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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Gunmen kill nine in western Ethiopia near the Great Dam

Gunmen kill nine in western Ethiopia - Updated News: "Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying dozens of people in western Ethiopia near the Sudanese border, killing nine and wounding six others, state-run media said on Wednesday.

There was no claim of responsibility and no group was blamed for the attack, but Ethiopia says it has thwarted several plots in recent years by Ethiopian insurgents as well as Somali al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab Islamist militants.

“The bus was targeted while travelling 100 kilometers south of (regional capital) Assosa,” a report on state-owned Ethiopian Television said.

No further details were given, and officials were not immediately available to comment."



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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Interview with PM Hailemariam Desalegn

Ethiopian sues UK for 'aiding' rights abuse - Africa - Al Jazeera English


Man accuses Britain's Department of International Development, alleging its finances have abetted rights violations.

Last updated: 01 Apr 2014 19:41
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An Ethiopian man is suing Britain's government alleging its aid money has funded human rights abuses.

The man, known only as Mr O, accuses Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) of financially supporting a "villagisation" scheme in western Ethiopia, a government-led plan to settle pastoralists in sedentary communities, according to the AFP news agency.

The case - itself funded by British legal aid - has been brought before London's High Court, but no trial date has yet been set.

"Mr. O claims he suffered severe abuse and had to flee his home," in western Ethiopia's Gambella region under the villagisation programme, his British lawyers Leigh Day said in a statement.

Under the scheme, the government plans to settle 1.5 million people across the country, which it says will improve access to key services such as education and healthcare.



Getachew Reda, the government spokesman, dismissed the allegation of abuse, saying it was "absolutely outrageous because it doesn't have any factual basis".

But Mr O claims he was forced to leave his home and move to a village with no farmland, schools or clinics before he was finally arrested and beaten by the army.

His lawyer, Rosa Curling, claimed the villagisation programme has had a "devastating and tragic impact", warning that a misuse of aid money can "devastatingly undermine the very aims it is trying to achieve".

DFID denied the charges, saying in a statement that "it is wrong to suggest that British development money is used to force people from their homes".

Britain, one of Ethiopia's largest donors, plans to spend an average of $550m per year until 2015, including direct budgetary support to the government.

About 30 percent of the Ethiopia's budget comes from donor money, crucial in one of the world's poorest countries, where the majority of the 91 million people earn less than two dollars a day, according to the World Bank.

Human Rights Watch has accused Ethiopia of forcibly displacing thousands of people under the villagisation scheme.