Nyayoul Gach was first driven from her home in South Sudan because of violence, but escaped into Ethiopia because of hunger, unable to feed her five children who were rapidly wasting away. 

Now in the caked mud settlements of western Ethiopia, she faces further misery: hunger and disease stalk the crowded camps, and she wonders whether her life is better than the one she fled in war-ravaged South Sudan.

An Ethiopian opposition leader with British citizenship faces the death sentence after being extradited to Addis Ababa, Human Rights Watch said Monday, urging the government to ensure his safety.

HRW said Andargachew Tsige, the secretary general of the outlawed Ginbot 7 group, had been "unlawfully deported by Yemen" back to Ethiopia.

Hundreds of Muslims protesters demonstrated in Ethiopia on Friday, demanding the release of 17 of their leaders jailed under terrorism charges last year.

"What the government is doing doesn’t solve the problem, rather it will worsen the situation," said protester Mohammed Seman, speaking at the demonstration following busy Friday prayers at a popular Addis Ababa mosque.

Ethiopia is facing a huge wave of refugees from South Sudan, where the specter of famine threatens to heap further misery on a people already blighted by civil war, the U.N.'s food aid agency warned on Wednesday.

"The numbers are increasing exponentially in a very short period of time," said Abdou Dieng, head of the World Food Program's Ethiopia operations.

South Sudan's president and rebel chief met Tuesday in a bid to end six months of civil war, agreeing to forge a transitional government within a 60-day deadline, Ethiopia's prime minster said.

"They agreed to complete the dialogue process within the coming 60 days on what how, when and who... (for) the formation of the transitional government," Ethiopia's Hailemariam Desalegn said, after the rare meeting between President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar alongside regional leaders.

Sixty migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia and two Yemeni crew members drowned last weekend in the worst such tragedy off the coast of Yemen this year, the U.N. said Friday.

"The tragedy is the largest single loss of life of migrants and refugees attempting to reach Yemen via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden this year," Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN's refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Ethiopian police arrested 25 people accused of plotting attacks in the country and suspected of having links to Somalia's al-Qaida-linked Shebab rebels, officials said Thursday.

Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told Agence France Presse that those detained had been trained by the militants in Somalia and were planning a series of attacks in Jimma, about 305 kilometers (189 miles) southwest of the Ethiopian capital and where the arrests were made.

Ethiopian security forces shot dead peaceful protesters in student demonstrations last week, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, quoting "credible" claims of a death toll "much higher" than the official figure of eight.

"Witnesses said security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Ambo on April 30," HRW said in a statement accusing security forces of using massive force. 

At least nine people have been killed and 70 injured at student protests in southern Ethiopia this week, including in a grenade attack, the government said in a statement late Thursday.

The government blamed "anti-peace" forces for inciting violence, while opposition groups accused the police of brutality.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left late Tuesday on his first major tour of Africa focused on some of the continent's most brutal wars including the bloodshed in South Sudan. 

The trip, which will take in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, will seek to "encourage democratic development, promote respect for human rights, advance peace and security," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has said.