“Wako” fled Ethiopia for Kenya in 2012, after his release from prison. He had been locked up for two years after campaigning for the Oromo People’s Congress, an opposition party that has often been targeted by the government. In Kenya, he hoped to be safe. But six months later Ethiopian officials kidnapped him in Nairobi and brought him to Ethiopia’s notorious Ziway prison, where he was mistreated and tortu ...

Addis Ababa - The federal republic of Ethiopia is one of Africa’s most daring constitutional experiments. The radical idea—that by institutionalizing ethnic divisions the country might peacefully overcome them—was a gamble from the outset. The doubters have largely been proven wrong: Ethiopia’s distinct model of ethnically-based federalism has, since it was introduced in 1995, just about worked. But a parti ...

Suspected al-Shabab fighters beheaded nine men in an overnight assault on a village in the Kenyan coastal district of Lamu, police said, days after the armed group killed three police officers in an attack on a nearby village. A witness, who asked not to be named, confirmed the death toll to Reuters news agency. "They raided Jima and Pandanguo villages and killed nine men. They were slaughtered like chicken ...

An armed group has claimed responsibility for an arson attack at an ammunition depot in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Saturday. Patriotic Ginbot 7, an armed group fighting the Ethiopian regime from its base in Eritrea, said Saturday’s attack is part of the resistance movement carried out by its cells everywhere in Ethiopia. The fire at the Federal Police ammunition depot in the capital went for hours an ...

Over 100 camels have been killed and at least 47 houses torched by bandits who locals believe are security officers on the border of Kitui and Tana River counties. Speaking to journalists at Bisan-hargeysa, distressed mothers holding their babies — as young as a month old — claimed uniformed police officers descended on their settlement on Friday evening and destroyed their traditional Somali huts, one afte ...

African leaders on Tuesday adopted a strategy calling for a collective withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). The decision which is not legally binding came behind closed doors near the end of an African Union summit in Ethiopia. Reports said countries had been divided on whether to call for leaving the court individually or together. Africa has 34 signatories to the Rome Statute, the treat ...

A modest meal of rice, mashed potatoes, beans and beef was served for lunch yesterday at the low-key first memorial for the Kenyan soldiers killed when terrorists attacked a KDF base in El Adde, Somalia last year. About 400 family members, including children and widows of the fallen heroes, congregated at Moi Barracks in Soy near Eldoret. Government officials were conspicuously absent from the barracks that ...

The United Arab Emirates is proving to be a powerful actor in the Northeast Africa peninsula which is home to eight nations. It has secured two military bases, one in Eritrea and the other one in Somaliland, strategic for the fight in Yemen. Countries with limited resources like Puntland, Somaliland and Somalia enjoy the UAE's generosity in providing military equipment as well as extensive funding and train ...

It’s good news that Ethiopia’s government has announced the release of 9,800 people detained for their participation in anti-government protests. But they represent fewer than half of the 24,000 people detained since a countrywide state of emergency began on October 9. And most never should have been arrested. The state of emergency has had catastrophic rights implications for Ethiopians, and the factors th ...

More than 800 soldiers have left the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) since the Somalia operation began in 2011. KDF Director of Prosecution Brigadier Kenneth Okoki Dindi told a Mombasa court that the soldiers left for various reasons, including desertion. In a sworn affidavit filed at the Mombasa Court of Appeal, Brigadier Dindi said the departures had a direct effect on KDF's ability to check indiscipline and d ...