Ethiopian zookeeper killed in lion attack

Ethiopian zookeeper killed in lion attack

(AFP) – 19 hours ago  

ADDIS ABABA — A lion at the Addis Ababa zoo attacked and killed a zookeeper Monday after he forgot to close the door to the inner cage where the lion sleeps, officials said.

The lion, named Kenenisa after a famous Ethiopian runner, killed Abera Silsay, 51, as he was cleaning the cage.

"He entered cage number 10 where Kenenisa lives and he forgot to close the door (to the lion's sleeping chamber)... Finally, the lion came and he mauled him," the zoo's director general Musie Kiflom told AFP.

The lion bit Abera's neck as guards tried to scare Kenenisa off by shooting live rounds into the air and pounding on the cage's roof.

A lion roams in a cage at the Addis Ababa Zoo on September 16, 2013 (AFP, Jenny Vaughan)

It is the second time a zookeeper has been killed by a lion at the centre in the past 17 years.

Musie said the zoo will step up its training for keepers after the attack.

"We have to update them on how to protect the animals, how to work with the animals, how to keep them, how to clean them," he said speaking near the cage where the attack took place.

Kenenisa the lion was unharmed and remains in the zoo, which was closed Monday after the incident.

The Addis Ababa zoo is home to 15 endangered Abyssinian Lions, found in Ethiopia and famous for their black manes.

The lions are kept in enclosed cages, but the zoo is set to move to a larger, grassier enclosure in the Ethiopian capital in the next 13 months.

The Addis Ababa zoo was opened in 1948 by former emperor Haile Selassie, who established the centre to house his pet cub lions Molla and Lullu.

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The AU has no moral authority to suspend Egypt from membership - Commentary - monitor.co.ug

“Of the 54 members of the AU, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya are the only ones mentioned in the Holy Bible. Against this background, Egypt deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt and should be treated with due respect.”

By Harold E. Acemah

African Union has been conspicuously silent since the current political crisis in Egypt erupted, but on July 5, two days after former President Mohammed Morsy was peacefully ousted by a popular uprising, the AU suddenly woke up and suspended Egypt from the organisation, but this cannot surely be a good African solution to an African problem!

Egypt is, to borrow a leaf from some former revolutionaries, a historical or original member of the OAU and she, in fact, hosted the second OAU summit in Cairo in 1964; the summit was chaired by the illustrious President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Egypt is an ancient country which gave refuge to Jesus Christ whose parents fled there in AD 1 from a murderous regime which threatened the life of the King!

Of the 54 members of the AU, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya are the only countries mentioned in the Holy Bible. Against this background, Egypt deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt and should be treated with due respect.

The AU claims that Egypt was suspended because an unconstitutional change of government took place there on July 3. According to a statement issued by the AU’s Peace and Security Council after a meeting held at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the “council decided to suspend the participation of Egypt in AU activities until the restitution of constitutional order”! The council reiterated “the AU’s condemnation and rejection of any illegal seizure of power”.
“The overthrow of the democratically elected president does not conform to the relevant provisions of Egypt’s constitution and, therefore, falls under the definition of unconstitutional change of government”. The AU spokesman read the brief statement with difficulty!

I hardly need to remind the chairperson of the AU, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, that power belongs to the people and it is the Egyptians themselves who decided to take back the power which they had, by mistake, entrusted to a novice who, within one year in office, had the audacity to arrogantly declare himself the new pharaoh of Egypt. Where is the pharaoh now? In the dust bin of history where he belongs! He even issued a decree which effectively abrogated a new sectarian constitution which he forced down the throats of the law- abiding wananchi of Egypt!

What did he expect the gallant people of Egypt to do? To fold their arms and surrender like Ugandans or bury their heads in the sand of the Sahara desert and pretend that all was well? Of course not and as the Russians would yell at the UN General Assembly, Nyet! If truth be told, Morsy’s political party actually hijacked the Egyptian revolution of 2011 which terminated the long and tyrannical rule of Hosni Mubarak. That on-going revolution also put an end to Mubarak’s sinister and shameless plot to impose his son Gamal on Egyptians as his chosen successor.

The Egyptian army heard the voice and responded positively to the popular will of the overwhelming majority of the Egyptians. A truly national and professional army like that of Egypt has the moral obligation and duty to heed the cry of the wananchi and support their efforts to rid society of tyranny and the enemies of the African revolution. One hopes that the lesson will not be lost on other patriotic armies in Africa.

This could not happen in countries which are stuck with tribal and unprofessional armies! The AU should, in fact, applaud the Egyptians for their patriotic and decisive action; what Egyptians did on July 3 was to stop the rise of an extremist monster and a fascist regime in North Africa.

As doctors tell us, prevention is better than cure. If Germans had succeeded in stopping Adolf Hitler in 1933 or 1934, World War II would most likely not have taken place. The AU should congratulate the gallant and valiant people of Egypt instead of penalising them. In any case Egyptians will not miss an ineffective organisation which has degenerated into a club of despots who scratch each others’ back and practise the politics of self- preservation without shame!

The AU increasingly reflects the mess and rot in most African countries, such as Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia and Zimbabwe to mention, but a few. The AU’s image has been severely damaged by corruption, deceit, intrigue, mediocrity, nepotism and many other negative factors which have combined to prevent Africa from rising!

Until Africa gets a new breed of leaders, the continent will continue to sink deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit. I believe the AU has absolutely no moral authority to suspend Egypt from the union when many of the current African leaders came to power illegally and unconstitutionally through rigged elections, intimidation, fraud and bribery; Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea are classic examples, but the AU treats them as members in good standing!

It is unacceptable for the AU to practise and apply selective justice and double standards. All progressive forces in Africa should join hands and demand an end to the AU’s chicanery and a reversal of its decision.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist, consultant and a retired career diplomat. hacemah@gmail.com

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African Union: Continental drift? - Features - Al Jazeera English

Group celebrates its anniversary, but the verdict is still out on whether it's meeting the needs of ordinary Africans. http://aje.me/ZkpSJG

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The African Union headquarters complex in the capital Addis Ababa stands in stark contrast to its immediate surroundings. The wide planetarium-like-structure sitting comfortably attached to a $100mn lightly glazed tower dominates the city’s skyline. Inside, the combined leadership of 54 nations gather in state of the art conference rooms to contemplate Africa’s future. Outside the complex, taxi cabs jostle for parking space, pedestrians are questioned by security guards, while local residents navigate the grime and dust of urban life, jostling for space in narrow alleys. The continental bloc might be celebrating 50 years on Saturday, but there is an unmistakable cynicism surrounding the nature and value of the union in meeting the needs of ordinary Africans. The AU plans to host commemorative celebrations at a reported cost of $1.3mn, despite ongoing conflicts and insecurity in five countries across the continent, including Sudan, the eastern DRC and Mali. Disarray still reigns in Guinea-Bissau, the Central African Republic and Madagascar. Moreover, despite recent economic growth across the continent, living conditions remain abysmal for many average people, with the UN’s signature index suggesting that 24 of the 25 countries at the bottom of the human development index are African. These types of statistics compel critics to describe the AU as a talk shop, rudderless and crucially disconnected from African citizens like its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Change of focus Joram Biswaro, Tanzania’s ambassador to Ethiopia believes criticism of the AU is unfair and out of context. Despite its limitations as a continental bloc, the fact that Madagascar, CAR and Guinea-Bissau were banned from attending the summit for ongoing political irregularities signalled the AU was headed in the right direction, he said. "Perhaps had it not been for this organisation, Africa might not have achieved what it has achieved… if you want to assess its performance, one should look at its charter,” Biswaro told Al Jazeera. The original organisation, the OAU, built by 32 African nations originally on May 25, 1963, focused primarily on liberating countries on the continent from the grip of colonialism. One street away from the headquarters of the African Union, average people are living in poverty [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]  The OAU came under sever scrutiny for its inability to intervene in member states during times of strife, coups or government repression earning the name of "dictators club" for upholding the interests of member country’s leadership above all else. But since the formation of the AU in 2002, with a renewed focus on solving conflicts, engineering socio-economic development and improving governance, hard questions are being asked over the political will of the AU to reignite the lost dream of pan-Africanism. During the Arab Spring of 2011, the AU was an anonymous spectator as a revolutionary fervor that was born in North Africa spread across the Middle East. The AU appeared to be particularly hamstrung in its response to the armed revolt against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. “The crisis in Libya was a very difficult time for the AU’s Peace and Security Council to reach an agreement,” reminisced Yemane Nagish, a political analyst at The Reporter Newspaper, in Addis Ababa. It is this type of accountability, transparency and political will that needs to improve, says Ashebir Woldegeois, the chairperson of the Health, Labour and Social Affairs of the AU’s Pan-African Parliament. Acccountability issues With 60 percent of its annual budget reportedly funded by overseas donors, it remains unclear how much political clout, and independence the African Union can wield in reality. Solomon Dersso, senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) says seeking partnership to solve problems is not the issue. Difficulties on the continent need to be viewed in proper context, he said, as some problems are come from outside sources, rather than from within Africa. “The idea is not that only Africans should do it; the idea is that Africans should be at the centre for the search of solutions,” he told Al Jazeera. Other observers wonder if ordinary Africans are actually at the forefront of the AU’s concerns. With so many Africans living in politically repressive regimes, like Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and the Gambia with limitations on freedom of expression, and restrictions on opposition parties, the AU is not yet representative of the African people, critics say. “Despite being home to several of the world’s worst performing countries in terms of respect for human rights, the region saw overall if uneven progress toward democratisation during the 1990s and the early 2000s,” Freedom House, a US think-tank, reported in regards to Sub-Saharan Africa. While elections are being held regularly across the continent, these apparent gains towards a culture of democracy are sometimes little more than masterful con jobs. Election issues Votes are scheduled this year for fragile states like Zimbabwe and Madagascar, and scrutiny has fallen on the efforts of the African Union to be an honest broker for democracy. In the past, Human Rights Watch has slammed the AU as an organisation ostensibly created to support democracy and freedom but wary of grassroots social movements. The idea is that Africans should be at the centre of the search for solutions Solomon Dersso, senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies  The AU, however, has not been aloof to the challenges posed by political repression on the continent. In 2007, the organisation adopted the Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance to address a tendency towards authoritarian rule in some African countries. Highlighting human rights, the rule of law, democratic elections and unconstitutional changes of government, the charter aims to "reinforce commitments to democracy, development and peace in Africa". There certainly is no faulting its intention but critics say commitment to the Charter has been poor. Woldegeois, the parliamentary member, said the situation has improved, despite set-backs. "We are getting there, but many opposition parties in Africa are still immature; many are not willing to work hard in the villages, build their constituencies." But other observers said the root problem of representation at the AU can be seen in the group's founding constitution. “Compared to the United Nations charter which starts off with ‘We the people of the United Nations, the AU constitution starts off with ‘We the heads of the state and government," said Solomon Dersso, senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS). "Make no mistake, this [the AU] is in many ways still a club of heads of state and government and not necessarily a body that truly represents the African people." Young and restless  Almost 65 per cent of Africans are below the age of 35, and many are uninterested in politics of patronage; the face of the continent has changed. The new AU Commission Chairperson, Dr Nkhosozana Dlamini-Zuma, has vowed to frame the next five decades around the themes of African identity, integration, economic development and democratic governance, among others. But without action, analysts warn the continual talk shops at summits can last only so long. “There is a great sense of empowerment on part of the youth, if the actions of leaders are not in sync, of particularly the youth, moving forward, these type of governments have no future in Africa,” Dersso said. As African leaders enjoy the pomp and ceremony in Addis Ababa this weekend, many outside its headquarters still the continental body is adrift from the aspirations of its people.