Latest news with #Oromo
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant can stay after judge confused his Somali clan with Hawaii
An African asylum seeker has won a reprieve to remain in the UK after an immigration judge confused his Somali clan with the island of Hawaii. The mix-up between the US state and the Hawiye people was one of a catalogue of 'errors' in a judgment denying the man's claim to stay in in the UK. The decision also wrongly stated that the asylum seeker's children were born in Egypt instead of Ethiopia, and made a 'bizarre reference to a kookaburra farm', a new ruling has revealed. The kookaburra is a bird native to Australia and New Guinea. The man, who was given anonymity by the asylum tribunal, will now have his case reheard after it was concluded that Sureta Chana, the judge responsible for the mistakes, showed an 'absence of care'. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example uncovered by The Telegraph in which illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have been able to remain in the UK or halt their removal. 'Significant number of errors' The African asylum seeker's claim was initially rejected by a First-Tier Tribunal. He had claimed to be originally from Somalia, where he said he was at risk of persecution by the Hawiye clan, one of the largest tribes in the country. He told the Home Office that he had lived unlawfully in Ethiopia for a number of years before he left because of mistreatment by the Oromo tribe, which makes up more than a third of the population. British officials believed he was from Ethiopia, not Somalia and the First-Tier Tribunal rejected his claim on the basis that he would be entitled to Ethiopian citizenship. He appealed and an Upper-Tier Tribunal found there had a 'a significant number of typographical and factual errors' in the judgment, which demonstrated a 'failure to exercise anxious scrutiny'. First there was the reference to the 'Hawaii' rather than Hawiye clan. It also wrongly stated that the [asylum seeker]'s children were born in Egypt instead of Ethiopia. There was the 'bizarre reference to a 'kookaburra farm'', while the Lower Tribunal had miscalculated 'the length of the [asylum seeker]'s residence in Ethiopia'. It stated that the appeal had been heard on Jan 1 this year, a date on which the First-Tier Tribunal does not sit. It dated the decision as 28 March 2017, several years before the asylum claim was made. 'Absence of care' It also found that the judge had made findings about Ethiopian nationality law when the evidence showed he had no right to naturalise as an Ethiopian citizen. The judge also misquoted a previous case and was 'wrongly conflating the [asylum seeker]'s fear of the Oromo tribe in Ethiopia with his fear of the Hawiye clan in Somalia'. Upper Tribunal Judge Leonie Hirst said: 'The First-Tier Tribunal's decision displays throughout an absence of care, evidenced by the numerous typographical and factual errors identified in the [asylum seeker]'s grounds of appeal. That however is not the only material error in the decision. 'On the issue of the [asylum seeker]'s nationality, which was central to the appeal, the judge appears to have taken judicial notice of Ethiopian nationality law without evidence or submissions on that point. 'Her conclusion that the [asylum seeker] was entitled to Ethiopian citizenship was unsupported by the evidence before her and her reasoning was insufficient to explain how she reached her conclusions.'
AFP
29-05-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Video of Ethiopian mayor admitting she confided in rebel group is fake
'Adanech has leaked secrets,' reads the text overlay on a video posted on Facebook on May 18, 2025. Image Screenshot of the altered post, taken on May 26, 2025 The post contains a 22-second clip that shows Adanech speaking at a gathering. 'My ex-husband was Amhara, and we had one daughter together. Following our minor dispute, he joined the Fano forces,' Adanech appears to say. Fano is a militia group in Ethiopia's Amhara region that has been fighting against the Ethiopian army since July 2023. 'He is currently fighting with our government, but we often talk over the telephone since he is my daughter's father,' Adanech appears to add. 'Sometimes he mocks me and says: 'We are heading to Addis Ababa, are you ready?'.' The text accompanying the post reads: 'You Amhara men, did we not tell you not to marry women from any other ethnicity, but Amhara only?' Adanech is Oromo, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group. Similar posts were also shared here and here on Facebook. Addis Ababa development Ethiopia is experiencing armed conflicts in its two major regions: Oromia and Amhara. AFP's investigations revealed that the warring parties are using advanced disinformation tactics to smear their opponents, which is contributing to ethnic polarisation (archived here). Adanech has also faced trouble closer to home. AFP has reported on the demolition of historic buildings in the heart of Addis Ababa as part of Ethiopia's extensive urban development projects (archived here). Critics say the urban renewal scheme, known as the Addis Ababa Corridor Development Project, has not only wrecked buildings but also the history and identity associated with the area. Last month, Amnesty International called on the Ethiopian government to immediately halt the projects that it says have led to 'forced evictions' (archived here). Adanech has defended the projects as a benefit to society as a whole by creating wide roads, cycle paths and children's playgrounds. However, her speech purportedly revealing how she had leaked sensitive information to Fano was altered. Unrelated speech AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. The results established that a longer original video was published on the official YouTube channel of state-owned broadcaster Addis Media Network (AMN) on May 18, 2025 (archived here). An Amharic caption accompanying the video reads: 'Mayor Adanech Abebie noted that the city residents have benefited from the project accomplished in collaboration with business owners.' The video begins by showing dilapidated houses in cramped neighbourhoods, followed by testimonials from residents who say their lives have been improved by the new homes built by the city. About a minute into the original video, Adanech begins speaking in Amharic about housing projects for low-income residents in the district of Addis Ketema: 'I remember it was even difficult to get into those areas and do the excavation work because it was very confined there.' 'This situation has changed and pleasant residential buildings with good streets and playgrounds for children have been built in the area,' she adds. At no point did Adanech mention a former husband or Fano rebels. Artificially-generated audio The false Facebook post took a passage from Adanech's original speech (from 4'02' to 4'22'), slowed it down slightly, and replaced her words with AI-generated audio. Image Screenshot of the original video (left) and the false clip, taken on May 27, 2025 While the audio is in Amharic, the accent is off. There are also clear discrepancies between the words and Adanech's lip movements. For example, during the phrase 'minor dispute and he mocks me', her lips barely move. These are all clear signs that the audio was AI-generated. AFP Fact Check also ran the audio through an audio deepfake detector called DeepfakeTotal. Image Screenshot of the results generated by Deepfake Total, taken on May 27, 2025 The results showed a more than 99 percent probability that the audio was artificially created. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked AI-generated videos on a range of topics in Ethiopia, such as here, here and here.
Daily Maverick
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
From conflict to cooperation: Rethinking security strategies in the Kenya-Ethiopia borderlands
Kenya's police have achieved some positive results, but lasting solutions require ongoing cooperation between the two countries. In February, Kenyan police launched Operation Ondoa Jangili ('remove the criminals') as part of security measures to drive the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) out of hideouts in Isiolo and Marsabit counties. The OLA is an informal militia fighting for self-determination for Ethiopia's Oromo ethnic group in the south of the country. Owing to its political orientation and culture of violence, it has frequently escaped Ethiopian authorities by crossing into Kenya. Marsabit and Isiolo are home to the Borana and Gabbra communities, both of which speak Oromo, thus providing cover for the OLA through ethnic affinity. Ethiopia's National Intelligence and Security Service says the armed group broke away from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) after the OLF renounced the armed struggle in 2018. Ethiopian intelligence says the OLA has established ties with the terrorist group al-Shabaab in Somalia and is involved in illicit activities such as arms trafficking and illegal mining. The Kenya Police Service has also accused the group of engaging in arms, drug and human trafficking, illegal mining, kidnapping for ransom and instigating tribal conflicts. In August 2024, two South Koreans were abducted from their Odda Mission Church residence in Moyale and allegedly handed to al-Shabaab in what Ethiopian intelligence says was an OLA-al-Shabaab collaboration. The OLA denies the claim. Kenya-Ethiopia cross-border insecurity The OLA says it has no presence in Kenya. This contradicts the country's National Intelligence Service Director-General Noordin Haji, who told a parliamentary oversight committee that the OLA was occupying Kenyan territory. The group has reiterated its commitment to ensuring the safety of Kenyan communities living along the border, pledging to respect Kenya's territorial integrity and expressing willingness to cooperate with authorities. The OLA accused Ethiopia's army and intelligence of facilitating transnational criminal networks and cautioned Kenya not to be misled and to maintain its balanced approach to regional stability. Kenyans living along the border are caught in the crossfire, often being detained by security forces for allegedly harbouring OLA fighters. Community members also face harassment by the OLA, which accuses them of spying for Kenya and Ethiopia's governments. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says the ongoing police operation has sparked an outcry from those affected, who report human rights violations by the security forces. A lack of coordinated Kenyan-Ethiopian security force patrols along their porous border, marginalisation of border communities by both governments, and weak state institutions lacking the capacity to respond to distress calls have all worked in the OLA's favour. A resident told ISS Today that previous efforts by both Kenyan and Ethiopian security agencies to contain the OLA's activities were disjointed. That allowed the group to easily melt into the Kenyan population across the border when escaping Ethiopian authorities. As a result of OLA's incursions and a mismatch in Kenya and Ethiopia's firearm policies, the border region has suffered an influx of small arms. Kenya controls the licensing of arms, while in Ethiopia, civilians can legally own guns after registering them with the federal government. This fuels a cycle of insecurity as border communities acquire illicit arms for self-defence, creating a ready market for arms traffickers and the OLA. Memorandum of understanding In August 2024, in the build-up to the current police operation, Kenya and Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation through intelligence sharing and coordinated operations. The countries also had a security defence pact ratified in 1964, which, among other things, allowed them to support each other if a third party attacked them. However, the pact lost significance as the Somalian threat at that time waned. Kenya's operation has uncovered 14 makeshift camps believed to be used by OLA members, 10 firearms, ammunition, fake US dollars and Ethiopian birr, and propaganda literature in Oromo. Several people with alleged links to the group were arrested, and the police claim to have disrupted human and arms trafficking networks while curtailing cross-border incursions and kidnappings. These are positive achievements. But as with all security force operations, the successes can generally only be sustained while the operation is active. Once it ends, illicit activities could resume. Longer-term measures and prevention strategies are also vital. For example, coordinated and ongoing joint cross-border security patrols, combined with state investment in infrastructure such as roads and education facilities in border areas, are needed. That would protect border communities and facilitate trade and investment, bringing stability after decades of upheaval. Kenya and Ethiopia should also establish a permanent joint border security management framework, including a 24-hour one-stop border post at Moyale and formal border posts in Forolle, Elhadi and Dukana. This would encourage trade and check the movement of criminal actors and contraband across the border. Also, while factionalism within insurgent groups makes engaging in meaningful peace talks hard, Ethiopia's government should consider dialogue with the OLA, as happened in 2023. Ironing out contentious issues and building trust could help settle the disputes among parties to the conflict. Lastly, security forces must adhere to the law when carrying out operations, particularly concerning human rights. This would build trust between them and local communities, with knock-on positive effects for intelligence sharing, and tracking and arresting suspects. DM
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Many Rastas were chased away, but we're determined to remain': Ethiopia's religious community under threat
In 1999, Ras Paul, a west London DJ born to Jamaican parents, sold part of his voluminous vinyl collection to buy a plot of land and build a house in Shashamene, 125 miles south of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Seven years earlier, he had become a Rastafarian, around the time of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, whom the religion reveres as the Messiah. 'As an Ethiopian descendent, I wanted to come home,' he says. 'It's the place I felt I belong.' Paul was not alone. At its peak, more than 2,500 Rastafarians from around the world moved to Shashamene. Recently, though, the Rastafarian community's relations with the locals have come under strain. Shashamene is in Oromia, Ethiopia's biggest and most populous region. Since 2018, Oromia has been gripped by an ethnic insurgency that claims the Oromo people are marginalised in Ethiopia's federation. It has also seen protests over political representation and land, including a particularly violent outbreak in 2020. Newly established Protestant churches have also taken aim at the beliefs of Rastafarians and their use of cannabis. Newcomers have struggled to secure the right to stay in Ethiopia. Others who have been here for decades are forced to live illegally because the immigration authorities will not renew their documents. Several Rastafarians are fighting legal battles with locals who are trying to evict them from their land. Faced with these hurdles, the Rastafarian community is preparing to submit a petition to the government, claiming their rights are not recognised. For many people here, the image of Haile Selassie and even Ethiopia's national colours of red, green and yellow – both ubiquitous in Rastafarian culture – are not symbols of anti-colonial black liberation but of imperial oppression. Local people risk arrest for displaying the old flag of Haile Selassie's empire. 'Before, I was proud to go out wearing red, gold and green,' says Paul. 'Now I hesitate to wear it, big time. Even the church can't fly it in Oromia.' The presence of Rastafarians in Shashamene stretches back to fascist Italy's occupation of Ethiopia in 1935-1941. Haile Selassie, a devout Orthodox Christian, did not believe himself divine and tried to disabuse his worshippers of the idea. But after he regained his throne, the emperor granted 500 acres of crown land in Shashamene to 'black people of the world' who had campaigned in support of Ethiopia. Pan-Africanists from the Caribbean and the US, including black Jews and Muslims, settled there in 1955 as part of the Ethiopian World Federation (EWF), a body established in New York to lobby for Haile Selassie. The first Rastafarians did not arrive until the following decade, galvanised by the Ethiopian emperor's historic state visit to Jamaica in 1966. At the time, the Caribbean island was suffering from drought; when the Ethiopian emperor arrived, it finally started to rain. For many, this confirmed his divinity. Haile Selassie was deposed by a Marxist-Leninist military junta in 1974 and murdered a year later. Symbols associated with the emperor were suppressed. The land granted to the EWF was confiscated, but Rastafarians were still allowed to settle in Shashamene as part of a sweeping collectivisation drive that gave land from the aristocracy to the peasantry. 'My parents came here at that time as farmers and land was given to them,' says Maurice Lee, 46, who was born in Shashamene. He switches effortlessly between Jamaican-accented English and Amharic, Ethiopia's main language. Today his family run a Caribbean restaurant on the plot. Restrictions eased when communism ended in 1991. A year later, the centenary of Haile Selassie's birth saw a huge wave of 'repatriations' to Shashamene. However, with the land grant gone, new arrivals had to buy land as investors or rent properties. Many found it difficult to secure residence permits and drifted away. Today, the community is fighting to reclaim the land granted by Haile Selassie. They face an uphill battle. When the emperor gifted the land, Shashamene was a roadside settlement of a few thousand people. Now it is a sprawling boom town of about 210,000, full of hastily built houses and half-finished roads. The original 500 acres are no longer vacant fields but are populated by shops, homes and government offices. 'We are not living here as we are supposed to be living,' says George Isles at the EWF headquarters in Shashamene, a building bedecked with red, green and yellow and located behind a petrol station on a busy road, where heavy-goods vehicles trundle amid swarms of tuk-tuks. Isles, a carpenter, was born in Hammersmith and grew up in Montserrat. He arrived in 1992 to help build the EWF's office and never left. The teachings of Marcus Garvey, the spiritual lodestar of Rastafarianism, who founded the Back to Africa movement, informed his decision to stay. 'Africa is where we originate as black men,' says Isles. 'We came to the western world as slaves. So to get to know ourselves, we have to go home – and home is Africa.' Alex Reina, a French Rastafarian who came to Shashamene in 2004, agrees: 'Ethiopia was the only black country to resist colonialisation,' he says. 'It makes sense for us, the descendants of black slaves, to attach ourselves to Ethiopia.' Reina runs the Zion Train Lodge in Shashamene with his wife, Sandrine. He says it 'was very scary to be a Rasta man and wear red, green and gold' during the protests of 2020, but tensions have eased. That year, they had to go to court to gain recognition that they owned their land, which the previous tenant tried to reclaim. 'The land gifted by His Majesty is occupied by local people these days,' says Reina. 'Many Rastas were chased away. But we are determined to remain. It's impossible for a black man to really emancipate if he stays in Babylon.'
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Armed men abduct dozens from a bus in Ethiopia
Dozens of bus passengers in Ethiopia have been abducted by armed men in the country's largest region, Oromia, as they were were travelling from the capital, Addis Ababa. Details are only just emerging of the kidnappings which took place earlier this week. The incident happened in Ali Doro, which is near an area where around 100 university students were similarly abducted as they were heading home from their campus last July. Survivors and local authorities blamed those abductions on the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a rebel group that operates in the area. The group denied involvement at the time. Referring to this week's incident, the OLA has said it had received reports of the abductions and that it was "conducting an investigation". According to one report by a local media organisation, the passengers were heading to Debre Markos, a town in the country's Amhara region, when they were attacked by the armed men who exchanged fire with local security forces. Another report said several buses were attacked during which at least one person died. The number of abductees could be as high as 50, according to this report. The government has not yet said anything about the kidnappings and the BBC's attempts to get an official response have not been successful. Abductions of civilians - including passengers - have become increasingly common in the area. Armed groups here have in the past demanded ransoms for the release of people they hold. The OLA says it is fighting for the self-determination of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo. It has been classified as a terrorist organisation by the federal parliament and operates in various areas in Oromia including the district where Ali Doro is located. 'No-one can handle another war' - Tigrayans fear fresh Ethiopian conflict Thousands celebrate a chief who will only rule for eight years 'We knew Christmas before you' - the Band Aid fallout Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
