Ethiopia Detains Journalists

 The Committee to Protect Journalists posted on 5 September 2025 a press release titled "Ethiopian Police Detain 2 Sheger FM Journalists, Force Station to Delete Report."

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Ethiopian authorities detained 2 FM radio journalists and forced the station to remove a report on widespread poor working conditions of healthcare workers.

Promoting Peace in South Sudan

 The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published in June 2024 a paper titled "Towards Humanitarian Action that Intentionally Promotes Peace in South Sudan" by Simone Bunse, Caroline Delgado, and Marie Riquier.  

The paper proposes four theories of change for international peacebuilding.  The first relates to livelihood opportunities and keeping children in school.  The second concerns the connectedness between diverse ethnicities and communities through conflict-sensitive volunteerism.  The third consists in helping socialized program volunteers transition into leadership roles for greater transformational impacts.  The fourth involves vertical and horizontal integration with broader development and peacebuilding efforts.  

Mapping Growth of Burial Grounds in Sudan

 Reuters published on 20 June 2024 an article titled "Sudan's Cemeteries Swell with Fresh Graves as Hunger and Disease Spread" by Ryan McNeill, Maggie Michael, and Reade Levinson.  

As hunger and disease spread in Sudan, especially Darfur region, the graveyards grow in size.  Almost 20 percent of Sudan's population is currently facing an emergency food situation or worse because of the civil war.  About two-thirds of Sudanese no longer have access to healthcare.  Sudan risks a lost generation.  

Ethiopia: Broken Health Care System in Tigray Region

 National Public Radio published on 14 October 2022 an article titled "'Where Is Humanity?' Ask the Helpless Doctors of Ethiopia's Embattled Tigray Region" by Ari Daniel.  

This is a personalized account of the breakdown of the health care system in Tigray Region because of the ongoing civil war.  

Mega-Themes in Africa-China Relations 2017

Lina Getachew Ayenew, Ethiopia-based author and consultant focused on Africa-China relations, recently posted her 2017 "Mega-Themes in Africa-China Relations."

The focus of the 2017 edition is the Belt and Road Initiative, China versus the US, ivory trade, technology, education and healthcare.

Africans in Guangzhou, China

The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs has devoted its most recent issue to Africans living in Guangzhou, China.  The articles, which are available online, include the following:

--Africans in Guangzhou by Gordon Mathews.
--The Social Construction of Guangzhou as a Translocal Trading Place by Angelo Gilles.
--Healthcare-Seeking Practices of African and Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Guangzhou by Tabea Bork-Huffer.
--Landscapes of Aspiration in Guangzhou's African Music Scene: Beyond the Trading Narrative by Roberto Castillo.
--African Logistics Agents and Middlemen as Cultural Brokers in Guangzhou by Gordon Mathews. 

Building Somaliland's Health System

The Lancet published on 30 May 2015 an article titled "Slowly and Steadily, Somaliland Builds Its Health System" by Sharmila Devi, reporting from Hargeisa.

African Economies and the Future

This Is Africa, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, recently published a series of brief commentaries titled "Building Inclusive Economies: Can Africa Bridge the Development Divide?" by a number of experts.  They provide some insightful comments on the future of African economies.

Ethiopia, Triangular Partnership and the Diaspora

The non-governmental organization People to People (P2P) Inc. has just released a pre-publication edition of its new book Triangular Partnership: The Power of the Diaspora edited by Enawgaw Mehari, Kinfe Gebeyehu, Katy Dickinson and Matt Watts. 

P2P developed the concept of the Triangular Partnership in an effort to give something back and make a difference in the Ethiopian health care sector.  The Triangular Partnership draws on the Ethiopian diaspora to connect western and Ethiopian health care institutions.  The Ethiopian diaspora in the United States alone is estimated to number between a half million and more than a million persons.  Among the number are an estimated 1,000 physicians of Ethiopian origin living in North America.  Many other Ethiopians, including health professionals, have migrated to other parts of the world.  The essays in this book by a variety of specialists show how the Triangular Partnership has worked in Ethiopia and offer lessons for diasporas from other countries. 

Upcoming Documentary "Sincerely Ethiopia"

A documentary titled "Sincerely, Ethiopia" will debut in a few weeks in Los Angeles and then visit other parts of the country. Its focus is on the challenges of ordinary people. The goal is to tell stories and showcase the beauty of people overcoming odds to make a change in the country. You can view a four minute trailer of the documentary on the web site.