ESAT News (October 10, 2017) Staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nairobi, Kenya have been accused by Ethiopian political refugees of demanding bribes and even sexual favors to facilitate their applications for refugee status. In a damning article published on The Star of Kenya, Ethiopian refugees gave accounts of how staff at the UNHCR office ...

ESAT News (October 10, 2017) Ethiopia has devalued its currency, the Birr (ETB), by 15%. The dollar will be exchanged against 26.9 Birr effective tomorrow October 11, 2017, compared to the current 23.4 Birr, according to the National Bank of Ethiopia. Speaking at a press conference in Addis Ababa, Vice Governor of NBE, Yohannes Ayalew said the move will help ...

ESAT News (October 9, 2017) Ethiopia will devalue its currency to attract foreign investment and close the gap in foreign trade, President Mulatu Teshome said at the opening of the bicameral parliament on Monday. He said his government is faced with a serious shortage of hard currency and export trade has dwindled in last three years. Mulatu said major projects ...

ESAT News (October 9, 2017) Cholera is spreading in an alarming rate from Dire Dawa in the east to Benishangul in the west and from the Capital Addis Ababa to the northern city of Mekelle claiming lives along its route. Reports reaching ESAT from Benishangul Gumuz say 10 people have died due to cholera in Gobela town, Dangul district. The ...

ESAT News (October 9, 2017) News of the resignation of Abadula Gemeda, Speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament over the weekend and his brief televised statement on Sunday gave no clues as to the real reasons for his resignation. Seen as a rubber stamp speaker by many, but a force to be reckoned with by his supporters, the former defense minister ...

ESAT News (October 6, 2017) Acute malnutrition crisis and disease outbreaks is worsening in the Somali region of Eastern Ethiopia, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organisation. The MSF crises update says three rainy seasons in a row without substantial rains have led to a humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia. Crops have failed, cattle have died and ...

ESAT News (October 6, 2017) The leader of SPLM-IO, Riek Machar met with Ethiopian and Sudanese foreign ministers in South Africa and discussed peace in South Sudan. Sudan Tribune, quoting a statement from the Sudanese foreign ministry, Workneh Gebeyehu of Ethiopia and his Sudanese counterpart Ibrahim Ghandour met with Riek Machar as part of the High- Level Revitalization Forum of ...

ESAT News (October 6, 2017) An Ethiopian General has sought asylum in the U.S. after attending an international conference in Washington, DC last month. Brigadier General Melaku Shiferaw has served with the military intelligence of the regime’s defense force and as a military attache in a number of African countries. The General came to the United States last month with ...

ESAT News (October 5, 2017) Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism is being tested as the regime gives too much emphasis on ethnicity at the expense of unity, according to an article on The Economist. The article says the way federalism was implemented in Ethiopia caused problems from the start. “New identity cards forced people to choose an ethnicity, though many Ethiopians are ...

ESAT News (October 5, 2017) The St. Michael Church at the Ethiopian quarter of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been closed by Israeli authorities after its roof had collapsed due to construction on the roof top monastery by the Greek Church. There is a long-running dispute among Christian sects as to the ownership of the Deir ...