Why and How is the Mosque in Lafto (Nefas Silk - Addis Ababa) Demolished

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Negashi OJ brought to its readers the news about the demolition of a Mosque in Lafto woreda (Nefas Silk) in the capital. Our sources by then were vague and self contradictory as to how and why the Mosque was demolished. Radio Negashi which carried detailed reporting on the case (on its 23.08.09 broadcast), has gone again a lenght in search of comprehensive answers. Just play the 30 August 2009 broadcast to find out what it has brought to us.

Radio Negashi Broadcast August 30, 2009

At a Minnesota market, tales of a hidden Ethiopian war

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Ridwan Hassan Sahid, 17-years-old, shows scars on her neck caused by near death-by-strangulation by Ethiopian soldiers in July, 2007. Photo by Doug McGill.


By Doug McGill, TC Daily Planet


August 31, 2009

The first time I heard Fatima tell her story, I answered in the natural way.



“They killed my husband,” she said.



“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.



“And they killed my son,” she said.



“Oh, I’m so sorry for your losses,” I said.
“And they killed my brothers and some of my brothers’ children,” she said, staring at me with eyes that seemed quite without hope and yet that also seemed to ask me, with astonishing tenacity, ‘Are you really listening, do you really understand?’”
I didn’t know what to say to Fatima at this point, as my repeated condolences seemed pointless. So instead I stood up a bit straighter, I took a deep breath, and felt my feet on the ground. I looked back at Fatima with eyes that said that I was willing to stand there and to listen for as long as she wanted.
“And they have killed many of my uncles,” Fatima said.
The Ogaden War
At the Village Market in Minneapolis, the major social hub for Somali-speaking Ethiopian refugees living in the Twin Cities, endless stories like Fatima’s are being urgently swapped every day. They are tales of evil that is so profound it would be unkind of me to suddenly start describing those crimes in detail right now.
You might well not believe the stories anyway. And even if you believed them, you might not believe that such unimaginable crimes could be happening in the world right now, in a little-known corner of Africa called the Ogaden of Ethiopia.
Where are the TV news teams parachuting into refugee camps? Where is the definitive account of the Ethiopian government’s mass destruction of the people and culture of the Ogaden?
Bare Feet
Here is more of Fatima’s story (she like the other witnesses in this story offered only their first names, fearing reprisal against their relatives in Ethiopia if they are identified):
“One day the soldiers came and started shooting, they killed my husband in front of me. Then they tortured and beat me in the same place they killed my husband. On that same day the soldiers also confiscated my home and all of my property and all of my money, leaving me homeless and destitute.”

Fatima is a devout Muslim woman who wears a veil and will not shake a man’s hand except through the cloth of her robe. But after telling me this story she stretched out her legs and took off her shoes, to show me her bare feet which are twisted and deformed, from the beatings she said. Today, she limps with a cane.
We in Minnesota have a special role in telling about the Ogaden crisis, because Minnesota is home to the largest diaspora population of Ogaden refugees in the world. Some 5,000 Somali Ethiopians have fled to Minnesota in recent years, fleeing precisely the crimes against humanity that Fatima and others describe.
Matching Details
Last week, I walked through the Village Market and spoke with a dozen Somali-speaking immigrants from the Ogaden region. This is what is happening in the Ogaden today, they said:
• People are thrown alive into bonfires by Ethiopian soldiers;

• Men and women are strangled to death by soldiers who wrap a wire around their necks and pull the wire on either side;
• Innocent goat herders are rounded up by Ethiopian soldiers and lynched from trees;
• Young girls are snatched from their homes by Ethiopian soldiers, put in prisons and gang-raped day after day, their dead bodies finally tossed like garbage on the street.

One Ogadeni Minnesotan said to me: “We could tell you stories like this all day and night for a week, and at the end we still would not have told you all the stories of all the killing and suffering that is happening in the Ogaden today.”
A single crazy person, or a small group of organized zealots, could orchestrate lies and propaganda about such horrors being committed on a genocidal scale. But how could it happen that the first 12 people that you meet at the Village Mall all tell the same types of stories over and over, with the details matching perfectly?
An American Ally
All of these horrific crimes and tortures are, the Minnesota Ogadenis say, committed by uniformed Ethiopian soldiers. Ethiopia is an official ally of the U.S. and receives millions of dollars in U.S. tax-funded military aid every year.
The Ogaden is a Texas-sized patch of land in Ethiopia that is inhabited by some four million Muslim, Somali-speaking citizens, most of them nomadic pastoralists.

The sparse grassland and shrubland of the Ogaden has been a battlefield for years between Ethiopia and Somalia, with each of those two nations often acting as proxies for global superpowers including Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, when Britain left the Horn of Africa, it set up decades of conflict by handing over the Ogaden, which is populated by ethnic Somalis who are Muslims, to Ethiopia which is mainly ethnic Amhara and Christian. A war was fought over control of the Ogaden between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977-1978.
In 1984, a separatist militia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), was formed to pursue autonomy or independence for the Ogaden by violence if necessary. In 2007, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil facility in the Ogaden, killing Ethiopian soldiers as well as more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians.
Sealed Off
In response, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, launched a brutal counter-insurgency against the “terrorist” ONLF in the Ogaden. The recent atrocities against ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden have been a part of that campaign, with entire villages being wiped out on the mere suspicion of harboring ONLF fighters. Families and friends of ONLF soldiers are often killed or terrorized and family members tortured to give up information on their relatives.
Here is the testimony of a man named Hassan at the Village Market:
“I was in my home. One night Ethiopian soldiers broke down the door and took me to a military camp in Dhagahbur and beat me. I didn’t commit any crime and none of my family members are in the ONLF. They used the butt of their guns to hit me anywhere on my body where they thought it would hurt the most. I was put in jail just like this on three different occasions and placed in a tiny, dirty cell. I spent ten months in prison without ever being charged, without any explanation. Every day I was beaten and I suffered many cuts, sores and infections, but there was no hospital and I got no care.”
There has been virtually no major media coverage of the Ogaden crisis, and the U.S. and other governments have taken virtually no action. This is partly because the Ogaden has been sealed off to journalists and aid organizations, with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders forced to abandon operations there in 2007.
But the Internet is teeming with detailed accounts of specific atrocities much like those described at the Village Market, and many YouTube videos graphically show the results of beatings, torture, killings, looting and rape.
"Still in Prison"
Based on interviews with refugees, thousands of whom have gathered in camps in northern Kenya, and other sources, some human rights groups have also been warning about the Ogaden crisis for several years. In 2008, Human Rights Watch published a 139-page report called “Collective Punishment” that documented “widespread and systematic atrocities” and “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by the Ethiopian military against Ogadeni citizens.
The report detailed “routine mass detentions,” “extrajudicial executions,” “rape of women in military custody,” and documented the destruction (sometimes by satellite photographs) of at least a dozen Ogaden villages. Yet the scale of village burnings and other crimes described in the report “is believed to be significantly larger” than those officially documented in the report, its authors warned.
Here is the testimony of a man named Abdulrahman at the Village Market:
“We talk to our friends and family back home, but we never feel safe, because we know that they could be captured, tortured or killed just for talking to us on the telephone. It is a kind of psychological torture we all still suffer in Minnesota. Also there are Ethiopian government collaborators who live here in Minneapolis, who tell the Ethiopian army if we criticize the government, and our family and friends in Ethiopia could be jailed or killed as a result. America is a free country but in this way we are not psychologically free. It is as if we were suffocating and still in prison.”
The atrocities in the Ogaden have even reached the U.S. Congress where Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), the chairman of the House Subcommitte on Africa, has repeatedly criticized Ethiopia for “deliberating targeting civilians” with “routine raping and hanging” innocent citizens in the Ogaden region. He says the Ogaden crisis is “by far one of the worst” human rights tragedies he has witnessed in his life.
New Intelligence
In October last year, Britain balked at committing foreign aid to Ethiopia after Douglas Alexander, the British international development secretary, discovered on a visit to the Ogaden that the crisis was far more severe than he had thought.
In the U.S., various think tanks and social justice groups have called for the U.S. government to similarly pressure Ethiopia. But the U.S., which regards Ethiopia as an ally in the Horn of Africa which helps to rout Islamist terrorists in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, has so far ignored these warnings and calls to action.
The Minnesota Ogadenis, through their constant cell phone conversations with relatives back home, are unearthing troves of new intelligence about the nature and extent of the Ogaden crisis. For example they report:
• A network of political prisons throughout the Ogaden. An enormous prison in the Ogaden capital city, Jijiga, has been known for years to house thousands of innocent civilians rounded up by the Ethiopian military on suspicion of knowing or harboring ONLF fighters. But the Minnesota Ogadenis say that prison quarters are attached to every military garrison throughout the occupied territory of Ogaden including in the cities of Dhagahbur, Aware, Kabridahar, Fiiq, Wardere, Gode, and Garbo. Many Minnesota Ogadenis have spent months or years in these prisons, or have relatives currently suffering there. They offer details about conditions in the prisons, the crimes routinely committed by the authorities against the prisoners, and the names of those who run the prisons.
• Burning people alive in Garbo, Ethiopia. The torture and killing methods used by the Ethiopian military against the Ogadenis changes over time, with new methods evolving that are ever-more cruel and perverse. For a time, strangling people with rope or wire, with two soldiers pulling on either side, was widely reported. Burying children alive has been reported, as has the sodomization of young boys. Sources in the Ogaden told the Minnesota Ogadenis that this past July, Ethiopian soldiers killed six Ogadenis by throwing them alive into a bonfire.
• Attacking nomads outside of town markets. Most Ogadeni towns have markets where nomads bring their livestock to sell, after which they buy food and clothing before returning to their grazing lands. According to Minnesota Ogadenis, these nomads frequently are attacked by Ethiopian soldiers who lie in wait for them outside of town where they steal their food, clothing and provisions and often kill the nomads while doing so.
Comfort Enough
At one point during my day at the Village Market, a few of us gathered in an office space at the market. Fatima was there along with four other women in veils, and a half-dozen Ogadeni men as well who told me their stories.
We sat on chairs in a circle. As I was listening to another person in the group, I saw Fatima suddenly cover her face with her hands and put her head down towards her lap. Everyone stopped talking.
No one in the group made a move towards Fatima to comfort her. Rather, they allowed her the dignity of her own suffering. Anyway the comfort was simply the supportive presence of the group itself, and everyone knew that was enough.
If was not enough, it was in any case all the comfort there was.
Within a few seconds, Fatima straightened up, daubed her eyes, and everyone continued telling their inconceivable, impossible, true stories of the Ogaden.
Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News--and now the Daily Planet. To reach Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org. And visit The McGill Report at www.mcgillreport.org.
Copyright: ©2009 Doug McGill

Thousands Felled by Diarrhea Outbreak in Ethiopian Capital

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Health officials in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa are battling a severe outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhea. As many as 1,000 cases a day have been reported in the past week, and several people have died. Hospitals are erecting tents to handle the huge increase in patients turning up for treatment.


People have been lining up at hospitals around Addis Ababa for more than a week to get help. Ethiopia's health ministry says 4,000 Acute Watery Diarrhea cases have been confirmed in the past 10 days, 300 in the most recent 24-hour reporting period.

Tent compounds have sprung up on the grounds of at least five hospitals in the capital to treat the unusually high case load.

The U.N. Humanitarian Affairs office issued a bulletin expressing extreme concern that some residents, particularly children, might be especially vulnerable to infection because of malnutrition.

Nationwide, estimates of people in need of emergency food aid have risen steadily in recent months to 6.2 million. The U.N. children's agency reports it has dispatched 47 metric tons of ready-to-use therapeutic formula in a targeted feeding program in recent weeks, and more is on the way.

The U.S. embassy issued a warning to Americans in Addis Ababa last week of the increased risk of acute diarrheal illnesses, including Salmonella, Shigella and Cholera.

Dr. Daddi Jima, deputy director general of the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute says the outbreak has been diagnosed as AWD, not cholera.

"We usually report it as Acute Watery Diarrhea. We have never fully confirmed for any etiologic agents," said Dr. Daddi Jima. "Because we more focus on managing the cases, because the management of Acute Watery Diarrhea is similar. So we are focusing on managing the cases we have rather than going into the details of the specific causative agents."

Dr. Daddi says Ethiopian health agencies have a sufficient supply of the antibiotic doxycyclIne, which is effective against AWD. But he cautions that the heavy rains that are normal in Addis Ababa this time of year play havoc with the public water system.

"AWD is endemic because of poor hygienic situation due to lack of enough water resource distribution, and low coverage of latrine use and the existence of the latrine is low, so because of this AWD happens every year in this country," he said.

The latest U.N. humanitarian bulletin says the government and partner agencies have set up a central command center to scale up efforts to contain the AWD outbreak. Partner groups, including many health agencies are meeting twice daily to coordinate a response wherever a flare-up may occur.

Aid agencies also say critical water shortages are affecting other regions of Ethiopia. U.N. officials say a drought in the Somali region is being compounded by the migration of unusually large herds of livestock from other drought-hit areas in neighboring Somalia and Kenya.

Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

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By Jason McLure


Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- At least 34 people died in Ethiopia following a suspected cholera outbreak, with more than 4,000 sickened in the capital, Addis Ababa, in the past two weeks.

The disease has infected as many as 1,000 people a day in the past week, Dadi Jima, deputy director of the state-owned Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute, said in an interview today. He declined to say the disease is cholera.

The government has not “fully confirmed” the type of illness, Dadi said. “We usually report it as acute watery diarrhea.” The spread of the disease has been exacerbated by heavy rains in the Horn of Africa country, he said.

Cholera, mainly spread through contaminated water and food and poor sanitation, causes acute diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to death. The illness is considered to be endemic in “many countries” and the pathogen that causes the disease can’t currently be eliminated from the environment, according to the Web site of the World Health Organization.

The United Nations humanitarian agency said six cholera- treatment centers capable of treating 180 people a day have been dispatched to the country. The UN has also sent drugs for the treatment of more than 1,500 severe cases and 600 mild cases of acute water diarrhea, as well as water-purification tablets, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mailed statement.

Of the 34 who have died in Ethiopia, seven fatalities were in Addis Ababa, Dadi said. He didn’t provide figures for the number of people affected nationwide, adding only that the disease had been reported in 31 districts.
If untreated, cholera can kill a healthy adult in as little as five hours, according to the WHO.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

U.S. must address Somalia crisis

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By Farah Abdi, Ridwa Abdi,


and Jeremy Prestholdt

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent meeting with Somali President Sharif Ahmed was a reminder of his country's importance to American foreign policy and a step in the right direction. Yet it will take much more to address Somalia's desperate situation. A surge in piracy, a humanitarian crisis, and an increasing number of foreign fighters in the country all demand sustained attention.

Mention of Somalia conjures images from the film Black Hawk Down or media coverage of pirate attacks. These points of reference, as disturbing as they may be, limit our understanding of Somalia. They obscure the fact that since the country's civil war began in 1991, average Somalis - not outsiders - have paid the highest price. Intolerable conditions created by nearly two decades of conflict and ill-advised international interventions have pushed civilians to take ever more extreme measures, from piracy to militancy to perilous ocean crossings, to escape the war.
In 1991, the family to which two of us belong fled the fighting in Somalia on a boat filled well beyond capacity. We were fortunate enough to find refuge in Kenya. Most have not been so lucky.

Those still trapped in Somalia's shifting war zones have suffered unthinkable depredations and deepening despair. Contrary to prevailing American public opinion, these conditions are not entirely of Somalia's making. International intervention has played a significant role.

Perhaps the most notable such event was the 2006 Ethiopian invasion. That year, the Islamic Courts Union took power from a largely ineffectual Transitional Federal Government, bringing fleeting stability to the country. Soon thereafter, Ethiopia, acting on suspicions that the Islamic Courts Union had links to al-Qaeda, and with the tacit approval of the United States, invaded Somalia and removed the group from power.

Instead of securing a greater peace, the Ethiopian invasion pitched the country into chaos. It added fuel to the flames of a Somali nationalism long fed by conflict with Ethiopia over claims to the Ogaden border region. American air strikes and the later presence of African Union forces in Somalia further stoked nationalist sentiments and brought more recruits to the Islamic Courts' hard-line fringe, al-Shabaab.

In the past year, al-Shabaab has enjoyed considerable military success and faced international condemnation for its links to al-Qaeda and institution of strict Islamic law. This combination of military success and Western condemnation has led the group to rebuke the international community by denying the legitimacy of the recently elected president, Ahmed. It has also given al-Shabaab incentive to develop a closer alliance with al-Qaeda.

The fighting in Somalia over the last year has contributed to a situation that Oxfam's humanitarian coordinator in Somalia, Hassan Noor, recently summed up as "the worst kind of humanitarian situation." Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting, raising the estimated number of internally displaced people to 1.3 million. Many have no reliable source of water or food, and most have no way to earn a living.

This worsening humanitarian situation has only compounded Somalia's other crises, and it is directly related to the rise in pirate attacks. Facing desperate conditions in displacement camps and few opportunities beyond joining a military faction, young men have increasingly sought their fortunes in piracy. The surge in piracy illustrates the desperation of Somalis, but it also demonstrates how the conditions of the war and a weak central government reverberate far beyond the country's borders.

It seems we can no longer ignore the situation in Somalia. Yet the responses often suggested - policing the country's waters, undertaking short-term military interventions, or supplying the government with weapons - will not solve Somalia's problems.

Piracy, jihadist influence, and the humanitarian catastrophe all stem from one central issue: the war. The conflict is too complex for a quick solution. But without a lasting peace and a national government acceptable to the majority, Somalia's situation will only worsen.

America and the international community must commit to lasting political engagement with Somalia, and we must be determined to bring all parties in the conflict to the negotiating table. That kind of intervention drew neighboring Kenya back from the brink. Like Kenya, Somalia needs to know the world is concerned about its plight.

What might give us the determination to sustain this kind of engagement? The dividends of peace would be greater than ever. The war in Somalia once may have seemed irrelevant to the rest of the world. But now peace in Somalia promises not only to end mass starvation and bring stability to the Horn of Africa, but also to curb piracy and limit the global influence of al-Qaeda.
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Farah Abdi and Ridwa Abdi are former Somali refugees who recently graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and are working on a research project on the health needs of refugee women in San Diego County. Jeremy Prestholdt is an Africa specialist and associate professor of history at UCSD. They can be contacted at fabdi@ucsd.edu, rabdi@ucsd.edu, and jprestholdt@ucsd