News — politics in ethiopia

Soldiers in the Ethiopian National Defense Force have arrested Sebhat Nega and eight other current and former high-ranking officials Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the ongoing clash with the regional militant group.

Fana Broadcasting Corporate, a private news outlet seen as supportive of the ruling Progress Party (PP), described Nega as “the mastermind behind the destructive strategy of the TPLF junta”. He was said to be hiding in a “ravine” when he was found on Friday, January 8.

Nega is presently in his 80s. His sister, Kidusan Nega, a former Speaker of the Tigray regional state council was also arrested.

The other arrested TPLF members included former allies of departed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, himself a member of the TPLF during the time he was alive. One of them, Abadi Zemo, was a former Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan and a member of the TPLF junta political wing.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has described this stage of the clash with the TPLF as the “last phase“.

Ethiopia’s communications since the altercations began on November 4 appear to recognize that the country is fighting both a war of guns and identity. The TPLF has been Tigray’s regional government since the last decade of the 20th century and it is seen as the political organization encapsulating Tigrayan identity.

The region of Tigray, a vast hilly and arid area, is named after the Tigrinya-speaking Tigray people, Ethiopia’s fourth-largest ethnic group who are less than 10% of the country’s people.

In spite of the relatively small number of Tigrayans in the country, the TPLF has shaped post-Cold War Ethiopia more than any other political organization in the country.

In 1991, the militant group-cum political party led a coalition of militias and movements to overthrow the communist People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. After that, the group was part of governing coalitions, and at a point produced a prime minister in the late Meles Zenawi.

Due to disagreements with Ahmed‘s Progress Party in 2019, the TPLF left his governing coalition.

The Deputy General Director of Ethiopia Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI), Yishrun Alemayehu, confirmed the Horn of Africa nation successfully launched its second Chinese-backed satellite into space on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency confirmed.

Named ET-Smart-RSS, the satellite, which was blasted into orbit from the China Wenchang spacecraft launch site, is equipped with highly advanced resolutions and has the capabilities to capture much clearer pictures, Alemayehu said.

“Preliminary design was conducted in Ethiopia, while detailed and technical works were undertaken in collaboration with Chinese experts in China through zooming and other platforms,” he told state-owned newspaper, the Ethiopian Herald. “The 8.9 kilograms nano satellite is a great achievement of Ethiopia in a number of ways. The institute will keep on working to further strengthen the effort in technology transfer and human development.”

Alemayehu also said the government of China paid about $1.5 million in manufacturing costs. The Horn of Africa nation successfully launched its first-ever satellite – the ETRSS-1 – into space in December 2019 in what the country’s space exploration chief said he hoped marked a new dawn in space technology opportunities in the country at the time.

The 72-kg multi-spectral satellite, which was also designed by both Chinese and Ethiopian engineers and is reportedly 700km from the earth, uses a remote sensing microsatellite to monitor weather patterns resources and to forecast the weather for the purposes of better agricultural planning, drought early warning, mining activities and forestry management, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Speaking to Reuters after the first launch, the head of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, Solomon Belay, said he believes the satellite spells new opportunities for the East African powerhouse.

“Space is food, space is job creation, a tool for technology… sovereignty, to reduce poverty, everything for Ethiopian to achieve universal and sustainable development,” Belay said.

The Chinese government also sponsored about $6 million of the over $7 million project. Ethiopia plans to launch 15 satellites between the next 10-15 years.

The African Union has encouraged more African countries to look into the opportunities space technology provides for environmental and economic benefits.

Boeing’s 737 MAX has been cleared by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly again, 20 months after the fleet was grounded following the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which left 157 people dead. That accident came on the back of a similar Lion Air jet crash in Indonesia in October 2018 that killed 189 people.

“We will never forget the lives lost in the two tragic accidents that led to the decision to suspend operations,” Boeing CEO David Calhoun said in a statement released Wednesday. “These events and the lessons we have learned as a result have reshaped our company and further focused our attention on our core values of safety, quality and integrity.”

A problem with an automated flight software known as MCAS, which caused the planes to nosedive moments after take-off, was reported to be partly to blame for the disasters. Boeing in July last year announced that it was working with regulators to roll out a software upgrade.

This September, an investigative report from the House of Representatives said the plane manufacturer and the FAA were responsible for “repeated and serious failures.” It said the crashes “were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA — the pernicious result of regulatory capture on the part of the FAA with respect to its responsibilities to perform robust oversight of Boeing and to ensure the safety of the flying public.”

Boeing responded to the report’s release, saying that it is “dedicated to doing the work” necessary. Sky News reports that the MCAS, which is said to be responsible for both crashes, was the main point for design changes that were demanded by the FAA. This led to extensive testing both on the ground and in the air, it said.

“FAA Administrator Steve Dickson today signed an order that paves the way for the Boeing 737 MAX to return to commercial service,” the FAA said in the statement released on Wednesday. It added that before the planes can fly, several steps such as approving pilot training program revisions and maintenance works on the grounded planes would be undertaken.

Currently, the U.S. is the first to take the decision to return to the skies. Aviation officials in Europe are yet to make a decision. American Airlines will start a single Max passenger flight from December 29 to January 4 between Miami and New York while United Airlines and Southwest are planning to begin flying the Max early next year, NBC News reported.

Boeing, which has lost more than than $20 billion following the crisis, is also facing a series of lawsuits from families of victims. It also has to work on building its reputation amid an industry that has been hit by the pandemic.