On Ethiopian Embassies

The website of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains that Ethiopia has 39 missions (embassies and consular offices) in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. These missions officially represent Ethiopia and poise to serve the Ethiopian Diaspora and Ethiopian-origin nationals. They also intend to encourage and facilitate the transfer of capital, technology, and science to Ethiopia. Since recent times, missions seem to aggressively work on 1) winning the hearts and minds of foreign investors particularly from the Arab world, India, and China, and 2) collecting funds for the construction of the “Grand Renaissance Dam”.

The Meles Zenawi Foundation

The government of Ethiopia organized a congress that founded the Meles Zenawi Foundation (MZF) on the 6th of April 2013 at the AU Hall in Addis Ababa. The foundation is set to establish a library, a research center, a fellowship programme, and a public park, and will also recognize great achievements. Present at the occasion were Meles family; senior government officials; Presidents of the Sudan, Uganda, and Djibouti; former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo; Commissioner of the African Union (AU) Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma; and other invited guests.

Forced Eviction of the Amharas

The government in Ethiopia is forcefully and inhumanly evicting the Amharas who used to live and work in Southern and Western parts of the country. This is contrary to the Ethiopian Constitution and other regional and international human rights and legal frameworks, to which Ethiopia is a signatory. This is one of the several atrocities orchestrated against the Amharas since EPRDF took office in 1991. The government at local, woreda, zonal, regional and federal levels must clearly understand that they will be fully accountable to this mindless act.