Pulling up folding chairs to round tables, sipping hot sweet tea out of styrofoam cups and arguing politics into the afternoon, the men at the Horn Afrik café here last weekend all had the name of one man on their lips. Every time that man’s name was mentioned, the volume of chatter was deafening. More on Daily Planet: In Minnesota, Ethiopians Brace for a Dreaded Visit

More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa need food aid because of two years of poor rainfall, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says.

The body says cuts in its funding have made it more difficult to feed people across Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia. More on UN warns over East Africa hunger

MOGADISHU, Somalia – We duck through a hole in a wall along this city’s blasted-out waterfront, following teenage gunmen with skinny shoulders and enormous guns. More on The Front Line in Somalia

Somaliland American Council (SAC) is dismayed by the excessive use of power by Rayale’s government and condemning the actions of President Dahir Rayale’s government that resulted for the death of 3 innocent and unarmed people who were simple exercising their right to demonstrate. SAC also strongly condemns Rayale government More on SAC Condemns Rayale for Killing Innocent People & Closing Down the Parliament

Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki?s interview with Channel 4 Television London

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia could suffer ethnic violence next year ahead of its first national elections since a 2005 poll triggered street clashes following a disputed victory for the government, a think tank has said. More on ICG: Ethiopia risks pre-election violence in 2010

Do you remember H.R. 2003 (“Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act”)? That was a bill sponsored by Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) to promote the “advancement of human rights, democracy, independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press, More on Mugged on “K” Street?

      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

federation that combines populous regional states like Oromiya and Amhara in the central highlands with sparsely populated and underdeveloped ones like Gambella and Somali. Although the constitution vests all powers not attributed to the federal government in them, the regional states are in fact weak. More on Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Its Discontents

In a recent piece entitled “Mob Disrupts Political Meeting in Adama,” former Ethiopian President Dr. Negasso Gidada described how “an organized mob disturbed a public political meeting of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) in Adama, Oromia, and forced the discontinuation of the meeting.” Dr. Negasso explained: More on Thugs Gone Wild in Kilil-istan!