Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Luanda, Angola, on April 29-May 5 to encourage democratic development, promote respect for human rights, advance peace and security, engage with civil society and young African leaders who will shape the continent’s future, and promote trade, investment and development partnerships in Africa.
Authorities in Ethiopia have in the last 24 hours detained several bloggers and a freelance journalist , social media sources have said.
Detainees include a group of young bloggers who created the blog Zone9, a namesake for different numbered zones in Ethiopia’s notorious jail Kality, where several other journalists are serving jail sentences.
Seasoned journalist Tesfalem Waldyes is also among the detainees. After Addis Neger, the newspaper Tsefalem was writing for, was shut and its editors exiled, Tesfalem went to Uganda for a journalism fellowship where he continued to freelance for a leading Ethiopian local newspaper, Fortune. Tesfalem came to Ethiopia two years ago and continued freelancing for different newspapers and magazines including Addis Standard. His article on the woes of the textile industry in Ethiopia will be published in the May edition of Addis Standard.
Mahlet Fasil
The third Tana High Level Forum, scheduled to take place in the the lake side city of Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara regional state 578km North of Addis Ababa, will be discussing the impacts of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in and out of Africa on the continent’s security, organizers say.
A seminar organized by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) brought senior policy makers from across Africa on 09–10 April in Addis Ababa and debated capital flight from Africa, which is considered to be one of the continent’s most pressing subjects today.
