Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Ok, I Agree
Sep
18
2020
By The African Mirror
Ethiopia brings some migrants home as concern over Saudi camps grows

Ethiopia brings some migrants home as concern over Saudi camps grows

HUMAN RIGHTS
EMELINE WUILBERCQ ETHIOPIA will repatriate nearly 2,000 migrants from Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, a government minister has said, amid growing international concern over conditions in migrant detention camps. Ethiopia is estimated to have tens of thousands of workers in Saudi Arabia and is under pressure to bring them home after the coronavirus left many stranded there with no work and no money. But Tsion Teklu, a state minister for foreign affairs, said the country did not have the resources to bring back the estimated 14,000 detained in Saudi camps that the United Nations this week warned were overcrowded…
Read More
Sep
05
2020
By The African Mirror
Ethiopia’s Tigray region to holds poll, defying federal government

Ethiopia’s Tigray region to holds poll, defying federal government

NEWS
GIULIA PARAVICINI  ETHIOPIA’S northern Tigray region will head to the polls on Wednesday in defiance of the federal government, the latest challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from a slew of regional leaders flexing their muscles ahead of next year's national elections. Abiy has overseen sweeping democratic reforms since taking power in Africa's second most populous nation two years ago. But the federal government - and major opposition parties - agreed to postpone national and regional elections due in August until the COVID-19 pandemic was under control. Tigray, whose leaders dominated the previous administration and have often bitterly denounced Abiy,…
Read More
Aug
28
2020
By The African Mirror
COVID-19 reveals risky life on the buses for Ethiopia’s child conductors

COVID-19 reveals risky life on the buses for Ethiopia’s child conductors

COVID-19
EMELINE WUILBERCQ Every day, Tarekegn Medhin wakes up at dawn to search for a conductor job at one of Addis Ababa's frenetic minibus depots. Despite lousy working conditions and chronic shoulder pain - it takes heft to manoeuvre the bus doors at speed - the nine-year-old lines up in hope of any driver offering him a shift. All for 100 birr ($2.78) a day. But since April, when Ethiopia ordered operators to cut passenger numbers to curb the new coronavirus, it has become increasingly hard for the child conductors to make ends meet. "Life is not comfortable. I spend my…
Read More
Aug
26
2020
By The African Mirror
Sudan and Ethiopia pledge to push for deal on Blue Nile dam

Sudan and Ethiopia pledge to push for deal on Blue Nile dam

NEWS
ETHIOPIA’S prime minister and Sudan's leadership have said they would make every effort to reach a deal on a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile that has caused a bitter dispute between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water supplies. Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan failed to strike an agreement on the operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) before the reservoir behind the dam began being filled in July. But the three countries have returned to talks under African Union mediation. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Khartoum on Tuesday with a high-level delegation to meet Sudanese officials, who…
Read More
Aug
19
2020
By The African Mirror
Ethiopia PM fires defence minister, a one-time ally, in major reshuffle

Ethiopia PM fires defence minister, a one-time ally, in major reshuffle

NEWS
DAWIT ENDESHAW\ PRIME Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday replaced the defence minister, his former ally Lemma Megersa, as part of a reshuffle ahead of elections in the heavily divided nation next year. Lemma was replaced by Kenea Yadeta, the former security chief of Oromiya region, Abiy's office said on Twitter. Nine other top officials were also replaced, including the attorney general, his deputy and the mining minister. Abiy has promised to hold the first free and fair elections in Africa's second most populous nation next year, but his democratic reforms have also unleashed ethnic divisions that frequently spill into violence.…
Read More
Aug
14
2020
By The African Mirror
Arrest of 9000 in a month raises spectre of Ethiopia’s repressive past

Arrest of 9000 in a month raises spectre of Ethiopia’s repressive past

NEWS
DAWIT ENDESHAW ETHIOPIA has detained more than 9,000 people after deadly clashes last month, the state-run human rights commission told Reuters, raising fears that a government hailed for reforms is returning to the iron-fisted tactics of past administrations. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018 promising democratic changes in one of Africa's most repressive nations, is struggling to rein in resurgent ethnic nationalism that sporadically explodes in bouts of violence. Abiy's changes have unleashed old disputes over land, resources and local power, and he now faces the challenge of protecting citizens while preserving fledgling freedoms that helped…
Read More
Aug
06
2020
By The African Mirror
Egypt to withdraw from latest dam talks for internal consultations

Egypt to withdraw from latest dam talks for internal consultations

NEWS
EGYPT said on Tuesday that it has decided to withdraw from the latest round of tripartite negotiations with Ethiopia over its multi-billion dollar dam on the Blue Nile for internal consultations after Addis Ababa proposed new draft of filling guidelines. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built about 15 km (9 miles) from the Ethiopian border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, has become a major sticking point between the three countries. Egypt fears the $4 billion project could lead to water shortages upstream, while Sudan is concerned about the dam's safety. The Blue Nile is a tributary…
Read More
Aug
03
2020
By The African Mirror
The Grand Renaissance Dam: what’s at stake and what could break the deadlock

The Grand Renaissance Dam: what’s at stake and what could break the deadlock

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
MAHEMUD TEKUYA, JSD/Ph.D candidate, University of the Pacific The Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam is inching closer to completion, rekindling the environmental and political controversies that have dogged the project from the start nearly 10 years ago. In addition, recent satellite images show a steady increase in the amount of water being held back by the new mega dam. Mahemud Tekuya explains what’s at stake. The current dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is directly linked to colonial-era Nile treaties. During the scramble for Africa, controlling the source of the Nile was a major colonial goal for the British. In…
Read More
Jul
28
2020
By The African Mirror
Egypt and Sudan criticise Ethiopia at start of new Nile dam talks

Egypt and Sudan criticise Ethiopia at start of new Nile dam talks

NEWS
EGYPT and Sudan criticised Ethiopia for what they called unilateral filling of its Blue Nile dam at a new round of talks that kicked off on Monday to regulate the flow of water from the huge project. Sudan and Egypt both fear the $4 billion hydroelectric dam could lead to water shortages in their own countries. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile, from which Egypt's 100 million people get 90% of their freshwater. Almost a decade of tortuous negotiations have failed to yield an agreement to regulate how Ethiopia will fill the reservoir and operate the dam…
Read More
Jul
22
2020
By The African Mirror
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to hold more talks on Renaissance dam

Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to hold more talks on Renaissance dam

NEWS
ETHIOPIA, Egypt and Sudan have agreed to resume talks to break a deadlock on the Grand Renaissance Dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, the leaders of the three countries have said. The announcements made separately by Ethiopian leader Abiy Ahmed, Sudan's Abdalla Hamdok and Egypt's presidency, followed a virtual mini-African Union summit that was called after they failed to reach an agreement earlier this month. "The extraordinary meeting... concluded with all parties reaching a major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement," Abiy's office said in a statement which was posted on Twitter. South Africa's President Cyril…
Read More
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Instagram