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Ethiopian Northern Command Troops Were Asleep
I am not sure who the president of Sudan was then, but I think it was Ismaiel AlAzhari when a propaganda war followed the 1967 Arab-Israel war. Soon a joke circulated quoting claiming the Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, said, ‘we can occupy Sudan while the people are eating their breakfast.’ The Sudanese are known…
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The Horn of Africa: From Unitarianism to Medemerism
Sifting through endless mazes of social media outlets to find a discourse that engages one’s intellectual faculty requires ample patience and restraints of the highest order. The attendant subject matter, namely, The Horn of Africa, is no exception in that it has proliferated in magnitude, in volume, proportional to the virtual world at large. When…
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Eritrea: A Classic African dictator took over (Book Review)
Book Reviewer: Chefena Hailemariam Bjork, Christina. 2019. Eritrea: A Classic African dictator took over. Themes, Stockholm. ISBN 978-91-985588-0-7 Christina Bjork’s book which made its debut in 2019 is about the history of modern Eritrea with a focus on the armed struggle. Her book comprises of twelve sections of personal narratives drawn from her in depth…
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Abyssinians And Arabs Have Similar Traits
Happy New Year, Aamkum Mubarek, RHuus Haddish Aamet, Bekitet Haddas Senet lideyya, Feliches neues Jahr, Feliz Agno Nuevo, Felice Anno Nuovo, Bonne Annee, Melkam Addis Aamet The following are today’s topics of Negarit 114: 1. The Arab and Abyssinian counting of time is similar, and the origin of Gregorian calendar. 2. A popular saying, if…
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Eritrea 2020: The Peace Dividend is War
What follows is a synopsis of what transpired in, and to, Eritrea and Eritreans in 2020. Retrospectives are selective, reflecting the author’s bias so, forewarned, it will not include lines like “The Habela-Cheatat road construction has begun. When finished, it will reduce the Asmara-Akordet distance by 20 kilometers.” There are people who do a good…
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Behind The News of The Capture of Humera
A few days after the fall of Humera in Tigrai last November, Eritrean and Amhara region militia forces seized an arms cache in the town. According to our source, the forces didn’t search for too long to find the secret storage place, “they must have had prior knowledge of where the arms were hidden.” The…
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News and Information, Life and Property
My generation grew up consuming news. In Teashops, particularly in the morning, radios blasting, news bulletins from BBC Arabic, VoA, Monte Carlo, and many others. Every artisan on the streets had radios on the shopfronts. Each day I walked to school through the textile and grocery shops, tailors, tin artifact makers who made pots (jebena),…
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Gallantry at Halhal
[The following is chapter 20 from Saleh “Gadi” Johar’s book, “Of Kings and Bandits.” First republished on September 8, 2014 to commemorate the Battle Battle of Halhal which happened on September 6, 1968, on Dec, 17, 2020, the chapter was presented again on the authors YouTube channel in an abridged form as Negarit 112, Omer Ezaz, one…
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Do Ethiopian Love Their Country?
It’s safe to say Ethiopians love their country more than their people. In fact, the ever warring political and military elite do not seem to mind eradicating the people and destroying the country and as long they are assured of ruling the rubble that’s left behind. Eight-hundred years of governing patterns attest to that. The…
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Eritrean Refugees: Fifty Years of Injustice
[Editor’s note: This content was first published on Feb 15, 2017.] The Eritrean refugee’s story is a difficult one to tell. Eritrean refugees in the Sudan made history twenty years ago, by becoming the longest stayed displaced refugees in the world. The length of time, the relatively friendly atmosphere accorded to most refugees by the…
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The Massacre of Ona and Besekdira: When Scars Replace Wounds
Almost all my generation carry scars on their upper arms. Scars left from the crude type of vaccinations: smallpox, Measles, typhoid, TB, Yellow fever, etc. I say crude because it was not a drop on the tangue, or a pinch with a small needle. They use huge syringe and keep emptying it on your arm.…
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The Two-Pronged Ethiopian Civil War: Propaganda and Bombs
Gedab news learned that Eritrean refugees in May-Aini and Adi-Harish refugee camps in Tigray, have not faced major displacement. The refugees are still in the camps where UNHCR is expected to reestablish its presence very soon. Workers of the Refugee agency in the camps, mostly Tigrayans, fled the camps when the war between the Ethiopian federal forces and regional…
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The Sixth and Seventh Kings of Ethiopia
A man from Keren arrived in Asmara and headed to the neighborhood where his relatives lived. Though he had seen the house long ago, he was not sure exactly where in was. Then he saw his relatives’ son sitting on the stairs of a door. He kissed the boy and asked if his parents were…
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A Miserable Country Goes to War with Itself
Say what you will about outgoing president Trump, and despite the messenger, there are many countries in the word that fit this description, and the country in question is one of them. An epitome of the description. It is a country that recently decided to go to war with itself. I will not name this…
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Ethnic Profiling of Tigrayans in Ethiopia
Ethiopian security forces are carrying out an extensive ethnic profiling and arresting Tigrayans, particularly in Addis Ababa and other major cities. The arrested also include Eritreans. Tigrayans and Eritreans are known as Tigre, a term that means those who hail from Semen, the Northern part from central Ethiopia. Eritreans are caught in the ethnic battles because of the compass…
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What Follows Condemnation?
The dead do not hear. One can whisper, shout, scream, and call a dead person, but you do not get an answer. And like a dead person, the leaders of our region do not listen. I have concluded long ago that they have become prisoners of the social media simply because they cannot control it.…
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Ethiopian War Exhibit In Triangles
Triangle-shaped structures are sturdy but also simple. In 1998-2000 war broker around the Eritrean village of Baddme, in the area the Ethiopians called Yirga Triangle. And today the initial devastating results of the current Ethiopian ethnic war is seen in a triangle whose three corners are the towns of Humera and Mettema (Ethiopia), Gellabat and…
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A Book Review of “Desecrators of the Sacred Trust”
Review by Semere T Habtemariam Title: Desecrators of the Sacred Trust: The Apotheoses of Donald J. Trump and Isaias Afwerki, Two Preening Would Be Kings and their Dark Agendas. Author: Bereket Habte Selassie Publisher: authorhouse Year: 2020, Pages: 183 In Desecrators of the Sacred Trust, Dr. Bereket Habte Selassie has the audacity to compare an elephant…
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Rejecting Wars– A Matchstick in The Horn of Africa
My call for participation from the friends of Negarit is very encouraging. I got a few worthy comments and feedback. They are gems. Imagine if we share all that we know? I am encouraged and I will not stop reminding you to share your knowledge. Thank you and keep them coming.Oh! Before I forget. I…
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Isaias Afwerki’s “Secret Letter” To Donald Trump
[This article was first posted on November 9, 2016 under a title “Mistirawit Debdabe.”] Eight years ago, on November 8, 2008, I published Isaias’ congratulatory letter to the then president elect, Obama. Today I am publishing Isaias’ congratulatory letter to president elect Donald Trump. You will notice the two letters seem to have been written…
