Timeline Ethiopia
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Africanet: http://www.africanet.com/africanet/country/ethiopia/history.htm
History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#History
Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/afr/eth.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html
USSD: http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/ethiopia_0398_bgn.html
Aksum was an ancient name of Ethiopia, also known as
Abyssinia.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, BR p.12)(SFC, 6/4/99, p.W9)
The Konso people of Ethiopia produced funerary figures.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.B9)
27Mil BC Six species of prehistoric
mammals from this were discovered in 2003 in the Chilga region of
Ethiopia's northwestern highlands. They included 3 species of
Palaeomastadon, one species Deinotherium, one Gompotherium, and an
example of Arsinoitherium.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.D5)
10Mil BC In 2007 Ethiopian fossil hunter found molars
of a large ape that bespoke gorilla origins from about this time. They
named the large ape Chororapithecus abyssinicus.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
5.8Mil-5.2Mil Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Giday
WoldeGabriel reported in 2001 possible human fossils from this period
in Ethiopia. They were tentatively named as a subspecies of
Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba. Kadabba means progenitor in the Afar
language.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A4)(AM, 9/01, p.16)
4.4Mil BC A partial skeleton in more than 90 pieces
was found by a group led by Tim White, Gen Suwa and Berhane Asfaw in
the Middle Awash at Aramis, Ethiopia, in late 1994. They name it
Ardipithecus ramidus, which put it in a new genus and means ground ape
root. A new argon-argon dating technique was used.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A2)(SFC,
4/23/99, p.A21)(AM, 7/01, p.25)
4.1Mil BC-3Mil BC Fossils of Australopithecus
anamensis and A. afarensis, later found in Ethiopia, showed that
structures in the wrist bones had once supported knuckle walking.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A4)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A2)
4Mil BC-3.8Mil BC 2005 hominid bones indicting
bipedalism were discovered at a new site called Mille, in the
northeastern Afar region of Ethiopia. They were estimated to be 3.8-4
million years old.
(AP, 3/6/05)
3.6Mil BC-3Mil BC A composite skull of adult male,
Australopithecus afarensis, was found in 1975 by M. Bush at Hadar,
Ethiopia. In 1978-1979 Mary Leakey’s team excavated a 75-foot long
trail of 47 footprints, found at Laetoli, Tanzania, most likely made by
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.568)(Hem., Dec. '95,
p.24)(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.2)
3.3Mil BC In northeastern Ethiopia scientists in 2000
found a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old Australopithecus
afarensis female dating to about this time. This is the same ape-man
species as represented by "Lucy," found in 1974.
(AP, 9/20/06)
3.2Mil BC Donald C. Johanson found Lucy's 3.2
million-year-old bones in Ethiopia in 1974. Dr. Johanson and an
international team at Hadar, Ethiopia, discovered a female skeleton in
3 million year old strata and named it Lucy. Subsequent finds there and
at Laetoli, Tanzania, led to the naming of a new species:
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 564)(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)
3Mil BC A nearly complete male skull of A. afarensis
was found in 1991 at Hadar, Ethiopia.
(www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html#afarensis)
2.6Mil BC-2.52Mil BC Stone flakes,
flake fragments and cores of the Oldowan type from the Afar region of
Ethiopia have been dated to this time. They were excavated between
1992-1994 along the Gona River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.13)
1Mil BC A homo erectus skull from Daka, Ethiopia,
from this time was identified in 2001 as an ancestor to all modern
humans. Tim D. White and Berhani Asfaw led the team that discovered the
fossils in 1997.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)
600000BC A skull of this age from Bodo, Ethiopia,
exhibits the largest nasal width of any Homo fossil.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.32)
500000BC-200000BC In Ethiopia a
hominid skull from this period was discovered in 2006 at the Gawis
river drainage basin in the Afar region.
(Reuters, 3/24/06)
195000BC Human fossils found in Ethiopia in 1967
were dated in 2005 to be about 195k years old.
(SFC, 2/17/05, p.A6)
160000BC-154000BC Fossils of human skulls, found in
1997 near Herto, Ethiopia, were dated in 2003 to this period. Tim D.
White and colleagues made the find.
(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A10)
955BC-587BC The Ark of the
Covenant, the sacred chest built by Moses containing the Ten
Commandments, disappeared from Jerusalem during this period. Legend in
Ethiopia holds that the Ark was stolen by Menelik I, son of Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba, and taken to Aksum where Orthodox Christian monks
have watched over it ever since.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c950BC The Queen of Sheba lived about this time.
Local legends name her Makeda and claim that she was from Ethiopia.
Archeologists have found inscriptions from the ancient Sabean kingdom
but no mention of Makeda or Bilqis, the local name for Sheba in Yemen.
The Koran claims she ruled from Yemen.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
c950BC The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian text,
claims that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and
that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
155BC-213 Some evidence has it that the Ark of the
Covenant was brought to Ethiopia during this period. The 1992 book "The
Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents the evidence.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
330 Ezana (Aezianas), ruler of
Aksum (northeast Ethiopia), converted much of his realm to
Christianity. During his rule he constructed much of the monumental
architecture of Aksum, including a reported 100 stone obelisks, the
tallest of which loomed 98 ft over the cemetery in which it stood and
weighed 517 tons. Most of the obelisks were later destroyed, but one
1,700-year-old monument was hauled off by Italian forces after their
1937 invasion. It was returned in 2003.
(http://archaeology.about.com/cs/africa/a/aksum.htm)(SSFC, 11/9/03,
p.A2)
330 Frumentius became the first
Bishop of Ethiopia. He was a Syrian who grew up in Axum and converted
the King.
(www.africanet.com/africanet/country/ethiopia/history.htm)
c850 Outsiders found coffee in the
region of Ethiopia called Kaffa, hence the name.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, Z1
p.4)(www.koffeekorner.com/koffeehistory.htm)
c1197 The sacred cross of Lalibela
dates to this time. It was believed to belong to King Lalibela of
Ethiopia who ordered "on command of God and with the help of angels"
the construction of a holy city hewn from rock. In 1997 it was reported
lost.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E4)
1268 The recorded lineage of the
Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia begins with Yekuno Amlak. See the
reference for a complete list.
(www.imperialethiopia.org/solomonids.htm)
1300-1400 The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian
text, claims that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon
and that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
1351 The east African Kingdom of
Dongala became hemmed in by Muslim states such as Kordofan and Darfur
and was forced to surrender to Egypt its territory north of the third
cataract. Axum was harried by the Muslims of Funj and the people
retreated into the mountains and developed into the isolated Christian
kingdom of Ethiopia.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.170)
1471 Jul 15, Eskender (d.1494),
Emperor of Ethiopia, was born. Eskender was killed at age 22 fighting
the Maya, a vanished ethnic group known for using poisoned arrows.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskender)
1494 Eskender (b.1471), Emperor of
Ethiopia, was killed at age 22 fighting the Maya, a vanished ethnic
group known for using poisoned arrows.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskender)
1543 Feb 21, In the Battle at
Wayna Daga Ethiopian and Portuguese troops beat Moslem army. Ahmed
Gran, sultan of Adal, died in the battle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelawdewos_of_Ethiopia)
1582 The Christian world adopted
the revised Gregorian calendar, but Ethiopia stayed with the Julian
calendar.
(www.gcw.nl/dissertations/3386/dis3386.pdf)
1735 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
translated a book on Abyssinia by a Portuguese Jesuit: “A Voyage to
Abyssinia.” In 1759 Johnson authored his prose fiction “The History of
Rasellas, Prince of Abissinia.” In the novel morality and happiness are
shown not as matters of simple alternatives but sometimes impossible
ones.
(www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_se/personal/cjmm/Rasselas.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ld7bp)
1844 cAug 17, Menelik II, King of
Ethiopia (1896-1913), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1855 Ras Kassa had himself crowned
as the emperor at Axum (Ethiopia) under the name, Tewodros, and
constructed an army to reunite the provinces of Tigre, Amhara and Shoa.
(www.africanet.com/africanet/country/ethiopia/history.htm)
1868 Apr 13, Tewodros II
(1818-1868), also known as Theodore II, committed suicide at Magdala
while under British siege. He was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855-1868.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewodros_II)
1868 Ethiopia’s Prince Alemayehu
(7), son of Tewodros II, was placed on a ship to Britain and enrolled
in boarding school. He died aged 18 of suspected pleurisy in the
northern city of Leeds, after years of loneliness. In 2007 Ethiopia
called for the return of his remains.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
1868 A British soldier took the
wooden Tabot of St. Michael from the fortress of Emp. Tewodros II at
Maqdala. It was returned in 2002.
(AM, 5/01, p.10)
1869 Nov 11, Victor Emmanuel III,
king of Italy (1900-46) and Ethiopia, was born.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1889-1913 Emperor Menelik II reigned, fending off the
encroachments of European powers.
(www.ethiopianembassy.org/history.shtml)
1892 Jul 23, Haile Selassie
(d.1975), Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-74), was born as Tafari Makonnen at
Ejarsa Goro, near Harer. He pleaded with the League of Nations to halt
the Italian invasion of his country. "Outside the kingdom of the Lord
there is no nation which is greater than any other."
(AP, 7/23/02)(www.imperialethiopia.org/history3.htm)
1896 Mar 1, The Battle of Adwa
(Adowa, Adua) began in Ethiopia between the 80,000 forces of Negus
Menelik, Emperor Menelik II, and 18-20,000 Italian troops. The Italians
suffered a crushing defeat. Menalik II and his wife Taitu led Ethiopia
to independence from Italy. In 2000 Haile Gerima made a 90 minute
documentary of the event, "Adwa: An African Victory."
(Civilization, July-Aug. 1995, p.40-47)(WSJ,
5/16/96, p.A-12)(CNT, Nov.,1994, p.244)(AP, 3/1/98)(SFC, 5/15/00,
p.D3)(SC, 3/1/02)
1906 Jul 4, Great Britain, France
& Italy granted independence to Ethiopia.
(Maggio, 98)
1914 Jun 27, US signed a treaty of
commerce with Ethiopia.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1916 Sep, In September 1916, an
assembly of nobles with the agreement of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
deposed Emperor Lij Iyasu (Iyasu V), the grandson and heir of Emperor
Menelik II, for suspected conversion to Islam. In his place they
crowned Menelik's daughter Zauditu as Empress of Ethiopia and her
cousin Ras (Duke) Tafari Makonnen as Crown Prince and Regent.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)
1923 Haile Selassie secured
admission to the League of Nations.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)
1924 Slavery itself was abolished
by edict in Ethiopia.
(www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/ethiopia.htm)
1928 Tafari Makonnen (b.1892)
became King of Shewa.
(www.imperialethiopia.org/history3.htm)
1930 Apr 2, Ethiopia’s Empress
Zauditu died and Ras Tafari assumed the title of Emperor.
(www.ethiopianembassy.org/history.shtml)
1930 Nov 2, Haile Selassie was
crowned emperor of Ethiopia. His coronation was taken as a sign by
Jamaicans, who became known as Rastafarians, from the term Ras Tafari,
a title held by Selassie. Ras Tafari crowned Haile Selassie I, 225th
emperor of Solmonic Dynasty.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFC, 12/4/00,
p.A12)(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)
1931 Haile Selassie introduced
Ethiopia’s first written constitution.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)
1931 Slavery was officially
abolished in Ethiopia (1930 by the Ethiopian calendar).
(www.law.emory.edu/WAL/Advocacy/day1.htm)
1932 Aug 7, Abebe Bikila (d.1973),
barefoot runner from Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon, was
born.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZLB1-Ofyw)
1933 Count Byron De Prorok
undertook an archeological expedition from Egypt into Ethiopia. His
book "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" described the venture. He pioneered the
use of motion pictures from 1920. His other books included "Digging for
Lost African Gods" (1926), "Mysterious Sahara" (1929) and "In Quest of
Lost Worlds" (1935).
(AM, 9/01, p.64)
1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian
troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1935 Jun 30, Fascists caused an
uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia spoke.
He also warned the League of Nations of the dangers of appeasement.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1935 Jul 18, Ethiopian King Haile
Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the
invading Italian army. He had previously warned the League of Nations
of the dangers of appeasement.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1935 Oct 3, Italy invaded
Ethiopia.
(DoD, 1999,
p.237)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/india/italyethiopia1935.htm)
1935 Oct 6, Italian army occupied
Adua, Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 10/6/01)
1935 Oct 11, The League of Nations
met and voted 50 to 4 (Austria, Hungary, Italy and Albania opposed) to
condemn Italy for the attack on Ethiopia.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1935 Dec 30, Italian bombers
destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1935-1936 The Italian army used chemical warfare
against Ethiopia in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
(NH, 10/98, p.18)
1936 Jan 5, Daggha Bur, Ethiopia,
was bombed by the Italians.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1936 Mar 29, Italy firebombed the
Ethiopian city of Harar.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1936 May 2, With the Italian
invasion Ethiopia’s Emp. Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland. He
went into exile for 5 years during which time he was based in Bath,
England.
(http://tinyurl.com/ahqhm)
1936 May 5, Italian troops
occupied Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1757 Italians and 1593 Eritreans were
killed, more than 275,000 Ethiopians were killed.
(http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude05.html)(http://nazret.com/history/)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy annexed
Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1936 Jun 30, Haile Selassie asked
the League of Nations for sanctions against Italy.
(www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_400.html)
1936 Jul 4, The League Council
voted to end economic sanctions against Italy with the collapse of
Ethiopia. The cancellation of economic sanctions against an aggressor
state marked the failure of collective security under the League and
was a harbinger of conflict in the upcoming years.
(http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1937 Jan 9, Italian regime banned
marriages between Italians and Abyssinians.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1937 Feb, More than 30,000
Ethiopians were massacred in Addis Ababa.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1937 The 1,700 year-old Axum
Obelisk was dismantled and removed from Ethiopia by Italian forces.
Mussolini used it to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his march on
Rome. In 1998 Italy agreed to return it. The border war delayed the
return to 2003.
(AM, 5/01, p.10)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A2)
1941 Mar 7, British troops invaded
Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 3/7/02)
1941 Apr 6, Italian-held Addis
Ababa surrendered to British and Ethiopian forces.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1941 May 5, Emperor Haile Selassie
returned to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1941 May 18, Italian army under
General Aosta surrendered to Britain in Ethiopia.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1941 Nov 18, Mussolini's forces
left Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Aug 26, Haile Selassie issued
a new proclamation outlawing slavery in Ethiopia. Slavery was first
outlawed in 1924.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R28)(http://nazret.com/history/)
1942 Aug 26, Haile Selassie
established the State Bank of Ethiopia.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1944 Apr 4, British troops
captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1945 After WW II Ethiopia annexed
Eritrea, a former Italian colony, and ruled it ruthlessly.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)
1946 Dec, Ethiopian Airlines was
founded.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1947 Dec 28, Victor Emmanuel
(b.1869-1947), also known as Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy
(1900-1946), Emperor of Ethiopia (1939-1943) and King of Albania
(1939-1943), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_III_of_Italy)
1950 Dec 2, The UN voted 46-10 for
Eritrea to be federated with Ethiopia. Union was to be achieved
September 15, 1952.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1951 Feb 27, University College of
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was opened.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1951 Oct 7, Dr. Eduardo Anze
Matienzo of Bolivia, UN commissioner for Eritrea, announced that
Eritrea had accepted the UN Federation plan.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1952 Jul 10, The new constitution
of Eritrea, adopted and ratified on August 11, provided that Eritrea
should have legislative, executive and judicial powers in matters not
reserved to the federal government.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1952 Sep 11, Eritrean-Ethiopian
federation act was signed and Eritrea became an independent (federated)
nation. Washington, worried an emergent Eritrea would come under Soviet
influence, had arranged for it to be yoked in a federation to U.S.
client Ethiopia.
(AP, 1/3/05)(http://nazret.com/history/)
1955 Nov 4, Haile Selassie
introduced a revised constitution under which he retained effective
power while extending political participation by allowing the lower
house of parliament become an elected body.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)(http://nazret.com/history/)
1955 King Selassie granted a group
of Rastafarians a small area of fertile land in southern Ethiopia.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A14)
1955 US Col. Edward S. Berry
(d.1999 at 93) helped establish the Ethiopian Military College.
(SFC, 7/28/99, p.C2)
1959 A water agreement between
Egypt and Sudan was based on an annual net yield of 96.2 billion cubic
yards of water and gave Egypt 72.15 billion and Sudan 20.04. Ethiopia
got no allocation and never recognized the treaty.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A1)
1959 Catherine Hamlin (35) moved
to Ethiopia from Australia to work as an obstetrician and gynecologist.
Hamlin and her husband later founded a hospital where women can seek
free treatment for obstetric fistulas, which are holes that develop
between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum that can develop
during long and difficult births.
(AP, 10/13/09)
1960 Sep 10, Abebe Bikila
(1932-1973), barefoot runner from Ethiopia, won the Olympic marathon.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZLB1-Ofyw)
1962 In Ethiopia a 16-year-old
artist painted "Woman at the Market."
(SFEM, 1/12/97, DB p.20)
1962 Ethiopia made Eritrea a
separate province.
(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.A22)
1963 May 25, The Organization of
African Unity (OAU) was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2001 it
was replaced the African Union.
(AP, 5/25/97)(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)
1966 Apr 21, Emperor Haile
Selassie (Ethiopia) visited Kingston, Jamaica.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1970 The Finchaa Dam was built in
Ethiopia.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A9)
1970 China established relations
with Ethiopia.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A2)
1972 Mar 27, The Addis Ababa
accords ended fighting between north and south Sudan. It made the south
a self-governing region. Pres. Gaafar Muhammed Nimeiri ended the 17
year civil war in the Sudan between the north and south.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/sudan-civil-war1.htm)(WSJ,
10/22/03, p.A4)
1973 In Ethiopia the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF) was formed to seek greater autonomy for Oromia
region.
(AFP, 11/10/06)
1974 Mar 1, The Ethiopian
government of Makonnen Endelkacaw (1927-1974) formed.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Ethiopia.html)
1974 Sep 12, Haile Selassie I,
"King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of
Judah," was deposed by the military from the Ethiopian throne. A
military committee (known as the Dergue) was established from several
divisions of the Ethiopian Armed forces. General Aman Amdon was elected
as spokesperson for the Dergue and implemented policies for the
country, which included land distribution to peasants, nationalizing
industries and services under public ownership and led Ethiopia into
the Socialism.
(AP, 9/12/99)(http://tinyurl.com/7lnnz)
1974 Nov 23, In Ethiopia 60
government officials were executed.
(http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/ethiopia/ethiopia39.html)
1974 Dr. Donald C. Johanson and an
international team at Hadar, Ethiopia, discovered a female skeleton in
3 million year old strata and name it Lucy. Subsequent finds there and
at Laetoli, Tanzania, led to the naming of a new species:
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 564)
1974-1991 The regime of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam
ruled Ethiopia.
(SFC, 11/6/00,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam)
1975 Feb 18, The Tigray People’s
Liberation Front began a rebellion in northern Ethiopia.
(www.scribd.com/doc/14967/The-Origins-Of-TPLF)
1975 Mar 21, Ethiopia ended its
monarchy after 3000 years. In May the monarchy was formally abolished,
and Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed the ideology of the state.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Ethiopia.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derg)
1975 Aug 27, Haile Selassie, the
last emperor of Ethiopia’s 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa
at age 83 almost a year after he was overthrown in a military coup. It
was later discovered that the Derg, the ruling military committee, had
voted to murder the imprisoned emperor. Selassie was born of royal
blood and originally named Ras Tafari, and is regarded as the savior by
a religious sect originating in Jamaica whose members are called
Rastafarians. Crowned emperor in 1930 under the title Haile Selassie I
(meaning "Power of the Trinity"), he was by tradition a descendant of
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He reigned as emperor of Ethiopia
until 1974. Ryszard Kapuscinski later authored "The Emperor," a
biography of Selassie.
(AP, 8/27/00)(HNQ, 2/4/00)(WSJ, 4/18/01,
p.A20)(Econ, 9/29/07, p.49)
1976 Feb 18, The Tigray People’s
Liberation Front (TPLF) issued a manifesto to secede from Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/24/99,
p.A14)(www.abugidainfo.com/?p=3393)(http://tinyurl.com/2j2pxf)
1977 Feb 24, Pres. Carter
announced the US was cutting off all military aid to Ethiopia because
of its human rights violations. The unstated reason was the US desire
to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to lure Somalia from the Soviet camp, an
effort which was ultimately successful.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/africa.html)
1977 Somalia and Ethiopia engaged
in battle. The Soviet Union provided tanks to both sides. Somalia tried
and failed to push into the Ogaden area of Ethiopia. The Somalis
managed to reach the walled city of Harer, a center for Islam in
Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.19)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.49)
1977-1978 The Ethiopian Red Terror, or Qey Shibir,
was a violent political campaign in Ethiopia undertaken during the
leadership of the Derg, a socialist military junta. Hirut Abebe-Jiri,
imprisoned and tortured during a purge known as the “Red Terror,” later
set up an organization to archive, translate and index the Derg
files. (Econ, 9/29/07,
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror_(Ethiopia))
1978 Feb 7, Ethiopia mounted a
counter attack against Somalia.
(HN, 2/7/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War)
1982 Jan 2, The Somali National
Movement (SNM) launched its first military operation against the Somali
government. Operating from Ethiopian bases.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/somalia1982b.htm)
1984 Nov 18, The Soviets helped
deliver U.S. wheat during the Ethiopian famine.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1984 In Ethiopia the Ogaden
National Liberation Front (ONLF) was formed for the independence of
Ogaden, which Rebels claimed has been marginalised by Addis Ababa. The
region is suspected of holding large oil and natural gas reserves.
(AP, 7/25/07)
1984-1985 Severe famine hit Ethiopia and took an
estimated 100,000 lives.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8,12)(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A12)
1985 Jan 5, Israel’s 6-week
Operation Moses for the resettlement of 8,000 Ethiopian Jews ended. It
began Nov 18, 1984, but new was blacked out for security reasons.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html)
1985 Jan 13, A train plunged into
a ravine in eastern Ethiopia and killed at least 392 people.
(http://tinyurl.com/yznz8w)
1985 Ethiopia’s Marxist dictator
Mengistu Haile Mariam gave some 570,000 people the choice of moving or
being shot. It was part of a program to counter the Tigrayan People's
Liberation Front (TPLF).
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.50)(www.uscis.gov)
1988 In Slovenia journalists of
the weekly magazine Mladina ran news stories about secret arms deals
between Yugoslavia and Ethiopia.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A8)
1989 Aug 7, A small plane carrying
Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a
flight in Ethiopia. The wreckage of the plane was found six days later;
there were no survivors.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1989 Aug 13, Searchers in Ethiopia
found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week
earlier while carrying Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and 15 other
people. There were no survivors.
(AP, 8/13/97)
1990 Feb, The port of Massawa,
Eritrea, was liberated from Ethiopian forces.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C2)(http://tinyurl.com/8byua)
1991 May 21, Ethiopia’s Marxist
president (Mengistu Haile Mariam) resigned and fled into exile as
rebels continued to advance. Mengistu left behind thousands of pages of
memoranda. (AP, 5/21/01)(Econ, 9/29/07, p.50)
1991 May 24, Eritrean rebels
liberated Asmara from Ethiopian rule. Days later Ethiopian rebels from
Tigray took Addis Ababa with the help of Eritrean counterparts and
ended the 17-year rule of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A10)
1991 May 25, Foreigners fled the
Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as rebels closed in on the city.
(AP, 5/25/01)
1991 May 25, Israel completed
"Operation Solomon," which had evacuated 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to their
promised land.
(AP, 5/25/01)
1991 May 27, Ethiopia ordered its
troops to lay down their arms in the face of a rebel advance. An
estimated 60,000 Eritreans died in the rebel war with Ethiopia.
(AP, 5/27/01)(Econ, 2/19/05, p.80)
1991 May 28, Ethiopian rebels
seized control of the capital of Addis Ababa, a week after the
country’s longtime Marxist ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam, resigned his
post and fled.
(AP, 5/28/01)
1991 In Ethiopia an armed
revolution led by the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front took over the
government from the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam known as
the Dergue (Derg). Meles Zenawi, a former Marxist-Leninist and the
guerrilla leader of the TPLF took control of the government. The
Tigrean minority made up only 5% of the country’s population. Some 4
million Tigrayans lorded over 18 million Amharans and 20 million Oromos.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)(SFC,
6/24/99, p.A14)
1991-1995 Meles Zenawi (b.1956) served as Chairman of
the EPRDF and President of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.
{Ethiopia}
(www.brandt21forum.info/BioAfricaCom-Zenawi.htm)
1993 Apr 23-1993 Apr 25, Eritrea
voted to secede from Ethiopia.
(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/hornafrica.html#eri)
1993 May 24, Eritrea achieved
independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year civil war. Some 65,000
Eritreans lost their lives in the fight for independence. Pres. Meles
Zenawi of Ethiopia allowed Eritrea to secede as a reward for the
support of its rebel forces in 1991.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)(MC,
5/24/02)
1993 The Afar Revolutionary
Democratic Unity Front was launched in the land of the Afars, over
territory that straddled Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. The Afars
numbered some 2 million and their territory had previously been called
the French Territory of Afars and Issas.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.44)
1994 Meles Zenawi (39), was the
president of Ethiopia and its 53 million people.
(CNT, Nov.,1994, p.245)
1994 Ethiopia adopted a new
federal constitution with many powers devolved to the regions.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.33)
1994 Asrat Woldeyes, president of
the All Amhara People’s Organization, was jailed.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)
1995 Jun 26, In Ethiopia Egyptian
Pres. Hosni Mubarek was attacked on his way to the Organization of
African Unity summit. An Ethiopian court sentenced 3 Egyptian men to
death in 1996 for the attack.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)
1995 Aug 22, Meles Zenawi was
elected PM of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic.
(www.brandt21forum.info/BioAfricaCom-Zenawi.htm)
1995 In Ethiopia Almaz Meko was
elected speaker of the House for Federation, the upper house of
Parliament.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A17)
1996 May 9, Bacterial meningitis
has infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over the last 3
months and more than 10,000 have died. The epidemic has been most
intense in the region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel. The
1996 epidemic resulted in some 20,000 deaths. The "meningitis belt"
swept from Senegal to Ethiopia about every 10 years.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)(WSJ, 3/17/03, p.B4)
1996 Jun 3, Two rivers overflowed
in Ethiopia killing 12 people. Some 30,000 were forced from their homes.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C5)
1996 Sep 23, Ethiopian forces
exchanged fire with Somali militiamen.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 23, An Ethiopian Boeing
767 airliner crashed into the Indian ocean near Grand Comore Island. It
had been hijacked after takeoff from Addis Ababa and ran out of fuel
under hijacker demands to fly to Australia. Some 54 of 175 people were
saved. The plane was destined for the Ivory Coast with stops along the
way.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.A1,10)
1997 Mar 10, The 800-year-old
cross of Lalibela was reported lost.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Apr 14, A grenade attack
wounded 33 in the largest supermarket of Addis Ababa. Two similar
attacks over the weekend killed one person and injured 41 at a
restaurant and hotel in the capital.
(WSJ, 4/15/97, p.A9)
1997 May 13, It was reported that
6 teenage girls in Ethiopia had committed suicide over the last 9
months in order to avoid traditional marriages to elderly cousins as
old as 80.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A13)
1997 Aug 22, It was reported that
Ethiopia has completed work on more than 200 dams that use 624 million
cubic yards of Nile water per year.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug, Ethiopian officials set
up an administration in the contested region known as Bada, that
triggered skirmishes with Eritrea.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A14)
1997 Nov 15, It was reported that
storms over the past three weeks have killed at least 1000 people in
Ethiopia and Somalia and left some 100,000 families displaced and in
competition with crocodiles and hippos for dry land. The overflowing
Juba and the Shabelle Rivers originate in Ethiopia. The Juba had become
8 miles wide at some points.
(SFC,11/15/97, p.A3)(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A27)
1997 Nov 20, It was reported that
flooding in Ethiopia had killed 297 people and uprooted 65,000 and that
heavy rains continued to fall.
(SFC,11/20/97, p.B2)
1997 Nov-1997 Dec, Health workers
in Ethiopia under int’l. financing worked to vaccinate every child
under 5 against polio.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A14)
1997 Ethiopia received over $100
million in aid from the US and over $700 million in loans from the IMF.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)
1997 Eritrea introduced its own
currency, the nakfa, and sought to make it directly exchangeable with
the Ethiopian burr in cross-border transaction.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.A10)
1997 Assefa Maru, second in
command of Ethiopia’s Teacher’s Association, was killed.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Jan, Editors and journalists
of Tobia, the largest and most respected independent publication in
Ethiopia, were arrested after publishing a secret UN document critical
of the government.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Apr 4, A locust plague in
Ethiopia was reported covering an area of 3,700 acres in the regions of
Jijiga and Dire Dawa. Aerial spraying was begun.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A7)
1998 Apr 20, Fatuma Roba of
Ethiopia won the 102nd Boston Marathon among the women in 2:23:21.
(WSJ, 4/21/98, p.A1)
1998 May 6, There was a border
skirmish between Ethiopia and Eritrea over the 150-square-mile area
called the Badme triangle. Later a settlement of the border war was
contingent on the borders prior to this date.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
1998 May 12, Eritrea accused
Ethiopian militiamen of invading its territory in a border skirmish.
Ethiopia later said 20 people were killed and 20 wounded by Eritrean
forces.
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A12)
1998 May 28, In Eritrea veterans
were mobilized to be sent to Ethiopian border where the 160-square-mile
Yigra triangle was under dispute. Eritrea claimed ownership under the
still binding Italian colonial borders.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D4)
1998 May, An international panel
in 2005, formed to resolve disputes between Eritrea and Ethiopia, said
Eritrea violated int’l. law when it invaded the north of Ethiopia in
May 1998.
(AFP, 12/22/05)
1998 Jun 3, Eritrean and Ethiopian
soldiers clashed in heavy fighting along their disputed border.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Jun 5-1998 Jun 6, Eritrea and
Ethiopia sent warplanes on bombing raids against each other. In Mekele,
Ethiopia, at least 40 people were killed and over 100 wounded.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 8, Eritrea appealed for
direct talks with Ethiopia to end the border war.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A14)
1998 Jun 9, Heavy fighting erupted
on the Ethiopian-Eritrean frontier in the latest stage of their
undeclared war.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Jun 11, Fighting between
Eritrea and Ethiopia was reported 50 miles from Eritrea’s Red Sea port
of Assab.
(SFC, 6/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 14, Ethiopia and Eritrea
agreed to halt the use of air strikes in their border war.
(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 22, It was reported that
a 2.5 mile crack had opened up at Adami Tulu, 105 miles south of Addis
Ababa. The growing depression was 16 feet wide and 40 feet deep and
moving in the direction of lakes Abiyata and Shala.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep 22, In Ethiopia the
government said that 2,000 Eritreans had been expelled over the past
week bringing the total to 6,500. It charged that Eritrea had forced
out 17,000 Ethiopians.
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 26-1998 Sep 30, In
Ethiopia the Lions Club charity sponsored a free surgical program at
the Adama hospital in Nazareth town. Over 700 cataract patients were
treated. Some had been blind for 20 years.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 17, Ethiopia deported
over 650 Eritreans after 4 months of detainment.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.C5)
1998 China began to expand its
influence in Ethiopia when the US evacuated its Peace Corps volunteers
and scaled back military aid due to the border war with Eritrea.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
1998-2000 An estimated 70,000 people were killed in
the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.42)
1999 Jan 29, Amnesty Int'l.
reported that Ethiopia had forcefully deported 52,000 Eritreans since
the eruption of war in 1998.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 6, Ethiopia and Eritrea
resumed their clash after an 8-month lull. Heavy casualties were
reported.
(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 9, An Ethiopian plane
bombed an Eritrean village and at least 5 civilians were killed.
Eritrea reported that a large number of Ethiopian forces were killed
near Tsorena, but Ethiopia denied the Eritrean version of the fighting.
(SFC, 2/10/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 14, Eritrea shot down an
Mi-24 Ethiopian helicopter gunship at Bure and the crew was killed.
Eritrea said that 16 civilians had been killed by Ethiopian aircraft
since Feb 6.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 15, Eritrea reported that
Ethiopia had begun a new round of shelling southwest of Assab.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 21, Ethiopian planes
struck the airport at Assab but Eritrean officials said the 12 bombs
dropped by 2 planes failed to hit their targets.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 23, Ethiopian troops
attacked Eritrea with tanks and aircraft.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 24, Eritrea said that it
had destroyed 31 Ethiopian tanks, captured 3 others and shot down a
Mi-24 helicopter gunship.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 26, Ethiopia claimed to
have shot down a 2nd Eritrean MiG-29.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 27, Eritrea agreed to
accept an African sponsored proposal to end its border dispute with
Ethiopia. This followed an Ethiopian breakthrough at Badme.
(SFEC, 2/28/99, p.A23)
1999 Feb 28, Ethiopia claimed
victory over Eritrea and said that it had killed, wounded and captured
tens of thousands of Eritrean soldiers.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 15, Eritrea claimed to
have shot down an Ethiopian MiG-23 and to have destroyed 19 tanks.
Ethiopia denied the claims.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 17, Eritrea said it
repulsed Ethiopian troops after a 3-day battle. 300 Ethiopian soldiers
were reported dead and 57 tanks destroyed. Ethiopia said the results of
the battle were staged.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 28, Ethiopia claimed to
have killed tens of thousands of Eritrean soldiers since Feb 23.
Eritrea made equally high and unconfirmed claims of enemy casualties.
(WSJ, 3/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 30, Eritrea appealed to
humanitarian organizations to account for some 1,000 missing citizens
while Ethiopia continued shelling near Badme.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D3)
1999 Mar, At the Battle of Tsorona
Ethiopia sent waves of soldiers over minefields along a 3-mile front to
clear a path for better trained soldiers. Thousands died from
entrenched Eritrean troops and artillery fire.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 19, The 103rd Boston
Marathon was won by Joseph Chebet of Kenya in 2h:9m:52s. Fatuma Roba of
Ethiopia won the women's category in 2:23:25.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 May 24, Ethiopia said Eritrea
had launched attacks at the western Badme front over the weekend, but
was thwarted by a counterattack that killed 400 Eritrean soldiers.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A12)
1999 May 25, Eritrea said that it
had foiled a series of Ethiopian assaults over 4 days at Badme and that
380 Ethiopian soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A12)
1999 May 27, Ethiopia said it had
killed 865 Eritrean troops in a 2 day battle near the Mereb River on
the Badme front. Eritrea claimed that 585 Ethiopian troops were killed
over 5 days of fighting.
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.D3)
1999 Jun 11, Eritrea and Ethiopia
clashed in a 2nd day of heavy fighting on the western Badme front.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.C1)
1999 Jun 13, In Israel Prime
Minister Netanyahu told his ministers to bring in some 2,500 to 3,000
Jews from the Quara region of Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 14, Eritrea and Ethiopia
battled for a 5th day. Eritrea claimed to have killed, wounded or
captured over 12,000 soldiers, while Ethiopia claimed the same for
8,200 soldiers. Over half a million soldiers were stationed along the
600-mile border.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C5)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Jun 25, Eritrea and Ethiopia
began new fighting on their western front.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A16)
1999 Jun 28, In Somalia Ethiopian
forces captured the regional capital of Garba Harre, 250 miles
northwest of Mogadishu.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 26, Eritrea and Ethiopia
agreed to send delegates to Algeria to finalize arrangements to end
their 14-month border war.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, Pres. Isaias Afwerki
of Eritrea made an unconditional offer for cooperation with the OAU to
end its war with Ethiopia during a meeting with Algerian Pres.
Bouteflika, the OAU chairman.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 12, Ethiopia claimed to
have almost eliminated 3 rebel groups based in Somalia which it said
were supported by Eritrea. Most of the 1,103 killed or captured rebels
were of the Oromo Liberation Front.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D2)
1999 Sep 4, Ethiopia claimed that
the proposed outline for the implementation of a peace plan
contradicted an original agreement regarding the withdrawal of
Eritrea's forces. Eritrea the next day took the statement as
"tantamount to a declaration of war."
(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A14)
1999 The film "Endurance" was
written and directed by Leslie Woodhead and was the story of Ethiopian
long-distance runner and Olympics gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie.
(SFC, 5/17/99, p.D3)
1999 Jill Campbell and her
husband, Gary, compiled evidence that helped convict the director of an
Ethiopian orphanage that the Swiss charity Terre Des Hommes-Lausanne
used to run. Their report on sexual abuse prompted the charity to
apologize and leave Ethiopia. In 2001 Jill Campbell was convicted of
defamation and ordered to apologize to Terre Des Hommes-Lausanne (TdH)
or face jail. In 2003, an Ethiopian court sentenced orphanage director
David Christie to nine years of hard labor for abusing several young
boys. In 2008 lawyers for the charity said it had dropped the demand
for an apology.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2000 Feb 23, It was reported that
Ethiopia faced severe famine and the UN World Food Program planned an
appeal to raise $50 million for emergency aid.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 16, Emergency food aid
was planned after it was learned that 53 children under age 5 had
died of malnutrition in one town in Ethiopia.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 31, Prof. William Alfred
Shack of UC Berkeley died at age 76. Shack had a longtime interest in
the Gurage culture of Ethiopia and had established the department of
sociology and anthropology at Haile Selassie Univ. in Addis Ababa.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A21)
2000 Mar, A private group of US
Peace Corp volunteers worked to settle the 2-year border war between
Eritrea and Ethiopia based on the "status quo ante" border on May 6,
1998.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
2000 May 12, War erupted between
Eritrea and Ethiopia after Ethiopian troops left their trenches and
attacked Eritrean defenses. 600,000 troops were dug in along the
600-mile border.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A8)
2000 May 14, Ethiopia claimed a
major victory against Eritrea and claimed that 8 divisions had been
destroyed over the last 2 days. Eritrea said 25,000 Ethiopian soldiers
were killed or wounded.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 14, In Ethiopia elections
were held and 7 people were reported killed when government forces
threw a grenade into a crowd of protestors and fired into another in
the southern region of Hadiya. [see Jun 16]
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 15, In Ethiopia tens of
thousands marched in Addis Ababa in support of the renewed border war
with Eritrea.
(WSJ, 5/16/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, Ethiopian troops
penetrated into western Eritrea and attempted to cut off retreating
forces.
(WSJ, 5/17/00, p.A1)
2000 May 17, Ethiopian forces
pushed into Eritrean territory and the UN Security council approved an
embargo against both countries.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A11)
2000 May 18, Ethiopian troops
captured Barentu in Eritrea and some 250-550 thousand refugees were
reported displaced by the fighting.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.A18)
2000 May 24, Eritrea decided to
withdraw from land it seized in 1998 following a 12-day offensive by
Ethiopia.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A12)
2000 May 26, Eritrea and Ethiopia
agreed to resume peace talks even as Ethiopia continued to push into
Eritrean territory.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A12)
2000 May 28, Ethiopian warplanes
bombed a nearly completed power plant in Massawa, Eritrea, as thousands
of refugees fled north.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A12)
2000 May 29, Ethiopian planes
launched air raids on a military airstrip near Asmara, Eritrea, as
their foreign ministers prepared for talks in Algeria.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A1)
2000 May 30, Ethiopia and Eritrea
opened peace talks in Algeria.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A10)
2000 May 31, Ethiopia declared
victory over Eritrea as peace talks continued in Algeria.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 5, Eritrea claimed that
an Ethiopian attack near Assab was foiled and that 3,755 Ethiopian
troops were "killed, wounded, or taken prisoner."
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 5, In Ethiopia 14
children were trampled to death at the Mega Amphitheater in Addis Ababa
when a crowd pushed to get out of the rain.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 5, Ethiopia accused
Eritrea of rounding up 7,529 Ethiopian citizens and putting them under
armed guard for deportation.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 9, Eritrea accepted an
Organization of African Unity plan to end the conflict with Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 10, Ethiopian troops
stormed Eritrean positions on all 3 fronts of the disputed border in a
break of the cease-fire. The Ethiopian government accepted cease-fire
terms brokered in Algeria but asked for a "brief delay."
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A31)
2000 Jun 15, Ethiopia accepted a
preliminary cease-fire plan and together with Eritrea planned to sign
documents in Algeria.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A19)
2000 Jun 16, In Ethiopia the
election board announced that the 4-party Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won a landslide victory in 4 key
regions in the may 14 elections.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 18, In Algeria the
Foreign Ministers of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed an accord to cease
hostilities immediately in a two-year-old border war. The agreement
called for an int’l. peacekeeping force in a buffer zone reaching 15
miles into Eritrea.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)(AP,
6/18/05)
2000 Oct 10, In Ethiopia Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi was re-elected by acclamation in parliament to
another 5-year term.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 19, It was reported that
9 people had died in Ethiopia’s Afar region after the Awash River burst
its banks and inundated the Danakil Lowlands. 30,000 people were left
homeless.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.B12)
2000 Nov 5, Haile Selassie
(1892-1975), former ruler Ethiopia (1930-1974), was buried in a
cathedral crypt. His body was found in 1992 on the grounds of his
former palace, where he died while under house arrest.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 12, Ethiopia and Eritrea
signed a peace pact in Algiers. A 4,200 UN peacekeeping force was set
to patrol the border. Pres. Zenawi and Pres. Afwerki signed the accord,
which established a commission to mark the 620-mile border, exchange
prisoners, returned displaced people and hear claims for war damages.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.E2)(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A1)(SFC,
12/13/00, p.B3)
2001 Feb 6, Ethiopia and Eritrea
agreed to set up a 16-mile wide UN-patrolled security zone effective
Feb 12.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb, The Ethiopian Women’s
Lawyers Assoc. organized a march of some 1,000 women to the office of
PM Meles Zenawi and parliament to protest domestic violence. The group
was banned in September.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Apr 26, Six hijackers seized
an Ethiopian plane with 50 passengers and diverted it to Sudan where
they surrendered. They wanted to draw attention to economic conditions
in Ethiopia and recent student protests for greater academic freedom
during which 41 people were killed in Addis Ababa.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 26, It was reported that
a meningitis outbreak had killed at least 3,500 people in Africa and
that vaccine had been shipped to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 11, Almaz Meko (39),
speaker of the House for Federation, sought political asylum in
Washington DC. She feared persecution for speaking out on the treatment
of her Oromo people.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A17)
2001 Sep 6, The Ethiopian Women’s
Lawyers Assoc., was banned. It had organized a Feb. march of some 1,000
women to the office of PM Meles Zenawi and parliament to protest
domestic violence.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 4, Tesfaye Jifar of
Ethiopia won the NYC Marathon in record time, 2:07:43. Margaret Okayo
of Kenya set a woman’s record of 2:24:21.
(WSJ, 11/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 25, Ethiopia sent troops
into the northeastern Somali region of Puntland to help Col. Abdullahi
Yussuf regain power. Yussuf was overthrown Aug 26 after his 3-year term
ended. On Nov 21 Yussuf launched an attack on Garoweh, the capital of
Puntland.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A11)
2002 Apr 13, The Eritrea Ethiopia
Boundary Commission (EEBC), established to determine the new border,
released its report. The UN panel ruled in favor of Ethiopia on all
territory contested with Eritrea, but Ethiopia contested some of the
commission's decisions.
(WSJ, 4/15/02,
p.A1)(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/hornafrica.html#eri)
2002 Jun 29, In Ethiopia the army
declared an important victory over rebels in western Ethiopia, killing
20 and capturing more than 200 others. But rebels rejected those
claims, vowing to continue their fight.
(AP, 6/29/02)
2002 Jul 19, Italy took steps to
return the prized Axum obelisk to Ethiopia. The 1,700-year-old monument
was hauled off by Italian forces after their 1937 invasion of the
African country. It was returned in 2003.
(AP, 7/20/02)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A2)
2002 Sep 7, The U.N. Security
Council has decided to keep U.N. peacekeepers in Ethiopia and Eritrea
six more months to give the countries time to mark their border.
(AP, 9/7/02)
2002 Sep 30, The National
Intelligence Council said China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia
will have 50-75 million HIV-infected people by 2010, more than any
other 5 countries.
(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A5)
2002 Dec 5, Kenya’s Pres. Moi and
Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi met at the White House with Pres. Bush
to discuss terrorism as well as drought, AIDS and other problems facing
Africa.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2003 Jan 17, The Strategic
Partnership with Africa (SPA), made of 15 developed nations,
international lending institutions and U.N. agencies, concluded its
annual meeting in Addis Ababa. More than 20 developed nations, lending
institutions and U.N. agencies agreed to increase aid to Africa.
(AP, 1/17/03)
2003 Feb 15, It was reported that
11 million Ethiopians face famine due to drought affecting 15% of the
nation’s harvest.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A12)
2003 Feb 16, The Israeli
Cabinet voted to allow about 17,000 Ethiopians with Jewish roots to
come to Israel, lifting immigration restrictions on the group known as
Falash Mura.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 May 3, The Ethiopian drought
was reported to be the worst in 2 decades with millions of people
forced to stand in line each day for food.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May, Ethiopia began a $220
million relocation program for some 2 million people, who otherwise
faced starvation. It was part of a $3.2 billion rescue plan financed by
the government and donor groups to reverse dependency on int’l. aid.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2003 Jul 2, The US was reported to
be sending nearly 250,000 metric tons of wheat to Ethiopia to help ease
the country's hunger crisis.
(AP, 7/2/03)
2003 Oct 31, A wildlife expert
said a rabies outbreak is threatening the few hundred remaining
Ethiopian wolves, one of the world's rarest animals.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Nov 26, It was reported that
a $50 million irrigation project on Ethiopia's Koga River, a tributary
to the Blue Nile, would include a small dam.
(WSJ, 11/26/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 10, Ethiopian officials
appealed for US$380 million for food and medicine to care for more than
7 million people who will go hungry next year if international aid
doesn't make up for a chronic food shortfall.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 29, The roof of a
centuries-old Ethiopian church carved out of rock collapsed while it
was packed with worshippers, killing at least 15 people. The
800-year-old Mewa Tsadkan Gabriel church was in a remote area some 310
miles northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa. It was built by King
Lalibela, who ruled there from the late 12th century to the early 13th
century.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 30, In remote
southwestern Ethiopia tribal fighting, sparked by a raid on a gold
mine, began. Over the following week nearly 200 people were killed and
some 10,000 others were forced to flee their homes.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Mar 3, Ethiopia was reported
to have begun relocating hundreds of thousands of people from
drought-prone areas to fertile lands to alleviate food shortages.
Relocation began in May 2003 and many of the resettled people continued
to face hunger, diarrhea and malaria.
(AP, 3/3/04)(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2004 May 25, In Ethiopia heads of
state and government from at least 8 African countries attended a
ceremony to inaugurate the new Peace and Security council (PSC) at the
African Union's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
(AP, 5/25/04)
2004 Jul 6, In Ethiopia a major
summit of the two-year-old African Union opened in Addis Ababa in the
presence of about 40 heads of state and government. The crisis in
Darfur took centre stage.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Sep 21, The UN Children's
Fund and the World Food Program launched a $123 million program to
reduce the mortality rate of children in Ethiopia.
(Reuters, 9/21/04)
2004 Oct 7, In Ethiopia British PM
Tony Blair spoke before the Africa Commission and warned that poverty
and instability in Africa is providing a fertile breeding ground for
terror and criminal organizations.
(AP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 21, An Ethiopian court
sentenced three former rebels to death for killing dozens of people
while rebel factions jockeyed for power in 1992. Iman Kelil Oumar was
convicted for participating in the killings of 207 people; Beyan Ahmed
Ousman was convicted of involvement in the murder of 205 people and
Asli Ahmed, was found guilty of killing 89 people.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Nov 25, Ethiopia finally
accepted a special commission's ruling designed to resolve a border
dispute with Eritrea that sparked a devastating war between 1998 and
2000.
(AFP, 11/25/04)
2005 Jan 4, Kelbessa Negewo (54),
an Ethiopian immigrant suspected of torturing and murdering more than a
dozen political opponents of the Ethiopian government in the 1970s, was
arrested at his home near Atlanta. Negewo has lived in the US since
fleeing Ethiopia in 1987.
(Reuters, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 25, Ethiopia’s government
said it has began giving free doses of life-prolonging drugs to about
14,000 HIV-infected Ethiopians in a US-funded program.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Feb 4, Boeing said Ethiopian
Airlines plans to acquire up to 10 of Boeing Co.'s new 787s at an
overall cost of about $1.3 billion.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb, In Ethiopia hominid
bones indicting bipedalism were discovered at a new site called Mille,
in the northeastern Afar region. They were estimated to be 3.8-4
million years old.
(AP, 3/6/05)
2005 Mar 24, A Human Rights Watch
investigator said Ethiopian troops have committed widespread killings,
rapes and torture of the tribal Anuak population in the southwestern
corner of the country since late 2003.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 14, Ethiopia police said
authorities have seized more than 1,100 pounds of illegal ivory,
stuffed animals and ostrich eggs that were destined for collectors
abroad.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 18, The Boston Marathon
was won by Hailu Negusie of Ethiopia, 2:11:45; Catherine Ndereba of
Kenya led the women, 2:25:13.
(WSJ, 4/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 19, Ethiopians welcomed
the return of the first piece of a giant, 1,700-year-old granite
obelisk that was looted from the African country 68 years ago by
Italian troops.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 24, Some 82 people died
in floods that swept eastern Ethiopia on the weekend.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 25, The 3rd and final
piece of the Axum obelisk was returned to Ethiopia from Italy.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 May 10, A leading human
rights group said systematic political repression in Ethiopia's largest
state has kept people there from freely participating in the country's
third general election campaign on May 15.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 15, Ethiopia held
elections. EU monitors later said the elections did not meet int’l.
standards. Ethiopia's opposition soon claimed major gains in the
unprecedented open parliamentary election that drew a turnout of 90%.
Post election violence left close to 200 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/26/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/16/05)(AP, 12/22/09)
2005 May 17, Ethiopia's ruling
party claimed to have won just over half the seats in parliamentary
elections, but opposition leaders said it was still too early to tell
who would form the next government.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 18, Ethiopia's two main
opposition parties claimed victory in parliamentary elections seen as a
test of the African nation's commitment to democracy, saying they have
won enough seats to form a government.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 28, In Ethiopia
provisional results showed that the ruling coalition and its allies won
a majority in parliamentary elections, but the opposition made
significant gains.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 Jun 6, In Ethiopia one girl
was killed and seven people were wounded in violence over disputed
election results that gave the ruling party control of parliament.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 7, In Ethiopia police
raided a technical college in Addis Ababa, firing rubber bullets and
beating up students defying a government ban on protests during a 2nd
day of violence.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 8, Security forces opened
fire on stone-throwing demonstrators in Ethiopia, killing 26 people in
a third day of protests over election results.
(AP, 6/8/05)(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 11,Two Ethiopian
opposition leaders were placed under arrest, a day after the ruling
party agreed to work with its foes to end violent protests that have
left 29 dead.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 13, Ethiopia's main
opposition leader was freed from house arrest after the country's main
political parties agreed to work together for peace after 10 days of
political unrest left at least 37 people dead.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 13, In Ethiopia police
shot and killed an opposition politician, prompting the arrest of six
officers, as the government rejected an opposition offer to renew a
peace deal.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 15, A US-based human
rights group said thousands of people have been arrested across
Ethiopia following violent clashes in which police killed 36 people.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 28, In Ethiopia police
arrested four independent newspaper editors on criminal charges of
defaming the military. They were detained for seven hours and later
released on bail. The arrests stem from reports in their
Amharic-language weeklies about Ethiopian air force pilots who sought
political asylum while training in Belarus.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 12, A raid by hundreds of
Ethiopian bandits on a remote village in northern Kenya, left at least
45 people dead, including more than two dozen children. Kenyan security
forces pursued the bandits, who numbered between 300 and 500, and
killed 16 of them.
(AP, 7/14/05)
2005 Jul 24, In Ethiopia 6
separate bombings hit across the country's ethnic Somali province. A
5-year-old girl was among those killed in the wave of violence, which
took place before a voter registration drive.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 27, In Ethiopia state
media reported that police had arrested 25 people in connection with a
series of bombings that killed five and injured 31 in an apparent
attempt to disrupt elections in an eastern province.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Aug 9, In Ethiopia the
National Electoral Board released results for the May 15 election. The
ruling coalition captured a majority in parliamentary elections
shadowed by fraud allegations and deadly violence.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 21, Voting in eastern
Ethiopia ended peacefully, as elite forces, pro-government militia and
police patrolled streets to secure the region's delayed elections. Dr.
Berhanu Nega (b.1958) was elected mayor of Addis Ababa. He was jailed
in Kaliti Prison following riots in October from where he authored a
book entitled “Dawn of Freedom.”
(AP,
8/22/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berhanu_Nega)(Econ, 10/28/06,
p.56)
2005 Aug 26, The UN food relief
agency said that it's battling to feed 90,000 Eritrean and Ethiopian
refugees displaced in eastern Sudan mainly due to a serious funding
shortfall.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Sep 2, Provisional results
indicated that Ethiopia's ruling party won all 31 seats being contested
in repeat elections following fraud allegations.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 19-2005 Sep 29, In
Ethiopia authorities arrested 859 opposition members across the country
and security forces killed one opposition member in the Amhara region,
250 miles south of the capital, Addis Ababa.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Sep 20, Hundreds of
Ethiopians who claim their ancestors were forced to convert from
Judaism began a three-day hunger strike at a prayer house to press the
Israeli government to let them migrate to the Jewish state.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep, The TV show “Ethiopian
Idols” began in Ethiopia. Judges planned to whittle 2,000 contestants
down to 96 and then let the public elect a winner.
(SFC, 1/9/06, p.A2)
2005 Oct 4, The UN Security
Council warned Ethiopia and Eritrea against reigniting their border war
and urged Eritrea to immediately reverse its ban on all helicopter
flights by UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 19, The International
Organization for Migration (IMO) said "Ethiopian women and girls who
migrate to Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia suffer from
maltreatment, physical, sexual and emotional abuses," in a report based
on interviews with 443 women returning from the region.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Nov 1, In Ethiopia riot
police clashed with dozens of opposition supporters in Addis Ababa,
fatally shooting at least five people and wounding some 20 others in
renewed protests of the disputed May elections.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 2, In Ethiopia clashes
between police and protesters erupted in gunfire and grenade
explosions, with police killing at least 33 people during a second day
of renewed protests of disputed elections.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 3, In Ethiopia police
shot and killed three people and wounded 12 others in a fourth day of
protests against disputed parliamentary elections.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Nov 4, Gunfire echoed
sporadically around Addis Ababa for a fourth day as reports emerged
that unrest had spread beyond the capital, a development likely to
deepen international concern for Ethiopia's stability.
(Reuters, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 5, In northern Ethiopia 2
people were reported killed after a fifth day of political unrest that
has shaken confidence in the vast African nation's stability.
(AP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 6, The EU and US urged
Ethiopia to end its crackdown on independent journalists and release
opposition leaders detained during a week of bloody clashes between
demonstrators and police.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 9, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi said that opposition leaders and newspaper editors under
detention will face treason charges, which carry the death penalty in
Ethiopia, for their alleged roles in protests last week in which at
least 46 people were killed.
(AP, 11/9/05)
2005 Nov 12, Ethiopia said it has
released another 1,721 people detained in a massive round-up during
clashes between police and protesters earlier this month which left at
least 42 people dead.
(AP, 11/13/05)
2005 Nov 12, Africa Union leaders
from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal met in
Abuja for a 2-day summit titled: "Africa and the challenges of the
global order: Desirability of union government," with the leaders
discussing the broad principles of integration.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Dec 8, An Ethiopian court
sentenced to death Major Melaku Tefera, one of Marxist dictator
Mengistu Haile Mariam's top soldiers, for genocide and abetting the
murder of 971 people during the country's 1977-78 "Red Terror" campaign.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 21, An international
panel, formed to resolve disputes between Eritrea and Ethiopia, said
Eritrea violated int’l. law when it invaded the north of Ethiopia in
May 1998.
(AFP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 28, A group of 131
detained Ethiopian opposition figures and journalists refused en masse
to plead on treason and other serious charges.
(AFP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 29, Ethiopia’s government
said a plan by Western donors to withhold $375 million in aid from
Ethiopia over the government's crackdown on opposition supporters would
have an "insignificant" impact on its budget. Diplomats said the money
would be reallocated to the UN and aid agencies working to combat
poverty in Ethiopia.
(Reuters, 12/29/05)(SFC, 12/30/05, p.A3)
2005 Dec 29, Drought was reported
to have triggered extreme food shortages in the East African countries
of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, putting millions of people at risk of
famine as the lean dry season approaches.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 In Ethiopia police under PM
Meles Zenawi shot dead some 200 civilians following the disputed
general elections.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.43)
2005 Ethiopian shoemaker Bethlehem
Tilahun Alemu launched her SoleRebels shoes. Her eco-friendly
"SoleRebels" brand of footwear, were made of recycled tires and
traditional woven fabric. The brand took its name from the type of
footwear favored by Ethiopian rebel fighters in the country's recent
troubled past.
(AFP, 10/11/09)
2005 Ethiopia’s population stood
at about 75 million.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.38)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders
said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor
rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 9, The US launched a
diplomatic initiative to try to mark the contested border between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, a dispute that led to a 2 1/2-year war in an area
where both countries are again massing troops.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 13, A battle for
livestock between Ethiopian and Kenyan nomads left 38 people dead in
drought-stricken northern Kenya, in the remote village of
Lokamarinyang, along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The fighting killed 30
of the Dongiro raiders and eight Kenyans, all of them women and
children. A drought that has impoverished some 11.5 million people in
the area, most of them nomads, has exacerbated tensions between the
tribes.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Ethiopia at least
two people were killed and 36 injured, three seriously, after commotion
erupted in Addis Ababa on the final day of celebrations marking the
2-day Orthodox Epiphany, or Timkat.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 31, An international
human rights group said thousands of school and college students have
been detained over the past three months in continued unrest in
Ethiopia.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Mar 10, Legal experts from
Ethiopia and Eritrea flew to London for talks with international
mediators to discuss demarcating their common border.
(Reuters, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 22, An Ethiopia court
dropped charges of treason, attempted genocide and other crimes against
18 people, including five Voice of America journalists, accused of
attempting to overthrow the government.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 27, In Ethiopia a series
of blasts killed one person and injured several others in Addis Ababa,
the first fatality in a string of mysterious explosions in the capital.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Ethiopia visiting
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he backed plans for
an expanded United Nations Security Council, adding that he would
present his country's position at the African Union (AU) headquarters
in Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 4/30/06)
2006 May 12, In Ethiopia 9 bombs
exploded in Addis Ababa, killing 4 people and wounding at least 26.
(AP, 5/12/06)(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 27, In Ethiopia 3 blasts
in the town of Jijiga injured 42 people.
(Reuters, 5/29/06)
2006 May 31, The UN Security
Council cut the number of peacekeepers deployed in Eritrea and Ethiopia
by at least one-third while extending the UN mission's mandate for
another four months.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 27, Ethiopia claimed to
have killed more than 110 rebels allegedly sent by arch-foe Horn of
Africa neighbor Eritrea to destabilize the country since the beginning
of the month. Eritrea flatly rejected the claim.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jul 1, About 100 Ethiopian
troops entered the Somali border town of Beled-Hawo in eight military
vehicles, the latest sign that Ethiopia might try to bolster this
country's weak interim government as an Islamic militia gains
increasing power.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 20, Residents of central
Somalia said that hundreds of Ethiopian troops were patrolling the town
of Baidoa in armored vehicles, less than a day after Islamic militants
moved near the base of the weak, UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 21, An Islamic militia
leader called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting
Somalia's weak UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 22, Ethiopian troops sent
to bolster Somalia's weak government against a powerful Islamic militia
moved into a second Somali town and seized a strategic airport.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Aug 6, In eastern Ethiopia
over 250 people were killed by flooding in Dire Dawa. As many as 300
remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 6, A government spokesman
said Somalia's top interim leaders have agreed to end a rift
threatening the fragile administration after crisis talks led by Seyoum
Mesfin, Ethiopia's foreign affairs minister.
(Reuters, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 8, Eritrea announced that
Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu, a dissident Ethiopian general, had
defected to Eritrea, said that he would be joining the OLF to fight for
his Oromo people's rights.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 9, Ethiopia’s army killed
13 rebels and caught other commanders of the eastern Ogaden National
Liberation Front, a separatist movement, after they crossed from
Somalia.
(Reuters, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, North Kenya
authorities said they caught at least 45 sympathizers or members of the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a small Ethiopian group operating on the
border. Ethiopia reported having shot dead 11 Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLH) fighters.
(Reuters, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 14, In southern Ethiopia
torrential rains spilled a river from its banks. At least 900 people
died as continuing rains submerged five villages, knocked down grain
silos and swept away cattle. Tens of thousands were marooned by the
waters.
(AFP, 8/15/06)(Reuters, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, In southwest Ethiopia
search and rescue teams kept up frantic efforts to save thousands
marooned by fatal flash floods, where relief workers reported
near-total devastation. Some 73,000 people had been affected by raging
waters from unusually heavy seasonal rains.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopia began
releasing water from dams taxed by two weeks of heavy rain to prevent
them from bursting as the confirmed death toll from devastating floods
climbed to 626.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopian troops
reportedly arrived in the central Somali town of Galkayo. The move may
stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who control most of southern
Somalia. They were seen inside the town in 13 vehicles.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sen. Barack Obama,
D-Ill., visited a sprawling tent camp in eastern Ethiopia for people
displaced by devastating floods earlier this month, saying the US
military will continue to help the region.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 25, Somalia's interim
prime minister called on the UN to partially lift an arms embargo on
his country to allow for the deployment of African peacekeepers, which
he said are necessary to stop the advance of Islamic radicals.
Ethiopian troops arrived in Somalia to support the internationally
recognized government in its faceoff with radicals. The Islamic militia
in the seaport of Kismayo opened fire on thousands protesting the
fundamentalists' takeover of the southern town. Witnesses said a
teenager was killed.
(AP, 9/25/06)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 29, The UN Security
Council extended the mandate of peacekeepers in Eritrea and Ethiopia by
four months, and threatened to overhaul the mission if the two sides
don't make progress toward demarcating their border.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep, In Ethiopia Shane
Etzenhouser, an American software developer, premiered “Tsehai Loves
Learning,” an educational TV show for kids featuring a female giraffe
with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.E1)
2006 Oct 5, In Ethiopia Alemayehu
Fantu, a businessman, was arrested and charged with distributing
calendars with pictures of opposition leaders. The calendars called for
non-violent civil disobedience to bring down the government.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.56)
2006 Oct 8, Authorities in
northeastern Somalia repatriated more than 1,000 Ethiopians whom
smugglers were preparing to take across the Gulf of Aden to the promise
of jobs and a better life in the Middle East.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 9, The Islamic militia
that has seized much southern Somalia declared a holy war against
Ethiopia accusing its neighbor of deploying thousands of troops to prop
up the weak UN-backed government.
(SFC, 10/10/06, p.A3)
2006 Oct 16, The UN accused
Eritrea of moving 1,500 troops and 14 tanks into a buffer zone
established after a 2 1/2-year border war with Ethiopia in "a major
breach" of a cease-fire agreement reached in 2000.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 18, In Ethiopia a senior
judge appointed to investigate 2005 post-election violence said
Ethiopian security forces massacred 193 people, triple the official
death toll. Six policemen were also killed in the June and November
2005 riots, bringing the overall death toll to 199.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 19, Ethiopia's PM Meles
Zenawi told parliament that he had sent military trainers to help
Somalia's struggling government, but had not deployed a fighting force.
Yalemzewd Bekele, a human rights lawyer working for the European
Commission in Addis Ababa, was arrested at the border with Kenya. Her
arrest was likely related to the Oct 5 arrest of businessman Alemayehu
Fantu.
(AP, 10/19/06)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.28)
2006 Oct 24, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi said Ethiopia was "technically" at war with Somalia's Islamists
because they had declared jihad on his nation.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 26, The charity
organization Oxfam accused coffee house chain Starbucks of blocking
attempts by Ethiopia to trademark three coffee bean types and thereby
denying farmers substantial income.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 29, Somalia's Islamic
group broke off peace talks with the transitional government, demanding
that Ethiopian troops withdraw from the country.
(AP, 10/29/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Ethiopia 4 days of
devastating floods along the eastern border killed dozens of people and
prowling crocodiles hampered rescue efforts as rain continued to fall.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 1, In Lawrenceville, Ga.,
Khalid Adem (30), an Ethiopian immigrant, was convicted of genital
mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
(SFC, 11/2/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 6, Hundreds of Israelis
of Ethiopian descent clashed with police and briefly blocked a main
road leading into Jerusalem in a protest of the Health Ministry's
wholesale discarding of donated Ethiopian blood.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 6, In northern Somalia
Islamic fighters clashed with government militia backed by Ethiopian
forces.
(SFC, 11/7/06, p.A18)
2006 Nov 7, An independent
commission said it will demarcate the contested Ethiopian-Eritrean
border on maps and leave the rival nations to establish the physical
boundary themselves. It said both Ethiopian and Eritrean officials were
invited to a November 20 meeting in The Hague to discuss the procedure.
(Reuters, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 15, Eritrean President
Issaias Afeworki said the simmering border row between arch-foes
Eritrea and Ethiopia is a "solved problem."
(AFP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 16, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan worked with key African, Arab, European leaders in Ethiopia
to break the deadlock over worsening violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland arrived in Darfur to find security so
bad he could not visit the camps outside el-Geneina town housing tens
of thousands of displaced Darfuris.
(Reuters, 11/16/06)(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, UN aid bodies said
torrential rains and floods have hit up to 1.8 million people in the
Horn of Africa, driving tens of thousands from their homes and
threatening to trigger epidemics. Torrential rains have pounded the
Horn of Africa this month, bringing misery to large parts of Kenya,
Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Somalia Islamic
fighters used land mines and ambushed an 80-vehicle Ethiopian military
convoy headed to Baidoa killing 6 soldiers and injuring 20.
(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 20, Eritrea and Ethiopia
both rejected plans by a UN-appointed border panel to demarcate their
contentious frontier on paper.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 22, The administrator of
Ethiopia’s zoo in Addis Ababa said their rare Abyssinian lion cubs were
being poisoned and sold to taxidermists because there was not enough
money to care for them. It was estimated that only 1000 of the animals
remained in the wild.
(SFC, 11/24/06, p.A23)
2006 Nov 28, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi met with Jim Donald, the CEO of Starbucks, but no deal was
reached on branding local coffee. Ethiopia ranked 97th in the World
Bank’s latest “ease of doing business” index. Transparency Int’l.
ranked it 130th on its corruption-perceptions index.
(Econ, 12/2/06, p.67)
2006 Nov 30, In Somalia a car
blast killed 9 people near the Somali government seat of Baidoa in an
attack the administration blamed on Islamists backed by al Qaeda. An
attack on Ethiopian troops left 20 dead.
(AFP, 12/1/06)(WSJ, 12/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 12, Ethiopia’s former
dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, in exile in Zimbabwe since 1992, was
convicted of genocide and other charges in a rare case of an African
strongman being held to account by his own country.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 12, Somalia’s PM Ali
Mohamed Gedi said thousands of Islamic militants have surrounded
Baidoa, the only town the internationally recognized government
controls, as a top Islamic official promised to attack within a week
unless Ethiopian troops leave.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 22, In Somalia Ethiopian
attack helicopters and tanks headed for battle as fighting raged for a
fourth day between Somalia's Islamic militia and the country's secular
government.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 23, Somalia's Islamic
militants called on foreign Muslim fighters to join their holy war
against Ethiopian troops after days of fighting killed hundreds of
people and threatened to engulf the region.
(AP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 24, Ethiopia launched an
attack on Somalia's powerful Islamic movement, sending fighter jets
across the border and bombarding several towns in a major escalation of
the violence that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia's PM
Meles Zenawi said his country had been "forced to enter a war."
(AP, 12/24/06)(AP, 12/24/07)
2006 Dec 25, Ethiopian fighter
jets bombed Somalia's main airport, the first direct attack on the city
that serves as the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to
wrest power from the internationally recognized government.
(AP, 12/25/06)
2006 Dec 26, Islamic fighters
retreated as Somali government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three
fronts in a decisive turn in the battle for control of this Horn of
Africa nation. Ethiopia’s PM Meles Zenawi said up to 1,000 of the
religious movement's fighters had been killed.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 27, Ethiopian and Somali
government troops drove Islamic fighters out of the last major town on
the road to Mogadishu, the Islamist-held capital.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 30, Thousands of Somali
and Ethiopian troops set off for a showdown with Islamic forces who
have regrouped at a southern seaport since abandoning the Somali
capital.
(AP, 12/30/06)
2006 Dec 31, Fighting erupted on
the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant
Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area
ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops.
(AP, 12/31/06)
2006 Ethiopia’s economy struggled
with exports of $1 billion vs. imports of $5 billion. Food prices in
Addis Ababa rose by 27%.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.57)
2006 In Ethiopia singer Teddy Afro
(Tewodros Kassahun) was arrested for an alleged hit-and-run incident.
He was jailed in April, 2008. His supporters said he was jailed for his
3rd album “Yasteseryal,” released just before the 2005 elections, which
contained songs comparing the regime of Pres. Meles to a brutal junta.
He was released on August 13, 2009.
(Econ, 8/22/09,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Afro)
2007 Jan 1, Somali government
troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last
major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, while hundreds of
Islamic fighters, many of them Arabs and South Asians, fled the town.
Somalia’s PM Ali Mohamed Gedi set a 3-day deadline for gun collection
in Mogadishu.
(AP, 1/1/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 2, Ethiopian helicopters
pursuing Somali Islamists missed their target and bombed a Kenyan
border post, prompting Kenyan fighter planes to rush to the area. The
gun collection program in Mogadishu began with little response. 2
Ethiopian soldiers were shot dead.
(AFP, 1/2/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.41)
2007 Jan 3, Kenya sent extra
troops to its border with Somalia to keep Islamic militants from
entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan
border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 4, A Somali government
spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, were
fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 11, Former Ethiopian
dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was sentenced to life imprisonment,
ending his 12-year trial in absentia for genocide and other crimes
committed during his iron-fisted rule (1974-1991). Mariam lived
comfortably in exile in Zimbabwe, where Pres. Robert Mugabe has said he
won't deport Mengistu if he refrains from political activity.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 15, Somali troops and
allied Ethiopian soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, pursuing
gunmen who carried out an attack in the northeastern part of the
capital.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 20, The last major
warlord in Somalia surrendered his weapons and 200 militiamen to the
army, while an Islamic leader claimed responsibility for a string of
guerrilla attacks and promised there would be more until the government
agreed to talks. An Ethiopian military convoy was ambushed in a new
round of deadly violence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hours after
the African Union agreed to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country.
(AP, 1/20/07)(AFP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 23, Ethiopian troops who
helped Somalia's government drive out a radical Islamic militia began
withdrawing in military trucks and tanks.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 25, In southern Somalia
gunmen attacked Ethiopian soldiers stationed there, killing one and
wounding another.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 30, The African Union
summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ended with a proposed peacekeeping
force for Somalia still lacking firm commitments for thousands of
troops.
(Reuters, 1/30/07)
2007 Feb 12, A vessel smuggling
120 people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen capsized as it
approached the coast. At least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants trying
to reach the Arabian peninsula drowned.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Ethiopia federal
police said weekend clashes between Garbo and Borena nomads in the
southeastern Oromia region with least 16 people killed. The clashes
erupted after cattle were stolen from a rival group, sparking fresh
revenge attacks.
(AFP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 14, In Ethiopia US former
president Jimmy Carter announced distribution of thousands of
insecticide-treated mosquito nets, in a drive that could save up to
100,000 lives annually.
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 16, US coffee giant
Starbucks, locked in a trademark tussle with Ethiopia, said it will not
oppose Addis Ababa's bid to brand its coffee in America and pledged to
pursue dialogue over the matter.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 16, A Yemeni official
said a boat loaded with Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized in the
Gulf of Aden during a night crossing in which at least 112 people died.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 18, Fierce inter-clan
fighting killed at least 43 people in Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden
region, inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 21, In Ethiopia the UN
humanitarian office said that 684 people have died in a diarrhea
epidemic and that neighboring countries were also affected. Ethiopia’s
government has refused to declare the phenomenon as a cholera epidemic,
preferring to refer to it as "acute watery diarrhea."
(AFP, 2/22/07)
2007 Mar 1, In northern Ethiopia
15 European tourists were kidnapped in the Afar desert. The ARDUF has
been fighting for years against Ethiopia and Eritrea over lands
inhabited by ethnic Afar.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 3, Britain sent a crisis
team to Ethiopia in an effort to obtain the release of five British
embassy workers or their relatives who were kidnapped along with a
group of French while on a trip to remote northeastern Ethiopia. An
Ethiopian administrator accused Eritrean forces of kidnapping a group
of five Europeans and 13 Ethiopians in a remote part of Ethiopia, and
taking them to a military camp near the Eritrean border. Several
Ethiopians who were kidnapped along with five Britons touring the
African country's remote northeast were found.
(AP, 3/3/07)(Reuters, 3/3/07)(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In Ethiopia a group of
French tourists who had also been missing since March 1 arrived in
Mekele, the Afar region's capital, and said they had not been
kidnapped, as was previously believed. Eritrea denied accusations that
it was behind the disappearance of five kidnapped Britons.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 6, In eastern Ethiopia 2
US troops were reported killed and another injured in a single-vehicle
traffic accident.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 9, Ethiopia's foreign
minister said 5 European tourists who went missing last week in
northeastern Ethiopia are being held by kidnappers in a remote tribal
region.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 13, Five Europeans,
kidnapped in Ethiopia and held captive for 13 days, were released in
good health in Eritrea. 8 Ethiopians kidnapped with the group were
still missing.
(AP, 3/14/07)(WSJ, 3/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 16, Ethiopia called for
international pressure to be applied on Eritrea, which it accuses of
holding eight Ethiopians still missing after the release of five
European captives.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 22, Somali and Ethiopian
troops battled insurgents for a second day in Mogadishu. The Somali
government said Al-Qaeda has named Aden Hashi Ayro, a ruthless Islamist
commander, as its leader in Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/22/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, A human rights group
said Kenya has deported more than 100 people from 19 countries to
Somalia after they crossed the border between the two countries
illegally during fighting earlier this year, and the deportees were
subsequently arrested by Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 29, Somali troops and
their Ethiopian allies pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu with
bombs and tank shells, sending residents fleeing a surge in fighting
that killed over 30 people including 7 Ethiopian soldiers.
(AP, 3/29/07)(SFC, 3/30/07, p.A20)
2007 Mar-2000 Apr, Ethiopia later
said that during this period it killed at least a thousand Shabab
fighters, the armed wing of Islamic courts in Somalia. Human-rights
groups said most of the 1,670 recorded dead were civilians.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.47)
2007 Apr 2, In Somalia a human
rights organization said fierce fighting between Ethiopian-backed
government forces and Islamic insurgents has killed 381 people over
four days.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, An AP investigation
said CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of
Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries
held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and
abuse.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 5, The US pressed
Ethiopia for details on detainees from 19 nations taken to secret
prisons there and interrogated by CIA and FBI agents.
(WSJ, 4/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 7, The New York Times
reported in its Sunday edition that the Bush administration in January
allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea in
an apparent violation of a UN Security Council sanctions resolution
passed months earlier over its nuclear test.
(Reuters, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 9, An Ethiopian judge
freed 25 journalists charged in a treason trial involving more than 100
opposition figures that has drawn international criticism as being
politically motivated.
(Reuters, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 10, The Ethiopian
government acknowledged detaining 41 suspected international terrorists
from 17 countries and said foreign investigators were given permission
to question them. A statement said 29 of the suspects have been ordered
released by a Military Court and five already have been freed.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, In Somalia
Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamic insurgents exchanged
gunfire in northern Mogadishu, killing three people and ending more
than a week of relative calm.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Somalia fighting
between Ethiopian troops and insurgents left at least 12 people dead in
Mogadishu, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Somalia heavy
fighting between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing the
government left at least 52 civilians dead in Mogadishu.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, Government officials
said 8 Ethiopians held hostage for 52 days after they were kidnapped
along with five European tourists have been released unharmed. The
ex-hostages later told Ethiopian television that they had been
mistreated by their captors, who wore Eritrean army uniforms.
(AP, 4/22/07)(AFP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 24, In Ethiopia Ogaden
rebels raided a Chinese-run oil field near the Somali border, killing
65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers. An Ethiopian rebel group
claimed responsibility. The next day Ethiopia blamed Eritrea for the
attack. Eritrea issued a swift, angry denial. In 2008 security forces
arrested eight men suspected of involvement in the deadly raid.
(AP, 4/24/07)(AP, 4/25/07)(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.A1)(AFP,
3/30/08)
2007 Apr 25, In Somalia civilians
were caught in the crossfire as the government's Ethiopian backers used
tanks and heavy artillery to pound insurgent strongholds. Human rights
groups said more than 350 people have been killed in the last eight
days, the majority civilians.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, Ethiopian rebels
holding seven Chinese oil workers captured during an attack this week
on an oil venture in Ethiopia said they would release them "as soon as
possible."
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 28, China's ZTE signed a
$200 million deal with Ethiopia's state-owned Telecom Corp.
(AFP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, In Ethiopia 7 Chinese
oil workers and two Africans kidnapped during a rebel attack on a
Chinese oil field near the Somali border were released.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 May 9, Saudi authorities
beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man over a
dispute. Khadija Bint Ibrahim Moussa was the second woman to be
executed this year. The kingdom last beheaded two women in 2005.
Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 17, The World Bank said
that it and the European Commission and six other donors have committed
$780 million to support basic services and transparency in Ethiopia.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, In Ethiopia 3 Swedish
citizens were released after spending five months in jail. The three
were among dozens of foreigners detained earlier this year as terror
suspects.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 21, Ethiopian troops
backing Somalia's fragile government killed one person and wounded
another after their convoy was targeted by a land mine in Mogadishu.
Two Ethiopian rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), said they have killed 157
troops in the east of the country this month.
(AP, 5/21/07)(AFP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 25, In Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, China and the African Union launched a 150-million-dollar
project to build a new conference centre for the cash-strapped
continental body.
(AFP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 28, A blast ripped
through a crowd in Ethiopia's volatile Somali region, killing 6 people
and setting off a stampede that saw up to six more die. The attack
happened as hundreds of people were gathered at the stadium in Jijiga
town's Revolutionary Square for a ceremony marking the overthrow of
Ethiopia's former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. In 2008 an Ethiopian
court sentenced to death 8 alleged members of the Ogaden National
Liberation Force (ONLF) for the attack.
(Reuters, 5/28/07)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2007 May 29, Ethiopia began
counting its population, a daunting task in a country where asking
personal questions is considered socially taboo.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, In Somalia Ethiopian
troops shot and killed five bystanders after a land mine exploded as
their convoy passed through the center of a western Somali town.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 31, A wildlife expert
said a thousand rare black-mane lions, an Ethiopian national symbol,
and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of forest that was
part of their sanctuary was cut down.
(Reuters, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Somalia Ethiopian
troops fired at a would-be suicide bomber speeding toward their base,
blowing up the car and killing the bomber and a civilian standing
nearby.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A government
prosecutor said Ethiopia has charged 55 opposition members with trying
to launch a rebellion. More than one hundred opposition figures were
already on trial, accused of plotting a coup after disputed 2005
elections.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 9, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi said his government had launched a crackdown on a rebel group
blamed for several attacks in the country's eastern Ogaden region. It
was reported that the World Food Program and others were launching the
Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECEX).
(AFP, 6/9/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.54)
2007 Jun 11, An Ethiopian court
convicted 38 opposition activists in a trial stemming from violent
unrest that followed disputed elections in 2005.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 14, A UN spokesman said
that Ethiopia has accepted a UN commission's ruling to turn over the
disputed town of Badme to Eritrea. In a letter last week to the UN
Security Council, the Ethiopian government gave its unconditional
acceptance of the commission's decision announced five years ago.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 20, Starbucks signed a
deal to credit Ethiopia's unique bean varieties on its coffee labels,
ending a long-brewing trademark dispute.
(AFP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 28, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi said he had accepted a 2002-border ruling with the country's
arch-foe Eritrea, but insisted on new talks on how to implement it.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 4, Human Rights Watch
accused the Ethiopian army of burning homes and displacing thousands of
civilians in a crackdown on rebels in the volatile east.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Ethiopia a court
sentenced 35 opposition politicians and activists to life in prison and
denied them the right to vote or run for public office for inciting
violence in an attempt to overthrow the government. Those facing life
imprisonment include the leader of the Coalition for Unity and
Democracy, Hailu Shawel; Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis
Ababa; former Harvard scholar Mesfin Woldemariam; and former UN special
envoy and former Norfolk (Va.) State University professor, Yacob
Hailemariam.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 20, Ethiopia pardoned and
freed 38 opposition politicians and activists following international
condemnation of their imprisonment and days after US lawmakers took
steps to criticize the country's human rights record.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 22, It was reported that
the Ethiopian government was blockading emergency food and choking off
trade to large parts of the east, home to a rebel force, and putting
hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 25, Ethiopian authorities
ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to pull out of the
volatile Ogaden region within 7 days for allegedly interfering in
political issues. Five opposition members imprisoned since 2005 pleaded
guilty to attempting to overthrow Ethiopia's government, but asked the
judge for a pardon.
(AFP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 28-2007 Jul 29, Nearly
12,000 people were displaced and one person died in western Ethiopia in
flash floods over the weekend.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Aug 8, Ethiopia said it had
killed more than 500 rebels and captured 170 in the past two months
during an offensive in the volatile but energy-rich Ogaden region
bordering Somalia.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 18, Ethiopia freed 32
opposition members who had been detained for post-election violence in
2005.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 22, State media reported
that a volcanic eruption in northeastern Ethiopia killed five people
and displaced more than 2,000 others. The volcano in the Afar region
started spewing lava on August 12 and the eruption lasted for three
days.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered six
Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
Africa.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 30, Addis Ababa city
officials said Ethiopia will try to remove tens of thousands of beggars
from the streets to create a more "conducive" atmosphere for coming
Millennium celebrations. Still using the Julian calendar, abandoned by
the West in the 16th century, Ethiopia enters its new millennium on
September 12 with a huge concert expected to draw hundreds of thousands
of partygoers and international celebrities.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Sep 2, Ethiopian rebels
declared a ceasefire to allow a UN mission to tour the eastern Ogaden
region and assess alleged rights violations and a worsening
humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 4, It was reported that
Ethiopian authorities plan to kill tens of thousands of stray dogs in
the capital using strychnine-laced meat, saying they want to eradicate
rabies before next week's celebration of the Coptic millennium.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 12, Ethiopia entered the
third millennium 7 years after the rest of the world, amid lavish
celebrations, religious fervor and messages of hope from the troubled
country's leaders.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 21, The United States
said it is donating 97 million dollars (69 million euros) to Ethiopia
in recognition of the Horn of Africa country's "strategic importance."
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 27, Somali and Ethiopian
troops ordered thousands to vacate their homes in Mogadishu to allow
the forces to search for arms and insurgents.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Sep 30, Haile Gebrselassie of
Ethiopia broke the world record in winning the Berlin Marathon in two
hours, four minutes and 26 seconds.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 3, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel arrived in Ethiopia overnight at the start of a tour of
African countries that will also take in South Africa and Liberia.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 4, Ethiopia pledged 5,000
troops to a future UN-African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 9, The Ethiopian
parliament reelected President Girma Wolde-Giorgis for a new
six-year-term to his largely ceremonial post.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 21,
Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said
they killed 140 government soldiers in a weekend assault targeting a
visiting senior official, a statement Ethiopia immediately denounced as
false.
(Reuters, 10/21/07)
2007 Nov 4, Ethiopia's Ogaden
National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said they had killed another
270 government troops in heightened fighting in the eastern region of
the country.
(Reuters, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 16, Ethiopian officers
claimed their forces had killed some 100 rebels in the Ogaden region
over the past month where its forces are cracking down on insurgents.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 18, Separatist rebels
said Ethiopia's air force has been "carpet-bombing" villages and
nomadic settlements in its oil- and gas-rich Ogaden region, leaving a
trail of casualties.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 27, PM Meles Zenawi said
Ethiopia will sustain its crackdown on separatist rebels in the restive
Ogaden region, adding that scores of insurgents had been killed. John
Holmes, UN undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs, arrived in
the Ogaden region.
(AP, 11/27/07)(Reuters, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 29, It was reported
locals in eastern Ethiopia have accused soldiers fighting an insurgency
of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing
people "like goats." A September report by a UN fact-finding mission
said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 1, A deadline for
Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on the physical demarcation of their
border expired amid escalating tension between the two nations, leaving
the frontier only delineated on maps.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 22, Ethiopia claimed it
was receiving an influx of around 600 Eritreans fleeing political
oppression in their country every month.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first
contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital,
joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force that is still
well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order.
Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles
attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a
deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into
homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the
crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 31, In Sudan the African
Union transferred authority to a new joint peacekeeping force with the
UN in Darfur. An AU official said Ethiopia and Egypt will each send 850
troops early in the new year to serve with a joint UN-AU force in the
Darfur region.
(AP, 12/31/07)(Reuters, 12/31/07)
2007 In Ethiopia the northern
Tigrayans, who made up most of the ruling elite, comprised only about
7% of the population. The Oromos, mainly in the center and south,
comprised 40% of the population and provided most of the country’s
food. The Amharas comprised about 22% of the populations and have
traditionally been the educated ruling class. Muslim Somalis occupied
the south-east Ogaden region.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.33)
2008 Jan 19, Ethiopia’s justice
minister Dimegn Wube said half of Ethiopian women are victims of
domestic violence.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 25, Ethiopia's
administration for refugee and returnee affairs said that more
than 450 Eritreans, including 234 soldiers, fled their country into
Ethiopia in January alone.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 30, The UN Security
Council renewed the mandate of the struggling UN peace force on the
Eritrea-Ethiopia border for six months despite a request from
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for just one month.
(Reuters, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 31, In Kenya an
opposition lawmaker was gunned down by a police officer in the second
fatal shooting of an opposition legislator this week. National police
chief Hussein Ali said the police officer, who has been arrested, shot
David Too in a dispute over the officer's girlfriend. The opposition
said it was an assassination plot. Kofi Annan suspended crisis talks
aimed at ending Kenya's political crisis after the lawmaker was shot
dead, triggering further clashes. In Ethiopia UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon met with Pres. Kibaki at the African Union summit and warned
that the violence in Kenya could spiral out of control unless quick
action was taken.
(AP, 1/31/08)(AFP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 1, In Ethiopia a summit
of African Union leaders shifted its attention from the crisis in Kenya
to Chad, with delegates voicing fears of a major conflict that could
scupper peace efforts in Sudan.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 2, African Union leaders
condemned the latest unrest in Chad and Kenya at the close of a summit
overshadowed by new crises on the continent and which saw little
headway achieved on older ones. Hundreds of rebels penetrated the
capital of Chad, clashing with government troops and moving on the
presidential palace after a three-day advance through the oil-producing
central African nation.
(AFP, 2/2/08)(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 4, The UN Security
Council sent a "firm and unwavering demand" that Eritrea immediately
lift fuel restrictions hampering the efforts of peacekeepers monitoring
a tense buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, UN officials said
Ethiopia and Bangladesh have offered to jump-start the UN peacekeeping
mission in Darfur by loaning it helicopters to fly troops and supplies
around the vast region in western Sudan.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 8, The UN said it is
being forced to prepare an imminent pullout from Eritrea and plans to
relocate all its peacekeeping troops there across the border in
Ethiopia.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 18, Ethiopia’s
state-media reported that 309 police officers, suspected of links with
separatists rebels, have been arrested in the Ogaden region as part of
a government crackdown.
(AFP, 2/18/08)
2008 Mar 13, In Ethiopia a bus hit
a landmine near the disputed Ethiopian-Eritrean border, killing at
least eight people and wounding 27 others.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Apr 13, Ethiopians voted in a
first round of elections that the main opposition coalition boycotted
to protest alleged intimidation by ruling party officials.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Ethiopia
explosions at two national oil company gas stations killed two people
in the capital of Addis Ababa.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 20, The second and final
day of voting in Ethiopia's local and parliamentary polls was held amid
tight security. The 2 largest opposition parties boycotted the
elections saying intimidation had forced out over 17,000 of their
candidates.
(AP, 4/20/08)(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 21,
The Ethiopian government announced it was severing diplomatic
relations with Qatar, accusing the Gulf Arab state of destabilizing the
Horn of Africa region.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 23, In Somalia residents
said four more corpses were found Mogadishu, bringing the death toll
from last weekend's shelling and seizure of small towns by the
Islamists' to at least 103. Amnesty Int’l. Ethiopian soldiers,
stationed in Somalia to bolster the interim government, had killed 21
people and captured dozens of children in a raid on the Al Hidaaya
mosque earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Ethiopia launched a
commodities exchange market, aimed at boosting fair trade and
stabilizing its food market.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 29, An explosion in
southwestern Somalia killed four Ethiopian troops and the subsequent
gunfire killed two civilians.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 30, Ethiopian troops
allied to Somalia's shaky government opened fire on civilians in a
street in southwestern Somalia, killing 13 after an explosion there
killed two soldiers.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 4, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers during a gunfight
in Mogadishu. Inter-clan fighting in western Somalia, which broke out
the previous evening, left at least 12 people dead and at least 15
others wounded in a land dispute.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 18, Ethiopia's electoral
board said the ruling party won nearly all seats in last month's local
polls and parliamentary by-elections that were marred by boycotts and
accusations of repression. Official data said the ruling Ethiopian
Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won 97 percent of the
vote held on April 13 and 20.
(AFP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 20, In Ethiopia 3 people
were killed and four wounded when a bomb exploded near the foreign
ministry in central Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The UN children's
agency warned that a severe drought in Ethiopia threatens up to six
million children.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 26, Ethiopia's Supreme
Court sentenced former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to death in his
absence, along with 17 senior officials of his regime, overturning a
previous life term on appeal. Mengistu has lived in exile in Zimbabwe
since he was toppled in 1991.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, In southern Ethiopia
a bomb exploded in a hotel, killing 3 people and wounding five others.
The government suspected a terrorist group planted a bomb in the hotel
in Negelle Borena.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, In Ethiopia a flash
flood hit Jijiga town late at night and swept away 200 houses, killing
25 people of whom 19 were children.
(Reuters, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 9, Somalia’s government
signed an agreement with an opposition alliance calling for an end to
violence and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. A leader of the ousted
Islamic movement rejected the UN-brokered deal.
(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A3)(SFC, 6/11/08, p.A15)
2008 Jun 12, Human Rights Watch
said Western donors have failed to condemn war crimes by Ethiopian
forces during a year-old campaign against separatist fighters in the
country's eastern Ogaden region.
(Reuters, 6/12/08)
2008 Jul 8, Sudan's army spokesman
claimed Ethiopian forces had attacked a police base 17 kilometers (11
miles) inside Sudanese territory, killing 19 people, including one
police officer. Ethiopia denied the accusations.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, Ethiopia's Ogadeni
rebels accused the regime in Addis Ababa of deliberately blocking
international aid to their war-wracked and drought-stricken region.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 12, Ethiopia said it has
arrested eight "Eritrean-trained" rebels suspected of carrying out
bombings that rocked the capital Addis Ababa and killed eight people
earlier this year.
(Reuters, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 30, The UN Security
Council voted to end an 8-year-long peacekeeping mission between
Eritrea and Ethiopia despite continuing tensions, a move that the
United Nations' chief has warned could lead to a new war.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 20, The Red Cross revised
its emergency appeal for Ethiopia to five million euros (7.9 million
dollars) as the situation in the drought-hit south of the country got
worse.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Sep 1, The top UN aid
official John Holmes called for greater international efforts to help
millions of Ethiopians suffering from a severe drought.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 3, In Ethiopia an
explosion rocked a bar in Addis Ababa, killing 4 people. 2 more died
the next day.
(AFP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Ethiopia unveiled its
famed Axum Obelisk after more than three years of work to re-erect the
150-ton stela plundered by fascist Italy 70 years ago and returned only
in 2005.
(AFP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 22, The UN appealed for
$460 million to feed some 10 million Ethiopians hit by drought and high
food prices. In southeastern Ethiopia two expatriate staff for French
aid group Medecins du Monde were kidnapped in the rebellious Ogaden
region.
(AP, 9/22/08)(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, The US said it has
given Ethiopia 151 million dollars to boost its health and education
services.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 24, Britain pledged 26.9
million pounds for drought-hit Ethiopia, where some 9.6 million people
are in need of emergency food aid.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Ethiopia 4 people
were killed and 22 injured in an explosion in eastern Somali province.
Police the next day said a suspect had confessed to being a member of
the Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya operating in the region.
(AFP, 9/28/08)(AFP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Germany Haile
Gebrselassie of Ethiopia broke the marathon world record for the second
straight year, becoming the first man to run the distance in under two
hours and four minutes. He clocked 2:03.59 in winning his third
straight Berlin Marathon, breaking the mark of 2:04.26 he set last year
over the same flat course.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Oct 1, Berhe Gebreegziabher,
the head of Ethiopia’s animal health in the agriculture ministry, said
an outbreak of African horse sickness has killed more than 2,000
horses, mules and donkeys in Ethiopia since March.
(AFP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 9, Ethiopia signed a
220-million-euro (300 million dollar) deal with a French company for
the construction of Africa's largest wind farm.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 14, An Ethiopian minister
said his country urgently needs US$265 million to feed 6.4 million
people affected by drought.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Commission announced 15 million euros (20 million dollars) of emergency
food aid for victims of drought and soaring food prices in five east
African countries. The biggest share will go to Ethiopia and Somalia
and smaller amounts to Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Ethiopia 19 people
were killed when the bus they were traveling in hit a wall after its
wheels snapped off some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Addis
Ababa. Turbo Tumo, who represented Ethiopia at the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics, was among those killed.
(AFP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 2, The bodies of 60
Somali and Ethiopian migrants washed up on the shores of southern Yemen
over the last three days.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 5, In southern Ethiopian
farmers stoned to death Legesse Wegi, a senior rebel figure suspected
of organizing fatal blasts in the capital Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 17, Ethiopia’s state news
agency said the Wabe Shebelle river in the southeast highlands burst
its banks after heavy rains, killing 11 people and stranding hundreds
more.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 21, Ethiopia’s government
said the death toll from floods in southeastern Ethiopia has risen to
17 and more than 100,000 people have been left homeless.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 28, Ethiopia announced
that it will withdraw its forces from Somalia by the end of the year,
leaving this country's weak and fractured government to face an
increasingly powerful Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Dec 9, Ethiopian troops were
reported to be pouring into neighboring Somalia to fight radical
Islamists who have taken over much of the country, raising fears of
more violence in a country fighting a deadly insurgency and piracy.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 29, In Ethiopia Birtukan
Midekssa (35), head of the Unity for Democracy Justice party, was
arrested and resumed serving her life term after her pardon from a life
sentence was revoked. She had irked the regime when she reportedly
claimed during a recent visit to Europe that she had never voiced
remorse or acknowledged any mistake to obtain her pardon in 2007.
(AFP,
12/31/08)(www.jimmatimes.com/article.cfm?articleID=31713)
2008 Ethiopia’s population stood
at about 85 million and was growing by 2 million a year. The country’s
defense budget was $300 million.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.38)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.36)
2009 Jan 3, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power, taking over several
police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been
propping up the government began to pull out.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 6, Ethiopia's parliament
adopted a controversial bill imposing heavy restrictions on
foreign-funded humanitarian groups operating in the war- and
famine-ravaged country. Under the new law, any group that draws more
than 10 percent of its funding from abroad will be classified as
foreign, and thus banned from working on issues related to ethnicity,
gender, children's rights and conflict resolution.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AFP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 13, Ethiopia handed over
security duties in neighboring Somalia to a joint force of Somali
government security forces and Islamic militiamen, a shift some fear
will leave a power vacuum in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 15, The last Ethiopian
troops backing Somalia's fragile government left Mogadishu, as Islamist
forces took control of bases that the Ethiopians had vacated. An
Islamist court under Shabab publicly executed politician Abdirahman
Ahmed (55) to death by firing squad for showing sympathy for
Christianity.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdirahman_Ahmed)
2009 Jan 29, The European Union
signed an agreement to give Ethiopia 251 million euros (322 million
dollars) in aid to boost development projects across the Horn of Africa
nation.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, Ethiopia said that
4.9 million of its people will need emergency food aid in the first six
months of 2009 due to drought and appealed for $390 million from donors
to pay for it.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 1, The African Union's
12th summit opened in Ethiopia with an agenda officially focused on
infrastructure development. Leaders set aside the first day to discuss
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's long-standing pet project to establish
a United States of Africa.
(AFP, 2/1/09)(Reuters, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Ethiopia Libyan
leader Moamer Kadhafi was elected to head the 53-nation African Union
at a summit amid concerns over deadly unrest in Madagascar and a bid to
indict Sudan's president for war crimes.
(AFP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Ethiopia Brian
Adkins (25) was killed in his home in Addis Ababa. He was serving as a
consular officer at the US Embassy there. A suspect was arrested on Feb
11.
(AP, 2/11/09)(www.huffingtonpost.com/news/africa)
2009 Feb 17, The UN said some 4.9
million more Ethiopians are in urgent need of food aid, bringing the
total number of people in Ethiopia who need relief aid to 12 million,
or 15 percent of the population.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 20, Six African migrants
drowned and 11 more are presumed dead after smugglers in the Gulf of
Aden forced their passengers overboard in deep water off Yemen. The
smuggling boat was carrying 40 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians when it
approached Yemen's coast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 3, In southern Ethiopia a
cattle-herding tribe crowned Guyyoo Gobbaa (36) as their new king in a
secret ceremony considered so sacred that the Borena people believe it
has the power to kill unauthorized observers.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Apr 7, Ethiopia, the world's
sixth largest coffee producer, said it did not intend to nationalize
the coffee sector after revoking licenses of six exporters for hoarding
the beans. PM Meles Zenawi had warned the exporters against hoarding
coffee, accusing them of speculation in the world markets.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 16, Ethiopian opposition
protesters staged a rare demonstration in Addis Ababa, demanding the
release of an official jailed for life in January.
(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 21, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir arrived in Ethiopia, on his sixth foreign trip since an
international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes was issued against
him.
(AFP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 21, The 114th Boston
Marathon was won by Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga for the men and Salina
Kosgei of Kenya for the women.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 24, Ethiopian authorities
arrested 35 members of an opposition group accused of plotting to carry
out a "terror attack" in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AFP, 4/26/09)
2009 May 1, In Ethiopia
Communications Minister Bereket Simon said that senior military
officers, including a general, had plotted to assassinate top
government officials. He added that 40 people were under arrest.
Bereket said the plotters belonged to the Ginbot 7 (May 15) opposition
group, saying it was linked to the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
(CUD) headed by Berhanu Nega, currently living in the United States.
(AFP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 19, In Somalia witnesses
said that Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and appear to be
stationing themselves at a strategic crossroads. Ethiopia denied the
reports. Witnesses said they saw Ethiopian troops in the Somali town of
Kalabeyr, 14 miles (22 km) from the Ethiopian border and 11 miles (18
km) north of Belet Weyne, the provincial capital of the Hiran region.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 23, It was reported that
Saudi Arabian investors were spending $100 million to raise wheat,
barley and rise on land leased from the government of Ethiopia. The
World Food Program estimated that it would spend almost the same amount
between 2007 and 2011 to provide 230,000 tons of food aid to some 4.6
million Ethiopians threatened by hunger and malnutrition.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.61)
2009 Jun 4, Ethiopia charged 46
people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate government
officials. Ethiopia also said it has undertaken military reconnaissance
operations in Somalia, but is not planning to re-deploy.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 30, Ethiopian police shot
dead two people and injured six others as they blocked an attempt by
Christians to build a church at a site also claimed by Muslims.
(AFP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 6, Ethnic Somali rebels
(ONLF) in Ethiopia's Ogaden region claimed they killed 90 government
troops in recent clashes, but the government denied any losses,
claiming victory instead.
(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 7, Ethiopia's parliament
adopted a new anti-terrorism bill despite criticism by rights groups
that the legislation violates civil liberties.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 27, In Ethiopia Bashir
Ahmed Makhtal (36), an Ethiopian-born Canadian citizen, was found
guilty of being a member of a rebel group fighting for autonomy for an
ethnically Somali part of the country. Bashir was convicted of
membership in the ONLF and supporting terrorism in Ogaden, and could
face the death penalty. His grandfather was a founder of the ONLF. On
August 3 he was sentenced to life in prison for terrorism-related
charges.
(Reuters, 7/27/09)(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 6, Ethiopia’s Federal
High Court issued the guilty verdicts against 13 men, including a
US-based professor, convicted in absentia for plotting to overthrow the
government. Berhanu Nega, Ethiopian-born professor with US nationality
and teacher of economics at Philadelphia's Bucknell Univ., was accused
of masterminding a plan to topple PM Meles Zenawi.
(Reuters, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 18, An international
claims commission in The Hague awarded Ethiopia slightly more than
Eritrea as it settled mutual claims worth hundreds of millions of
dollars for death, injury, rape, looting and destruction during their
two-year border conflict. This concluded a complex arbitration that was
part of the 2000 peace agreement closing out a border conflict that
cost tens of thousands of lives.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 25, Four Ethiopian
athletes, two women and two men, fled their hotel in London and failed
to make a connecting flight to Edinburgh ahead of the Falkirk Cup
athletics event.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 29, Somali witnesses said
hundreds of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and seized control
of the Somali town of Belet Weyne from Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Sep 23, Ethiopia said its
national electricity company has signed contracts with three Chinese
firms to develop hydro-electric projects and made preliminary accords
for wind power projects.
(AFP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 29, Ethiopian and Kenyan
authorities seized more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of ivory
from nearly 100 illegally killed elephants. Specially trained dogs
sniffed out a consignment of bloodstained tusks at Kenya's national
airport. Another shipment of tusks sent by the same individual had been
seized a day earlier at the airport in Ethiopia's capital.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Ethiopia Abdi
Mohammed Awhasen, a top rebel leader in the restive Ogaden region,
surrendered. His arrest led to the seizure of some four tons of
explosive material.
(AFP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 5, Ethiopia's President
Girma Woldegiorgis told parliament that government is aiming to achieve
double-digit economic growth in 2009. An official from the Oxfam
charity said as many as 6.2 million Ethiopians need emergency
humanitarian assistance due to severe drought.
(AFP, 10/6/09)(Reuters, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 10, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi accused Eritrea of sowing havoc in the region as Addis Ababa
reiterated calls for sanctions over Asmara's alleged support for
Somalia's rebels.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 22, Ethiopia said it
needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people, an appeal that comes
25 years after a devastating famine compounded by communist policies
killed 1 million and prompted one of the largest charity campaigns in
history.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Nov 10, Ethiopia announced
the discovery of a mine containing more than 40 tons of gold deposit
worth 1.7 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros).
(AFP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 14, Ethiopian ONLF rebels
fighting for independence for a region with potentially significant oil
and gas reserves said they had captured seven towns near the border
with neighboring Somalia.
(Reuters, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 18, In Uganda a new 12
million dollar family planning drive was launched in Kampala
highlighting how Obama administration funding has revamped a
contraception drive in Africa and developing states. Uganda, Ethiopia,
Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Kenya will share in the 12-million
dollar funding, but international organizations still have to persuade
certain African governments that it is in their interest to curb
population growth.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, An Ethiopian court
convicted 26 people who were accused of taking part in an alleged coup
plot earlier this year and acquitted five others.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the
Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3 months
had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer
dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of illegal
elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the wildlife
authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 4, A leading Ethiopian
newspaper said it had closed down as a result of months of government
"persecution and harassment" against its staff. The weekly Addis Neger
newspaper, often critical of government policies, published its last
edition on Dec 5 before some of its staff fled the country for fear of
arrest.
(AFP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 17, Oxfam said some areas
of East Africa had received less than 5% of the normal November rains
and that many people are malnourished in Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia,
Kenya and Ethiopia. It was the sixth failed rainy season for
war-ravaged Somalia and the worst drought there for 20 years. The
European Commission announced that it would immediately release an
extra $75 million to fund emergency relief for drought-stricken areas
of East Africa. It estimated that 16 million people will need aid in
the coming months.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 18, The UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said an estimated 74,000 Africans,
mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia, have fled to Yemen as refugees or
economic migrants. That's a 50 percent higher than in 2008.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 22, An Ethiopian court
sentenced five people to death, including Berhanu Nega, an Ethiopian
professor teaching at a US university, and 33 to life in prison for
being members of a terror group and conspiring to assassinate
government officials. Nega, an exiled opposition leader, was elected
mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005. Berhanu and more than 100 other
opposition politicians were arrested after the 2005 election and put on
trial for treason. Berhanu and others were pardoned and freed after 20
months, but the government last week revoked Berhanu's pardon.
(AP, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 22, An Ethiopian court
sentenced five people to death, including Berhanu Nega, an Ethiopian
professor teaching at a US university, and 33 to life in prison for
being members of a terror group and conspiring to assassinate
government officials. Nega, an exiled opposition leader, was elected
mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005. Berhanu and more than 100 other
opposition politicians were arrested after the 2005 election and put on
trial for treason. Berhanu and others were pardoned and freed after 20
months, but the government last week revoked Berhanu's pardon.
(AP, 12/22/09)
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Subject = Ethiopia
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