ESAT News (November 28, 2018) US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy is in Addis Ababa for an official working visit as part of his tour to East Africa. Nagy and General Thomas D. Waldhauser, Commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), met with Ethiopia’s Minister of Defense Aisha Mohammed to discuss opportunities for security cooperation between the ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 28, 2018) In what is seen as a challenge to the ruling EPRDF and its bylaws, Abiy Ahmed’s Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading Oromo opposition party, the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF), to eventually merge as one. Leaders of the ODP, a member of the ruling EPRDF ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 27, 2018) In response to a letter by Congressman Mike Coffman to the Secretary of State calling for the imposition of the Global Magnitsky Act on a former Ethiopian spy chief, Getachew Assefa, the U.S. Department of State said it will “evaluate the information and take steps as appropriate.” Last month, Mike Coffman wrote ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 27, 2018) Leaders of eighty-one political parties today held the first round of meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to discuss on electoral reforms needed to make the upcoming elections free and fair. Speaking on whether the elections would be postponed, the Prime Minister said it would be decided based on the opinions ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 23, 2018) Ethiopia’s new head of elections has vowed to make the electoral board an institution that would be trusted by the people in conducting free and fair elections. Birtukan Mideksa, who was elected yesterday by the Ethiopian parliament to lead the country’s electoral board says the public had lost trust on the institution ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 23, 2018) Ethiopia’s Prime Prime Minister will hold discussions with leaders of opposition political parties on electoral reforms and democratization processes in the country. The announcement today by the Office of the Prime Minister urges leaders of opposition parties to register for the meeting to be held on Tuesday. “The discussions will focus on ...

ESAT News (November 21, 2018) Three students have reportedly been killed in Assosa University in Western Ethiopia. The Minister of Science and Higher Education, Hirut Woldemariam told local journalists that a spat between two students turned into a deadly clash in which three students lost their lives. Thirty-four others were wounded, according the Minister, as reported by Fana Broadcasting Corporation. ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 21, 2018) The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has officially laid down arms and combatants of the Front have returned to Ethiopia from their base in Eritrea. The move followed a peace agreement reached with the Ethiopian government in Asmara last month. Since its establishment in 1984, the ONLF has been fighting for the ...

ESAT News (November 20, 2018) At least sixty-five members of the national defense force have been held in a secret dungeon in Tigray and were feared to have been tortured, according to information reaching ESAT. The soldiers, held in a place called Kuya, are mainly targeted due to their ethnic linkage. They are Oromo and Amhara except 4 soldiers who ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 20, 2018) The crime investigation bureau of the federal police commission sent a letter to ten offices of land administration in the capital to identify and compile information on over 400 suspects of corruption while it put a freeze on their land and property until further action by courts, according to a document sent ...