DC Sports and Entertainment Commission Press Release
(Washington, DC) – The DC Sports and Entertainment Commission will host the first ever Ethiopian Sports Federation festival in the District June 29th through July 7th at RFK Stadium. This annual fundraising event will honor influential Ethiopians in recognition of their contributions to their country as well as celebrate sports and cultural heritage.
“We are very proud to help bring the first Ethiopian soccer tournament and festival to RFK Stadium,” said Erik A. Moses, DC Sports and Entertainment Commission chief executive officer. “The Sports and Entertainment Commission and the District are very excited to host the thousands of revelers converging on the city for this unique and important sporting and cultural experience.” More after the jump.
The seven-day tournament will include soccer matches, Ethiopian-American Day celebration, concerts featuring traditional and contemporary Ethiopian performers, a children’s talent show, a vigil hosted by the Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development, voter registration drive, arts and crafts.
“We are energized about the 25th Anniversary of the ESFNA tournament. As one of the founding members of the organization, we are delighted to host this momentous occasion in the District of Columbia – home to the largest Ethiopian community outside of Ethiopia,” said Solomon Abdella, chairman of the ESFNA local organizing committee.
For more than two decades, the Ethiopian Sport Federation of North America (ESFNA) has been promoting amateur soccer and cultural events within the Ethiopian community across North America. The Federation strives to provide positive role models for the youth and promote goodwill between the Ethiopian communities in the United States and those around the world. For more information about schedule of events and ticket information, visit http://www.washdcsports.com/
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Over a quarter of Ethiopia’s HIV/AIDS patients on drugs are not taking their medicine because of logistical problems but also due to religious beliefs, the head of a treatment body said on Tuesday.
Over 40,000 of Ethiopia’s 156,360 HIV/AIDS patients on the life-prolonging medication have discontinued treatment “due to problems of transportation to hospitals,” said Dr Ygeremu Abebe, the director of the Clinton Foundation in Ethiopia.
Some however stopped taking the anti-retroviral medicine on the prompting of religious leaders who encouraged them to take “holy water” instead, he said.
“Lack of awareness of serious health problem for patients who discontinue treatment could also be considered a reason,” Ygeremu told a workshop on the disease.
Some 20 percent of 7,000 children with the illness have also stopped medication, he said.
Last year, the head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church told about 5,000 faithful, most of who were infected, that they should combine the free drugs — provided under U.S. President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — with the holy water.
With more than 1.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world most affected by the epidemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Over a million adults and children have died in Ethiopia in the last two decades from AIDS.
Infections in the country are predominantly in urban areas but have in the last several years spread to rural centers all over the country, where 85 percent of Ethiopia’s 81 million people live, according to WHO.
(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
UNESCO — The first phase of the re-installation works of the Aksum Obelisk, also known as Stele 2, in its original location at the World Heritage site in Aksum, Ethiopia was completed on 12 June 2008. The first of three blocks of the stele, which stands 24.3 metres high and weighs 152 tons, was successfully and smoothly mounted.
The Aksum Obelisk re-installation project, conducted by UNESCO contractor Croci Associati, is using an innovative high-technology approach, and its implementation represents a technical feat of colossal scale. The project has been prepared to ensure a zero-risk approach for the monument and the surrounding site. The successful mounting of the first block is an extremely important step confirming the soundness of the project’s complex design as well as the skills of the UNESCO contractors, the construction company Lattanzi and the supervision team (Croci Associati, SPC Engineering, and MH Engineering).
The remaining two blocks will be reinstalled from 16 to 31 July 2008, one year after the start of this exceptional project.
The inauguration ceremony will take place on September 10th, the last day of the Ethiopian millennium celebrations. Photos and a press kit are available for more detailed information.
LONDON (Reuters) – Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) has bought by tender 1.87 million tonnes of gas oil and jet fuel for July 2008 to June 2009, up 13 percent from a previous purchase, industry sources said on Wednesday.
EPE bought 1.32 million tonnes of 0.5 percent gas oil and 550,000 tonnes of jet fuel from ExxonMobil, they said.
The premiums were $38.03 a tonne for gas oil and $54.50 a tonne for jet fuel on a cost-and-freight basis, they said.
“Demand is increasing. There is more construction going on,” said one.
EPE previously bought 1.2 million tonnes of gas oil and 450,000 tonnes of jet fuel for July 2007 to June 2008 supply, the sources said.
The premiums for gas oil were $27.41 a tonne and $33.82 a tonne for jet fuel in the past tender.
Ethiopia does not own any refineries and relies on fuel imports to meet its domestic consumption.
(Reporting by Felicia Loo; editing by James Jukwey)
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Drought-ravaged Ethiopia should improve its “backward” farming systems to curb acute food shortages, which have left millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian aid, a top World Bank official said on Wednesday.
About 4.5 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid due to poor seasonal rains and high food prices in the vast east African country, according to the United Nations.
“Ethiopia has registered commendable economic growth over the last three or four years,” Justin Lin Yifu, chief economist and senior vice-president of the World Bank, told reporters on a visit to Addis Ababa.
“However, some parts of the country have been experiencing drought due to the backward farming system in the country.”
Ethiopia, sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous nation, needs $325 million to provide 400,000 tonnes of food, especially in the country’s hard-hit south and south eastern regions bordering Somalia and Kenya, according to the United Nations.
About 85 percent of Ethiopia’s 81 million population rely on subsistence farming and “this needs to be revisited,” he said without elaborating.
“Given good weather conditions, diverse natural resources and huge labour in Ethiopia, I don’t think it would be difficult to bring about a real change in the country”, he said.
Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Wangui Kanina
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Trade and Industry Minister of Ethiopia plans to develop its vast coal reserves in the west of the country for fertilizer and power generation, at an estimated cost of $730 million.
Girma Birru said his ministry had signed an agreement with state-owned China National Complete Plant Import & Export Corporation (COMPLANT) to develop the coal reserve.
No other details were given of the accord. The firm had earlier conducted a feasibility study of the project.
Ethiopia imports up to 400,000 tonnes of fertiliser annually but the escalating international price of urea, used in the manufacture of fertiliser, is becoming prohibitive for the government.
“The study indicated that the reserve has a potential to produce between 300,000 tonnes of urea, 20,000 tonnes of methanol and 90 megawatts of electric power,” he told reporters.
An environmental assessment study is also being conducted in the thickly forested Yayu region, some 500 kms (312 miles) west of Addis Ababa, he said. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Wangui Kanina)
