Dr. Weldeab Ishac has recently taken a series of measures to purge the university of independent academicians and scholars.  The measures were reportedly taken under direct orders of President Isaias Afwerki, who is also the chancellor of the university. The latest victim is Dr. Kifleyesus, the university's head of the management department in the business school, who has been given an involuntary leave from his assignment.  

As reported previously, two UoA Department Chairs, Dr. Abdulkader Saleh Mohammed and Dr. Alexander Natty, were briefly detained and then dismissed from their jobs.

All three attended and presented papers at the 15^th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, a symposium held in Hamburg, Germany on July 21-25:

• Dr. Abdulkader Saleh Mohammed, who was the Department Chair of UoA�s �Sociology and Social Work� presented a paper entitled, �The challenge for an ethnic identity: A case of Saho-speaking community in Eritrea."
• Dr. Alexander Natty, a faculty member and lecturer within UoA�s �Archeology and Anthropology� department, presented two papers entitled: "Protestant Christianity among the Aari of Southwest Ethiopia", and � Evolution of a new religious movement among the Aari of Southwest Ethiopia.�
•  Dr. Abbebe Kifleyesus , Head of Department of Archeology and Anthropology, presented a paper titled,� The Argobba of Ethiopia are not the language they speak".

Also attending the conference was Dr. Nicole Hirt, a lecturer in the UoA�s Department of Political Science.  Dr. Hirt is not expected to return to teach in the fall semester because of the paper she presented at the conference, entitled: "10 Years of Eritrean Independence experience. The challenge of nation-building: from self-reliance to one-man-rule".  

The conference organizers are circulating a worldwide appeal to express concern for the plight of their colleagues. 

NB: text in red is a correction