Word: ababa
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...Democratic Front that rules Addis Ababa has assured aid workers that they will be protected. The front also is making efforts to assert control over outlying areas where the government's collapse left citizens without a reliable supply line, for instance in the city of Dire Dawa, in the east. For their part, the Eritrean fighters who have assumed administration of Eritrea province, which includes all the country's ports, promise to allow food to flow freely through their territory...
...Meles spoke too soon. Within 24 hours his soldiers, who had just taken over the capital of Addis Ababa, were again firing their guns. This time they battled not government forces but thousands of civilians who had taken to the streets to protest the sudden ascendancy of Meles' maverick band. It was a curious reaction, considering that Meles' troops had deposed Mengistu Haile Mariam, the onetime lieutenant colonel who had ruled Ethiopia for 14 bloody years. The demonstrations and crackdowns left at least 10 dead and an additional 400 wounded...
...fair, it could have been worse, as it has been elsewhere. The recent fall of governments in Liberia and Somalia invited spasms of bloodletting that make the tumult in Ethiopia look like a tiff between friends. Still, the unrest in Addis Ababa laid bare the factional divisions that continue to plague Ethiopia, a country that has 70 ethnic groups and at least as many different languages. Holding together the country, or what remains of it, will be as daunting a task for the new regime as it was for the fallen...
...Democratic Front's saunter into Addis Ababa was not really part of anyone's plan, including the rebels'. Early last week the organization -- along with guerrilla groups representing Eritrean and Oromo rebels -- met with officials of the teetering central government for U.S.-brokered peace talks in London. The negotiations were made urgent by rebel pushes that put the Democratic Front just outside the capital and the Eritreans in command of all of Eritrea province. These advances prompted Mengistu to flee to Zimbabwe two weeks ago. After just a day, the parties were on the verge of agreeing to a cease...
...before the deal could be signed and implemented, the regime of Mengistu's handpicked successor, Tesfaye Gebre-Kidan, imploded. Government troops turned on one another. Soldiers wantonly looted state property. Desperate, Tesfaye summoned Robert Houdek, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Addis Ababa, to tell him he could no longer control the situation. The interim Ethiopian leader promised he would issue a unilateral cease-fire and tell the people of the capital to welcome the rebels into the city...