Daily Ethiopia

A group of 27 tourists travelling in the Afar Regional State were attacked by gunmen
last Tuesday at around three in the morning. Five European tourists were killed, four injured and two tourists and two Ethiopians were kidnapped.

There can be no doubt of Eritrea’s responsibility for January 16th attack, which claimed the lives of five tourists in Eastern Ethiopia close to the border with Eritrea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Ethiopian Airlines strongly refutes the final investigation report released today by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Works and Transport on the accident of ET 409 / 25 January 2010.

The Eritrean regime is continuing to recycle its accusations against the world at large, producing what is by now almost pro forma invective against what it calls Eritrea's 'sworn enemies'.

Last week the Kenyan forces captured Fafadun, killing Al-Shabaab’s commander in Gedo, Sheikh Hussein Hassan. Sheikh Hussein was one of those who went for training with the Taliban in the mid 1990s, and he is said to have been a close aide of Sheikh Ali Dheere and Al-Shabaab’s Emir, Abdi Godane. He has been replaced by Sheikh Mohamed Bishaar who is reportedly building up forces for a counter-attack on the town at Taraqa, 15 kilometres outside Fafadun bringing in reinforcements from Bardheere 70 kms away.

On Tuesday this week, the Sudanese justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa appointed a special prosecutor for Darfur and announced a special court to handle the "gravest" crimes committed in the Darfur region would be established soon.

Sunrise Community Banks, a group of businesses providing money transfers between Minnesota where the largest Somali community in the US resides, and Somalia, has announced that it is re-opening its "hawala" service to allow transfers in small dollar amounts.

Last week, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) organized a conference for media owners, managers of radio and TV stations, journalists and others. It was the first such meeting, and among those present were journalists and officials from Kulmiye Radio, Xamar Radio, Jubba Radio, Risaala Radio, Raxanreeb Radio-a web-based radio, Codka Nabadda Radio, Danan Radio, Simba Radio, Somali Chanel Television, Horn Cable Television, Royal Television, S24 Television and Somali National Television and Radio.

As we have pointed out last week, for the New Year, President Isaias Afeworki gave a lengthy briefing on a wide range of issues to his people. In addition to his marathon lecture on far-flung issues of the world at large, of little or no relevance to Eritreans' central concerns of how their affairs are actually managed by the small cabal of trouble-makers that surround their ‘dear leader', he did also find time to talk at length on regional as well as domestic issues.

The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has appealed to the US Government over the decision by a U.S. Bank to close down its money transfer services to Somalia from the US. Sunrise Community Banks, a group of businesses providing money transfers between Minnesota, the home of the largest Somali community in the US, and Somalia, ended the service on December 30th over fear that it risked violating U.S. regulatory and anti-terrorism finance laws.