Federalist Congress and dissidents were released today, on the second day of a “stay-at-home” protests in the Oromo region which among others demanded the release of all political prisoners. The organ of the TPLF regime, Fana Broadcasting Corporation, ...

ESAT News (February 12, 2018) Towns across the Oromo region today saw the beginning of a three day stay-at-home protest to pressure the regime to release political prisoners. Residents of several towns took part in the strike to also demand that Agazi forces leave their villages.   Shashemene, Bale, Woliso, Metu, Bishoftu, Alemgena, Harar and 20 districts in Eastern Hararghe ...

ESAT News (February 12, 2018) Victims killed on Sunday by TPLF/Agazi forces were trying to stop a truck carrying contraband goods. Jemal Amede, administrator for East Hararghe Zone told BBC Amharic that local police and some of the youth at the IDP had stopped a truck heading to the Somali region. He said Agazi soldiers came out of nowhere and ...

By Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 12, 2018) Four people, including a local police officer, were killed on Sunday when TPLF Agazi soldiers opened fire at a camp sheltering Internally Displaced People in Hamaressa town in Eastern Ethiopia. Media controlled by the TPLF regime confirmed the death. A dozen people were also injured. The IDP camp holds some of the ...

By Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 9, 2018) Prison authorities have demanded that Eskinder Nega and Andualem Arage, two prominent prisoners among the hundreds who were “pardoned’ yesterday by the regime, to sign a document saying they were jailed because they were members of Patriotic Ginbot 7, an opposition group based abroad. Sources say the prisoners of conscience have refused ...

By Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 9, 2018) Twenty-five Ethiopians are feared drowned after being forced by smugglers to swim to the shores as their boat approached Yemen. Officials with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said no bodies have been found. “Our partners in Yemen tell us that 4 boats with approximately 550 Ethiopian migrants on board arrived in ...

By Engidu Woldie ESAT News (February 8, 2018) The dictatorship in Ethiopia has continued to respond, albeit rather slowly , to public pressure and pressure from the international community that the thousands of incarcerated dissidents be freed. Media controlled by the regime today reported that the prosecutor general has announced 746 political prisoners have been “pardoned” and would be released ...