Tanzania – The Milli Chronicle https://www.millichronicle.com Factual Version of a Story Tue, 14 Nov 2023 19:31:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://media.millichronicle.com/2018/11/12122950/logo-m-01-150x150.png Tanzania – The Milli Chronicle https://www.millichronicle.com 32 32 Ethiopia’s Oromo rebels in Tanzania for peace talks https://www.millichronicle.com/2023/11/ethiopias-oromo-rebels-in-tanzania-for-peace-talks.html Tue, 14 Nov 2023 03:32:06 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=51086 Addis Ababa (Reuters) – Rebels from Ethiopia’s Oromiya region said on Monday they were in Tanzania for a second round of talks with the Ethiopian government to try to end decades of fighting.

The negotiations come more than six months after a first round of discussions between the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and Ethiopia’s government ended without an agreement.

The conflict in recent years has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands in Ethiopia’s most populous region.

“We remain committed to finding a peaceful political settlement,” the OLA said in its statement.

The OLA said it had delayed announcing the negotiations to make sure its team could get safely from what it called the frontlines in Oromiya to the venue.

An official close to the mediators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks started last week in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and is being facilitated by the regional Africa group IGAD.

Ethiopia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition party that returned from exile after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed – himself an Oromo – took office in 2018.

Oromiya, which surrounds Addis Ababa, the capital, is home to Ethiopia’s largest ethnic Oromo group and more than a third of the country’s 110 million people.

The talks come as conflict rages on another faultline in Ethiopia, with fighting between the army and the Fano militia group in the mediaeval holy city of Lalibela last week, residents told Reuters. The government said the area was peaceful.

While Fano has no formal command structure, the part-time militia in northern Amhara region has been battling the army since late July, emerging as the biggest security challenge to Abiy since a war ended in the northern Tigray region a year ago.

]]> Death toll rises after plane crash in Lake Victoria in Tanzania https://www.millichronicle.com/2022/11/death-toll-rises-after-plane-crash-in-lake-victoria-in-tanzania.html Mon, 07 Nov 2022 18:50:43 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=31073

Bukoba (France24) — The death toll from Sunday’s plane crash in Lake Victoria in Tanzania jumped to 19, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said, after the Precision Air flight with dozens of passengers aboard plunged into water while approaching the northwestern city of Bukoba.

“All Tanzanians are with you in mourning the 19 people who lost lives during this accident,” Majaliwa told a crowd after arriving at Bukoba airport, where the flight had been scheduled to land from financial capital Dar es Salaam.

Flight PW 494 was carrying 39 passengers, including an infant, as well as four crew members, according to the airline. It initially said 26 of the 43 people on board were rescued but later said 24 survivors were reported by emergency services at the scene.

Precision Air, a publicly listed company which is Tanzania’s largest private airline, said it had dispatched rescuers to the scene.

“An investigation team consisting of Precision Air technical staff and TAA (Tanzania Airports Authority) has also departed to join the rescue team on the ground,” the airline said in a statement.

It said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR.

Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane largely submerged as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to bring people to safety.

Emergency workers attempted to lift the aircraft out of the water using ropes, assisted by cranes as residents also sought to help.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to those affected by the accident.

“Let’s continue to be calm while the rescue operation continues as we pray to God to help us,” she said on Twitter.

‘Hearts and prayers’

African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also shared his condolences, as did the secretary general of the regional East African Community bloc, Peter Mathuki.

“Our hearts and prayers go to the families of passengers on-board a plane that crashed into Lake Victoria, with our full solidarity to the Government & people of #Tanzania,” Faki wrote on Twitter.

“The East African Community joins and sends our condolences to Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan, families and friends of all those who were affected by the Precision Air plane accident,” Mathuki said, also on Twitter.

Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private charters to popular tourist destinations such as the Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.

The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.

In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after takeoff into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital, killing all 157 people aboard.

In 2007, a Kenya Airways flight from the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan to Kenya’s capital Nairobi crashed into a swamp after takeoff, killing all 114 passengers.

In 2000, another Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after takeoff, killing 169 people while 10 survived.

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