Ethiopian

Somali president meets Ethiopia’s Abiy in Addis Ababa to bolster security, trade ties ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in Ethiopia on Friday for a one-day working visit and held talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed focused on strengthening bilateral relations and regional security, according to the Somali Presidency. In a statement, Mogadishu said the leaders discussed deepening cooperation across four priority areas: security coordination, political engagement, trade, and wider regional…

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed to “shake off Ethiopia’s enemies one by one, like hair lice” as he urged national unity and vigilance during the 20th Ethiopian Nationalities and People’s Day, framing the country’s struggles as tests of resolve that must be met with discipline, dialogue and reform. In a speech calling for resilience amid persistent political and regional strains, Abiy warned citizens against becoming conduits for “outsiders” he said are bent on derailing Ethiopia’s progress. He did…

Kampala, Uganda — Uganda has halted the granting of refugee status to asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, citing an absence of active armed conflict in those countries and a steep decline in donor support that officials say is straining the country’s capacity to assist new arrivals. Hilary Onek, Uganda’s minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said he has instructed officials to stop processing new claims from citizens of the three countries. The move comes even as Uganda continues to…

MOYALE, Kenya — Ethiopian military personnel crossed into Kenyan territory near Moyale on Saturday, advancing roughly 1 kilometer from the Sesii area and prompting a two-hour exchange of fire with Kenyan security units, according to an official occurrence book entry filed at Moyale Police Station (OB No. 32/22/11/2025). Kenyan police, Administration Police Service and Border Patrol Unit engaged the intruding forces; Kenya Defence Forces later joined, pushing the Ethiopians back to the borderline; No injuries were…

Egypt’s warning over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam rekindles a 21st-century struggle over an ancient river CAIRO — When Egypt’s Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly declared that the Nile is “a matter of existence, not subject to compromise,” he was not indulging in rhetoric. He was speaking for a country whose modern life, agriculture and industry grew up along the river’s narrow ribbon through desert. Yet that river feeds more than one national story. The spokesman’s rebuke this month, aimed squarely at Ethiopia’s…

Somalia and Ethiopia test a fragile thaw in Addis Ababa — and the Horn of Africa is watching On a quiet Sunday in Addis Ababa, far from the sirens that so often announce news in this region, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stepped off a plane at Bole International Airport and into a delicate diplomatic dance. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed greeted him before the two moved quickly behind the National Palace’s tall gates. The choreography was deliberate: a handshake, a short walk, a private conversation. The…

Tragedy Strikes Ethiopian Marathon Community with the Loss of Shewarge Alene The sun was just beginning to rise over Addis Ababa, casting a warm golden hue across the training fields, when the news spread like wildfire through the running community. Shewarge Alene, a celebrated Ethiopian marathon runner, tragically passed away after falling ill during a training session. She was only 30 years old. Alene had built a reputation as a formidable competitor, participating in 27 marathons since her debut in 2011. Her most recent…

Somalia’s president rejects the idea of a proxy war as Egyptian and Ethiopian forces prepare to serve side by side President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s calm confidence — “there will be no proxy war” — is as much a diplomatic posture as it is a strategic calculation. His reassurance, given in an interview with the BBC, comes as Egypt prepares to send troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission that already includes Ethiopian units. The announcement has unexpectedly exposed one of the Horn of Africa’s most…

Why Ethiopia’s rebuke of the Arab League matters beyond a diplomatic spat When Ethiopia’s ambassador to Somalia, Suleiman Dedefo, posted a withering critique of the Arab League this week — asking whether the bloc had become “an instrument executing Egypt’s anti-Ethiopia policy” — he did more than punt a regional insult into cyberspace. The message tapped into a deeper, increasingly fraught debate over water, sovereignty and how international institutions choose sides when resources and livelihoods collide. The immediate…

Egypt’s troop deployment to Somalia is legal — and a spark in an increasingly combustible region When Cairo announced in late August that Egyptian soldiers would join the African Union’s stabilization mission in Somalia, the move was presented as a routine piece of security cooperation: units trained in Egypt were to be deployed to the central and southern frontlines — Hiiraan, Lower Shabelle and Gedo — to help Somali forces press the fight against al-Shabab. But beneath the procedural language lies a story about shifting…