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Ethiopia’s Transport Minister, Dagmawit Moges, on 4 April 2019 presented details from a preliminary report of the crash of the ET302 aircraft on March 10. According to her, the multi-pronged probe body had arrived at four major conclusions and had subsequently presented two safety recommendations to the plane maker, Boeing Inc. The four conclusions according to her pointed to the fact that the airline had done everything right before and during the flight which crashed six minutes after take off. As indicated on the report, the crew obtained the license and qualifications to conduct the flight. The takeoff role appeared very normal, she indicated.

Despite their hard work and full compliance with the emergency procedures, it was very unfortunate that they could not recover the airplane from the persistence of nose diving, it added. Based on the findings of the investigation, the report recommended  aviation authorities to verify that the review of the aircraft control system related to flight controllability has been adequately addressed by the manufactures before release of the aircraft to operation.

According to her information from the black boxes were the main basis of the preliminary report plus other information pieces gathered from the accident site, from the airline and the civil aviation authorities. Parties involved in the prob are Ethiopia Civil Aviation Authority – lead, US National Transport Safety Board, US Federal Aviation Authority, European air safety body, French aviation investigators and Boeing are the main. 

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Group acknowledged the preliminary report of the accident of ET 302/10 March, 2019 and appreciated the hard work of the investigation team. The preliminary report clearly showed that the Ethiopian Airlines pilots who were commanding Flight ET 302/10 March have followed the Boeing recommended and FAA approved emergency procedures to handle the most difficult emergency situation created on the airplane, it said in a statement .

Ethiopian Airlines emerged as the ‘African Champion of the year‘ at the 7th edition of the Africa CEO Forum, which is taking place in Kigali from March 25, 2019.

Ethiopian Airlines was awarded for their intra-african partnerships, reaching 40 countries on the continent, the Africa CEO Forum said in a statement.

The award was received by the airline’s CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam.

“I would like to start by thanking everyone who has supported us after the tragic accident that happened to us two weeks ago. We promise to keep up the good work for the good of the African continent,” Gebremariam said in his acceptance speech.

Also at the event, Morocco’s Mohamed el Kettani emerged the 2019 African CEO of the year.

Other winners at the Africa CEO Summit are Engie Africa, beating other international companies to the ‘International Company of the year’ award.

Nigeria’s logistics company, Kobo 360, was named ‘The Disrupter of the Year’ for registering immediate and significant success in a sector where costs are higher in Africa than anywhere else in the world.

The awards wouldn’t have ended without recognition of gender and Access Bank were the victors, going home with the ‘Gender Leader’ award. The emancipation of women forms the backbone of the Bank’s strategy.

In their 7th year in a row, the 2019 Africa CEO Awards took place in Kigali, Rwanda, recognizing outstanding performance of business leaders, companies and investors in Africa.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

African CEO of the year- Mohamed el Kettani

African Champion of the year- Ethiopian Airlines

International Company of the year- Engie Africa

The Disrupter of the Year – Kobo 360

Don’t miss an exciting discussion between Ambassador Grum and Mr. Aymeric Chauprade, a French Member of the European Parliament and geopolitical expert who is highly familiar with the dynamics of the Horn of Africa.

They talked, among other things, about the incredible political changes that have been taking place in Ethiopia since last year, the reconciliation with Eritrea, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Ethiopia.

They also debated the future of the strategic relationship shared by the European Union and Ethiopia, including Ethiopia’s growing links with the Ethiopian Parliament, and what the European Union and Ethiopia can learn from each other.

The House of People’s Representatives (HPR) approved on Thursday 21 March the membership of the country into the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), bringing the number of ratifications across the continent to 21.

While up to 44 African countries enacted the AfCFTA last year in Rwanda, 22 ratifications are required to effectively bring the agreement into force.

The AfCFTA, one of the biggest trade agreements since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), aims to create a single market in Africa.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was endorsed by leaders of more than 40 countries in March last year. Since then more states have joined the agreement, including Ethiopia.

The AfCFTA is meant to create a tariff-free continent that can grow local businesses, boost intra-African trade, revamp industrialization and create jobs.

The agreement creates a single continental market for goods and services as well as a customs union with free movement of capital and business travelers.

If all 55 African countries join the AfCFTA, it will be the world’s largest free trade area in the world, covering more than 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

Once in force, AfCFTA will also increase intra-African trade by 52% by the year 2022, remove tariffs on 90% of goods, liberalize services and tackle other barriers to intra-African trade, such as long delays at border posts.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed traveled to the Gedeo zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regional state to listen to the grievances of the displaced people in Gedeb woreda and meet with representatives of the community.

The Prime Minister also traveled to the area to assess the state of the displaced people who are in temporary shelters.

The government, through the coordination of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission, upon the request of zonal and regional administrators earlier this week, has been transporting humanitarian supplies to the area as of March 11th.

The government also will continue its efforts to ensure sustainable reinstatement of the displaced people.

According to United Nations statistics, the majority of Ethiopia’s displaced and persons in need are in Oromia. The SNNP region comes third after the Somali regional state in second position.

The northern Tigray region donated on Saturday five million birrs to help the displacement crisis in the region. Another plank of assistance was the imminent dispatch of a team of medical professionals to the area.

Ethiopians also launched a public funding move to help thousands of Gedeo IDPs displaced as a result of Gedeo-Guji crisis. The Go Fund Me campaign has raked close to $930,000 out of a $1.2m goal as at midday March 17.

The United Nations office in the country recently reported that over eight million people needed food aid, a 5 percent rise from last year, due to a surge in violence that has triggered mass displacement as well as the lingering effects of past droughts.

The crisis has prompted an Ethiopian government appeal for $1.3 billion to provide emergency food and non-food assistance for 8.3 million people.

“The impacts of the climate change-induced droughts of 2016 and before have persisted. Moreover, violence in many parts of the country have added to the burden,” said Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia’s commissioner of national disaster risk management.

About 107 Ethiopian political parties signed on Thursday 14 March a code of conduct that will guide their operations as the country gears towards crucial polls slated for 2020.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed the document on behalf of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF. He described the occasion as a democratic milestone.

Describing the day as a historic and unique one that has bound more than 100 parties in common understanding, he called upon all to treat the document as one that guides the actions of all.

He also called upon law and security enforcement entities to serve all parties equally. In concluding, PM Abiy Ahmed called upon all to be custodians of peace and unity in our current moment.

The new elections chief, Birtukan Mideksa and other officials were present at the event. Appointed in 2018, Mideksa and her team are tasked with organizing highly expected 2020 polls.

Prime minister Abiy has in the past held talks with opposition parties and spoken about his determination to ensure the polls are free, fair and credible. He has stated explicitly that he will respect the will of the people after the vote.

Political and security watchers have emphasized the importance of credible polls in current reforms. The two other vital planks being security and the economy.

French grain group Soufflet, France’s top private cereal collector with 27 plants in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, will build a malting factory in Ethiopia, its first project in Africa, with an initial production target of 60,000 tonnes, the company said on Thursday. The French group laid a cornerstone of its malting plant today.

The plant will create more than 300 permanent jobs and source from 40,000 barley farmers.

Soufflet Malteries is one of the world’s largest malt makers along with fellow French cooperative group Axereal, which also announced last year it was also building a malt processing factory in Ethiopia.

“By setting a first foot in Africa, this ambitious project is fully in line with the strategy of Malteries Soufflet to develop activities outside Europe which already include Brazil, Argentina and India,” the company said in a statement.

Ethiopia is the largest barley producer in Africa and the fourth largest beer maker on the continent, where the market is fast expanding. Still, 70 percent of its malt needs are imported, Soufflet Malteries said.

The plant, due to be located near Addis Ababa, close to many of the barley fields in the country, is expected to start in 2020.

A trading unit that will deal directly with barley growers will start as soon as this year, the privately-owned company said.

Much of the world, including the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing jetliner involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash or banned it from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in just five months.

The European Aviation Safety Agency took steps to keep the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of the air, joining Asian and Middle Eastern governments and carriers that also gave in to safety concerns in the aftermath of Sunday’s crash, which killed all 157 people on board.

Referring to the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people last year, European regulators said Tuesday that “similar causes may have contributed to both events.”

British regulators indicated possible trouble with a reportedly damaged flight data recorder, saying they based their decision on the fact that they did not have “sufficient information” from the recorder.

Turkish Airlines, Oman Air, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Icelandair and South Korean airline Eastar Jet were among the latest carriers to halt use of the Boeing model. The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore also suspended all flights in their airspace or into or out of their airports.

A Turkish Airlines official said two Britain-bound planes returned to Istanbul after British airspace was closed to the aircraft. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

U.S.-based Boeing has said it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies and does not intend to issue new recommendations about the aircraft to customers. Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg also spoke with President Donald Trump and reiterated that the 737 Max 8 is safe, the company said. Its technical team, meanwhile, joined American, Israeli, Kenyan and other aviation experts in the investigation led by Ethiopian authorities.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents more than 26,000 flight attendants at American Airlines, called on CEO Doug Parker to “strongly consider grounding these planes until an investigation can be performed.”

The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed six minutes after taking off for Nairobi, killing people from 35 countries.

Source: AP

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French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Addis Abeba yesterday for a two-day official visit upon the invitation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. This is Emmanuel Macron’s first state visit to Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Emmanuel Macron visited together the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the Amhara regional state.

Ethiopia and France also signed their first military cooperation accord yesterday, a deal that includes helping the nation build a navy, as Paris seeks to boost economic ties in Africa’s second-most populous country.
Macron wants to leverage a mixture of Paris’ soft power in culture and education and its military know-how to give it a foothold at a time when Ethiopia is opening up.

“This unprecedented defense cooperation agreement provides a framework… and notably opens the way for France to assist in establishing an Ethiopian naval component,” Macron told a news conference alongside Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The accord also provides for air cooperation, joint operations and opportunities for training and equipment purchases. “We are here in a friendly country where we want to strengthen and build a new page in our common history,” Macron said. “Since you became prime minister our vision of Ethiopia has profoundly changed.”

He and Prime minister Abiy also signed deals to develop Ethiopia’s cultural heritage, including preserving churches and opening an archaeological dig at a 12th-century village. Paris will provide 100 million euros to help the country’s economic transition.

Macron was accompanied by a delegation of businesspeople, including the chief executive of telecommunications group Orange, Stephane Richard, who is looking to position the company ahead of Ethiopia’s privatization of the sector. A 50-strong French business delegation is due in Addis on Friday.

Today, President Macron will also meet with President Sahle-Work Zewde for talks on bilateral and regional issues of mutual benefit to the peoples of the two countries. France and Ethiopia countries have enjoyed strong diplomatic relations since 1897.

President Emmanuel Macron of France is due to arrive in Addis Ababa today for a two-day state visit to Ethiopia. President Macron embarked on a four-day tour of East Africa on Monday evening, during which he will visit Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

The French president will kick off his tour with a 12-hour stop in Djibouti and a meeting with President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh. “We’re also going to East Africa because it’s a competitive region, especially with China. We’re coming with a different, more positive project that is perhaps a little less purely mercantile,” the Élysée added.

Macron’s next stop will be neighboring Ethiopia, still reeling after this weekend’s deadly plane crash outside of the capital Addis Ababa.

The French president will begin his visit with a trip to the northern town of Lalibela, known for its stunning 13th century rock-hewn churches that were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. Macron promised Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in October that he would propose plans to restore and renovate the churches, currently threatened by erosion caused by mass tourism.

Lalibela locals hope that Macron and Ahmed’s visit will result in a new plan, money, and expertise for the complex’s renewal.

Macron will then meet with Ethiopia’s first female president Sahle-Work Zewde, and the only current female African head of state, elected in October last year. Sahle-Work has a longstanding personal relationship with France. She attended university in the southern French city of Montpellier before later serving as Ethiopia’s ambassador to France.

While in Addis, Macron will be joined by a delegation of businessmen. Ethiopia has quickly risen to become France’s third market in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest trade surplus in the region at €791.6 million in 2017.

The French president will also visit the African Union (AU) headquarters, where he will discuss sustainable development.