A year on from Ethiopia’s new millennium, Mammo Muchie highlights the country’s historic role as the cradle of African nationalism. Arguing that reparations remain due from the period of fascist Italy’s occupation in the 1930s, Muchie stresses that it is only through rediscovering her essential civic-nationalism that Ethiopia will locate her glory and re-energise African nationalism.

Reporters Without Borders has learned the good news that Amare Aregawi, the editor of the privately-owned Amharic-language weekly Reporter, was released on 27 August. The press freedom organisation calls on the Ethiopian government to amend the newly-adopted media law in order to eliminate prison sentences for press offences. It also urges the Ethiopian courts to ensure that the law is strictly respected, and thereby guarantee the rights of citizens.

The top United Nations humanitarian official has begun his three-day visit to Ethiopia, where he is holding talks with Government officials, relief groups and individuals affected by the country's drought and food crisis. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, travelled to Ethiopia's Konso Special Woreda in Southern Nations Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR) today to review humanitarian efforts.

"In 1979, under Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, the Ethiopian government sent thousands of Ethiopian children to Cuba to be educated. Cuba, an ally of Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somali war, offered housing and education for war orphans. The Cuban government accepted 2,400 Ethiopian students, aged seven to fourteen, to study at Escuelas Secundarias Basicas en el Campo (basic rural secondary schools) - on the small island of Isla de la Juventud. This is an interview from our archive with photographer Aida Muluneh, who is filming a documentary about their lives in Cuba:

The number of people requiring emergency food aid is expected to increase as food security has not improved, according to the latest assessment of drought-affected areas, a senior government official said.

A legal battle in Ethiopia over what constitutes contempt of court is likely to test the boundaries of free speech in a country where the liberty of press has deteriorated over the last three years. Abiy Teklemariam, managing editor of privately-owned weekly Addis Neger, said in an emailed statement that the paper would appeal the conviction of its editor in chief, Mesfin Negash, for contempt of court at the country’s supreme tribunal.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that the pending Mass Media and Freedom of Information Proclamation, passed by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives on July 1, does not fully incorporate public input, including that of local journalists and legal experts.

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) describes systems in which communities (forest users and managers) and government services (forest departments) work together to define rights of forest resource use, identify and develop forest management responsibilities, and agree on how forest benefits will be shared. This manual describes the key elements of PFM in the Ethiopian context. It is aimed at both community forest managers and forestry professionals and can be used as a training manual and field guide.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it is expanding its operations to feed 4.6 million people in Ethiopia, in response to the Horn of Africa nation’s pressing appeal for help in staving off hunger-related deaths. “Ethiopia is facing a perfect storm with soaring food prices and a devastating drought,” said the agency’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We hear the Government’s plea, support it, and are moving to reach all we can.”

Ethiopia’s government should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has said. The two groups called on donor governments, whose behind-the-scenes efforts to see the bill reformed appear to have failed, to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for $49 million to assist families in Ethiopia where drought has left 75,000 children severely malnourished and 4.6 million people in need of immediate humanitarian aid. After completing a visit to Ethiopia UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson said today that the situation in the hardest-hit areas of the country is extremely serious.

This report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the frozen border conflict between two states who fought a major war in 1998-2000 and recommends an approach to overcome the stalemate. Following Ethiopia’s refusal to accept virtual demarcation of the border by the now defunct Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission (EEBC), Asmara unilaterally implemented it and forced out the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE), significantly raising the stakes and shattering the status quo.

United Nations relief agencies and the Ethiopian Government have drastically increased their appeal for funding to help people caught up in the country’s drought and the resulting widespread crop failures as the number of Ethiopians affected by the crisis continues to soar.

In its battle against rebels in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Region, Ethiopia's army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on Thursday 12 June. The widespread violence, part of a vicious counterinsurgency campaign that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has contributed to a looming humanitarian crisis, threatening the survival of thousands of ethnic Somali nomads.

At least three people have been killed after bombs exploded in two hotels in a town in southern Ethiopia. The blasts also injured five other people in Negele Borena, a small town 595km south of the capital, in the Oromo region, police and government officials said on Wednesday.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Ethiopian authorities to drop charges against Alemayehu Mahtemework, the editor of monthly entertainment magazine Enku, and three others who were arrested with him after the publication of a cover story about a jailed popular singer.

The second and final day of voting in Ethiopia's local and parliamentary polls was held Sunday amid tight security, days after deadly blasts in the capital, Addis Ababa. Three people were killed and 18 wounded when simultaneous bomb blasts went off at two petrol stations on April 14, a day after the first day of voting in the country's first elections since the disputed 2005 general polls.

Ethiopians voted on Sunday in a first round of general elections that the opposition coalition boycotted to protest alleged intimidation of its candidates, and that an international rights group said would be unfair. Governing coalition candidates were running virtually unchallenged after the main opposition coalition pulled out of the races for nearly four million positions, ranging from neighbourhood council jobs to parliamentary seats.

Ethnic Somali separatists have been fighting government forces in the east of Ethiopia for more than 13 years now, but the long-running conflict has been largely invisible as Addis Ababa has restricted access to the region. There have been numerous clashes between the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLF) and the military in recent months, with both sides claiming successes.

Two human rights activists have been released from prison in Ethiopia having been detained since November 2005. Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were released on Friday after receiving a presidential pardon. The two signed a letter acknowledging mistakes" committed in relation to the 2005 elections. It is not yet clear if the pardon is unconditional.