News: Several killed as armed attacks ravage #East_Arsi; Churches burned, residents seek refuge in forests
Two eyewitnesses who spoke to #Addis_Standard described the assault that started on 30 May in remote farming localities around Teleta Gebriel, approximately 18 kilometers from #Aseko town, and continued through the national election period on 01 June.
According to one eyewitness, some survivors from the attacks were transported to Aseko Health Center as armed groups moved through villages “carrying Kalashnikov rifles”.
“The attackers targeted anyone in their view,” the witness said
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Why does the media including @CNN keep using “won” in this context when we know that the award/reward the thing to Abiy in exchange for “liberalising the economy”?
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Ethiopia About to Hold Another Sham Election
While throwing up obstacles against real opposition from the #TPLF, OLF, OFC & ONLF, the Electoral Board has simultaneously approved several opposition parties that are clearly aligned with the ruling party. 1/
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Abiy Ahmed is an autocratic leader who fuels division at home and threatens to encourage chaos abroad. The manufacturing sector, which had made progress under Abiy Ahmed’s predecessors, is now in stagnation; its share of GDP has fallen by one-third since he came to power. It also does not help that Abiy Ahmed frequently shares statistics that leave experts bewildered. The World Bank states that the proportion of the population living on $3 a day or less reached 43% last year, compared with 33% a decade ago. The UN World Food Programme says that around 7 million people are in urgent need of food aid. Hundreds of thousands of young Ethiopians, seeing little hope for the future, leave the country every year. The war in Iran will probably further disrupt Abiy Ahmed’s growth plans. Ethiopia imports 97% of its fuel from the Middle East; the closure of the Strait of Hormuz since March has caused two-day queues for diesel in Addis Ababa. Aid workers fear that shortages of fertiliser, much of which comes from the Gulf, will worsen hunger across much of the countryside. Abiy Ahmed’s ambition to reshape the Horn of Africa makes a conflict with Eritrea highly plausible. Ethiopia’s recent involvement in the civil war in neighboring Sudan further increases this possibility, because its support for the rebel Rapid Support Forces could push the Sudanese army to cooperate with Eritrea and Abiy Ahmed’s domestic opponents. Meanwhile, the peace agreement that Abiy Ahmed signed with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2022 is hanging by a thread.
The prime minister says he is uniting Ethiopians. Register for free to discover why, in practice, that has meant centralising power https://t.co/Kte52CiE6U
Tigray ‘Peace’ Council Presses Ethiopia for New Surgical War
The “Tigray Peace & Change” council—a transition gov’t aimed at administering #Tigray—has officially been established in Addis, with organizers saying it’ll serve until inclusive admin is established in the region. 1/
Ethiopia’s Evil Clerics Engineered Tigray Genocide
Daniel Kibret, a close adviser to Abiy Ahmed, referred to #Tigray|ans as “weeds,” “satan,” and “monsters.” He also said that “they should be erased from our consciousness and history and they should only be found in graves.”