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Ammaan tana warashaaleen dhunfaa fi mootummaa naannoo Oromiyaa keessa jiran keessatii Moormiin akka hin kaaneef eegumsii fi hordoffiin cimaan godhamaa jira.

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Tokkummaa Barattoota Oromoo
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Yeroo amma kana warshaalleen Hundi human waraanan eegamaa jiru.Sababiin isaas hojjattootni kuni gaaffii mirgaa yeroo gara garaa kaasaniif deebiin keennamaa jiru hojii irraa ari’uu waan ta’eef hojjataa heedduun mufi guddaa keessa gale jira. Balaa kanaanis mormii guddaan ni dhaqaba jedhamee soodaatama jira. Kana naasuu keessa galee “mootummmaa naannoo keessaaa “ Biiroon dhimma hojjataaf hawaasaummaa kallatti hundaan bobaasuun hordooffi fi to’aannoon akka cimmu yaaduus, haalli warshaallee kanaa mootummaa naannoowaliin walitti fidu waan hin jirreefi itti waamamniisaan feedraalaf waan ta’eef bu’aan abdi qabu gama kanaan hin eegamu. Oolmaa guyyaa gabaasuun ala.Rakkoowwan gurguddoon yeroo ammaa Warshaalee Keessattii Uumaman jeequmsaaf sababi ta’u ni danda’aan jedhamaniis:

1. Kanfaltiin miindaa hojjatoota baay’ee gadi aanaa ta’uu; mindaan warshaalee dhunfaa keessa hojjatootni argatan gali hojjataa guyyaa tokko ti gadii ta’uuf, kiraa manaa, nyaataa fi KKf tasa guutuu kan hin dandeenye ta’uu isaa. Fkn
1) Warshaa shukaaraa Wanjii fi Mataaharaa keessatti hojjatoota guyyaa (kan hin barranne kaase hanga dargagoota diigri qabani) guyyaatti birri 35n shankooraa muraa oluu. Warsjaaleen shukaaraa Dhidheessa keessatti ijaaraman kan mootummaa fi warra Hindii , erga moormii Oromoo fininee booda kaffalti guyyaa qarshi 50 kan galchan yoo ta’u, hojjataas ummata Kibbaa keessaa fidaa jiru.

2) Warshaan huccu Iyikaa (kan warra Turkii) magaala Sabbataatti argamuu hojjatootaaf ji’atti qarshi 600 kanfalaa, kuni guyyaatti qarshi 20 ta’ u isaatti. Kanumaa immo ilmaan qonnaanbulaa Oromoo lafa isaani irraa buqa’aan carraadhumti kun illee hin keennamneef. Oromoo carraa hojiin ala godhuun kuni bakka mara jira. kunis dallansu guddaa ume jira. Mootummaanis ta’e abbootiin warshaa bu’aan isaan bufannee jedhan garaa garummaa saamicha human hojjataa irraa bufatani.

2. Akka biyyatti ka’umsii mindaa (minimum labour wage) murtaa’uu dhabu. Mootummaan ummataa yaadee waan hin beekneef gaaffii gama kanaan dhiyaatu hunda farra “investment” jedhe dhaamsuuf yaalaa. Kanaaf kaampaniin tokko akka barbaadeetti gati gadi aanaa kaffaluun humna hojjataa saamaa jira.

3. Ejeensoonni dhuunfa (Heedduun kan dhaabbata TPLF fi miseensoota isaa ta’an) warshaalee, “Embassy”, Baankii, dhaabbilee “UN” keessa galanii isaanhojjatoota hojjatoota dhaabattoota kana keessatti qacaraman of-jalatti bulchaa waan jiraniif hojjataan warshaalees ta’e dhabbatoota kana keessa hojjatan kallattiin waan isaani kanfalamu argachaa hin jiran. Kanfalittii mindaa hojjatoota gara eejansiin qacaramani, eejansootni kuni mindaa hojjatoota abbootii qabeenyaa wajjiin waliigalan keessa hanga barbaadan qofa hojjatoota kan kanfalan ta’uu fi seerrii isaan dirqisiisu jirachuu dhabuu. Kunis walfayyaduuf ta’e jedhamee kan raawwatamaa jiru ta’uu.

FkN kaasuuf eejansiiwwan kuni• “THRUST” kan jedhamu kan abbaan qabeenyaa Sheek Alaamuuddiin yoo ta’u hojjataa kamiyyuu kan dhaabbata MIDROC jalatti qaccaruufi mindaa argachuu malu irraa walakaa ol kan qodatuu ta’u isaa. Ilaalaa mee namichi kuni wanta keessa hin seene hin qabu.

• “Agar Ethiopia” kan jedhamuu abbaan qabeenya saba Tigree yoo ta’uu waardiyaa hanga oggeesa olaanaa warshaalee fi dhaabillee garagaraa keessatti qacarsisuun ji’a ji’aan mindaa hojjataa irraa walakaa ol fudhachaa kan jiru ta’uu. FKN AUn Waajjira isaaFinfinnee keessa jiruuf, waardiyaa tokkoof mindaa qarshii 3,800 kan kaffaluu yoo ta’u kan hojjataa harka gahu 1,800 qofaa isaa hafe “AGAR” taa’ee fudhata.

• “Dejen” abbaan qabeenyaa kanaas sabaan Tigree yoo ta’u, mindaa waardiyoota fi qulqulleessitu baankii daldala Itophiyaa fi baankii Ijaarsaa fi Business (CBB) dameele 900 caalan keessatti qacarman irraa qofa waggaattiqarshi miliyoona 21 ol argachaa akka jiru. Kunisinaaffaa isaan giddutti umame irraa kan ka’e hojii kana “ Commercial nominee” dhaabbatni jedhamu akka hojjatu murtaa’ee gali hangana gahu hojjataa irraa saamaa (qodachaaa) jiruu. “Commercial nominees” dhaabbata jedhamu walitti qabaan boordii Barakat Simooni

.• “Bekat Human resource Supply” kan jedhamuus haal walfakkaattuun warshaalee fi dhaabbille qoddachuun human ummataa saamaa jiraachuu isaa akk FKN kaasuun ni danda’.

4.ama Hojjatootiin mirga ofii tiif akka hin falmannee waldaa bilisaa hojjatootatiin gurmaa’uun gama mootummaa fi hojjachiistootaatiin fudhatama waan hin argganneef. Mootummaan iddoo fedheetti kan fedhi isaa eegsisan hunddeessuun hojjataatti akka fedhe itti tabbachaa jiraachuu.

5. “Mootummaann naannoo Oromiyaa” ergama lafa qonnaan bulaa Oromoo saamee abbooti qabeenyaa jedhamni keennuun ala gali irraa argamuus ta’e midhaa hawaasa irra gahu ginkummaa dhaabsisuuf aangoo kan hin qabne dha. Warshaaleen abboottii qabeenya biyya ala hayyama kan fudhatan Fedaraalaa irraa waan ta’eef rakkoo uumamu kamiyyuu hikuuf qaama Fedaraalaa malee kan naannoo wajjiin marii’achuuf fedhii kan ta’uu isaanii irraa kan ka’ee rakkoon mirgaa hojjatoota akkan naannootti hikuufis ta’e gali itta fayyadama qabeenya naannoo galchisisuuf Naannoon Oromiyaa angoo takka iyyuu kan hin qabne ta’u.

6. Komii mirgaa hojjatootaatiin
walqabatu hiikuuf qaamaa Federalaa yoo ta’ee malee naannoon aangoo kan hin qabnnee waan ta’eef

7. Hojjatoota warshaa Oromiyaa keessa jiran keessatti qaxaraman dhibbeentaa 80% ol hawaasa naannoo (Oromoo) osoo hin ta’in iddo biraa irraa kan fidan ta’uu. Keessa’u oggeessa olaanaa kan qacaruu eejansii saba Tigre waan taeef hojii gadi aanaa kan akka hojii humnaa, waardiyaa KKFn ala saba biraan guutame jiraachuun moormii cimaan hawaasaa naannoofi hojjataa keessatti akka umamuu godhe jira.Walumaa galatti mootummaan abbaa irree ummata tuffachuun rakkinni umte ishi nyaachuuf jiraa. Waan ta’eef mormiin kuni ciminaan warshaalee fi dhabbilee hunda keessatti itti fufu qaba. Moormiin kunis guutummaa biyyatti (Ethiopia) waliin nigaha taanan umriin sirna kana ni gabaabbataa.

The post Ammaan tana warashaaleen dhunfaa fi mootummaa naannoo Oromiyaa keessa jiran keessatii Moormiin akka hin kaaneef eegumsii fi hordoffiin cimaan godhamaa jira. appeared first on Bilisummaa.


“IBIDDA RAFE HUUBNI TO’ACHUU KAJEELA!!”

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Saphaloo Kadiir irraa
Waa malee miti, ‘waatoo jala waatu jira’ yoo
jedhu oromoon koo. Eeyyee! Ilmaan saba kootii,
yeroon ammaa tan if dagannuufi tan cal’ifnuu
miti. Wayyaanen yeroo duraa caalaa amma
haareyatti if ijaaruun sagalee haqaa, warraaqsa
dhugaa kan ilmaan oromoo adeemsisaa jiran
kana bututtuu cubbuutiin haguugee bira dabruuf
yaalaa jira. “Hudduu abbaan dagate mixiin lama
seenti” jedha oromoon. Gaafa nuti marti lafarraa
duguugamne yoo tahe malee osuma nuti lubbuun
jirruu garuu sagalee qulqulluu haqa isii
falmachuuf warraaqxuufi dhawwaaqxu
ukkaamsuun akka hin danda’amne beekuu
dhabuun isaanii nama ajaa’ibsisuu qofa osoo hin
taane sa’aa marga malee qilee hin argine tahuu
waayyaanee qabatamaan nuuf mirkaneessa.
Warraaqsi ilmaan oromoo qaqqacaleen boruuf
abdataman kumni baayyeen irratti madaa’e,
lafeen goota kuma meeqaa itti caccaphxe, dhiigni
qeerroo kuma kurnoota lolaa ta’ee laga itti yaa’e,
gootoonni oromoo kumni shantamoota ol mana
hidhaatti darbamee kaaniis achi buutee itti ta’e,
fincilli lubbuun qulqulluun dhibba sadii ol badii
malee irratti wareegame salphumatti ni
dhaabbata jedhanii yaaduun bursusaa’uu dha.
Fincilli qabsoo hadhooytuu makatee ji’oota afurii
ol osoo walirraa hin citin adeemsifamaa ture
injifannoo dacha dachaan galmeessisee jira.
Warraaqsi hadhaawaan kun ammallee daran if
cimsee, if ijaaree bifa gurmaaween hanga
xumuraatti cichaan kan itti fufuu akka tahe
qeerroon oromoo liikkee isaanii takkittii harmee
isaaniitiif laatanii galma gahiinsa mirkaneessuuf
wa’ada galaa akka jiran warri quba hin qabne
quba qabaadhaa jechuun dhaadachaa jiran.
Waraabeessi dhalee beelawe, wayyaaneen immoo
tooftaafi shira garagaraa xaxxee, gufuu cubbuu
daandii irra labbaa galchitee warraaqsa kana
dhaamsuufi qaxara cabsuuf bursusa hiikkaa hin
qabneen xaxamtee, hawwii bu’ura hin qabneen
guutamtee farsoo abjuutiin machaa’aa jirti. Garuu
ani kaniin jedhu wayyaaneen tun hoggaa abbaan
biyyaa amma booda ija teessan arguu hin feenu,
gonkuma isin hin barbaannuu nurraa galaa
jedhuun maaliif nurratti cichaa jiran isinitti
fakkaata? ‘Waan namaa ulee malee hin quufan’
yoo jedhan dhageessan natti fakkaata.
Oromiyaatu jannata ardiiti kaa akkamitti garaan
isaan dhiisee deemaree? Jannata seenee
salphumatti eenyulleen waan bahu natti hin
fakkaatu. Eeyyee! Oromiyaa dhufanii beela
qoonqoo bahanii, abaar irraa ambareerratanii,
dheebuu bishaaniitiif aananiifi dhadhaa dhuganii
dharraas bahanii akkamitti salphumatti gad
dhiisaan? Yoo lubbuu isaanii itti guraarree,
washeen shaf shaf godhaa if keessaa ariinee
baafne malee wayyaaneen gonkuma oromiyaa
keessaa bahuun isaanii waan hin eegamnee dha.
‘Waraabeessi bakka guyyaa tokko itti quufetti
sagal itti agaba’ akkuma jedhamu san
wayyaaneeniis nyaata takkaa arguu mitii
dhagayanii hin beekne bakka itti arkanitti tolaan
sossoo’uun isaanii hin jiru. Kanaafuu nuti ilmaan
oromoo sabaafi biyya harmee isaaniitiif if
kenninee, wal qabannee akka kanaan dura itti
deemaa turre daran hanga oromiyaa keessaa
gufuu badduu wayyaanee buqqifnuu hidhaafi
ajjeechaa isaanii sodaannee abdii murree kan if
duuba deebinuu miti.
Wayyaaneen warraaqsa kana karatti hambisuuf
wanti isaan hin goone tokko hin jiru. Nutiis
isaanuma daran qabsoo teenya finiinsinee
kaayyoo keenya ganamaa galmaan ga’achuuf
wareegamni nuti hin kafalle akka hin jirre,
murannoofi kutannoo cululuuqxuu dhiqattee
quyyifatteen murteessuu keenya ifoomsinaaf.
Garuu wayyaaneen hojiin itti agarsiifnu malee
dubbii teenya hin dhageessu waan taheef
baayyeen keenya nu keessaa hidhamaniis nuti
qeerroon ija ibiddaa irree teenya tan duraanii
caalaa jabeeffachuun mootummaa reeqqisaa gar
malee raafnee turre bakkaa fonqolchinee itti
agarsiisuu qabna. Kaayyoon wayyaanee takkaafi
takka qofa. Oromoo lafarraa duguugdee ofiif
gaafii takka malee oromiyaa dhoorkaa malee if
harka galchuu dha. Oromiyaa keessaa bahuu irra
ilmaan oromoo murruq gootee ifiif biyya teenya
dhaaltee irratti hafuu waan filannoo jalqabaa
godhatte fakkaatti jaldeeyyiin beelooytuun.
Karoorri wayyaaneen yeroo dheeraa irraa
wixineeffatanii qaban oromoo fuula ardii
oromiyaa irraa xuruursuu waan ta’eef nuti
callifnuus dubbannuus, warraaqnuus carraaqnuus
tooftaa adda addaatiin suuta suuta nu gatuun
isaanii hafan qabu. Keessaafuu amma eega
takka tuttuqne booda riphisuun keenya karoora
duguuggaa sanyii jalqabuma irraa nuuf qaban san
saffisuufii malee nu eewaluuf gatii hanga firii
xaafii takka hin qabu. Warraaqsa finiinsaa turre
kana karatti murre taanaan, tasa
qabbaneessinaan sababa kana godhatee tokko
tokkoon funaanee kan garaa isaa raawwata.
Tooftaa isaa mala garagaraatti fakkeessee akka
waan nuuf quuqamuu fakkeessee, funyoo shiraa
nutti maree, hillima dhooysaa hidhee nu
qaqqabuun kaan lubbuu ajjeessee, kaan immoo
sammuu masheensee namummaarraa baasuun
injifannoo dachaa nurratti gonfachuuf akka
jaldeessaatti buukkumsaa nu keessa fiigaa jira.
Tooftaan amma inni fayyadamaa jiru kun jalqaba
irratti warraaqsa ilmaan oromoo hijaan bara
dheeraa dhalche kan lubbuun ilmaan oromoo dilli
irratti hobbaate, dhiigni qulqulluun oromoota
baayyee akka galaanaa dhangala’ee dirreerra
lola’e, lafeen kumni baayyeen itti caphxee, foon
meeqaantam irratti qaanxeeffame kana
dhaamsuuf yoo tahu, san booda tokko tokkoon ija
ija keessaa guuree jireenya ardii kanaa irraa
hanga xumuraatti duugda galchuu dha. Ajjeessee
reeffa isaanii tokkoo lamaan saree isaanii
sooruu, hambaa irraa hafe waraaboof dhihansuu
dha.
Tooftaan tokko maqaa haaroomsa jedhuun
ilmaan oromoo warraaqsa keenya irratti adda
duree turan guuree if harkatti galchee akka fedhii
isaa irratti raawwachuudha. Dhiheenya kanaas
hanga warraaqsi keenya qaqabbanaa’e kanatti
qeerroollee kuma baayyee mana manaa walitti
funaanee kallattiin mooraalee waraanaa
waggoota 20’mota dabran dhiiga ilmaan oromoo
kuma danuu cunfachaa turtetti guuraa jiraachuun
ragaa dha. Bara 1992 irraa jalqabee mooraalee
waraanaa kan akka Huursoo, Xawallaay,
Dhidheessaa, Ziwaay, Birshalaqoo fi kkf keessatti
ilmaan oromoo miseensa, waraana, dabballee,
maandhee ABO’ti sababa jedhuun kaan hidhaan
adabsaa, kaan immoo maqaa haaroomsa
(Tahaddisoo) jedhuun walitti qabe tarsiimoo isaa
qammantuu garaan bokooysaa ture. Wayyaaneen
mooraalee waraanaa tanneen keessatti
gootootan kuma hedduu akka hiddii fardi irra
ajjateetti macalaasaa, hayyoota oromoo
lakkoofsa hin qabne keessatti kolaasaa, kaaniis
uleen aagibeeysaa, baayyee isaanii immoo
hirriiba hanga dhumaa irraa hin dammaqne
raffisaa turuun yaadannoo gurraatti baroota
dhihooti. Baranaas akkasumatti guuree
mooraalee waraanaa tan araada dhiiga ilmaan
oromootiif hamammoottu tanatti walitti qabee
buqqee ishaashoo godhaa jira.
Tooftaan biraa wayyaaneen yeroo ammaa akka
furmaataatti fudhachaa jirtu warreen
miseensoota OPDO tahanii isaan waliin
obboleeyyan isaanii ajjeesuufi badii malee yakkuu
lagatan, kanneen tarkaanfii dharaa wayyaanee
waliin dhiiga isaanii irraatti fudhachuu qoorrifatan
mara itti gaafatama isaanii irraa harcaasee,
hojjatoota sabboontoota danuu hojii irraa ugguree
galiifi gatii malee harka duwwaa hambisuu dha.
Tarkaanfiin kun isaaf sirgiga hamaa tahee akka if
qabuu hin dandeenyetti kan mucucaachisu
tahullee inni immoo akka tarkaanfii haqaatti
hadooddii takka malee hojii isaanii irraa guuysaa
jira. Dhugaa dubbachuuf tooftaa kana akka
injifannootti fudhatee, tarkaanfii diinummaa
raawwachaa jiraatuullee garuu miidhaa caalaa
nuuf faaydaa guddaadha. Murtiin ilmaan oromoo
hojiirraa ari’uufi sadarkaa irraa gad buusuu kun
garii isaanii sammuu laamsheessee, warreen
maddi galii isaanii mindaa qofarratti hunda’e
tokko tokkoos jireenya hamaa keessatti kuffisee
maatii isaanii gaaga’ama keessa kan buusu
tahullee yoo sirritti gad fageessinee hubanne
immoo bu’aa isaatu irra caala jedheen yaada.
Sabboontootaafi quuqamtoota dhiiga
obboleeyyaniitiin harka dhiqatanii, biddeena
gogaa ilmaan oromoo irraa tolfameen shiilchoo
foon oromoo qaqqabatanii alanfachaa garaa
isaanii guutuu hin jaalanneef furmaata dhugaa
tahee xurii seenaa jalaa bilisa isaan baasa.
Warreen foon obboleeyyanii nyaachuuf afaan
mimmi’eeffatu, foon foon ofii nyaatee dhiiga
ofiitiin kokkee jiifachuu barbaadaniifi yeyyiilee
gogaa oromoo uffatanii ilmaan oromoo
dhidhimsuu kajeelan muraasa yeroof
gammachiisullee kan arra adilee nyaate boru
daalachaafiis akka taa’u sirritti hubachiisa. Yoo
dhugaa kan dubbannu tahe warreen dhiiga
oromummaa qulqulluu qabaniif balbala qabsoo
bal’aa saaquun warraaqsaaf hiriirsa. Akkaan
tahuus akka maleen tahuus ilmaan oromoo
onnee sabboonummaa qaban kan hojjatoonni
mootummaa tahanii hojjachaa jiran warra garaan
sossobamu irra harka meeqa baayyatu waan
tahaniif hojiirraa gaggeeffamuun isaanii
warraaqsa keenyaaf humna addaa dabala. Gama
biraatiin warreen garaan dagees booda karaan
isaaniis kanuma ykn kanarra hamaa akka tahe itti
mul’isuun foon obboleeyyan isaanii kan
nyaachuuf qophaa’aa jiran irraa akka if qusatan
qofa osoo hin taane kan kanaan dura nyaataa
turanillee akka diddiigan taasisa. ‘Namni qabrii
hiriyaa arke tan ifiitiis arke’ yoo kan beekan tahe
hanga jarri saree itti qalu osoo hin eegganne hojii
shiraa diinni xaxaa jiru ammumma harka keessaa
fudhatanii gara warraaqsa dhugaa oromoon haqa
isaatiif taasisaa jirutti makaman jedheen amana.
Alagaan hanga waan barbaadde mara harkatti
galfattu qofa aangoon, maallaqaafi faaydaa adda
addaatiin nama dallaalti malee san booda akka
tanakaa (gaaloonaa) zeeytiin gargaarsaa irraa
dhumetti gujufa irratti nama darbuun isii
beekkamaadha. Kana mirkaneeffachuuf immoo
namni seenaa bara dheeraa beeku Goobanaa
Dacee haa hubatu. Kan seenaa yeroo gabaabduu
beeku immoo Juneeydii Saaddoofi aangoota
OPDO amma taaytaa irraa harcaasaa jiran kana
irraa waa hubachuu ni dandeessan jedheen
yaada. Karaa isa baasu abbaatu beeka. Garuu
albadheessa tokko tokko yaadduun sammuu
keessaa godaantee qochumaa keessa waan
qubatteef waan ifitti gad darbu qofa yoo arkate ni
dagata waan taheef yaadachiisuun barbaachisaa
dha.
Tooftaan mootummaan wayyaanee ilmaan
oromoo miidhuun humna isaanii dadhabsiisee
harka kennisiisuuf yaaluufi warraaqsa isaanii
hundee irraa goggooysuuf itti fayyadamaa jiru
kan biraa bishaan dhugaatii irraa muruun, gatii
mi’oota ykn meeshaalee barbaachisoo tokko
tokko ol dabaluun, tajaajiloota gara
mootummaatiin argatan kan akka ibsaafi bilbila
akka sirnaan hin fayyadamne godhuun ykn gatii
tajaajila isaanii humnaa ol dabaluun akka
hawaasni yaaddoo isaanii gara qabsoo jireenya
irratti deebisan taasisuu dha. Isaan tooftaa kana
sammuu ummataa dhifuufi ilaalcha isaanii
dabsuuf (diverty) godhuun akka hawaasni
jireenya isaa bira dabree gara biraa tokkollee
tarkaanfachuu hin dandeenye godhuuf yaadaniti.
Tooftaan dulloomaan wayyaaneen warraaqsa
keenyaan dhaamsuuf fayyadamaa jirtu kun nuuf
immoo ibiddarratti bobaa’aa firfirsuu tahee
warraaqsa keenya sadarkaa addaatti akka
wajiijnu nu taasisa. Tooftaalee wayyaaneen
fayyadamtu mara yoo kan laallu taate
mootummaan Xoophiyaa gowwaa maraate tahuu
isaa nutti mul’isa. Gowwaa, isaa duraanuu
gowwaa gaafa maraateefaa akkami mee yaadaan
laalaa.
Tooftaaleen biraa kan warraaqsa falmii haqaatiif
ilmaan oromoo finiinsaa jiran kana dhaamsuuf
saroonni wayyaanee deddeemaniin keessaa kan
biraa ammaas ilmaan oromoo sababoota
garagaraatiin walitti buusuun akka isaan wal
afaan dacha’an taasisuudha. Kuniis kan
dhiheenya kana argaa turre mallattoolee bu’aa
shira kana kan mul’isan keessaa muraasa tahuun
isaa mamiin qabu. Gama biraatiin lubbuu ilmaan
oromoo akka beeyladaa balaa konkolaataan
ajjeefameetti gatii maallaqaan haa shalagamu
jechuun abbootii gadaafi namoota garii hawaasa
oromoo bal’aa waliin wal afaan kaayuun akka
nuti osoo wal riqnuu warraaqsa keenya dagannu
taasisuu dha. Tooftaan inni biraa immoo
naannoolee balaa hoongeetiin miidhaman
gargaarsa miidhaan nyaataa irraa hambisuun
akka isaan wallattaawan, gariiniis akka dhumu
godhuufi tooftaalee biraa kan ummata oromoo
kana lafarraa gabaabsuufi harka kennisiisee
adabachiisa jedhee yaadu mara fudhachuu dha.
Tooftaan shiraa wayyaaneen ummata oromoo
irratti fudhattu kun marti kan ittiin injifatamuu
qabsoo irratti cichuu qofaani. “Kan sodaataniis
du’a, kan hin oollees du’a!” Du’a gootummaa
du’uun jireenya gabrummaan jiraatan irra harka
meeqa bilisummaa dha. Ilmaan oromoo yeroo
ammaa du’a gootummaa sodaatanii du’a fafaa
du’uuf gonkuma hin filatan. Yeroo hanga
warraaqsi ligide kanatti ilmaan oromoo jimlaan
guuramanii mana hidhaafi mooraalee waraanaa
reefu maqaa dhawaa turre keessatti hadhaa
hamtuu akka dhandhamaaniif saaxilamanii jiran.
Yoo cal’ifnee kan teenyu tahe immoo ijoolleen
hidhamanii harka wayyaanee jiraniis tahee nuti
warri hin qabaminiis du’a salphinaa akka booyyee
du’uun keenya hafa hin qabu. Hanga qabsooynee,
warraaqsa jalqabne galma barbaannuun hin
gahinitti, hanga qabsoo teenyaan gumaan dhiiga
wareegamtootaa hin bahinitti jiraannuus du’aa,
reeffa gatiin qabne tahuu keenya dagachuun hin
qabnu. Obboleeyyan keenya kan harka diinaatti
miidhamaa jiran kan bilisa baasuus tahee kan
qaama hir’uu tahanii itillee irra ciisaa jiran mara
kan wal’aanu nu qofa. Wal’ansi isaaniif goonuufi
tooftaan walaba itti baasuu tokkichi warraaqsa
qabsoo keenyaa jidduu kana ligide haareyatti
oromiyaa guutuu keessatti qabsiisuu qofa.
Ibiddaa warraaqsaa qabsiifnee, kullooda
fincilaatiin dibnee karkarfannu malee qoorri
jidduun nu seenu kun nurraa hin bahu. Nuutu if
dagate roorroon alagaa nutti finiinaa jirti. “Ibidda
rafe huubni to’achuu kaajelaa” akkuma jedhan
nuti muugnaan jarattiin nurratti baatee jirti.
Kanaaf furmaanni tokkichi qabnu tokkummaan
akkuma duraanii sanitti warraaqsa keenya haa
finiinsinuun dhaamsa kooti. Xumure, horaa bulaa.
[ ‪#‎Saphaloo_Kadiir‬ | Abdulbasit ] Ebla 2016

The post “IBIDDA RAFE HUUBNI TO’ACHUU KAJEELA!!” appeared first on Bilisummaa.

In Mount Vernon, Moussa Ali conducts a one-man protest for the Oromo People

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(Baltimore City Paper) — It’s a bright, breezy Saturday in Mount Vernon with little else happening, making it even harder to miss Moussa Ali. Dressed in all-black and wearing a T-shirt that reads “I stand with the Oromo People,” Ali stands in front of the Washington Monument and nods at drivers passing him by on Charles Street. He raises his fist above his head and conducts a one-man demonstration.

“I’m protesting,” Ali, a 56-year-old Charles North resident and BP gas station manager, says, keeping his arm raised the whole time. “I’m standing with the Oromo students back home, which is in Ethiopia. The Oromo people are the majority in Ethiopia. In large numbers they are being killed. All young.”

Ali, who is ethnically Oromo, says a minority tribe, the Tigrayans, has had control of the Ethiopian government for over 20 years and oppress, disenfranchise, and take land from the other tribes, especially the largest tribe, the Oromos. According to Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopian security forces are violently suppressing the largely peaceful protests in the Oromia region that began in November 2015.”

Ali says: “They go to the students dorm, break into their rooms and because of this, the students cannot even go to school right now. Some of the students started escaping out of the country into the sea, trying to immigrate to Europe. And that struggle is still continuing right now! I want freedom for my people… this is part of me.”

Ali came to American from Ethiopia as a student 35 years ago, barely slipping the grip of government forces himself.

“[Back then] they started rounding up the students!” Ali says. “I was one of them marching. I used to go around doing the same thing I’m doing right now. I used to have my slogans, march in the towns, underground. Then they found out. They had their own spies. They give my name away. [My friends] told me, ‘The government’s looking for you! You better leave the country.’ That is how I left the country.”

Ali believes Americans should have an interest in this issue too. He says that American tax money in the form of military assistance is used to crush Oromo protests. Foreignassistance.gov shows that the U.S. Department of Defense has given the Ethiopian military $31 million in aid in 2015 alone. This is in addition to veteran American forces training the Ethiopian military.

“The interest for Obama and the United States is just to go after Al Qaeda in Somalia,” Ali says. “They get… cash. They train them. The Ethiopian government go into Somalia and fight for America.”

He shares the experience of his tribe back home with the hope that Baltimoreans can imagine the kind of freedom for his tribe that we have here: “Look at the freedom I have here. I’m talking to you right now. Nobody’s coming, arresting me, threatening me or going to take me to jail or torture me. No fear!”

He says he is “a representative of Baltimore City” who’s doing his part.

“There is no Oromo news except [what you hear from] the Ethiopian government, they choose it,” Ali says. “All over the globe, Oromos, no matter where they are, we are doing this.”

“It’s happening all over,” he continues. “Oromos are protesting in Sweden, France, Australia, England, Oromos are protesting everywhere. We are a strong community in Washington D.C., [but in Baltimore] communities are not large.”

Though he stands alone, he says he’ll “come back again” and be here this upcoming weekend as well for a couple hours.

“We welcome everybody [to stand with us],” Ali says. “I will provide s [t-shirts] if they’re coming.”

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Ethiopia: Double digit growth or collapsing economy?

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 The light railway system under construction in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The government’s increasing reliance on foreign loans is posing a serious risk of economic collapse, a renowned economist, Dr Alemayehu Geda says. FILE PHOTO | AFP

By ANDUALEM SISAY in Addis Ababa | The East African

IN SUMMARY

  • Ethiopian government’s increasing reliance on foreign loans is posing a serious risk of economic collapse, a renowned economist has revealed.
  • Dr Alemayehu Geda urges the government to invest in quality education, skilled labour and improve the negotiations capacity as well as have in place a well-designed policy.
  • The Addis government has been applauded for growing the country’s GDP by around 10 per cent per year for the last decade.
  • Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn recently told the local media that Ethiopia’s GDP growth was not expected to record a double digit this year and would likely drop to around 7 per cent.

Ethiopian government’s increasing reliance on foreign loans is posing a serious risk of economic collapse, a renowned economist has revealed.

“Take for instance China, which has loaned over $17 billion to the Ethiopian government for infrastructure projects. Our total investment is 40 per cent of the GDP. Our saving is between 10-20 per cent of the GDP.

“We import $13 billion and export $3 billion. They are the ones who are filling all these deficit gaps,” said Dr Alemayehu Geda.

The Addis Ababa and London universities don was presenting his paper on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ethiopia and Credit Financing.

“What will happen if they stopped such financing tomorrow? What if, for instance, the Chinese government tomorrow says sell for me Ethio Telecom or sell to me Ethiopian Airlines or give me some share or buy my aeroplanes, or I will stop such credit financing?

Strategic items

“The country will collapse, I guarantee you,” he said.

Dr Alemayehu went on: “About 77 per cent of our imports are strategic items. Fuel only has 25 per cent share of the total import. As a result, even if we want to reduce these imports, we can’t. Ethiopia needs to minimise strategic vulnerability.”

The don elaborated giving the example of how the Koreans mitigated against such dependency risks when they used to source 75 per cent of their imports from the US some decades ago.

Dr Alemayehu presented his paper in Addis Ababa at the launch of a two-year 12 series of public dialogue by the Forum for Social Studies – a local civil society, partially financed by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID).

“The Koreans came out of such vulnerability risk after analysing their situation properly, discussing the issue with their intellectuals and setting long term plans,” he said, advising the Ethiopian government to invest in quality education, skilled labour and improve the negotiations capacity as well as have in place a well-designed policy.

Last decade

Official estimates have shown the Ethiopian economy growing by double digits annually for about a decade now, a figure that has highly been doubted by independent scholars.

The Addis government has been applauded for growing the country’s GDP by around 10 per cent per year for the last decade.

In his paper, Dr Alemayehu indicated that Ethiopia’s external loan included $17.6 billion from China for various infrastructure developments, around $3 billion from Turkish and close to $1 billion from Indian governments.

The World Bank’s data shows that from 2012 – 2016, Ethiopia has taken a total loan of close to $6 billion from the global lender. Last year, Ethiopia for the first time, joined Euro Bond and accessed $1.5 billion.

In addition to loans, reports show that some $3 billion annually came to the country in the form of aid from donors.

Have declined

Ethiopia’s exports have declined from around $3 billion last year to around $2.5 billion this year, as revealed in the recent six-month report of the prime minister to the parliament.

Even though tax collection has been growing by an average of 20 per cent annually over the past five years, Ethiopia’s tax to GDP ratio still stands at 13 per cent, which is less than the around 16 per cent of the sub-Saharan average.

Last year, Ethiopia collected around $6 billion from tax, including $25 million recovered from contraband traders. The figure could have been raised by at least $3 billion had it not been for the generous tax incentives the country has provided to investors, according to latest report of the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA).

In only nine months of Ethiopia’s last budget (July 8, 2014 – July 7, 2015), the country provided tax incentives of around $2.4 billion to investors, by exempting them from customs and excise duties and withholding, VAT and surtaxes, according to ERCA’s report.

Financial integrity

A financial integrity report last December indicated that around $2 billion was leaving Ethiopia every year through mis-invoicing and other tax frauds.

When it comes to the FDI coming from China, India and Turkey, close to 71 per cent of their investments in Ethiopia were in the manufacturing sector.

However, job creation, technology transfer and export contribution were insignificant for Ethiopia, which has over an 90 million population dominated by the youth. The country has about 16 per cent unemployment rate, according to Dr Alemayehu.

Between 2003-2012, there were 93 Chinese companies that had reportedly invested $600 million, creating around 69,000 permanent and 79,000 temporary jobs for Ethiopians. There was little contribution to technology transfer and foreign currency generation through the exportation of their products.

Same period

According to Dr Alemayehu’s paper, during the same period, Indian investments in Ethiopia created 24,000 and 26,000 permanent and temporary jobs respectively, while 341 Turkish companies operating in Ethiopia created a total of 50,000 jobs.

Though much was being talked about Chinese investments growing in Africa, the Asian giant had less than 4 per cent of total share of FDI on the continent, out of the total stock of $554 billion worth in 2010. Most of the investments in Africa were still dominated by the Western companies, according to Dr Alemayehu.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn recently told the local media that Ethiopia’s GDP growth was not expected to record a double digit this year and would likely drop to around 7 per cent.

However, his special economic adviser with a ministerial docket, Dr Arkebe Equbay, reportedly told Bloomberg media that the economy was expected to grow by 11 per cent this year.

Foreign debts

The government was now expected to deal with puzzles such as why the economic performance was not as good as in the previous years, with all the generous incentives to investors and huge infrastructure investments mainly dependent on local and external loans?

How to repay its local and foreign debts before the lenders force the government to cede shares in its highly protected businesses, such as, Ethio Telecom, Ethiopian Airlines, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation and Ethiopian Shipping Lines is, for sure, the elephant in the room.

But the big question is: How soon will these issues get the attention of a government pre-occupied with trying to feed about a dozen million people affected by drought and dealing with political unrest and conflicts mainly in Oromia and Gondar area of Amhara Region?

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Ethiopia’s clampdown on dissent tests ethnic federal structure

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Protests sparked by the arrest of Konso leader Kala Gezahegn underlined growing tensions between Ethiopia’s central government and many ethnic populations

Kala Gezahegn, the traditional leader of Ethiopia's Konso people
Kala Gezahegn, the leader of the Konso people, addresses a crowd. His arrest highlighted growing tensions in Ethiopia between state power and ethnic groups’ desire for autonomy. Photograph: Courtesy of Kasaye Soka

Nothing seemed amiss when an Ethiopian government vehicle arrived to collect the traditional leader of the Konso people for a meeting in March. But instead of being taken to discuss his community’s requests for more autonomy, Kala Gezahegn was arrested.

Kala’s detention marked a low point in fraught relations between the Konso in southern Ethiopia and the regional authorities in the state capital, Hawassa. Five years ago, the Konso lost their right to self-govern, and growing tensions since then mirror discontent in other parts of Ethiopia.

The 1995 constitution in Africa’s second most populous country allows different ethnic groups to self-govern and protects their languages and culture under a system called ethnic federalism. The largest ethnicities – such as the approximately 35 million-strong Oromo – have their own regional states, while some smaller groups administer zones within regions, as the Konso effectively used to do.

Many of Ethiopia’s ethnic identities, which number more than 80, were suppressed during the imperial and national-socialist eras that preceded the federal system.

What happened in Konso followed demonstrations and killings by security forces in Oromia, the most populous region. A rights group says 266 people have been killed since mid-November during protests over injustice and marginalisation.

Demonstrations were sparked by a government plan to integrate the development of Addis Ababa and surrounding areas of Oromia. After fierce opposition from the Oromo, that scheme was shelved in January, but protests have continued, fuelled by anger over alleged killings, beatings and arrests.

In Amhara, a large region north of Addis Ababa, there was violence late last year related to the Qemant group’s almost decade-old claim for recognition as a group with constitutional rights. The fact that the Qemant rejected a territorial offer from the authorities, saying it was too small, may have provoked local Amhara people. In December, federal security forces were dispatched to contain escalating communal violence.

In Konso, after Kala and other leaders were locked up, thousands took to the streets to protest. During clashes with police on 13 March, three people were killed, and now the dispute seems entrenched.

Women at Fasha market in Ethiopia’s Konso region.
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Women at Fasha market in Ethiopia’s Konso region. Photograph: Grant Rooney/Alamy

The crux of the issue is a 2011 decision to include the Konso – which is in the multi-ethnic Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) and has 250,000 people – in the newly created Segen zone, thereby removing their right to self-rule. That decision was taken without consultation and resulted in worsening public services and unresponsive courts, says Kambiro Aylate, a member of a committee chosen to represent the community’s demands.

The budget for Konso’s government was reduced by 15%, says Orkissa Orno, another committee member. “The Konso people used their rights to ask for a different administrative structure,” he says.

In a recent interview, prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn blamed the unrest in Oromia on high youth unemployment and a “lack of good governance”, a line echoed by officials in other regions.

Kifle Gebremariam, the deputy president of the SNNPR, said the Konso leaders were arrested on suspicion of maladministration and corruption, issues “completely different” from the political question.

Kifle added that discussions had been held with residents about the status of the administration. “The regional government, including the president, gave them the right response, but they are not peacefully accepting this.”

Kala’s supporters dispute that account, although there have been signs of compromise, with the traditional leader permitted to take part in recent negotiations.

Concerns over the federal system’s ability to withstand such strains are not new. For example, southern groups such as the Wolayta were involved in violent clashes before they were granted their own zone in 2000.

In 2009, the International Crisis Group wrote in a report (pdf): “Ethnic federalism has not dampened conflict, but rather increased competition among groups that vie over land and natural resources, as well as administrative boundaries and government budgets.”

Officials have argued for decades that the focus on minority rights has been integral to an unprecedented period of peace and development.

Assefa Fiseha, a federalism expert at Addis Ababa University, agrees the system has brought stability to a country threatened with fragmentation in the early 1990s after ethno-nationalist rebellions overthrew a military regime.

But a lack of democratisation and centralised economic decision-making works against local autonomy and exacerbates grievances, according to Assefa.

“The regional states, as agents of the regional people, have to be consulted on whatever development project the federal government wants to undertake,” he says.

In fact, the government appears to have been moving in the opposite direction, as its legitimacy depends on economic growth and improving social services and infrastructure.

National projects – 175,000 hectares (430,000 acres) of state-owned sugar plantations in the ethnically rich south Omo area, for instance – are designed, implemented and owned by federal agencies.

A village inhabited by members of the Konso ethnic group in the Omo valley.
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A village inhabited by members of the Konso ethnic group in the Omo valley. Photograph: Eric Lafforgue/Alamy

The now scrapped integrated Oromia-Addis Ababa plan is another example, as it was developed without scrutiny by “key stakeholders” in the Oromia government, Addis Ababa city and the federal parliament, Assefa says.

One reason for quick decisions in a devolved federation is that the political positions of Ethiopia’s diverse communities are filtered through a rigid ruling coalition.

Along with allied parties, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front won every federal and regional legislative seat in May’s elections, extending its control of all tiers of government.

The EPRDF has held power for 25 years, partly by building a popular base of millions of farmers and demanding strict obedience to party doctrine and policy, but some say this is now changing.

The wave of protests, so soon after the landslide election victory, shows that the “dominant party system is facing problems”, Assefa says.

“Growing ethno-nationalism, centralised policymaking and the failure to provide space for political dissent combined together make a perfect storm for violence.”

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Mootummaan Wayyaanee maaster pilaanii duraan dhaabe jedhe maaster pilaanii irra hamaadhaan bakka buusuu isaa labsaa jira

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Boruu Barraaqaatiin

Oduun gidduu kana gaazexaa biyya keessaa Reporter jedhamu irratti bahe ‘አዲስ አበባና ኦሮሚያ ለልማት ለሚነሱ አርሶ አደሮች የተሻለ ካሳ ለመክፈል በተናጠል ሕግ እያዘጋጁ ነው’ jedha. Qabiyyeen seera gama mootummaa Oromiyaatiin tumamaa jiruu maal akka fakkaatu ammatti kan hin beekamin tahu illee, kan gama Finfinnee garuu gabaasa kana keessatti addeeffameera. Mootummaan hattootaa kun gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa Oromoon kaasaa jiru dhahee of irraa cabsuuf tarkaanfii irra hamaa fudhachaa jiraachuu isaa agarra. Master pilaaniin duraa sun mormii jabaa Oromiyaa keessatti qabsiisee beekaa fi wallaalaa saba keenyaa hunda dammaqse. Xiyyeeffannoo miidiyaalee addunyaas hawatee kan sirnicha saaxiluu danda’e sababa cimaa tokkoof jedhamee amanamee ture. Sunis ‘Oromoon beenyaa gahaa malee lafa isaa irraa buqqifame, buqqifamaas jira’ kan jedhu.

Sirni Wayyaanee imaammata saamicha lafaa Oromiyaa keessumattuu kan naannawa Finfinnee jabeessee itti fufuuf tarsiimoon baafate kun hamaa dha. Kunis qonnaan bultoota sababa misoomaatiin lafa isaanii irraa kaafamaniif ‘beenyaa wayyaa’dhaan gowwoomsanii akka hin fincilleef afaan isaa cuqqaaluu kan jedhuu dha. Kana hojii irra oolchuuf jechas bulchiinsi magaalaa Finfinnee fi kan Oromiyaa seera dhimma kanaaf yaadame mata mataatti tumachaa jiran jedhameera. Kana irraa kan hubannu, sirni Wayyaanee har’as gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa Oromoon kaasee wareegama qaaliis itti kafalaa jiru fudhachuu diduu isaa ti. Fudhachuu diduu qofa osoo hin taane, inumaa daranuu Oromoo qubsuma abaabilii fi akaakilii isaa irraa buqqesee halagaa dhaalchisuuf xiiqeffatee hidhatee kahuu isaa agarra. Ummata guddaa walakkaa lakkoofsa ummata biyyattii walii galaa tahu kanaaf tuffii gadi fagoo qabus kanumaan agarsiifachaa jira.

Gaaffiin Oromoo dhimma lafa Finfinneetiin wal qabatee guutuu Oromiyaatti ibidda fincilaa qabsiise gaaffii beenyaa miti. Gaaffiin ummanni keenya baatii afran shanan dabraniif wareegama qaalii itti kafalaa har’a gahe beenyaa gahaa nuu kennaatii bakka biraatti godaannee jiraannaa kan jedhuuf miti. Gaaffiin Oromoo bu’uurri qabsoo bilisummaa dhalchee abbootii kaleessaa irraa gara dhaloota haaraya ammaatti darbuu danda’e gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa Oromoo ti. Dhaadannoon ummata keenya fincila guutuu Oromiyaa keessatti geggeesseedhaa guddaan ‘Oromiyaan kan Oromoo ti !’ kan jedhu dha. Dhaadannoon kun maallaqaan hin jijjiiramu. Gatii ‘beenyaa wayyaa’ jedhamuun hin gurguramu. Oromoon mirga abbaa biyyummaa isaa maallaqatti gurguree of salphisee biyya isaa alagaaf gadhiisee hin godaanu. Sababni isaas, gaaffii sabichaatu gaaffii beenyaa miti. Gaaffii Oromootu lafa handhuurri keenya itti owwaalame gadhiifnee hin godaannu kan jedhu. Akkuma kaleessa gosti Oromoo Gullallee fi Ekkaan faa Finfinnee keessaa buqqifamanii dhabamsiifaman har’as tartiibumaan Oromoo horiidhaan gowwoomsanii biyya dhabilee taasisuutu hojii irra oolaa jira.

Diinni karoora haarawa ittiin as bahaa jiru kana yeroo baasu sababa gurguddaa sadiin injifannoo nuu argamsiisa jedhee yaaduu irraa akka tahe tilmaamuun nama hin dhibu. Kunis:

1. Ummanni Oromoo, keessattuu kan ollaa magaalaa Finfinnee jireenya hiyyummaa fi gadadoo keessa bara dheeraaf akka jiraate wal hin gaafachiisu. Waan taheefis, maallaqa maqaa ‘beenyaa gahaa’ jedhuun itti kennamuu fi ‘qubsuma haaraa isinii tottolchina’ jedhuun akka gowwoomfamuu malutu tilmaamame. Guutummaattis yoo tahuu baate illee gariin hawaasa kanaa rakkoo hamtuu har’a harkaa isa qabdu keessaa humna maallaqaatiin bahuuf hawwuu irraa tooftaa kanatti harka kennachuu mala.
2. Dubbiin maallaqaan gowwoomsanii Oromoo biyyaa fi qabiyyee lafa isaa irraa buqqisuu kun hawaasicha keessatti yaada wal dura dhaabbatu lama dhalacha jedhamee tilmaamame. Yaada karoora haaraa kana ni fudhanna fi hin fudhannu jedhu dhalchee gurmuu diddaa Oromoo gargar nuuf qoqqoodaa dha. Sadarkaa dammaqiinsa hawaasa keenyaa irratti hundaawuun gariin dubbii mirga abbaa biyyummaa hegeree laalee toftaa diinaa kana yoo itti dammaqee didu, gariin ammoo har’uma waan argataniin gammadanii jiraachuu filachuu irraa karoora diinaa kana wallaalumaan eebbisee fudhachuu ni mala. Diinni kan barbaadus yaadaan wal qoqqooduu hawaasa keenyaa dhalchuu dha waan taheef kana daranuu hammeessuuf halkanii guyyaa irratti hojjeta.
3. Iyyanni ummanni Oromoo lafa keenya irraa hin buqqaanu jedhu tumsa ummata ollaas tahee kan idil addunyaa horachuu irratti kana booda akka rakkoo mudatu gochuun hawwii diinaa isa sadaffaa dha. Karoora duraan hojii irra oolaa ture keessatti Oromoon lafa isaas dhabaatu beenyaa ittiin of utubus dhabuu ture. Kan ammaa kana keessatti garuu rakkoo kee siif hubannee kunoo gatii lafa keetii sii laanneerra jechuuf qophaahame. Beenyaa gahaa argannaan maal barbaadan ree gaaffii jedhu alagoota silaa nu tumsan biratti maddisiisuutu yaadame. Lafa fudhatameef beenyaa gahaa argachaa didanii falmachuun farra misoomummaa ti, farra biyyoolessummaa (Itoophiyummaa) ti jedhamnee akka halagaa silaa haqa keenya tumsuun abaaramnu barbaadame. Keessumattuu warra Oromoon Oromummaadhaan jaaramee socho’uu irraa rakkoo qaban biratti ‘rakkoo dhiphummaa’ jedhamee akka harka lafa jalaatiin Wayyaaneee deeggaran sossobuu kajeeluunis as keessatti calaqqisa. Kanaan qabanii Oromoo tumsa-dhabeessa godhanii kophaatti baasanii rukutuu dha.

Haa tahu malee, galanni qabsoo Oromoo kan sabboonummaa sabichaa qaree sadarkaa kanaan gaheef haa tahuutii, hawwiin diinaa kun sadanuu gonkumaa hin milkaahu. Ummanni keenya wayyabatti dantaa har’aan sobamee mirga abbaa biyyummaa isaa dabarsee maallaqatti gugura jedhamee hin sodaatamu. Gaaffiin Oromoo durattis taanaan gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa ti jenneerra. Dhaadannoo fincila keenyaa guddaanis ‘Oromiyaan kan Oromoo ti’ dha. Kanaafuu dachiin Oromoos miliyoonni dhiisii tiriiliyoonaan gurguramee harka Oromootii bahuu kan eehamu hin jiru. Maallaqni hangamuu kafalamu qilleensa irra afamee lafa ofii fudhatame san bakka namaaf hin bu’u.

Amma imaammanni Wayyaaneen Oromoo irratti qabattee jirtu imaammata xiiqii diinummaa akka tahe ifatti mul’achaa jira. Waan Oromoo irratti gochuu yaadne humnaan yoo goochuu dadhabne irree maallaqaatiin raaw’annee isin agarsiifna kan jedhu fakkaata. Humna maallaqaatiin Oromoo yaadaan qoqqoodanii, tumsa halagaa irraa ciranii kophxeessanii akka hawwanitti jilbeenfachiisanii itti fufuu barbaadu. Dugda Oromoo irraa bu’uuf gonkumaa qophaahanii hin jirani. Shira isaan yaaduu danda’an kana Oromoon kan yaaduu hin dandeenye itti fakkaata. Oromoon maallaqaa biyya isaa irraa kuntaalaan fe’amee godaanaa jiiu irraa rabxaa tokko baasanii itti kenninaan akka afaan qabatee bitamu godhanii yaaduu keessaa hin dammaqne diinonni keenya. Odoo qalbii qabaatanii dhugaa tokko qofa yaadachuutu isaan gaha ture. Guyyaa gaafa karoora maaster pilaanii san dhaabnee jirra jedhanii labsanii qabee silaa fincilli Oromiyaa keessaa guutuutti dhaabbata ture. Garuu sana boodas hin dhaabbane, inumaa daranuu jabaatee itti fufe. Sababni isaas, gaaffii Oromootu gaaffii dhimma master pilaanii qofaan kan murtaawe osoo hin taane gaaffii mirga abbaa biyyummaa walii galaa ti.

Kanaafuu dhaammannoon qabnu ifaa fi gabaabaa dha. Akkuma Wayyaaneen xiiqeffattee waan nurratti karoorfatte raaw’achuuf ciniinnataa jirtu, nus xiiqeffannee mirga keenyaaf cichinee ciniinnannee falmachuu malee fala hin qabnu. Wareegama gootota keenya fincila deemaa iiru kana irrattis tahe qabsoo sana duraa keessatti wareegamaniitti gatii gochuuf falli jiru sirna kana waan dandeenyu maraan loluu jabeessinee itti fufuu qofa. Dhaadannoo keenya ‘Oromiyaan kan Oromoo ti’ jedhu irra deddeebinee kaabaa hanga kibbaatti, bahaa hanga dhihaatti sagalee guddaa fi sodaachisaadhaan dhageessisuu dha. Kabajaan ummata Oromoo fi biyya isaa Oromiyaa maallaqaan akka hin jijjiiramne diddaa jagnummaatiin diinatti agarsiisuu itti fufuu dha.

Kana mirkaneessuuf ammoo qoodni hayyoota keenya biyya keessaa fi alaa jabaa tahuutu irraa eegama. Ummata keenya keessaa warra hanqina dammaqiinsaatiin salphaadhumatti kiyyoo diinaa kana keessatti kufuu malan barsiisuu fi dammaqsuu feesisa. Shira diinni karoorfate saaxilanii itti garsiisuun akka inni maallaqa diinaa lagatee kabajaa isaaf dhaabbatee falmatu barsiisuu fi dammaqasuun qooda warra dammaqee ti. Dubbiin lafaa dubbii lafee ti malee dubbii farankaadhaan jijjiiramu miti. Akkuma diinni xiiqeffatee nu salphisuu filate nus xiiqeffannee finiinnee falmachuu qofatu nu baasa.

The post Mootummaan Wayyaanee maaster pilaanii duraan dhaabe jedhe maaster pilaanii irra hamaadhaan bakka buusuu isaa labsaa jira appeared first on Bilisummaa.

#‎OromoProtests‬ Dhukkuba Golfee Qorichi Michii Hin Fayyisu

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Jawar Mohammed irraa

Dargaggoonni miseensa OPDO ta’a dhibbaatamaan lakkaayaman har’a irraa eegalee magaalaa Adaamaa keessatti walgahiif akka taa’aan beekamee jira. Kanumaan walqabatee rakkoo hoji-dhabdummaa dargaggootaa hir’isuuf mootummaan Oromiyaa Birrii miliyoona 300 akka ramade miidiyaaleen sirnichaa hafarsaa jiru.
Akeekni konfaransii kanaa dargaggoota sossobuun qabsoo laamshessuu akka ta’e dhoksaa miti. Garuu haasayni rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa furra jedhu hammam dhugaadha? Hammamis milkaaya?

1) Yeroo amma kanatti mootummaan Oromiyaafi Itoophiyaa rakkina baajataa hamaa keessa waan jiraniif maallaqa miliyoona 300 gahu ramaduuf eessaa fidan? Mootummaan mindaa hojjatttottaa kafaluu dadhabee rakkataa jiru maallaqa hammasii samii buusamoo dachee keessaa baasa?

2) Osoo maallaqni sunuu argamee rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa dargaggoota Oromiyaa furuu dhiisi hirdhisuufuu hin gahu. Ummata Oromiyaa keessaa harki 70 ol umrii 30 gadi jira. Ummata waliigalaa keessaa hamma miliyoona 10 kan ta’u umrii dargaggummaa ( 15-29) jidduu akka jirutti tilmaamama. Dargaggoota kana keessaa yoo xiqqaate dhibbeentaan 40%( dargggoo miliyoona 4 ol jechuudha) hojii akka hin qabne ragaan mootummaa ni agarsiisa. Warri hojii qabus irra jireessi isaanii galiin argatan baasii jireenyaatiin akka wal hin gitne beekamaadha. Maarree birriin miliyoona 300 jechuunis doolaarri miliyoona 15 rakkoo ummata dila kanaa furuu dhiisaatii haara galfachiisuufuu ni geessii?

3) Biyya san keessatti mootummoota dhufaa dabraa hunda jalatti hammi lakkoofsa dargaggoota hojii dhabanii kun dabalaa malee hir’atee hin beeku. Dargaggoonni marii kanarratti akka hirmaattaniif affeeramtan mee geefii kana of gaafadhaa. Diinaggeen Itoophiyaa kan waggoota kudhaanii oliif dijitii lamaa oliin guddataa jira jedhame, rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa kana hir’isuu akkamiin dadhabe? Deebiin kanaa hiddi rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa akkaataa caaseffamaafi raabsaa diinaggee biyyaattii ( structural and distribution) akka ta’e akkeeka. Rakkoo hiddi isaa gadi fagoo ta’e kana caasaafi raabsaa isaa jijjiiruun malee yeroma dargaggoon fincile maallaqa xiqqoo itti facaasuun hin furamu. Maddi rakkoo hiddi fagoodha hoggaa jennu, galiin diinaggee biyyattii irraa argamu deebi’ee ummataaf kan raabsamu osoo hin taane harka namootaafi gartuulee muraasaatitti hafaa jira. Namoonnifi gartuuleen fayyadaman kun ammo namootumaafi gartuulee aangoo siyaasaa dhuunfatanii jiran ta’uun ifa. Kanaafuu rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa dargaggootaa hiddaan furuudhaaf sirna ol’aantummaa saba tokkoo biyya sabaafi sablammii hedduu qabdurratti tuulamee jiru kana hiddaan buqqisuun dirqama.

4 ) Diinaggee Oromiyaa/Itoophiyaa keessatti har’as ummanni dhibbeentaa 80 ol har’as hojii qonnaatirraa galii argata. Garuu adaduma lakkoofsi ummataa dabalaa deemu lafti qaonnaa wal hanqataa deemaa jira. Lafuma wal hanqataa jiru kanaa ammo maqaa invastimantiitin Oromoo irraa fuudhudhaan alagaan gurguramaa jira. Kanatu ilmaan qonnaan bulaa akka rakkoo hoji-dhabdummaatiin hiraaran godhaa jira.

5) Damee diinaggee warshaa ( manufacturing), daldalaa ( trade) fi tajaajilaa ( service) keesssatti qoodni Oromoo akkan xiqqaadha. Kan gaafa Darguu saniiyyuu gadi yeroo ammaa. Kanaafuu Oromoon waa barate gara dameelee kanaatiin hiree uummachuuf akka hin dandeenye balbalti cufaadha. Ol’aantummaan alagaan dame kanneenii hamma itti fufee jirutti rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa ni furra jechuun of sobuudha.

Kanaafuu diinaggeen Oromiyaa hoji dhabdummaa furuu wanni dadhabeef imaammannifi tarsiimoon gubbaadhaa gadi dhufu galiin argamuu namoota muraasa saba Tigree irraa dhufan akka fayyaduuf waan bocameefi. Akkuma nama golfeen qabame qorichi michii hin fayyifne, gaafuma Oromoon dallane birri muraasa itti facaasuun rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa dargaggootaafi hiyyummaa sabni Oromoo keessatti kufe furuu hin danda’u. Dargaggoon Oromootis, rakkoo hoji dhabdummaa jala of baasuufi hiree hojjattanii jiruu keessan fooyyessuu qabdan bal’ifachuu yoo barbaaddan furmaanni takkiitiin jiru sirna loogii sabummmaa irratti jaarame kana diiguun mirga abbaa biyyummaa Oromoo mirkaneessuu qofatu nu baasa.

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VIDEO: Oromo refugees protest for registration outside UNHCR Egypt

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Members of the Oromo community continue their sit-in outside the UNHCR office in 6 October city for the 13th day in a row.

Oromo asylum seekers in Egypt are demanding UNHCR provide them protection by issuing them with the refugee registration card.

Dozens of protesters say they will continue their sit-in as long as it takes for the UNHCR to respond to their demands.

The UNHCR told Ahram Online Oromos are treated like any other nationalities that are registered with the UNHCR as asylum seekers and then get an interview for refugee determination.

“We have a large population of refugees but since 2014 we have implemented a new system where we make sure that the waiting period to sit for a refugee registration card interview will take about 18 to 19 months,” Marwa Hashem, the UNHCR spokewoman in Cairo said.

This is based on an individual basis, not because you are Oromo or not. We have already met three times with Oromo representatives and I think we will still meet with them again. Their main concern is that they need to increase assistance by the UN.”

Video by Rawan Ezzat 

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Ethiopia’s Smoldering Oromo

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After students responded by taking to the streets of Ginchi, a small town 80km from the capital, Addis Ababa, their protest was quickly quelled. But a spark had been lit for what has turned into an outpouring of grievances by the Oromo—Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, accounting for about a third of the country’s 95 million population.

As protests spread, they ostensibly focused on a plan to expand the Ethiopian capital’s city limits into Oromia—the largest of the federal republic’s nine regional states and two city states—which encircles Addis Ababa.

Land in Ethiopia—all of which is government owned—has become an increasingly contentious issue as Ethiopia has opened up to the world, reflecting a worldwide trend particularly effecting developing countries such as Ethiopia.

Globally, investors are increasingly looking to investments not linked to volatile equities and bonds: other countries’ land. And few have attracted as much attention as Ethiopia, with its lowlands watered by the tributaries of the Blue Nile, a particularly bountiful draw.

The Ethiopian government has been on the front foot and quick to respond to such interest, and since around 2009 has leased about 2.5 million hectares to more than 50 foreign investors, from the likes of India, Turkey, Pakistan, China, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

The so-called Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan was seen as fitting a disturbing trend by the Oromo—many of whom are smallholder farmers—and they weren’t having any more of it. Ethiopia's security forces are well equipped to deal with protests and unrest, although such has been the scale of the Oromo protests that security forces have been stretched. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Ethiopia’s security forces are well equipped to deal with protests and unrest, although such has been the scale of the Oromo protests that security forces have been stretched. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS But even after the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation—the regional arm of the Ethiopian government—shelved the plan, a government back down described as historic by many, protests continued.

“The widespread, sustained and recurring protests are clear messages of no confidence by a young and restless segment of the population which is driven by a feeling of marginalization,” stated a February editorial in Addis Ababa-based Fortune newspaper.

Many observers in Ethiopia, local and foreigners alike, note that although protests have taken an ethnic-based identity and focused on land, other deeper issues behind them—corruption, unfair elections, political and socioeconomic marginalisation—are familiar to many disenchanted Ethiopian voters.

Numbers of those killed since November given by international rights organisations, activists and observers range from 80 to 250-plus.

Some Addis Ababa residents suggest such numbers are preferable to even higher numbers if the government lost control of a situation that could, they argue, spiral into anarchy.

For against the narrative of a typically brutal Ethiopian government crackdown that brooks no dissent, there have been reports of looting, and organised armed gangs attacking foreign-owned factories, and private and governmental buildings. Even churches were damaged during a particularly violent flare up in the south in February.

Ethiopian citizens had a right to question the master plan but protests were hijacked by people looking to incite violence, according to Getachew Reda, a government spokesperson.

“You shouldn’t define a largely peaceful movement by this,” says a security analyst who focuses on Ethiopia for an Africa-based research organisation.

Despite February’s trouble in the south, many observers in Ethiopia say the majority of protests were peaceful, involving Oromo from across the demographic spectrum airing widely held grievances.

“It is also about competent government structure,” says Daniel Berhane, a prominent Addis Ababa-based political blogger, covering Ethiopia for the website Horn Affairs. “You have got ministries next door to each other not talking, and at every level—regional, zone or district—governmental staff arguing about who is responsible while criticising each other.”

“People have a perception of lack of competence in governance on the ground,” Daniel adds.

The government heeded the call of the people, according to Getachew, and observers say the government deserves credit for listening about the master plan.

But, more importantly, these same observers add, the government must allow Ethiopians to exercise their constitutional right to protest, and handle events in a way that does not escalate.

Protests have often resulted in deployment of military forces to support federal police, both regularly accused of ruthless suppression, with the perceived unaccountability of Ethiopia’s security forces added to the list of grievances, the analyst says.

There have even been reports of police taking head shots and shooting people in the back. But such alleged actions by police in remote locations, with backup often hundreds of miles away, defy logic as they would result in such a ferocious backlash by the local populace, according to a foreign politico in Addis Ababa.

This individual also suggested that some local militia, ostensibly part of state security but who sided with protestors and turned against federal forces, fired from behind women and children at police. Numbers of state security forces killed haven’t been released.

Nevertheless, shooting at protesters, as well as arbitrary arrests, especially of students—who initially formed the body of protests—have a long track record in Ethiopia, preceding this government back to during the brutal military dictatorship that ruled between 1974 and 1991.

Many who fled that period now compose part of the large Ethiopian diaspora, with the government claiming foreign-based opposition bolstered by US-based social media activists is manipulating the situation to its own ends.

“The diaspora magnifies news of what is happening, yes, but no matter how much it agitates it cannot direct at village level in Ethiopia—this is about dissatisfaction,” says Jawar Mohammed, executive director of US-based broadcaster Oromia Media Network, strongly criticised by the government and some non-government observers for fomenting conflict.

Imprisonment of leaders of the Oromo Federalist Congress party, Oromia’s largest legally registered political party, along with thousands of other Oromo political prisoners, makes negotiating a lasting solution a tall order, Jawar says.

Governance in today’s Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia—to use its full title—exhibits an inherent tension.

A decentralised system of ethnic federalism jars with the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front ruling party’s authoritarian one-party developmental state style of leadership, similar to China’s.

“The political space has increasingly narrowed, becoming uneven, non-competitive and unwelcoming…contrary to the diversity of desires and interests in Ethiopian society,” states the same editorial.

It is a long way from the heady hopeful days of Ethiopia’s new federal constitution after the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1991.

“The ruling government is a victim of its own success—the constitution it developed made promises and people trusted the EPRDF,” the analyst says. “Now people are demanding those rights and the government is responding with bullets and violence.”

The analyst acknowledges the government deserves credit for creating a constitution that is the best fit for an ethnically diverse country like Ethiopia, and for expanding basic services, infrastructure, respecting different cultural and ethnic identities, and better integrating Ethiopia’s large Muslim population.

But, the analyst adds, this federal constitution espouses a liberal philosophy that the government appears unable to reconcile with its decision-making processes.

The government’s hitherto successful job of holding together this particularly heterogeneous federation is not about to crumble tomorrow, observers note.

But things may get worse before they get better, unless underlying sources of friction and frustration are addressed.

The government has since acknowledged there was insufficient consultation with those likely to be effected by the master plan.

And during his latest six-monthly performance report to Parliament in March, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn apologised to those who lost family members during protests, while the government has suggested there will be investigations into allegations of police brutality.

What is happening in Ethiopia could be a foretaste of what is to come elsewhere, as forces of global markets—including a growing global urban population in more developed nations that eats more than it farms—clash with indigenous desires to protect historical homelands.

“A fundamental tenet of the ruling party at its creation was its social democratic focus on farmers, who still make up 80 per cent of the country,” Daniel says. “It cannot suddenly become capitalist.”

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Sodaanis Ni Injifatama

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Barreeffamni Kun Tasfaayee Gebreabin kan barreeffame yoo ta’u, gara Afaan oromootti hiike kan dhiyeesse Hiwi – Elonati

Jaarsi beekamaan Pirofeesar Yishaaq Efreem yeroo dhiyoodhaa asitti dalagaan akka itti heddumaachaa jiru dhagahamaa jira. Qabsoo ummanni Oromoo gaggeessaa jiru Jaarsummaadhaan fixuuf asiif achi bilbilaa jechoota waaqaa onnee nama tuqaniin waywaataa jira. Ifaajen Pirofeessarri kuni taasisaa jiru kan tuffatamu tahuu baatus waan ittiin milkaahu tahuu hin danda’u. Jaarsummaan isaan deemaniif kan gama tokkotti jallate akka tahe kanaan dura waan hubatame. Jaarsummaan haqaa gadadoofii cunqursaa ummata hundarraa gahaa jiru furuurratti kan xiyyeeffate tahuu osoo qabuu, Qabsoo Oromoo isa humna godhatee injifachaa jiraachuun ifatti mul’ate waliin jaarsummaaf olii gadi raata’uun dogongora dabrerraa barachuu dhabuudha. Jalqabumarraayyuu Wayyaanen dhoksaadhaan jaarsota erguun dhugumaan rakkoo ummataa furuuf osoo hin tayin yeroo ittiin bitatuuf akka tahe ni shakkama. Ummata haalawwan akkanaatiin adda qoqqoodee bituun immoo adeemsa wayyaanee moofaafi kan itti barameedha.

Wayyaanen irra irra yoo ilaalan waan tasgabbooftefi nagaa qabdu fakkaattus keessa keessa garuu wal dhabbiin hamaan keessatti uumamuun isaa dhagahamaa jira. Walgahiilen mormiin guutamaniifi kan walii galteen keessa hin jirre hamma ammaattis adeemsifamaa jiru. Yeroon barreeffama kana barreessaa jiru kanattis walgahiin jaraa hin xumuramne.Kanaan dura maqaan ABOfi Ginbot 7 gaaridhaan hin kaafamuu ture, amma garuu baramaa dhufeera. Aangawoonni TPLF Akka durii miseensota ofii ( kanneen akka OPDO, BIADEN, SNNPfi kanneen isaan deeggaran) dorsisurraa gara kadhachuutti gadi bu’aa jiru. Aangawoonni TPLF Rakkoo cimaa keessatti kufan kana jalaa bahuuf ciminaan hojjachaa jiru.

Kufaatii Wayyaanee wantootni eeran baay’edha.Fakkeenyaaf Hanni kompiitaroota mana maree federeshinii Etiyoophiyaa irratti adeemsifame waan akka salphaatti ilaalamuu miti.

Naannon Oromiyaa OPDO harkaa fuudhamtee Homaa Waraanaa Saamooraa Yuunusiin gaggeeffamuun buluun dhimma guddaadha.Sababa rakkoo beelaa biyyattii mudate jedhuun Lammiileen Ameerikaa baay’inaan gara biyyattii seenaa jiraachun isaaniis waan dhokate of keessaa qaba.Qabsoon Oromiyaa keessatti eegale, qabbanaawurra darbee eddoo hunda fudhataa, naannolee biyyatti kanneen biroo keessattis babal’achaa dhufuun isaatis kufaatii TPLF Ifatti kan agarsiisaniifi wayyanen akka boba’aa xumurte ifatti kan addeessudha.

Kufaatin Wayyaanee dhihaatuu isaa waggoota hedduu dura barreeffamaa tureera.Har’as barreessaa jirra.Kunoo Wayyaanenis osoo hin kufin waggoota hedduu lakkoofsisnee jirra. Tilmaama keenyatu dogongore moo sababa biraattu jira? yoon gadi qabee yaaduu tilmaamni keenya dogongora natti hin fakkaatu. Mootummaa Wayyaanee dirqisiisuu yeroon itti dandahamu hedduun sababa
garagaraatin fashalaayeera. Wayyaanen mataan isii Tortorree jirra! Balbala Du’aa irra geenneerra! jettee yeroo itti of madaaltetu ture. Hanga dhiibamutti garuu Tortorus daraboon ( dhaabni manaa) hin jigu. Kunoo yeroon suni amma gahee jira. WAYYAANEE SI GAHEERA, NAGAYATTI Sagaleen jedhu gamaa gamanaa dhagahamaa jira. Hasan Huseen Mineesotarraa walaloo Afaan Amaaraatin barreesseen mootummaa Wayyaaneetti nagaya dhaamateera. Walaloon Hasan ilma ilma Qaweessaa Looret Tsaggaayee G/Madihin na yaadachiise. Walaloo isaa dheeraa keessatti Huseen akkana jedhee ture…

Mootummaan isaa Abad – kan yeroo hundaa se’ee
Sodaan inni lafa qotee migirse
Waan hin qoolamne itti fakkaatee – du’aan
Duutis baay’attee – duutis maseenuu diddee
Xiiqii Guddaa dhaltee – Silaa yeroon jijjiiramuun isaa hin hafuu
Osoo hin yaadamin akka bishaan bonaa irra gayee
Tuulaa gubbarraa gadi fonqolchuu eegalee…..

Qabsoon ummata Oromoo itti fufee jira. Qabsoon kuni awwaalamee ni hafa jedhanii tilmaamuu mannaa naannolee garagaraatti faffaca’ee biyyattii guutuu fudhachuu danda’a jechuutu irra salphata. Aangawonni wayyaanee dhugaa kana ifatti amanuu baatanis, bulchiinsa mootummaa naannoo Oromiyaa hoomaa waraanaa Saamooraa Yuunusiin gaggeeffamutti kennuun isaanii dubbichi humna isaanii ol tahuu isaa agarsiisa.Homaa waraanaa Oromiyaa akka fedhetti sibiilan waxalee akka bulchuu namoota itti kennaman keessaa Jeneraalli Oromoo tokkoyyuu hin jiru. Sirna bulchiinsa Hailasillaasees tahee isa Dargii keessatti Ajaja Waraanaatin Oromoonni kanittiin saalfataman hin turre. Hamma kennaa uumaa isaanii fakkaatutti Jeneraalummaan kan Oromootaa ture.

 

Taaddasaa birruu irraa kaasee haga Raggaasaa Jimaa; Quusii Dinagdee irraa haga Mar’id Niguse, Gabayyoo Gurmuu irraa haga Damissee Bultoo, Jaagamaa Keelloo irraa haga Abarraa Abbabaa darzana lamaa ol Jeneraalota dandeettii Waraanaa qaban waamun ni danda’ama. Har’a yeroon jijjiiramee jira.Saba bicuudhaan ala, kanneen biroo sadarkaa koloneelummaatii ol dabruu hin dandeenye.Miseensonni homaa waraanaa Saba Oromootifi Amaara tahan jarreen kaanneniif jala deemufi bassoo bulbulurra waan dabre hojjachuuf carraa hin arganne.
Kaawunsilii hoomaa waraanaa Oromiyaa akka bulchu ramadame keessaa namoonni sagal miseensota TPLFti, isaanis; Saamooraa Yuunus, Yohaannis G/Masqal, Sa’ara Mokonnin, Gabra Adhanom, Ibraahim Abduljaliil, Mahari Zawdee, Abraham W/Maariyaam, Fissahaa Kidaanuufi Yohaannis G/Mikaa’eli. Kanneen hafan lamaan saba Amaaratifi Agawiti. Isaanis Muhaammadifi Gabraat Ayyalati. Saamooraan torban dabre miseensota TPLF tahan 6 ( Kanneen Staff General Mokonnin tahan) walgahii waamee dhimma Oromiyaa irratti mariisisee ture. Saamooraan marii walgahii kanarrattis;
‘’Tokkoon tokkoon keessan waraanni amma gaggeessitan kuni dhimma dhuunfaa keessaniif tahuu isaa beekuu qabdu. Qabsoo ummata Oromoo kana fashaleessuu yoo hin dandeenne ta’e namni dura dursee balaan irra gahu nu mataa keenya.Ajaja Saamooraa kana fudhachuudhaan jarreen hirmaatanis gara sadarkaa gadiitti dabarsaniiru.’’
Saamooraan dhugaa isaa dubbate. Ummata Tigraay osoo hin tahin Aangawoonni TPLF balaa guddaatu isaan eeggata.Ummata hin eegnen waliin wal dhabuu mannaa waraana Taankiifi hidhannaa cimaa qabu waliin wal loluutu irra salphata.Wayyaanen sirna lolaa dur barateen lolaa hin jiru.Kan yoon jedhu waraanni amma gaggeeffamaa jiru sa’aatifii eddoo ummanni Oromoo barbaadetti gaggeeffamaa jira.Kuni Ummata Oromootif Milkiifi Injifannoo guddaadha. DHDUOn kufee Oromiyaan akka waraanan bultu dirqisiisun mataan isaa saba Oromootif Jagnummaafii injifannoo guddaadha. Wayyaanef immoo jalqaba xumura sirnichaati.
TPLF erga hundeeffamee eegalee daandii seenaa irra fiigaa jira. Osoo kufee ka’uu waggaa 42 lakkoofsisee jira. Silayyuu Leencafi kurupheen ganamaan ka’anii lameen isaanituu ni fiiffiigu. Sababni isaas jiruun tuni fiigufi of bakka buusurra ergama biraa hin qabdu. Wayyaanen hamma fiigdu fiigdeerti, amma kan wixxifataa jirtuuf of bakka buustee dabruufi. Kanafuu rakkoo amma isa mudate keessaa bahuuf wanni hin goone hin jiru. Fakkeenyaaf kanaan dura warra dhihaatti of gurguree lammiilee Itoophiyaa kuma 5nii ol tahan ficcisiisun isaa ni yaadatama. Kan kana godheef immoo akka jarreen Dhihaa ( Westerns) aangoo isaatif tumsa kennaniif malee ummata Etiyophiyaatif dhimmamee hin turre. Mallas Zeenaawii kanaan dura walgahiilee dhaabichaa keessatti ‘’ Jaalannus Jibbinus Ameerikaan Gooftaa Keenya’’ jedhee akka dubbataa ture ni beekama. Ammas taatu Aangawoonni TPLF qarqaarsa warra dhihaatinis tahu qabsoo ummata Oromoo fashaleessuf wanti isaan hin goone hin jiru.
Wayyaanen Akka Hailasilaaasen ‘’ Erga Itophiyaa gaggeessun dabareen kan keenya jettanii biyya teenya amaanaa’’ akka jedhan sana, dhaamsa kana dabarsee garee mormitootaatif biyyattii ni kenna jedhamee hin yaadamu. Tarii akka Dargii ‘’ Hamma Rasaasa takkittii harkatti nu hafuu ni falmina’’ osoo jedhee irra dhugaa sirnichaa ibsuu danda’a. Aangawoonni Wayyaanee waan tahes tahu of bakka buusuf xaaru malee hamma dirqamanitti biyyitiin kan hunda keenyati jedhanii gara mariitti ni dhufu jedhamanii warra abdatamanii miti. Eejjanoon goggogaan isaanii kuni garuu waan tahuun malu tahurraa dubatti isa hin deebisu. Jaalatanis jibbanis fincilli itti ka’e kuni kan babal’ataa adeemu malee kan of duuba adeemaa jiru miti.

Siyaasni Wayyaanee kijibaafi ololaan guutamte har’arra geessee jirti.Adaduma ganni tokko dabree ganni biraa dhufuun waa’ee Midhaan nyaataan of danda’uu odeessun amala isaanii ture. Namichi Du’e sun ‘’ Wabii midhaan nyaataa keenna raggaasisuu irra dabree biyyoota alaatifis humna midhaan dhiheessuu ni dandeenya’’ jedhanii xinniquu isaanii dhageenyee turre. Kunoo akkuma argaa jirru, akkuma roobni dhaabateen waggaa tokkoofuu of dandahuuf midhaan of eeggannoof lafa kaayanne akka hin qabne ifatti mul’ateera. Biyya Afrikaa keessatti Qabeenya kuusaa bishaanitiin lammaffaa taate qabatanii yeroo hunda Kadhaa midhaanitiif adduunyaa dura dhaabachuun nama salfachiisuu qabaa ture. Garuu kadhaan itti baratee saalfatuu dhiisan.Qilleensarratti lafa daldaluu eegalanii akka mootummaatti waan godhuun irra ture irraanfatan.
Filannoon bara 2015nii irratti 100% filatamne jedhanii wayta adduunyaaf labsanitti Ummanni Oromoo %100 wayta irratti duulu, lakkoofsi sirnaan beekamuu baatus ummanni biraas kan yoo xinnaate %50 tahu wayta komii isaa haala garaagaraatin ibsatu Aangawoonni TPLF xiqqomallee hin qaanfanne. Ummata mirga isaa gaafatu duuba Masrii ( Gibxii) fi Ertiraatu jira jedhanii wayta dubbatan xinnomallee afaan isaan hin qabu. Siyaasa kijibaan guutamte keessatti inni kun kan barame tahuun ni mala. Garuu kijibni adiin akkanaa garuu salphina isa dhumaati.

Fincila ummataa kanaan booda egeree biyyattii sanaa tilmaamun baay’ee nama rakkisa. Waan hundarraa kan nama gaddisiisu ummanni biyyattii filannoo irraa amantii dhabuu isaati. Amantaa ummataa dhabame kana sirreessuun filannoo haqa qabeessa gaggeessuuf yeroofi humna gaafatuun isaa waan hin oolle. Maqaa filannoo jedhuun ummata kijibaa abdii kutachiisuu mannaa akka Atleet Haylee Gabrasillaasee ‘’ Ummata Itiyophiyaatif Dimokraasin hin barbaachisu’ jedhe sana jedhanii osoo ummataaf himanii irra wayyaa ture. Kanarraa ka’uunis ummannis yeroo ofii gubuu irraa of qusatee egeree ofii ofiin murteeffatuuf hiree isaaf kennaa ture.
Haala yeroo ammaa irraa hubatuun akka danda’amutti ‘’ Qabsoon Ummata Oromoo itti fufee jira’’ jechuurra ‘’ Qabsoon Ummata Etiyophiyaa itti fufee jira’’ sadarkaa jedhutti guddachaa jiraachun isaa ifatti mul’ataa jira. Fincila ummata Oromoorratti dabalatee Naanoo Amaaraa – Walqaayititti gaaffiin ummataa ‘’ Nuti Tigree Miti’’ jedhu akka itti fufetti jira. Yeroo dabre Gondar aanaa Daabaat keessatti finciltoonni Amaaraa daandii cufanii ooluun isaanii kan ifatti mul’ate ture. Gojjaam yeroodhaa gara yerootti dhippina lafaatin walqabatee komii qabu.Kaleessa barattoonni Yunivarsitii finfinnee ‘’ Nuti Shororkeessitoota Miti’’ jedhanii wayta gara Imbaasii Ameerikaa deeman tumaafii reebicha akkasumas hidhaatu isaan mudate.Naannoo kibbaa keessattii Saba Mursii; naannoo Hamariifi Sulula Oomootti ummataafi Poolisni walitti bu’uun isaanii dhagahameera.Poolisoonni ummata uffata sirnaan uffachuu hin eegalin haala akkam sukkaneessaa taheen akka morma isaanii walitti hidhanii deemanii turan miidiyaalee hawaasaa irratti daawwanneerra.Ka’umsi rakkoo sanas dhimmuma lafaati.

Naannoo Gaambeellaafi Beenishaangulittis fincilli wal fakkaataan gaggeeffamaa tureera. Jaarsonni saba Hadiyyaa walgahii gochuudhaan ummata Oromoof gartummaa agarsiisun isaanii oduu guddaa ture. Yeroo dhihoo asittis walii galteen ummatoota kibbaafi Oromiyaa jiddutti jabaachaa dhufuun haala siyaasa egeree biyyattii kan eeru jechuun ni danda’ama. Walitti dhiheenyi ummata Oromoofi Amaaraa wal qixxummaafi wal kabajuu irratti bu’uureffates eegalamuun isaa waanuma argaa jirru.Hariiron kuni osoo kana dura eegalamee turee cunqursaafi gadadoon ummatarra gahaa ture durumayyuu hangana turuuf humna hin qabaatu ture.
Taaksileen Finfinnee guyyaaa tokkoof hojii dhaabuu gaggeessun isaanii mootummaa Wayyaaneef rifaatuu guddaa ture.Qabsoo Ummataa bal’aa as deemaa jiruuf mallattoo guddaadha.Isa shaakkalliitis ture.Bu’aan isaas ifaan ifatti mul’ateera.Wayyaanen haala hin barataminiin gaafii konkolaachistoota taaksitiif sa’aa 24 hin guunne keessatti deebii isaani deebisuun isaa fincilli ummataa Oromiyaa keessatti eegale akka naannolee birootti hin babal’anne sodaa qaburraa ka’uudhaani.Daldaltoonni TPLF deeggaran Oromiyaafi Naannoo Kibbaatirraa harka ofii gabaabbeffachuu eegalaniiru.Qabeenyaafi maallaqa isaanii finfinneetti kuufachuu eegalaniru.Yeroo ammaa kanattis maallaqa qaban gara Sharafa Alaatti geeddarataa jiraachun isaanis dhagahamaa jira.Haalli kuni ammas itti fufeetuma jira.Alaamuddiinis fincila kanarratti irratti xiyyeefatamee qabeenyi isaa barbadaa’aa jira.Boorana keessatti Horsiisni horii inni hojjachaa fii Iluu Abbaa booraa keessatti qonni shaayii haala wal fakkaatun ummataan barbadaa’eera.

Ummanni Tigraay rakkoon kuni dhalachuu akka danda’u durumaayyuu tilmaamee ture. Masfin Waldamaariyaam akka ibsanitti Samtonni TPLF manneen viillaa maqalee irratti ijaarataniif maqaa ‘’ Ganda Appaartaayidii’’ jedhee wayta itti moggasu sana, waan isin hojjachaa jirtan kana keessaa nuti ummanni Tigraay keessa hin jirru jechuu isaanii ifatti labsaa turuu isaanii ture. Ummatichi Dhiigarraa bilisa tahuu isaa labsaa ture.Tapha Afaan Amaaraa keessatti dur durii ajaaibaa yaadadhu tokkotu ture. Yeroo tokko Waraabessi tokko ilmaan isaatin walii galee harree tokko kuffise ( gonbise). Ergasii ijoollee isaa dhooggatee adda ofii harree sana nyaate. Wayta lafti barii’uuf jettu abbaan harree sanaa Eboo qabatee dhufe. Wayta kana ijoollen isaa isa baqachuu eegalte. Ijoollee koo na gattanii hin deeminaa naa dirmadhaa jedhee itti waywaate. Ilmaan sunis Abbaa keenna, Akkuma nyaatten fiigi jedhanii deebisaniif jedhama.Makmaaksi kuni aangawoota TPLTif fakkeenya guddaa ta’a jedhee abdadha.Ummanni tigraay namoota maqaa isatin daldalan kanaaf jecha balaaleffatamuus abaaramuus hin qabu. Daandileen akkasumaas warshaalen Tigraayitti ijaaraman jedhamanii leellifamanis hagas mara kanjedhanamanii miti. Osoo dimookraasifi bulchiinsi gaarin jiraatee naannoo Itiyoophiyaa hundattuu sanaa ol gochuun dandahamee bareeda ture.
Sababa rakkoo beelaa biyyattii keessatti mul’ate sababeeffachuun lammiileen Ameerikaa hedduun gara Itiyoophiyaa deemun isaanii kaayyo biraa qabaachun isaanii ni shakkisiisa. Dhugaadha, mootummaan TPLF kuni yoo kan kufu ta’e Mootummaan Ameerikaa qorannoo gaggeessee filmaata biraa qopheeffachuu akka qabu sirritti beeka. Wayyaanenis jaarsota filattee qophessun Ameerikatti waywaataa akka jirtu waanuma dhiyeenya kana dhageenye. Aangawoonni TPLF wayta aangorra turanitti badiilee raawwatamaniif yoo kan hin gaafatamne ta’e, qabeenyi isaan horatan yoo kan hin tuqamne ta’efi bu’uura kanaan mootummaan ce’umsaa akka hundaa’u yoo kan walii galan ta’e TPLFf kuni waan gaaridha. Ameerikaanonni paartilee siyaasaa ( kan ala jiraaniifi biyya keessas jiran dabalatee) akkasumas namoota bebbeekamoo gama hundaan jiran maariisisuun mootummaa ce’umsaa tokko yoo kan hundeessitu ta’es Wayyaanef badii hammas maraa hin qabaatu. Guutumaan guututti fincila ummataatin dhiibamanii aangorraa gonbifamuu irra isaaniif irra gaaridha. Yoo karoora duraa lafa kaayamuu danda’an sanaan walii galan ofiifiis hattoota isaan waliin saamaa turanirratti xiiqii ummanni qabate hir’isuun balaa irra gahuu danda’u ni xiqqeessu. Waan hundaafuu dhimmoonni akkanaa hamma ummatatti ifa godhamanitti waanuma lafa jalaan hasaasamaa adeemanii dha.
Akkuma dura ibsame Koompiyuutaroonni mana maree federeshinii hatamuun isaanii kallattii ofduraa kan akeekudha. Kompiyutaroota kanneen kan saaman mamii tokko malee ilmaan Getaachoo Asaffaati ( Itti gaafatamaa Nageenya biyyattii) malee eenyuyyuu ta’uu hin danda’u. Hattuun kara deemtun waajjira sana seentee hanna hammana gahu kana raawwachuu hin dandeessu. Wanti akkanaa kuni kana duras raawwatamee ture. Dhaabni ‘’ XIRET’’ jedhamu ( Qabeenyummaan isaa kan dhaaba Naannoo Amaara Bulchaa jiru BIADENi) kan malaamaltummadhaan shakkamu iccittiilee isaa eeguf jecha waajjira herregaa isaa ibidda itti qabsiisee gubee ture. Warqeen baankii biyyoolessaa Itiyophiyaatii hatameefi kan qabeenyummaan isaa kan Alaamudiin ta’es eessa buuten isaatifii maalirra akka gaye hamma ammaatti hin beekamne. Adeemsa kanaan duraa irraa akka hubatuun dandahamutti Waajjirri Nageenya biyyattii Ragaalee (sanada) karaa seera qabeessa ta’een argachuu hin dandeenye karaa hannaatin akka harka galfatu beekamaadha. Fakkeenyaaf wayta Kinfa G/Madihin gaggeessaa Nageenya biyyattii turetti Boorsaa Harkaa Profesar Asraat Waldayyas hattuudhaan buchisiisun isaa ni yaadatama. Reeffa Mallas Zeenaawii Jeneraal Saamooraa Yunus xayyaaraan Adawaa fidee erga awwaalchiseen booda Finfinneerratti Sanduqa duwwaa akka awwaalamu gochuun isaaniis wanta yeroo sanattii bal’inaan haasa’amaa ture. Dhugumatti inni kun kan nama kofalchiisu malee kan nama gaddisiisus miti. Finfinneedhaaf mul’ata Mallas malee reeffi isaa waanuma tokkoo isii hin fayyadu. Hanni kompitaricha mana maree federeeshinichaas isa kanaan kan wal fakkaatu ta’uun isaa hamiin garasii dhagahamaa jirtu ni addeessiti.
Waajjira nageenyaatti aansee Sanadootni (ragaalen) Wayyaanen dhoksuuf barbaadu kan argaman kompiyutaroota mana maree federeeshinaa obboo Kaasaa T/Birihaniin hogganaman keessa.

Dhimmootni akka Ramaddii Baajataa baay’ina ummataa irratti hundaa’e, Daangaa Naannolee jidduu, Komiilee sabaaf sablamoota adda addaa, Dhimmoota namoota buqqa’aniifii murteewwan kennaman hundi kan jiran waajjira kana keessa. Aangawoonni Wayyaanee kufaatin akka irraa hin oolle yoo beekan ragaalee balleessuu qaban keessaa inni kun isa tokko. Dhugumatti kana raawwataniiru yoo ta’e mala gaarii malataniiru jechuun ni danda’ama. 

Walumaa galatti qabsoo xumura gabrummaa ji’oota afran dabraniif gaggeeffame irraa hubachuun akka danda’ametti Qeerron Du’a tuffateera. Riqicha Sodaa gootummaan ce’eera.Balbala Callisaa cabseera.Taphni siyaasaa haalaan galeefii jira.Baay’inniifi jabinni isaanii ajaa’ibsiisaa ta’ee jira.Akka Filmii ‘’Dances with Wolves’’ jedhamu keessatti arginetti dhufiinsi Qeerroo akka Urjiiti.Calaqqisa Urjiitin samii gurraacha ifa uffisanii jiru.Callaqisa ifu kanas dhaamsuf tasumayyuu hin danda’amu. Walumaa galatti, dhufaatin Qeerroo kuni akka midhaan bade jedhanii osoo eegan margee laaliseetin wal fakkaata. Gama biraatin, Laga gibee cinaa Naacha riphe tokkotu ture.Naachin kuni hanga kuruphee bishaan dhuguuf dhufte qacam godhee liqimsutti waan nabseen jiru hin fakkaatu ture.Fincilli Oromiyaas isa kanaan wal fakkaata.Ummanni Oromoo galmaafii kaayoo isaa isa guddaatti saffisaan tarkaanfachaa jira.Jabina akka gaalaatiin qabsoo ufduratti dhiibaa jira. Kana hubachuuf immoo hayyuu siyaasaa yookin Oromoo tahuun nama hin barbaachisu.

Dhumarrattis barreeffama as dhihoo kana Proofesar Masaay Kabbada mata duree “Ethiopia at the Eleventh Hour of Peaceful Change” jedhu jalatti barreessaniin haa xumuru.

‘’ Aangawoota Wayyaane waan haaraa uumame kana hubachuu dadhabanii oliif gadi raata’aniif waan tokko isaan yaadachiisu barbaada.Ummanni Oromoo dhumarratti Sodaa injifateera.Seenaa garagaraa irraa akka hubannutti immoo Ummata Sodaa injifate dhaabun hin danda’amu. Rakkoo akkanaa kana yeroo muraasaf dhaabun danda’amun ni mala , garuu guutumaan guututti awwaalun tasumayyuu hin danda’amu.’’

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Garee Shanee ABO fii QC ABO jiddutti ammas rakkinni dhalate jedhu

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Oduu Haarawa Asmaraa Irraa

Dubbataan ABO Obbo Toleeraa Adabaa dhiyeenya kana qaamoota lamaan ABO kan bara 2014 walitti dabalaman QC-ABO fi ShG gidduutti rakkinni hamaan dhalatee jiraatuu hime. Haata’u malee, rakkinna dhalate jedhe maal akka ta’e ifa hin goone. Garuu, akka dubbataan kun jedhetti sadarkaa waliin hojjatuu hin dandeenye irra geenyee jira kan jedhu dubbate. Akka Obbo Toleeraan himaa jirutti, rakkinna kana kan uume QC-ABO ti.

Akka murni rakkinna kana uume qoratamuuf, Koreen qorannoo utubamuun isaallee dubbate. Durataa’aan Koree qorannoo kanaa Obbo Ibrahim Muummee ta’uu hime. Kan nama gaddisiisu, garuu, Obbo Ibraahim Muummee koree utubame keessaa hojjii gad-dhiisse jedhe. Rakkinni dhalate maalii dha jedhamee irra deddeebi’amee gaafatamnaan, akka makmaakni Oromoo“Saani dorrobe dhaluun isaa hin hafu” jedhu rakkinni dhalate kunis oolii-bulii, turii-dafii ifatti gad- bahuun isaa waan ooluu miti jedhe. Kanaaf, ammaaf mee na dhiisi jedhe. Ani stole jedhee dhiise.

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Twitter, WhatsApp Down in Ethiopia Oromia Area After Unrest

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Internet messaging applications such as WhatsApp haven’t worked for more than a month in parts of Ethiopia that include Oromia region, which recently suffered fatal protests, according to local users.

Smartphone owners haven’t been able to access services including Facebook Messenger and Twitter on the state-owned monopoly Ethio Telecom’s connection, Seyoum Teshome, a university lecturer, said by phone from Woliso, about 115 kilometers (71.5 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa.

“All are not working here for more than one month,” said Seyoum, who teaches at Ambo University’s Woliso campus. “The blackout is targeted at mobile data connections.”

A spokesman for Twitter Inc. declined to comment on the issue when e-mailed by Bloomberg on Monday. Facebook Inc., which bought WhatsApp Inc. in 2014, didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Protests that began in November in Oromia over perceived economic and political marginalization of Ethiopia’s most populous ethnic group led to a crackdown in which security forces allegedly shot dead as many as 266 demonstrators, according to a Marchreport by the Kenya-based Ethiopia Human Rights Project. The government has said that many people died, including security officers, without giving a toll.

One social-media activist, U.S.-based Jawar Mohammed, disseminated information and footage from protests to his more than 500,000 followers on Facebook.

No Explanation

Restricting access isn’t a policy and may be because of “erratic” connections, according to government spokesman Getachew Reda. “We have not yet found any explanation,” he said by phone from Addis Ababa on Monday.

The move fits a “familiar pattern” of restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information by Ethiopian authorities, said Leslie Lefkow, deputy director for Africa at New York-based Human Rights Watch. “Pulling the plug on social media is a predictable attempt to cut the flow of news and information about the Oromo protests,” she said Monday in an e-mailed response to questions.

The government has the technology to “control” the messaging applications, the Addis Ababa-based Capital newspaper reported on April 10, citing Andualem Admassie, Ethio Telecom’s chief executive officer. Andualem didn’t answer two calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.

Hawassa city in Ethiopia’s southern region has suffered similar difficulties in accessing applications for more than a month, said Seyoum Hameso, an economics lecturer at the University of East London. “We couldn’t communicate with relatives,” he said in an e-mailed response to questions on Monday.

The post Twitter, WhatsApp Down in Ethiopia Oromia Area After Unrest appeared first on Bilisummaa.

Deafening Silence from Ethiopia

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Since November, state security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. It’s the biggest political crisis to hit the country since the 2005 election but has barely registered internationally. And with the protests now in their fifth month, there is an almost complete information blackout.

A teacher arrested in December told me, “In Oromia the world doesn’t know what happens for months, years or ever. No one ever comes to speak to us, and we don’t know where to find those who will listen to our stories.”

Part of the problem is the government’s draconian restrictions on news reporting, human rights monitoring, and access to information imposed over the past decade. But restrictions have worsened in the last month. Some social media sites have been blocked, and in early March security officials detained two international journalists overnight while they were trying to report on the protests. As one foreign diplomat told me, “It’s like a black hole, we have no idea what is happening. We get very little credible information.”

With difficulty, Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 100 protesters. They described security forces firing randomly into crowds, children as young as nine being arrested, and Oromo students being tortured in detention. But the Ethiopian media aren’t telling these stories. It’s not their fault. Ethiopian journalists have to choose between self-censorship, prison, or exile. Ethiopia is one of the leading jailers of journalists on the continent. In 2014 at least 30 journalists fled the country and six independent publications closed down. The government intimidates and harasses printers, distributors, and sources.

International journalists also face challenges. Some do not even try to go because of the personal risks for them, their translators, and their sources. And when they do go, many Ethiopians fear speaking out against government policies—there are plenty of cases of people being arrested after being interviewed.

Diaspora-run television stations have helped fill the gap, including the U.S.-based Oromia Media Network (OMN). Many students in Oromia told me that OMN was one way they were able to learn what was happening in other parts of the region during the protests. But since OMN began broadcasting in March 2014 it has been jammed 15 times for varying periods. Radio broadcasts are also jammed–as international broadcasters like Voice of America and Deutsche Welle have experienced intermittently for years.

In December OMN began transmitting on a satellite that is virtually impenetrable to jamming. But security forces then began destroying private satellite dishes on people’s homes. Eventually the government applied pressure on the satellite company to drop OMN, which has now been off the air for over two months.

Social media has partially helped fill the information gap. Photos of injured students and videos of protests have been posted to Facebook, particularly in the early days of the protests. But in some locations the authorities have targeted people who filmed the protests on their phones. At various times in the last month, there have been reports of social media and file-sharing sites being blocked in Oromia, including Facebook, Twitter, and Dropbox. Website-blocking has been documented before – in 2013, at least 37 websites with information from Ethiopia were blocked. Most of the sites were operated by Ethiopians in the diaspora.

Independent non-governmental organizations that might be reporting what is happening face similar restrictions. The government’s Charities and Societies Proclamation of 2009 virtually gutted domestic nongovernmental organizations that work on human rights issues. The independent Human Rights Council released a report on the protests in March. It was a breath of fresh air, but the council released it at great risk. As the first report from Ethiopian civil society on an issue of great political significance, it was a damning indictment of the limits of freedom of expression in Africa’s second-largest country, with a population of 100 million.

The government may believe that by strangling the flow of information coming out of Oromia it can limit international concern and pressure. And so far the response from countries that support Ethiopia’s development has been muted. The deaths of hundreds, including many children, have largely escaped condemnation.

Yet the government’s brutally repressive tactics cannot be contained behind Ethiopia’s information firewall for long. The sooner the government recognizes this and acts to stop the mass arrests and excessive use of force, the better the outlook for the government and the affected communities.

The government—with the assistance of its allies and partners—needs to support an independent investigation of the events in Oromia, commit to accountability and justice for the victims, and start dismantling the legislative and security apparatus that has made Ethiopia one of the most hostile places for free expression on the continent. What’s happening in Oromia has long-term implications for Ethiopia’s stability and economic progress, and Ethiopians and the world need to know what is happening.

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2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Ethiopia

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U.S. Department of State

BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR

Report, April 13, 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ethiopia is a federal republic. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four ethnically based parties, controls the government. On May 24, the country held national and regional elections for the House of People’s Representatives, the parliamentary body. The EPRDF and affiliated parties won all 547 seats to remain in power for a fifth consecutive five-year term. On October 5, parliament elected Hailemariam Desalegn prime minister. Government restrictions severely limited independent observation of the vote. A mission from the African Union, the sole international institution or organization permitted to observe the voting, called the elections “calm, peaceful and credible.” Some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported that an environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place prior to the election. There were reports of unfair government tactics, including intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters, and violence before and after the election that resulted in six confirmed deaths. Civilian authorities generally maintained control over the security forces, although local police in rural areas, the Somali Region Special Police, and local militias sometimes acted independently.

The most significant human rights problems included harassment and intimidation of opposition members and supporters and journalists; alleged torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; and politically motivated trials.

Other human rights problems included alleged arbitrary killings; harsh and at times life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; a weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights, including illegal searches; alleged abuses in the implementation of the government’s “villagization” program; restrictions on freedom of expression, including continued restrictions on print media and the internet, assembly, association, and movement; restrictions on academic freedom; interference in religious affairs; restrictions on activities of civil society and NGOs; limited ability of citizens to change their government; police, administrative, and judicial corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; clashes between ethnic minorities; discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and against persons with HIV/AIDS; and limits on worker rights, forced labor, and child labor, including forced child labor.

Impunity was a problem. The government, with some reported exceptions, generally did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed abuses other than corruption.

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:

a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life

Members of the security forces reportedly committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

From the end of the election campaign period on May 21 until the announcement of election results on June 22, opposition parties reported the death of six party members, including one candidate from the Blue Party. The deaths occurred in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR); Oromia; Amhara; and Tigray. The deceased included one supporter of an independent candidate, one member of the Blue Party, and four members of Medrek, an opposition coalition made up of four political parties. One of the six was an accredited election observer for the Oromo Federalist Congress (one of four parties that make up the Medrek opposition coalition). The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Ethiopian Federal Police Commission investigated the deaths and found no political motivation behind the killings.

Shortly after the May 24 national elections, there were reports of violence between the residents of Hamer County of the South Omo Zone in the SNNPR and security forces that resulted in as many as 48 deaths. According to reports the drivers of the conflict in the South Omo Zone include economic marginalization of local communities, loss of traditional grazing lands to large-scale, government-financed sugar plantations, and restrictions on hunting.

On June 13 and 14, security forces reportedly opened fire on protesters, killing at least six and wounding several others. The demonstrators were participating in an unauthorized political demonstration in the Chilga district of the Amhara Region (North Gondar). Supporters of a small party representing the Kemant ethnic group refused to accept the election results, refuting the claim of a clean sweep by the Amhara National Democratic Movement, one of the four constituent parties of the ruling EPRDF.

On November 19, students in the Oromia Region began protesting in opposition to the expansion of the city of Addis Ababa into the surrounding region of Oromia. The protests against land expansion, also known as the Addis Ababa Master Plan, spread to small towns and villages across the Oromia Region. Some of the protests escalated into violent clashes between protesters and security forces, which allegedly used excessive force, resulting in dozens of deaths, including protesters and police officers. The protests and violence in the Oromia Region continued at year’s end.

In October 2014 gunmen reportedly killed 126 police and civilians in the Gambella Region. The clash occurred between a group of ethnic Majanger and Ethiopian national and local security forces. In December 2014 officials charged at least 46 individuals, including officials from the Gambella regional government, with terrorist acts, and they were on trial at year’s end under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP).

b. Disappearance

There were fewer credible reports than in previous years of disappearances of civilians after clashes between security forces and rebel groups. Opposition parties reported disappearances of party members and observers before and after the national elections on May 24; however, the EHRC later located some of those individuals. Many of those reported missing had fled to Kenya. Due to poor prison administration, family members reported missing individuals who were in custody of prison officials, but whom the families could not locate.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The constitution and law prohibit such practices; nevertheless, there were reports security officials tortured and otherwise abused detainees.

In February, one of the Zone 9 bloggers on trial accused a prison guard of beating him and leaving him with his hands tied together throughout the night. The EHRC and an NGO investigated the incident. The Ethiopian Federal High Court summoned prison administration officials, but the defendant declined to submit his complaint in writing, as requested by the court. The Federal High Court regularly sought explanations from prison officials concerning allegations of mistreatment.

There were credible reports police investigators used physical and psychological abuse to extract confessions in Maekelawi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa. Interrogators reportedly administered beatings and electric shocks to extract information and confessions from detainees. The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported abuses, including torture that occurred at Maekelawi. In a 2013 report, HRW described beatings, stress positions, the hanging of detainees by their wrists from the ceiling, prolonged handcuffing, pouring of water over detainees, verbal threats, and solitary confinement at the facility. Authorities continued to restrict access by diplomats and NGOs to Maekelawi, although some NGOs reported limited access. The majority of the mistreatment reportedly occurred in detention centers like Maekelawi and police stations rather than federal prisons.

According to NGO reports, thousands of ethnic Oromos, whom the government accused of terrorism, were arbitrarily arrested and in some cases reportedly tortured.

Prison and Detention Center Conditions

Prison and pretrial detention center conditions remained harsh and in some cases life threatening. There were reports authorities beat and tortured prisoners in detention centers and police stations. Medical attention following beatings reportedly was insufficient in some cases.

The country had six federal and 120 regional prisons. A local NGO ran model prisons in Adama, Mekelle, Debre Birhan, Durashe, and Awassa; these prisons had significantly better conditions than those found in other prisons. There also were many unofficial detention centers throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele.

Pretrial detention often occurred in police station detention facilities, where conditions varied widely, but reports on conditions there indicated poor hygiene and police abuse of detainees.

Physical Conditions: Authorities sometimes incarcerated juveniles with adults. Prison officials generally separated male and female prisoners.

Severe overcrowding was common, especially in prison sleeping quarters. The government provided approximately nine birr ($0.43) per prisoner per day for food, water, and health care, although this amount varied across the country. Many prisoners supplemented this amount with daily food deliveries from family members or by purchasing food from local vendors, although there were reports officials prevented some prisoners from receiving supplemental food from their families. Medical care was unreliable in federal prisons and almost nonexistent in regional prisons. Prisoners had only limited access to potable water, as did many in the country. Water shortages caused unhygienic conditions, and most prisons lacked appropriate sanitary facilities. Many prisoners had serious health problems but received little or no treatment. There were reports prison officials denied some prisoners access to necessary medical care. Information released by the Ministry of Health in 2012 stated nearly 62 percent of inmates in jails across the country experienced mental health problems due to solitary confinement, overcrowding, and lack of adequate health-care facilities and services.

Administration: Due to the lack of transparency regarding incarceration, it was difficult to determine if recordkeeping was adequate. Authorities did not employ alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenders. There were reports prisoners mistreated by prison guards did not have access to prison administrations to complain. Prisons did not have ombudspersons to respond to complaints. Legal aid clinics existed in some prisons for the benefit of prisoners, and at the regional level, had good working relationships with judicial, prison, and government officials. Prison officials allowed the submission by detainees of complaints to judicial authorities without censorship. Courts sometimes declined to hear such complaints.

The law permits prisoners to have visitors, although in some cases police did not allow pretrial detainees such access (including family members and legal counsel). According to the ATP, a lawyer is permitted to visit only one client per day, and only on Wednesdays and Fridays. Federal prisons had difficulty integrating ATP defendants into the local prison population; most of the latter were either convicted or on trial under the criminal code. Authorities allegedly denied family members charged with terrorist activity access to the prisoners. There were also reports authorities denied the accused visits with lawyers or with representatives of the political parties to which they belonged.

Prison officials permitted religious observance by prisoners, but this varied by prison, and even by section within a prison, at the discretion of prison management. There were some allegations authorities denied detainees adequate locations in which to pray. Prisoners could voice complaints about prison conditions or treatment to the presiding judge during their trials.

Independent Monitoring: During the year the International Committee of the Red Cross visited prisons throughout the country. The government did not permit access to prisons by other international human rights organizations.

Regional authorities allowed government and NGO representatives to meet regularly with prisoners without third parties present. Prison officials reportedly denied access to prisoners by civil society representatives and family members, including access to individuals detained in undisclosed locations. The government-established EHRC, which is funded by parliament and subject to parliamentary oversight, monitored federal and regional detention centers and interviewed prison officials and prisoners in response to allegations of widespread human rights abuses. A local NGO continued to have access to various prison and detention facilities around the country.

Improvements: Some government and prison authorities cooperated with NGO efforts to improve prison conditions. A local NGO inaugurated model prisons in Debre Birhan, Durashe, and Awassa, providing improved prison conditions for approximately 3,000 inmates. More than 500 inmates benefited from improved sleeping conditions in Jimma, Metu, Arsi, and Bale. A local NGO collaborated with Adama University to provide vocational training for 230 inmates in Adama Prison.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

Although the constitution and law prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, the government ignored these provisions. There were many reports of arbitrary arrest and detention by police and security forces throughout the country.

On March 15, officials detained seven pastoralist and community leaders at Bole International Airport en route to participate in an agricultural workshop in Nairobi. Investigators later released four without charging them. At year’s end the remaining three on trial were charged with terrorist acts under the ATP.

In the period preceding the May 24 national elections, opposition parties reported extrajudicial and arbitrary detentions of opposition party members, candidates, and election observers. Authorities subsequently released most without charge, and some fled to Kenya.

Following weeks of protests throughout the Oromia Region that began in late November in opposition to the Addis Ababa Master Plan, NGOs and opposition party leaders reported violent clashes between protesters and security forces resulting in thousands of extrajudicial and arbitrary detentions. There were reports of security forces arbitrarily detaining students on university campuses in connection with the protests. According to opposition party leaders, security forces arbitrarily detained opposition party members and supporters and accused them of inciting violence.

Role of the Police and Security Apparatus

The Federal Police reports to the Ministry of Federal and Pastoralist Affairs, which is subject to parliamentary oversight. The oversight was loose. Each of the country’s nine regions has a state or special police force that reports to the regional civilian authorities. Local militias operated across the country in loose coordination with regional and federal police and the military, with the degree of coordination varying by region. In some cases these militias functioned as extensions of the ruling party.

Security forces were effective, but impunity remained a serious problem. The mechanisms used to investigate abuses by federal police were not known. The government rarely publicly disclosed the results of investigations into abuses by local security forces, such as arbitrary detention and beatings of civilians.

The government continued to support human rights training for police and army personnel. In 2014-15 the EHRC conducted training sessions for 4,165 police officers and prison guards on basic human rights concepts as well as rights of detained individuals as provided in the National Human Rights Action Plan. The government continued to accept assistance from NGOs and the EHRC to improve and professionalize its human rights training and curriculum by including more material on the constitution and international human rights treaties and conventions.

Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees

The constitution and law require detainees be brought to court and charged within 48 hours of arrest or as soon thereafter as local circumstances and communications permit. Travel time to the court is not included in the 48-hour period. With a warrant authorities may detain persons suspected of serious offenses for 14 days without charge and for additional 14-day periods if an investigation continues. Under the ATP police may request to hold persons without charge for 28-day periods, up to a maximum of four months, while an investigation is conducted. The law prohibits detention in any facility other than an official detention center; however, local militias and other formal and informal law enforcement entities used dozens of unofficial local detention centers.

A functioning bail system was in place. Bail was not available for persons charged with terrorism, murder, treason, and corruption. In most cases authorities set bail between 500 and 10,000 birr ($24 and $480), which most citizens could not afford. The government provided public defenders for detainees unable to afford private legal counsel, but they did so only when cases went to court. There were reports that while some detainees were in pretrial detention, authorities allowed them little or no contact with legal counsel, did not provide full information on their health status, and did not allow family visits. There were reports officials held some prisoners incommunicado for weeks at a time.

Arbitrary Arrest: The law permits warrantless arrests for various offenses including “flagrant offenses.” These include offenses in which the suspect is found committing the offense, attempting to commit the offense, or having just completed the offense. The ATP permits a warrantless arrest when police reasonably suspect a person has committed or is committing a terrorist act. Authorities regularly detained persons without warrants. For example, in January and February, authorities arrested a group of 20 Muslims in Addis Ababa and Jimma. On August 17, they charged them under article 7 of the ATP for attempting to establish an Islamic state and inciting violence in an effort to force the government to free the Arbitration Committee Members. In 2012 authorities had arrested this group of Muslim community leaders after widespread protests against alleged government interference in Muslim affairs. The trial continued at year’s end.

On May 13, police arrested Mamushet Amare, ousted president of the All Ethiopian Unity Party, alleging he was behind unrest at a government-organized anti-Da’esh rally on April 22. After a court ordered his release on June 2, police rearrested Mamushet, citing a need to investigate his case further. On August 28, the Federal First Instance Court ordered Mamushet’s acquittal and release after his defense proved prosecution witnesses falsely testified against him.

Pretrial Detention: Some detainees reported being held for several years without charge and without trial. Information on the percentage of the detainee population in pretrial detention and the average length of time held was not available. Lengthy legal procedures, large numbers of detainees, judicial inefficiency, and staffing shortages often caused trial delays.

Amnesty: In September, in keeping with a long-standing tradition of issuing pardons at the Ethiopian New Year, the federal government pardoned 238 prisoners, including 33 convicted of terrorism. Apart from two foreign journalists in 2012, this was the first time the federal government issued pardons to individuals convicted of terrorism. Regional governments also pardoned 12,941 prisoners in Amhara, Oromia, and Benishangul-Gumuz.

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

The law provides for an independent judiciary. Although the civil courts operated with a large degree of independence, the criminal courts remained weak, overburdened, and subject to political influence. The constitution recognizes both religious and traditional or customary courts.

Trial Procedures

By law accused persons have the right to a fair public trial by a court of law “without undue delay,” a presumption of innocence, the right to be represented by legal counsel of their choice, and the right to appeal. The law provides defendants the right not to self-incriminate. The law gives defendants the right to present witnesses and evidence in their defense, cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and access government-held evidence. The court system does not use jury trials. The government continued to train lower-court judges and prosecutors on effective judicial administration. Defendants were often unaware of the specific charges against them until the commencement of their trials; this meant defense attorneys were unprepared to provide an adequate defense. Authorities provided free interpretation as needed, and gave adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense. Defendants are not compelled to testify or confess guilt.

The Public Defender’s Office, a federal institution, provided legal counsel to indigent defendants, although its scope and quality of service remained limited due to the shortage of attorneys. Numerous free legal aid clinics around the country, based primarily at universities, provided services to clients. In certain areas of the country, the law allows volunteers, such as law students and professors, to represent clients in court on a pro bono basis.

Many citizens residing in rural areas had little access to formal judicial systems and relied on traditional mechanisms for resolving conflict. By law all parties to a dispute must agree to use a traditional or religious court before such a regional or federal court may hear a case, and either party may appeal to a regular court at any time. Sharia (Islamic law) courts may hear religious and family cases involving Muslims, but both parties must agree to use a sharia court before going to trial. Sharia courts received some funding from the government and adjudicated a majority of cases in the Somali and Afar regions, which are predominantly Muslim. Other traditional systems of justice, such as councils of elders, continued to function. Some women stated they lacked access to free and fair hearings in the traditional court system because local custom excluded them from participation in councils of elders and because of strong gender discrimination in rural areas.

The Access to Justice and Legal Awareness (AJLA) project, at Haramaya University, began in 2013. It provided previously unavailable legal redress and protection for the neediest populations across East and West Hararghe Zones in Oromia and the Harari Region. By October, 333,863 vulnerable persons (165,498 women and 168,365 men) had benefited from these previously nonexistent legal services.

Political Prisoners and Detainees

Estimates by human rights groups and diplomatic missions regarding the number of political prisoners varied widely. The government did not permit access to political or other prisoners by international human rights organizations. There were NGO reports of individuals held in unofficial detention centers throughout the country, particularly in military barracks, but also in private offices and homes.

On July 8, prison administration officials released Reeyot Alemu, who had served approximately four years of her five-year sentence imposed under the ATP.

On July 8 and 9, prosecutors dropped antiterrorism charges against three journalists and two bloggers from the Zone 9 blogging collective: Tesfalem Waldyes, Asmamaw Hailegiorgis, Edom Kassaye, Zelalem Kibret, and Mahlet Fantahun.

In July 2014 police detained 10 individuals including opposition party leaders and others in Addis Ababa and the northern city of Mekelle in separate operations. Police reportedly did not bring Habtamu Ayalew, Daniel Shibeshi, Yeshiwas Assefa, Abraha Desta, Abraha Solomon, Solomon Girma, Tesfaye Teferi, Zelalem Workagegnehu, Yonathan Wolde, and Bahiru Degu before a judge within 48 hours of their detention, as required by law. On August 20, the Federal High Court acquitted Habtamu Ayalew, Abraha Solomon, Daniel Shibeshi, Abraha Desta, and Yeshiwas Assefa of terrorism charges (article 4) due to lack of evidence. The same court reduced charges against Solomon Girma and Tesfaye Teferi to criminal code charges and the charges against Zelalem Workagegnehu, Yonathan Wolde, and Bahiru Degu from article 4 to article 7 of the ATP. The new charges carry lesser sentences.

Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies

The law provides citizens the right to appeal human rights violations in civil court. Citizens did not file any such case during the year.

f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

The law generally requires authorities to obtain court-issued search warrants prior to searching private property. The law also recognizes exceptions for “hot pursuit,” where a suspect enters premises or disposes of items that are the subject of an offense committed on the premises, and when police have reasonable suspicion that evidence of a crime punishable by more than three years of imprisonment is concealed on or in the property and that a delay in obtaining a search warrant would allow the evidence to be removed. Moreover, the ATP permits warrantless searches of a person or vehicle when authorized by the director general of the Federal Police or his designate or a police officer has reasonable suspicion a terrorist act may be committed and deems it necessary to make a sudden search.

Opposition political party leaders reported suspicions of telephone tapping and other electronic eavesdropping, and they alleged government agents attempted to lure them into illegal acts by calling and pretending to be representatives of groups–designated by the parliament as terrorist organizations–interested in making financial donations.

The government reportedly used a widespread system of paid informants to report on the activities of particular individuals. Opposition members reported ruling party operatives and militia members made intimidating and unwelcome visits to their homes and offices.

Security forces continued to detain family members of persons sought for questioning by the government.

The national and regional governments continued to put in place the policy of Accelerated Development (informally known as “villagization”) plans in the Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, the SNNPR, Oromia, and Somali regions, which might include resettlement. These plans involved the relocation by regional governments of scattered rural populations from arid or semiarid lands vulnerable to recurring droughts into designated communities closer to water, services, and infrastructure. The stated purposes of accelerated development were to improve the provision of government services (i.e., health care, education, and clean water), protect vulnerable communities from natural disasters and attacks, and change environmentally destructive patterns of shifting cultivation. Some observers alleged the purpose was to enable the large-scale leasing of land for commercial agriculture. The government described the accelerated development program as strictly voluntary. The government had scheduled to conclude the program in 2015, but decide to continue it instead.

International donors reported that assessments from more than 18 visits to villagization sites since 2011 did not corroborate allegations of systematic human rights violations. They found problems such as delays in establishing promised infrastructure and adequate compensation, as part of promises made to communities before their relocation. Communities and individual families appeared to have agreed to move based on assurances from authorities of food aid, health and education services, and land, although in some instances communities moved before adequate basic services such as water pumps and shelter were in place in the new locations. International human rights organizations, nevertheless, continued to express concern regarding the villagization process.

Donors were mobilizing to continue monitoring of Accelerated Development sites and intend to report their findings to the government and the public.

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press; however, authorities harassed, arrested, detained, charged, and prosecuted journalists and other persons whom they perceived as critical of the government, creating an environment where self-censorship negatively affected freedom of speech. Some journalists, editors, and publishers fled the country, fearing probable detention. At year’s end at least nine journalists and bloggers remained in detention; of these, two were arrested in February and charged in August. A journalist was convicted under the ATP and sentenced to seven years in prison. Authorities detained one journalist for three weeks and then released him without charge. In July, three journalists and two bloggers, detained since April 2014, were released from prison after the prosecution dropped terrorist charges. In October, four bloggers, including one in absentia, were acquitted of terrorist charges, and the court reduced charges for another blogger from being a terrorist to criminal code charges.

Freedom of Speech and Expression: Authorities arrested and harassed persons for criticizing the government. NGOs reported cases of torture of individuals critical of the government. The government attempted to impede criticism through various forms of intimidation, including detention of journalists and opposition activists and monitoring of and interference in the activities of political opposition groups. Some persons feared authorities would retaliate against them for discussing security force abuses.

Press and Media Freedoms: Independent journalists reported logistical challenges using government printing presses. Access to private printing presses was scarce to nonexistent. In most cases articles cited as examples of incitement were mainly critical of government action.

In Addis Ababa 15 independent newspapers had a combined weekly circulation of more than 71,000 copies. State-run newspapers had a combined circulation of more than 80,000 copies. Most newspapers were printed on a weekly or biweekly basis, with the exception of the state-owned Amharic and English dailies and the privately run Daily Monitor.

Government-controlled media closely reflected the views of the government and the ruling EPRDF. The government controlled the only television station that broadcast nationally, which, along with radio, was the primary source of news for much of the population. Six private FM radio stations broadcast in the capital, one private radio station broadcast in the northern Tigray Region, and at least 19 community radio stations broadcast in the regions. State-run Ethiopian Radio had the largest broadcast range in the country, followed by Fana Radio, which was reportedly affiliated with the ruling party.

The government periodically jammed foreign broadcasts. The law prohibits political and religious organizations and foreigners from owning broadcast stations.

Violence and Harassment: The government continued to arrest, harass, and prosecute journalists. This included the conviction in July of three persons associated with the defunctMuslim Affairs magazine under the ATP and prosecution of two others who worked for the defunct Bilal Radio. In 2014 there were allegations of bloggers and journalists being abused and their rights violated in the Maekelawi detention center.

On February 18, police detained two journalists affiliated with Bilal Radio. The Federal High Court charged the journalists under the ATP in August and denied them bail. Their trial continued at year’s end.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: Government harassment caused journalists to avoid reporting on sensitive topics. Many private newspapers reported informal editorial control by the government through article placement requests and calls from government officials concerning articles perceived as critical of the government. Private sector and government journalists routinely practiced self-censorship. Several journalists, both local and foreign correspondents, reported an increase in self-censorship. The government reportedly pressured advertisers not to advertise in publications that were critical of the government.

Libel/Slander Laws: In contrast with the previous year, the government did not use libel laws to suppress criticism.

National Security: The government used the ATP to suppress criticism. Journalists feared covering five groups designated by parliament as terrorist organizations in 2011 (Ginbot 7, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), al-Qaida, and al-Shabaab), citing ambiguity on whether reporting on these groups might be punishable under the law.

Internet Freedom

The state-owned Ethio Telecom was the only internet service provider in the country. The government periodically restricted access to certain content on the internet and blocked several websites, including blogs, opposition websites, and websites of Ginbot 7, the OLF, and the ONLF. The government also temporarily blocked news sites such as al-Jazeera and the BBC. Several news blogs and websites run by opposition diaspora groups were not accessible. These included Addis Neger, Nazret, Ethiopian Review, CyberEthiopia, Quatero Amharic Magazine, Tensae Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Media Forum. Authorities took steps to block access to Virtual Private Network providers that let users circumvent government screening of internet browsing and e-mail. Authorities monitored telephone calls, text messages, and e-mails. There were reports such surveillance resulted in arrests. According to the International Telecommunication Union, approximately 3 percent of individuals used the internet in 2014.

In 2013 Citizen Lab, a Canadian research center at the University of Toronto, identified 25 countries, including Ethiopia, that hosted servers linked to FinFisher surveillance software. According to the report, “FinFisher gained notoriety because it has been used in targeted attacks against human rights campaigners and opposition activists in countries with questionable human rights records.” A “FinSpy” campaign in the country allegedly “used pictures of Ginbot 7, an Ethiopian opposition group, as bait to infect users.” In addition to its domestic activities, the government used “FinSpy” to monitor the online activities of Ethiopians living abroad.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

The government restricted academic freedom, including through decisions on student enrollment, teachers’ appointments, and curricula. Authorities frequently restricted speech, expression, and assembly on university and high school campuses.

The ruling party, via the Ministry of Education, continued to give preference to students loyal to the party in assignments to postgraduate programs. Some university staff members commented that students who joined the party received priority for employment in all fields after graduation.

Authorities limited teachers’ ability to deviate from official lesson plans. Numerous anecdotal reports suggested non-EPRDF members were more likely to be transferred to undesirable posts and bypassed for promotions. There were unspecified reports of teachers not affiliated with the EPRDF being summarily dismissed for failure to attend party meetings. There continued to be a lack of transparency in academic staffing decisions, with numerous complaints from individuals in the academic community alleging bias based on party membership, ethnicity, or religion.

A separate Ministry of Education directive prohibits private universities from offering degree programs in law and teacher education. The directive also requires public universities to align their curriculum with the ministry’s policy of a 70/30 ratio between science and social science academic programs. As a result the number of students studying social sciences and the humanities at public institutions continued to decrease; private universities focused heavily on the social sciences.

Reports indicated a pattern of surveillance and arbitrary arrests of Oromo University students based on suspicion of their holding dissenting opinions or participation in peaceful demonstrations. According to reports there was an intense buildup of security forces (uniformed and plainclothes) embedded on university campuses in the period preceding the May 24 national elections.

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Assembly

The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly; however, the government did not always respect this right. Organizers of large public meetings or demonstrations must notify the government 48 hours in advance and obtain a permit. Authorities may not refuse to grant a permit but may require the event be held at a different time or place for reasons of public safety or freedom of movement. If authorities determine an event should be held at another time or place, the law requires organizers be notified in writing within 12 hours of the time of submission of their request.

The government denied some requests by opposition political parties to hold protests but permitted other requests for demonstrations. Opposition party organizers alleged government interference in most cases, and authorities required several of the protests to move to different dates or locations from those the organizers requested. Protest organizers alleged the government’s claims of needing to move the protests based on public safety concerns were not credible.

There were numerous reported cases of government denial of freedom of assembly, similar to the following example. On January 25, police detained approximately 35 demonstrators at protest organized by the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ). The UDJ claimed to have submitted proper and timely applications for permits for the protest; however, authorities alleged the rally lacked proper authorization.

Local government officials, almost all of whom affiliated with the EPRDF, controlled access to municipal halls, and there were many complaints from opposition parties that local officials denied or otherwise obstructed the scheduling of opposition parties’ use of halls for lawful political rallies. There were numerous credible reports owners of hotels and other large facilities cited internal rules forbidding political parties from utilizing their spaces for gatherings.

Regional governments, including the Addis Ababa regional administration, were reluctant to grant permits or provide security for large meetings.

Freedom of Association

Although the law provides for freedom of association and the right to engage in unrestricted peaceful political activity, the government limited this right.

The Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO) law bans anonymous donations to NGOs. All potential donors were therefore aware their names would be public knowledge. The same was true concerning all donations made to political parties.

A 2012 report by the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association stated, “The enforcement of these (the CSO law) provisions has a devastating impact on individuals’ ability to form and operate associations effectively.”

International NGOs seeking to operate in the country had to submit an application via Ethiopian embassies abroad, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs then submitted to the Charities and Societies Agency for approval.

c. Freedom of Religion

See the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report atwww.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/.

d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons

Although the law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, the government restricted some of these rights.

The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern. At times authorities or armed groups limited the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate in areas of insecurity, such as on the country’s borders.

In 2014 humanitarian organizations reported 32 incidents that impeded humanitarian work in the first half of the year, compared with 36 such incidents during the same period in 2013. The majority of these cases were in the Somali Region. The incidents included hostility toward and violence against humanitarian personnel, theft of assets, interference with the implementation of humanitarian programs, and restrictions on importation of personnel and goods into the country for humanitarian work. The reports referred broadly to humanitarian work and were not limited to activities focusing on IDPs or refugees.

Access to Nogob (formerly Fik) Zone in the Somali Region improved in 2014. Authorities permitted several government-led, multiagency missions including UN and NGO representatives to visit the area. Access to other parts of the Somali Region, particularly those bordering Somalia, worsened due to security concerns stemming from reports of an increase in al-Shabaab terrorists operating in these areas. In several cases NGOs delayed travel to program sites and could not assess needs. Following credible information about a possible terrorist threat against international staff, UN agencies temporarily withdrew some of their international staff from Dollo Ado in June but began to return them in August. Attacks on vehicles carrying humanitarian personnel, assault on humanitarian staff members, and harassment, including arbitrary detention, reportedly continued.

In-country Movement: The government continued to relax but did not completely remove restrictions on the movement of persons into and within the Somali Region on grounds that the ONLF and al-Shabaab terrorists from neighboring Somalia posed a security threat (see section 2.d., Internally Displaced Persons). Security concerns forced a temporary halt of deliveries of food and medicine in the limited areas affected by fighting. The government continued a policy that allowed refugees to live outside a camp. According to the Administration for Returnees and Refugee Affairs (ARRA), which managed the out-of-camp program, as of August 2014 there were 2,993 individuals living outside the camps (2,806 in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas and 187 from the town of Shire) compared with 3,412 in 2012. Prior to this policy, the government gave such permission primarily to attend higher-education institutions, undergo medical treatment, or avoid security threats at the camps.

Foreign Travel: A 2013 ban on unskilled workers travelling to the Middle East for employment continued. The ban did not affect citizens travelling for investment or other business reasons. The government stated it issued the ban to prevent harassment, intimidation, and trauma suffered by those working abroad, particularly in the Middle East, as domestic employees.

In March 2014 National Intelligence and Security Service officials at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa prevented Yilkal Getnet, chairman of the political opposition Semayawi Party, from departing the country. On April 14, Yilkal was permitted to leave.

Exile: Several citizens sought political asylum in other countries or remained abroad in self-imposed exile.

Internally Displaced Persons

The quarterly Internal Displacement Monitoring Report, issued by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), for July-September 2015 listed 505,104 IDPs, including protracted and new cases. This was an increase from the previous quarter (April-June), when the total was 470,261 individuals. Of the total number of IDPs, 425,454 or 84 percent were protracted cases and 79,650 or 16 percent were new cases. The number was also more than the same quarter of previous years: 2014 (426,736), 2013 (416,315), and 2012 (291,104).

According to the IOM, more than 90 percent of all IDPs were considered “protracted” IDPs, for whom durable solutions (return to home areas, local integration, and resettlement in other parts of the country) were not possible at the time. This was due to lack of resolution of conflicts, lack of political decisions or resources to support local integration, or undesirability of resettlement to other areas of the country.

Categories and totals of IDPs experiencing protracted displacement included victims of interclan and cross-border conflict (406,727) and 18,085 (natural disasters). The majority of IDPs resided in Somali Region (326,421); followed by 84,550 in Oromia; 36,630 in Gambella; 12,765 in the SNNPR; 4,590 in Afar; 4,580 in Harar; and 750 in Amhara.

Of the 79,650 newly displaced during July-September, 21,930 were displaced by conflict and 57,720 by natural disasters (16,776 due to flooding, 40,644 due to drought, and 300 due to fire). Among the newly displaced IDPs, 52 percent remained displaced, while the other 48 percent had returned home. Of the individuals that returned home, 64 percent had been displaced by natural disasters and 36 percent by conflict. As in the past, this was due to violence resulting from ethnic tensions, as well as intercommunal fighting between ethnic groups in Gambella and the SNNPR and highlanders.

The government, through the Disaster Risk Management Food Security Sector (DRMFSS), continued to play an active role in delivering humanitarian assistance to IDPs. Federal and local DRMFSS officials coordinated with the IOM and its partners in monitoring IDP populations. In addition the Somali Regional State-level Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau, in coordination with the IOM and other international actors, set up a Durable Solutions Working Group, which drafted a strategy paper for the large caseload of protracted IDPs in Somali Region. The Somali Regional Government was reviewing the strategy paper as of October.

Protection of Refugees

Access to Asylum: The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for providing protection to refugees.

According to UNHCR, as of July the country hosted 719,524 refugees. The majority of refugees were from South Sudan (283,030) and Somalia (248,213), with others coming from Eritrea (144,920), Sudan (37,101), and other countries (6,260, of which 832 were registered Yemeni asylum seekers).

UNHCR, ARRA, and humanitarian agencies continued to care for Sudanese arrivals fleeing from conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile State. The government also extended support to South Sudanese asylum seekers from South Sudan’s Jonglei and Upper Nile states. Persistent conflict and food insecurity prompted the continued flow of South Sudanese refugees into the country. During the year UNHCR and ARRA jointly developed standard operating procedures to identify Ethiopian nationals attempting to register as refugees.

Eritrean asylum seekers continued to arrive in the country. This included a large number of unaccompanied minors. Many Eritreans who arrived in the country regularly departed for secondary migration through Egypt and Sudan to go to Israel, Europe, and other final destinations.

Employment: The government did not grant refugees work permits.

Durable Solutions: The government granted refugee status to asylum seekers from Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. The government welcomed refugees to settle permanently in the country but did not offer a path to citizenship or facilitate integration. The government supported a policy allowing refugees to live outside camps and engage in informal livelihoods. In addition, refugee students who passed the required tests could attend university with fees paid by the government and UNHCR. As of October 2014 a total of 3,895 refugees, mostly Eritreans and Somalis, were resettled in other countries.

Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process

The constitution and law provide citizens the ability to choose their government peacefully in free and fair periodic elections based on universal and equal suffrage. The ruling party’s electoral advantages, however, limited this ability.

Elections and Political Participation

Recent Elections: On May 24, the country held national elections for the House of People’s Representatives, the country’s parliamentary body. On October 5, parliament re-elected Hailemariam Desalegn prime minister.

In the May national parliamentary elections, the EPRDF and affiliated parties won all 547 seats, giving the party a fifth consecutive five-year term. Government restrictions severely limited independent observation of the vote. The African Union was the sole international organization permitted to observe the elections. Opposition party observers accused local police of interference, harassment, and extrajudicial detention. Independent journalists reported little trouble covering the election, including reports from polling stations. Some independent journalists reported receiving their observation credentials the day before the election, after having submitted proper and timely applications. Six rounds of broadcast debates preceded the elections, and for the most part, they were broadcast in full and only slightly edited. The debates included all major political parties. Several laws, regulations, and procedures implemented since the 2005 national elections created a clear advantage for the EPRDF throughout the electoral process. The “first past the post” provision, or 50 percent plus one vote required to win a seat in parliament, as stipulated in the constitution, contributed to EPRDF’s advantage in the electoral process. There were reports of unfair government tactics, including intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters. Various reports confirmed at least six election-related deaths during the period before and immediately following the elections. There were reports questioning the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia’s (NEBE)’s political independence, particularly its decisions concerning party registration and candidate qualification. The NEBE has sole responsibility for voter education and broadcast radio segments and distributed manuals on the topic in many local languages.

In a pre-election assessment, the African Union called the elections “calm, peaceful and credible” and applauded the government for its registration efforts. It raised concerns, however, about the legal framework underpinning the election. The NEBE registered more than 35 million voters, and did not report any incidents of unfair voter registration practices.

Political Parties and Political Participation: Opposition party members were subject to violence and harassment during the period preceding and following the May national elections. The government, controlled by the ruling EPRDF, restricted media freedom and arrested opposition members. Constituent parties of the EPRDF conferred advantages upon their members; the parties directly owned many businesses and were broadly perceived to award jobs and business contracts to loyal supporters. Several opposition political parties reported difficulty in renting homes or buildings in which to open offices, citing visits by EPRDF members to the property owners to persuade or threaten them not to rent property to these parties.

There were reports authorities terminated the employment of teachers and other government workers if they belonged to opposition political parties. According to Oromo opposition groups, the Oromia regional government continued to threaten to dismiss opposition party members, particularly teachers, from their jobs. Government officials alleged many members of legitimate Oromo opposition parties were secretly OLF members, and more broadly, that members of many opposition parties had ties to Ginbot 7. At the university level, members of Medrek and its constituent parties were able to teach. There were reports unemployed youths not affiliated with the ruling coalition sometimes had trouble receiving the “support letters” from their kebeles (neighborhoods or wards) necessary to get jobs.

Registered political parties must receive permission from regional governments to open and occupy local offices. Opposition parties reported difficulty acquiring the required permissions for regional offices, adversely affecting their ability to organize and campaign. Laws requiring parties to report “public meetings” and obtain permission for public rallies were also used to inhibit opposition activities.

Participation of Women and Minorities: No laws or cultural or traditional practices prevented women or minorities from voting or participating in political life on the same basis as men or nonminority citizens, although women were significantly underrepresented in both elected and appointed positions. The Tigray Regional Council included the highest proportion of women nationwide, at 50 percent (76 of the 152 seats).

Women held three of the 22 federal government ministerial positions, including one of three deputy prime minister positions, and also held 212 of 547 seats in the incoming national parliament.

The government’s policy of ethnic federalism led to the creation of individual constituencies to provide for representation of all major ethnic groups in the House of People’s Representatives. There were more than 80 ethnic groups, and small groups lacked representation in the legislature. There were 22 nationality groups in six regional states (Tigray, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, the SNNPR, Gambella, and Harar) that did not have a sufficient population to qualify for constituency seats based on the 2007 census; however, in the 2010 elections, individuals from these nationality groups competed for 22 special seats in the House of People’s Representatives. Additionally, these 22 nationality groups had one seat each in the House of Federation.

Section 4. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials. Despite the government’s prosecution of numerous officials for corruption, some officials continued to engage in corrupt practices. Corruption, especially the solicitation of bribes, remained a problem among low-level bureaucrats. Police and judicial corruption also continued to be problems. Some government officials appeared to manipulate the privatization process, and state- and party-owned businesses received preferential access to land leases and credit.

Corruption: The Ministry of Justice, through the Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission (FEACC), continued criminal proceedings against the director general of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority, his deputy, and other government officials and private business leaders for alleged corrupt practices.

There were numerous reported corruption cases similar to the following example: on August 9, police arrested former head of the Revenues Bureau of Oromia Regional State, Wondimu Biratu Kena’a, on allegations of grand corruption and embezzlement. Pretrial hearings at the Ethiopian Federal High Court continued at year’s end.

Financial Disclosure: The law requires all government officials and employees to register their wealth and personal property officially. The law includes financial and criminal sanctions for noncompliance. The president and prime minister registered their assets. By November 95,000 government officials had registered their assets as required by law (the 2010 Asset Disclosure and Registration Proclamation).

The FEACC held financial disclosure records. By law any person seeking access to these records may do so by making a request in writing, although access to information on family assets may be restricted unless the FEACC deems the disclosure necessary.

Public Access to Information: The law provides for public access to government information, but access was largely restricted. The law includes a narrow list of exceptions outlining the grounds for nondisclosure. Responses generally must be made within 30 days of a written request, and fees may not exceed the actual cost of responding to the request. The law includes mechanisms for punishing officials for noncompliance, as well as appeal mechanisms for review of disclosure denials. Information on the number of disclosures or denials during the year was not available.

The government publishes laws and regulations in the national gazette prior to their taking effect. The Government Communications Affairs Office managed contacts between the government, the press, and the public; the private press reported the government rarely responded to its queries.

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights

A few domestic human rights groups operated but with significant government restrictions. The government was generally distrustful and wary of domestic human rights groups and international human rights observers. State-controlled media were critical of international human rights groups such as HRW.

The CSO law prohibits charities, societies, and associations (NGOs or CSOs) that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources from engaging in activities that advance human and democratic rights or promote equality of nations, nationalities, peoples, genders, and religions; the rights of children and persons with disabilities; conflict resolution or reconciliation; or the efficiency of justice and law enforcement services. The law severely curtailed civil society’s ability to raise questions of good governance, human rights, corruption, and transparency, and forced many local and international NGOs working on good governance and human rights to either cease advocacy, or reregister under the law and focus on activities other than rights-based advocacy. In 2012 the UN high commissioner for human rights expressed concern that civil society space “has rapidly shrunk” since the CSO law’s enactment. By year’s end 3,056 NGOs had registered under the CSO law. Of these, however, only four groups were actively engaged in human rights-based advocacy.

Some human rights defender organizations continued to register either as local charities, meaning they could not raise more than 10 percent of their funds from foreign donors but could act in the specified areas, or as resident charities, which allowed foreign donations above 10 percent but prohibited advocacy activities in those areas.

The government denied most NGOs access to federal prisons, police stations, and undisclosed places of detention. The government permitted a local NGO that has an exemption enabling them to raise unlimited funds from foreign sources and to engage in human rights advocacy, to visit prisoners. Some NGOs played a positive role in improving prisoners’ chances for clemency.

Due to security concerns, authorities limited access of human rights organizations, the media, humanitarian agencies, and diplomatic missions to conflict-affected areas, although it continued to ease such restrictions. Humanitarian access in the Somali Region in particular continued to improve; however, due to security concerns, some restrictions remained. The government lacked a clear policy on NGO access to sensitive areas, leading regional government officials and military officials frequently to refer requests for access to the federal government. Officials required journalists to register before entering conflict regions. There were isolated reports of regional police or local militias blocking NGOs’ access to particular locations on particular days, citing security concerns. Some government agencies limited project activities for security reasons.

Some persons feared authorities would retaliate against them if they met with NGOs and foreign government officials who were investigating allegations of abuse.

The United Nations or Other International Bodies: Requests to visit the country from the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment remained unanswered.

Government Human Rights Bodies: The EHRC investigated human rights complaints and produced annual and thematic reports. The commission operated 112 legal aid centers in collaboration with 22 universities and two civil society organizations, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association and the Ethiopian Christian Lawyers Fellowship. The commission also signed cooperative agreements with Axum, Wolayta, Debre Berhan, and Jijiga universities.

The EHRC reported to parliament that in 2014-15 it had accepted 1,254 human rights-related grievances and completed investigations into 259 cases. In addition the EHRC claimed to have provided counseling services to 594 individuals, resolved 166 cases through negotiation, and referred 235 grievances to the relevant government offices.

The Office of the Ombudsman has authority to receive and investigate complaints with respect to administrative mismanagement by executive branch offices. From July 2014 to July 2015, the office received 3,645 complaints. Of these, the ombudsman opened investigations into 2,066 and resolved the remaining cases through alternative means. The majority of complaints dealt with land, administration of public service, delay in service delivery, poor quality service, administration of government houses, and social security. The Office of the Ombudsman did not compile nationwide statistics.

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

The constitution provides all persons equal protection without discrimination based on race, nation, nationality or other social origin, color, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, property, birth, or status, but the government did not fully promote and protect these rights. Discrimination based on age, HIV status, or having other communicable disease is not explicitly mentioned, although the constitution adds “or other status” to the list of prohibited bases for discrimination.

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape and provides for penalties of five to 20 years’ imprisonment, depending on the severity of the case. The law does not expressly address spousal rape. The government did not fully enforce the law, partially due to widespread underreporting. Recent statistics on the number of abusers prosecuted, convicted, or punished were not available.

Domestic violence is illegal, but government enforcement of laws was inconsistent.

Domestic violence, including spousal abuse, was a pervasive social problem. Depending on the severity of damage inflicted, legal penalties range from small fines to imprisonment for up to 15 years.

Although women had recourse to police and the courts, societal norms and limited infrastructure prevented many women from seeking legal redress, particularly in rural areas. The government prosecuted offenders on a limited scale.

Domestic violence and rape cases often were delayed significantly and given low priority. In the context of gender-based violence, significant gender gaps in the justice system remained, due to poor documentation and inadequate investigation. Gender-based violence against women and girls was underreported due to cultural acceptance, shame, fear of reprisal, or a victim’s ignorance of legal protections.

“Child friendly” benches hear cases involving violence against children and women. Police officers were required to receive domestic violence training from domestic NGOs and the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs. There was a commissioner for women and children’s affairs on the EHRC.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): FGM/C is illegal, but the government did not actively enforce this prohibition or punish those who practiced it. According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 74 percent of women and girls had undergone FGM/C. The government strategy for combatting this practice focused on community education rather than punitive measures, which had been seen to drive the practice underground in other countries.

A majority of girls had undergone some form of FGM/C, although the results of the 2009 Population Council survey suggest its prevalence declined. Sixty-six percent of female respondents ages 21 to 24 reported undergoing FGM/C, compared with 56 percent of those ages 15 to 17. Of the seven regions surveyed, the study found the rates to be highest in Afar (90 percent), Oromia (77 percent), and the SNNPR (75 percent). The FGM/C prevalence rate was particularly high among ethnic Somalis in the country.

FGM/C was much less common in urban areas, where 15 percent of the population lived.

The age at which FGM/C is performed depends on the ethnic group, type of FGM/C adopted, and the region. More than 52 percent of girls who undergo the procedure do so before age one. In the north FGM/C tends to be performed immediately after birth, whereas in the south, where FGM/C is more closely associated with marriage, it is performed later. Girls typically experienced clitoridectomies seven days after birth (consisting of an excision of the clitoris, often with partial labial excision) and infibulation (the most extreme and dangerous form of FGM/C) at the onset of puberty. The penal code criminalizes the practice of clitoridectomy, with imprisonment of at least three months or a fine of at least 500 birr ($24). Infibulation of the genitals is punishable with imprisonment of five to 10 years. No criminal charges, however, have ever been brought for FGM/C. The government’s strategy was to discourage the practice through education in public schools, the Health Extension Program, and broader mass media campaigns rather than to prosecute offenders. International bilateral donors and private organizations were active in community education efforts to reduce the prevalence of FGM/C, following the government’s lead of sensitization rather than legal enforcement.

Other Harmful Traditional Practices: The most prevalent harmful traditional practices other than FGM/C included uvula cutting, tonsil scraping, milk tooth extraction, early marriage, and marriage by abduction.

Marriage by abduction is illegal, although it continued in some regions despite the government’s attempts to combat the practice. Forced sexual relationships accompanied most marriages by abduction, and women often experienced physical abuse during the abduction. Abductions led to conflicts among families, communities, and ethnic groups. In cases of marriage by abduction, the perpetrator did not face punishment if the victim agreed to marry the perpetrator.

Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment was widespread. The penal code prescribes penalties of 18 to 24 months’ imprisonment, but authorities generally did not enforce harassment laws.

Reproductive Rights: Individuals and couples have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children; manage their reproductive health; and to have access to the information and means to do so, free from discrimination, coercion, or violence. A 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found a modern contraceptive prevalence rate of 40 percent nationwide among married women, up from 27 percent three years previously. The DHS also showed delivery with a skilled birth attendant had risen from 10 to 16 percent. Modeling completed by the government with support from the Gates Foundation and UN agencies found the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth had dropped from an estimated 676 deaths per 100,000 live births to an estimated 420 deaths per 100,000 live births. Abortion is illegal but with numerous exceptions. The incidence of illegal, unsafe abortions had declined since legislation changed, which accounted in part for the drop in maternal mortality. All maternal and child health services were provided free of charge in the public sector; however, challenges persisted in accessing quality services in more remote areas of the country due to transportation problems.

Discrimination: Discrimination against women was a problem and was most acute in rural areas, where an estimated 85 percent of the population lived. The law contains discriminatory regulations, such as the recognition of the husband as the legal head of the family and the sole guardian of children more than five years old. Courts generally did not consider domestic violence by itself a justification for granting a divorce. Irrespective of the number of years a marriage existed, the number of children raised, and joint property, the law entitled women to only three months’ financial support if a relationship ended. There was limited legal recognition of common-law marriage. A common-law husband had no obligation to provide financial assistance to his family, and consequently women and children sometimes faced abandonment. Traditional courts continued to apply customary law in economic and social relationships.

According to the constitution, all land belongs to the government. Both men and women have land-use rights, which they may pass on as an inheritance. Land law varies among regions. All federal and regional land laws empower women to access government land. Inheritance laws also enable widows to inherit joint property they acquired during marriage.

In urban areas women had fewer employment opportunities than men did, and the jobs available did not generally provide equal pay for equal work. Women’s access to gainful employment, credit, and the opportunity to own or manage a business was further limited by their generally lower level of education and training, and by traditional attitudes.

Children

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived from one’s parents. The law requires all children to be registered at birth. Children born in hospitals were registered, while most children born outside of hospitals were not. The overwhelming majority of children, particularly in rural areas, were born at home.

Education: As a policy primary education was universal and tuition-free; however, there were not enough schools to accommodate the country’s youth, particularly in rural areas. The cost of school supplies was prohibitive for many families, and there was no legislation to enforce compulsory primary education. The number of students enrolled in schools expanded faster than trained teachers could be deployed.

Child Abuse: Child abuse was widespread. The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2013, published by the African Child Policy Forum, found the government had increased punishment for sexual violence against children. “Child friendly” benches heard cases involving violence against children and women. There was a commissioner for women and children’s affairs in the EHRC.

Early and Forced Marriage: The law sets the legal marriage age for girls and boys at 18; however, authorities did not enforce this law uniformly, and rural families sometimes were unaware of this provision. An NGO reported intervening in 400 early marriages. In several regions it was customary for older men to marry girls, although this traditional practice continued to face greater scrutiny and criticism. The government strategy to address underage marriage focused on education and mediation rather than punishment of offenders.

According to a 2015 UNICEF report, 16 percent of women ages 20-24 were married before age 15 and 41 percent before age 18. According to the 2011 DHS, the median age of first marriage among women between the ages of 20 and 49 who were surveyed was 17.1 years, compared with 16.5 years in 2005.

In the Amhara and Tigray regions, girls were married as early as age seven. Child marriage was most prevalent in the Amhara Region, where approximately 45 percent of girls marry before age 18, and the median first marriage age was 15.1 years, according to the 2011 DHS, compared with 14.7 years in 2005. Regional governments in Amhara and, to a lesser extent, Tigray offered programs to educate girls, young women, parents, community leaders, and health professionals on problems associated with early marriage.

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): See information for girls under 18 in the Women section above.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The minimum age for consensual sex is 18 years, but authorities did not enforce this law. The law provides for three to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse with a minor. The law provides for one year in prison and a fine of 10,000 birr ($480) for trafficking in indecent material displaying sexual intercourse by minors. The law prohibits profiting from the prostitution of minors and inducing minors to engage in prostitution; however, commercial sexual exploitation of children continued, particularly in urban areas. Girls as young as age 11 reportedly were recruited to work in brothels. Customers often sought these girls because they believed them to be free of sexually transmitted diseases. Young girls were trafficked from rural to urban areas. They also were exploited as prostitutes in hotels, bars, resort towns, and rural truck stops. Reports indicated family members forced some young girls into prostitution.

Infanticide or Infanticide of Children with Disabilities: Ritual and superstition-based infanticide continued in remote tribal areas, particularly South Omo. Local governments worked to educate communities against the practice.

Displaced Children: According to a 2010 report by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, approximately 150,000 children lived on the streets, of whom 60,000 were in the capital. The ministry’s report stated that families’ inability to support children due to parental illness or insufficient household income exacerbated the problem. Research in 2014 by the ministry noted rapid urbanization, illegal employment brokers, high expectations of better life in cities, and rural-urban migration were adding to the problem. These children begged, sometimes as part of a gang, or worked in the informal sector.

Institutionalized Children: There were an estimated 4.5 million orphans in the country in 2012, according to statistics published by UNICEF. The vast majority lived with extended family members. Government and privately run orphanages were overcrowded, and conditions were often unsanitary. Due to severe resource constraints, hospitals and orphanages often overlooked or neglected abandoned infants. Institutionalized children did not receive adequate health care.

International Child Abductions: The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information see the Department of State’s report on compliance attravel.state.gov/content/childabduction/en/legal/compliance.html and country-specific information attravel.state.gov/content/childabduction/en/country/ethiopia.html.

Anti-Semitism

The Jewish community numbered approximately 2,000 persons. There were no reports of anti-Jewish acts.

Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.

Persons with Disabilities

The constitution does not mandate equal rights for persons with disabilities. The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment and mandates access to buildings but does not explicitly mention intellectual or sensory disabilities. It is illegal for deaf persons to drive.

The law prohibits employment discrimination based on disability. It also makes employers responsible for providing appropriate working or training conditions and materials to persons with disabilities. The law specifically recognizes the additional burden on women with disabilities. The government took limited measures to enforce the law, for example, by assigning interpreters for hearing-impaired civil service employees (see section 7.d.). The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Public Servants Administration Commission are responsible for the implementation of the Proclamation on The Rights of Disabled Persons to Employment.

The law mandates building accessibility and accessible toilet facilities for persons with physical disabilities, although specific regulations that define the accessibility standards were not adopted. Buildings and toilet facilities were usually not accessible. Property owners are required to give persons with disabilities preference for ground-floor apartments, and this was respected.

Women with disabilities were more disadvantaged than men in education and employment. The 2010 Population Council Young Adult Survey found young persons with disabilities were less likely to have ever attended school than those without disabilities. The survey indicated girls with disabilities were less likely than boys to be in school: 23 percent of girls with disabilities were in school, compared with 48 percent of girls and 55 percent of boys without disabilities. Overall, 48 percent of young persons with disabilities surveyed reported not going to school due to their disability. Girls with disabilities also were much more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse than girls without disabilities. Of sexually experienced girls with disabilities, 33 percent reported having experienced forced sex. According to the same survey, approximately 6 percent of boys with disabilities had been beaten in the three months prior to the survey, compared with 2 percent of boys without disabilities.

There were several schools for persons with hearing and vision disabilities and several training centers for children and young persons with intellectual disabilities. There was a network of prosthetic and orthopedic centers in five of the nine regional states.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs worked on disability-related problems. The CSO law continued to affect negatively several domestic associations, such as the Ethiopian National Association of the Blind, the Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf, and the Ethiopian National Association of the Physically Handicapped, as it did other civil society organizations. International organizations and some local CSOs were active, particularly on issues concerning accessibility and vocational training for persons with disabilities.

The right of persons with disabilities to vote and otherwise participate in civic affairs is not restricted in law, although lack of accessibility can make participation difficult. In the May national elections, African Union observers reported voters requiring assistance were always provided with assistance, either by a person of their choice or by polling staff. Most polling stations were accessible to persons with disabilities, and priority was given to them as well as the elderly, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

The country has more than 80 ethnic groups, of which the Oromo, at approximately 35 percent of the population, is the largest. The federal system drew boundaries approximately along major ethnic group lines. Most political parties remained primarily ethnically based, although the ruling party and one of the largest opposition parties are coalitions of ethnically based parties.

In January eight police officers and three civilians were killed when a group from the Hamer district in the South Omo Zone of the SNNPR confronted police regarding local marginalization, hunting restrictions, and limited land availability due to government-sponsored sugar plantations. The mob killed eight police officers, including the police chief, and three individuals who may have been assisting the police officers.

Authorities in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz forcibly evicted as many as 8,000 ethnic Amhara residents from their homes; in 2014 some of those evicted alleged that police beat and harassed them because of their ethnicity. The regional president publicly stated the evictions were a mistake and called on the evictees to return. Government officials also stated victims would be compensated for lost property and any injuries sustained. Authorities dismissed several local officials from their government positions because of their alleged involvement in the evictions and charged some of the officials with criminal offenses.

Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Consensual same-sex sexual activity is illegal and punishable with three to 15 years’ imprisonment. No law prohibits discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals. There were some reports of violence against LGBTI individuals; reporting was limited due to fear of retribution, discrimination, or stigmatization. There are no hate crime laws or other criminal justice mechanisms to aid in the investigation of abuses against LGBTI persons. Individuals did not identify themselves as LGBTI persons due to severe societal stigma and the illegality of consensual same-sex sexual activity. Activists in the LGBTI community stated they were followed and at times feared for their safety. There were reports as many as a dozen individuals were incarcerated for allegedly engaging in same-sex sexual activities.

The AIDS Resource Center in Addis Ababa reported the majority of self-identified gay and lesbian callers, most of whom were male, requested assistance in changing their behavior to avoid discrimination. Many gay men reported anxiety, confusion, identity crises, depression, self-ostracism, religious conflict, and suicide attempts.

HIV and AIDS Social Stigma

Societal stigma and discrimination against persons with or affected by HIV/AIDS continued in the areas of education, employment, and community integration. Persons with or affected by HIV/AIDS reported difficulty accessing various services. Despite the abundance of anecdotal information, there were no statistics on the scale of the problem.

Section 7. Worker Rights

a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining

The constitution and law provide workers, except for civil servants and certain categories of workers primarily in the public sector, with the right to form and join unions, conduct legal strikes, and bargain collectively, although other provisions and laws severely restrict or excessively regulate these rights. The law specifically prohibits managerial employees, teachers, health-care workers, judges, prosecutors, security service workers, domestic workers, and seasonal and part-time agricultural workers from organizing unions.

A minimum of 10 workers is required to form a union. While the law provides all unions with the right to register, the government may refuse to register trade unions that do not meet its registration requirements and unilaterally cancel the registration of a union. Workers may not join more than one trade union per employment. The law stipulates a trade union organization may not act in an overtly political manner. The law allows administrative authorities to appeal to the courts to cancel union registration for engaging in prohibited activities, such as political action.

Other laws and regulations that explicitly or potentially infringe upon workers’ rights to associate freely and to organize include the CSO law, Council of Ministers Regulation No. 168/2009 on Charities and Societies to reinforce the CSO law, and Proclamation No. 652/2009 on Antiterrorism. The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations noted the CSO law gives the government power to interfere in the right of workers to organize, including through the registration, internal administration, and dissolution of organizations.

While the law recognizes the right of collective bargaining, this right was severely restricted. Negotiations aimed at amending or replacing a collective agreement must be completed within three months of its expiration; otherwise, the provisions on wages and other benefits cease to apply. Civil servants, including public school teachers, have the right to establish and join professional associations but not to negotiate better wages or working conditions. Arbitration procedures in the public sector are more restrictive than those in the private sector. The law does not provide for effective and adequate sanctions against acts of interference by other agents in the establishment, functioning, or administration of either workers’ or employers’ organizations.

Although the constitution and law provide workers with the right to strike to protect their interests, the law contains detailed provisions prescribing extremely complex and time-consuming formalities that make legal strike actions difficult. The law requires aggrieved workers to attempt reconciliation with employers before striking and includes a lengthy dispute settlement process. These provisions apply equally to an employer’s right to lock workers out. Two-thirds of the workers concerned must support a strike before it is authorized. If a case has not already been referred to a court or labor relations board, workers retain the right to strike without resorting to either of these options, provided they give at least 10 days’ notice to the other party and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and make efforts at reconciliation.

The law also prohibits strikes by workers who provide essential services, including air transport and urban bus service workers, electric power suppliers, gas station personnel, hospital and pharmacy personnel, firefighters, telecommunications personnel, and urban sanitary workers. The list of essential services exceeds the ILO definition of essential services. The law prohibits retribution against strikers, but it also provides for civil or penal penalties against unions and workers involved in unauthorized strike actions. Violation of this procedure is an offence punishable with a fine not exceeding 1,200 birr ($58) if committed by a union, or of 300 birr ($14) if committed by an individual worker, unless the provisions of the penal code prescribe more severe penalties in which case the punishment laid down in the alternate becomes applicable. The government may dissolve unions for carrying out strikes in “essential services.”

The informal labor sector, including domestic workers, is not unionized and is not protected by labor laws. Lack of adequate staffing prevented the government from effectively enforcing applicable laws for those sectors protected by law. Court procedures were subject to lengthy delays and appeals.

Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining were respected, but some individual registration problems remained. The government refused for the fourth year to register the National Teachers Union (NTA) on grounds that a national teachers’ association already existed and that the NTA’s registration application was not submitted in accordance with the CSO law. In 2013 an ILO mission made a working visit and signed a joint statement with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, stating the government was committed to registering the NTA. The ILO’s Ethiopia office reiterated this message and characterized the dispute as an administrative issue focused on naming rights and diaspora membership. The ILO described the government as “ready and willing” to register the group in accordance with the CSO law.

While the government allowed citizens to exercise the right of collective bargaining, enterprise unions are allowed to negotiate wages only at the plant level. Unions in the formal industrial sector made some efforts to enforce labor regulations.

Antiunion activities occurred but were rarely reported. Despite the law prohibiting antiunion discrimination, unions reported employers terminated union activists. There were unconfirmed reports that some major foreign investors generally did not allow workers to form unions, often transferred or dismissed union leaders, and intimidated and pressured members to leave unions. Lawsuits alleging unlawful dismissal often took years to resolve because of case backlogs in the courts. Employers found guilty of antiunion discrimination were required to reinstate workers dismissed for union activities and generally did so. The law prohibits retribution against strikers, and there were no reported cases of violations. Labor officials reported that high unemployment, fear of retribution, and long delays in hearing labor cases deterred workers from participating in strikes or other labor actions.

b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

In August the federal government enacted a comprehensive overhaul of its antitrafficking penal code. The new law prescribes harsh penalties of up to life imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 birr ($24,000) for human trafficking and exploitation, including slavery, debt bondage, forced prostitution, and servitude.

The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor but permits courts to order forced labor as a punitive measure. The government did not effectively enforce the law. Forced labor occurred, although police at the federal and regional levels began to receive training focused on human trafficking and exploitation. Both adults and children were forced to engage in street vending, begging, traditional weaving, or agricultural work. Children also worked in forced domestic labor. Situations of debt bondage also occurred in traditional weaving, pottery making, cattle herding, and other agricultural activities, mostly in rural areas.

Also see the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report atwww.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.

c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment

By law the minimum age for wage or salary employment is 14 years. The minimum age provisions, however, apply only to contractual labor and do not apply to self-employed children or children who perform unpaid work. The National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor, signed in 2012, covers children between the ages of 14 and 18 and prohibits hazardous or night work. The law defines hazardous work as any work that could jeopardize a child’s health. Prohibited work sectors include passenger transport, work in electric generation plants, factory work, underground work, street cleaning, and many other sectors. The law expressly excludes children under age 16 attending vocational schools from the prohibition on hazardous work. The law does not permit children between the ages of 14 and 18 to work more than seven hours per day, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., or on public holidays or rest days.

Child labor remained a serious problem. The small number of trained labor inspectors and a lack of resources resulted in numerous violations. Occupational safety and health measures were not effectively enforced, and significant numbers of children worked in prohibited work sectors, particularly construction.

School enrollment was low, particularly in rural areas. To underscore the importance of attending school, joint NGO and government-led community-based awareness raising efforts targeted communities where children were heavily engaged in agricultural work. The government invested in modernizing agricultural practices and constructing schools to combat the problem of child labor in agricultural sectors.

In both rural and urban areas, children often began working at young ages. Child labor was particularly pervasive in subsistence agricultural production, traditional weaving, fishing, and domestic work. A growing number of children worked in construction. Children in rural areas, especially boys, engaged in activities such as cattle herding, petty trading, plowing, harvesting, and weeding, while other children, mostly girls, collected firewood and fetched water. Children worked in the production of gold. In small-scale gold mining, they dug their own mining pits and carried heavy loads of water. Children in urban areas, including orphans, worked in domestic service, often working long hours, which prevented many from attending school regularly. Children also worked in manufacturing, shining shoes, making clothes, parking, public transport, petty trading, as porters, and directing customers to taxis. Some children worked long hours in dangerous environments for little or no wages and without occupational safety protection. Child laborers often faced physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of their employers.

Also see the Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor atwww.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/findings/.

d. Discrimination with Respect to Employment and Occupation

The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin nationality, gender, marital status, religion, political affiliation, political outlook, pregnancy, socioeconomic status, disability, or “any other conditions.” The law specifically recognizes the additional burden on pregnant women and persons with disabilities (see section 6.). Sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV-positive status are not specifically protected. The penalty for discrimination on the above grounds is a fine of 1,200 birr ($58). The government took limited measures to enforce the law.

Discrimination in employment and occupation occurred with respect to women, who had fewer employment opportunities than men, and the jobs available did not provide equal pay for equal work.

Discrimination against migrant workers also occurred (see section 7.e.).

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

There is no national minimum wage. Some government institutions and public enterprises set their own minimum wages. Public sector employees, the largest group of wage earners, earned a monthly minimum wage of approximately 420 birr ($20). The official estimate for the poverty income level was 315 birr ($15) per month.

Only a small percentage of the population, concentrated in urban areas, was involved in wage-labor employment. Wages in the informal sector generally were below subsistence levels.

The law provides for a 48-hour maximum legal workweek with a 24-hour rest period, premium pay for overtime, and prohibition of excessive compulsory overtime. The country has 13 paid public holidays per year. The law entitles employees in public enterprises and government financial institutions to overtime pay; civil servants receive compensatory time off for overtime work. The government, industries, and unions negotiated occupational safety and health standards. Workers specifically excluded by law from unionizing, including domestic workers and seasonal and part-time agricultural workers, generally did not benefit from health and safety regulations in the workplace.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs’ inspection department was responsible for enforcement of workplace standards. In 2014 the country had 380 labor inspectors and, according to the ministry, they completed more than 37,500 inspections in 2014. The labor inspectors did not enforce standards effectively. The ministry’s severely limited administrative capacity; lack of an effective mechanism for receiving, investigating, and tracking allegations of violations; and lack of detailed, sector-specific health and safety guidelines hampered effective enforcement of these standards. Maximum penalties for different types of violations range from 300 birr ($15) to 1,000 birr ($48).

Compensation, benefits, and working conditions of seasonal agricultural workers were far below those of unionized permanent agricultural employees. The government did little to enforce the law. Most employees in the formal sector worked a 39-hour workweek. Many foreign, migrant, and informal sector workers worked more than 48 hours per week.

Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous situations without jeopardizing their employment; there were no reports that workers exercised this right. Hazardous working conditions existed in the agricultural sector, which was the primary base of the country’s economy. There were also reports of hazardous and exploitative working conditions in the construction and industrial sectors, although specific data on deaths and/or injuries was not available.

The post 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Ethiopia appeared first on Bilisummaa.

Ethiopia Ranked the Most Expensive Country for Internet Users

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Chart: Internet (10 Mbps, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL), Utilities (Monthly)
1. Ethiopia 182.14 $
2. Bermuda 134.45 $
3. Uzbekistan 127.83 $
4. Myanmar 120.00 $
5. Tanzania 118.02 $
6. Zambia 98.87 $
7. Bolivia 97.85 $
8. United Arab Emirates 86.00 $
9. Iran 85.97 $
10. Maldives 83.67 $
11. Zimbabwe 75.86 $
12. Nigeria 75.14 $
13. Brunei 73.35 $
14. Qatar 71.05 $
15. Cuba 70.00 $
16. Ghana 68.71 $
17. Namibia 64.64 $
18. Mozambique 61.80 $
19. Oman 59.58 $
20. Iceland 59.09 $
21. New Zealand 57.60 $
22. Lebanon 55.27 $
23. Australia 53.81 $
24. Switzerland 53.24 $
25. South Africa 52.86 $
26. Guatemala 52.27 $
27. El Salvador 51.09 $
28. United States 50.48 $
29. Puerto Rico 50.42 $
30. Bangladesh 49.62 $
31. Iraq 49.22 $
32. Egypt 49.12 $
33. Costa Rica 49.09 $
34. Syria 48.20 $
35. Luxembourg 46.89 $
36. Belgium 46.39 $
37. Dominican Republic 46.28 $
38. Philippines 45.64 $
39. Honduras 45.10 $
40. Canada 44.47 $
41. Kenya 44.16 $
42. Ireland 44.07 $
43. Bahamas 43.92 $
44. Bahrain 42.06 $
45. Jordan 41.52 $
46. Peru 41.44 $
47. Malaysia 41.26 $
48. Saudi Arabia 40.81 $
49. Norway 40.59 $
50. Panama 40.33 $
51. Cambodia 39.95 $
52. Kuwait 39.59 $
53. Argentina 39.17 $
54. Ecuador 39.06 $
55. Cyprus 38.87 $
56. Spain 38.31 $
57. Japan 37.89 $
58. Nepal 37.62 $
59. Palestinian Territory 37.33 $
60. Fiji 36.03 $
61. Chile 35.29 $
62. Algeria 34.06 $
63. Singapore 32.22 $
64. France 31.25 $
65. Jamaica 30.57 $
66. Italy 30.01 $
67. Slovenia 29.89 $
68. Sweden 29.41 $
69. United Kingdom 29.24 $
70. Pakistan 29.22 $
71. Netherlands 28.61 $
72. Denmark 27.94 $
73. Hong Kong 27.61 $
74. Portugal 27.47 $
75. Montenegro 27.02 $
76. Germany 26.91 $
77. Indonesia 26.78 $
78. Malta 26.72 $
79. Colombia 25.56 $
80. Uruguay 25.10 $
81. Croatia 24.95 $
82. Austria 23.92 $
83. Libya 23.52 $
84. Taiwan 23.40 $
85. Brazil 23.13 $
86. South Korea 22.87 $
87. Morocco 22.80 $
88. Mexico 22.76 $
89. Greece 22.29 $
90. Finland 21.17 $
91. Israel 21.04 $
92. Venezuela 20.73 $
93. Tunisia 20.61 $
94. Turkey 19.48 $
95. Sri Lanka 19.31 $
96. India 18.73 $
97. Estonia 17.71 $
98. Thailand 17.69 $
99. Albania 17.47 $
100. China 17.21 $
101. Czech Republic 16.11 $
102. Bosnia And Herzegovina 15.42 $
103. Armenia 15.10 $
104. Slovakia 14.67 $
105. Hungary 14.53 $
106. Serbia 14.31 $
107. Azerbaijan 13.81 $
108. Latvia 13.12 $
109. Kazakhstan 12.93 $
110. Poland 12.07 $
111. Georgia 11.70 $
112. Belarus 11.37 $
113. Macedonia 11.22 $
114. Vietnam 10.87 $
115. Lithuania 9.99 $
116. Bulgaria 8.91 $
117. Romania 8.25 $
118. Moldova 7.23 $
119. Russia 5.70 $
120. Ukraine 3.53 $

The post Ethiopia Ranked the Most Expensive Country for Internet Users appeared first on Bilisummaa.


Israelis To Build Condominiums And Industrial Parks In Ethiopia

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industrail-park-ethiopia

 

Ethiopia calls Israeli investors to take part in the Ethiopian governmental scheme for the next 5 years, where 2.4 million new apartments will be built, out of which 900,000 units in the capital, Addis Ababa. In addition, 8 new industrial parks are planned to be built as part of the government’s policy for industrialism of the country.

AlefBet’s Planners representatives, one of the largest design groups in Israel, visited Ethiopia and the sites where those new neighborhoods and parks are to be built. They have also met the Ethiopian Urban and Development state minister. The hosts have expressed their desire for cost effective and high quality projects. In the last years, many projects were built by companies from the Far East. As the Ethiopians are not satisfied with the quality of the construction, they have decided to turn to the Israeli market.

Daphna Regev from AlefBet Group said: “Ethiopia’s economy is growing very fast, the construction sector reached more than 30% growth in the past two years. The average growth rate is expected to reach 11.6% per annum. This construction capacity is beyond the capacities of the local industry. The Ethiopian government is granting incentives such as land plots free of charge, fast track design, and more. Contrary to Europe, North-America and even Israel who have all experience saturation of construction, Africa is only at the brink of massive development.

AlefBet Planners have signed an agreement for cooperation with TIRET, one of Ethiopia’s mega construction groups, to bridge the local gap of knowledge in the fields of Hi-Rise construction, site and regional development, design and supply of supporting services to the community and more.

The post Israelis To Build Condominiums And Industrial Parks In Ethiopia appeared first on Bilisummaa.

Amaarsaan Muslimoota Oromoo Qamadiin amantii jijjiirsaa jira

Qophii addaa Hiriira Washington DC Ilaalchisee Ibsa qopheessitoota Irraa kanname Ebla 15,2016

Seenaa gabaabaa obboo Bakar waaree: “Bada Bakar Waaree yaa ba’eessa nama, Osoo si deessee haatee marraa lama” …

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SEENAA BAKAR WAAREE Lolli Calanqoo lolaa ittisa imala gabroomfattoota nafxanyaa ture. Lolli kun Amajjii 6 bara 1887 humna Minilikiin hogganamuufi ummata Oromoo, Oromiyaa bahaa jiraatan kanneen gooticha Bakar Waaree tiin hogganamu giddutti taasifame. Bakar Waaree kan dhalate Aanaa Jaarsoo bakka Laga Mixee jedhamutti. Bakar Waaree gumii bultumaa tan Raabaa fi Doorii Bareentummaa Addeellee maadheftattee Fugug bulchitu keessatti qondaala guddaa Birmajii yeroo sanaa ture. Keessattuu dhaddacha mooraa Fugug tan teessuma man-bultii gorguddoo kudha lamaan Alaa: Nuunnu, Meettaa,Diiramu, Goollo, Buubbu, Abbay, Galaan Abbaadho, Ere, Kaako, Arroojjii, Gutayyu keessatti haala sochii siyaasaa fi hawaasummaa irrattii addaa durummaadhaan murtii (hoggansa) kennaa kan ture.

Gootichi kun nama cimaa gootummaa, hayyummaa fi dandeettii hoggansaa jalqabummaan horatee ture. Gootichi kun seenaa fi faaruu Oromoo keessatti bakakyyuutti faarfamaa jira. Fakkeenyaaf, warrii dubartootaa (haawwan) eenyummaa gooticha kanaa ibsuudhaaf helle keessatti akkas jedhanii faarsan:-

“Bada Bakar Waaree yaa ba’eessa nama,
Osoo si deessee haatee marraa lama” …
Warrii dhiirootaa immo dhiichisa keessatti akkas jechuun faarsan:-

“Innaawaa gamnummaa dubbiin jalan galtuu,
Yoo arjummaa taatees dhaabbee biraan galtuu,
Gootummaan duranii roorroon ittiin galtuu,
Bakariin tuttuqaan killee dhagaan loltuu”
Bakara Waaree, seenaa qabsoo Oromoo keessatti waan hedduun yaadatama. Keessayyuu, Oromootni Oromiyaa Bahaa keessa jiraatan ilmaan ykn ijoolleen Qalloo afran /afran Qallo/ jachuuniis(Daga, Oborraa, Baabbile, Ala) fi ijoolLeen Anniyaa sadachaa fi kodheellee lola weerartoota nafxanyaa ofirraa ittiisuuf godhamu irratti hogganaan waraana saba Oromoo(murti guutoo) eenyu akka tahuu eega marii godhatan booda abbaan duula kan isaan hogganu akka Bakar Waaree tahu filatan.

Mariin kun kan taasifame eega ergaan miila qallaa Abbaa Gadaa yeroo sanii Wadaay Galmoo Kormoosoo irraa mooraa fugugitti isaan geesse booda ture. Fillannoo kana irrattiis sooreeyyiin beekkamoon gosoota bakka bu’an kan argaman yammuu tahu isaaniis Anniiyya irraa Hargaaya, Afran Qalloo irra, Wedaay Galmoo Kormoosoo, Orfoo, Katabee Wadaay Dugaa fi Mareenyi yommuu tahu kana keessahiis Hargaayaa fi Wadaay Galmoo Amiir Abdulaahii(amiira adaree) waliin tahanii haala walii gala waraana kanaa akka hogganan gaafatan.Tahuus Amiirtichi tole hin jenne. Sababniis yeroo sanatti Amiirtichi Abbaa isaa Kan deeggarsa oromoo qabu mootummaa Gibxii waliin angoo irraa fonqolchee gara angooti dhufuun isaa yeroo xiqqoo waan taheef haala waliigala waraana sanii hogganuu hin dandeenye.

Adeemsa qophii leenjii waraanaatiin wal qabatee gareen waraanaa ykn loltootni weerartoota nafxanyootaa kanan loluuf qophaa’aniis bakka sadiitti qodamu. Isaaniis:-
=> Gareen tokkoffaan Garee murtii guutoo jedhamu yammuu tahu gareen kun akkuma maqaa isaarraa hubannutti garee isaa ol’aanaafi hanga murtiin isaanii guutamuufittii humna diinaa dura dhaabbachuun kan falmatu jechuu dha. Garee kanaafiis leenjiin kennamu baayyee cima jedhamee himama fkn waraanaa(eeboo) fi gaachena qabatanii farda yaabbatanii arihuudhaan osoo fardii fiigaa jiruu farda garaajala naannahuudhaan hiddii lafaa akka kaasan gochaa leenjiin kennamaafi jedhama.
Hogganaan waraana murtii guutoo Bakar Waareetiis leenjii garee kanaa waliin akka fudhate himama. Iddoon leenjiin itti kennamaafii turees Aanaa gurawaa raada yaayyaa bakka gambeella jedhaamutti fi fiinxee gara mul’ataa bakka dabbaal mootii gaaraa jedhamtutti nama maqaan isaa lallabaa lihoo jedhamuun akka leenjiifaman himama.

=> Lammaffaan, garee Raaree jedhamtu yammuu tahu gareen tuniis akkuma garee murtii guutootti tan fardaan leenjite taatullee leenjiin garee kanaa kennamu akka leenjii garee murtii guutootiif kennamuttii cimaadhaa miti jedhama. gareen kuniis leenjii iddoon itti fudhate Aanaa Gurawaa naannoo rakkoo barzaalaa bakka raaree
jedhamtuttii yammuu tahu leenjiisaan garee tanaatiis Riyyaa jedhamuun beekkama.

=> Saddaffaan, Garee qeeyroo jedhamtu yommuu tahuu gareen kuniis nagaya eegduu (poolisii naannoo) jedhamuun beekamti. Fkn yeroo gareen murtii guutoo fi raaree diina saanii waliin dirree waraanaa irrattii falmii gochaa jiran akka diinii kun kallattii biraatiin itti hin dhufne warreen eegan jedhama. Leenjiin garee kanaa kennamuus sochii qaamaa dabalate akka bifa kaaraatee ammayyaa fakkeessanii muka jajjabaa kanneen akka ejersaa dumucaan cabsuudhaan leenjii fudhata jedhama. Akassumaas meeshaan waraanaa kan gareen kun loluun xiyyaa, mencaafi kan akka qottoo, wacaafaa dhagaa furgugsuufii k.k.f lolan jedhama. Leenjisaan garee tanaatiis akkuma garee raareettii riyyaa jedhamuun beekkama.

Eegaa kabajamtoota dubbiftoota keenya akkuma beekkamu lolli calii calanqoo irratti gaggeeffame irratti gootichi hogganaa waraana oromoo tahe Bakar Waaree gootummaa fi onne qabeessummaa isaarraa kan ka’e miila isaa kan irraa cite osoo ifin dhagahin hanga lolli goolabamuuf gahutti kan ture tahuu isaatu himama. Miilli isaa eessatti fi akkamiitti akka irraa cite wanni beekkamu waan hin jirreef achi buutee tahe. Warri harargeetiis akka afoola ykn maakmaaksaatti jecha kana itti fayyadamuun waan tasa badee hin argamne takka “Achi buutee miila Bakar Waaree” jadhanii himu.

Yaadannoo gooticha kanaatiifiis siidaan yaadannoo farda isaa waliin siidaa yaadannoo wareegamtoota Calanqoo kan dhiheenya kana eebbifame keessatti ijaarameefii jira. Gama kaaniin tulluun fuul dura iddoo siidaan itti ijaarame gamatti argamtu durumarraa tulluu Bakar Waaree jadhamuun beekkamti. Waraanni Murti Guutoo kan isaan hogganamuutu achirra qubatee ture jadhama.

The post Seenaa gabaabaa obboo Bakar waaree: “Bada Bakar Waaree yaa ba’eessa nama, Osoo si deessee haatee marraa lama” … appeared first on Bilisummaa.

According to the rights group Reporters Without Borders Ethiopia is not an easy place for some journalists to operate..

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