Ethiopia: IOM Assists Grenade Attack Victims Back Home The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa) 16 March 2008 Biruk Girma Addis Ababa The International Organization for Migrants (IOM) on Wednsday said it brought home 33 Ethiopians who were victims of a grenade attack in Somalia's port town of Bossasso in early February as well as their close relatives. The organization 21 of the 33 suffered mainly from bone fractures or limb amputations and in need of urgent hospitalization. The returnees, all men except for one woman, are from southwestern and northern part of Ethiopia. The attack on 6 February killed 22 people and wounded another 74, mostly Ethiopian migrants wanting to make the perilous sea crossing across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen using smuggling networks. The journey across the Gulf of Aden is particularly dangerous with 1,400 migrants reported dead or missing in 2007 alone, according to UNHCR. IOM said large numbers of Ethiopian migrants still remain in Bossasso despite the change in weather making sea crossings too dangerous for small boats. "We have yet to trace the families of all the bomb victims," Bill Lorenz IOM's operations Officer for the region, said in a statement. "Some of the migrants are still traumatized by what has happened to them and are nervous about coming home. We're hoping that being back in Ethiopia will help lessen their trauma and that will help us to link them to their families," he added. Together with UNHCR, UNOCHA and the Danish Refugee Council, IOM offices in the region have been working to provide assistance and information to migrants traveling to Bossasso in Somalia's Puntland, a major human smuggling hotspot for Somalis and Ethiopians seeking either protection or better work opportunities in the Gulf and beyond. In an effort to combat illegal migration of Ethiopians, IOM has begun a new counter-smuggling and counter-trafficking information campaign targeting potential migrants in rural Ethiopia, the organization said.

Fake gold suspects denied bail in Ethiopia (Reuters)

21 March 2008

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia’s federal court denied bail on Friday for 27 suspects in a $17 million fake gold scandal at the country’s central bank. The National Bank of Ethiopia was ordered to check all its gold deposits last week after a consignment of bars shipped to South Africa was found to include gold-plated steel. ‘The charge is too complex and involves a number of people in a criminal case that requires more time to investigate,’ the court in Addis Ababa said in its ruling. ‘We have decided the suspects should remain in custody for a further 15 days. The case is adjourned until April 7.’ The accused, who include 11 bank employees, were brought to the courtroom by armed police. The other suspects are workers from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia, which was meant to test and certify the gold deposits, and businessmen thought to have profited from the scam. They are all charged with causing a $17 million loss to the bank. Thousands of artisanal miners in south and southeast Ethiopia extract alluvial gold, which is supposed to be checked by the Geological Survey before it is sold to the National Bank, South Africa & China.