Ethiopia's PM hails Tedros election as WHO chief

Ethiopia's prime minister, Hailemaraim Desalegn, said the election of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to head the World Health Organization is a big achievement for Africa and proves Ethiopia's growing role on the world stage.

Foreign Minister Workineh Gebeyehu said Tedros of Ethiopia is expected to repeat in the global arena the "amazing achievements" he attained back home.

The 185 voting members of the WHO's Assembly elected Tedros on Tuesday over Britain's David Nabarro and Sania Nishtar of Pakistan.

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9:15 p.m.

The new head of the World Health Organization says his "central priority" will be working to achieve universal health coverage, while pledging to "provide value for money" and reform the U.N. agency.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia thanked WHO's Assembly after its 185 voting members elected him Tuesday over Britain's David Nabarro and Sania Nishtar of Pakistan.

Tedros, who goes by his first name, spoke out about diversity and the importance of listening. He vowed to focus on the most needy and noted the importance of effective partnerships with health care providers.

He said "all roads lead to universal health coverage. This will be my central priority." Only about half of the world's population has access to health care "without impoverishment."

While he acknowledged it was "challenging times for global health," Tedros pledged that "we will innovate and measure our progress by clearly-defined outcomes."

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7 p.m.

Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former minister of health, has been elected the next leader of the World Health Organization.

Tedro defeated Britain's Dr. David Nabarro, a U.N. veteran, in the final round of voting on Tuesday.

He will be the first non-medical doctor and the first African to lead the U.N. health agency.

He succeeds China's Dr. Margaret Chan, who has been at the helm of WHO for 10 years.

Tedros led all three rounds of voting and won 133 votes in the third round to Nabarro's 50. There were two abstentions.

The third candidate, Pakistan's Dr. Sania Nishtar, was eliminated after the first round.

Ethiopian delegates could be seen hugging and high-fiving each other after their countryman made it to the second round, which Tedros went on to win.

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6:15 p.m.

Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former minister of health, is leading the race to head the World Health Organization after two rounds of voting.

Delegates, health ministers and other high-level envoys were deciding Tuesday between Tedros and Britain's Dr. David Nabarro, a U.N. veteran, to be the U.N. health agency's next director-general.

The third candidate, Sania Nishtar, was eliminated in the first round of voting.

In the second round, Tedros won 121 votes to Nabarro's 62.

The election now moves to a third round of voting; Tedros must win two-thirds of the votes to win the post.

He was the only non-medical doctor in the election and is aiming to succeed China's Dr. Margaret Chan, who is ending a 10-year tenure at WHO's helm.

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5:10 p.m.

Pakistan's candidate to lead the World Health Organization, Dr. Sania Nishtar, has been eliminated after the first round of voting.

Nishtar was among three candidates vying to replace outgoing chief Dr. Margaret Chan.

The two remaining candidates are Britain's Dr. David Nabarro, a U.N. veteran who has led past responses to pandemic flu and Ebola and Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former health minister.

Tedros was ahead after the first round, winning 95 votes. Nabarro had 52 votes and Nishtar 38. There are 185 countries eligible to vote.

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3:30 p.m.

Pakistan's candidate to be the next director-general of the World Health Organization, cardiologist Dr. Sania Nishtar, said she decided to go into public health after being told the hospital where she worked would start using recycled catheters for patients who couldn't pay.

In her remarks Tuesday to the World Health Assembly, who will soon vote to choose the U.N. health agency's next leader, Nishtar cited her past experience leading non-governmental organizations, saying that would help her bridge the numerous polarizing situations in public health.

Like the other two candidates, Nishtar promised to make WHO accountable, saying she was credited for bringing transparency to public health when she was a minister in Pakistan.

She says "I will come to your countries not to cut ribbons but to work with you."

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3:20 p.m.

A U.N. veteran who is Britain's candidate for the top job at the World Health Organization says he knows "how the kitchen works in the United Nations."

Dr. David Nabarro delivered his last pitch for the job of WHO director-general moments before its assembly was to choose between him, Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Dr. Sania Nishtar of Pakistan.

Speaking to the delegates, Nabarro said "the health of 7 billion people rests in your hands" and acknowledged that some have felt "let down" by WHO and want it to be "more relevant, responsive and reliable."

He added: "Under my leadership, it will be."

Nabarro cited lessons from the Ebola crisis that "speed and flexibility" are needed, but above all WHO should be "competent and dependable."

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3:10 p.m.

The president of this year's World Health Assembly opened this afternoon's proceedings by calling for a minute of silence to remember the victims of the Manchester bombing attack.

In the final phase of the race to elect the WHO's next leader, the three remaining candidates are making their last pitches Tuesday.

First to speak was Ethiopia's candidate to lead the World Health Organization, former minister of health Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Ghebreyesus said it was "pure luck" that he was competing in the race to be its next director-general, noting that when he was seven years old, his younger brother was killed by a childhood disease and it could just as easily have been him. Read more here

CPJ: Ethiopian Court Charges on Journalist Getachew is a Blow to Press Freedom

Getachew Shiferaw is found guilty of what the Ethiopian authorities termed as "provocation of revolt" and facing a 10-year jail term.

NEW YORK — The Ethiopian Federal High Court's conviction of Getachew Shiferaw, editor of the news website Negere Ethiopia, on charges of inciting subversion is a further blow to press freedom in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Getachew's lawyer, Amha Mekonnen, told CPJ that the court convicted him of inciting others to obstruct an official from performing his constitutional duties under articles 257A and D of the Ethiopian penal code, based on the allegation that Getachew in an exchange of private messages on Facebook told journalist and activist Abebe Gellaw that it would be a "good alternate method of struggle" for Gellaw to intervene publicly against former Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi. Getachew denies the communication took place, and will appeal the verdict, Amha told CPJ. The editor faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to media reports.

Getachew was arrested without charge on December 25, 2015, and his case postponed several times. He was eventually charged under the country's anti-terrorism law before the charge was reduced to inciting others to obstruct an official from performing his duties.

"That prosecutors struggled to find a charge to levy against Getachew Shiferaw shows that Ethiopian authorities are desperate to lock journalists away and makes a mockery of this conviction," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal. "We call on authorities not to contest Getachew's appeal and to allow him and all journalists to work without interference." Read more here

Ethiopia jails opposition politician Yonatan Tesfaye

A government crackdown on protests led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests [File: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]

CORRECTION: 26/05/2017: A previous version of this story used the UNHCR acronym for the UN Human Rights Council. That was incorrect. The right acronym is OHCHR.

An Ethiopian court sentenced opposition politician Yonatan Tesfaye to six and a half years in prison on Thursday, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Tesfaye, a former spokesperson for the Blue Party - one of the East African country's main opposition parties - was found guilty earlier this month of encouraging "terrorism".

He was arrested in December 2015 after accusing the government of using disproportionate force against demonstrators in Facebook posts.

"We'll appeal," Blue Party Chairman Yeshiwas Assefa told AFP news agency.

"This is freedom of expression."

Tesfaye's detention came shortly after the start of anti-government protests by the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos, which caused the government to impose a nationwide state of emergency last October.

READ MORE: How long can Ethiopia state of emergency last?

"The defendant has acted in way that threatened the country's political, economic and social fabric," read the charge sheet, as reported by Fana.

In a letter released on Wednesday, 13 rights groups called on the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) to urge Ethiopia during its June meeting to allow an independent investigation into "atrocities committed by security forces to suppress peaceful protests and independent dissent".

A crackdown on protests resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

The letter echoes complaints by the OHCHR's High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who said he was not allowed access to where the protests occurred during a visit to Ethiopia this month.

The rights groups - including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders - also called for the immediate release of journalists, rights defenders, opposition leaders and other protesters "arbitrarily detained" during and after the protests.

The Ethiopian government has described the state of emergency as a necessary step to restore order to protest-wracked parts of the country, while officials work to address the demonstrator's grievances.

The sentencing came a day after Ethiopian journalist Getachew Shiferaw was found guilty of stirring "revolt". He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Amnesty International said Shiferaw's verdict was "a further slap in the face for justice in Ethiopia", and accused the authorities of using the judiciary to silence dissent. 

Read more here

Memories of revolutionary engagement among Ethiopian-Israelis: Redefining identity and social position

Seminar: Memories of revolutionary engagement among Ethiopian-Israelis: Redefining identity and social position

Despite a proliferation of studies concerning Ethiopian Jews (formerly known as "Beta Israel") and their lives while still in Ethiopia, a highly interesting topic that has so far been neglected is their involvement in the turbulent period of the 1974 revolution and the civil war that followed (ending 1991).

The present study, based on 18 in-depth interviews with Ethiopian-born Israelis, shows that some members of the community were indeed deeply involved in these historical events, as political activists and/or as military rebels in one of two major political parties: the TPLF and the EPRP.

After a short historical introduction, the first part of the talk will discuss the central themes that emerged from the interviews: (1) the deep identification with universal and contemporary ideologies of revolutionary change (2) the deep solidarity and identification with Ethiopia and with the organizations they belonged to, (3) abandonment of revolutionary ideology and politics after arrival in Israel.

By employing a theoretical framework of memory studies, the second part of the talk will discuss possible reasons for the complete disregard of this chapter in the (much discussed) history of the community, as well as the possible effects of this oblivion to the lives and status of this community in Israeli society.

The last part of the talk will discuss the possible contribution of this research for the ongoing debate about the meaning of the revolutionary period in Ethiopian public discourse, as well as possible meanings for the study of the Ethiopian diaspora (and African diasporas in general).

Read more here

Eritrea Denies Targeting Ethiopia Dam as Egyptian Ties Deepen

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki denied his country’s deepening relations with Egypt signify plans to disrupt neighboring Ethiopia’s construction of Africa’s biggest hydropower dam.

“The claim by the Ethiopian regime that the relation between Eritrea and Egypt is targeting the millennium dam is unfounded,” the Ministry of Information said on its website, citing a May 21 interview with Isaias in the capital, Asmara.

Egypt’s government has claimed Ethiopia’s construction of the hydropower dam on the main tributary of the Nile River contravenes colonial-era treaties that grant it the right to the bulk of the river’s water. Ethiopian officials reject the accords as obsolete and unjust. The plant, being built at a cost of $6.4 billion, is scheduled for completion next year and will produce as much as 6,450 megawatts of power.

Isaias traveled to Cairo in November to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, when the two discussed deepening relations, the Cairo-based Daily News Egypt newspaper reported.

Ethiopia’s government has said forces receiving support from Egypt and Eritrea are trying to destabilize the country. In October, Communications Minister Getachew Reda said the banned Oromo Liberation Front received financing and training from Egypt. In March, Ethiopian security forces killed 13 members of a rebel group that the government said had crossed into the country from Eritrea.

Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of armed struggle. The two countries fought again in 1998-2000 over the disputed territory of Badme on their border in a conflict that left at least 50,000 people dead.

Read more here