April 20, 2013 — Over 300 Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers came together in Norway to protest against the Ethiopian regime, which was holding a fundraising drive for the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, sources disclosed.

Over 300 Ethiopians protested against Ethiopian regime in Norway -Photo: Jarle Aasland

Over 300 Ethiopian demonstrators humiliate Ethiopian regime in Norway - Photo: Jarle Aasland

Following the death of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, western columnist, analysts, and diplomats weighed in on how to define his legacy. Unfortunately, within a matter of hours of his death, it became apparent the truth of his destructive legacy was being buried in a pile of lies.

Notwithstanding his diminutive size, Meles was your typical African bigman. Since coming to power in a military coup on May 28, 1991, Meles proclaimed an Albanian-style administration and promised "three meals a day" in a country ravaged by successive man-made famines.

Did he deliver? No.

After 21 years of his administration, millions of Ethiopians are still starving; there is no democracy to speak of; human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings have become the norm, as a result, over 320,000 Ethiopians flee the country annually — the highest figure in Africa.

In the end, for all Meles' pretensions of ideological revolution and professed commitment to ruling within democratic and institutional frameworks, his regime became an old-fashioned ruthless dictatorship, who only handed out key security posts to his kins and trusted loyalists.

Instead of bombarding readers with a long-winded explanation on why Meles' tenure was so destructive, we thought it would be more insightful to use credible data to best sum up his legacy. After all, numbers never lie, people with opinions do.


Meles' legacy on Health and Education

1) A staggering 70% of Ethiopian adults can not read or write.

2) Life expectancy in Ethiopia remains at a dismal 54 year average, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)

3) According to the WHO, 15% of Ethiopian adults (12 million people) suffer from mental illness. Yet there is only one psychiatric clinic in the country.

Meles' Legacy on Addis Ababa:


4) According to the UN, Addis Ababa has one of the highest densities of slum dwellers in the world.

5) One in twelve women in Addis Ababa (150,000) are involved in prostitution, according to the government's own statistics.

6) 150,000 children in Addis Ababa live on the streets, according to UNICEF

Meles' Legacy on Telecommunication and Press

7) In order to suppress dissidents, only 1.1% Ethiopians have access to the internet, the lowest figure in Africa.

8) Less than 17% Ethiopians have a mobile phone, the second lowest rate in Africa.

9) Since 2001, at least 79 journalists have been forced to flee Ethiopia  — the highest figure worldwide  — according to the Committee to Protect Journalist.

 Meles' Economic legacy:

10) Contrary to its claim of having a runaway double-digit GDP growth rate for a decade, the United Nations ranks Ethiopia as the second poorest country in the world.

11) As a result of Ethiopia's high employment figures, over 320,000 Ethiopian refugees flee the country each year —  the highest figure in Africa.

12) Since 2001, Ethiopia lost over 3.3 billion to corruption, bribery and kickbacks, according to the latest Global Financial Integrity study.

Meles' notorious human rights violations:

13) In 2003, Meles ordered the massacres of over 400 people belonging to the Anuak ethnic group in Ethiopia's Gambella region.

14) In 2005, after Ethiopians came out to demonstrate the rigged elections, Meles security forces shot and killed 193 citizens, wounded 763 more and detained 50,000 people.

15) Since 2007, the Meles-led regime is responsible for the deaths of at least 100,000 civilians in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, making it the world's largest ongoing genocide.

Dictator Meles Zenawi - 1956-2012 (57) - Photo: AFP

Meles Zenawi's legacy: a failed Ethiopian state

Meles' Legacy: over 150,000 Ethiopian children sleep in the streets of Addis Ababa

March 25, 2013 —The Amhara Democratic Movement Force is a rebel group created after thousands of people in the Amhara region were imprisoned and executed by the regime.

Claiming peaceful struggle and change has been closed off by the ruling party, the group's mission is to bring a democratic political process and independent institutions to Ethiopia.

Although not as big as Tigray Peoples Democratic Movement, or as well known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the ADMF is one of the fastest-growing rebel groups in the region.

In late September, ADMF, along with 5 other Ethiopian democratic rebel groups, formed an alliance to unseat the TPLF dictatorship in Addis Ababa through the use of force.

Established in 2002, the AMDF is headquartered in neighboring Eritrea, with clandestine support bases throughout Ethiopia, particularly in the Gonder region; where most of the fighters hail from.

Amhara Democratic Movement Force

Amhara Democratic Movement Force

Amhara Democratic Movement Force

Amhara Democratic Movement Force

Amhara Democratic Movement Force

March 24, 2013 — A total of 29 Ethiopian commando forces, who were trained in Blaten Special Force Institute, have defected to neighboring Eritrea.

The soldiers vowed they will liberate Ethiopia from what they say is an oppressive and ruthless dictatorship, according to their communiqué released on Saturday.

Ethiopia is no stranger to high profile military defections. In 2005, eight Ethiopian air force pilots, who were training in Israel, defected and claimed asylum at an Eritrean embassy in Israel.

Similarly, in 2006, over 300 Ethiopian troops, including Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu, along with his trusted colonels, defected to Eritrea. 

Ethiopian commando forces defect to Eritrea and vow to unseat Ethiopian regime

March 18, 2012 — Thousands of Ethiopian refugees are being held captive for ransom in the border regions of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to Mohammed Najad, a Yemeni security official.

Making the situation worse are Saudi news channels who have aired a series of documentaries in late February that depict Ethiopian refugees as gangs involved in illicit activities.

As a result, many Saudis and Yemeni vigilante groups have sprung up near their common border, under the guise of defending their territories but in reality, most are there to take Ethiopian migrants captive for ransom.

Fleeing from economic hardship and a repressive dictatorship in Ethiopia, the Middle East is seen as a place where young Ethiopians can earn a higher standard of living to support their families back home.

Despite the dangerous risks involved, over 84,000 Ethiopian refugees cross the traitorous waters of the Gulf of Aden each year, according to the United Nation’s refugee agency.

Once in Yemen, most Ethiopians head straight for the Yemeni-Saudi border, where bandits, vigilantes, and smugglers frequently hold migrants captive and demand thousands of dollars in ransom for their release.

A recent report by UNHCR reveals thousands of Ethiopian men, women and children are being held captive for extortion on both sides of the Yemeni-Saudi border by armed criminal gangs and vigilantes.

The gangs use rape and torture against their victims to make their families pay for their release. Those who fail to have their ransom paid are killed and their organs harvested for sale on the black market.

“It was horrible. If your ransom wasn't paid, they tortured and raped you,” recounted one of the victims, who requested anonymity. “I am lucky I was able to flee. My friends who came with me were killed."

Ethiopian refugee tied to a tree by his Arab captors in Saudi Arabia

Ethiopian refugee tortured and burned dead by his Arab captors in Saudi Arabia

Captured Ethiopian refugees watch their fellow countrymen dragged by a truck in Saudi Arabia

Video: Armed Saudi gangs beating Ethiopian refugees and holding them captive for ransom.

Video: Ethiopian refugees beaten by armed Saudi vigilante group.

March 4, 2012

DURAME  —  Recently, the Ethiopian regime has been spreading misinformation about a 99-floor building proposal in Addis Ababa through social networking sites and websites loyal to the regime. According to report being circulated around the web, the proposed hotel tower will be a project developed by the Guangdong Chuan Hui Group (GCHG) and will consist of 99 floors and rise to a total height of 448 meters. Despite the report being described as a 'press release', no such press release was issued by the Chinese company in question. Strangely enough, the tower renderings used with this report was made by Lifang, a Chinese website that specializes in architectural visualization that has no connection to Ethiopia or GCHG.

If the story sounds too fishy, it should. This isn't the first time Ethiopians have been hoodwinked by the corrupt Ethiopian regime. In 2010, a similar 'press release' was presented through the same unofficial backdoor channels that claimed the GCHG had started construction on a 58-floor hotel tower in Addis Ababa that was later found out to be fabricated. In that press release, a Shanghai hotel building was used as the rendering for that report, which explains why the letters of the hotel tower were made in Chinese instead of Amharic (see second picture below).

The fact is, most of the development the government says it will build never materializes. Even the buildings it manages to complete usually fall short of international safety standards and have been described as being 'ugly steel-and-glass tower blocks' by western journalists. Unfortunately for the regime, adding 40 more floors to a lie originally created in 2010 doesn't make it true.This rehashed pie in the sky hotel tower is just another fabrication intended for political consumption.

A tower designed by Chinese company Lifang is used in latest 99-floor Ethiopian hotel fabrication

Chinese rendering used in the original 2010 58-floor hotel in Addis Ababa