…As 10 feared dead, following Unrest in Eastern Ethiopia***

Nigerians and other ECOWAS citizens will not be affected by the recent Ghanaian authorities notice to foreigners to quit  the country’s retail markets.

The Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor-Botchwey indicated this in Abuja on Monday, during her courtesy visit to her Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama.

The clarification was meant to douse tension generated by warnings from the National Association of Nigerian Traders that the quit notice could spark xenophobic attacks, following a July 11 notice to foreigners engaged in retail business in Ghana to quit the country’s markets, as a new Ghanaian law was reserving operation of retail business only for her citizens.

“This has nothing to do with our ECOWAS brothers and sisters. It was more to do with other nationals.

“Yes there is a problem that Nigerians and other ECOWAS citizens have been caught up in this issue of traders being given quit notice to exit our markets with their retail trade which is, by the law of Ghana, reserved for Ghanaians.

“Our government is doing what it can; sitting with the Ghana Traders Association to ensure that there is that understanding that it has nothing to do with Nigerian and other ECOWAS traders.

“Even at the governmental level, we are dealing with it  and the president himself is handling the matter to ensure that it does not escalate,” she said.

She said that she was in Nigeria “to give assurance that between Ghana and Nigeria, this will never be an issue and we will not allow it to be an issue.”

Onyeama  said the Ghanaian minister’s visit demonstrated the country’s concern that Nigeria should, in no way, interpret the issue as xenophobia against Nigerian traders.

“The minister’s visit was to assure the government and the people of Nigeria that the government of Ghana is on top of the situation and would resolve the issue,” he said.

Onyeama said that the Minister explained that what prompted the outcry was not about nationals of ECOWAS, but nationals from outside Africa who had been installing themselves in the Ghanaian retail business.

“And that that was actually their main focus of attack. But that the Ghanaian Retail Association, is now making a general outcry against all non-Ghanaian retail traders.

“The government of Ghana is not happy about that because they want to be in strict compliance with all their obligations under the ECOWAS Protocol of Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services,” Onyeama said of his meeting with the Ghanaian Foreign Minister.

He said the Ghanaian Government was engaged in really coming out with a law that was consistent with their position as an ECOWAS member state.

Accordingly, they are at that process, but they are also very mindful of the special relationship they have with Nigeria.

“And are particularly keen that in no way should it result in any targeting of Nigerians, any xenophobia against Nigerians.

“So, the government, in fact, the president himself, is personally engaged in addressing the situation,” he said.

“For her to travel, to fly here to meet with me for one hour, I think, demonstrated the concern of the Ghanaian Government that Nigeria should in no way interpret this as some kind of xenophobia against Nigerians.

“This is also to assure us that the government is very much on top of this and will hopefully resolve the situation very quickly,” he further said.

Meanwhile, 10 persons are feared dead following an unrest in Dire Dawa City, located 452 Kilometre East of the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa, over the weekend, an Ethiopian official confirmed on Monday.

Speaking exclusively to Xinhua, Bantealem Girma, Chief of Public Relations, Dire Dawa City Police Commission, confirmed that the unrest left 10 people dead, while an unidentified number of people were injured and extensive property damage was caused.

“Most of the deaths occurred when rioters torched private homes with the victims either dying from inhaling smoke fire or burned to death in their homes.’’ he said.

He said the unrest has subsided on Monday despite high tensions, with the city’s police, federal police and members of the Ethiopian army deployed in the city to prevent a recurrence of the violence, while arrests are being made of people suspected of participating in the violence.

Speaking to Xinhua, a witness in Dire Dawa city, said the unrest involved members from Oromo and Somali ethnic groups, apparently sparked by the Ethiopian army’s intervention in Jijiga city, capital of Somali regional state located in eastern Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian army has reportedly seized regional parliament and TV station offices.

The Ethiopian government has so far kept mum on the intervention in the Somali regional state where internet and power lines are cut.

The army intervention comes amid reports of tension between the Ethiopian federal government and Ethiopia Somali regional state president Abdi Omar Mohammed over share of oil resources found in the region.

Mohammed has also been accused of grave human rights abuses and opponents of his administration living abroad and in Addis Ababa have been lobbying the federal government to help them oust him.