ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Some of Ireland’s top lawyers have swapped their wigs for teaching hats on a trip to Ethiopia.
Former Ireland Attorney General Harry Whelehan and ten colleagues hope to change the war-torn country’s legal system through a series of courses on law. The legal eagles will pass on their knowledge, skills and expertise to 70 of the country’s judges, prosecutors and lawyers as part of the first-ever Rule of Law project.
The six-day mission was organised by Connect Ethiopia, an initiative set up by successful Irish businesspeople to encourage links between the two countries. The visitors, led by Connect Ethiopia co-founder and Dublin lawyer Philip Lee, want to help foster a fair, equitable and independent judiciary in the African country ravaged by civil war.
By Wudineh Zenebe | Addis Fortune
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – After 60 years of presence in the country, Shell Ethiopia has totally moved out of the Ethiopian market as of November 14, 2008, after Libya Oil Holding Ltd (OiLibya) finalized the purchase and sale agreement it entered with the former.
OiLibya, a new trademark in the Ethiopian oil market, has thus started operations since Shell Ethiopia’s departure from the market it has operated in for more than half a century.
The official date that Libya Oil Ethiopia Ltd begun operations in Ethiopia, November 14, 2008, the de-branding of Shell Ethiopia as well as the re-branding of its 201 retail outlets across Ethiopia, which would be concluded within six months time also occurred on the same day, sources from OiLibya disclosed.
A subsidiary of the Netherlands based Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell Company (Red Sea) Limited and Incorporated, was formed in 1929 in London. In October 1946, it bought depot facilities previously owned by Agip, the Italian based oil giant, and leased land from the government of Ethiopia on the premises of the current Akaki Depot, including some retail outlets in Addis Abeba.
In April 1964, it was renamed Shell Ethiopia Limited. After it bought Agip’s business in Ethiopia in 2000, it exited from the Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) business in 2004. Three years later, it sold some of its assets to Kobil Ethiopia Ltd, including a depot in Addis Abeba and 63 retail sites across the country.
Marking its total exit, it has signed a purchase sale and agreement with OiLibya, which gives the latter 100pc ownership of Shell’s down stream oil products marketing business share in Ethiopia. Its 142 employees have been retained by the new North African entrant.
The last months of Shell Ethiopia’s life had been characterised by the serious confrontation it had with the company’s labour union over service benefit claims the employees demanded. With its demise in the country, the dispute now seems to have come to an end.
OiLibya has entered the scene with hopes for its future business and for the employees it has taken over.
“We are now employees of OiLibya and hope to work in a better environment,” Fanuel Samson, president of the Labour Union told Fortune.
In what Fanuel referred to as unexpected good news, OiLibya has already pledged a 15pc salary increment for the employees as of January 2009.
“The superseding principle is that people on the ground are best placed to develop our business,” Manar E. Sall, Corporate Planning Manager of OiLibya said during the Oil Fair held on November 14, 2008.
The state-owned OiLibya, previously called Tamoil Africa, operates gasoline stations in African nations, including Egypt and Burkina Faso, and plans to build two pipelines on the continent, one between Kenya and Uganda and another to supply five countries with oil products from a Ugandan refinery.
With the largest oil reserve in Africa within in its territories, Libya expanded exploration with the support of international companies, including BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA after the US ended almost two decades of sanctions in 2004.
Managed by the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund that manages Libya’s assets in other countries, including Libya Oil Holding and Tamoil SA, which owns three refineries in Europe and more than 3,000 filling stations on the continent, the North African giant has now expanded its business to Ethiopia.
Following the agreement it signed with Shell Ethiopia in July, the company has discussed its future business with Girma Birru, minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Alemayehu Tegenu, minister of Mines and Energy, and Yigzaw Mekonnen, general manager of the Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE).
As a new company in the Ethiopian business environment, it has also registered at the MoTI.
OiLibya has held further discussions with state-owned Ethiopian Airlines and the private construction company, Salini Costratori – the major customers of its predecessor.
“The change of ownership in shares does not bring any change in terms and conditions of employment to all staff, as well as to ongoing supply contracts or other business relations entered with business partners at large,” stated Bahru Temesgen, External Affairs manager of OiLibya.
The Ethiopian oil market, which had for years been dominated by the foreign based Total, Mobil, Agip and Shell, has recently been penetrated by the Kenyan Kobil and the Sudanese Nile Oil, and now the Libyan OiLibya.
With the exception of Total, all the earliest oil companies – Agip, Mobil and recently Shell – have left the market.
Following a decision in October 2004, by the Ethiopian Council of Ministers to allow both local and foreign companies to operate in the retail of oil, two local companies – National Oil Company (NOC) and Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) entered the market in November 2005 and May 2006, respectively.
RAFAH, Egypt (Reuters) – Egyptian police shot dead an unidentified African migrant on the border with Israel on Monday as he tried to enter the Jewish state illegally, a security official said.
A police patrol spotted the man near the border and opened fire on him when he tried to escape, ignoring an order to stop, a hospital source said.
The hospital source added that the man had been shot in the stomach, thigh and leg and was dead on arrival at El Arish hospital. The dead man carried no form of identification, the sources added.
His death brings to 27 the number of African migrants killed by Egyptian security on the border with Israel this year.
The migrants, mainly from Sudan, Ethiopia or Eritrea, are looking for work or asylum in Israel.
For years Egypt tolerated tens of thousands of Africans on its territory but its attitude hardened after it came under pressure to halt rising numbers of Africans trying to cross the border into Israel.
Earlier in November, U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch called on Egypt to stop shooting African migrants. (Reporting by Yusri Mohamed and Mohamed Yousef)
A company is introducing a new project that will produce cartoon shows for Ethiopian children and seeks the participation of local artists. The following is taken from the project’s web site:
Abctoon is a fresh new animation project to promote Ethiopia’s cultural identity. Ethiopia is in critical need of more media content for children. Currently, nearly all animated programs on television are imported from abroad. As a result, the content reflects and imparts foreign values and ideologies. Because children are especially fond of watching animated series, they are prone to appropriating their messages. Animation is also typically aimed directly at children, often containing lessons suggesting particular mores and folkways intended to teach children certain behaviours. Studies prove that children absorb these ideas by watching, imitating, and assimilating them as their own. This creates a situation where the children are at risk of copying foreign cultural values.
We recommend producing a pedagogical animated program that conveys Ethiopian values in the effort of reinforcing an Ethiopian identity, as well as educating children about cultural diversity for a broader global perspective. Viewers will benefit from a community-based animated program featuring an African aesthetic, recounting stories in familiar local backdrops, and communicating in the native language.
Visit the project’s web site here.
JERUSALEM – Two Israeli jet fighters were deployed when an Ethiopian airliner failed to identify itself as it entered Israeli airspace today, and escorted the plane to the main international airport, media reported.
The civilian aircraft, carrying some 200 passengers, apparently had not identified itself because of a technical problem with its communication system.
The Israeli air force pilots deployed to intercept the plane made eye contact with the pilot, indicating he should identify himself which he then did, the YNet News service said.
The jet fighters escorted the plane to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
Last year, Israel acquired a system that identifies any aircraft entering its airspace.
The system is meant to significantly reduce the risk that a hijacked plane can enter Israeli airspace to conduct an attack like the September 11, 2001 attacks when hijackers slammed two fuel-laden airliners into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre.
– YNetNews.com
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Special police forces surprised two villages in southwestern Ethiopia on Friday as the inhabitants slept, launching an attack that burned all the houses, killed nine civilians and wounded 23 others, said an official in Gambella region who requested not to be identified by name. Two attackers were also slain during the events.
A federal official in Addis Ababa, originally from the Gambella region, confirmed reports of the attacks.
The regional government was apparently trying to force the villagers of Laare and Puldeng into a new area, but they refused to move out until the dry season, by the end of January or February.
A mixed force of Anyua, Nuer and highlander police attacked the villagers, many of whom were Sudanese Nuer who had joined Jikany kin in the area.
The Gambella official estimated that some 600 cattle were stolen and more than 200 cattle and 1000 goats and sheep were killed—many of them burned in the houses where they were kept. Thirty men, women and children are still missing, and the villagers fled to the bush.
The official accused of ordering the attack, regional council member Goaner Yer, has now ordered some police forces to protect his faction from retaliation by mobilizing around the Ciechany section in Lol-gungjang.
Two attackers were killed: Bol Malual, a Gajiok/Ciequick (Nuer) and James Omot, an Anyua. At least six other attackers were wounded.
Thohl Muon Reath of the Cienuol sub-clan, aged approximately 67 years, was killed in the attack. Two children, Duoth Gal Chan and Nyedak Machduel Put, aged eight and thirteen, respectively, were killed, and a four-year-old child from the Ciedup sub-clan was wounded in the attack.
The deceased also include Deng Gatluak Zuor, Kech Chuol Diew, Duit Bol Biliew, Wiyual Chol Wuol, Biel Gach Tuach and Reath Dak Thoan.
– SUDAN TRIBUNE
