Monday, May 16, 2011

Ethiopia rebels say govt troops kill 100 civilians - AlertNet

Addis Ababa often rejects rebel claims

* Rebels say troops tried to 'silence' U.N. witnesses

* Two U.N. workers still missing

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA, May 16 (Reuters) - Ethiopian government troops have killed more than 100 civilians, including a local U.N. worker, during a five-day military operation in the oil and gas-rich Somali Region, a rebel group said on Monday.

More commonly known as the Ogaden, the ethnic Somali province is home to a low-key insurgency led by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which has fought for independence since 1984.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

"The Ethiopian army and its local conscripts killed more than 100 civilian people from May 10 - 15 in the area, (and it) is still on going," the ONLF said in a statement.

"The (ONLF) intelligence service has ascertained that the Ethiopian army conducted the killing and abduction of U.N. local staff in the Ogaden jointly with the notorious militia of the (local) administration," it said.

The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Saturday that one of its drivers had been killed in an ambush by unknown gunmen in an attack that left another staff member wounded. [ID:nLDE74D0CU]

Two members of the convoy were also missing, WFP said.

The ONLF said the incidents occurred while government troops conducted "kill-on-sight" operations in the Ogaden's Fafan valley and that the attack on the U.N. convoy was an attempt to "silence" its employees who had witnessed the operations.

Authorities in Addis Ababa were not immediately available for comment, but they usually reject the group's claims as "baseless propaganda".

The allegations are impossible to verify because journalists and aid groups cannot move unhindered in the area.

This is not the first time the ONLF has accused government troops of atrocities in the region. The group said in January that soldiers had arbitrarily executed civilians and carried out ethnic cleansing in the province, a charge dismissed by the authorities. [ID:nLDE70K10N]

Ethiopian forces waged an offensive against the rebels in late 2007 after the ONLF staged a pre-dawn attack on a Chinese-run oil facility, killing 74 people. Analysts say the rebels have since been weakened, but are still capable of launching hit-and-run attacks.

Ethiopia signed a peace deal in October with one faction of the ONLF, though another wing labelled the deal "irrelevant". The faction with which Addis Ababa sealed the accord says it represents 80 percent of the group's fighters.

The Horn of Africa nation says the Ogaden basin may contain gas reserves of 4 trillion cubic feet and major oil deposits. (Editing by Richard Lough and Elizabeth Fullerton)

Thursday, May 12, 2011

NATO intercepts military cargo ship bound for Eritrea - UN

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(Source: Sudan Tribune)By Sudan Tribune
May 12-- -- NATO Naval forces have reportedly captured a heavy weapon carrying cargo ship destined to Eritrea in the international waters of the Indian Ocean.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a military alliance between the US and various European countries. It is currently engaged in the bombing of Libya.

A UN monitoring group report this week revealed that the cargo originally shipped from North Korea was carrying 15 tonnes of rockets, surface to air missiles and explosives worth $US15 million.

In December 2009, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Eritrea, which include an arms embargo, travel restrictions and a freeze on the assets of its political and military leaders for an alleged involvement in training and supplying weapons to Al-Qaida and links Somali Islamic rebels.

After the UN Security Council passed the resolution against the red sea nation, the Southern Red Sea and the Indian Ocean have increasingly been monitored by multi-national naval forces mainly from the US, France and Germany, to maintain security and international law in the waters.

The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group have been accusing the Government of Eritrea being a regional destabilising factor by its continued political, financial and allegedly military assistance to armed opposition groups in Somalia.

There are allegations that Eritrea has been importing arms from Eastern Europe and Asia.

Ethiopia has recently threatened to attack Eritrea to stop an alleged continued terrorist acts and the armies of both sides have remained on high alert then after. Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, making its larger neighbour landlocked, in 1993 following 30 years of struggle however the two neighbours fought a 1998-2000 war over their disputed border that killed over 70,000 people.

Capital FM Kenya: Kenya, Ethiopia leaders in talks after killings

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President Kibaki with Ethiopian PM Zenawi/ PPS

KAMPALA, Uganda, May 12 - President Mwai Kibaki on Thursday held crisis talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi over the recent attacks in Turkana.

At the meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, the leaders agreed that a joint ministerial group of the two countries should meet and urgently resolve border issues that have emerged after the conflict pitting the Turkana and Merille peoples.

"They underscored the importance of harmonious co-existence among communities living along common borders," a statement from the Presidential Press Service said.

The leaders also directed that the joint ministerial meeting should seek ways of restoring any beacons that may have been destroyed along the Kenya-Ethiopia border.

Militia from Ethiopia's Merille tribe last week attacked and killed 38 people in Turkana.

Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Osman Warfa said trouble started when four Merille tribesmen ambushed a group of fishermen near Lake Turkana and killed their leader.

"In the commotion that ensued, unknown Turkana persons in quick retaliation shot the four Merille militiamen dead," he said.

As a result, some members of the Dasenach Merille community escaped from Turkana village and ran towards the Ethiopian direction for their safety.

"On their way to Ethiopia, it is alleged that they met a group of Dasenach Merille who were escorting a group of Turkana community members who had gone to Siees village to purchase food. Word reached them that their colleagues had been killed by Turkanas at the Todonyang Mission compound; that is when they turned against the Turkanas they were escorting and killed nine men, 10 women bringing the total number of Turkanas killed to 20," the Assistant Minister said.

Both of the two communities from the two countries are semi nomadic who are known to co-exist but they often clash and resort to gun fights to settle their differences.

Kenya has formally written a protest letter to Ethiopia over the attacks and reports of tampering with border beacons along the common border.

Monday, May 9, 2011

At least 19 dead in Kenya, Ethiopia border clashes

ISIOLO, Kenya - Clashes between tribesmen in the remote, arid northern region of Kenya that borders Ethiopia killed at least 19 people and security has been beefed up in case of more reprisals, officials said on Tuesday.

Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Osman Warfa told Reuters 19 Kenyans died in fighting with raiders from the Merrille tribe, also know as the Dassenech, from Ethiopia.

Cattle rustling and clashes over grazing land and access to water are relatively common in the region, though the extent of the casualties this week has concerned local officials.

"Our team has assessed the situation and established that the attackers were from the Merrille community from Ethiopia who had come inside Kenya," Osman said.

"Security has been beefed up. We have deployed more security forces and we are liaising with the Ethiopian government to restore calm and contain the situation," he said.

Another government official in northern Kenya said 21 Kenyans had died along with four Ethiopian tribesman in a series of tit-for-tat clashes along the border.

He said one Kenyan died in an initial raid into Turkana by the Merille. The Kenyan tribesman retailated, killed four Ethiopians and pursued one man who escaped. But the Kenyans came under attack again and 20 were killed, the official said.

The Ethiopian government said it was checking on the reports but did not have an immediate comment.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

YouTube - Over 40 People Feared Dead in Turkana

YouTube - Over 40 People Feared Dead in Turkana: ""

Tribal clashes continue at Kenya/Ethiopia border - storyful

Tribal clashes continue at Kenya/Ethiopia border

From: CitizenTV

Further violence has gripped the Kenyan/Ethiopian border region where more than 40 people were killed earlier in the week. Border clashes between Kenyan Turkana tribesmen and their cross-border Ethiopian Merille counterparts have left scores dead and now the number of people seeking refuge has increased dramatically. Most of those killed were Turkana. Some of their tribe had gone into the border region to trade with the Ethiopians, who now live on the Kenyan side of the border, but were ambushed on their return and apparently slaughtered in a shootout.

The border region east of Kenya’s Lake Turkana remains a hotbed of conflict, with thousands of foreign nationals resident inside Kenya’s borders, and large pockets of the native Turkana population now displaced.

The victims in the alleged recent spate of killings were people who were fleeing the area due to previous clashes, in which more than 40 people died.

At the same time, fresh information suggests five more people may have been killed by Merille bandits two days after 20 others were shot dead.

Turkana North district commissioner Jack Opuo could neither confirm nor deny the killings at Todonyang on the Kenya-Ethiopia border, saying security personnel had been dispatched to investigate the incident.

“Security personnel have been sent to verify the alleged killings,” said Mr Opuo on phone.

But residents fleeing the insecurity-hit area said among the dead were Mr Edapal Lokoyo, his two daughters, a Mr Nakonyi and another person.

“The victims were escaping from the trouble-hit area when they were shot dead,” said Ms Jacinta Ekai by telephone. She termed the killing an act of provocation.

Updated 2 days ago

The border conflict has remained in the headlines in Kenya for the last week, with the government dispatching troops and a ‘fact-finding mission’ to the region to establish what can be done. The border region has seen violence before, but with 35 Kenyan tribesmen dead, their bodies littered across the plains straddling the border, the government immediately sought a route to peace in the area.

View Kenya border violence in a larger map

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