ESAT English News

Ethiopia refugee law faces backlash

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 21, 2019) Ethiopia’s new refugee law which grants more rights to refugees, such as work permits and access to education, faces opposition from the Anywaks of Gambella who said the law did not take the reality in the region into account. Gambella is host to most of the about 900,000 refugees the country is ...

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Ethiopia: 14 years later, inquiry commission demands to present its report on post-election violence

  by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 21, 2019) Exiled leaders of an inquiry commission that was set up in 2006 to probe into post-election violence the previous year are urging the government to allow them present what they called “the true” report they had put together, saying the conclusions of the report presented to the Parliament in October 2006 ...

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Ethiopia says its forces killed 66 al-Shabaab fighters in retaliatory attack

Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 20, 2019) The Ministry of Defense said Ethiopian troops had attacked al-Shabaab bases in Somalia and killed 66 militants a day after reports said the insurgent group claimed that it had killed several Ethiopian soldiers on Friday. The Ethiopian troops, who are in Somalia as part of the AMISOM mission, also destroyed 9 Land Cruisers ...

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Ethiopia: Rights watchdog says human rights landscape transformed in 2018

ESAT News (January 18, 2019) The Human Rights Watch said the human rights situation in Ethiopia has transformed for the better after a new Prime Minister was installed last April. “After years of widespread protests against government policies, and brutal security force repression, the human rights landscape transformed in 2018 after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April,” said the ...

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Ethiopia: OLF denounces ‘airstrikes’ as govt denies any such attack

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 18, 2019) The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) says government forces had carried out airstrikes in the western Oromo region as the government insisted no such attack took place. In a statement issued today in response to a briefing yesterday by the office of government spokesperson that denies any airstrikes took place in western Ethiopia, ...

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Ethiopia: Police seize thousands of illegal weapons, amos, cash

ESAT News (January 17, 2019) The Addis Ababa Police Commission said it has seized over 2,000 weapons, about 55,000 amos as well as thousands of cash in the last six months of crackdown against scoundrels. The statement by the capital police commission said 2,383 various types of weapons and 55,615 ammunitions have been seized in a joint operation with the ...

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Ethiopia: Spy agency expunges list of 3,000 people hitherto not allowed to leave or enter country

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 17, 2019) Of the total 7,000 people blacklisted by former spy chiefs with the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), 3,000 of them have been expunged from the list by new bosses at Ethiopia’s spy agency. Those in the list were not allowed to leave or enter the country, and would face arrest and ...

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ESAT News In English – Wed Jan 16, 2019

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Ethiopia: Concern over increasing violence in Amhara region

ESAT News (January 16, 2019) The council of the Amhara regional government says the security situation in the region has gotten worse and resulted in the loss of several lives and destruction of properties. The statement by the council said western and central Gondar are areas that have specially been beset by deadly violence as a result of conflict between ...

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Ethiopia: Over 800 OLF combatants captured: says regional command post

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (January 16, 2019) 835 combatants of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) have been captured in the troubled region of Benishangul-Gumuz and the adjacent western Ormo region, according to the communication Bureau of the Oromo regional government. The Bureau said based on information obtained from a Command Post set up to quell violence that beset the ...

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