Ethiopian Journal

Selam Kidane  

…May you take roots in the land of your forefathers; this is a Tigrigna blessing uttered upon every child and young person who has done something to satisfy the expectations of their elders…Adi aboki teteKeli…I cried the last time I heard the saying because it just sounded impossible…I couldn’t have been farther away from the land of my forefathers at that precise moment (not physically…geographical proximity was just abut the only distance I had bridged…)

By Daniel G. Mikael  

In 2006, US-backed Ethiopia invaded Somalia and removed from power the Islamic Courts Union, which it perceived as a brewing threat.  To the United States, it was another extension of the global war on terror and it openly backed the invasion, claiming that the Islamic Courts were harboring terrorists responsible for the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Both Ethiopia and the US subsequently supported the creation of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, which all the US allies in the neighborhood – including Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti – supported and regional and international organizations including, IGAD, the African Union and the United Nations blessed.