内容摘要：The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Among them is Guluma Bayi, 38, who had walked more than an hour and a half, leading his two donkeys to the clinic.“It has been three weeks since my donkeys became sick,” said Guluma. “One has a leg problem and the other has a stomach issue.”

Like many, Guluma depends on his donkeys for his livelihood, using them to transport jerrycans of water for sale in his community.“After they became ill, I couldn’t buy bread for my children,” he said. “I begged a guy to bring me here.”According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Ethiopia was home to some nine million donkeys as of 2018. In this East African nation of approximately 130 million people, donkeys play a chief economic role, ploughing fields and transporting goods – offering a low-cost alternative to vehicles at a time when the price of fuel has soared.

Another regular visitor, Chane Baye, earns his living by using his two donkeys to transport sacks of grain across the city for clients. His income can range from 200 to 400 birr per day (approximately $1.50 to $3) – a decent sum in a country where a third of the population lives below the World Bank’s poverty line of $2.15 a day.The 61-year-old seeks out the clinic every three months or so – “whenever they start limping or have a stomach problem”, he said.

“Before this clinic, we used traditional ways to treat them,” he explained, describing how nails were once crudely removed from the animals’ legs with a knife. He is grateful that his donkeys now have access to professional care for their injuries and infections.

At the clinic, vet Derege Tsegay demonstrates the less glamorous side of his work by performing a routine but unpleasant procedure – reaching deep into a distressed donkey’s rectum, clad in a rubber glove.displacing a reported 40,000

of its inhabitants as it establishes its own military network there.On Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, alongside Smotrich, who as finance minister enjoys significant control over the West Bank, announced the establishment of a further 22 Israeli settlements, all in defiance of international law.

Smotrich’s announcement came as a surprise to few. The far-right minister – himself a settler on Palestinian land – has previously been clear about his intention to see the West Bank annexed,even ordering preparations to do so in advance of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration