Mengistu Haile Mariam is an Ethiopian former politician and former army officer who was the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Ethiopia from 1984 to 1991. He was the chairman of the Derg,the socialist military junta that governed Ethiopia,from 1977 to 1987,and the president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) from 1987 to 1991.
Isaias Afwerki is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the president of Eritrea since shortly after he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to victory in 24 May 1991,ending the 30-year-old war for independence from Ethiopia.
Meles Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian soldier and politician who served as President of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and then Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 until his death in 2012.
In the United States government,the Bureau of African Affairs (AF) is part of the U.S. Department of State and is charged with advising the Secretary of State on matters of Sub-Saharan Africa. The bureau was established in 1958. It is headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs who reports to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Molly Phee is the current Assistant Secretary.
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990,the Somali Armed Forces began engaging in combat against various armed rebel groups,including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast,the Somali National Movement in the northwest,and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.
Donald Yukio Yamamoto is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Somalia from 2018 to 2021. Before that he was the acting assistant secretary of state for african affairs with a term of appointment starting September 3,2017 until July 23,2018. Yamamoto previously served as the senior vice president of International Programs and Outreach at the National Defense University from 2016 to 2017. Prior to that,he was senior advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service on personnel reform from 2015 to 2016;he served as Chargéd'Affaires at the U.S. Mission Somalia office in Mogadishu in 2016;and in senior positions in Kabul,Mazar e-Sharif,and Bagram,Afghanistan from 2014 to 2015.
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya was an Islamist militant group in Somalia. Formed in the 1980's through a merger of smaller Islamist groups,the organization was the most powerful Islamic movement in Somalia during the late 80s and early 90s. The organization had the most significant multi clan following of all Islamist factions in the country and professed the aim of creating a Somali Islamic state.
The Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, also called the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia or the Ethiopian intervention in the Somali Civil War,was a conflict largely involving Ethiopian forces and the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG),supplemented by troops from Puntland. The initial weeks of the conflict focused on deposing the Somali Islamist group,the Islamic Court Union (ICU),but the hardline militant group Al-Shabaab soon took center stage as an insurgency intensified in the wake of the ICU's collapse.
The 2006 Islamic Courts Union offensive is the period in the Somali Civil War that began in May 2006 with the Islamic Courts Union's (ICU) conquest of Mogadishu from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and continued with further ICU expansion in the country. Following the outbreak of the war on December 21,2006;by December 24,direct Ethiopian intervention in the conflict in support of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was no longer denied by the Ethiopian government. The Eritrean government denied any involvement despite Ethiopian claims to the contrary.
Even before the beginning of the War in Somalia (2006-2009) there were significant assertions and accusations of the use of disinformation and propaganda tactics,classed as forms of information warfare,by various parties to shape the causes and course of the conflict. These include assertions of falsification of the presence or number of forces involved,exaggeration or minimisation of the casualties inflicted or taken,influence or control of media outlets,and other informational means and media to sway popular support and international opinion.
Operation Enduring Freedom –Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA) is a component of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The Combined Joint Task Force –Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) is the primary military component assigned to accomplish the objectives of the mission. The naval components are the multinational Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) and Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) which operates under the direction of the United States Fifth Fleet. Both of these organizations have been historically part of United States Central Command. In February 2007,United States President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the United States Africa Command which took over all of the area of operations of CJTF-HOA in October 2008.
The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) was political party formed in Eritrea during September 2007 as the successor to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). It served as the principal political opposition to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG). The organization would also participate in the 2007 and 2008 years of the insurgency during the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia.
The 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis was a violent political,economic,and humanitarian crisis that erupted in Kenya after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27,2007. Supporters of Kibaki's main opponent in that election,Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement,alleged electoral manipulation. This position was widely confirmed by international observers,as being perpetrated by both parties in the election. Even the head of the electoral commission himself confirmed that he did not know who had won the elections despite announcing the incumbent as president.
Ethiopia–United States relations are bilateral relations between Ethiopia and the United States. Ethiopia is a strategic partner of the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. The United States is the largest donor to Ethiopia:in 2008 U.S. foreign aid to Ethiopia totaled US$969 million,in 2009 $916 million,with 2010 estimated at $513 million and $586 million requested for 2011. U.S. development assistance to Ethiopia is focused on reducing poverty and supporting economic development emphasizes economic,governance,and social sector policy reforms. Some military training funds,including training in such issues as the laws of war and observance of human rights,also are provided.
Haile Menkerios is an Eritrean diplomat who has served as the Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) and as Special Representative to the African Union,at the level of Under-Secretary-General from 2013 until 2018. He was appointed to this position by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 17 May 2013.
The events of the first and second rounds of the Zimbabwean presidential election,which Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF won on 27 June 2008 after his challenger,Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),withdrew from the process and declared it illegitimate,caused reactions from many international bodies. Other Zimbabwean groups have denounced the poll as well
Al-Qaeda has conducted operations and recruited members in Africa. It has included a number of bombing attacks in North Africa and supporting parties in civil wars in Eritrea and Somalia. From 1991 to 1996,Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were based in Sudan.
African-Americans in foreign policy in the United States catalogs distinguished African Americans who have and continue to contribute to international development,diplomacy,and defense through their work with the U.S. Department of State,the U.S. Agency for International Development,the U.S. Information Agency,and the U.S. Congress,and other notable agencies and non-governmental organizations. The creators acknowledge the presence of the interagency contributions to the foreign affairs realm,and welcome additional content to showcase the achievements of African-Americans in other relevant USG agencies.
The premiership of Meles Zenawi began in August 1995 following the 1995 Ethiopian general election and ended upon his death on 20 August 2012. Whilst serving as Prime Minister of Ethiopia,Meles Zenawi concurrently served as the Leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The 1995 Ethiopian Federal Constitution formalizes an ethnic federalism law aimed at undermining long-standing ethnic imperial rule,reducing ethnic tensions,promoting regional autonomy,and upholding unqualified rights to self-determination and secession in a state with more than 80 different ethnic groups. But the constitution is divisive,both among Ethiopian nationalists who believe it undermines centralized authority and fuels interethnic conflict,and among ethnic federalists who fear that the development of its vague components could lead to authoritarian centralization or even the maintenance of minority ethnic hegemony. Parliamentary elections since 1995 have taken place every five years since enactment. All but one of these have resulted in government by members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) political coalition,under three prime ministers. The EPRDF was under the effective control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),which represents a small ethnic minority. In 2019 the EPRDF,under Abiy,was dissolved and he inaugurated the pan-ethnic Prosperity Party which won the 2021 Ethiopian Election,returning him as prime minister. But both political entities were different kinds of responses to the ongoing tension between constitutional ethnic federalism and the Ethiopian state's authority. Over the same period,and all administrations,a range of major conflicts with ethnic roots have occurred or continued,and the press and availability of information have been controlled. There has also been dramatic economic growth and liberalization,which has itself been attributed to,and used to justify,authoritarian state policy.
