Free Republic

Under the watchful eyes of Saudi policemen, little knots of Ethiopian men sit chatting on doorsteps and sprawl on threadbare grass at one of Riyadh's busiest junctions. These are tense, wary times in Manfouha, a few minutes' drive from the capital's glittering towers and swanky shopping malls. Manfouha is the bleak frontline in Saudi Arabia's campaign to get rid of its illegal foreign workers, control the legal ones and help get more of its own citizens into work. This month two or three Ethiopians were killed here after a raid erupted into full-scale rioting. Keeping their distance from the officers...

This is how it’s done in Saudi Arabia…Illegal migrants wait to be transferred by police buses to a deportation centre in Riyadh, on November 13, 2013.Saudi officials sent 50,000 Ethiopian illegal immigrants back to their home country. The final total once the mass airlift ends is now expected to be around 80,000. Al Arabiya reported: Ethiopia has flown home over 50,000 citizens in Saudi Arabia after a crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich state, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. “We projected the initial number to be 10,000 but it is increasing,” foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told AFP, adding...

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A new report claiming to be the most comprehensive look at global slavery says 30 million people are living as slaves around the world. The Global Slavery Index, published by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, lists India as the country with by far the most slaves, with an estimated nearly 14 million, followed by China (2.9 million) and Pakistan (2.1 million). The top 10 countries on its list of shame accounted for more than three quarters of the 29.8 million people living in slavery, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh...

As plans for a mega-port on Kenya's northern-most coast begin to take shape, new concerns are emerging that the project could damage already-strained relations between Sudan and South Sudan. Kenya's $25.5bn Lamu Port and New Transport Corridor Development to Southern Sudan and Ethiopia (LAPSSET) includes the construction of a 32-berth port, three international airports, and a 1,500km railway line. A new oil refinery, in nearby Bargoni, and an oil pipeline are also planned. The pipeline would run to Kenya's Eastern Province before splitting, with one branch running to South Sudan's capital, Juba, and another through Moyale in the north to...

There is no civil war in Eritrea: its people flee because their isolated homeland could pass as an African version of North Korea. Like the Kim regime in Pyongyang, President Isaias Afewerki keeps Eritrea on a permanent war-footing. Most adults are conscripted into the army or forced to perform compulsory labour of some kind. Today, one Eritrean in every 20 serves in a bloated army with 320,000 soldiers. Mr Isaias justifies this eternal mass mobilisation by claiming that neighbouring Ethiopia is scheming to re-conquer Eritrea. Just as the fictional state of “Oceania” was always at war in George Orwell’s “1984”,...

A massive bonfire blazed in the central square of Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa, on Thursday night. But by Friday morning, the mess had been swept away, leaving nothing but a giant spot of soot on the asphalt. Thousands of people had flocked to the arena, called Meskel Square, to watch the ceremonial lighting of the fire for the eve of Meskel, a national holiday also known as the Finding of the True Cross. Ethiopians from across the country -- and visitors from around the world -- carried yellow daises, wooden crosses and wax candles as the pile of wood...

Hundreds of additional Ethiopian forces who crossed from the border have reached near Beledweine city, the provincial capital of Hiran region in central Somalia heading to Mogadishu to reinforce their colleagues fighting the local insurgents for the third day. Reports say on Saturday. Other Ethiopian reinforcement troops are reported to have reached Afgoie town, 30km south of the capital joining the war with what they called ‘the remnants of the ousted Islamists.

The Afar Rift in Ethiopia is marked by enormous gashes that signal the breakup of the African continent and the beginnings of a new ocean basin, scientists think. The fractures appear eerily similar to seafloor spreading centers, the volcanic ridges that mark the boundaries between two pieces of oceanic crust. Along the ridges, lava bubbles up and new crust is created, slowly widening the ocean basin. But a look deep beneath the Afar Rift reveals the birth announcements may be premature. "It's not as close to fully formed seafloor spreading as we thought," said Kathy Whaler, a geophysicist at the...

The First Lady wants you to drink more water. On a call announcing Michelle Obama‘s newest healthy living initiative Wednesday, Let’s Move Executive Director Sam Kass explained that the White House is working with cities, private companies and public taps to promote the message to “drink up.” Participating companies include Brita, Poland Spring, Evian, Dasani, Voss and others, which will carry a “Drink Up” logo on their bottles, and participating cities include Chicago, Los Angeles county, Houston and, appropriately, Watertown, Wis., where the First Lady is visiting Thursday to kick off the initiative.

Last Wednesday, two jetliners flew 450 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. They were the last to arrive under an official program designed to bring to Israel all remaining Ethiopian Jews who are eligible for citizenship. At the Tel Aviv airport just before the planes landed, everyone seemed excited. Relatives of people arriving from Ethiopia cheered when the plane doors opened. Achenef Chekole arrived with his wife, two sons and two daughters. Family and friends who had already immigrated to Israel greeted them with hugs. Israel has a whole government department in charge of absorbing immigrants. Its minister, Sofa Landver, welcomed the...

Muslims in Ethiopia protested in the capital Addis Ababa during Eid al-Fitr prayers on Thursday, as part of a two-year-old campaign against what they say is government interference in their religious affairs. … Demonstrators chanted “Allahu Akbar” and hoisted banners that read “respect the constitution”, referring to allegations that the government has tried to influence the highest Muslim affairs body, the Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council. Ethiopia, long seen by the West as a bulwark against militant Islam in the Horn of Africa, denies the claims, but says it fears militancy is taking root in the country. …

SNIP Sissi: The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from [the Muslim Brotherhood’s] concept of the state, the ideology that they adopted for building a country which is based on restoring the Islamic religious empire. That’s what made [former president Mohamed Morsi] not a president for all Egyptians, but a president representing his followers and supporters. Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you? It was obvious on the first day – the day of his inauguration. He started with offending the judiciary and not giving them the appropriate treatment. The Brotherhood experience in ruling a country...

Efta is just 17 but has experienced shocking brutality. The Ethiopian teenager survived a treacherous boat journey being smuggled across the Red Sea. But on reaching Yemen, she was kidnapped and driven at gunpoint to a mud brick house. She said: "They tortured other girls in front of me. They beat us and they raped us at gunpoint. I was terrified." She is one of 80,000 Ethiopian migrants who undertake this dangerous journey every year. They hope they will find work in the wealthy Gulf state of Saudi Arabia and be able to send money home. But they risk being...

Omar Al-Bashir Presses For War, Not Peace With South Sudan To Save HimselfBy Joe Odaby South Sudan NewsJuba — July 19, 2013 (SSN) … The Fashoda Institute, South Sudan’s leading think-tank, asserts in its latest analysis that Khartoum’s objective in provoking armed conflict with Juba goes beyond the on-going drive to coerce South Sudan into giving up on independence and returning to the Sudanese fold. This time Khartoum is yearning for a major crisis that will serve its own domestic imperatives – particularly the building of international pressure on President Omar al-Bashir. At the same time, Khartoum seems convinced that...

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-ethiopia-obelisk0117jan17.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dworld%2Dheadlines Ethiopians Want Ancient Monument By MATTHEW ROSENBERG Associated Press Writer January 17, 2002, 2:24 PM EST AXUM, Ethiopia -- More than 60 years ago Seguare Abaye and thousands of other Ethiopians watched as Italian invaders carted away a towering 1,700-year-old stone monument to the nation's glorious past. "We didn't fight to keep our treasure," says the 101-year-old former priest, now bedridden in a crumbling house in this ancient town. "It is my deepest regret in life." Seguare's personal humiliation has, over the years, become a national humiliation for Ethiopia, the only African country never colonized by Europeans. The monument ...

Water: Egypt is beating the war drums against Ethiopia over its plan to build a giant dam on the Nile, affecting a quarter of Egypt's water supply. Given both countries' needs, it's a tough problem to solve. But it can be done. It's fairly shocking to think that with all the turmoil going on in the Middle East, a new — and surprisingly dangerous — problem has emerged in the water dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia. But senior Egyptian officials have literally threatened war over Ethiopia's $4.7 billion Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt believes will significantly cut its water...

Just last month, Secretary of State John Kerry quietly sent Egypt an additional $1.3 billion, even though Egypt has failed to live up to democracy standards. That largesse didn’t stop a prominent Egyptian politician from talking about Egypt’s “enemy” the United States in what some pundits are classifying as a classic and embarrassing “hot mic” moment. President Mohammed Morsi gathered a group of politicians last week who thought they were speaking privately at a parliamentary meeting. But as seen in an Egyptian television video of the meeting — excerpts of which were later translated by the Middle East Media and...

Egypt’s Morsi Government has initiated a return to covert war against Ethiopia, which controls the source of the Blue Nile, Egypt’s and Sudan’s principal source of water. The result will almost certainly lead to an increased level of insecurity in the strategic Red Sea/Suez sea lane and in the upper Nile riparian states, such as South Sudan, with some impact on global energy markets. Certainly it promises to see greater instability in the Horn of Africa at a time when Western media portrayals hint at a return to stability in, for example, Somalia. Significant, mounting public unrest in Egypt during...

In a humiliating example of self-inflicted electronic bugging, last week a live broadcast television microphone in Egyptian President Muhammed Morsi's Cairo office caught the president and Egypt's most senior political leaders plotting sneak attacks on the upstream Nile's biggest dam builder, Ethiopia. No denial on the Nile. When an audience of millions overhears pious Egyptian Islamists and well-heeled Egyptian liberals mull classic covert warfare options -- such as having Ethiopian rebels sabotage Ethiopia's new Blue Nile dams or deploying shady political agents to agitate in Addis Ababa -- the usual diplomatic salve, plausible denial, isn't an option. In point of...

Egypt's president on Monday hardened his stance against Ethiopia and its construction of a Nile dam, warning that "all options are open" in dealing with the project that threatens to leave Egypt with a dangerous water shortage. Speaking in a live televised speech before hundreds of supporters, Mohammed Morsi said Egypt is not calling for war, but it is willing to confront any threats to its water security. "If it loses one drop, our blood is the alternative," he said to a raucous crowd of largely Islamist supporters that erupted into a standing ovation. ... In the conference hall where...