(Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s grain harvest from last year’s long rainy season was 334,000 tons smaller than forecast, the Central Statistical Agency said.
The Horn of Africa nation produced 16.1 million metric tons of grain during last year’s September to November harvest, compared with the 16.5 million tons forecast by the agency in January, according to a report published yesterday in the capital, Addis Ababa. The latest report uses a broader sampling method.
More than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa country are in need of emergency food aid, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. The figure includes more than 5 million people who already receive aid six months of the year.
Rates of malnutrition among children continue to rise in Ethiopia, OCHA said in a report e-mailed to reporters yesterday. Much of the current hunger crisis in Ethiopia is due to the failure of the country’s short rains in February and March.
CAIRO, EGYPT — Egyptian company ASEC Mining (Ascom) ASCM.CA said on Monday it was taking a 20 percent stake in a new company that will produce cement in Ethiopia.
In a statement released through the Egyptian stock exchange, it said the Ethiopian venture, in conjunction with ASEC Cement, would be the company’s first investment in cement production.
It said the unnamed Ethiopian company would have a capital of $100,000 and would build and run cement plants, own limestone quarries, and export clinker and other products.
Source: Reuters. Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Sue Thomas
ASMARA — President Isaias Afwerki today held talks at the Denden Hall with a delegation from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) that comprises the foreign ministers of Sudan and Kenya, as well as the Executive Secretary of the organization.
In the meeting, the President indicated that Eritrea suspended membership in IGAD in view of the fact that the organization violated of its own resolutions and that of the United Nations. He further pointed out that IGAD’s support to Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s invasion of Somalia, a member state, and its little role in other issues of the region fully attest to the weakness of the organization. President Isaias elaborated that instead of trying to resolve some issues, IGAD has been complicating matters.
Noting that Eritrea from the outset has been supporting regional integration and that it has played active role in reactivating the organization, the President underlined the need for reorganizing IGAD, as it could not achieve its set objectives the way it stands at present.
Stating that if at all this region is to tackle the problems of the people through creating a common market and regional integration, he underscored that peace and security should prevail in the first place. In this regard, President Isaias stressed the need for IGAD not only to get restructured but also introduce a new mechanism. He further asserted that Eritrea supports regional integration even if undertaken through IGAD.
In a press conference he gave at Asmara International Airport, the Kenyan Foreign Minister, Mr. Moses Wetangula, said that the meeting with President Isaias was fruitful and that conducive ground has already been created. He indicated that they have agreed the need to restructure the organization so that the programs of the IGAD Secretariat could correspond with the current wishes and aspirations of the people in the region.
The Kenyan Foreign Minister also noted the significance of Eritrea’s re-joining the organization.
The delegation that includes the Kenyan Foreign Minister, Mr. Moses Wetangula, the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Deng Alor, and the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Eng. Mahbub M. Maalim, arrived here to hold talks on Eritrea’s rejoining in the organization in line with the mission they have been assigned at the IGAD meeting last June.
It is to be recalled that Eritrea suspended membership in IGAD in April 2007.
ADDIS ABABA – Djibouti has dropped plans to raise port tariffs that would have cost land-locked Ethiopia an extra $22 million a year, the government in Addis Ababa said on Monday.
The Red Sea state has been Ethiopia’s main gateway for imports and exports since it lost the ports of Assab and Masawa when Eritrea won its independence in 1991.
“The Ethiopian government has been notified that the proposed tariff raise has been waived indefinitely,” Ethiopia’s Ministry of Transport and Communication said in a statement, adding the tariff had been due to take effect on August 15.
“Had the tariff increment become effective, Ethiopia would have paid an additional $22 million on top of the $300 million it is paying a year to Djibouti port for handling 4.6 million tonnes of goods annually.”
Ethiopian government sources said Djibouti’s decision to scrap the plans followed a visit by Djiboutian President Omar Ismail Guelleh to Addis Ababa last month.
During that trip, Ethiopia gave Guelleh large tracts of land for wheat farming and a lakeside holiday home, officials said.
Djiboutian officials could not be reached for comment.
Petroliam Nasional Bhd. is close to an agreement to resume oil exploration in Ethiopia’s Somali region, the Reporter said, citing people it didn’t identify.
The oil company is in talks with Sino Africa, an exploration company owned by Ethiopian businessman Tewodros Ashenafi, to conduct seismic surveys and drill wells in the Ogaden basin Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa-based newspaper said.
Petronas suspended exploration in the Ogaden in April 2007 after the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an ethnic Somali group, attacked a Chinese-run exploration site, killing 65 Ethiopian and nine Chinese workers.
Bekoji is a small and modest town perched on top of an Ethiopian plateau but when it comes to its Olympic Games record, it boasts more trophies than several developed nations. The entire town had gathered around four television screens set up in cafes to watch Tirunesh Dibaba win the 10,000 metres final in Beijing, confident that the town’s latest prodigy would add her name to a growing hall of fame.
“It didn’t come as a surprise, I never doubted her victory in the first place,” said Sintayehu Eshetu, a veteran coach who once trained Tirunesh in Bekoji as part of the town’s youth programme.
After calmly staying in silver medallist Elvan Abeylegesse’s slipstream for most of the race, Tirunesh switched on the turbo in the last lap and breezed to her first Olympic victory.
“There was enough competition nonetheless,” adds Sintayehu, proudly looking at his former protege posing for photographs on the cafe’s TV screen as locals chant and cheer.
