Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa Horn

Somalia's cabinet absolves ONLF as terrorist group

2022-01-24

[Garowe] Somalia's cabinet on Sunday approved a resolution rescinding a decision that recognized Ogaden National Liberation Front [ONLF] as a terror organization, a move that had previously created a rift between the group and the government of Somalia.

During the administration of former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, the government of Somalia subjected ONLF to scrutiny following differences between the group and the regional leadership of the Somali region in Æthiopia.

From 2017 onwards, the group has been treated we snuffies in Somalia but has been fighting to clear its name. And on Sunday, the Somali cabinet also declared rendition on ONLF commander Abdikarim Qalbi Dhagah on August 28 to Æthiopia "illegal".

During voting, 21 ministers voted in favor of ONLF while one voted against and another one abstained. ONLF has been fighting the administration of Somali region President Mustafa Omer, who is accused of mistreating the group.

In a tweet, ONLF welcomed the decision adding that the cabinet did "justice" to the group. The group also termed the resolution by Somalia's cabinet as a landmark adding that the Ogaden region will forever cherish it.

"The Cabinet of Somalia has rescinded the decision of the previous Cabinet in 2017 which decreed that ONLF was a terrorist organization and the rendition of Abdikarin Sh Muse -An EC member was legal. Now The Cabinet acknowledged the miscarriage of justice that occurred," read the statement.

"ONLF commends The PM of Somalia and his cabinet. This is a historic landmark decision that the Somali people in Ogaden will cherish for centuries to come. This is a lesson to those who transgress against the just rights of peoples."

Æthiopia closely works with outgoing President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo of Somalia and the group has been critical of the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. ONLF has been battling to seize power in the Somali region popularly known as Ogaden.

Link

Africa Horn

ONLF Senior Leadership To Arrive In Ethiopia On Saturday

2018-11-30

[RADIOSHABELLE] A 20-member delegation composed of big shotship of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) will arrive in Æthiopia on Saturday.

Among members of the delegation include chair of the Front, Mohammed Umar, according to Spokesperson of ONLF.

The Front’s army last week returned to the Somali regional state from their base in Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
after the ONLF had reached an agreement with the government of Æthiopia.

The government and the Front signed a peace deal in the Eritrean capital Asmara last month.

The two sides reached a historic deal that allowed the ONLF to undertake peaceful political struggle in Æthiopia.

Link

Africa Horn

Al Shabaab denies ties with Ethiopian rebels

2014-06-09

MOGADISHU -- Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group has denied it maintains links with Ethiopian ONLF rebels following reports of coordinated insurgency against Ethiopian-AMISOM peacekeepers in southern Somalia, Garowe Online reports.

Speaking with Somali media, Al Shabaab operations spokesman Abdiazis Abu Muscab said the purported relations between Al Shabaab and the faction operating in Eastern Ethiopia, ONLF are nonexistent.

"Im-possible! Harumph!" he said.

"The reports indicating that there is a tie between ONLF and Al Shabaab are clear fabrications which were spread by those who don't shy away from false news. It is known that ONLF is outlawed near us and can't arrive in areas under our control, for that reason Al Shabaab can't maintain links with [ONLF]," Abu Mucab noted.

Radio, cell phone,the internet, and local lads running over a message for a small fee all being impossible in that part of the world, you see.

He added that Al Shabaab is fighting for the religion while ONLF fights for independence and political agendas.

Which is completely different in Islamic teaching and belief...

The ONLF lads just happen to be of the Muslim persuasion?

Indeed they are, the Ogaden National Liberation Front...

The Governor of Bakool region of southwestern Somalia Mohamed Abdi Tool previously disclosed that Al Shabaab and ONLF coordinate attacks on Ethiopian-AMISOM forces and Somali troops in Somalia's border with neighboring Ethiopia.

A spokesman for Ogaden rebels has strongly contested remarks by Tool, saying they operate inside Ethiopia.

Link

Africa Horn

Two police officers arrested over abduction of Ethiopian officials

2014-02-04

NAIROBI, KENYA: Two Kenyan police officers were Monday arrested in connection with the abduction of two top officials of Ethiopias Ogaden National Liberation Front ( ONLF) from outside a popular restaurant in Upper Hill, Nairobi last week. The officers, an inspector and a constable attached to Nairobi Area CID are expected to face charges of espionage for Ethiopias intelligence services.

I suppose Ethiopia needs to spy on its neighbors, but really, they think Kenya is a threat?

Nairobi head of CID Nicholas Kamwende confirmed the arrests and said the officers expected in court Monday morning. They will face various charges following the abduction of the two ONLF officials, said Kamwende.

He added the officers had been identified by witnesses as having participated in the abduction of Mr Sulub Ahmed and Ali Hussein who were members of the ONLF negotiation team that was in Nairobi for a proposed third round of talks.

Ahmed and Hussein were members of ONLF central committee and were abducted on January 26 from outside Arabian Cuisine in Upper Hill area. They were later driven out of the country to Ethiopia by intelligence officials from Addis Ababa and their whereabouts are not known.

ONLF officials who asked not to be named had said security agencies from Ethiopia and Kenya were involved in the kidnapping. They had been invited for a lunch date at the restaurant near TSC headquarters when they were abducted by men who were in three waiting cars. One of the cars, a black Toyota Prado and the driver were seized and detained at the Turbi police station the following day but the two were missing amid speculation they had been taken across to Ethiopia.

The ONLF officials who spoke in Nairobi said the two officials were invited by the Kenyan government for peace negotiations. Their whereabouts in Ethiopia are yet to be known.

Link

Africa Horn

Ethiopia security kills six rebels, capture 12

2013-12-01

Humera -- An Ethiopian police source on Friday told Sudan Tribune that security forces had killed six and captured 12 '' Eritrean trained'' Ethiopian rebels. The source said the rebels had crossed into Ethiopia from Sudan to carry out attacks in the country. The source said the rebels were members of the Gambella rebel group.

Six of the rebels were killed in a fire exchange with Ethiopian security forces around the Humera town in Northern Tigray region near the Sudanese border.

Police said the rebels were trained and armed by the Eritrean government and sent to Ethiopia on a terror mission with plans to carry out attacks at targeted infrastructure facilities in and around the capital Addis Ababa. Police added it was interrogating the captured rebels before releasing more details on the rebels.

The Eritreans do seem to be overly-frisky in the region. If we had a CIA worth anything we'd destabilize that country (how hard could it be, it's Eritrea after all) and run out the hard-line Islamicists currently in charge.

Since 2010, Ethiopia says it has arrested over 100 Eritrea-trained ''terrorists,'' most members of rebel groups which Eritrea harbors. Eritrea is accused of being behind a number of foiled terrorist attacks in Ethiopia including plans to bomb an African Union (AU) summit held in Addis Ababa in 2011.

According to a report by the UN monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea, the red sea nation planned to carryout a car bomb attack at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, when African leaders took breaks.

Addis Ababa routinely accuses its bitter rival Asmara of sponsoring Ethiopian separatist groups such as Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) as part of what Ethiopia says is to destabilize nation. Eritrean officials repeatedly dismiss Ethiopia's allegations.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody war between 1998 and 2000 over border disputes which killed 70,000. Since then the two nations have remained at loggerheads.

Link

Africa Horn

Somalia in row with militias in captured town

2012-10-12

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Mr Aden Ahmed Hersi alias Rufle, the front man of the hapless Somali government forces in Juba region has told the media that a clan-based grouping is disturbing the attempts to stabilise the town of Kismayu, 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Kismayu, the main port town in Jubaland in Southern Somalia, was seized from Al-Shabaab

... the successor to the Islamic Courts...
, the Al-Qaeda linked radical Islamist group in Somalia, in late September by an alliance made of Kenyan troops serving with the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Mission in Somalia (Amisom), Somali government forces and Ras Kamboni Brigade, a largely clan-based militia loosely allied with the other forces.

Mr Hersi stated that Ras Kamboni Brigade built an association with ONLF (Ogaden National Liberation Front), a rebel group mainly active in Eastern Æthiopia.

He added that the two militias were trying to get control of Kismayu.

Talking to Shabelle Radio, an independent broadcaster in Mogadishu, Mr Hersi said, "Somali government forces in Jubaland are finding themselves increasingly uncomfortable as Ras Kamboni Brigade and ONLF extend their illegal control over Kismayu."

A politician in Mogadishu, Mr Dahir Amin Jessow, refuted the very existence of a militia group operating alongside the hapless Somali government forces in Kismayu.

"An accepted force can cooperate with the hapless Somali government force, but Islamic fascisti in competition with the government are unacceptable," said MP Jesow on Tuesday.

"There is no logic in chasing Al-Shabaab fighters out (of Kismayu) to have other Islamic fascisti challenging the policies of the hapless Somali government in," he added.

He reiterated that the security of Kismayu falls primarily on Somali government forces and Amisom peacekeepers in the Jubaland.

He added that unruly militia in the region will create an unnecessary crisis.

"The Somali government cannot accept an armed political grouping operating in parts of the country," remarked the politician. He added that such arrangement was illegal.

Link

Africa Horn

Ethiopia Court Sentences U.N. Staffer to Seven Years in Jail

2012-06-23

[An Nahar] A United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
worker found guilty of participating in a terrorist group in Æthiopia was Friday sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison.

Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan, an Æthiopian, was found guilty of "participating in a terrorist organization" earlier this week over alleged links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an outlawed secessionist rebel group.

"Under the guise of his job, he has been passing information to a terrorist organization with the aim to help them," Judge Mulugeta Kidane said, delivering the sentence.

Hassan appeared in court Friday wearing a track jacket and slacks and holding Moslem prayer beads.

He shook his lawyer's hand after she translated the sentence to him as Hassan does not speak Æthiopia's main language Amharic.

He was sentenced along with Sherif Badio, whom the charge sheet lists as a senior member of the ONLF. Badio was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for "serving as a leader or a decision maker in a terrorist organization."

Link

Africa Horn

Ethiopian Court Convicts U.N. Security Officer of 'Terrorism'

2012-06-19

An Æthiopian security officer with the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
faced up to 10 years in jail after a court in Addis Ababa found him guilty Monday of "participating in a terrorist organization."

"The defendant has not convinced us that he did not commit a crime... he's guilty," judge Mulugeta Kidane said.

Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan, who was based in Æthiopia's troubled southeastern Ogaden region, was charged last July with having links to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a secessionist rebel group.

He is charged along with Sherif Baido, whom the charge sheet lists as a senior member of the ONLF and was convicted on the same charge in absentia, according to Mulugeta.

The two men face five to ten years in prison. The court is expected to deliver a sentence on Friday.

Hassan was incarcerated
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
after negotiating the release of two U.N. World Food Program (WFP) officers kidnapped in the Ogaden.

Judge Mulugeta said defense witnesses failed to prove Hassan did not have links to ONLF members.

The key evidence used by the prosecution was recordings of phone conversations between Hassan and his co-defendant.

Link

Africa Horn

Tension rises in Ethiopia amid Muslim protests

2012-05-08

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Æthiopian government has warned Mohammedans after a religious dispute caused a massive anti-government protest in Addis Ababa.

The government's warning comes after four people including a Mohammedan holy man was killed and 11 injured in a violent clash in Oromiya region Arsi-Assasa a week ago.

On Friday, thousands of Mohammedans gathered in the Grand Anewar mosque in Addis Ababa and demonstrated their opposition against prime minister Meles Zenawi's government.

Following the protest, the government tightened security in Addis Ababa schools and mosques and a big number of armed security personnel movement was seen in the capital city.

For three months now after Friday prayers, Mohammedans have been protesting in various locations, urging the government to allow a new Islamic ideology Ahebash (moderate Islam mainly known in Leb).

Ahebash is a foreign Islamic sect to both Æthiopian moderate Mohammedans and growing Sufi sect followers. Mohammedans have demand religious freedom and urged the government to stop interfering in their faith.

The negotiations were underway between representatives of Mohammedans and government but Mohammedan representatives said the election of the new religious leaders (Mejliis) was hijacked by government.

The Government on its part, accused Mohammedans of hosting politically motivated elements, who are plotting to against the government.

Æthiopia's Ministry Federal Affairs, an office responsible for religious organizations said in the statement the government had responded to all questions from the Mohammedans.

The government said outlawed political opposition and foreign Mohammedan gun-hung tough guys were behind the ongoing protests.

Three armed opposition groups, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Ginbot-7, US based opposition, were designated as 'terrorist' organizations by a de-facto one party Æthiopian parliament.

The Ministry said social media such as Facebook are used by "terrorist" organizations and gun-hung tough guys to disseminate anti-government information to the Mohammedan population.

Link

Africa Horn

EU calls on Ethiopia to release jailed Swedish journalists on terrorism charges

2011-12-28

(KUNA) -- The EU Tuesday expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
over the jail sentence against two Swedish journalists for 11 years by an Ethiopian court for supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally.

Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson were jugged in July after they were captured in Ethiopia with rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front>Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
Tut tut. What are the natives doing, putting white men in jug?...
"Do you not know who we are!?!"
"Their sentencing on terrorism related charges raises concerns about the freedom of media and expression in Ethiopia," said EU High Representative Catherine Ashton in a statement.
Ogaden is a nasty, arid region in Ethiopia. It's where the remains of Lucy, the 3.2 million year old woman, were found. ONLF has been tormenting the Ethiopian government seemingly forever.
"While recognising the Ethiopian judicial process, we hope that the two journalists can be released as soon as possible," she added .
Why should they be released if they were canoodling with terrorists?
According to western media reports, the two men had confessed to the Ethiopian court during their trial that they had held talks with ONLF leaders in London and Nairobi, before entering Ethiopia from Somalia and meeting members of the group. But the journalist denied charges of supporting terrorism and said they entred the country to report on the activities in the region of a Swedish oil company.
Ja, sure. And I for one believe them. They're white men, y'see, so they wouldn't lie.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for...
the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the jail sentences against the two Swedish journalists. "This is a devastating blow to press freedom in Ethiopia but we are determined to pursue the fight for our colleagues' freedom," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President.

Link

Africa Horn

Ethiopia sentences Swedish journalists to 11 years

2011-12-27

Follow-up.

An Ethiopian court sentenced two Swedish journalists to 11 years in prison for helping and promoting the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group and entering the country illegally.

Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were arrested in July after they entered the Ogaden province from Somalia's Puntland region with ONLF fighters.

Judge Shemsu Sirgaga told the court, "The court has sentenced both defendants to 11 years. We have heard both cases ... and we believe this is an appropriate sentence." He said the convictions warranted a sentence of up to 14 and a half years, but noted good behavior on the part of the journalists. The prosecution had asked for 18 and a half years.

The two Swedes had also been charged with terrorism but were acquitted in November on that count, as the court did not believe they were involved in carrying out any attacks. They did admit to crossing the border without a permit.

Last week's guilty verdicts had sparked widespread anger in Swedish media and accusations the case was political. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said last week Sweden was very concerned about the judgment and the journalists should be freed as soon as possible.

Link

Africa Horn

Dupe URL: Ethiopia charges Swedish journalists with terrorism

2011-09-08

Rooters summarized:

Two Swedish journalists entered The Land of the Aethiop without leave in the company of a gang of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) hard boys. The journalists were wounded when the gang encountered Ethiopian security forces, in which encounter 15 hard boys were killed.

Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye are charged with assisting and promoting terrorism professionally, engaging and participating in terrorist conducts, and entering the country illegally without a permit.

The Aethiops appear displeased.

Link

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