Family of Ethiopian-Israeli man held by Hamas receives video of his crossing into Gaza

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The family of an Ethiopian-Israeli man held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after he voluntarily crossed the border fence was given a copy of video footage showing his crossing.

Avraham Abera Mengistu, 30, of Ashkelon, is believed to have voluntarily climbed over the security fence between Israel and Gaza in September 2014, and has not been heard from since. He is mentally ill, according to his family.

Mengistu immigrated with his family to Israel in 1991 when he was 5-years-old.

The Israel army turned the security video footage over to the family on Saturday night, The Times of Israel reported. The family reportedly saw the footage in the months after Mengistu went missing, but in January requested a copy of it. The exchange was reportedly was approved by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot.

Hamas has tacitly admitted through video posted on social media that it holds Mengistu, as well as a Bedouin-Israeli man who is also said to be mentally ill and to have crossed into Gaza. Hamas additionally holds the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul, killed during Operation Protective Edge . Read more here

Ethiopia confirms 8 nationals missing in London tower inferno

The Ethiopia government says eight British nationals with Ethiopian origin are still missing in an inferno that engulfed a high rise residential apartment in London.

The Ethiopian Embassy in the United Kingdom (UK) through its Twitter handle had on Thursday confirmed that a number of Ethiopians were among the casualties. ‘‘We can confirm that there are a number of Ethiopian-born citizens among the casualties,’‘ a June 15 statement read.

An updated statement issued on Friday, June 16, provided details of some of the missing persons. Amongst others: mother and son Berikti and Biruk Habtom, five-year-old Isaac Paulos, and Hashim Kidir, his wife and their three children.

I cannot imagine what these families must be going through right now. This has hit home, especially because we know these families.

The Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK, Hailemichael Aberra Afework visited families of the affected persons to offer the government’s support.

‘‘I cannot imagine what these families must be going through right now. This has hit home, especially because we know these families. The Embassy and the Ethiopian community stands united at this difficult time and is providing ongoing support to them,’‘ he said.

The latest update from the Metropolitan Police on the Grenfell Tower Block incident is that 30 fatalities had been confirmed with 24 others in hospital – 12 of who are said to be in critical condition.

The 24-storey building in West London dates back to the 1970s and had recently been refurbished. The head of London’s fire service said in nearly 30 years of service, he’d never seen anything like this.

The estate in a multi-ethnic area of London forms a recognisable part of the capital’s skyline. As the fire tore upwards and sideways through the building, trapped residents could be seen desperately seeking help.

More than 70 have been treated in several hospitals. Appeals have gone out on social media of the news of those missing. Many local people have rushed to help while churches, mosques and temples have opened their doors. Read more here

U.S. TO BLAME FOR ETHIOPIA BORDER CONFLICT THAT KILLED 70,000, SAYS ERITREA'S PRESIDENT

Eritrea’s president has blamed Washington for ongoing tensions between his country and neighboring Ethiopia, which have been in a state of near-conflict for almost two decades.

Isaias Afwerki, who has led the authoritarian regime in Eritrea since it gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, wrote a letter to unnamed heads of state earlier in June, requesting support in overturning a U.N. Security Council arms embargo in place since 2009, according to state-run media outlet Shabait.

Afwerki urged the heads of state to use their influence at the Security Council to reverse the arms embargo, which was put in place after the U.N. claimed that the Eritrean regime was supporting Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, Al-Shabab.

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Eritrea fought a 30-year independence war against Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991, finally achieving self-rule in a U.N.-sponsored referendum in 1993.

Full-scale war broke out between the two countries in 1998 over the status of the border town of Badme, and an estimated 70,000 people were killed in the war. Since the conflict ended in 2000, relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia have been characterized as “no war, no peace.”

Read more: “Eritrea is a mutant copy of North Korea”— a reporter speaks on the land of no journalists

“The ‘border dispute’ was a simple ruse as the boundary between the two countries was defined and determined without any ambiguity in colonial times. But Washington feverishly worked at the time, through the State Department, to drive a wedge between the two peoples who have deep historical and strategic ties in order to foment a crisis and micromanage the affairs of the Horn of Africa,” said Afwerki in the letter, according to Shabait.

In 2009, the United Nations imposed an open-ended arms embargo on the supply of all arms and military equipment to and from Eritrea. The country is already isolated with few international allies and has been dubbed Africa’s North Korea for the authoritarian tactics of Afwerki’s regime and the absence of a free press.

The arms embargo was imposed after the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia found that Eritrea had provided political, financial and logistical support to Al-Shabab, which is waging a war against Somalia’s Western-backed federal government.

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki addresses the 66th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters, in New York, September 23, 2011. Afwerki has blamed the U.S. for stoking a border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia.CHIP EAST/REUTERS

Afwerki said that the U.S. and its allies had “concocted a fictitious case...to impose unwarranted sanctions against the country.” The Eritrean president said that it was “high time” for the sanctions to be lifted and for the “incessant attacks” against his country to come to an end.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea remain tense. The Ethiopian government has accused Eritrea of fomenting widespread protests in the Oromia region, which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa. Protests broke out in November 2015, and hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have also traded accusations about an alleged attempted attack on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a flagship project of the government in Addis Ababa that will be the biggest hydropower dam in Africa when complete. Ethiopia claimed that 20 members of an Eritrean-backed rebel movement were arrested while trying to damage the dam, but Eritrea rejected the accusations as “preposterous.”

The U.S. State Department imposed further sanctions on Eritrea’s navy earlier in 2017 after a U.N. sanctions monitoring body said it had found a shipment of North Korean-made military communications equipment leaving Pyongyang for Eritrea in 2016. The U.S. proscribes trading in certain types of military equipment with North Korea, Syria and Iran

Read more here

London fire: Two Ethiopian families still missing

Several British nationals of Ethiopian origin are still missing after the huge fire in a tower block in West London, says the Ethiopian embassy in the UK.

They are mother and son Brkite and Biruk Haftom, and Hashim Kidir, his wife and their three children. Isaac Shawo, five, has been confirmed dead.

At least 30 people are known to have died and 12 are in critical care.

The police say that at the moment there is no evidence that the blaze was started deliberately.

"I cannot imagine what these families must be going through right now. This has hit home because we know these families " said Ethiopia's ambassador to the UK Hailemichael Aberra Aferwork after visiting some of those affected.

Brkite and Biruk Haftom lived in Flat 155 of Grenfell Tower.

Family friend Dejan Araya says Brkite's sister and friend have been searching hospitals for news of their whereabouts and are inconsolable.

Dejan Araya said the last time there was any contact with them was at around 22:00 BST on the night of the fire. Read more here

Professor Asrat Woldeyes: The father of All Amhara people

Asrat Woldeyes (Amharic: አስራት ወልደየስ ; June 20, 1928 – May 14, 1999) was an Ethiopian surgeon, a professor of medicine at Addis Ababa University, and the founder and leader of the All-Amhara People's Organization (AAPO). He was jailed by the Derg and later by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). After his death, The Guardian described him as "successively Ethiopia's most distinguished surgeon, physician and university dean, most controversial political party leader and best 

Asrat studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, becoming the first Ethiopian to qualify as a surgeon in the West. He then returned to Ethiopia, serving as Emperor Haile Selassie's personal physician until his 1974 death. He continued teaching and practicing medicine throughout the rule of President Mengistu Haile-Mariam.

When Meles Zenawi succeeded Mengistu in 1991, Asrat became an active critic of the government, particularly of Meles' formation of new autonomous regions in Ethiopia. He then formed his own political party, the AAPO, with a central tenet of restoring Ethiopian unity. In 1994, he was sentenced to two years in prison for "planning violence against the state". International human rights organizations protested the evidence against him as unsound, and Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience. He was later convicted of more charges, extending his sentence by an additional three years. In 1996, Asrat faced a new trial which was repeatedly adjourned, keeping him in prison indefinitely.

In 1998, Asrat, who had previously had bypass surgery, developed further heart problems, and government doctors stated that he needed treatment overseas to survive. However, the Ethiopian government initially denied him permission to travel, triggering international appeals on his behalf. On December 25, 1998, authorities yielded to international pressure, granting him a compassionate release and allowing him treatment in Houston. Though his treatment was at first successful, Asrat died five months later of his heart ailment at the University of Pennsylvania hospital in Philadelphia.