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Ethiopia's prime minister says he is strengthening his army in preparation for an attack by long-time foe Eritrea. "Our defence forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred," Meles Zenawi told MPs. An Eritrean minister said Mr Meles was "paranoid" and trying to divert attention from his domestic problems. He denied backing Ethiopian rebels

An Eritrean Christian man recently died after spending four-and-a-half years in jail for his participation in a banned protestant church, reported a persecution watchdog group. ICC 'Hall of Shame' Names Top 10 Christian Persecutors Magos Solomon Semere, 30, died of torture and chronic pneumonia in a facility near the port city of Assab in southeast Eritrea, according to Compass Direct News sources. He died on Feb. 15 after refusing to deny his faith in exchange for medical treatment. Moreover, during his years in prison, the Christian leader was barred from seeing his fiancée who he was shortly engaged to before...

MIDDLE Eastern countries secretly armed and supported suspected al-Qa'ida recruits in the failed state of Somalia in a direct challenge to Western interests in east Africa, a UN report has revealed. Hundreds of Islamist fighters were flown, with Eritrean assistance, from Somalia to Syria and Libya for military training. Others were taken to Lebanon to fight with Hezbollah, the report to the UN security council says. UN investigators detail the military aid given to the Islamists by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states purportedly friendly to the West. Iran supplied 125 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 80 of which arrived by sea...

Eritrea warned the United States on Friday that its involvement in Somalia would "incur dangerous consequences" following a U.S. air strike in the Horn of Africa nation targeting al Qaeda suspects. Eritrea has in a matter of years gone from being a U.S. ally to one of its staunchest opponents, analysts say, because of what Asmara perceives as Washington's support for rival Ethiopia in a long-standing border dispute. "President Isaias Afwerki underlined that the turmoil being created in ... Somalia by the U.S. administration through its mercenary agent (Ethiopia) would incur dangerous consequences," a statement on the Information Ministry Web...

Somali Troops, Allies Prep for Showdown Thousands of Somali and Ethiopian Troops Set Off for Final Showdown With Islamic Militia By MOHAMED OLAD The Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia - Thousands of Somali and Ethiopian troops set off Saturday for a showdown with Islamic forces who have regrouped at a southern seaport since abandoning the Somali capital two days ago. Some 3,000 Muslim militiamen have taken a stand in the Indian Ocean port city of Kismayo, and the U.S. government believes they may include four suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. This map...

Eritrea aims to become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone to ensure balanced and sustainable development, officials said Tuesday. The Red Sea state intends to protect all of its 1,350-kilometer (837-mile) coastline, along with another 1,950-kilometers (1,209-miles) of coast around its more than 350 islands, according to a draft coastal policy document. "Eritrea will be the first country in the world to declare its entire coastline a protected area," said Dr Michael Pearson, an environment management specialist working with a group that has pushed the proposal. He and the Eritrea...

Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi vowed Monday that his government, backed by Ethiopia, would take Mogadishu from powerful Islamists now controlling the city, fueling fears of all-out war... Gedi gave no timeframe for the push on Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from warlords in June after months of fierce fighting, but military build-ups around Baidoa have mounted in recent weeks since the failure of peace talks... Many diplomats and regional security experts fear all-out war in Somalia could engulf the Horn of Africa in conflict, drawing in Ethiopia, which backs the government, and its arch-foe Eritrea, accused of supporting...

U.N. says Somalia arms embargo violated NAIROBI, Kenya - Ten nations and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been supplying weapons to an Islamic militia that controls much of Somalia, violating an international arms embargo, according to a U.N. commission report obtained Wednesday. But experts and diplomats expressed deep skepticism about an allegation in the report that 720 Somali mercenaries fought alongside Hezbollah in its battle with Israel...

An Eritrean Christian gospel singer, detained by the authorities without charge for more than two years, has been freed, Amnesty International says. Helen Berhane was among about 2,000 members of illegal Evangelical church groups in Eritrea, who Amnesty says have been arrested in recent years. She was reportedly imprisoned inside a metal shipping container and beaten in an effort to make her recant her faith. But Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Abdu denies all knowledge of her case. More than 90% of Eritreans belong to one of four recognised religions - Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran Churches and Islam. Ms Berhane, a...

Warden Message: Extremist Threats from Somalia Consular Affairs Bulletins Report Sub-Saharan Africa - Kenya October 31 2006 The U.S. Embassy Nairobi issued the following Warden Message on October 31, 2006: The US Embassy in Nairobi wishes to alert American citizens living and traveling in Kenya to reports of terrorist threats emanating from extremist elements within Somalia which target Kenya, Ethiopia, and other surrounding countries. These threats specifically mention the execution of suicide explosions in prominent landmarks within Kenya and Ethiopia. American citizens are advised to remain vigilant and to use extreme caution when frequenting prominent public places. American citizens...

BUUR HAKABA, Somalia (Reuters) - Shuffling along with a walking stick and an AK-47 rifle slung over his shoulder, Mohamed Maalim Abdi reported for holy war. "I am ready for jihad. I have a lot of experience. I fought Ethiopia in 1977," the 72-year-old farmer said on Monday as he stood next to a six-wheeled Islamists' truck bearing an anti-aircraft gun. Earlier, Abdi had greeted the Islamist fighters with a shout of "God is greatest!" at a junction about 30 km (18 miles) from what analysts fear will be the flashpoint of a Somali war that sucks in Horn of...

The European Commission is considering action against Eritrea in protest at food aid being sold, and the proceeds used for government work programmes. Eritrea may be asked to repay the $3m cost of food thought to have been sold. The EC's ambassador to Eritrea, Geert Heikens, told the BBC that attempts to discuss the matter with the authorities had failed, and that action was needed. The row comes at a time when more than 15% of Eritreans are malnourished and the country depends on outside aid. The Eritrean government introduced a new policy of cash-for-work in May, saying this was...

DJIBOUTI, April 24, 2006 – The complexity of operations in the Horn of Africa boggles the mind. A person may be tempted to throw his hands up and decide that conditions are too dire, the people are too many, the politics are too tangled to make any changes in the region. But that person would be wrong, said Navy Rear Adm. Richard Hunt, commander of Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. Hunt leads a small command dedicated to improving lives in the region so the people do not embrace extremist ideologies or shelter terrorists. The command includes Djibouti -...

Abdul Rahman, the Afghani man who dominated headlines last week, has been safely spirited away to Italy. Rahman had been imprisoned and threatened with a death sentence for apostasy (i.e. converting from Islam to Christianity). His case created an international uproar, as the US, the United Nations and even Pope Benedict XVI put pressure on Afghanistan to release Rahman and drop the charges against him. The outcry against this religious persecution in Afghanistan was so deafening that the authorities ultimately relented and released Rahman, suggesting that he was mentally deficient and unable to stand trial. After his release, Rahman told...

A first group of UN peacekeepers expelled from Eritrea left the UN headquarters in Asmara enroute to Addis Ababa. The group of about 20, including a woman in tears, boarded a bus at the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) offices in Asmara that headed to the airport for a temporary relocation in the Ethiopian capital. A UN official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the team was relocating ahead of the Friday deadline imposed by Eritrean authorities. They are expected to board three flights, the first one taking off at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), then 11:30 am and...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is sending two senior peacekeeping officials to Eritrea and Ethiopia to assess the situation in the wake of Eritrea's decision to expel Western peacekeepers from the area, his spokesman said today. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Mr Annan decided to send the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, and military adviser General Randir Kumar Mehta to the two countries "as soon as practicable". Their mission will be to "assess the situation on the ground and to see what steps can be taken to improve the situation" after Asmara gave North American and European...

A CONFLICT once described as so pointless that it was like two bald men fighting over a comb looks increasingly likely to restart after Eritrea expelled international peacekeepers from the border it shares with Ethiopia. Troops from the US, Europe, and Canada have been ordered to leave the area, in which nearly a quarter of a million soldiers now face each other. In recent weeks Eritrea and Ethiopia have moved extra men to the desolate, mountainous border, which is the most militarised in Africa. Between 1998 and 2000 they fought a war there that killed more than 70,000 people. Berhane...

Seven Ethiopian soldiers who defected to Eritrea while in Israel were flown to Eritrea Wednesday night by the Eritrean ambassador. Tensions are high between the two neighboring African countries, which fought a border war in the late 1990s. The officers had come to Israel to learn how to use military equipment Ethiopia had purchased from a private defense company in Israel, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Eritrea's ambassador to Israel Tesfamariam Tekeste told Israel Radio that the soldiers had arrived at his home this week asking for asylum. A number of them wanted to reunite with family members living...

ADDIS ABABA, 29 November (IRIN) - Four Ethiopian soldiers were killed and three wounded last week when their vehicle hit a newly laid landmine near the border with Eritrea, UN officials said on Tuesday. The anti-tank mine was planted around 15 km south of the demilitarized buffer zone created to separate the two countries' armies following their 1998-2000 border dispute that has continued to cause tension between the Horn of Africa neighbours. "Four Ethiopian soldiers died and three were injured when their military vehicle hit a newly laid landmine," said Phil Lewis, head of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre...

Eritreans are fleeing their country in growing numbers amid fears of a new war with Ethiopia and economic hardships blamed on authoritarian government policies, according to diplomats and United Nations figures. In the first eight months of this year, more Eritreans have risked death to leave the impoverished Horn of Africa nation than in all of 2004, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics seen by Agence France-Presse. As border tensions with Ethiopia rose and Asmara tightened already tough economic restrictions, 6 113 Eritreans fled between January and August, compared with 5 542 last year, the statistics show....