Eritrean president announced that Eritrea shall dispatch a delegation to Addis Abeba to a constructive engagement with Ethiopia. President Isaias Afewerki made the remarks during the Martyrs Day celebrations today.
“We will send a delegation to Addis Abeba to gauge current developments directly and in depth and to chart out a plan for continuous future action,” President Isaias said, adding, “The events and developments that have unfolded in our region in general and in Ethiopia in particular in the recent period warrant appropriate attention.”
It was the first response from Eritrea to Ethiopia’s renewed engagement this month to honour all the terms of a peace deal that ended a 1998-2000 war between the Horn of Africa neighbours.
Dr Riek Machar, chairman of the SPLM-IO, has arrived in Addis Ababa earlier this morning to be part of the face-to-face talks with President Salva Kiir through an IGAD-sponsored peace process to try to negotiate an end to a five-year-old civil war.
President Kiir is also expected to arrive in Addis Ababa later today. The two South Sudanese leaders will meet for the first time since a peace deal broke down in 2016.
They will both be received by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The IGAD Summit will take place tomorrow to deliberate and decide on the outcomes of the year-long process of the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) on South Sudan.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed travelled to Somalia on 16 June, where he held talks with president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (‘Farmaajo’). The two leaders and their delegations held lengthy discussions covering a wide range of matters of mutual interest including regional and global affairs.
PM Abiy Ahmed stressed the need to adopt and implement border and joint strategy to promote stability in the Horn of Africa. He further highlighted the need to attach attention towards addressing extremism and regional conflicts, encourage trade and investment as well as to tackle poverty in the region.
He also paid tribute to the tremendous sacrifices made by Ethiopian troops who served in AMISOM in the fight against terrorist organisations that pose an existential threat not only to Somalia but also to the region.
The President finally called for the implementation of full economic integration between the two countries to bring economic growth and promote investment through the development of infrastructure, including transportation, highway, energy and train, among other areas.
The two countries also agreed to jointly invest in four seaports to attract foreign investment to their countries.
Named the world’s best tourism destination in 2015 by the European Council on Tourism and Trade, Ethiopia is a country like nowhere else on the planet. Africa’s fastest growing economy is a land of contrast, at once modern and traditional, with a highly diverse population united by a unique history. The landscape of Ethiopia is no less varied with lakes, rivers, rocky mountains, grasslands, and lowlands.
Top it off with incredible wildlife, remarkable culture and peoples, delicious food, pleasant weather and seven UNESCO World Heritage sites (the highest number in Africa), and you obtain a great holiday destination, the perfect balance between a backpackers’ holiday and a cultural trip for history buffs.
Ethiopia offers walking, hiking, and trekking at every level and all year round
Unmissable sights
With its spectacular scenery, rich biodiversity, and numerous protected areas, Ethiopia is a paradise for nature lovers with landscapes epic in both scale and beauty. Ethiopia is a land where one can trek more than 3,000 meters above sea level (in the Simien and Bale mountains) or visit the lowest place on the African continent, the Danakil Depression (125 meters below sea level), the lowest point in Africa and second in the world (after the Dead Sea). In between, there are lush highlands and stirring deserts, vertiginous canyons and sweeping savannah, vast lakes and high plateaus. Besides, Ethiopia is home to landmarks of great significance, from the source of the Blue Nile to the Simien National Park, where massive erosion over the years on the Ethiopian plateau has created one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.
Ethiopia’s wildlife riches are also diverse. Although lions, elephants, giraffes, and other typical safari animals are present in Ethiopia, the country is mainly famous for its endogenous species such as the Ethiopian wolf (the rarest dog in the world) and the peaceful Gelada baboon, also called bleeding-heart monkey. Watching the horned and sure-footed Walia ibex (the only indigenous goat in Africa) cling to a rocky precipice is one of the great sights in nature. Watching the horned and sure-footed Walia ibex (the only indigenous goat in Africa) clinging to a rocky precipice is just incredible. There are also many kinds of delightful birds to behold.
A unique history and culture
As the only African country to have escaped European colonialism, Ethiopia has retained much of its cultural identity. Its fascinating and enigmatic recorded history stretches back 3,000 years to the reign of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The country is a cradle of prehistoric humankind and embraced Christianity long before the missionaries arrived. Ethiopia’s ancient orthodox Christianity has endowed the nation with thousands of churches and monasteries, while a succession of empires and kingdoms added medieval forts, palaces, and tombs through the centuries.
Culturally speaking, Ethiopia is home to the ancient city of Harar (the world’s fourth holiest Islamic city), the medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Gheralta, and the magnificent 17th-century castles of Gondar, that is often called the ‘Camelot of Africa’ on account of its splendid collection of turreted castles.
The mystical churches of Lalibela were hand-hewn from rock
Vibrant lifestyle
The Ethiopian lifestyle, with its unique musical and linguis- tic heritage and cuisine, combined with an ancient coffee culture and a thriving artisanal scene, makes the country an unmissable stopover for culture-hungry visitors. When it comes to human cultures, Ethiopia has an embarrassment of riches. The country’s population is highly diverse, comprising over 80 different ethnic groups. In addition to the Oromo, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans, who together constitute around three-quarters of the population, smaller groups like the Surmi, Afar, Mursi, Karo, Hamer, Nuer, and Anuak also live in the country. Their ancient customs and traditions have remained almost entirely intact. Venturing into these communities and staying among them is akin to receiving a privileged initiation into a forgotten world.
Ethiopia produces food, music, and art that bear little resemblance to anywhere else in the world. Ethiopia’s unique cuisine – dominated by pancake-like injera, heaped with a tantalisingly spiced selection of vegan or meat dishes – will delight visitors with adventurous palates. A host of colourful and popular Christian and Islamic festivals occur along the year, including the Meskel Ceremony held in Addis Ababa or Aksum, and Timkat, best experienced in Gondar. Finally, Ethio- pia is also the birthplace of coffee, and its rich coffee culture is embodied in the aromatic and age-old ‘coffee ceremonies’ held daily all over the country.
A turning point for tourism
Tourism is new in Ethiopia and wasn’t a government priority until recently, but the changes on the ground have been quick and impressive. When the new regime came to power in the early 1990s, the government’s priorities were health, education, and rebuilding the economy. In 2013, the government realised that tourism could contribute to the development of the country. This tourism push coincided with a massive upsurge in foreign investment from China, India, Turkey, and other nations that boosted GDP to annual growth rates of around 10%, allowing the country to massively invest in infrastructure to welcome its visitors. With the Ethiopian economy growing quickly, tourism is slowly but surely moving toward these high expectations.
Blue Nile Falls
Infrastructure transformation
With more than 400 hotels and massive infrastructure improvements throughout the country, Addis Ababa is ready to accommodate a considerable number of tourists. The national capital has a new light rail system (the first of this kind in Sub-Saharan Africa), and the railroad line between Addis and Djibouti is currently being rebuilt and modernised. Land transport between major cities has also significantly improved thanks to the construction of brand new superhighways. Provincial capitals are getting new airport terminals. Ethiopian Airways, the national carrier, has been playing a pivotal role in opening up the country to more visitors with a range of new routes launched last year. The company is now linking almost 70 global cities with close to 60 across the African continent.
After years of reconstruction, Ethiopia is quietly in the midst of a tourism revolution. More than 750,000 tourists have visited the country in the last nine months alone, a far cry from the fewer than 200,000 recorded in 2004. Visitors are arriving from all over the world, though US citizens make up around one in six tourists, with significant numbers also coming from the UK, China, and Italy. With its unbeatable combination of historical heritage, wonderful people and impressive sceneries, there is no doubt that Ethiopia should be on any serious traveller’s itinerary.
On 13 June 2018, Honourable Muferihat Kamil, Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives of Ethiopia, briefed the Political Committee of the ACP about the situation in Ethiopia.
In the past weeks, Ethiopia made three bold decisions: privatising the economy partially, lifting the state of emergency two months early and reiterating its call to make peace with Eritrea.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister and current Chair of IGAD, PM Dr Abiy Ahmed has invited President Salva Kiir and the leader of main armed opposition group Riek Machar to meet in Addis Ababa within a week.
A statement released on Wednesday said the SPLM-IO acknowledged receipt of the invitation letter to its leader for “IGAD-led face-to-face talks with President Salva Kiir on the 20th of June, 2018 in Addis Ababa”.
“The Movement welcomes this invitation and salutes the courage of IGAD for reaching this prudent and timely decision, it will go a long way in building confidence in the peace process,” said Mabior Garang de Mabior, head of SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations.
For his part, President Kiir didn’t issue a statement, but sources at the presidency confirmed the receipt of the invitation.
The invitation of the Ethiopian Premier for a face-to-face meeting comes after a similar one by the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir to President Kiir and his main rival Machar.
The two rivals will meet the IGAD leaders on the sidelines of the upcoming African Union summit in Mauritania next month.
The SPLM-IO reiterated its commitment to the IGAD peace forum to revitalise the 2015 peace agreement stressing it would continue “to engage positively with IGAD and all friends of South Sudan interested in helping our people achieve peace”.
The South Sudan parties will hold Intensive Interlink Consultations from 16-18 June 2018 in Addis Ababa organised by the IGAD mediation to narrow the gaps on its proposals for a deal on the governance and security arrangements.
The International Hydropower Association (IHA) ranks Ethiopia the top hydropower producer in Africa with an installed capacity of 3,822 MW.
South Africa is second with 3,595 MW, followed by Egypt with 2,844 MW, DR Congo with 2,593 MW while Angola is fifth.
According to the report by IHA, neighbouring Kenya drops two spots to land in the 14th spots.
Ethiopia has an array of projects under construction, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which will generate 6,450 MW at full capacity upon completion.
It also signed an agreement six months ago to build two geothermal power plants at a combined cost of 4 billion US dollars.
The two plants, Corbetti and Tulu Moye, will produce a combined 1,000 MW of power upon completion in eight years time.
Ethiopia is eager to meet rising energy demand from its industries as well as becoming the continent’s biggest exporter of energy.
PM Abiy Ahmed was in Egypt for a two-day state visit this weekend, where he held a meeting with President Abdel Fattah el Sisi. The two leaders agreed to elevate their countries’ relationship to a strategic level of mutual trust, cooperation and support.
During the talks, the two leaders agreed to work together beyond the Nile and other bilateral issues and affirmed their commitment to set up a joint fund for infrastructure development such as energy. They agreed to cooperate on Somalia and South Sudan peace process. The Egyptian president, for its part, appreciated Ethiopia’s new initiative to end Ethio-Eritrea stalemate.
Moreover, Egypt freed 32 Ethiopian prisoners following the visit of PM Dr Abiy, who have already arrived in Ethiopia. PM Abiy Ahmed vowed not to harm Egypt’s water interest. For his part, Sisi described Egypt’s relations with Ethiopia as “strategic,” promising to maintain cooperation with the Ethiopian side for the best interests of both nations.
“I would like to reiterate that the relation between Egypt and Ethiopia is a strategic partnership relation and that Egypt’s strategic policy is to enhance common interests with Ethiopia in all fields,” he said.
President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni awarded Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Pearl of Africa Grand Master Medal last Saturday, on the occasion of the 29th national celebrations of Heroes’ Day.
The award is in recognition for his reconciliatory leadership in achieving peace and stability in Ethiopia and for extending an olive branch to Eritrea.
Heroes’ Day has been celebrated since 1989 in honour of Ugandans who had sacrificed their lives in the struggle to achieve national Independence, peace and democracy.
Prime Minister Dr Abiy arrived in Uganda on Friday 8 May for a two-day state visit. He held talks with President Museveni, with a particular focus on strengthening issues of mutual interest between the two countries, including trade and political ties. The two leaders noted the existing bonds of friendship and cooperation between Ethiopia and Uganda and agreed to concretise collaboration in priority sectors energy, trade, agriculture, transport, tourism and culture.
The two leaders also stressed the need to increase the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries by bringing together the respective private sectors to identify opportunities for trade and investment. They underscored the need to work on road transport linking North-eastern Uganda to Southern Ethiopia, through Northern Kenya.
The leaders also discussed the situation in South Sudan and called upon all parties to the conflict to renounce violence and armed rebellion and redouble efforts to find a peaceful political solution.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed travelled to Somalia on 16 June, where he held talks with president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (‘Farmaajo’). The two leaders and their delegations held lengthy discussions covering a wide range of matters of mutual interest including regional and global affairs.
