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| Africa Horn |
| Ethiopia threatened with aid cuts |
| 2005-12-30 |
| Western donors are considering withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia, after a recent crackdown on the opposition and the press. The sum of $375m in direct funding for Ethiopian government programmes is reported to be under review. Aid donors' frustration with Ethiopia's government has grown in recent months. In an interview with the BBC, the European Union's representative in Ethiopia, Timothy Clarke, said the EU was delaying some aid payments, although no formal decision to stop these had yet been taken. Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufyan Ahmad told the BBC he was confident aid would not be reduced - and even if it was, this would have little effect on the overall budget, he said. May's election was the most closely contested in Ethiopian history, and resulted in the opposition winning more than 100 seats in parliament. But the opposition believed they had been cheated of victory, and took to the streets. The clashes left many dead - and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accusing the opposition of attempting to overthrow his government. Western governments tried to bring the parties together, but with limited success. |
| Posted by:Steve White |