Word: eritrea
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...recent customer for cluster bombs has been the repressive regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia. In September 1989 Cardoen received his government's permission to sell Ethiopia up to 1,658 of the devices, at $7,000 apiece; the bombs have reportedly been used against civilians in separatist Eritrea...
ETHIOPIA. The last time famine visited, the rains had failed for three years and people were already dying before the world awakened to the tragedy. This time most of the country had a better than normal harvest in 1988 and crop failures are confined to the northern provinces of Eritrea, Tigre and Wollo. Moreover, there is food in the relief pipeline; last week the United Nations' ) World Food Program announced an additional $8 million in emergency food aid, and the European Community raised its pledge $12 million...
...insurgent armies battling Mengistu's troops. Mengistu so far refuses to let relief convoys enter rebel-controlled territories for fear the food may go toward feeding the insurgents or the trucks may be ferrying arms to them. His obstinacy follows a year of humiliating defeats for his forces in Eritrea and Tigre...
What makes this situation doubly frustrating is that distribution networks now exist in Eritrea and Tigre -- if only the government would put them to use. But the organizations are controlled by the rebel fronts. The Mengistu government might be less obdurate if the food were funneled through the Joint Relief Partnership, a group of five Ethiopian churches without ties to any of the rebel groups. In response to heavy international pressure, Mengistu hinted that the government might work with the churches to open "corridors of safe passage" through the hardest-hit regions. But he has yet to give formal approval...