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)
3.58Mil In 2010 fossil hunters
reported the discovery in Ethiopia’s Afar Desert of bones from a
male specimen of Australopithecus afarensis dating to this time. The
40% skeleton was estimated to have stood about 5-5˝ feet tall.
(SFC, 6/24/10, p.A4)
3.4Mil BC The fossil of a pre-human footprint
dating to this time was later found in Ethiopia and attributed by
scientists in 2012 to a hominin line that never adapted to
terrestrial mobility upright.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A5)
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)
2.8Mil BC Scientists in 2015 reported that a
jawbone found in northeast Ethiopia dated to about this time making
it the oldest to date for the Homo branch of humans.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A2)
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)
1854 British explorer Sir
Richard Burton became one of the first foreigners to penetrate the
"forbidden" walls of Harar, Ethiopia, disguised as a Muslim trader.
Harar, also called Jugol, was founded in the 10th century and is
reputed to be one of the oldest cities in east Africa.
(AFP, 8/22/14)
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. Alemayehu (18) died 11 years later
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)(AP, 6/3/10)
1868 Following the defeat of
Ethiopian emperor Tewodros by British troops, victorious soldiers
stole an 18-carat gold crown, more than 500 ancient manuscripts and
a painting. A British soldier took the wooden Tabot of St. Michael
from the fortress of Emp. Tewodros II at Maqdala. It was returned in
2002. In 2007 Ethiopia requested that all the stolen treasures
be returned.
(AM, 5/01, p.10)(AP, 6/3/10)(Reuters, 4/24/18)
1869 Nov 11, Victor Emmanuel
III, king of Italy (1900-46) and Ethiopia, was born.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1886 In Ethiopia Menelik II, a
King of the Shewa province, founded Addis Ababa. The site was chosen
by Empress Taytu Betul.
(Econ, 8/28/10,
p.40)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addis_Ababa)
1889 Mar 10, In Ethiopia
Emperor Yohannes was killed in a war against the dervishes during
the Battle of Gallabat (Matemma). With his dying breaths, Yohannes
declared his natural son, Dejazmach Mengesha Yohannes, as his heir.
On 25 March, upon hearing of the death of Yohannes, Negus Menelik
immediately proclaimed himself as Nəgusä Nägäst.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelik_II_of_Ethiopia)
1889 Nov 3, In Ethiopia Emperor
Menelik II (1844-1913) began ruling as emperor, 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)
1894 Dec, An uprising in
Eritrea was swiftly put down by the Italians. Italian troops under
Gen. Oreste Baratieri then marched south from Eritrea and seized the
northwestern Agame region of Ethiopia.
(ON, 2/11, p.7)
1895 Sep 17, Ethiopia’s Emperor
Menelik II issued a mobilization proclamation calling on men to
gather to resist the Italian army.
(ON, 2/11, p.7)
1896 Mar 1, The Battle of Adowa
(Adwa, 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 with some 6,000 killed. 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."
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-12)(AP, 3/1/98)(SFC, 5/15/00,
p.D3)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.89)(ON, 2/11, p.9)
1906 Jul 4, Great Britain,
France & Italy granted independence to Ethiopia.
(Maggio, 98)
1913 Dec 12, Ethiopia’s Emperor
Menelik II (b.1844) died. After his death the council of regency
continued the rule of Ethiopia. Lij Iyasu had been designated
successor of Menelik II by Empress Taytu in May 1909 - however a
problem occurred: the imperial Abyssinian rules of succession
dictated, that only a Christian could rule Ethiopia as Emperor - and
Lij Iyasu had taken the Muslim faith. Therefore Lij Iyasu was never
crowned emperor of Ethiopia. In 1916 Empress Zewditu I of Ethiopia
succeeded Menelik II, she was his oldest daughter.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelik_II_of_Ethiopia)
1914 Jun 27, US signed a treaty
of commerce with Ethiopia.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1916 Sep 27, 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 Sep 6, Forty teenagers
from Armenia, who had escaped from the Armenian genocide in Turkey,
arrived in Addis Ababa. They along with their bandleader Kevork
Nalbandian became the first official orchestra of Ethiopia.
Nalbandian composed the music for Ethiopia’s Imperial National
Anthem, Marsh Teferi (words by Yoftahé Negusé), official from 1930
to 1974.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Arba_Lijoch)
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.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Haile_Selassie)(AP,
11/2/97)(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
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 reportedly massacred by Italian forces in Addis
Ababa. Italian estimates numbered between 600 and 2,000. Later
studies put the number at around 20,000.
(http://nazret.com/history/)(Econ 7/22/17, p.66)
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/)
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 under the prompting of the
United States. Union was to be achieved September 15, 1952.
(http://nazret.com/history/)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea)
1950 The population of Ethiopia
was about 18 million.
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.P23)
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)
1955 Yugoslavia’s Pres. Joseph
Tito donated a giant obelisk to Ethiopia. Six bronze reliefs
depicted a massacre carried out by Italian forces carried out during
the occupation of 1936-1941.
(Econ 7/22/17, p.66)
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, by
Chad, Mauritania & Zambia. Emperor Haile Selassie was among the
key African leaders who founded the Organization of African Unity.
He oversaw the maiden meeting of the continental body. In 2001 it
was replaced the African Union.
(AP, 5/25/97)(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)(AP, 2/10/19)
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)
1973 Ethiopian Airlines became
the first African carrier to fly to China.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.59)
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. An Ethiopian counter-offensive backed by Cuban
troops wrecked Somalia’s army and led to the 1991 of the Somali
regime.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.19)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.49)(Econ,
1/7/12, p.42)
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. As many as 100,000 people were killed
during the campaign as Mengistu sought to transform the country into
a Soviet-style workers' state. (Econ, 9/29/07,
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror_(Ethiopia))(AP,
3/7/10)
1978 Feb 7, Ethiopia mounted a
counter attack against Somalia.
(HN,
2/7/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War)
1978 Aug, In Ethiopia dozens of
prisoners in a church inside a prison compound were executed and
other prisoners were told to dump their bodies in a mass grave
during the rule of Marxists known as the Dergue led by dictator
Mengistu Haile Mariam.
(AP, 11/2/17)
1978 UNESCO named Ethiopia’s
Simien Mountains National Park a World Heritage Site.
(SSFC, 5/24/15, p.L2)
1981 Karlheinz Boehm
(1928-2014), Austrian actor and human rights activist, founded the
Menschen fuer Menschen ("People for People") aid group dedicated to
helping people in Ethiopia.
(AP, 5/30/14)
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 marginalized 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. The military regime taxed aid and spent the
proceeds on a grand celebration of the success of Marxism.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8,12)(SFC, 11/6/00,
p.A12)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.40)
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 Jul 13, Live Aid, an
international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and
Sydney, took place to raise money for Ethiopia and Africa's starving
people. It was organized by Bob Geldof of Ireland.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)(AP 7/13/97)(Econ, 6/4/05,
p.56)
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 Eritrea was victorious
over Ethiopian forces.
(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.P3)
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 May, 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 (36), 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. Some experts say 150,000
university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed in a
nationwide purge by Mengistu's regime. No one knew for sure how many
suspected opponents were killed.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)(SFC,
6/24/99, p.A14)(AP, 6/1/11)
1991 The Ethiopian Orthodox
Tewahedo Church split over the naming of a new patriarch after the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) removed
the Derg military junta from power. In 2018 the feuding wings
reunified.
(AFP, 7/27/18)
1991-1995 Meles Zenawi (b.1956) served as Chairman
of the EPRDF and President of the Transitional Government of
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, Egypt’s Pres.
Mubarak escaped unharmed after his motorcade came under fire during
a trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was en route to a summit of the
Organization of African Unity. In 1996 an Ethiopian court sentenced
3 Egyptian men to death for the attack.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A10)(AP, 7/9/04)(SFC, 2/12/11,
p.A4)
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. PM 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. The ruling stated
that Engal is in fact Eritrean. The decision would divide the
minority ethnic Irob community, spread across the region, one of the
few centers of Ethiopian Catholicism, introduced in the 19th century
by Italian saint Justin de Jacobis. Ethiopia's rejection of the UN
ruling on the demarcation of the border threw Addis Ababa's
relations with Asmara into deadlock, prompting Eritrea to seal its
borders.
(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/hornafrica.html#eri)(WSJ, 4/15/02,
p.A1)(AFP, 7/20/18)
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 PM 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." Nega, the
founder of Ginbot 7, was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009
after he moved to exile in the US.
(AP,
8/22/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berhanu_Nega)(Econ, 10/28/06,
p.56)(AP, 9/15/11)
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, AMISOM, 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)(AFP, 10/22/11)
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
the Ethiopia Commodities Exchange (ECX) market, in Addis Ababa. It
aimed at boosting fair trade and stabilizing its food market.
(AP, 4/24/08)(Econ, 2/4/17, p.64)
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 14, In Ethiopia Ginbot
7, a Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy, was formed.
(http://ginbot7.com/Ginbot_7-Movement_for_Justice_Liberty_and_Democracy_is_Formed.htm)
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 Dec, A 131-page report by
the UN Procurement Task Force said former officials Ventzislav
Stoykov and Edgar Casals each scammed hundreds of thousands of
dollars and ran outside ventures at the UN's Economic Commission for
Africa. The task force recommended providing the ECA report to
prosecutors in Ethiopia and the Philippines and to US authorities to
review visas Casals apparently obtained through Santiago "Sonny"
Busa, a former US consular chief in Addis Ababa.
(AP, 6/19/10)
2008 Ethiopian authorities
burned half a million pirated CDs and DVDs in the center of Addis
Ababa.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.43)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdirahman_Ahmed)(AP, 1/15/09)(Econ,
2/28/09, p.48)
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 Jan, In Ethiopia an
inauguration ceremony was held for the new headquarters of the
53-member AU. Completion was expected December 2011. The structure,
a gift to the AU, was designed by China, managed by China, financed
by China and constructed by China.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
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)
2010 Jan 13, Ethiopia’s biggest
hydroelectric dam was opened by PM Meles Zenawi and Italian Foreign
Minister Franco Frattini. The Gilegel Gibe II dam was financed by
Italy.
(AFP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 25, An Ethiopian
Airlines plane carrying 90 people caught fire and crashed into the
sea minutes after taking off from Beirut. At least 34 bodies were
recovered, but no survivors were found by nightfall. In 2012 a
Lebanese report put the blame on pilot error and inexperience.
Ethiopian Airlines immediately rejected the Lebanese findings saying
the crash was likely caused by sabotage or a lightning strike.
(AP, 1/25/10)(AFP, 1/17/12)
2010 Jan 29, An Ethiopian judge
sentenced a journalist to prison in connection with a January 2008
column that criticized PM Meles Zenawi's statements about religious
affairs in Ethiopia. The journalist was later identified as Ezedin
Mohamed, editor of Al-Quds, a Muslim-orientated newspaper.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Ethiopia UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the AU's annual summit in
Addis Ababa and again failed to pledge peacekeepers for Somalia. Ban
Ki-Moon criticized power-grabs in Africa in a speech to the
continent's leaders as Libya's Moamer Kadhafi reluctantly handed
over the presidency of the African Union to Malawian President Bingu
wa Mutharika. The AU agreed to consider a Senegalese proposal to
resettle Haiti's earthquake homeless and possibly create a state for
them in Africa.
(Reuters, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)(Reuters,
1/31/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Ethiopia African
leaders wrapped up their annual summit less divided and looking at
brighter economic prospects but still facing a raft of conflicts,
including Sudan's predicted break-up. An AU official said leaders of
the 53-member African Union want Madagascar's rival politicians to
stick to the agreements meant to help the Indian Ocean island out of
a prolonged crisis.
(AFP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 6, Ethiopia’s official
news agency said US software giant Microsoft has launched Windows
Vista in Amharic, the first operating system in its national
language. 40 scholars from the Addis Ababa University had taken part
in the translation of the software for the country of over 80
million people.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Ethiopia 25
African states agreed to step up efforts to regulate mercenary
activity on the continent amid an explosion of private security
companies on the continent.
(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 7, Ethiopia
inaugurated a museum in Addis Ababa in memory of the victims of
former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's so-called Red Terror purge
which killed tens of thousands in 1977-78.
(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 15, Somalia's
transitional government (TFG) and a faction of the country's
moderate Ahlu Sunna Sufi sect signed a deal in Addis Ababa to
jointly fight extremist elements in Somalia.
(AFP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 19, The US condemned
Ethiopia's blocking of Voice of America broadcasts, calling the
country's accusations of the US radio service "baseless and
inflammatory."
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Ethiopia a
British geologist (39) working on behalf of the state-run Malaysian
energy company Petronas was shot dead near Danot town.
(Reuters, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 6, An African Union
conference on maritime security opened in Ethiopia. Somali Deputy PM
Abdulrahman Adan Ibrahim Ibbi called for outside help to clear toxic
waste dumped illegally on his country's vast coastline, arguing that
the fight against dumping goes hand in hand with the fight against
piracy.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 9, In Ethiopia
Communications Minister Bereket Simon announced that leaders of the
United Western Somali Liberation Front (UWSLF), a rebel group in the
southeastern Somali region, has agreed to lay down arms after
decades of guerrilla war.
(AFP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 13, Ethiopian
authorities and the European Union signed accords allowing EU
observers to monitor May's general elections in the Horn of Africa
country.
(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 20, Ethiopia said that
it would go ahead with a new deal with six other countries on
sharing the waters of the Nile and accused Egypt of "dragging its
feet" on a more equitable treaty.
(AFP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 26, In Ethiopia gunmen
shot dead an opposition party activist, days after the government
accused the party of killing a policeman in the same region.
(AFP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 2, Ethiopia’s
information minister said police have arrested 10 suspected Islamic
militants they believe were sent by Eritrea to carry out attacks to
upset May 23 general elections.
(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 6, In southern
Ethiopia attackers hurled a bomb at a political meeting in Adaba,
killing two people and wounding 14 others just over two weeks before
national elections. On May 20 Tadesse Haile was sentenced to death
for throwing hand grenades into the packed stadium. He was also
convicted on planting bombs close to a construction site on May 5.
(AFP, 5/7/10)(AFP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 14, Four African
countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a new treaty
on the equitable sharing of the Nile waters despite strong
opposition from Egypt and Sudan, who have the lion's share of the
river waters. The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative
Framework, is to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that
gives them control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned at the weekend
that Cairo's water rights were a "red line" and threatened legal
action if a partial deal is reached.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 18, Ethiopia's main
rebel group claimed to have captured an army garrison town and
killed 94 government soldiers in a major operation. The Ethiopian
government denied the town had been captured and said the attack had
been successfully repelled.
(AFP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 23, Ethiopia held
Parliamentary elections. PM Meles Zenawi rejected opposition
complaints of fraud elections and said he expected to win on the
strength of his economic record. The ruling Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties won 534
seats out of 536 declared, giving PM Meles Zenawi most seats in the
547-member parliament. The EU observation mission released its final
report on Nov 8. It said the electoral process was short of
international standards concerning transparency, and that state
resources were used in the ruling party's campaign.
(Reuters, 5/23/10)(Reuters, 5/26/10)(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 May 24, An international
human rights group said that Ethiopia's national election was marred
by repression and intimidation, while the government said the vote
was free and fair.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, Ethiopian police
shot dead two opposition members in the sensitive Oromia region
following the elections. One man was shot May 24 after trying to
storm an office where ballots were being counted. The other was shot
today by a policeman whom he had beaten during the same incident.
(Reuters, 5/26/10)
2010 May 26, Ethiopian
opposition groups rejected results of parliamentary elections which
gave long-time ruler Meles Zenawi a landslide win, and demanded
fresh polls.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 Jun 2, A century-old
Ethiopian prayer book stolen decades ago was returned to the African
nation after American collector Gerald Weiner, who held it, agreed
to the restitution.
(AFP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 11, Ethiopian rebels
said the military had killed 71 civilians in the last month as part
of a growing crackdown in a region where international oil and gas
companies are exploring.
(Reuters, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 21, Ethiopia's
election board confirmed PM Meles Zenawi's landslide victory in a
May 23 election disputed by opposition parties and criticized by the
EU and the United States.
(Reuters, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 24, In Ethiopia a
government minister said that a faction of the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF), seeking a separate state in the west of the
country, has agreed to lay down its arms following talks in Germany.
(AFP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 27, In Ethiopia water
minister of Egypt and Sudan said they will not be forced into
signing a new deal on the sharing of the Nile's waters. Ethiopia,
Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda inked a framework in March, 2010,
replacing a 1929 colonial-era treaty between Egypt and Britain which
gave Cairo veto power over upstream projects. A two-day meeting
concluded of regional water ministers concluded with Egypt handing
over the body's chair to Ethiopia.
(AFP, 6/27/10)
2010 Sep 14, Authorities in the
self-declared republic of Somaliland said their troops have
surrounded up to 300 Ethiopian rebels who entered the territory
illegally.
(AP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 15, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi said his often drought-ravaged country would not need food
aid after 2015 as he formally launched a five-year development
program.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Oct 4, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi was sworn in for another five-year term, almost five months
after controversial polls propelled his party to victory.
(AFP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 6, Ethiopia freed
opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa (36), saying it had granted a
plea for pardon from her. Birtukan and other opposition figures were
charged with plotting against the constitution in connection with
those skirmishes, but were released in 2007 after being pardoned.
She was sent back to prison in December 2008 after claiming she had
never asked for pardon.
(AFP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Ethiopia senior
leaders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a breakaway
rebel faction, gathered in Addis Ababa to sign a peace deal with the
government. The government claimed the breakaway group represents
around 80 percent of the ONLF.
(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 19, Human Rights Watch
said in a report that Ethiopia is denying opposition supporters
food, other aid, loans and government services in a widespread
effort to suppress political dissent.
(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Nov 9, Ethiopia's Ogaden
rebels said they had killed more than 200 soldiers in a string of
successful military operations since the beginning of October, a
claim promptly ridiculed by the government.
(AFP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 14, Israel’s Cabinet
approved a proposal to allow 8,000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent to
move to the Jewish state. The would-be immigrants are the last
recognized members of the Falashmura, a community whose ancestors
converted from Judaism to Christianity about 100 years ago.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 23, East African
leaders met in the Ethiopian capital to discuss beefing up the
African Union force in Somalia and tensions in Sudan ahead of
January's referendum on autonomy for the south.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Peter Gill authored
“Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid."
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.88)
2010 Ethiopia set up METEC, a
Metals and Engineering Corporation. In 2011, the government awarded
METEC contracts related to a dozen mega projects: the plan was for
METEC to establish new industries and build factories and
infrastructure before opening the companies up to private sector
investment.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2011 Jan 31, Leaders of 53
African countries met In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to tackle festering
conflicts in Sudan and Somalia at a summit overshadowed by Egypt's
popular uprising and the leadership crisis in Ivory Coast. The
African Union named a panel of six African presidents to mediate
Ivory Coast's political crisis.
(AFP, 1/31/11)(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Jan 30, Equatorial
Guinea’s Pres. Teodoro Obiang assumed the African Union chairmanship
at the organization’s annual summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00012576.html)
2011 Jan, Ethiopia’s government
imposed price controls to combat rising prices, giving food sellers
long lines of customers but barely any profit.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Mar 30, Ethiopia's
government said it plans to build a hydroelectric power dam along
the Blue Nile River despite objections from Egypt and Sudan.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Apr 2, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi laid the foundation for the Grand Millennium Dam. Its cost
was expected to exceed $4.8 billion with some underwriting coming
from China.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.52)
2011 Apr 5, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi told lawmakers Ethiopia is ready to help the people of
Eritrea topple the regime of Issaias Afeworki, ruling out a military
invasion.
(AFP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 20, Hundreds of
Eritrean exiles marched in the capital of neighboring Ethiopia to
protest their country's autocratic leadership.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 May 13, In Ethiopia a
World Food Program driver was killed in the Ogaden region in an
ambush that also injured another staff member.
(Reuters, 5/14/11)
2011 May 23, India's PM
Manmohan Singh arrived in Ethiopia to begin a six-day trip that
included a visit to Tanzania. He aimed to strike deeper economic
ties with a continent rich in minerals and commodities, but where
India lagged far behind rival China.
(Reuters, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In Ethiopia at an
address to an India-Africa summit in Addis Ababa, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh trumpeted his country's historical ties with Africa and
offered $5 billion dollars for the next three years under lines of
credit to help Africa achieve its development goals.
(Reuters, 5/24/11)
2011 Jun 1, Ethiopia's Pres.
Girma Wolde Giorgis said the government has commuted the death
sentences of 23 high-ranking officials from the ousted communist
regime. The sentences were reduced to 25 years.
(AP, 6/1/11)
2011 Jun 13,
Speaking in Ethiopia to members of the African Union, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton spoke out against African leaders with
despotic regimes, and encouraged democratic reforms in those
countries. Mrs. Clinton, the first US Secretary of State to address
a session of the African Union, encouraged members to break ties
with Libyan strongman Muammar Khaddafi and to support the rebels
fighting to overthrow him. She was on a five-day diplomatic trip to
three countries.
(AP, 6/13/11)
2011 Jun 27, Two Swedish
freelancer journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, entered
Ethiopia from Somalia to report about allegations of human rights
violations in the region including torture and rape.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jun 27, The UN Security
Council ordered a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei
to monitor the withdrawal of northern Sudanese troops who occupied
the disputed border region on May 21.
(AFP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 29, Ethiopia’s
government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said that two journalists were
among 9 people arrested last week on suspicions of organizing a
terrorist network and planning attacks.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 29, Ethiopia said it
will build four more hydroelectric dams on the Nile river as part of
a plan to become a power hub for Africa.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun, The Ethiopian
government labeled Ginbot 7 as a terrorist group, along with the
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF), under the country's anti-terrorism proclamation. Ginbot 7,
founded by Dr. Berhanu Nega, envisioned the creation of a nation
wherein each and every Ethiopian enjoys the full respect of its
democratic and human rights, achieves economic prosperity and social
justice, and the respect of the citizen’s life, safety and human
dignity.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginbot_7)
2011 Jun, Ethiopian consumers
started a text-message campaign to boycott meat in an attempt to
force prices down. The campaign has not worked.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Ethiopia Swedish
freelance journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were
arrested after entering the Ogaden region to report on allegations
of human rights violations.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Jul 4, An Ethiopian
official said government troops have killed have 15 rebels in the
country's restive east and arrested two Swedish journalists who were
with them. Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were lightly wounded in
last week's clash between troops and rebels from the Ogaden National
Liberation Front. On Nov 3 an Ethiopian court dropped charges of
participating in terrorism against the two journalists, but they
still faced accusations of supporting terrorism.
(AP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Jul 11, Ethiopia said it
needed $398 million to help millions of people in need of food aid
due to a severe drought. It was estimated that a total of 4.5
million people will require humanitarian assistance during the
remaining period of the current year.
(AFP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 13, The United Nations
made its first aid delivery to a rebel-held Somalia region after the
insurgents lifted a ban on the operations of foreign aid agencies.
The worst drought in 60 years affected over 10 million people in
northern Kenya, south-eastern Ethiopia, southern Somalia and
Djibouti.
(AFP, 7/17/11)(Econ, 7/9/11, p.44)
2011 Jul 15, UNICEF said at
least 17,584 measles cases, including 114 deaths, have been reported
by Ethiopian health officials in the first half of the year. The WHO
said says at least 462 cases of measles, including 11 deaths, have
been confirmed in recent months among Somali refugee children in the
Kenyan refugee complex known as Dadaab.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Sudan a landmine
killed four Ethiopian UN peacekeepers and badly wounded seven others
on patrol in the disputed territory of Abyei.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 11, Ethiopian
officials said they will not heed the UN's recommendation to halt
construction on a dam that the world body says endangers a world
heritage site. Project manager Azeb Asnake said that government
impact studies found Gilgel Gibe III dam does not endanger Lake
Turkana, the world's largest desert lake.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 17, Southern Ethiopia
teetered on the brink of a food crisis. The Ethiopian government
said 250,000 people need food aid amid what the UN says is the worst
drought in 60 years. An aid organization and agricultural officials
said the number of people who need emergency food aid in Ethiopia is
bigger, around 700,000.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 19, The UN said tens
of thousands of people have already died in Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Kenya and Somalia. It warned that the famine has not peaked and that
12 million people in the area need food aid.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 25, African Union
leaders pledged nearly $380 million to help famine-hit families in
the Horn of Africa during a donor conference in Ethiopia. Only 20
representatives of the AU’s 54 members showed up.
(AP, 8/25/11)(Econ, 9/3/11, p.48)
2011 Aug 30, Ethiopian ONLF
rebels reportedly killed 25 soldiers protecting a Chinese oil
exploration company called PetroTrans.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 3, Sudan's embattled
main opposition party vowed to fight for regime change through armed
struggle and mass protests, and called for international support,
after clashes erupted in Blue Nile state. The UN refugee agency said
some 16,000 people have fled across the Sudan’s border to Ethiopia
since fighting erupted on Sep 1.
(AFP, 9/3/11)(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 12, In Mozambique a
group of 15 Ethiopian athletes, after competing at the 10th All
Africa Games, went missing and left some of their possessions in the
athletes' village outside the capital Maputo.
(AFP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 14, Ethiopian
authorities arrested four opposition members suspected of plotting
attacks on state security. Prominent opposition leader Andualem
Arage was among those arrested. Independent journalists
Sileshi Hagos and Eskinder Nega were also reported arrested, joining
4 others detained under terrorism laws.
(AFP, 9/15/11)(AP, 9/17/11)
2011 Sep 19, The UN refugee
agency said nearly 3,000 Eritreans were flooding into Sudan and
Ethiopia every month from Eritrea, a country of some five million
people and about the size of England.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 27, The UN refugee
agency said some 25,000 people have fled Sudan's troubled Blue Nile
state to Ethiopia in the last three weeks amid fighting between the
Sudanese army and rebels.
(AFP, 9/27/11)
2011 Oct 4, USAID director Raj
Shah said the US will donate more than $121 million to Ethiopia to
fight food insecurity amid a drought in the East African nation.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 24, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton pledged another $100 million in food aid to
drought-hit East Africa amid warnings that millions of people face
starvation for drought-affected areas in Ethiopia, Kenya and
Somalia.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 28, The UN refugee
agency said fresh aerial bombings in Sudan's border Blue Nile state
are sending more refugees fleeing to Ethiopia, with 2,000 arriving
in the last four days.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 10, Ethiopian
authorities charged 24 people with terrorism offenses including an
opposition politician and a journalist. Prominent opposition leader
Andualem Arage and journalist Eskinder Nega were among those
charged. Ethiopia has the largest number of exiled journalists in
the world with 82 living abroad, according to the Washington-based
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 17, The UN refugee
agency said Yemen has seen a surge of refugees from Somalia and
Ethiopia, with a record 12,545 arriving by sea last month as they
fled unrest, famine and persecution.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 19, Several hundred
Ethiopian troops crossed into southern and central Somalia, local
elders said, but Addis Ababa dismissed the reports as "absolutely
not true."
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, A convoy of
Ethiopian troops entered the central Somali town of Guriel in a
possible attempt to open a third front against Al-Qaida-linked
al-Shabab insurgents.
(SFC, 11/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 24, The UN warned that
Ethiopia's reported deployment of troops into Somalia could worsen
what is already the world's most severe humanitarian
crisis.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 25, Ethiopia said it
may contribute troops to the African Union force in Somalia fighting
al-Qaida-affiliated insurgents.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Dec 1, Amnesty
International urged Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia to arrest former
US president George W. Bush for violating international torture
laws, during his African tour this week.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 21, An Ethiopian court
convicted Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson of
supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally,
with the prosecution calling for a maximum sentence of 18 years and
six months. On Dec 27 a court sentenced the two journalists to
11 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorism.
(AFP, 12/22/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 31, Ethiopian troops
captured Beledweyne, a rebel-held town in central Somalia, leaving
at least 18 people dead.
(Reuters, 12/31/11)(AFP, 12/31/12)
2012 Jan 17, Gunmen in
Ethiopia's arid north attacked a group of European tourists
traveling in one of the world's lowest and hottest regions, killing
five, wounding two and kidnapping two. The attack was blamed on
groups trained and armed by the Eritrean government. Two Germans
held hostage were released on March 5.
(AP, 1/18/12)(AFP, 3/6/12)
2012 Jan 19, An Ethiopian court
found three journalists, a politician and a politician's assistant
guilty of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, in a case that
drew rebukes from rights groups who fear the country's
anti-terrorism law is being used to suppress dissent.
(AP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, The UN refugee
agency raised concern over the record numbers of Ethiopians and
Somalis flocking to Yemen, despite the deteriorating security
situation there. Last year 103,000 refugees, asylum seekers and
migrants crossed the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, almost double the
2010 figure of 53,000.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Somalia a truck
bomb targeted an Ethiopian military base. Islamist militants claimed
responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabab on its Twitter feed claimed
that 33 Ethiopian troops were killed in the attack.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 27, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi said he would pull troops out of Somalia "as soon as
feasible," admitting for the first time that forces had crossed into
the war-torn neighboring country.
(AFP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Ethiopia
African leaders inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was
funded by China as a gift. They said the massive complex in Addis
Ababa is a symbol of China's rapidly changing role in Africa.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 29, Benin President
Thomas Boni Yayi was elected the African Union Chairman, taking over
the one-year post from Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema at the AU summit meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
(AFP, 1/29/12)
2012 Jan 30, In Ethiopia a vote
by African leaders for the head of their African Union executive
ended in deadlock amid a drive by southern Africa to wrest influence
from the continent's French-speaking countries. Gabon's Jean Ping
(69), who has headed the African Union Commission since 2008 and was
seeking a new term, was challenged by South Africa's Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, a former foreign minister. The AU extended the mandate
of Jean Ping until fresh polls are held during the next summit in
Malawi.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 21, Ethiopian troops
in battle tanks thrust into rebel-held Somalia regions, sparking
heavy fighting as they advanced towards the major Shebab stronghold
of Baidoa.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Somalia
truckloads of Ethiopian and Somali troops captured the strategic
city of Baidoa from Al-Qaeda allied Shebab insurgents, who vowed to
avenge their loss. The blow to the insurgency coincided with the UN
Security Council boosting the strength of an African force in
Mogadishu by more than 5,000 troops and came on the eve of
conference in London aimed at reviving peace efforts.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb, In Ethiopia 20
Motorola Xoom tablet computers were dropped off in Wenchi village by
a group called One Laptop Per Child. The tablets were charged from a
solar station built by One Laptop. By year’s end all the kids could
chant the English alphabet, and some spelled words.
(AP, 12/24/12)
2012 Mar 10, In Somalia an
offensive by Islamist Shebab fighters on Ethiopian troops left at
least 23 people dead including 17 al-Shabab fighters and 6 Ethiopian
troops.
(AFP, 3/10/12)(SSFC, 3/11/12, p.A4)
2012 Mar 12, In western
Ethiopia an attack by gunmen on a public bus left 19 people dead and
eight others injured.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 15, Ethiopian forces
entered archrival Eritrea and carried out what a government
spokesman described as "a successful attack" against military posts.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 16, The Eritrean
government said that an attack on its military outposts by
neighboring Ethiopia was carried out with the help of the US and
meant to divert attention from a decade-old border dispute between
the two countries.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 24, In central Somalia
hundreds of heavily armed Ethiopian troops advanced into Dhusamareb
with the aim of attacking the main stronghold of the Al Qaeda-linked
Shebab militia in the region.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 26, In central Somalia
Ethiopian forces seized El Bur, the main regional base of the Al
Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents. Shebab rebels in Mogadishu killed
two civilians at a camp for the displaced near the presidential
compound, which they targeted with mortar bombs.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Apr 1, In Ethiopia African
Union mediators redoubled their efforts to kickstart crisis talks
between Sudan and South Sudan after fresh fighting that Khartoum
accuses Juba of backing.
(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, Kenyan troops were
officially integrated into the African Union's peacekeeping mission
in Somalia (AMISOM), with Kenya's defense minister signing an
agreement at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(AFP, 6/2/12)
2012 Jun 7, In Ethiopia peace
talks between Khartoum and Juba to set up a demilitarized buffer
zone ended with Sudan accusing South Sudan of seeking to create "10
disputed areas."
(AFP, 6/8/12)
2012 Jun 18, An Ethiopian
security officer with the United Nations faced up to 10 years in
jail after a court in Addis Ababa found him guilty of "participating
in a terrorist organization." Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan was charged
last July with having links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front
(ONLF), a secessionist rebel group. On June 22 Hassan was sentenced
to seven years and eight months in prison.
(AFP, 6/18/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 18, Human Rights Watch
said Ethiopia is forcing thousands of people from their land in the
southern Omo valley to make way for sugar plantations. Between 5,000
and 10,000 people were estimated to have been displaced. The
government denied the charge and said any relocation in the area is
happening voluntarily.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 18, In Malawi a boat
carrying about 60 illegal immigrants from Ethiopia capsized on Lake
Malawi. All aboard were feared drowned.
(AP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 26, In Tanzania a
truck driver abandoned Ethiopian and Somali migrants after letting a
number of them suffocate to death inside his vehicle. He dumped 43
bodies and abandoned survivors.
(AP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jun 27, Twenty-four
Ethiopians, including a leading opposition figure and a prominent
journalist, faced life in prison after a court found them guilty on
charges of terrorism. They were accused of links to US-based group
Ginbot 7, considered a terrorist group under Ethiopian law, and
other outlawed groups.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jun 29, The Ethiopian
Railway Corporation (ERC) said it has forged two deals with Turkish
and Chinese companies to build a railway connecting the landlocked
country to Djibouti.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jul 2, The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it appears Ethiopia is extending and
refining its censorship of Internet news with a sophistication that
could encourage other authoritarian regimes in Africa. The rollout
of a pervasive and sophisticated blocking system started in April to
include smaller blogs by exiles and news services, and even
individual Facebook pages.
(AP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 7, Egyptian border
guards arrested 68 Eritreans and Ethiopians trying to sneak across
the border into Israel.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 13, An Ethiopian court
jailed journalist Eskinder Nga for 18 years for "terrorism" and 23
other reporters and activists for between eight years and life, in
sentences condemned by rights groups.
(AFP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 15, In Ethiopia the
leaders of Congo and Rwanda agreed in principle to back a neutral
international armed force to combat Congo's newest rebellion and
other fighters terrorizing civilians in the country's mineral-rich
east. The African Union said it could help by sending soldiers.
(AP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 26, In southern
Ethiopia ethnic clashes erupted between the Borana and Garri tribes
over a land dispute and left 18 dead and scores displaced.
(AFP, 7/30/12)
2012 Aug 2, A court in London
jailed an Ethiopian diplomat for trying to smuggle a large stash of
cannabis through London's Heathrow Airport. Amelework Wondemagegne
(36), an official at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, had tried
to claim diplomatic immunity when she was caught at the airport in
April with 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of cannabis.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 17, Ethiopian Airlines
received Africa's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, making Ethiopia the
only country aside from Japan to operate the innovative aircraft.
Ethiopian Airlines has purchased ten 787 Dreamliners from Boeing.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 20, Meles Zenawi
(b.1955), Ethiopia's long-time ruler, died of an undisclosed illness
in Belgium. He was credited with economic gains, but blamed for
human rights abuses, and was a major US counter-terrorism ally.
Hailemariam Desalegn, who was appointed deputy prime minister and
minister of foreign affairs in 2010, became acting prime minister.
(AP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug, In Aurora, Colorado,
an Ethiopian identified as Kefelegn Alemu Worku was arrested for
torturing political prisoners decades ago in his home country. He
was spotted by happenstance and confronted in May 2011 in a suburban
Denver restaurant by a former prisoner who recognized him as a guard
at Higher 15, a detention center established during the late 1970s
in a campaign known as the Red Terror.
(AP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 10, Ethiopia said
Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye are to be
pardoned and released. They have been in jail since July 2011 for
abetting terrorism and entering the country illegally.
(AP, 9/10/12)
2012 Sep 15, Ethiopia's ruling
party named as its leader acting PM Hailemariam Desalegn, who took
over after the death last month of longtime leader Meles Zenawi at
the end of a congress of party bosses.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Oct 8, In Ethiopia Feteh,
the country’s largest weekly at 27,500 copies, and Finote Netsanet,
published by the largest opposition group, said they have been
unable to reach their readers for several weeks. The papers said the
state-owned Berhanena Selam printing company refuses to print them.
The publishers were appealing to the country's newly appointed PM
Hailemariam Desalegn to intervene.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 29, In Ethiopia
federal prosecutors charged a group of 29 Muslims, including a wife
of a senior Cabinet minister, with terrorism and working to
establish an Islamic republic. Before the charges were filed, the
minister defended his wife, Habiba Mohammed, saying he had asked the
Saudi ambassador for the money to help construct a mosque their
family is building.
(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Nov 29, Ethiopia’s PM
Hailemariam Desalegn fired the country's civil minister, Junedin
Sado, whose wife is one of 29 people facing terrorism charges
related to protests by Muslims who accuse of the government of
meddling in their religious affairs. Hailemariam also promoted two
ministers to double as deputy prime ministers, giving the country
three deputy prime ministers for the first time.
(AP, 11/29/12)
2013 Jan 1, An Ethiopian court
found 10 men guilty of plotting terror attacks with Islamist
extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 2, Ethiopian security
forces announced the arrest of 15 people alleged to be members of a
terror cell linked with al-Qaida. Authorities said the suspects were
trained by al-Shabab militants in neighboring Somalia and Kenya.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 10, Journalist Paul
Salopek (50) departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first
steps of a planned 21,000-mile (34,000-km) walk that will cross some
30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores
of ethnic groups. The walk from Ethiopia to Chile, which took human
ancestors some 50,000 years to make, is called Out of Eden and is
sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the
Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 15, Ethiopia sentenced
10 men to jail terms of between three to 20 years for plotting
terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring
Somalia. Kenyan national, Hassan Jarso, who pleaded guilty when
first charged in May, was sentenced with nine Ethiopians.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 17, Ethiopian Airlines
grounded its four Boeing 787 Dreamliners following a decision by the
Federal Aviation Administration to take the planes out of service in
the United States because of a risk of fire from its lithium
batteries.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 19, Officials in
Ethiopia said South Sudan and Sudan have failed to reach an
agreement on security arrangements and oil exports after several
days of talks in Addis Ababa.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 27, African Union
leaders met in the Ethiopian capital for talks dominated by the
conflict in Mali as well as lingering territorial issues between the
two Sudans. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the two-day
summit in Addis Ababa, where Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn took
over from President Yayi Boni of Benin as chairperson of the African
Union.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan, Paul Salopek
(b.1962), American journalist, began a 7-year trek from Ethiopia to
Chile aiming to reproduce man’s global migration.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Salopek)(SSFC,
11/24/13, p.A19)
2013 Feb 24, In Ethiopia 11
African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal to stabilize Congo
DRC, where rebels allegedly backed by neighboring countries last
year threatened to oust the government.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Israel Abraham
Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a
record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests
by Palestinians.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Apr 27, Ethiopian Airlines
flew a Boeing 787 from Ethiopia to Nairobi, Kenya, the first
commercial flight of the Dreamliner since it was grounded for
smoldering batteries.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A5)
2013 May 4, Ethiopian
authorities detained reporter Muluken Tesfaw of the private weekly
Ethio-Mehedar as he covered evictions 100 km from the site of the
construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The government
has acknowledged the March evictions were illegal and Tesfaw was
later released.
(AP, 5/31/13)(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 May 14, An Ethiopian court
ruled that prosecutors have two weeks to finalize corruption charges
against two dozen people who have been arrested, including a senior
Cabinet minister.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 28, Ethiopia’s Deputy
PM Demeke Mekonnin told officials at a ceremony diverting Blue Nile
flow at the dam construction site that the Great Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam will provide hydroelectricity not only for Ethiopia
but also for neighboring countries.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 31, A UN official said
more than 23,500 people have fled fighting in South Sudan's Jonglei
state and sought refuge in neighboring countries of Uganda (2.5k),
Kenya (5k) and Ethiopia (16k).
(AP, 6/1/13)
2013 Jun 2, In Ethiopia at
least 4,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in Addis Ababa against
unemployment and corruption and demanded the release of political
prisoners.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.55)
2013 Jun 10, Egyptian Prime
Minister Hesham Kandil said the country will work diplomatically,
legally and technically to negotiate with Ethiopia over the
so-called Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
(AP, 6/10/13)
2013 Jun 13, Ethiopia's
parliament ratified the new Nile River Cooperative Framework
Agreement, an accord already signed by five other Nile River
countries. It replaces colonial-era deals that awarded Egypt and
Sudan the majority of the world's longest river.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Aug 9, In Somalia an
Ethiopian military aircraft carrying ammunition crash-landed at
Mogadishu's international airport, bursting into flames and killing
4 of the six crew members.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Ethiopia
foreign ministers of the 54-member African Union agreed that sitting
heads of state should not be tried by the International Criminal
Court where Kenya's leaders are in the dock. They also called for
deferring the cases of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his
deputy, William Ruto.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 13, In Ethiopia an
explosion killed two people and impacted a home used by US Embassy
personnel in Addis Ababa. Two Somali suicide bombers, who had
planned to kill soccer fans during Ethiopia's World Cup qualifying
match against Nigeria, blew themselves up accidentally.
(AP, 10/13/13)(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 18, Ethiopia unveiled
the first phase of a space exploration program, which includes East
Africa's largest observatory designed to promote astronomy research
in the region.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 19, In Somalia a
suicide bomber killed at least 16 people, including 4 Ethiopian
soldiers, in an attack on a cafe in Beledweyne, a town close to the
Ethiopian border frequented by local and foreign soldiers fighting
al Qaeda-linked rebels.
(AFP, 10/19/13)(SSFC, 10/20/13, p.A7)
2013 Oct 25, Ethiopia banned
domestic workers from moving overseas for employment, following an
"exodus" of workers leaving the country through illegal placement
agencies.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 26, In Ethiopia
Africa's biggest wind farm began production, aiding efforts to
diversify electricity generation from hydropower plants and help the
country become a major regional exporter of energy.
(Reuters, 10/26/13)
2013 Nov 5, In Ethiopia 4
people were killed in a bomb blast on a bus near the Sudanese
border. Security forces were on high alert following attack
warnings.
(AFP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 10, In Saudi Arabia
thousands of illegal migrants, targeted in a nationwide crackdown,
surrendered to police. In Riyadh 2 people were killed when a police
raid targeting Ethiopian residents sparked a minor riot.
(AFP, 11/10/13)(SFC, 11/11/13, p.A2)(Econ,
11/16/13, p.52)
2013 Nov 12, In Saudi Arabia
thousands of Africans, mostly Ethiopians, surrendered to authorities
for a second day Ethiopia announced the death of three citizens
during clashes in the Gulf kingdom.
(AFP, 11/12/13)
2013 Nov 13, In Saudi Arabia
Ethiopia’s ambassador in Riyadh said some 23,000 Ethiopians have
handed themselves in since Saudi authorities clamped down on illegal
foreign workers 10 days ago. A Sudanese man was killed in a second
flare of clashes since Nov 9 between Saudi riot police, citizens and
foreign workers in Riyadh.
(AFP, 11/13/13)(Reuters, 11/13/13)
2013 Dec 5, Ethiopia said it
has repatriated over 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, following a
violent crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich
kingdom.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 9, Water ministers
from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan held talks on an Ethiopian dam
project, after Egypt's objections delayed formation of a committee
to implement expert advice.
(AFP, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 25, In Ethiopia Asfaw
Berhanu, a former contributor to the private paper The Reporter, was
convicted of charges stemming from a news story he wrote saying
three government officials had been removed from their posts. An
Ethiopian court sentenced him to two years and nine months in jail.
(AP, 12/31/13)
2013 In Ethiopia Fikru Maru, an
Ethiopian-born Swedish doctor, was arrested after a years-long
dispute over equipment for his cardiology clinic in Addis Ababa. A
terrorism charge came years later after he and others were accused
of starting a deadly fire in the Qilinto prison where they were
held. Maru was released in 2018.
(AP, 5/11/18)
2014 Jan 1, South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency in Unity and
Jonglei states. Negotiators from the two warring sides arrived in
Ethiopia for peace talks.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Ethiopia South
Sudan's warring parties began negotiations to end nearly three weeks
of raging conflict which has left thousands feared dead and taken
the world's youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war.
Fighting intensified as the army moved on rebel-held Bor.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 4, South Sudan’s rebel
and government sides met mediators from the regional IGAD grouping
in Ethiopia for a second day but did not sit down together.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 23, South Sudan's
government and rebels signed a peace deal in Ethiopia aimed at
ending the month-old conflict as fighting continued in oil-rich
Unity state and in Jonglei state.
(AP, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 30, Leaders of the
54-member African Union met in Ethiopia for a two-day summit with
the conflict in the Central African Republic and South Sudan
dominating the agenda.
(AFP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe
visited the Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia to counter China’s
success in building diplomatic support and winning access to raw
materials.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.34)
2014 Feb 17, Ethiopian Airlines
co-pilot Hailemedehin Abera Tagegn (31) locked his colleague out of
the cockpit, hijacked a Rome-bound plane and landed in Geneva, all
in an attempt to seek asylum in Switzerland. On March 16, 2015,
Tagegn was convicted in absentia by Ethiopia’s high court.
(AP, 2/17/14)(AFP, 2/17/14)
2014 Mar 13, East African heads
of state met in Addis Ababa in the latest push for peace in war-torn
South Sudan, where almost three months of raging conflict has left
thousands dead.
(AFP, 3/13/14)
2014 Apr 10, Two groups in
Ethiopia said that they will hold an anti-gay demonstration later
this month, a move that puts Ethiopia in line to become the next
African country to increase the public demonization of gays.
(AP, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 15, In western
Ethiopia gunmen ambushed a bus carrying dozens of people near the
Sudanese border, killing 9 and wounding six.
(Reuters, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 29, Ethiopian police
said they have arrested several people for "serious criminal
activities." Rights groups said they were journalists and “Zone 9"
bloggers detained in a sweeping crackdown against free speech. On
Oct 16, 2015, Four of the bloggers and journalists were acquitted of
terrorism after 18 months in jail. Journalist Befekadu Hailu, while
being acquitted of terrorism charges, remained in custody on charges
of inciting violence. Soleyana Gebremichael, in exile in the US, was
acquitted of all charges in absentia.
(AFP, 4/29/14)(AFP, 10/16/15)
2014 May 1, Ethiopia
authorities said at least 11 students have been killed in violent
clashes with police. Violence erupted April 28 in a number of
university campuses across Oromia state as ethnic Oromo students
protested a plan by the government to expand the capital, Addis
Ababa, into parts of Oromia.
(AP, 5/2/14)
2014 May 3, In Sudan hundreds
of exhausted illegal migrants reached the safety of a northern town,
after 10 died when human traffickers abandoned them in the desert.
Most appeared to be Ethiopian or Eritrean but there were some
Sudanese as well.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 9, South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet rebel
leader Riek Machar under growing international pressure for an end
to ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 23, In Colorado a
federal judge sentenced a former Ethiopian jail guard to 22 years in
prison for immigration crimes. Kefelgn Alemu Worku was convicted of
genocide in absentia in Ethiopia in 2000 and sentenced to death. He
reportedly had tortured and killed dozens of people during
government sponsored violence in the 1970s.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A11)
2014 May 31, Sixty migrants
from Somalia and Ethiopia and two Yemeni crew members drowned in the
Red Sea in the worst such tragedy off the coast of Yemen this year.
(AFP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 2, A Yemeni
security official and witnesses said the bodies of dozens of illegal
immigrants, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, have been found on
western beaches after their boat capsized in the Red Sea. The bodies
started turning up on May 30.
(AP, 6/2/14)
2014 Jun, Andargachew Tsigie,
the exiled secretary general of Ethiopia’s Ginbot 7 opposition
movement, was detained in transit through Yemen and flown to
Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/9/14, p.42)
2014 Jul 2, The UN's food aid
agency warned that Ethiopia is facing a huge wave of refugees from
South Sudan, where the specter of famine threatens to heap further
misery on a people already rocked by civil war.
(AFP, 7/2/14)
2014 Aug 19, The UN said the
spiraling crisis in war-ravaged South Sudan has sent nearly 200,000
refugees into Ethiopia, making it Africa's largest refugee-hosting
country.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Sep 8, In Ethiopia African
Union chiefs held an emergency meeting to hammer out a
continent-wide strategy to deal with the Ebola epidemic, which has
killed over 2,000 people in west Africa.
(AFP, 9/8/14)
2014 Oct 27, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon announced at the start of a visit to Ethiopia that the EU
and several regional development banks have pledged $8 billion in
development aid for projects across eight countries in the Horn of
Africa. Countries targeted are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
(AFP, 10/27/14)(AP, 10/27/14)
2014 Nov 8, The African Union,
African Development Bank and regional business leaders meeting in in
Ethiopia announced a crisis fund to help areas hit by the Ebola
outbreak.
(AFP, 11/9/14)
2014 Dec 19, The pilot of the
Ethiopian attack helicopter forced his co-pilot and technician to
land in Eritrean territory. The helicopter was conducting a routine
training flight when it disappeared.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2015 Jan 13, Ethiopia reported
that the city of Mekele has banned smoking in public places with
fines more than an average monthly wage, the first city in the
country to do so.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 30, African Union
leaders opened a two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa. The 54-member bloc called for a regional five-nation
force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's
Boko Haram Islamist militants.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Ethiopia
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (90) took over the post of
African Union chairman, replacing Mauritania's President Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Feb 1, After a two-day
summit held in the African Union's Chinese-built headquarters in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, heads of state proposed new taxes on
airline tickets, hotel stays and text messages.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 23, Kenyan police
arrested 101 Ethiopian nationals suspected of traveling illegally
through Kenya on their way to South Africa.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Mar 4, Scientists reported
that a jawbone found in northeast Ethiopia was about 2.8 million
years old making it the oldest to date for the Homo branch of
humans.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, In Somalia 6
policemen were killed when al Shabaab Islamist militants detonated a
car bomb outside a regional government headquarters in Baidoa. Five
Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants opened fire at the gate of the
high-security zone in Baidoa but were held off by Ethiopian and
Somali government troops. An Ethiopian soldier was killed, three of
the attackers blew themselves up, another was shot dead and the
fifth was shot and wounded, ending the attack.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian
officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory
trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in
Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 24, The leaders of
Egypt and Ethiopia promised to boost cooperation on the Nile river
and turn a page on a long-running row over Addis Ababa's
controversial dam project.
(AFP, 3/24/15)
2015 Apr 19, The new video was
posted by the Islamic State appeared to show militants shooting and
beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
(Reuters, 4/19/15)
2015 May 12, Eritrean diplomat
Mohammed Idris, from the Red Sea state's mission to the African
Union, sought asylum in Ethiopia, citing rights abuses at home.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)
2015 May 17, Ethiopia said two
hundred suspected human smugglers have been detained as part of the
government's efforts to stem the number of citizens trying to
illegally migrate to Europe.
(AP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 24, Ethiopians voted
in the country's first general elections since the death of
strongman Meles Zenawi in 2012. On May 27 the electoral board said
the ruling party and its allies won an overwhelming majority in
parliament in the weekend elections. Final results on June 22 showed
the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
swept all but one seat in the 547-seat parliament. The opposition
complained of voting abuses.
(AFP, 5/24/15)(AFP, 5/27/15)(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jul 1, In Ethiopia $1.8
billion the Gibe III dam was completed on the Omo river. It was
expected to lower the water level of Lake Turkana by 30 feet.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgel_Gibe_III_Dam)(Econ, 7/11/15,
p.44)
2015 Jul 26, President Barack
Obama arrived in Ethiopia, the first time a sitting US president has
been to this East African country.
(AP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In Ethiopia US
President Barack Obama praised the country for its fight against
Shebab militants in Somalia, but also challenged Addis Ababa on its
democratic record.
(AFP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 28, In Ethiopia US
President Barack Obama said that Ethiopia "cannot unleash the full
potential of its people" if it jails journalists and restricts
legitimate opposition groups. In a speech at the African Union,
Obama also said Central African Republic leaders needed to commit to
inclusive elections and a peaceful transition of power.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Aug 16, East African
leaders met in Ethiopia ahead of a deadline for South Sudan's
warring leaders to strike a peace deal or risk international
sanctions.
(AFP, 8/16/15)
2015 Oct 14, Ethiopia called
for $556 million in int’l. assistance to help feed 8.2 million
people after erratic rains devastated crop yields.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 15, Israel approved
the entry of some 9,000 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura who claim
Jewish lineage, ending decades of debate on whether to allow their
immigration despite uncertainty over their right to settle in the
Jewish state.
(Reuters, 11/16/15)
2015 Dec 11, In Ethiopia at
least 17 people were injured when a grenade was thrown into the main
Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa after Friday prayers.
(AFP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 15, Ethiopia's
government said 5 people had died in weeks of protests sparked by
land grab fears in the country's Oromia region, dismissing
opposition reports of dozens dead and scores arrested.
(AFP, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 18, The United States
government announced $88 million to help feed hungry people in
drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia, bringing the total amount of
humanitarian aid to the country in 2015 to more than $435 million.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Human Rights Watch
said at least 75 people have been killed during weeks of protests in
Ethiopia, which have seen soldiers and police firing on
demonstrators protesting a government plan to incorporate some rural
areas into the capital city, Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 12/19/15)(SFC, 12/24/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 29, Egypt, Ethiopia,
and Sudan signed an agreement finalizing the two firms tasked with
carrying out studies on the potential impact of Ethiopia's $4.8
billion Grand Renaissance Dam on the flow of the Nile.
(Reuters, 12/29/15)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.49)
2015 Dec 31, In southern
Ethiopia a hand grenade attack killed two students and injured six
at Dilla University in the SNNPR region.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2015 The population of Ethiopia
was about 100 million.
(Econ, 12/12/15, p. 23)
2016 Jan 8, Human Rights Watch
said at least 140 people have been killed in Ethiopia over the past
two months in a crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by
plans to expand the capital into farmland.
(AFP, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 13, Ethiopia's
government said it would abandon plans to expand the capital Addis
Ababa into surrounding areas of Oromia federal region after almost
two months of protests reported to have left scores of people dead.
(AFP, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 15, Ethiopia faced its
worst drought in decades, leading the UN food agency to call for an
emergency cash injection of $50 million to help the country overcome
the crisis.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 23, In Ethiopia UN
Security Council ambassadors and African Union leaders met for
crisis talks on Burundi, after the government refused a proposed AU
force to stem violence in the troubled country.
(AFP, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 30, African leaders
met in Addis Ababa in a bid to end armed crises, including in
troubled Burundi, with an unprecedented vote on deploying a
5,000-strong peacekeeping force despite Burundi's vehement
opposition.
(AFP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 31, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warnedy Ethiopia is struggling from
its worst drought for 30 years with some 10.2 million in dire need
of life saving aid.
(AFP, 1/31/16)
2016 Jan 31, The US Agency for
International Development announced that the US has boosted its
emergency food aid to Ethiopia by nearly $100 million to combat one
of the worst droughts in decades.
(AP, 1/31/16)
2016 Feb 4, The UN children's
agency released a report saying at least 200 million girls and women
in 30 countries are estimated to have undergone female circumcision
— half of them in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
(AP, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb, In southern Ethiopia
7 federal policemen were killed by local militia during a violent
wave of disturbances. The local Oromo resented the sale or lease of
government land to foreign investors.
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.58)
2016 Mar 8, In Ethiopia dozens
of university students protested in Addis Ababa, demanding an end to
police crackdowns that followed months of demonstrations over plans
to requisition farmland in the country's Oromiya region late last
year.
(Reuters, 3/8/16)
2016 Apr 4, The Ethiopian
Broadcasting Corporation reported that 23 people were killed and 84
more people were injured when a river that crosses Jigjiga, the
regional capital of the Somali region, burst its banks a day
earlier.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 15, Ethnic Murle
gunmen from South Sudan killed 208 people and kidnapped 102 children
in a cross-border raid on the Nuer tribe in Ethiopia.
(AFP, 4/17/16)(AFP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 21, Ethiopian troops
were operating in South Sudan after crossing the border to rescue
some 125 Ethiopian children who were kidnapped during a bloody
cattle raid. Top officials from both countries sought to coordinate
their efforts.
(AP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 30, Authorities in
South Sudan said they have recovered 32 of the 125 Ethiopian
children who the Ethiopian government said were abducted from its
Gambela region two weeks ago during a deadly cattle raid blamed on a
South Sudanese militia.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 4, Ethiopian media
reported that a ban on smoking at public gatherings has been
announced by the mayor of Addis Ababa. The new law makes smoking
illegal in bars, cafés, restaurants, schools, hospitals and stadiums
as well as cultural and religious events, but smoking on the streets
is still permitted.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 Jun 9, In central Somalia
at least 30 Ethiopian troops were killed in a suicide bomb attack on
a base for African Union peacekeepers. The African Union AMISOM
force fighting in Somalia said its troops repelled an attack on one
of its bases by the al Shabaab Islamist group and killed 110
militants.
(AP, 6/9/16)(Reuters, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 12, Eritrea's
Information Ministry said Ethiopia has unleashed an attack against
Eritrea in the Tsorona Central Front.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 16, In Zambia 19
Ethiopian migrants suffocated to death along the border with Congo
inside a container truck, where survivors inside banged on the sides
until border officials opened it. A total of 95 Ethiopians were
aboard the truck.
(AP, 6/24/16)
2016 Jun 23, Hundreds of
Eritrean refugees and dissidents in Ethiopia demonstrated against
alleged human rights abuses committed by their government back home,
expressing support for a new UN commission report that accuses the
government of crimes against humanity, including enslavement, rape
and torture, over the past 25 years.
(AP, 6/23/16)
2016 Jul 4, Italian police
arrested 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and an Italian who they said
belonged to an organization that had smuggled thousands of migrants
into Europe from Africa.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Ethiopia about
50 people were killed in clashes between police and anti-government
demonstrators as protests swept the vast Oromia region and Addis
Ababa.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 8, Amnesty Int’l. said
Ethiopian security forces shot dead at least 67 people in the Oromia
region over the weekend. An opposition politician said more than 70
people were killed across Oromia with hundreds detained during
protests.
(SFC, 8/9/16, p.A3)
2016 Sep 3, In Ethiopia as many
as 23 people died in a fire at the Kilinto prison on the outskirts
of Addis Ababa.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbgnw44)(SFC, 9/6/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 13, Somalia hosted
regional African heads of state for a summit that was the first of
its kind since the nation plunged into conflict in 1991. The one-day
meeting in Mogadishu of the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) included Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda
and Somalia.
(Reuters, 9/13/16)
2016 Oct 1, Ethiopian police
arrested Seyoum Teshome, an outspoken university lecturer and
blogger who criticized the government, especially its handling of
the ongoing protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions.
(AP, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 2, In Ethiopia police
in the Oromiya region fired teargas and warning shots to disperse
anti-government protesters at a religious festival, triggering a
stampede that killed 52 people. The clashes between security forces
and protesters continued into the next day in the towns of Bishoftu
and Ambo.
(Reuters, 10/2/16)(AP, 10/3/16)
2016 Oct 4, In Ethiopia a US
citizen was killed on the outskirts of Addis Ababa when the vehicle
she was in was struck by rocks thrown by people in the area.
(Reuters, 10/5/16)
2016 Oct 5, Ethiopia launched a
railway linking the country with a major port on the Gulf of Aden in
Djibouti. The line ran through the restive region of Oromia.
(SFC, 10/6/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 7, Ethiopia’s
government said that 11 factories and dozens of vehicles had been
damaged in attacks by what it called “antipeace forces."
(SFC, 10/8/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 8, The ruling
Ethiopian people’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRFD) announced
a 6-month state of emergency following months of violent
anti-government protests, its biggest anti-government unrest in a
decade, from the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups which feel
marginalized by a minority-led government and recent unrest over the
tragedy at Bishoftu.
(AFP, 10/9/16)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.43)
2016 Oct 11, Ethiopian PM
Hailemariam Desalegn said his government wants to reform an
electoral system which has excluded the opposition, in response to
months of bloody protests.
(AFP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 20, Ethiopian
authorities said they had detained 1,645 people since declaring a
state of emergency less than two weeks ago in a bid to quell mass
protests and violence.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)
2016 Nov 1, Ethiopia's PM
Hailemariam Desalegn reshuffled his cabinet to create a more
ethnically diverse team after an unprecedented wave of protests.
(AFP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 22, Ethiopian
authorities detained about 20 vintage biplanes and their pilots,
including Americans, who were participating in a trans-Africa
Vintage Air Rally. All were released after two days.
(AP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov 30, In Ethiopia Merera
Gudina (60), chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was
arrested at his home in Addis Ababa and was held in an unknown
location with three others. Earlier this month Gudina had addressed
the European Parliament in Brussels, alongside Olympic silver
medalist runner and fellow member of the Oromo tribe, Feyisa Lilesa.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 18, It was reported
that a species of ant living in ancient forests of Ethiopia has
begun exhibiting signs of supercolony formation. The country’s
Lepisiota canescens have formed one colony that stretches for 24
miles and could lead to its invasion of other parts of the world.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.C14)
2017 Feb 3, Ethiopian officials
said nine Yemenis deported from the United States in the wake of US
President Donald Trump's travel ban were flown to Ethiopia, then
taken to neighboring Djibouti.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2017 Feb 14, Human Rights Watch
said the huge newly-built Ethiopian Gibe III dam is cutting off the
supply of water to Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.
(AFP, 2/14/17)
2017 Mar 1, It was reported
that a network of schools in Ethiopia linked to Muslim cleric
Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of masterminding a failed coup
attempt last year, is changing ownership to a group of educators
from Germany.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 11, In Ethiopia at
least 30 people were killed and dozens more hurt in a giant
landslide at the Koshe landfill, country’s largest rubbish dump, on
the outskirts of Addis Ababa. The death toll soon climbed to 72.
(AFP, 3/12/17)(AFP, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 13, In Ethiopia gunmen
from South Sudan killed 28 people and kidnapped 43 in Gambella's Gog
and Jor areas.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 16, Ethiopia's
military rescued six children kidnapped by South Sudanese raiders in
a cross-border attack, but dozens of others remain missing and
soldiers are pursuing the gunmen to recover them.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 30, Ethiopia's
parliament approved a four month extension of a state of emergency
that was first imposed in October to quell nearly a year of
anti-government protests.
(AFP, 3/30/17)
2017 Apr 13, Ethiopia's
government said 10 rebels who attacked vehicles headed to a massive
dam project and killed nine people have been sentenced from nine
years to life in prison. The rebels were arrested in March.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 18, The Ethiopian
Human Rights Commission said months of violence, that sparked a
current state of emergency, have left at least 669 people dead in
the restive Oromia and other regions.
(SFC, 4/19/17, p.A2)
2017 May 16, In Ethiopia a
judge in Addis Ababa found former opposition spokesman Yonatan
Tesfaye guilty of encouraging terrorism with a series of
anti-government Facebook posts in 2015.
(AFP, 5/16/17)
2017 May 26, An Ethiopian court
sentenced journalist Getachew Shiferaw to 18 months in prison on
charges of subversion. Shiferaw was arrested in late December 2015
and charged in May last year with involvement in the operations of
the outlawed anti-government group Ginbot 7. He was expected to be
freed within a week.
(Reuters, 5/26/17)
2017 Jul 3, In Ethiopia
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe handed over $1 million (880,000
euros) at the start of the AU's bi-annual summit in Addis Ababa,
after auctioning off 300 of his own cattle, as well as those
belonging to some of his supporters to help make the AU
self-supporting.
(AFP, 7/3/17)
2017 Jul 17, In Ethiopia retail
business owners in some towns of the Oromiya region went on strike
over the imposition of a revised tax law, the latest unrest to
plague a province that was shaken by violence for months in 2015 and
2016.
(AP, 7/19/17)
2017 Aug 3, USAID said the
Trump administration has given $169 million to feed people starving
in Ethiopia and Kenya.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 4, Ethiopia arrested
Alemayehu Gujo, its state minister for finance, on suspicion of
corruption. This was part of an anti-graft drive that the government
says has led to dozens of arrests in the last two weeks. Zayed
Woldegabriel, the Director General of the Ethiopian Roads Authority.
was also detained.
(Reuters, 8/4/17)
2017 Aug 31, US aid chief Mark
Green said the United States will give a further $91 million in food
aid to Ethiopia to avert famine in the southeast, as he urged the
government to open up political dialogue to all sides after deadly
protests last year.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)
2017 Oct 1, An Ethiopian
religious festival transformed into a rare moment of open defiance
to the government one year after a stampede started by police killed
at least 50 people at the annual Oromos Irreecha festival. This had
followed months of protest that resulted in 22,000 arrests and at
least 940 deaths, according to the government-linked human rights
commission.
(AFP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 11, In Ethiopia six
people were left dead in the Oromia region following antigovernment
protests.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 12, In Ethiopia more
than 15,000 people rallied in Wolisso, Oromia state, against the
country’s ruling elite.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 22, Ethiopian
officials said eleven people have been killed in clashes in the
restive Oromia region as the country continues to experience
anti-government protests that at times lead to ethnic violence.
(AP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 26, In Ethiopia at
least five people were killed in a town in the restive Oromiya
region after police opened fire during a protest. Protesters had
blocked the main road in Ambo to demonstrate against sugar
shortages, before police arrived to disperse the crowd.
(Reuters, 10/26/17)
2017 Nov 18, Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, for the second time in as many days,
delivered a stern warning to Ethiopia over a dam it is building
after the two countries along with Sudan failed to approve a study
on its potential effects.
(AP, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 27, Ethiopia’s
state-controlled broadcaster reported that a renewed bout of clashes
between two of the country’s largest ethnic groups killed more than
20 people last week.
(AFP, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 28, Ethiopia said more
than 1,300 citizens have been expelled from Saudi Arabia in "recent
days" after a warning for undocumented migrants to voluntarily leave
the Gulf nation expired.
(AP, 11/29/17)
2017 Dec 3, In northeastern
Ethiopia a German national was killed in an attack near a volcanic
lake at Erta Ale.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 18, South Sudanese
rebels accused the government army of attacking one of their bases
overnight as a new round of peace talks between the warring sides
opened in the Ethiopian capital.
(Reuters, 12/17/17)
2017 Ian Campbell authored “The
Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy’s National Shame."
(Econ 7/22/17, p.66)
2018 Jan 3, Ethiopia's PM
Hailemariam Desalegn announced plans to drop charges against
political prisoners and close a notorious prison camp in what he
called an effort to "widen the democratic space for all."
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 10, Ethiopian
lawmakers approved a ban on foreign adoptions.
(SFC, 1/11/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 15, Ethiopia’s
Attorney General Getachew Ambaye told journalists that 528 people
had so far been selected for clemency, including Merera Gudina -
leader of the opposition group Oromo Federalist Congress who was
arrested in late 2015. Ambaye said all 528 will be released within
two months.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 17, Ethiopia's top
opposition figure and hundreds of others were released from prison
as part of the government's recent pledge to free detained
politicians and "widen the democratic space for all" after the worst
anti-government protests in a quarter-century.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 20, Ethiopia's PM
Hailemariam Desalegn rejected arbitration by the World Bank on a
disagreement with Egypt over the hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is
building on the Nile River.
(AP, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 26, Authorities in
Ethiopia's Oromiya province announced the pardon of over 2,000
prisoners jailed for involvement in unrest that gripped the country
in 2015-2016.
(Reuters, 1/26/18)
2018 Jan 28, The African Union
summit opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. UN leaders and
the African Union urged stronger international cooperation.
(AP, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 29, The leaders of
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan met in Addis Ababa to discuss contentious
issues related to the dam that Ethiopia is building on the Nile
River.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 29, The African Union
announced it has launched a new aviation deregulation scheme as more
than 40 leaders from across the continent meet in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa for their annual summit.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Feb 8, Ethiopia’s attorney
general's office said 746 more prisoners will be released, including
a journalist and a senior opposition official who were jailed for
conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. The names have been forwarded
to President Mulatu Teshome, who has the power to grant their
freedom.
(Reuters, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 5, An Ethiopian court
sentenced Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the opposition group
Oromo Federalist Congress, to six months in jail for contempt of
court because he raised his hand when addressed by the judge rather
than standing.
(Reuters, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 8, In Yemen people in
the last of four boats carrying migrants were forced to swim to
shore as they approached Shabwa province from Somalia. About 600
Ethiopian migrants, men and women, were aboard the boats and 25 were
missing.
(AP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 13, Ethiopia released
Bekele Gerba, a senior opposition leader, more than two years after
he was detained during mass protests over land rights. Demonstrators
blocked roads in towns around Addis Ababa on the second day of a
strike called to protest against Ethiopia's continued incarceration
of opposition politicians.
(Reuters, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 15, Ethiopian PM
Hailemariam Desalegn resigned after long-running political turmoil,
an unprecedented move in the vast East African country. He will
remain in power until parliament and the full council of the ruling
coalition party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic
Front (EPRDF), confirm his resignation.
(AFP, 2/15/18)
2018 Feb 16, Ethiopia imposed
in a state of emergency one day after PM Hailemariam Desalegn
announced his surprise resignation. Authorities a day later said tt
will last for six months.
(Reuters, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 21, Ethiopia released
more than 1,500 prisoners in its eastern Somali region, days after
the government declared a state of emergency to try to tamp down
unrest in Africa's second most populous nation.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 28, In Ethiopia
representatives for thousands of Ethiopian Jews announced they will
stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates funding to allow
them to join their families in that country.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, Ethiopia acquired a
stake in the Berbera port in the breakaway state of Somaliland, as a
legal dispute raged over another major Horn of Africa shipping hub.
Dubai-based DP World last week accused Djibouti of illegally seizing
a port that is the main transit route to landlocked Ethiopia.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 2, Ethiopia's
parliament ratified the Feb. 16 state of emergency imposed after the
prime minister announced his resignation, though votes against the
bill exposed rifts within the ruling coalition.
(Reuters, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 12, In northern
Ethiopia at least 38 people, mostly students, were killed when a bus
plunged into a ravine in the Amhara region. Ten people survived the
crash.
(Reuters, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 12, The Kenyan Red
Cross Society said more than 2,000 Ethiopians have crossed into
Kenya seeking refuge, after several civilians were killed in what
the Ethiopian military said was a botched security operation
targeting militants.
(Reuters, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 27, Ethiopia's ruling
coalition named a new chairman late today. A vote to install Abiy
Ahmed (42), a leader from the Oromo ethnic group, as prime minster
was expected in the coming days in parliament.
(AP, 3/28/18)(AFP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 31, Ethiopia's state
media reported that more than 1,100 people have been arrested since
the nation declared a state of emergency following the prime
minister's resignation last month.
(AFP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 2, Ethiopia's new PM
Abiye Ahmed promised to push through democratic reforms in an effort
to end three years of unrest that first erupted in the province of
Oromiya from where he hails.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 6, Meeting in Sudan
the foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia failed to reach
an agreement in the lingering dispute over Ethiopia's massive dam on
the Blue Nile. The Renaissance Dam is now 63 percent finished.
(AP, 4/6/18)
2018 May 2, The Chinese
state-backed documentary "Amazing China" portrayed the Huajian
Group, which manufactured Ivanka Trump shoes, as a beneficent force
spreading prosperity — in this case, by hiring thousands of
Ethiopians at wages a fraction of what they'd have to pay in China.
Huajian workers said they work without safety equipment for pay so
low they can barely make ends meet.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 15, Ethiopian
authorities released Fikru Maru, an Ethiopian-born Swedish
cardiologist, who has been in jail since 2013 on corruption and
terrorism charges.
(Reuters, 5/15/18)
2018 May 19, Ethiopia PM Abiy
Ahmed said Saudi Arabia will soon release Mohammed Hussein Al
Amoudi, an Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire arrested in November
during a crackdown on corruption.
(Reuters, 5/20/18)
2018 May 19, Saudi Arabia began
releasing Ethiopian citizens from detention centers following a
request by new PM Abiy Ahmed to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
during a visit to Riyadh.
(AP, 5/19/18)
2018 May 26, Ethiopia pardoned
Andargachew Tsige, an opposition leader with British citizenship,
who had been sentenced to death. Andargachew was pardoned "under
special circumstances" along with 575 other inmates.
(Reuters, 5/26/18)
2018 May, Ethiopia and Sudan
agreed on a deal allowing Addis Ababa to take a stake in Sudan's
largest sea gateway port of Port Sudan to diversify outlets and
reduce port fees. The deal was made two days after Ethiopia reached
a similar arrangement over the Port of Djibouti, Djibouti's main
gateway for trade.
(Reuters, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 5, Ethiopia's new PM
Abiy Ahmed, a former army officer who fought against Eritrea,
declared the country would abide by a 2000 peace deal and 2002
boundary ruling, handing back the occupied frontier town of Badme.
(AFP, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 10, Ethiopian PM Abiy
Ahmed announced that Egypt will release 32 Ethiopian prisoners
during his visit as he sought to assure Cairo that a massive
upstream Nile dam would not cut into its share of the river.
(AP, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 20, Eritrea's
President Isaias Afwerki announced he is sending a rare delegation
to neighboring Ethiopia for peace talks, days after Ethiopia's new
PM Abiy Ahmed took a major step toward calming deadly tensions with
its decades-long rival.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, South Sudan's
President Salva Kiir headed to Ethiopia for talks with rebel leader
Riek Machar on ending a five-year civil war in which tens of
thousands of civilians have been killed.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, South Sudanese
rebels said that more time is needed to secure lasting peace in the
country and it would be necessary to address the root causes of a
civil war, after peace talks in Ethiopia between its leader Riek
Machar and Pres. Salva Kiir.
(Reuters, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 23, In Ethiopia one
person died and scores of others were hurt after a grenade blast
sent crowds fleeing in panic at new PM Abiy Ahmed's first mass rally
in Addis Ababa. A second person soon died after the deadly grenade
attack which injured 156 people. Police soon arrested six people
suspected of involvement in the blast.
(AFP, 6/23/18)(AFP, 6/24/18)
2018 Jun 25, Violence erupted
in Ethiopia's western Benishangul-Gumuz region. Within days nine
were reported killed.
(Reuters, 6/28/18)
2018 Jun 26, A delegation of
top officials from Eritrea arrived in Ethiopia for the first peace
talks in 20 years.
(AP, 6/26/18)
2018 Jul 5, Ethiopia fired its
prisons chief and took three opposition groups off its "terrorist"
list, the latest steps in PM Abiy Ahmed's bold push to shake the
African giant from decades of security-obsessed rule.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 8, Eritrean President
Isaias Afkweri met with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed for a summit in
Asmara for the first time in two decades as direct international
telephone connection was restored between the two countries.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 9, Eritrean and
Ethiopian leaders formally restored relations, ending 20 years of
enmity. Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed (42) and Eritrean President Isaias
Afwerki (72) also signed agreements in Asmara to open embassies in
their respective capitals, restore flight services and use port
facilities in Eritrea.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 14, Eritrean President
Isaias Afwerki pledged to resolve his country's dispute with
Ethiopia in a historic visit to Addis Ababa aimed at cementing peace
less than a week after the nations declared an end to two decades of
conflict.
(AFP, 7/14/18)
2018 Jul 16, Eritrea's
President Isaias Afwerki reopened his country's embassy in Ethiopia,
the latest in a series of dizzying peace moves after two decades of
war between the neighbors.
(AFP, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 18, Eritrea and
Ethiopia resumed commercial airline flights for the first time in
two decades. Two flights left Addis Ababa within minutes of each
other and an hour and a half later touched down in the Eritrean
capital Asmara.
(AFP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 20, It was reported
that Ethiopia has passed a law that grants amnesty to political
prisoners who have been released recently and reverses decades of
security-obsessed rule.
(Reuters, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 24, The UAE
hosted the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea, lauding their "bold and
historic" rapprochement as enhancing prospects for peace and
prosperity.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 26, Ethiopia's police
said Semegnew Bekele, the construction manager of a controversial
dam being built on the Nile River in Ethiopia, has been shot dead in
Addis Ababa. The massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is now more
than 63 percent complete.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 26, In Washington, DC,
Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed oversaw the reunification of feuding wings
of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church, one of the world's oldest Christian
churches. The 2 Synods were reunited into one Holy Synod after 27
years.
(AFP, 7/27/18)
2018 Aug 4, Ethiopian soldiers
traded fire with members of local government security forces in the
country's eastern Somali region after central authorities sought to
arrest regional officials.
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 6, In Ethiopia Abdi
Mohammed Omer, a former administrator of the Somali Region, was
forced to resign. He was arrested weeks later after violence broke
out in the provincial capital Jijiga.
(Reuters, 10/19/18)
2018 Aug 7, Ethiopia's
government signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo
Liberation Front, which it had previously declared a terrorist
movement. The government signed a reconciliation agreement to end
hostilities with the OLF's exiled leader Dawud Ibsa, who lives in
exile in Asmara, Eritrea.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 14, Ethiopia in an
open letter published today asked dissident marathoner and Olympics
silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa to come home, promising a "hero's
welcome". Lilesa has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since
2016 when he raised his arms in a gesture against government
repression while crossing the finish line in second place at the Rio
Olympics.
(AFP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 21, Ethiopian Airlines
said it is teaming up with four African airlines and has inked a
deal to set up a fifth, as it continues its expansion on the
continent.
(AFP, 8/22/18)
2018 Aug 30, An Ethiopian
military helicopter crashed in the Oromia region and killed all 18
people on board, including two children.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Sep 5, Eritrea's state
television said reported on plans to improve its transport
connections with Ethiopia by upgrading a road that stretches from
its port in Assab to a town across the border with its neighbor. The
road has not been used for two decades since a two-year war broke
out between the two countries in 1998.
(Reuters, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 5, Ethiopian, Eritrean
and Somalia leaders met in Eritrea's capital Asmara, furthering the
diplomatic thaw in the strategic Horn of Africa region.
(AP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, Ethiopia reopened
its embassy in the Eritrean capital, the latest step in restoring
ties after the two nations ended decades of conflict.
(AFP, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 11, The leaders of
Ethiopia and Eritrea re-opened crossing points on their shared
border for the first time in 20 years, cementing a stunning
reconciliation and giving Addis Ababa a direct route to its former
foe's Red Sea ports.
(Reuters, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 12, In Ethiopia an
agreement, brokered by regional bloc the Intergovernmental Authority
on Development (IGAD), was signed late today by South Sudan's
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar in Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 15, Ethiopia's exiled
leadership of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which had previously
been declared a terrorist movement by the government, returned home,
marking another step in political reforms driven by the new prime
minister.
(Reuters, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 15, In Ethiopia shops
were looted and people attacked by mobs of Oromo youth who stormed
through streets targeting businesses and homes of ethnic minorities.
At least 23 people were killed in violence targeting minorities in
the ethnic Oromo heartland near Addis Ababa.
(Reuters, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 16, Eritrean President
Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed signed a "peace agreement
"during a summit in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 9/16/18)
2018 Sep 16, In Ethiopia
overnight ethnic-based attacks in the outskirts of Addis Ababa
killed several people and caused hundreds to flee their homes.
Police said 70 suspects were arrested.
(AP, 9/16/18)
2018 Sep 17, In Ethiopia
demonstrators flooded Addis Ababa, blocking roads and shutting
businesses in an explosion of anger following the killing of 23
people on the city's outskirts over the weekend. State affiliated
Fana Broadcasting said Ethiopian police have detained 200 people in
connection with the violence.
(AFP, 9/17/18)(Reuters, 9/17/18)
2018 Sep 28, In Ethiopia
violence erupted after four local officials were killed during a
visit to the Oromiya region. Ethnic Oromos living in
Benishangul-Gumuz were attacked by members of other groups, and many
fled into Oromiya.
(Reuters, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 2, Ethiopian officials
said more than 70,000 people have fled ethnically-charged violence
in western Ethiopia, part of an eruption of unrest that has piled
pressure on reformist PM Abiy Ahmed.
(Reuters, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 5, Ethiopia's ruling
EPRDF coalition extended the chairmanship of PM Abiy Ahmed (42), as
he pushed through sweeping political and economic reforms.
(Reuters, 10/5/18)
2018 Oct 10, In Ethiopia a
group of "disgruntled" elite soldiers, who had been sent to quell
bloody ethnic clashes on the capital's outskirts, marched on PM Abiy
Ahmed's office to protest low salaries. PM Ahmed listened to the
grievances, reprimanded them for the wrong procedure they followed
to express those grievances, but concluded the meeting with a
promise to meet properly in the near future.
(AFP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 11, Italian PM
Giuseppe Conte visited Ethiopia. He was expected to discuss
migration, a sensitive topic in Italy, as well as investment
opportunities in Ethiopia.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, According to the
UN refugee agency UNHCR Ethiopian authorities have registered more
than 6,700 new arrivals from Eritrea since the border's opening.
Eritrean refugee arrivals to Ethiopia have jumped to about 390 per
day from around 53.
(AFP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 16, Ethiopia's PM Abiy
Ahmed created a new Ministry of Peace and handed half the posts in
his cabinet to women in a sweeping cabinet reshuffle as he sought to
tackle a wave of ethnic violence.
(Reuters, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 16, Ethiopia released
some 1,100 of the youth from a military camp after a monthlong
detention in which the federal police commissioner said they were
"brainwashed." The youths had rallied to condemn killings of ethnic
minorities on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
(AP, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 30, In Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the G20 Compact with Africa meeting
saying it's critical "not only to talk about Africa but to talk with
Africa" about development needs and goals. So far 11 countries have
joined the program: Benin, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.
(AP, 10/30/18)
2018 Oct, In Ethiopia the
secessionist Ogaden National Liberation Front group declared a
unilateral ceasefire this month in the Somali Region in the wake of
reforms. The province holds four trillion cubic feet of oil and gas
reserves, government estimates show. China’s GCL-Poly Petroleum
Investments has been developing two gas fields there since 2013.
(AP, 10/19/18)
2018 Nov 9, In Ethiopia
Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Eritrean President
Isaias Afwerki met with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed to cement regional
economic ties as relations warm between the once-rival nations.
(AFP, 11/9/18)
2018 Nov 11, Thousands of
Ethiopians and Eritreans took part in a 10-km reconciliation run in
Addis Ababa in the first joint sporting event since the former
bitter foes launched a rapid diplomatic thaw in July.
(AFP, 11/11/18)
2018 Nov 12, Ethiopia's
attorney general Berhanu Tsegaye said investigations had uncovered
corruption at METEC (Metal and Engineering Corporation), which makes
military equipment and is involved in sectors from agriculture to
construction. Tsegaye announced the arrests of several METEC
executives in a corruption investigation and the detention of
security officials accused of abusing prisoners.
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 13, Ethiopia arrested
Kinfe Dagnew, the former head of a military-run industrial
conglomerate, and flew him in handcuffs to the capital.
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 17, In Ethiopia
African Union leaders, led by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame,
convened an extraordinary summit at its headquarters in Addis Ababa
to consider reforms to encourage peace, development and a united
Africa.
(AP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 19, Hundreds of
Ethiopian Jews gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, to protest the
Israeli government's decision not to allow all of them to emigrate
to Israel, leaving their families divided between the two countries.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 19, A powerful party
in Ethiopia's government accused authorities of arresting members of
its ethnic group in a politically-driven crackdown - an
unprecedented public charge exposing deep rifts at the heart of the
ruling elite.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 24, In Ethiopia seven
employees of Indian company Infrastructure Leasing & Financial
Services (IL&FS) were taken hostage by local staff due to
non-payment of salaries by the debt-laden firm. The Indian
government took control of IL&FS in October after it defaulted
on some of its debt. On Dec. 1 Two of the 7 employees were reported
released.
(Reuters, 12/1/18)
2018 Nov 27, Ethiopia's PM Abiy
Ahmed met members of 81 opposition parties to discuss ways of
reforming the electoral system.
(Reuters, 11/27/18)
2018 Dec 13, In southern
Ethiopia heavy fighting broke out between Somalis and Oromos in
Moyale. Over the next two days at least 21 people were killed and 61
wounded.
(Reuters, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 15, A military court
in Ethiopia jailed 66 soldiers for between five and 14 years for
marching on PM Abiy Ahmed's palace in October, ruling they had
broken military ethics.
(Reuters, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 15, Former Ethiopian
president Girma Woldegiorgis died, two weeks short of his 95th
birthday. He was president of Ethiopia for twelve years between 2001
to 2013, a largely ceremonial role.
(AFP, 12/15/18)
2018 Dec 26, Eritrea partially
closed two border crossings with Ethiopia that opened this year
after the former East African rivals made peace and restored
relations. Only Ethiopians faced the restrictions.
(AP, 12/28/18)
2019 Jan 7, Ethiopian PM Abiy
Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki reopened a border
crossing between their countries as part of an ongoing
reconciliation between the former foes.
(AFP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 18, In Somalia an
ambush occurred on an Ethiopian peacekeeping convoy. African Union
troops returned fire killing four extremists and wounding several
others. Ethiopia denied claims that al-Shabab killed several
Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 22, Ethiopia said it
had granted more than 13,000 people amnesty as part of a broad
reform agenda pushed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
(AFP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 25, Ethiopia said it
is banning street begging by Syrian nationals who have startled
people by showing up in growing numbers in recent months in major
cities around hotels and mosques.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 30, Ethiopian
prosecutors charged Abdi Mohammed Omer, the former president of the
Somali Region, and 46 others with instigating ethnic violence there
last year.
(Reuters, 1/30/19)
2019 Feb 10, In Ethiopia a
statue of Emperor Haile Selassie was unveiled in Addis Ababa at the
headquarters of the African Union.
(AP, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 10, In Ethiopia
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who led an active, reformist tenure
as African Union chair, passed the baton to Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi, seen as more likely to focus on security issues than
expanding the body's powers.
(AFP, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 23, It was reported
that the Ethiopian government has begun demolishing thousands of
houses they say are illegal in the Oromia region in the outskirts of
the capital, Addis Ababa. Residents alleged that they were paying
taxes to the government on the properties.
(AP, 2/23/19)
