Amber Henshaw

Opposition Presser

The two main opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the UEDF, held a press conference yesterday. They again rejected the election results and said they wanted to form a National Unity Government with the EPRDF.

That's all very well but I just can't see why the ruling party would agree. According to the National Electoral Board they've already got 296 votes (more than they need for a majority in parliament and enough to form a government).

I guess that Meles and the EPRDF will just ignore the request and where does that leave the opposition? What can and should they do next?

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And we have a winner...

At a National Electoral Board Press Conference earlier they confirmed the EPRDF have won the election. They have 296 seats and their affiliates have 22. The CUD have 109 and the UEDF 52.

There will be 31 re-elections and a by-election on Aug 21st which is the same day as the elections in the Somali Region. There will be 55 more seats to announce but it won't touch the ruling party's win.

Large and lardy!!

On AU summit day we were all getting pretty hungry after hours and hours of hanging around..as I'm sure the leaders were too who didn't take a break during the discussions.

I was chatting to a photographer at about 6pm who was saying that he really needed to have something to eat. He then looked down at my stomach and said that I obviously didn't - I looked like I'd eaten a lot, he said!!!

Admittedly my stomach was and still is sticking out. I wasn't quite sure whether I should tell him I'm six months pregnant.

AU

The African Union held an extraordinary summit in Addis at the end of last week. They were discussing reform of the United Nations Security Council.

The 53 African States had agreed to ask for two permanent seats with the power of veto at an earlier summit. 

However, many people believed that one of the best ways (only ways??) to get those seats was to do a deal with the G4 countries (Brazil, Japan, Germany and India). The G4 had made it clear that the veto would be a no go and had asked the African states to reconsider - hence the meeting.

Leaders - including Robert Mugabe and Thabo Mbeki - swept in to the AU amidst tight security. The meeting started with a speech by the Nigerian President,
Olusegun Obasanjo, who made it pretty clear that he wanted to see a consensus (i.e the call for a veto dropped)...with that in mind I thought it was ALMOST a done deal.

But seven hours later and Mr Obasanjo left (not looking too happy apparently) saying to journalists "What can I say?"

Everyone else started leaving shortly afterwards...few wanted to speak to the media but it became clear that they had agreed to stick to their original position. They also agreed to set up a group of 10 heads of states to promote their position internationally.

But was this really the best move for Africa? I'm certainly no expert but I just wonder what their chances of success are now without the support of the G4.....

Fistula Foundation

I’ve just been to the Fistula Hospital here in Addis Ababa to do a recce for a BBC story I’m doing later in the week. It is an inspirational place.

Sister Ruth Kennedy, a Baptist missionary from America who’s been here for 12 years and at the hospital for six, showed me round.

The hospital takes women who have had obstructive labours - many of them end up with holes in their bladders or rectums. As a result they smell and are often ostracised by their husbands, families and friends. Some travel for days to get to the hospital for treatment.

Fistula is a big problem in developing countries - each year 100,000 women are affected by obstetric fistula. It’s something the developing world put an end to with caesareans.

The Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia is one of its kind. And they are opening new centres in Mekele, Metu in the Gambela Region and I think down south somewhere. At the moment, there’s one in Bahar Dar as well as in Addis.

It was the atmosphere that particularly struck me. Everyone (mostly women) was so friendly. The staff seemed to genuinely care about the patients and know them well.

Anyone interested in finding out more….www.fistulafoundation.org

Elections

Ethiopia's election fever turned out to be quite contagious.

Just over a week ago there were huge demonstrations in the centre of Addis Ababa - one day for the Government and the next for the opposition parties. The amount of people who turned out to support the opposition was really quite phenomenal. People seemed genuinely passionate about the elections - genuinely passionate that they could bring about change.

Yesterday I got to my first polling station at about 5.30am. Queues of people were already lining up in the cold, dark morning to vote. I went home at about 10am to file my first story and was amazed to see 400 or so people outside our house queueing to get into the polling station. Normally it's quite noisy where we live..yesterday with all these people standing there it was almost silent.

Allegations about the fairness of the campaign contiuned throughout the day (as they have throughout the election process). Last night Meles Zenawi (Prime Minister) banned public demonstrations and assumed direct control of the security forces.

EU observer's say the election has been mostly free and fair but there are obviously concerns about what will happen next.

The more it rains, tiddly pom!

It's raining so hard in Addis it feels like the house is going to cave in....I hope the summer rains haven't set in a month early! I'm going back to the UK next week for some sunshine...maybe.

Somali region

We got back from Jijiga/Dire Dawa a day early which worked out perfectly because it meant we could go to the election opposition parties rally in Addis today (more about it later but just to say I was pretty stunned by the number of people crammed in Meskel Square - it made the crowd at the Bob Marley concert look small). The three-day trip was fascinating and at times very disturbing. I was very inspired by the passion and the enthusiasm of the UNICEF team. They were a pretty impressive group of individuals. During the trip we were focusing on two things - the flood and the severe malnutrition crisis. The stats that came out on Wednesday said that 136,000 children in Ethiopia are suffering from severe malnutrition. It's hard to appreciate that figure or what severe malnutrition actually is until you see it. We visited a camp in the Somali Region. A woman brought her child out of her hut and I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. The little girl was literally saggy skin and bones. She was two-years-old. I'm not exaggerating to say that she looked more like she was six-months-old. I was deeply shocked to see a human being in this condition and was quite overcome.

Humanitarian crisis

It was announced this morning that the number of people urgently needing food in Ethiopia has almost doubled to 3.8 million people. When the appeal was made in December there were only 2.1 million on the emergency list.
We're going to Dire Dowa near to Harar tomorrow. A joint trip organised by the World Food Programme, UNICEF and OCHA (the office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs) to see what is happening on a grass roots level.

More next week. We're back on Sunday night..we're also spending a couple of days going to the area hit by floods.

Airport rant!

The last two days have been pretty horrific. After almost three weeks in Axum we were due to fly back to Addis on Tuesday morning. Everything was going smoothly - we got to the airport at 8am, checked in and even went through to the "departure lounge" when disaster struck. The plane - a rather flash Boeing 737 - arrived and the ground staff tried to get the steps out but they jammed. After lots of step pushing and shoving they still wouldn't move - the passengers onboard had to climb down a ladder put on a trailer to make it high enough.

To cut a very long and hideous story short-ish we spent 11 hours at the airport on Tuesday as other Addis-bound passengers came and went. We couldn't go on those flights for some reason we had to wait for technicians to arrive and mend the steps - which they couldn't.

At 6.30pm we were sent back to Axum for the night. The next morning it all started again. We went to the airport and waited.....and waited....a flight coming from Addis for us had to be turned back. Other flights - again - came and went.

At about lunchtime it all got too much for me and after shouting at Mr Ethiopian Airlines man I burst into tears. Must be feeling particularly hormonal at the moment! Little good it did - we were sent back to Axum for lunch. The restaurant in the airport has been closed.

We eventually left Axum airport at about 4pm last night - miserable, irritated and exhausted.

When I was thinking about blogging yesterday I was so furious I couldn't think of anything good to have come out of the experience. Ethiopian Airlines failed to tell us what was happening, we never got priority over other passengers and no one apologised until we actually boarded the plane to Addis two days after the ordeal started.

But now I'm back at home and feeling less angry the one thing that was good was the camaraderie with the other passengers. There was a group of women villagers, some other journalists and a couple of Ethiopian/Americans on a pilgrimage - they were all great and helped keep us informed and cheered us along when our spirits were flagging.