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Tag: Ethiopia

  • Buhari, Magu, others off to Ethiopia for AU summit

    President Muhammadu Buhari will Friday depart for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to participate in the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).

    The highlight of the President’s engagements during the visit will be his Statement under the historic theme for the AU Summit, namely: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation.”

    According to a statement Thursday by the presidential spokesman Mr Femi Adesina, this is the first time in the 54-year history of the AU that anti-corruption will be made a theme of the gathering of the regional leaders.

    Adesina recalled that on July 4, 2017 during the 29th Session of the AU, African leaders unanimously endorsed Buhari to champion the fight against corruption on the continent in recognition of his personal commitment and widely acclaimed anti-graft drive at the domestic level.

    “On July 25, 2017, the President in a letter to President Alpha Conde of Guinea, who is also the out-going AU Chairperson, formally accepted his nomination to lead members of the AU on this crucial crusade against a veritable socio-economic vice that is anti-development.

    “While thanking his colleagues for the honour, he reiterated his ‘commitment to contribute towards our collective efforts to strengthen good governance and development on the continent,” Adesina said.

    He said apart from anti-corruption, other issues lined for consideration by African leaders and their delegations include peace and security (transnational terrorism); institutional reforms of the continental body; free movement of persons; climate change; trade; aviation; education; gender and development.

    He said President Buhari would also hold bilateral meetings with some of his colleagues on issues of common interests.

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau; the Minister of State (Aviation), Hadi Sirika; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu are in the President’s delegation to the summit.

  • AU launches dotAfrica Internet domain

    AU launches dotAfrica Internet domain

    More than 50 African countries have created an internet domain fully owned by Africa, which they named dotAfrica, APA report on Wednesday.

    This happened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the 29th ordinary session of the African Union Assembly.

    “DotAfrica will bring the continent together as an internet community under one umbrella and create an opportunity to forge a unique online identity which will associate products, services and or information with the continent and the people of Africa,” read a communiqué.

    The domain is an African initiative created by Africans for Africans and the worldwide audience of companies, organisations and individuals interested in, associated with and connected with the African community and markets.

    It was said that the objective of the launch was to mark the commencement of the DotAfrica operational phase by setting up a road show starting at the AU headquarters.

    The idea of DotAfrica was conceived in 2000 when some African internet professionals argued that DotAfrica should be operated by Africans for the benefit of the entire continent.

    Meanwhile, Africa has been reported to have recorded robust growth with international tourist arrivals and tourism revenues growing at 6 percent and 9 percent respectively each year between 1995 and 2014, over the last two decades,

    In its Economic Development in Africa report 2017, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said tourism in Africa is a flourishing industry that supports more than 21 million jobs.

    The report said tourism attracted capital investment of $26 billion on average in 2011-2014 to the African economy, and that this amount represented 1.8 percent of total GDP of the continent.

    It added that international tourist arrivals in Africa increased to 56 million in the period 2011-2014, from 24 million in the previous one (1995-1998), and that the figure is forecast to grow to 134 million by 2030.

    Tourism export revenues have more than tripled, increasing from $14 billion to approximately $47 billion, between 1995 and 2014. As a result tourism is now estimated to contribute about 8.5 percent to the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP), it further stated.

     

  • Video: Ethiopia introduces first smart parking system in Africa

    Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa has introduced a first for Africa, a smart parking system to solve the lack of parking space for the hundreds of thousands of cars in the city.

    The system uses modern Chinese technology to park vehicles inside a steel structured building using an automated lift.

    Many people are already excited to see a tangible solution for the growing parking space problem in Addis Ababa.

    CGTN’s Girum Chala has more in this video:

  • Ethiopia jails 20 Muslims on terrorism-related charges

    Ethiopia jails 20 Muslims on terrorism-related charges

    An Ethiopian Court on Tuesday sentenced 20 alleged Islamists to five and a half years in prison on terrorism-related charges, the state-affiliated agency reports.

    “The defendants were found guilty of harbouring an extremist religious view, thereby opposing any other religious teachings, and also trying to establish an Islamic state in the country that will be ruled by Sharia law,’’ the court in Addis Ababa said.

    Nineteen of the defendants, including a journalist working for a Muslim radio station, were handed jail terms of five and a half years under the east African country’s controversial anti-terrorism law.

    One defendant, also a journalist, was only given 4 years and 5 months because of his poor health.

    Defence lawyer Mustafa Safi described the verdict as “unfair’’ and said his clients had suffered “bad treatment’’ in prison, where they were not allowed to pray and vowed to appeal against the sentence.

    In September, Ethiopia pardoned five members of a Muslim group which had been set up to counter alleged government interference in Muslim religious life, but was later busted by security forces on terrorism-related charges.

    Muslims have complained about discrimination in predominantly Orthodox Christian Ethiopia, where they make up at least 33 per cent of the 100 million population.

    The Ethiopian government is also often accused of stifling dissent.