Warfare in Independent Africa
by William Reno
Cambridge University Press, 271 pp., $27.99 (new paper book)
Young rebels from the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo—whose fighters, according to UNHCR, are told to spray themselves with ‘magic water to protect themselves from bullets’—Lukweti, Masisi Territory, North Kivu, 2011. The photograph is titled Vintage Violence and appears in Infra, Richard Mosse’s book of infrared images of eastern Congo. The book includes an essay by Adam Hochschild and has just been published by Aperture and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Young rebels from the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo—whose fighters, according to UNHCR, are told to spray themselves with ‘magic water to protect themselves from bullets’—Lukweti, Masisi Territory, North Kivu, 2011. The photograph is titled Vintage Violence and appears in Infra, Richard Mosse’s book of infrared images of eastern Congo. The book includes an essay by Adam Hochschild and has just been published by Aperture and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
In December 2009, the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal African rebel group guided by a wig-wearing commander named Joseph Kony, massacred more than three hundred people in a remote corner of northeastern Congo. Most of the victims were clubbed to death, some were killed with machetes, a few were shot, and a few more were strangled. The LRA, as it is widely known—in Congo it’s simply called tonga-tonga, which means something like “those who attack silently”—had just kidnapped hundreds of people and was moving quickly through the bush. Anyone who couldn’t keep up was killed. Most often the other conscripts, many of them children, were forced to do the killing. Because that corner of Congo is so isolated and sparsely populated, it took weeks for news of the massacre to filter out, unusual in today’s hyperconnected world. I had to charter a plane to reach the massacre area, because there were no functioning roads close to it. I flew into a little town called Niangara, an old trading post at the confluence of two rivers. During Belgian rule, Niangara was a boom town for cotton and coffee, though you would never know that now. The roofless old Belgian houses are sinking into the elephant grass and the once-paved roads are gluey mud. There was no evidence of war or distress when I landed, not even fresh-faced foreign aid workers in their white vests. Read more…
Dismissals and Suspensions of University Students on Political Grounds
February 20, 2012
Three students of Jimma Unversity in the regional State of Oromia in Ethiopia were given academic dismissal while four others were suspended from their studies at the university for two years for demanding for a halt to what was described as politically motivated racial slurs allegedly perpetuated by students of Tigrian oringin, the ethnic group that controls the political power in the current regime in the University campuses. According to the HRLHA reporter in Jimma (Wetern Oromia), Wubshet Zelalem, Mengistu (Amhara nationasl), Tesfaye Berihanu Bari’e and Moera Lema Debela (both Oromo nationals) were dismissed from the University, while Mekonnin Dabale Tolla, Nuredin Ahmed Bariso and Takalign Konta Oli (Oromo) were temporarily abrogated for two years. Another student called Melesse Tilahun (who was a Gurage by birith) was penalized with one year suspension from the University. Read more…
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February 20, 2012 (gadaa.com) – I hereby confirm the story that has recently become the subject of considerable discussion that on February 13, 2012, I submitted my letter of resignation from the National Council of the OLF to the concerned OLF leader. I decided to resign in order to independently contribute to the Oromo people’s struggle for liberation.
Due to the overwhelming reaction triggered by the story of my decision, both from Comrades, other fellow Oromos and others, I am compelled to issue this brief Press Release.
The reasons for my resignation are submitted to the appropriate Leadership of the OLF, and I see no need to publicize them. I would like all interested to know that I did not withdraw from the Oromo people’s struggle.
I am humbled by the expressed confidence of fellow Oromos in me. I would like to take this opportunity to assure the concerned fellow Oromos that I will continue participation in the struggle, and will continue struggling for and defending the Oromo people’s aspiration for liberation, self-determination, equality, justice, human dignity and progress.
Beyan H. Asoba
African migrant workers whom rebels accused of being mercenaries seen detained in a military base in Tripoli, Libya
February 19, 2012 (The New American) – As Libyans prepare to mark the one-year anniversary of the Western-backed uprising that ultimately toppled the regime of despot Muammar Gadhafi, human-rights monitors say hundreds of “out of control” militia groups are still engaged in mass savagery — raping and torturing people to death in makeshift prison camps, ethnically cleansing parts of the country, and more.
The most recent charges came on Wednesday. Researchers with the organization Amnesty International released a fresh report, citing interviews with detainees and observations on the ground, accusing the lawless Libyan militias of committing widespread human rights abuses including what amounts to war crimes. Read more…
February 19, 2012 | Dhaamsa TBOY15 Oromiyaa irraa
Nuti barattoonni oromoo dhaabbile barnootaa adda addaa keeessa jirru haala qabatamaa ummanni keenya keessa jiru ilaalchisee yeroo yerootti bifa qindaa’een marii taasisaa turree jirra. Keessattuu egeree ummata keenyaa kan murtaa’u waan amma godhamaa jiruun waan ta’eef qaamot gurguddoo kana keessatti ga’ee qaban jennee waan amannuuuf dhaamsa gababaa kan bifa iyyataan dhiyeessinee jirra.
I. DHAABBILEE SIYAASAA OROMOO:
Akkuma bekamu sabni tokko ulfinaa fi kabajaa isaaf malu goonfatuu kan danda’u yoo gurmaa’e qofaa dha.Oromoonis bifa adda addaan ijaaramaa akka ture ni beekama. Kan keessattis dhaabbileen siyaasaa oromoo ga’ee guddaa akka qaban ifaadha.Haata’uumalee bara dhiyoo asi qabsoon dhaabbileen kunnin taasisaa jiran gara caalu wal gidduuti akka ta’aa jiru hubatama dha. Kunis rincicuu qabsoo keenyaaf sababa guddaadha jennee amannna. Keessattuu bara jaarraa 21ffaa kana, jaldeessii fi roobootiin hojii namaa hojjataa jiran, namni kaayyoo tokkoof manaa ba’ee fi afaan tokko dubbatu dubbatee walii galuu dhabuun OROMOON BARA DUKKANAA KEESSA JIRAACHUU AGARSIISA. waan ta’eef: Read more…
February 18, 2012 (The Indian Ocean Newsletter N°1326) ”Some Ethiopian opponents are convinced that the United States may have already begun to discuss the succession of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The United States has already reportedly begun to check two options for what could follow after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi: he could either rapidly designate his own successor to prepare him for his role or he could establish government of national unity before the end of his term. Such is the belief of Ethiopian opponents who have had contacts with American diplomats in Addis Ababa or in Washington. These diplomats have had talks with the faction of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) headed by Kemal Gelchu, with the Ginbot 7 group led by Berhanu Nega and with Daoud Ibsa, the leader of another faction of the OLF who was discreetly invited to Washington at the end of last year. Read more…
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Note: Dr. Alemayehu Kumsa wants to share this important speech with you
By Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Address to The German Nation, 1807
February 18, 2012
Love that is truly love, and not a mere transitory lust, never clings to what is transient; only in the eternal does it awaken and become kindled, and there alone does it rest. Man is not able to love even himself unless he conceives himself as eternal; apart from that he cannot even respect, much less approve, of himself. Still less can he love anything outside himself without taking it up into the eternity of his faith and of his soul and binding it thereto. He who does not first regard himself as eternal has in him no love of any kind, and, moreover, cannot love a fatherland, a thing which for him does not exist. He who regards his invisible life as eternal, but not his visible life as similarly eternal, may perhaps have a heaven and therein a fatherland, but here below he has no fatherland, for this, too, is regarded only in the image of eternity—eternity visible and made sensuous, and for this reason also he is unable to love his fatherland. If none has been handed down to such a man, he is to be pitied. But he to whom a fatherland has been handed down, and in whose soul heaven and earth, visible and invisible meet and mingle, and thus, and only thus, create a true and enduring heaven—such a man fights to the last drop of his blood to hand on the precious possession unimpaired to his posterity. Read more…
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February 18, 2012 (ghezana) – The Ethiopian government, in its desperate attempt to jam the increasingly popular Eritrean Television from being viewed in Ethiopia and the region, has instead knocked a number of other satellite TV operators out from the service of Arabsat and Nilesat networks.
Lebanon, the latest victim country, is now openly condemning the jamming practice of the Ethiopian government after it puts several of its TV channels out of the Arabsat network.
The country’s telecommunications Minister, Mr. Nicolas Sehnaoui, yesterday thrown his accusations at the increasingly totalitarian government of Ethiopia after results from the preliminary investigations into the jamming of Arabsat satellite transmission confirms Ethiopia as the source of the jamming signal. Read more…
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His Excellency Antonio Guterres
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Switzerland
February 15, 2012
RE: Appeal Against The Refoulement of Oromo Refugees by Norwegian Government
Your Excellency,
We, members of the Oromo community in Ireland, are writing this letter to appeal to you regarding the deportation of the Oromo refugees residing in Norway based on the agreement signed between the Federal Republic of Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Norway. We learned that the agreement provides ground for involuntary repatriation. It is with the greatest of shocks and utter disbelief that we learned of the news that Norway is going to hand over Oromo refugees to the Ethiopian government whose persecution they have escaped. Read more…
Feb 17, 2012 (ILRI) – Staphylococcal poisoning from drinking non-pasteurized or non-homogenized milk was found to affect over 90% of a tested population in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. The cause? “Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that can cause mastitis (udder infection) in dairy cows” according to collaborative research undertaken by scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Addis Ababa University. The bacteria can then produce enterotoxins in the milk which, when consumed by a person, cause a real risk of food poisoning.
Scientists have been measuring the level of staphylococcal poisoning – also known as food poisoning – found in the fermented milk in Debre Zeit. The research has also shown that traditional milk fermentation can help ensure milk is safe for consumption by reducing “the risk of food poisoning by Staphylococcus aureus by 93.7%.”
During milk souring: “…the organic acids produced during fermentation inhibit the growth of spoilage micro-organisms, thereby prolonging the storage life of the milk.” These traditional techniques are especially useful when industrial milk preparation methods are not available. Read more…
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By Urgessa Tura |February 17, 2012
In the last four weeks, the news that ‘the new OLF’ dropped its secessionist aspiration as an ultimate political goal in the struggle for the self-rule of the Oromo people has gone viral on various Ethiopian media outlets. This news has created a sensational moment of jubilation for unitarist Ethiopian elites who didn’t waste any time in congratulating ‘the new OLF leaders’ as progressive, patriots and true Ethiopians at heart. While the same news was received with contempt and outrage by the Ethiopian-Oromo elites, who passionately believe that the future of peaceful, democratic and prosperous Ethiopia lies in organizing around identity politics – responding to the political demands of nations and nationalities in plain terms. Read more…
February 16, 2012 (Africa Review) – Tense negotiations are underway for the release of two Swedish journalists jailed by Ethiopia on terrorism charges in September.
A delegation from the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is said to have already met with Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi.
EU and Swedish officials are this week expected to outline options to further press the Horn of Africa country into releasing the journalists, including a review of aid obligations.
“In the last couple of days, we have been discussing with Ethiopian officials and we hope to secure the release of the two reporters,” a high ranking EU official told this reporter on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Read more…
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February 16, 2012 (Huffington Post) – I can’t get the sounds of their torture out of my head. Sounds I imagined. But the accounts of the Eritrean men, women and kids we met at the Shagarab refugee camp in East Sudan are terrifyingly real.
The refugees from Eritrea thought they were buying a simple cross-border ride to freedom via Sudan to a safe country. Instead they were being led to locked compounds to be chained and shackled, beaten with iron rods and subjected to electric shock. Instead the women were dragged into the forest and raped systematically. Read more…
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