British citizen shot dead in “Ethiopia’s Ogaden
By Tesfa Alem Tekle
June 7, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – A second British citizen is reported having been shot to death in the volatile Ogaden region of Ethiopia bordering Somalia, a Source said.
The report can’t independently be verified at this point but unconfirmed sources said that “The Ethiopian Police in Ogaden Region had killed a British Citizen”.
Muna Cabdi Faarax, Girl aged 21 Years Old had been said that she traveled from London to Ethiopia last month to visit her relative in Ogaden Region,”
The incident happened on Thursday in Capital of the Ogaden Region, Jigjiga.
Sources didn’t indicate the intention behind the killings; however a witness is reported as saying that “the incident was very shocked by the Local People and it was deliberately carried out the Ethiopian Police in Capital of Jigjiga.”
Despite the murder claims that point fingers at police, a different source received today by Sudan Tribune shows that Muna Cabdi was not yet fully British, hadn’t got citizenship and was killed in a robbery.
Reached by phone, Ethiopian government spokes person, Bereket Simon earlier told Sudan Tribune that he has no knowledge on the reported claims but he said that the Ethiopian government will do the necessary investigations.
For own safety reasons, foreign nationals are requested to have government permission before they travel to the region, where ogaden rebels are believed to be wide active.
Muna was never married and she had come to the Region in order to see some of her relative In Ogaden Region, the report confirmed that her family is now in contact with the Biritish Embassy in Ethiopia.
This is a second incident happened to British Citizens, Last month a britsh man named as Jason Read, working for Oil Company was killed in Ogaden region, the killing was said, as an act of banditry.
More than £385 million of British money has been channeled to projects in the Ethiopia in the last two years, making it the largest recipient of bilateral aid in Africa.
The Ethiopian government has long blamed the ONLF, for a number of attacks on government troops in the dry Ogaden region and in towns else where.
On April 24, 2006, ONLF issued a threat to foreign companies against exploring for oil in their homeland, further warning them to refrain from entering into agreements with the Ethiopian government.
Exactly one year later, In April, 2007, the rebels claimed responsibility to an attack at a Chinese-run oil-field in northern Ogaden region which then killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers.
Following the attack at the joint oil venture, Ogaden region was marred in Conflict between, The Nationalist Movement in Ogaden, ONLF, and Ethiopian Troops. Addis Ababa now says the rebels are defeated, are no more a threat, and oil exploration projects are well underway.
ONLF rebels repeatedly accuse Ethiopian government forces of continued acts of collective punishment and war crimes in the oil promising Ogaden region, further accuse of wide extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, forced displacement of civilians, rape, torture and use of international humanitarian aid for political purposes, an allegation Addis Ababa rejects.
Designated as a terrorist group by Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government accuses the ONLF of fighting a proxy war on behalf of Eritrea, an accusation Asmara rejects.
The rebel group strongly argues that it will not allow mineral resources of the ethnic Somali Ogaden people to be exploited by the current ruling government or any foreign firms.
(ST)