Gunmen in Guji zone of Oromia regional state have killed twelve Oromia police members in the restive zone, a local official told BBC Amharic. Malicha Dika, Guji Zone Vice Administrator, told the BBC that the incident occurred in Gumi Eldelo woreda of Guji zone two weeks ago during the clash between armed men and the region’s ‘Liyu Police’ (a special force). He said the escalation of violence in the area continues causing casualties and damage to infrastructures.
Sporadic clashes continue to occur between government security forces and armed groups who were formerly members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the inhabitants told BBC.
Though the official could not say how many, he indicated that there were also those killed from the side of armed combatants.
The security situation remains highly volatile in Western Oromia zones and south Oromia Guji zone as a result of the activities of the armed groups acting in the name of OLF and the response of the region’s security forces.
Demonstrations took place across several towns of the Tigray regional state
Chairman of opposition party Arena Tigray, Abraha Desta said “unknown persons” tried to kidnap him in Mekele on Sunday evening. Hours earlier, a post of Abraha’s official Facebook claimed that unknown people in a Dolphin van tried to kidnap him in Kebele 18 of the regional capital. He wrote that the operation might have been an attempt to intimidate the opposition following the mass rallies held in several towns of Tigray against the regional government on the same day. Abraha said that he was safe following the alleged incident. Amdom Gebreslasie, the communication head of Arena has accused of the regional intelligence organization for the foiled kidnapping attempt, citing eyewitnesses. A member of the leadership of the Tigray People’s Democratic Movement (TPDM), known locally as Demhit, Tsigabu has been arrested in Adigrat town, Amdom wrote on his Facebook page. TPDM is an ex-rebel group formed in 2001 in Eritrea and over 2,000 of its members returned to Tigray two years ago. Frustrated by the situation in Tigray, some of the members are heading back to Eritrea, according to Amdom. TPDM accused of TPLF failing to implement pledges of the reintegration of the members into the regional army.
Demonstrators in several towns of Tigray, including Shire Endasilassie and Wajirat, went on to the streets on Sunday calling on the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to respect the rule of law, improve infrastructure and create employment opportunities, Radio Fana reported. The demonstrators carried slogans protesting about widespread nepotism and the abandonment of the masses by elite leadership. Protestors in Shire Endasilassie, among others, complained that their demand for their own district has gone unheeded, according to Fana.
I am not a legal scholar, still less a constitutional expert. I wrote this piece on constitutional crisis to assess the consistency of the reactions of opposition parties to the four alternatives that the government presented, less so to provide a legal opinion on the proposed alternatives. The initiative of the government emanates from the perception of a real constitutional crisis, since the Ethiopian Constitution has no answer to the question of how to proceed if a situation arises that hampers the holding of scheduled elections.
Still, to circumvent the serious obstacle that the Covid-19 pandemic presents to the holding of the national elections every five years, the government weighed on four alternatives that, it says, are all constitutionally acceptable. They are
(1) dissolution of the parliament;
(2) declaration of a state of emergency;
(3) introduction of a constitutional amendment;
(4) recourse to constitutional interpretation.
After pondering on the strengths and weaknesses of each possible option, the government selected the fourth option, which soon after was endorsed by the parliament and sent to the next concerned body.
At the same time, opposition parties reacted in various ways, both to the alternatives that were considered and to the choice that the government made. With the exception of the TPLF, a consensus has emerged on the need to postpone the scheduled elections. It is believed that unless the elections are postponed, the government will be so busy both in preparing and taking part in the elections that it will be unable to focus on the fight against the spread of the virus. What is more, elections cannot be conducted without the full and unimpeded participation of the people, a condition that goes against the very measures needed to stop the spread of the virus, like avoiding large meetings, increase mobility, door-to-door campaigns, etc. Despite this consensus, opposition parties reacted by splitting into two camps: the radical position, on the one hand, and the camp of those that amend the governmental stand or add conditions to it, on the other.
The Radical Position
The radical position is the one popularized by two activists who also happen to be politicians, namely, Lidetu Ayalew and Jawar Mohammed. According to them, the Constitution clearly sets a term limit of five years for any elected government. After this term limit, no government, they contend, has any legal authority, and no provision of the constitution exists that authorizes its extension. True, provisions that deal with national threats and emergencies do exist, but none of them can be used to prolong the mandate beyond the specified term of five years. Neither the stipulation allowing the right to declare a state of emergency, nor the power to dissolve the House of Representatives, can be used to modify the term limit, the reason being that they can be exercised only during the legal time of five years. The same is true of the remaining two alternatives: nowhere is it stated that constitutional amendment or interpretation can be invoked to extend the five-year limit.
One must face the evidence: under no circumstance does the Constitution allow the extension of the term of office of an elected government. The error is to think that this deficit is due to an omission or oversight on the part of those who wrote the Constitution. On the contrary, one must see the absence of a stipulation as a deliberate and well-thought position intent on protecting the country from any abuse of power. How often do we not see governments, notably in third-world countries, extending their mandate by invoking all sorts of pretexts? In appealing to the same subterfuge, the Ethiopian government is doing nothing but prolonging its power beyond the term allowed by the Constitution.
Granted that the Constitution specifically rules out any extension of the lifespan of the government beyond the legal time, what then can be done once we admit the perilous consequences of holding elections in the conditions of an expanding deadly pandemic? According to the radical position, the only way out is to seek a political solution by inviting all legally recognized parties to a discussion with the view of reaching a consensus on how to proceed, given the unequivocal stand of the Constitution against the prolongation of governmental mandate. This political solution is perfectly legitimate, since the Constitution itself resulted from an agreement between political parties, which are then the true originators.
Needless to say, since the political solution effectively suspends the Constitution, no party shall have more importance or authority than any other party, and everything must be decided by negotiated consensus. Obviously, with the expiration of the five years’ limitation, all recognized legal authorities cease and the ruling party becomes a contending party with no more status than any other rival party. The distinct advantage of the political solution over other constitutional manipulations is that it guarantees peace during and after the negotiation because all concerned stakeholders participate with equal status in the process and agree to a consented solution. Any solution, supposedly constitutional or not, outside a negotiated agreement, by the very fact that it is perceived as illegal, will trigger resistance that can lead to popular uprisings. Once the term of office has elapsed, there is just no legal way for the ruling party to impose its solution. In short, it has to recognize contending parties as equals and negotiate with them in good faith.
Most of its followers are supporters of ethnic-based political parties, like for instance the group of seven parties known as the Alliance for Democratic Federalism
When one critically examines the radical position, one is struck by the fact that most of its followers are supporters of ethnic-based political parties, like for instance the group of seven parties known as the Alliance for Democratic Federalism. Since they are fervent defenders of the existing Constitution, one would expect that they would move heaven and earth to convince all parties that there is a constitutional solution to the problem at hand. Instead, they argue that the Constitution provides no solution to the problem and that it should be suspended until a political, that is, extraconstitutional, solution is found. To prefer suspension to amendment or interpretation or any other constitutionally acceptable solution is indeed a strange way of asserting one’s absolute commitment to the Constitution.
The trick is to say that suspension is temporary and, as such, does not entail the dropping or modification of the Constitution in any way. As Jawar puts it, the only issue in this particular case is the unauthorized extension of power; the rest of the Constitution is not in question. It is untouchable and remains as it is. Yet, one would really like to know how this assertion can be made with some consistency. For one thing, the proposed agreement between political parties effectively establishes a new government by a procedure that the Constitution does not allow, since it expressly prohibits the seizure of “state power in any manner other than that provided under the Constitution,” which is through the ballot box. The mentioned agreement between political parties has nothing to do with the imperative of being elected representatives of the people. For another, once the Constitution has been suspended and effectively breached in this fundamental way, the argument that it cannot be touched can no longer made. Assuming power by means that the Constitution prohibits opens the door to all kinds of challenges, the logical outcome of which can only be the writing of a new Constitution.
Abiy Ahmed at a consultations with leaders of political parties on April 29/PM’s Twitter page
There is more. Even if the path to revision or rewriting is taken, the absolute certainty is that parties with so wide ideological disparities will never arrive at an agreed constitutional settlement. From political parties that do not even agree on the appearance of the national flag, it is pure insanity to expect them to reach a consensus on constitutional matters. So irreconcilable ideological differences can only have one unavoidable outcome: the unleashing of a chaotic power struggle that will lead to armed conflicts and secessions.
The accusation, made against the supporters of the position, that their proposal is nothing but a disguised attempt to seize power unconstitutionally is, therefore, largely justified.
What clearly transpires here is that the inconsistency and implausibility of the radical position emanate from the overarching desire to take advantage of the obstacle created by the pandemic to capture political power through unconstitutional means. The accusation, made against the supporters of the position, that their proposal is nothing but a disguised attempt to seize power unconstitutionally is, therefore, largely justified. How otherwise would one explain the flagrant inconsistency of claiming to be a staunch defender of the Constitution while transgressing at the same time one of its fundamental rulings?
The Position of Conditional Agreement
This position either agrees with the government with some conditions or gives its consent to the continuation of the existing government, provided it is done through constitutional amendment rather than interpretation. The genesis of the position is not hard to conceptualize. It arises from the rejection of the constitutional option to dismiss the House of Representatives because dismissal entails a weakened government reduced to conducting day-to-day business and organizing elections. At a time when, on top of the pandemic and heightened ethnic tensions in various parts of the country, threats from regional players are developing against national sovereignty, the option for a weak government is nothing but suicidal. Actually, to opt for the dismissal of the parliament defeats the very purpose of the postponement of the elections. What made the postponement necessary is the need to fight the pandemic, which cannot be accomplished by a government stripped of the very power that enables it to battle the virus.
It is this common-sense reasoning that led some opposition parties to support the continuity of a strong government, albeit conditionally. I have particularly in mind Ezema. Seeing the multiple challenges that the country is facing and the proliferation of parties with wide ideological disparities, Ezema argues that the alternative of establishing a transitional government is not a viable solution. Instead, the government should use the authorization to amend the constitution, thereby allowing “the House of People’s Representative to extend the election for not more than one year and ensure government continuity in time of emergency.” Ezema believes that its proposal presents the distinct advantage of being not only constitutional, but also of limiting the extension only to one year. Both measures strongly support the preservation of the democratic process while giving the government the power it needs to deal with the crises besieging the country.
The other party that came up with a conditional agreement is the National Movement of Amhara. In agreement with Ezema, it accepts the necessity of keeping the existing government in power for obvious security and peacekeeping concerns as well as for reasons associated with the need to fight the pandemic. It adds that the government should use the extension of time to engage in a serious dialogue with the opposition and influential elites on the best way to achieve a successful transition to a democratic order, a task at which it has so far failed, despite its repeated promises.
One objection that can be raised against Ezema’s proposal is that the Constitution stipulates that any amendment must be, among other things, “submitted for discussion and decision to the general public and to those whom the amendment of the Constitution concerns.” Discussions and consultations involving the general public cannot be undertaken at a time when the need to fight the pandemic expressly ban social gatherings. The inability to involve the people in the process greatly reduces the democratic legality of the outcome. However, Ezema retorts that the ban can be circumvented by consulting representatives of the public and by using alternative technological means.
Assuming that the obligation to involve the general public could be overlooked, there is no doubt that Ezema’s proposal has the strong advantage of remaining within the constitutional legality. Likewise, the restriction of the extension to one year provides a guarantee against an open-ended prolongation, which would be detrimental to the progress of the democratic process. Nonetheless, the proposal has the distinct disadvantage of amending the Constitution for a problem that is temporary. Not only does the suggested amendment create an improper precedence, but it also trivializes a task as solemn as amending the constitution by inserting a clause related to a passing, though no doubt dangerous, glitch to the scheduled holding of elections. Amending the constitution should be the last resort to consider after making sure that there are no other constitutional means to deal with the problem at hand.
The Path of Interpretation
As already indicated, interpretation is the option adopted by the government. Parties opposing the governmental option have come up with one counterargument, which is that interpretation is applicable only where there is conflict or contradiction between clauses of the Constitution or lack of clarity in the answer it gives to a specific question. At any rate, it cannot be used to extend the determined time that the Constitution allots to an elected government. Yet, on a closer look, the existence of conflict transpires if we pay attention to the effects of the pandemic on the Constitution. Clauses that were in perfect harmony develop conflictual relations under the effects of the pandemic.
The Constitution assigns the responsibility “to conduct in an impartial manner free and fair election in Federal and State constituencies” to the National Election Board. It insists in various places on the imperative of conducting free and fair elections. Clearly, the imperative entails the possibility for competing parties to hold unrestricted campaigns, with all what a political campaigning brings with it. Without this possibility, the election cannot be fair and free, if only because it will favor the ruling party, which can then use its omnipresence and day-to-day incursions into the life of Ethiopians to communicate its views and program. It is not viable to speak of free and fair election if ideas and programs are not debated in an open and publicly accessible manner. Political campaign and all its attendants are superfluous only when the election is a sham, as in the case of dictatorial regimes. In asserting that it will hold a separate election before the end of the present term despite the hurdle of the pandemic, the TPLF is telling those who want to listen that it has no intention of abiding by the conditions necessary for free and fair election.
This is to say that the provision of the Constitution stating that representatives are elected “for a term of five years on the basis of universal suffrage and by direct, free and fair elections held by secret ballot” becomes self-destructive because of the conditions created by the pandemic. It is indeed contradictory for the Constitution to require what the conditions do not permit, namely, free and fair election. If the decision is to proceed by ignoring the adverse conditions, the consequence is that the Constitution will have to sanction the legality of a government that did not meet its basic demands.
Covid 19 SOE consultations with leaders of political parties on April 29/PM’s Twitter page
Instead of forcing the Constitution into a Catch-22 situation, interpretation provides the justification for postponing the election until such time its basic requirement becomes applicable, thereby removing the contradiction between the five-year limitation period and the imperative of free and fair election. Now, the methods of amendment and interpretation can reach the same result, to wit, the postponement of the election. The difference, however, is that interpretation does not require, as does the act of amending, the participation of the general public, which participation is unrealizable under the present conditions. Moreover, in calling for instances that are restricted to the existing system of government (it only involves the Council of Constitutional Inquiry and the House of the Federation), interpretation limits the whole process to nothing more than the adaptation of the Constitution to a changed but passing situation. In being of a lower level than amendment, interpretation better fits to a momentary and externally induced impediment while being also in line with the Constitution.
In supporting the alternative of interpretation and arguing against the path of suspension, I may have given the impression that I have some attachment to the Constitution. Such a conclusion would not be accurate: I believe that the Constitution has many shortcomings, like its propensity to instill and feed tension between ethnicity and national unity. But I am a realist in that I consider ethnonationalism as an inescapable fact of Ethiopian politics. In contrast to the many who think that it is just a bad dream, I admit that the Derg’s military defeat against ethnonationalist forces has consequences, the most pernicious of which is the ethnicization of politics in Ethiopia. Recognizing the latter as a fact that will not just go away implies that we work toward mitigating its divisive and violent tendency rather than confronting it head-on. That is why I maintain that amendment and interpretation are the way to go to tame ethnic politics in the direction of democratic norms and national unity. The two methods enable us to correct and develop progressively the Constitution according to the norms of a modern society. Above all, they protect us against the temptation of destroying and starting with a clean slate, instead of building on the bequeathed reality. As the modern history of Ethiopia testifies, so long as we do not extirpate this revolutionary temptation, we will be just repeating the past.
The omnipresence of the ruling party in all the circles of the state apparatus, combined with the fact that political instances rather than an independent judiciary examine the issue, makes impartial examination unattainable
In point of fact, a characteristic shortcoming of the Constitution, the very one that explains why many people are skeptical about the option of interpretation is that the organisms involved in the examination of the issue in question are not independent, in addition to all their members belonging to the same ruling party. The omnipresence of the ruling party in all the circles of the state apparatus, combined with the fact that political instances rather than an independent judiciary examine the issue, makes impartial examination unattainable. Agreed, but the same objection applies to all the other options, so that independence and impartiality are nowhere to be found. They are ideals that we can pursue, not yet realities that we can use to assess the legal validity of the discussed options.
This does not, however, mean that the whole exercise and the heated debates it generates are futile. Rather, we must accept the card we have been dealt by the TPLF and work through it. The public presentation of the options and the ensuing debates are the first step for going forward, that is, for improving on the Constitution as we advance, not from the requirements of a given ideology, but from the real lessons of life.
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com. Check individual images for licensing details.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) produced a report on the 5th of February 2020 titled Agricultural Biotechnology Annual Report (ET 2019-0010). The report says that the Ethiopian government has approved the commercialization of Bt Cotton and the Confined Field Trial (CFT) of Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). The planting of Bt Cotton has resulted in hundreds of thousands of suicides in India and has failed in Burkina Faso and South Africa. WEMA is Monsanto’s GM drought-tolerant maize and has failed in Southern Africa and was rejected by the South African government. Ethiopia is the center of origin and diversity of many important food and fiber crops and has one of the most diverse food systems in the world. This diversity in food and agriculture is the result of thousands of years of careful cultivation and management by the small-scale food producers of Ethiopia. There is very little to prove that, over the long term, GMOs increase productivity, decrease the usage of agrochemicals, or tackle environmental challenges. In fact, there is a mountain of evidence that they increase health risk, are nutritionally poor, and damage the environment. It is therefore quite concerning that there is a test being done on Enset, a critical crop for over 20 million people in Ethiopia. This will compromise the health and resilience of present and future generations.
The push of GMOs in Ethiopia is emblematic of regulatory capture, whereby a government agency charged with regulating in the public interest promotes instead the interest of private industry.
GMOs are pushed in Ethiopia by corporate interests in the absence of rigorous, independent impact assessments and proper biosafety protocols. The push of GMOs in Ethiopia is emblematic of regulatory capture, whereby a government agency charged with regulating in the public interest promotes instead the interest of private industry.
The institutions that are set up to protect us from risks arising out of the planting and use of GMOs are not equipped to protect the health of the people and the environment. The institution that is responsible to ensure the implementation of the Biosafety Proclamation (No. 896/2015), the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission under the Office of the Prime Minister, is understaffed and has low political clout to protect the interest of citizens. Ethiopia has a law on Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control (Proclamation No. 661/2009) but lacks a policy for GM foods, unlike many other countries. Ethiopia is a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a UN body that is open to all members of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). But there is a lack of well-equipped National Referral Laboratory for the detection of GMOs and products.
Therefore, we ask the Ethiopian government to:
Institute a moratorium, of no less than five years, on any GMO field trials and any commercial planting until the proper institutional and regulatory mechanisms are set up, and a proper public consultation process has been held.
2. Ensure an immediate public consultation on whether Ethiopia should accept GMOs as part of its agriculture systems;
3. Respect its commitment to the Cartagena Protocol and put stringent regulations to protect our biodiversity and human health;
4. Stop the tampering by GMO enthusiasts on the diverse food plants and animals of Ethiopia, which are the basis of our resilience, identity, and future;
5. Build the capacity of the institutions that are set up to protect the health of the people and the environment;
6. Setup a free participatory and transparent mechanism of assessing the products which are the results of genetic modification.
Signatories:
1.PELUM Ethiopia Consortium: email –pelumethiopia@gmail.com; mobile -+251 911 2460462.
2. Ethiopian Society for Consumer Protection: email –gbdagaga@gmail.com; mobile -+251 911 9456163.
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com. Check individual images for licensing details.
In the tradition of Eastern and Western patriotic and pastoral poets (Elisheva Bikhovski, Darwish, Frost, Bejan Matur, Tagore, and Tennyson) poet-playwright Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin’s seminal work እሳት ወይ አበባ Esat woy Ababa Blaze or Bloom (2007) is replete with references to human ecology. A cosmopolitan himself, Tsegaye’s center is essentially rural; his sponsoring a monument to rural folk on the grounds of the National Theatre in Addis Ababa attests to this fact. Indeed, a close reading of his works would suggest a de-centering and corrupting influence of urbanization. The poems, ‘a hunt for legs’ እግር እንይ eggir iniiy (p.103)—a Sixties urban youth pastime—and my hands are too soft to wield the plow እጄ እርፍ አይጨብጥም e j erf ayechabTem (p.92) point to the dangers of uncritically absorbing foreign cultures. In Tsegaye’s parlance, rooted-ness preceded progress, not the other way around.
Ethiopia is a largely agrarian society. Tsegaye (1936—2006) was born in the west-central plateau in Boda, Ambo of ‘holy springs, groves and ridges’ (p.90) and remained firmly rooted in that world. Ironies of life relatable to the present task are worth mentioning here. One is that the poet died in New York, after a long illness, miles from his beloved homeland where he was duly laid to rest. His death then became a rallying point and a protest against current ethnic politics which he had denounced publicly. Luxuriant verses were composed overnight, not few echoing the poet’s unique meter. A rather lengthy and somber verse obit equated the poet’s demise to ‘a shady branch lopped off the warka (tree)’. Another point of interest is that one of his poems, ተወኝ tawagn ‘leave me alone’ (p.194) was composed in 1965 likely on his first visit to New York! Obviously, the poem is about unrequited love with the opening line ላታስታምም አትመመኝ latasTaMam at Mamagn as its plea: don’t get me (sick) if you won’t be by my side. Whether the plea could be taken for the poet’s love for his country shall remain beyond the scope of this write-up!
Tsegaye was prolific to the end. And as poet-playwright, he undoubtedly continues to be the preeminent cultural force in the country. His observations are photographic and shaped by a unique physical and social history which in turn shaped a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Ethiopian identity. Esat woy Ababa is an invitation as well to gaze at the butterfly, the lion, the vulture, the primeval fig tree, reeds and ponds, the fearsome bird of prey, and the mighty Nile sinuously moving toward Egypt and on to the Mediterranean Sea. Not infrequently, one is also confronted by the presence of those on the margins of society: the piercing glance of a nomad or a seer of some distant lore or a funeral procession of the untouchables attended by a festive eskista-a veritable pronouncement on the pretentiousness of those in the center (p.123). It is no accident therefore that Esat woy Ababa opens with a poem addressed to “a brother I took no notice of but who knows me fairly well.” ይድረስ ለወንድሜ ለማላውቅህ፤ ለምታውቀኝ-ለማላውቅህ (p.21)
Tsegaye is an interrogator and interpreter par excellence! In fact, one could safely sum up his works as a grand project to create and resurrect words to light up a new way of looking at the world and one’s place in it. To this end words often are transmuted or born conjoined to take on a novel meaning. Thus, gadaa ገዳ, Oromo word for a system of governance becomes, respectively, Ka Adaa ካ አዳ to mean (Egyptian) god and (her) religious order. Suuma ሱማ morphes into aka-suuma አካ ሱማ to aksuuma አክሱማ (the northern ancient city of Aksum) and so on.
**** For both Tsegaye and Tennyson rivers symbolized permanence in a rapidly changing terrain. In Tennyson’s The Brook for example the brook is the teller of its own story; I come from haunts of coot and hern… I chatter, chatter as I flow … for men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever…. In Tsegaye’s Awash አዋሽ (p.96) however, the poet is the interpreter entreating the resplendent river to divulge the mystery of its meanderings and later vanishing inside Ethiopia’s sandy borders without making it to Gulf of Tadjoura. In twelve refrains the poet inquires, How long, Awash, will you keep us in suspense? እስከ መቸ ይሆን አዋሽ? EskaMachee yiHon Awash? In Abay አባይ (p.159), the mighty Nile is presented as the source of all life, indeed, as a multiple-breasted woman birthing and sustaining the human race. In አብረን ዝም እንበል Abran Zem Enebal Let Us Pause (p.196), waterfalls at Koka hydro-dam are laments riding, as it were, swift celestial horses. የቆቃን ሰቆቃ ሰምተን … በሰማይ ፈረስ ተጭኖ ከአፅናፍ አፅናፍ ሲንደረደር His evoking horse and rider are reflective of the warrior Oromo culture the poet is steeped in. Incidentally, ደንገላሳ dangalasa, is the same word for spilling liquid/water and for speed between the trot and a gallop.
Once more the scene changes to winding roads–a harbinger for lofty mountains, tablelands, and gorges. Crags of Ankobar town are the abode of beings and baboons (p.106). The steep road to Lima Limo (p.114) is but the gateway to a forbidding region between heaven and earth (probably heaven and hell) and a metaphor for human ingenuity. Dogali on the eastern escarpment (p.165) is a lookout, a place of birth pangs and ‘bitter cup’ ምጥ-ፅዋ mit tsiwa (on account of invading Ottoman Turks). GaeRa town is a cluster of flames (p.161); ጌራ ነበልባል ዘለላ. Rich rain-drenched earth is “irrigated reddish womb” (p.170). Nights grant cover for inconsolable men to weep unabashedly (p.202). Vulture wings are clouds above the town square (suggesting severe drought and dead bodies; p.206)! Maqdala fortress (p.210) in the north-central is a place of decision—whether to live in servitude to the “Christian” British invader or to die defiant and free. Harar in the east is “a walled human container” (p.174) የግንብ አጥር ማኅደር yaGinb atir mahdar. The poet turns out to be a trusted guide into the wonders of Nature as it bears on our identity, humanity, and community. Let us hope successive generations would take up the challenge to explore, to nurture and bond within those shared spaces.
Wanchee, near Ambo,
Here I offer my translation of ምነው አምቦ? (p.90) Minau Ambo What happened Ambo penned over half a century ago when close to 40% of Ethiopia was covered by forests (today down to 15%). President Trump’s reneging recently on the Paris Climate deal followed by a novel pandemic (COVID-19) has presented us with a state of affairs none could have imagined a year ago. There is no telling what the fallout of our irresponsibility will look like especially in developing countries and in light of the inequitable distribution of resources within every society and between nations across the globe. But we need not lose all hope. The fact that Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative managed to plant “four billion” trees in June, July, and August of 2019 is evidence of a collective resolve to turn back the tide of destruction. I would like to think that the initiative, though not intended, is a deserved tribute to the patriot and pastoral poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin.
What happened Ambo? What happened Ambo, primal amba of a thousand plateaux? Reservoir of natural beauty, you once were clothed with dignity; A cast of wellsprings and border ridges, Showers of bumper crop, holy waters; Year in year out contentment, Balmy air, seedling, green environment; Meccia to the heart of river Awash, Dandee to Wanchee in flowing ebbing rush; As though you never were the Guardian— Beacon of the realm, canopy of Earth’s shrine; What happened your mid-day shade shrank, Those full breasts now are slack, Your old self is on the retreat, your freshness effete, Your glory muted, beat up, twisted; oh, So, what happened Ambo?
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Please cite Ethiopia Observer prominently and link clearly to the original article if you republish. If you have any queries, please contact us at ethiopiaobserver@protonmail.com. Check individual images for licensing details.
8 people die due to COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, while 208 others recover
The number of novel coronavirus cases in Ethiopia passed 1,000 people, according to official data Saturday.
According to the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) data, 95 additional cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across the country on Saturday, raising the total numbers of confirmed cases to 1,063. FMoH revealed that from the total of 5,034 medical tests that were conducted in the last 24 hours, 95 of them tested positive for COVID-19, eventually bringing the total number of cases to 1063. All of the people confirmed for COVID-19 are Ethiopians, except one Indian national.Among the cases, 56 of them are identified from Addis Ababa, twenty-two from the Oromia region, three from Tigray Region, five from the Amhara region, one from the Afar region, three from Harari region, two from Dire Dawa and three from Somali region. Thirty of the cases have travel history from abroad, four having contact with confirmed cases, the statement reads. The remaining sixty-one have neither a travel history nor known contact traces.
Of the cases, seventy-one are male and twenty-four are female, with the youngest being fifteen years old and the oldest eighty years, according to a statment by FMoH.
The country has so far reported 208 recoveries and 8 deaths.
Days after he shared images of municipal workers disinfecting the streets of Addis Ababa with high-powered hoses, Mayor Takele Uma Banti found himself struggling to explain a 72-hour water shortage.
For the 4.8 million residents of Ethiopia’s capital city, interruptions to the water supply are nothing new. But in the grip of a pandemic, the latest disruption threw into sharp relief the inequality created by limited and unpredictable access to clean water. Without a treatment or a vaccine, the primary advice to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is regular hand-washing and good hygiene. But this is out of reach for millions of Ethiopians living without sustainable access to clean water, laying bare the critical link between water and public health.
Water crises were ranked above both infectious diseases and food crises in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Risks Report. This year, the world is likely to see all three.
Opinion: seed sovereignty for food security could transform globalisation after the coronavirus
Communities who regularly face calamitous food shocks have much to teach us about maintaining sovereignty over seeds and food supply. They know well not to rely solely upon formal, monoculture-based globalised supply and value chains which can be adversely affected while informal diverse seed systems can survive and thrive. My recent study of seed laws and practices in Ethiopia and Kenya, places and people in the frontline of hunger and climate shocks, addresses the issue of seed sovereignty in the context of the kind of globalisation that a trans-boundary global shock like coronavirus suddenly throws up for us all.
Seed sovereignty is the right to sow, grow, save, use, share and breed seeds and determine own seed futures. Seed laws and policies determine seed practices and food security. For example, Ethiopia’s 2013 seed law exempts their farmers’ seed varieties from the broader commercial seed law. The latter demands uniform seeds for global value chains and commercial interests as globalising seed rules swept across Africa in recent years. Moreover, Ethiopia established 30 substantial community seed banks, expanding a dynamic germplasm exchange between state and farmers first initiated by the world-renowned Ethiopian plant scientist Dr Melaku Worede in the 1980s. Why? Because of their experience with horrific famines.
A renowned Ethiopian geneticist and agronomist has cautioned against the adoption of a genetically modified (GM) variety, saying that it could pose a serious threat to the tremendous genetic and biological diversity of the country. Dr. Melaku Worede, a plant geneticist and former Director of the Ethiopian Plant Genetic Resources Centre, said that any move to improve the agricultural inputs of the country should take into account the interests and desires of local farmers who have been maintaining and adapting their indigenous crop resources for centuries, and should not be imposed in a top-down fashion, he said in an interview with TechTalk With Solomon, a weekly technology TV show on Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (EBS).
Melaku, 84, said that the preservation of indigenous seed varieties which he said are not only cost-effective for farmers but was the most sustainable way to develop agriculture should be an utmost priority. “Attempts to improve agricultural outputs should be done in collaboration with farmers, not by imposing it upon them. Let us explore the genes that we have on the ground first and make good use of it. Knowledge system and the material go hand in hand, he said.
“It is too risky to rely on seeds that have no local adaptation and built-in genetic diversity. Farmers should rather be helped to improve the genetic performance of crops than to be dictated to buy costly GM seeds. In the context it is being developed and used, GMOs has a danger. It is a double-edged sword. “Let us be careful not to be a basket case,” he told the interviewer. “From the farmer’s point view, the yield was not the only criterion, farmers place also importance to diversity in seasons, topography, taste, specific harvest that could be used for specific cultural activities, and a number of things. For farmers, sustainability is an important criterion. They have developed the strategy to spread the risk between factors of season, location, and diversity. So their varieties will have enough plasticity to allow them to grow in diverse conditions.” he said.
Though many are voicing their concern about the risk of smallholder’s loss of sovereign control of their seeds as western companies push to enhance their access to Ethiopian markets, the Ethiopian government is showing a willingness to accept the uptake of GM seeds. In a recent meeting, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) Director, Tadesse Daba said that Bt-cotton was permitted for a confined field trial in 2016 and licensed in 2018, the first for the country. GM maize is also currently under confined field trial to check whether it really prevents diseases or not, he said.
Dr. Melaku said Bt-cotton could be Trojan Horse for the acceptance of other genetically modified crops. “If we partner with profit-generating multinational corporations, it would have enormous implications for our food supply. And the corporations are using Bt cotton as an entry point and they would go on to introduce more GM crops. And they are saying say trial. Where do they conduct the trial? When you do that in a crowded place, there is a potential risk of toxicity,” he said.
“We need technology. We need novel techniques. I am not against the technology per se”, said Melaku, who has built himself an international reputation for preserving the country’s genetic wealth by building the seed conservation center in the country. “We have other types of farming methods that are delivering drought-tolerant crops and enhancement value.
“Can we adopt GM technology here? It could be done in uniform topographic such as Canada and the US prairies, he said, adding, “but here in a country like Ethiopia, in a small-scale farming area that does not even cover one kilometer and the character of the soil and air varies, it would be practically impossible,” he said.
Born in 1936, Melaku Worede obtained a Ph.D. in Agronomy (Genetics and Breeding) from the University of Nebraska, USA in the 1960s. He returned to Ethiopia and became involved in the planning of the Plant Genetic Resources Centre in Addis Ababa, of which he became Director in 1979. He held this post until his retirement in 1993 to join the Seeds of Survival Programme of Ethiopia, which he founded with the support of a consortium of Canadian NGOs led by the Unitarian Service Committee (USC/Canada). He wasawarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989 “for preserving Ethiopia’s genetic wealth by building one of the finest seed conservation centers in the world.”
The first case of coronavirus in the Gambella region has been confirmed, the virus making inroads in the region which has remained unscathed so far. The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) on Saturday has disclosed that a 28-year-old male from Lare woreda of the Gambella region has been diagnosed with a Covid-19. The resident is believed to have contracted the virus during a recent trip to South Sudan and he has been in isolation in the Gambella University since his return. The overall Covid-19 case in Ethiopia rose to 1934, with 20 deaths.
Gambella’s location, population, and connectivity to neighboring South Sudan mean the consequences of an uncontrolled outbreak could be severe. Omod Ojulu Obub, President of Gambela Regional State told Fana that even though the main road connecting the region with South Sudan was closed after Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in early April, a surge of people pouring unmonitored over the large border has been a cause for concern. Ethiopia and South Sudan share an 874 km border along the Gambella region and thousands of South Sudanese refugees are being sheltered in refugee camps around Gambella. South Sudan has reported 1,317 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 14 deaths, as of Saturday, according to a report by the Africa CDC.
Death toll rises to 27 with 32 patients in critical condition, says health official
Nearly 97 health workers infected with coronavirus
The number of coronavirus cases in Ethiopia has risen to 2,020 with 86 confirmed in the last 24 hours, officials said Sunday.
The country’s death toll jumped to 27, with the number of patients in intensive care increasing to 32.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), among the number of confirmed cases, 66 of them are from Addis Ababa, 7 from Oromia region, 7 from Tigray, 4 from the SNNPR, one from the Amhara region and one other from Dire Dawa region.
So far, 344 patients have recovered and were discharged from the hospital, FMoH said.
Seven Covid-19-linked deaths were registered in the past 24 hours, including the mother who recently gave birth at Eka Kotebe Hospital while under treatment for Covid-19. It’s the highest death toll recorded since the first death was reported in April. Of the deaths, 1 was 26 years old, 3 were 33 to 36 years old, 2 were 55 to 56, and one 65 years old, according to the FMoH. Four out of seven deaths were diagnosed with the infection post-mortem, indicating that reported cases will underestimate the true case fatality ratio.
And in related news, around 97 Ethiopian health workers have been infected with the coronavirus, health minister Lia Tadesse said in a meeting with regional health bureau heads and agencies, according to BBC Amharic. Most of the cases were registered in the past two weeks, she was quoted as saying.
The overall COVID cases have witnessed a large spike in the past two weeks, particularly of the past five days since the first case was reported in mid-March, Lia told the participants, according to the report.
The Tigray region’s communication affairs bureau has rebuffed suggestions that the region has security forces that are operating along with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)-Shene group in an armed struggle against the federal government in western Ethiopia.
In a statement yesterday, the region’s communication bureau said that a political party that operates within the legal framework and peaceful manner cannot have an army and charged the statements were part of baseless media propaganda.
The Oromia region last week said fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are operating along with the OLF-Shene group in restive Wellega province and western part of Ethiopia. Girma Gelan, the Oromia police deputy commissioner, said the region has the intelligence that many TPLF fighters are operating along with the OLF-Shene group. “Numerous youth who have escaped from stations make no secret of who trained them and assigned them, he said. “If the idea is librating Oromo, why now forge an alliance with a group used to call us parasites? This is what the Oromo people need to ask,” he said.
Image: Girma Gelan, Oromia police deputy commissioner, courtesy of BBC
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed refuted the allegation that his government is weak and wavering. “What some are saying that our government is weak is flat-out wrong. There is a saying that only a father who does not spare a rod is a father worth his name; whereas a father who corrects through advice is regarded as not a father. This is the wrong attitude, ” Abiy said Monday during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers. “Ours is not a government which lives in fear of its power snatched from it, whenever some disturbance is caused,” he said. Abiy rather touted his administration’s economic accomplishments in the midst of a global pandemic by giving examples of how the country’s foreign debt has declined from 31 percent of its GDP to 25 percent over the past two years and the growth of coffee export by 16% and meat exports by 21% during the past 10 months.
The kidnapped university students
Abiy touched on a wide variety of issues, from his government’s response to the COVID pandemic to the issue of caretaker and a transitional government to kidnapped Dembi Dollo University students. At least 17 university students, most of them from the Amhara ethnic group, were kidnapped in December 2019, allegedly by a faction of the OLF while they were traveling to the capital via Gambella. “As for the university students who were kidnapped, the government has been conducting an investigation to know their whereabouts, raising money and time needed, to the task. But this is not an ordinary kidnapping. We are doing the search whenever we get tipoffs,” Abiy said. “We are determined in our task. We too have daughters and we know what it means to be in this travail. But there are things being written in social media to sensationalize the incident,” he said.
Ethiopia-Sudan border row
Acknowledging the recent reports of Ethiopia-Sudan border row, the prime minister said his government is committed to resolving it through negotiations. “We have a brotherly relationship with the Sudanese people and we have surmounted many obstacles together,” Abiy said. While saying his government has no intention of going to war with Sudan, he added “but that does not mean that there are not forces who are trying ignite tension between the two countries.” Clashes between Sudan’s military and Ethiopian militias have taken place in the eastern province of al-Qadarif between May 26 and May 28, a spokesman for the Sudanese army, Brigadier Amer Mohammed al-Hassan, said.
The postponement of the elections
When he got reports of the National Electoral Board decided to postpone the August 2020 national elections due to the pandemic, Abiy said he had an exchange of strong words, an unusual one at that, with the chairperson, Birtucan Midekssa because he did not agree with the decision. He said his party, the Prosperity Party is organized and most capable of winning. “It is clear to everyone that the Prosperity Party isn’t afraid of elections,” he said.
On the alleged neglect of the Tigray region by the federal govt
When one or two persons are held responsible, there is a tendency to make it look like it is the whole Tigray population that is targetted, the prime minister said. He added: “Between TPLF and Prosperity party, there have been disparaging exchanges and we should put an end to it.” The federal government has made a 42 percent increase in federal subsidy to the region in the past two years, Abiy said, adding that whether the budget has been properly put into operation or not could only be evaluated only by the region’s council. The region has received 46 million Birr in money and in-kind to combat COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister stated. An additional 400 million birr has been injected for clean water supply in Mekele city, according to the PM. And as the region failed to settle fertilizer debt, the federal government was obliged to purchase fertilizers with borrowed 445 million birr and send them to the region for the sake of farmers, something that has not been done to any other region, he said.
(Aljazeera)-Ninety-eight days. That is how long it took for confirmed coronavirus infections to reach the 100,000 mark in Africa. But when it came to those cases doubling up to 200,000, it took just 18 days.
The figures were cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday as it warned that the coronavirus pandemic on the continent is “accelerating”, with the virus spreading to rural areas after international travellers brought it to major cities.
“Even though these cases in Africa account for less than 3 percent of the global total, it’s clear that the pandemic is accelerating,” WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti told a media briefing.
Moeti said community transmission had begun in more than half of Africa’s 54 countries, calling that “a serious sign”.
More than 5,500 coronavirus-related deaths have been confirmed so far across the continent.
As the virus, which first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December of last year, swept across the globe, many experts had warned of a possible dire effect on countries in Africa, which contains many of the world’s poorest countries, weak healthcare infrastructure, and millions of people displaced by conflict.
However, that prediction has yet to bear out, with other parts of the world emerging as the epicentres of the pandemic. The WHO said there was currently no indication that large numbers of severe cases and deaths were being missed in Africa’s overall tally, nor has the virus caused significant infections in refugee camps.
Some have attributed the more muted outbreak to the continent’s relatively young population and the fact that many countries moved quickly to establish “point of entry” screening measures in the wake of the Ebola epidemic in West and Central Africa.
Moeti said lower numbers of international travellers arriving to spread the virus, quick reactions by African leaders, and the weather could also have played a role in lessening the blow.
Thirty-one residents of Adigrat in the Tigray region were put in quarantine over coronavirus fears after coming into contact with an infected truck driver who returned from Djibouti on Tuesday.
Ten female and twenty-one males were placed under quarantine after coming in contact with a driver who came to the town via Mekele where he had a test but headed to Adigrat before his results were delivered. His results later came back positive, according to the BBC Tigrigna.
Tigray region has 92 confirmed cases, according to a tally Thursday.
In Ensaro woreda of the Amhara region, 57 people who attended a funeral ceremony of a man who tested positive for the virus in the post-mortem exam have been placed under quarantine. Health officials reportedly placed the villagers under quarantine because of the ‘risk’ they have may have caught the deadly COVID infection.
Image: Health Minister Lia Tadesse with the Tigray region’s president Debretsion Gebremichael on June 9 in Mekele
Born in San Jose to Ethiopian parents who came to America to pursue education, the young student is constantly fighting against racial prejudices she herself had been the victim.
In two hours, she is scheduled to speak in front of the demonstrators who, as every day, occupy the semi-circular plaza that surrounds the town hall of San Jose, on the edge of Silicon Valley. The speech is not ready, but it does not matter. Helen Kassa is busy handing out food parcels to families who have been left jobless by the coronavirus epidemic. The African American community center where she volunteers receives several hundred applicants per week. Preserves and diaper packages are stacked on the tables, the young volunteers are not idle. Now that racial justice is “trending”, food banks are coming forward before they are even asked: “Is there anything we can do for you?”
Helen, 21, should be preparing for her final exam. She is completing her studies in political science at the nearby Santa Clara University. A private university, a bit bourgeois for a daughter of a political refugee who, at 16, was already the president of the local chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). But Santa Clara offered her a scholarship, and since the school is located near her home, she was able to pursue her higher education without ruining her parents’ income. The university has maintained the last courses. Not easy to stay motivated on the umpteenth dissertation on climate change when the revolution calls you. And when the professors pretend to ignore what’s going on outside. “When it came to Covid, it was the only thing that everyone wanted to talk about …”
Explaining “the privilege of being white”
The daughter of Ethiopian emigrants who arrived in the United States before her birth, Helen Kassa “did not have to internalize oppression like the descendants of slaves”. She became aware of the discrimination in third grade when she and her girlfriend were running through sprinkles on a hot day, and she was the only one to be suspended. She constantly had problems at school, but rarely enjoyed the same “merciful treatment as the others.”
It was a private school from which her mother quickly removed her. Not without having explained a thing or two to her about life and skin color. Better not to do anything stupid, “because they won’t see you as a child.” Since then, she has been on guard, her speech has softened.
Helen participated in protest and demonstration in City Hall Plaza in San Jose in 2012, after the murder of Trayvon Martin. At the same location, in 2014 during a protest for Michael Brown, and the list goes on. She still remembers conversations with high school classmates. This friend, daughter of a police officer, that she wanted to establish that black universities are “racist” since they favor the admission of African Americans. This boy-friend of distant Irish origins, who also believed that he was the heir of the misery of his ancestors: they had been victims of discrimination when they arrived in the United States! She had tried to explain to him “the privilege of being white,” but not sure he ever understood. According to Helen, students who question her tend to care less about understanding than arguing, to show that they too are in one way or another oppressed. “No one wants to admit his life has been easy. “
Hundreds of people rally outside City Hall on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in San Jose.
At university, it was not easy. The classmates are nice until the time they came to discuss Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the national anthem. They find this gesture inappropriate, saying they just want to watch the game quietly without worrying about politics, let alone discrimination. “And we thought we were in a post-racial era,” she sighs. When one of the student leaders posted a photo of him, almost in safari, with his stuffed Lion King, as he was about to set foot in Africa for the first time, she was annoyed. The comments full of stereotypes made her jump. It took a lot of tenacity but it got there: the student association now has an amendment which prohibits the denigration of foreign cultures on the part of a student leader on social networks.
When she learned of the death of Atlanta jogger, Ahmaud Arbery killed by police in February, Helen ran every day for a week. When she saw the video of George Floyd’s death, it took her a while to react, to formulate what she could “feel more” after these eight years of police brutality. After the depression came hope. For the first time, people recognize that “yes, there is a systemic problem”. Helen no longer has to justify and “fight, just for them to understand.” Even her conservative comrade has stopped arguing that acts of racism are mostly perpetrated by bad apples. And her college friend, the policeman’s daughter, sent her a message, “I got it. Helen thinks of her favorite song, which is about revenge by Beyonce.
The center of gravity has shifted
The country’s center of gravity has shifted. The money is flowing. The national fund opened to pay the bail of the arrested protesters. At the community center of San Jose, businesses are scrambling to participate. “Being Black Lives Matter now is good for business,” says Helen. This is the power that we have. It does not matter the motivation of the converts. “If they do it for public relations reasons, it’s horrible. But we need money.” As for her speech in front of the demonstration in San Jose: “I will explain that we must push this revolution forward. ”
Death toll rises to 55 with 39 patients in critical condition, says health official
Four out of the eight deaths were tested post-mortem for coronavirus
Ethiopia reached a grim milestone Saturday as health officials announced the country has surpassed 3,000 confirmed coronavirus infections.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), the country has reported 268 new coronavirus cases and 8 deaths over the last twenty-four hours, raising the total numbers of confirmed cases to 3,166 and death toll to 55.
All of the people confirmed for COVID-19 are Ethiopians, except one foreign national. Among the cases, 232 of them are identified from Addis Ababa, 12 from the Oromia region, 6 from Tigray Region, 8 from the Amhara region, 2 from the Afar region, 5 from the Harari region, 2 from SNNPR region and 1 from the Benshangul region.
Eight Covid-19-linked deaths were registered in the past 24 hours. Among the dead is a 34-year-old female from Addis Ababa who was in the treatment center and a 90-year-old from Addis Ababa who diagnosed with COVID-19 post-mortem. Four out of the eight deaths were tested post-mortem for coronavirus.
Image: part ofcoronavirus pandemic precautions in Addis Ababa on April 3, 2020.( Minasse Wondimu Hailu – Anadolu Agency).
