Alemayehu G. Mariam
Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled “Letter from Ethiopia,” by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s “Letter” sought to make sense of the …
Former members of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne) led by Seye Abraha are preparing to challenge those in power led by Meles Zenawi in Woyanne’s own turf — Tigray. J. Sirak of opride.com reports the following:
TPLF finds itself …
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s main opposition coalition said on Wednesday that some of its candidates were being prevented at gunpoint from registering for national elections in May.
The eight-party coalition, Medrek, also said it had obtained …
By Tecola W. Hagos
A couple of days ago, I came across postings of some self-indulgent exercises by “scholars and prominent individuals” and very many readers/visitors of Ethiopian Review Website. It seems to me that the ever enterprising Editor of …
CBS News presents a special report about the adoption scam in Ethiopia. The scam is being perpetrated by businesses affiliated with the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne). The adoption agencies pay hefty commissions to the notorious female gangster Azeb …
By Alemayehu G. Mariam
It has been said that Africa’s natural resources — oil, diamonds, minerals — have often proven to be sources of woe, suffering and misery than wealth, prosperity and progress for the people of the continent. What …
Ethiopian Review has asked scholars and prominent individuals what 10 things they would do immediately if they are elected president or prime minister of Ethiopia. The following is by Dr Gabe Hamda. (Click here to read what others wrote…
By Yilma Bekele
It is an old expression meaning waiting for something bad to happen. We Ethiopians are familiar with that expression. Yes sir, nobody can take that away from us. We are unsurpassed in the art of moving ከድ …
Some readers were upset with me for calling African leaders “thieves and murderers” last week as they met in Addis Ababa for African Union meeting. Look at the video below and you will arrive at the same conclusion that these …
By Amanuel Biedemariam
Every time Eritreans come across their Ethiopian counterpart, the favorite statement of Ethiopians is that we are the same. We are brothers. Well, here is your time to prove it!
Prove it by standing with your brothers …
Woyanne junta chief Meles Zenawi told the opposition parties, if you want a change of government, do it like we did it, i.e., through armed struggle. The Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) is doing just that. So why is Woyanne …
By Jason McLure
ADDIS ABABA (Bloomberg) — Electricity output at Ethiopia’s largest hydropower generator, Gilgel Gibe II, has been halted after part of a tunnel that supplies water to the facility collapsed, the builder of the project said.
Production at …
Advocacy for Ethiopia hosts Conference on Good Governance, Peace, Security, and Sustainable Development in the Horn of Africa in Washington DC, from April 9 – 11, 2010.
Announcement and call for papers:
The Horn of Africa continues to be extremely …
By Peter Bosshard | International Rivers
On Januar 13, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister [genocidal dictator] Meles Zenawi inaugurated the Gilgel Gibe 2 scheme, the country’s biggest hydropower project. “It is possible to speed up development without polluting the environment,” Zenawi proudly …
By Girmay Gebru
MEKELE, ETHIOPIA (VOA) — An estimated 400 Chinese employees on strike for the past two weeks at the Messebo Cement Factory in Mekele charge some have suffered physical injuries in clashes with company officials over wages.
[Messebo …
By Abebe Gellaw
In mid-January, the ailing Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) declared once again that it is in need of rescue fund. The business weekly, Addis Fortune, reported that the bank called on the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) …
By Fekade Shewakena
The harrowing experience of Ethiopians on the doomed Ethiopian airliner in the Mediterranean Sea last week, and the racist ways in which grieving Ethiopians who were trying to know the fate of their fellow Ethiopians on the …
By Jason McLure
ADDIS ABABA (Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s ruling party said the country’s largest opposition grouping, the Forum for Democratic Dialogue (Medrek), would try to foment violence after elections scheduled for May in an effort to spur foreign governments to …
ADDIS ABABA (APA) — The 14th African Union Summit on Tuesday unanimously re-elected Ethiopian Prime Minister genocidal dictator Meles Zenawi to represent Africa in future consecutive global climate conferences. [In Africa, failure and betrayal are rewarded. That is …
By Xan Rice | Mail & Guardian
At noon every Sunday an old Toyota sedan donated by supporters of Ethiopia’s most famous prisoner pulls up near a jail on the outskirts of the capital.
A 74-year-old woman in a white …
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Last week, there was a great deal of teeth-gnashing, knuckle-cracking and gut-wrenching by Ethiopia’s dictators over Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2010 report. The dictators belched out much sound and fury that signified nothing. Their fury had to …
By Assta B. Gettu
African leaders gangsters have come in great numbers with great enthusiasm to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa to get some more training in the art of robbery from the master of swindle, Meles Zenawi and his wife …
By Yilma Bekele
To my dear friend Barack Obama. I hope this letter finds you well. We are doing fine here in this location that will stay nameless. Except for that little matter of famine, deflation and inflation most things …
By Mary Fitzgerald | Irish Times
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — China’s minister for commerce says trade with Ethiopia will reach $3 billion by 2015
ASK AN Addis Ababa taxi driver to take you to Ethio-China Friendship Road and he might …
By Obang Metho
Imagine this notice being posted in Ethiopia:
People of Ethiopia:
You are hereby warned; you are being given notice of your eviction from the country. You are no longer welcome here. Find a new place to live. …
ADDIS ABABA (The Economist) — Worries about Ethiopia’s election, due in May, are growing. Aid-giving Western governments hope it will pass off without the strife that followed the last one, in 2005, when 200 people were killed, thousands …
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Since the dawn of African independence from colonialism in the early 1960s, African liberation leaders and founding fathers qua dictators, military junta and “new breed” leaders have sought to justify the one-man, one-party state — and avoid …
By Yilma Bekele
Google is at war with the Peoples Republic of China. Google is a worthy adversary. If I was a betting person I will put all my money on Google. There is no question Google will win. The …
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Ethiopian Review has been collecting suggestions on potential candidates for the next president of Ethiopia, if there is a free and fair election, and system is presidential, and not the …
A message to President Barack Obama
By Obang Metho
Dear President Obama: I am writing this to you on behalf of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), a grassroots social justice movement whose mission is to mobilize Ethiopians …
By Alemayehu G. Mariam
“Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,” said Sir Walter Scott, the novelist and poet. Is there “famine” in Ethiopia, or not? Are large numbers of people “starving” there, or …
CAIRO (apa) — Egypt announced on Tuesday preparations to invest on 20,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia, with a multimillion-dollar investment.
The announcement was made by the visiting Egyptian Prime Minister, Dr.Ahmed Nazif who is on a working …
About 45,000 travelled to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen – the vast majority convinced of the need for a new global agreement on climate change.
So why did the summit end without one, just an acknowledgement of a deal …
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday voted to impose sanctions on Eritrea for supporting the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab. First of all, the U.S. State Department, which pushed the resolution on behalf of Woyanne — its puppet regime in …
By Selam Beyene
African diplomats, most of whom had brashly stood by Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi when he violently crushed a pro-democracy movement in 2005, naively expressed shock and incredulity at his betrayal of their trust at the recent Copenhagen …
By Lula Ahrens | ROI
A resident of the Dutch town of Haarlem was sentenced to death by an Ethiopian court on Tuesday. He was found guilty of disrespect for the Ethiopian constitution and, along with four other people, for …
ADDIS ABABA (BBC) — An Ethiopian court has sentenced five people to death and 33 others to life in prison for planning to assassinate government officials.
Prosecutors had said the convicted were part of the Ginbot 7 (15 May) group …
By Alemayehu G. Mariam
It was a remarkable display of raw machismo: “My way or the highway… or jail!” It was a one-man political theatre, a monologue about absolute power, domination, toughness, brawn and pugnacity. It was a demonstration of …
By Barry Malone | Reuters
The first time I interviewed Birtukan Mideksa I was struck by how careful she was not to say the wrong thing. It was 2007 and we were standing in the garden of a community centre …
By Yilma Bekele
I don’t know if you are familiar with it but there used to be an American television show called ‘what is my line?’ It was a guessing game where the panelists try to determine the identity of …
Alemayehu G. Mariam
The “delegation of African negotiators” rumbled into Copenhagen rubbing their palms and licking their chops to load up tens of billions of dollars in carbon blood money and make a quick exit. They were disappointed. There was …
By Amanuel Biedemariam
Historically, in Ethiopia, change of leaders comes abruptly and unexpectedly. These changes are not accidental. They come-about due to undercurrent that builds-up leading up-to it. This was true during the transition periods from Emperor Haile Sellassie to …
On Wednesday, Mr Michael Posner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, held a live discussion on Facebook about Human Rights Agenda for the 21st Century (see here). Participants of the discussion submitted a …
By Meron Agonafer
I am one of the thousands of Ethiopian Americans who toiled to get you elected. For two years, I was a volunteer for your presidential campaign. I made thousands of phone calls, organized precinct walks, recruited volunteers, …
Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi has called U.S. Ambassador Douglas Griffiths an ‘idiot’ for claiming that there is no equal representation of all ethnic groups in the government.
Mr Griffith represents the U.S. at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in …
The net worth of Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi is listed as $1.2 billion in Wikipedia.org, the most referenced encyclopedia in the world. Meles is also listed as the 11th richest head of government in the world. (See here.) This …
By Alemayehu G. Mariam
Use a sledgehammer to smash a butterfly! That is the exquisite art of war unleashed on Ethiopia’s independent press by the dictatorship of Meles Zenawi today.
The latest near-casualties in Zenawi’s war on Truth have just …
Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi, had captured the attention of U.S. media last September when she gave her husband an angry stare in Pittsburgh (read here). While in the plane flying from New York and …
(ION) – Now that the EPRDF [a front organization for the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front] has been in power for almost two decades, its leaders have had time to accumulate wealth. We make a roundup — by no means …
By Abiye Teklemariam Megenta
One blazing hot Sunday afternoon in December, I drove my old BMW 316i to Ferensay Legacion, an area in North East Addis Ababa dotted with clusters of shanties. The roads were layered with unevenly carved cobble …
WASHINGTON — Advocacy for Ethiopia, an Ethiopian civic group based in the U.S., held a press conference Sunday to air its views on the Copenhagen Climate Conference in Denmark that has started today.
The group’s main message was: “The importance …
By Alemayehu G. Mariam
The inconvenient truth about Africa today is that dictatorship presents a far more perilous threat to the survival of Africans than climate change. The devastation African dictators have wreaked upon the social fabric and ecosystem of …
For the next few days the eye of the world will be focused on the City of Copenhagen, Denmark. Leaders from 192 counties will gather to discuss how to protect the earth’s climate from heating up. African leaders thieves and …
Yemen’s Ministry of Interior said today that 1,048 Ethiopians have illegally entered the country by smuggling boats last November. Many of the refugees are women and children.
The Ethiopians were fleeing from the U.S.- and World Bank-financed brutal dictatorship in …
Opposition grows against the participation of Ethiopia’s brutal tyrant Meles Zenawi at the Copenhagen Climate Conference this month. Some are suggesting that his place should be rerouted to The Hague for trial at the International Criminal Court.
Freelance journalist Doug …
Italo Vassalo is one of the most beloved Ethiopians of this century, on a par with Tilahun Gessesse, Abebe Bikila and others. From Emperor HaileSelassie on down, every Ethiopian loved him and his elder brother Lucciano, the captain of Ethiopia’s …
By Fekade Shewakena
If you are wondering why the government of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia is doing the secretive land deals with Arab and Asian tycoons and agribusiness corporations without any public discussion and scrutiny, and why the officials are …
By Douglas McGill | The McGill Report
A mind-boggling usurpation of moral authority at the highest global level is set to unfold at the United Nations Climate Change Conference that begins in Copenhagen next Monday.
Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister …
By Jon Swain | Times Online
I last saw Aregawi Berhe in the summer of 1976. The big news gripping Britain was the heatwave — back then, the hottest since records began — and the dramatic Israeli commando raid on …
By Elias Kifle
When it comes to the ruling tribal junta in Ethiopia, there is no one who has as much clarity as President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea. He knows their real nature, what and how they think, their weaknesses, …
By Yilma Bekele
The Russians and East Europeans have definitely made their opinions known. They would rather forget about it. The Cubans have always experimented with it and continue to craft their own version. The Chinese are fine tuning it …
By Yilma Bekele
I couldn’t sleep all night. I kept turning and tossing to no avail. What was bothering me was what I heard on VOA yesterday afternoon. VOA is Voice of America for those of you not in the …
By Yilma Bekele
The Ethiopian Prime Mister has been a very visible figure lately. If there is such thing as frequent flyer marketing by Ethiopian Airlines Ato Meles is sure to have enough to go to the moon and back. …
By Yilma Bekele
In the good old days it used to be the tradition of dictators to sit at home and never show their face in the capitals of the civilized world or in most parts of their own country. …
By Yilma Bekele
Our new name is the Ethiopians in the Diaspora. ‘The term Diaspora (in Greek διασπορά – “a scattering [of seeds]”) refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave …
By Yilma Bekele
I am sure you have all heard that Ato Sebhat Nega aka Aboy Sebhat, the Prime Minster’s mentor and a very high official of the ruling TPLF party was a guest on Voice of America. I was …
The founding member of the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne), Ato Sebhat Nega (also known as Sibela Nega), is interviewed by VOA’s Amharic Program on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Sebhat is no longer a member of the …
By Prof. Negussay Ayele | Ethiopolitics.com
Contextual Profile On Re-imprisoned Mrs. Birtukan Mideksa of Ethiopia
Ethiopians who are in their 70’s plus today have survived through four political tsunamis the country has undergone in the last six decades. These include …
By Amanuel Biedemariam
In the past I have expressed my view about the process Ethiopians will go through to accept Eritrea’s independence and called it “Stages of Grief”. I opined Ethiopians will go through the stages of grief as explained …
After disappearing for over a week, which led to talks about his illness, Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi says I am fine by traveling to Equatorial Guinea, a tiny country in West Africa. The Woyanne-controlled Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) …
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA, (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s tribal junta on Monday charged 32 people with planning to kill government officials and blow up public utilities to provoke street protests and bring down the government, relatives of the accused said.…
Ethiopian Review has learned from reliable sources that the leader of Ethiopia’s ruling tribal junta, Meles Zenawi, is ill and has not been appearing in any official activity for over a week.
According to the sources, Meles was recently in …
The following is a set of photos showing the life style of Woyanne kids in Ethiopia. It includes Meles Zenawi’s 23-year-old daughter Semehal getting wild, biting some one’s tongue, and shooting a machine gun, among other things. Photo is compiled …
By Desalegn Sisay | Afrik.com
Foreign buyers of Ethiopian special coffee beans have expressed their concern over the introduction of a new auctioning system related to the trading of coffee beans at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). The system was …
By David Calleja | Foreign Policy Journal
A victim of the Ethiopian government’srepression during the 2005 elections (AP)
In May 2005, the ruling Ethiopian Revolutionary Patriot’s Democratic Front won elections amid allegations of electoral fraud and a campaign of intimidation
…By Netsanet Habtu
As I was reading the list recently released by Ginbot 7 regarding the ethnic composition of the Ethiopian army, I started thinking that our opposition to the regime for the last eighteen years has for the most …
Heading to The Hague? The picture below is satire, but Ethiopia’s tribal dictator is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity by credible international human rights organizations, and there are serious efforts to bring charges against him at the International …
By Barry Malone
Gen. Asaminew Tsige is one of the 41 suspects who are in jail without charge in Ethiopia
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) – A group accused of plotting to overthrow the Ethiopian regime were remanded in custody on …
Alemayehu G. Mariam
The Culture of Impunity
David Dadge, Director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, the oldest press freedom organization in the world, recently wrote a compelling commentary in The Guardian which should be of special interest to all …
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopian coffee exports will fall by 30-40 percent in 2009/2010, but the country hopes to become the world’s biggest sesame seed exporter this year, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) boss said on Friday.…
Tesfaye GebreAb analyzes the recent developments inside the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia, including the alleged coup plot, desperate measures against Amhara officers in the Woyanne army, Meles Zenawi’s possible retirement next year, who may take his place, etc.
[click here …
 Elias Kifle (center) with officials of the Ethiopan People’s Patriotic Front, Arbegna Meazaw, chairman (left), Shambel Zewdu (right), Arbegna Mengistu (sitting). |
By Elias Kifle
After being buried for several years, Ethiopia’s patriots, those who speak the kind of language anti-Ethiopia …
Most parts of Addis Ababa are currently out of electric light three days a week, according to Ethiopian Review sources. Several business are forced to shut down their operations.
Addis Ababa is also hit with shortage of water. Tens of …
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Following the recent arrest of several individuals for allegedly plotting to assassinate Meles Zenawi and other Woyanne regime officials, roads to northern Ethiopia towns have been blocked and only those with identification cards can pass through …
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a good news since the flower exporters are affiliated with the Woyanne regime, and the fertilizer they use to grow flowers for export is destroying nearby lakes and rivers.
By Aidan Jones | The Christian Science …
Addis Neger, a local Amharic language newspaper in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa reports that a former judge who is currently prominent lawyer is among 40 people jailed after being accused of plotting to assassinate Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi and other …
By Tedla Asfaw
I am not endorsing the Ginbot 7 party led by Dr Birhanu Nega on its first anniversary; rather to congratulate the Ethiopian masses who went out in millions in all corners of Ethiopia and voted TPLF out …
EDITOR’S NOTE: Meanwhile, Addis Ababa and other cities use electric light in shifts as a result of Meles Zenawi’s tribalist regime policies of every thing to Tigray. The following is reported by the Woyanne-hijacked Ethiopian News Agency.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia …
By Ginbot 7
The recent accusation by Meles Zenawi’s clique of an alleged ‘coup’ attempt led by Ginbot 7, which in a matter of days, was revised and heralded as an ‘assassination’ attempt is a vivid indication of a very …
Meles Zenawi’s dictatorship in Ethiopia attacks the United States Department of States officials as liars for publishing a report that exposes the regime’s massive human rights violations.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Meles regime said that normally they do …
By Peter Heinlein | VOA
Addis Ababa — Ethiopia’s next national election is a year away, but tensions are already increasing. At least two opposition politicians have recently been jailed, both possibly facing life in prison, and security forces have …
ADDIS ABABA — The wife of a cabinet minister in the Ethiopian regime, Ato Tefera Walwa, was arrested and later released.
Wzr. Ayne Tsige was taken to jail when she tried to stop the police from taking away her 80-year-old …
By Barry Malone | Reuters
A plot is defined as “a plan made in secret”, but even by the usual shadowy nature of such matters around Africa, the recent conspiracy to overthrow the Ethiopian government has been hard to see …
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – An Ethiopian opposition leader said on Tuesday an anti-government plot had been invented as an excuse to arrest potential candidates ahead of national elections next year.
“Without third party verification I can’t believe …
By Chris Delia
There was a reason. The victim’s full name is Abiy Melesse Bezabih. He used to be the president of International Federation of Banking and Insurance Trade Unions (IFBITU).
Ato Abiy was a passionate champion of the …
By FRED OLUOCH | The East African
Ethiopia will be holding elections next year, but all indications are that the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) [a cover for the tribalist Tigrean People Liberation Front, commonly known …
The rounding up of active and retired military officers by Meles Zenawi’s regime in Ethiopia is continuing in connection with the alleged coup and assassination plots.
It is reported today that the latest arrests include General Asaminew Tsige (Ret.) of …
By Zeinab Amde
The recent charges Meles and Bereket are fabricating against opponents of their regime in Ethiopia are merely intended to hit two clusters of political opponents with one stone – that is fighting the growing discontent in the …
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s [dictatorial regime] said on Friday a group led by an Ethiopian-American professor had planned to assassinate officials and blow up public utilities in a plot to topple the government.
Addis Ababa arrested …
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Senior military officers in Ethiopia, including a general, had plotted to assassinate top government officials, Communications Minister Bereket Simon said Friday, adding that 40 people [including 80-year-old father of an opposition party leader] were under arrest.…