Najum Mushtaq
27 May 2008
Nairobi — The May edition of popular Ethiopian entertainment magazine Enku did not appear on newsstands as scheduled this month.
Ethiopian police impounded all 10,000 copies before they could be distributed; Alemayehu Mahtemework, the magazine's publisher and deputy editor, was charged with threatening public order and spent five days in detention, along with three of his staff.
Serkalem Fasil, a journalist who was herself imprisoned by the Meles Zenawi government for writing articles critical of the conduct of the 2005 parliamentary elections, believes that the police action against the magazine was intended to send out a message to the media in general.
"The suppression of Ethiopia's free press is probably the most overlooked story in Africa," says Fasil whose exposés on election-rigging were followed by her arrest in November 2005 along with her brother, husband and a dozen others on charges of genocide and treason. Pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gave birth to her baby in jail -- she would not be released for 18 months.
The charges against Alemayehu stem from Enku's cover story for May, a feature on the arrest and trial of one of the country's most popular singers, Tewodros Kassahun. Better known to Ethiopians as Teddy Afro, the singer appeared in court on April 23, where he pleaded not guilty to involvement in a hit-and-run accident in November 2006.
Razak Adam, an Ethiopian development worker based in Nairobi, says that anywhere else in the world, Kassahun's trial might simply be a story of celebrity misdeeds, but in Ethiopia, it is widely viewed as politically motivated. His music and public statements are critical of government policies and his April court appearance sparked impromptu protests in Addis Ababa, involving thousands of his fans, mostly teenagers. Such protests are a rare sight in the tightly-controlled Ethiopian capital. A similar spontaneous protest took place at the Adidas Ababa Stadium on May 4, when many of the 35,000 fans at the 16th African Athletics Championships began chanting "Free Teddy" slogans after Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele won the 5,000 meter race.
"In Ethiopia, the story is deeply political and complex as it reflects not only the precarious state of press freedom; it also raises some other critical but unaddressed issues which are pulling Ethiopian society apart," Adam told IPS.
These simmering issues encompass Ethiopia's past as well as its present. Kassahun sings tunes and lyrics that challenge ethnic and religious divisions in society. His 2005 hit, Yasteseryal ("redemption" in Amharic) was used by opposition parties as their anthem to rally the public against the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The video for the song includes images of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the Derg -- the repressive military government that succeeded the emperor -- and the present leadership under Zenawi; the lyrics suggest that the regimes have changed, but the people still suffer. Since then, Kassahun's music has been banned from all state-controlled media.
To most of his listeners, though, Kassahun is a hero. By giving coverage to his trial, Mahtemework and his avowedly non-political magazine attracted the hostile attention of the government. Mahtemework says Enku has been routinely censored by its government-owned printer since it began covering Teddy Afro's music in December, but he did not anticipate his arrest or the confiscation of his magazine. "Ever since the third issue of our magazine, we have been subjected to censorship by the printer. We expected to be told that the coverage of the Tewodros Kassahun's trial would not pass the censors, but the impounding was a surprise to us."
The Enku episode is a continuation of the crackdown on independent media. Serkalem Fasil -- arrested in 2005 -- was not released until April 2007, when she was acquitted on all charges. But heavy fines had already been imposed on the three newspapers published by her company, Serkalem Publishing House, and they were eventually closed down. Though there is no legal justification, the government is refusing to grant her licences to start new newspapers.
The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, along with Fasil, led the campaign for the release of Enku's editor. International press freedom watchdogs also swiftly condemned the government's actions against Enku and its staff.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Mahtemework's arrest and Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation that fights censorship and defends journalists, issued a statement saying, "The Ethiopian authorities have sent a very negative signal by choosing the eve... of World Press Freedom Day to arrest a journalist and seize an issue of an independent magazine." The organisation threatened to put Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi back on a list of what it calls "press freedom predators"; Zenawi was taken off the list in 2007, in recognition of an improvement in the media freedom in Ethiopia.
Despite his arrest and the charges pending against him, Mahtemework remained positive. "My morale is good. We want to continue publishing, but all our working capital is invested in the monthly issue which has been impounded... our hands are tied."
The onslaught against Enku cannot be seen in isolation from the wider political and cultural problems in Ethiopia. The Teddy Afro affair and the Enku episode are symptoms of the government's aversion to even a hint of dissent.
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ETHIOPIA: Soaring malnutrition hits children hardest.
ROPHI, OROMIYA, 28 May 2008 (IRIN) - Genetu Dekebo's children were on the verge of starvation at the time she decided to seek treatment at Rophi therapeutic feeding centre in southern Ethiopia's Oromiya regional state.
"We could no longer find enough food and were eating one meal a day," the 35-year-old mother of four from Serraro woreda (district) in West Arsi zone, said on 26 May. "The children became weak [and] I saw my neighbour's child die."
Five months earlier, Genetu had delivered her fourth boy, and she was yet to fully recover from the effects of that pregnancy. "We have been here for two weeks receiving treatment," she told IRIN at the centre. "The one with swollen legs is now much better."
Her children were among a few hundred at the tented centre, located in a remote area about 350 km south of the capital, Addis Ababa. The centre is managed by the medical charities Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Greece and the Missionaries of Charity.
"The problem in the [Serraro] woreda is quite extensive," Sally Stevenson, MSF-Greece country representative said. Her organisation was also conducting outreach programmes to try and stem the problem.
Recently, the charity conducted a rapid weight for height assessment in the area and found severe acute malnutrition prevalence at a dramatic 11.6 percent - nine percent above the threshold of two percent.
"We found very high rates of severe malnutrition here and in response, launched the interventions," she told IRIN, referring to MSF-Greece's feeding centres at Rophi and Senbete, and the outreach programmes. "We have over 600 children in the programmes."
In a catalogue of dozens of nutrition surveys in Ethiopia over the last few years prepared by the Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DDPC), only one result shows a higher rate of severe acute malnutrition. A rate of 15.4 percent was found among a population at a resettlement site in 2003.
Among normal rural populations, the MSF-Greece figure is the highest since the DPPC catalogue began in 2000.
"There are a range of compounding problems - lack of rain, a fairly food insecure area and increasing prices," Stevenson said. "In the outreach programme, we had over 200 children after only two days."
Gains at risk
Ethiopia, aid workers say, has been hit by drought and rising prices that have once again caused massive food shortages. For example, the costs of some cereals have increased between 50-90 percent since September, stretching the ability of some households to meet their food needs.
"The combined effects of drought, food price hikes, and insufficient resources for preventive measures resulted in an emergency that jeopardises significant child survival gains in Ethiopia," Bjorn Ljungqvist, the representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said.
Up to 3.4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, while an estimated 126,000 children are in need of urgent treatment for severe malnutrition. Among children under five years of age, six million face the risk of acute malnutrition - mostly in impoverished, drought-prone districts.
"Instead of a couple of thousand, we have 33,000 children in therapeutic care, which means they are admitted because of severe acute malnutrition," Bjorn told IRIN.
According to Ethiopia's national demographic and health survey, a significant number of children in the country suffer chronic malnutrition. UNICEF, in its 'State of the World's Children 2008: Child Survival' report, noted a 'dramatic achievement' of a 40 percent reduction in under-five mortality between 1990 and 2006.
The current situation, aid workers warn, could reverse these gains. "I was in Serraro last Monday [19 May]; children are severely malnourished and one died before I left the place," Miesso Nebi, director of the Centre for Development Initiative, a local NGO, said following a visit to Shashemene, a major town not far from Rophi.
Sheshamene general hospital had, over a three-week period, admitted 40 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and other complications, and recorded 16 fatalities.
Another NGO, Concern Worldwide, found that drought had severely affected people in Ethiopia's rural south, forcing many to eat the seeds that they would have planted for this year.
"The only crop that is growing widely is 'enset', a banana-like plant native to Ethiopia and resistant to drought," the NGO said in a 26 May report titled 'When the rains don't fall'.
"Its root is ground up to make bread as well as a gruel or porridge. It may look healthier than the rest but it doesn't contain the nutrients people need to survive."
Even where some planting had taken place, the maize and beans had withered and died. "All around, the leaves of coffee and eucalyptus trees are turning silver as they burn in the scorching heat," Concern noted. "Some have dug up their fields already and replanted in the hope that the summer 'Mahar' rains won't let them down as the 'Belg' rains have."
Inadequate resources
In 2004, drought-prone Ethiopia launched an outreach strategy, in conjunction with aid agencies, to provide supplementary feeding for 5.8 million children under five, and 1.6 million expectant and breast-feeding mothers in 10 regions.
The strategy, however, did not stem the malnutrition crisis. "The families failed to give enough food to their children," Bjorn commented. "The children [ended up with] severe acute malnutrition."
The situation is compounded by inadequate resources. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), for example, is short of over 38,000 tonnes of corn-soya blend for both relief and targeted supplementary feeding programmes.
"Recent nutritional surveys carried out by regional offices of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency together with UNICEF and NGOs are showing alarming and increasing nutrition levels," WFP warned on 13 May.
UNICEF, on the other hand, asked for US$20 million for emergency nutrition alone, but has received only five percent so far.
"Resource shortfalls are stretching the capacity of the humanitarian community to respond fully to the current crisis including the need for more qualified staff," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
"UN agencies and NGOs expect that the situation will continue to deteriorate without the immediate allocation of resources required to carry out life-saving interventions."
OCHA highlighted the situation in Oromiya, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, and the Somali Region, where drought, shortage of medical supplies, and a limited response have made matters worse.
"I am deeply concerned about the food security situation in Ethiopia, and the consequent increasing numbers of malnourished children, as a result of the current drought," John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said.
"We will need a rapid scaling up of resources, especially food and nutritional supplies, to make increased life-saving aid a reality," he added. "As elsewhere, the rising global costs of fuel and basic staples are posing hardship for Ethiopia's people - especially the poorest."
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