ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – African airlines face hard times as a global economic downturn could spur the industry’s US and European giants to seek new markets on the continent, a pan-African body said Tuesday.
“With traffic in America and Europe decreasing, there will be fierce competition created in Africa as a result of more infiltration by foreign carriers,” Christian Folly-Kossi, Security General of the African Airlines Association, told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting in Addis Ababa.
“Many African airlines will be at risk of disappearing because of competition. You can not put a heavyweight and a featherweight together in a boxing match,” he explained.
Folly-Kossi said African carriers have already been affected, as several past agreements signed with Western counterparts had paved the way for a reduction of their market share in the continent’s fledgling aviation industry.
“I am preaching more consolidation, more political support and protection from governments,” he said.
In addition, soaring oil prices have compounded the industry’s woes, Folly-Kossi said, as most carriers use obsolete and fuel-consuming fleets.
According to the London-based financial firm JP Morgan, the global airline industry will spend nearly 20 billion euros (25 billion dollars) more on fuel expenses in 2008 than in 2002.
While a downturn is expected for most African carriers, continental heavyweight Ethiopian Airlines is expecting a boom in revenue.
Ethiopia’s flagship carrier generated 941 million dollars (743.3 million euros) during the 2007/2008 fiscal year, and is expecting the figure to rise to more than 1.2 billion dollars (948.2 billion euros) for the current year.
“For us, there has been a slight dip in imports and exports due to the financial crisis but we haven’t been affected that much,” Girma Wake, the company’s CEO, told AFP.
Girma said he expected a tightening of loan availability and drop in tourism but predicted Ethiopian Airlines would survive better than others.
“It might be difficult for other African airlines but for us, the more flexibility we get the better. Liberalisation is very important for our programmes to succeed.”
ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) – Ethiopia remained under suspension from world soccer’s governing body Tuesday after talks collapsed at FIFA headquarters.
Two rival groups are vying for control of Ethiopia’s national federation. The country was suspended in July and later kicked out of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
FIFA said representatives of a {www:faction} led by Ahmed Yassin could not accept that Ashebir Woldegiorgis was rightfully elected to lead the national federation in January.
FIFA said it “regrets that no solution could be found.”
The world body has strict rules protecting elected soccer officials from outside interference. The ban means national teams, officials and referees cannot take part in international soccer.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Experts from Citibank, the New York based banking giant that recently was swindled of 27 million dollars from the Ethiopian National Bank’s US account, have scheduled to visit the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) within the next few weeks to verify NBE’s SWIFT security code system through which the two banking entities have been communicating.
NBE had made a claim to Citibank for the amount defrauded.
A source close to the issue at NBE told Fortune that the international banking giant is sending its experts to verify the strength of the security system the national central bank has.
“They have already communicated their intended visit to us, but the schedule is known only by top officials of the two banks,” Bekalu Ayelew, deputy director for Modernization and Foreign Communications Department of NBE told Fortune.
It is the bank’s stance to cooperate with Citibank to probe exactly where the problem occurred. In the event that the outcome of their investigations point to NBE, the bank will, in turn, investigate its employees, Bekalu highlighted.
The Ethiopian central bank has correspondent banking relations with many international banks to facilitate servicing the government’s debts and its international procurements.
NBE receives financial statements from all the banks on a daily basis to check against its balance.
However, a statement it received from Citibank on October 9, 2008, showed a withdrawal of 27 million dollars from its account which it had not endorsed.
After NBE realized the fraudulent transaction on its account, it immediately alerted Citibank that it had not endorsed any payment and brought to the latter’s attention that a larceny had been committed on the account as the withdrawal of the amount was unauthorized.
Accordingly, three Nigerian nationals were detained as they allegedly went to a bank in South Korea to withdraw the said amount.
The fraud was committed with the forgery of the signature of Teklewold Atnafu, governor of NBE. Copies the financial documents with the forged signature were faxed to Citibank, which the bank has never used before, according NBE officials.
Society for Worldwide Inter Bank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a reliable and secured network that operates financial message between financial institutions. As of December 2007, SWIFT linked 8,332 financial institutions found within 208 countries.
Investigators are currently checking as to whether it was a global financial scam, or a forgery that contains signatures of the governor and board chairman. The details as to what actually transpired are still unclear.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (IRIN) – At least 52,000 people have abandoned their homes in Ethiopia’s Somali region after the Wade Shabelle and Genale rivers burst their banks following heavy rains.
“Heavy rains pounded western highlands and six woredas [administrative wards] in the Somali region, causing floods,” Ramadan Haji Ahmed, head of the government’s disaster prevention department in the region, said.
“The rain lasted six days from 2 November,” he told IRIN.
The six woredas were in Gode, Afeder and Liben zones. Ramadan said 36,888 people were displaced and three killed in the worst-affected woreda, Kelafo, in Gode.
“The flood hit 14 kebeles [smallest administrative wards] and 85 villages in Kelafo,” Ramadan said. “It washed away crops on 164 hectares.”
Crops were also destroyed in West Emi woreda of Afder zone. “The Wabe Shebelle River burst its banks and flooded 17 kebeles in West Emi,” Ramadan added. “Thanks to early warnings, the villagers fled to nearby mountains. The flood damaged crops on 3,200 hectares.”
At least 10,740 displaced people have been registered in Dolo Odo woreda of Liben zone. “Dolo Odo was flooded after the overflow of Genale river,” Ramadan said. “The roads from Dolo Odo to Filtu and Negele are also blocked.”
Floods cut off the road linking Degahabur town with Gode zone after the Dirkot River burst its banks.
“We brought 30 vehicles of aid from Dire Dawa central warehouse but we could not continue to Gode due to the damaged road,” Ramadan said. “We are now preparing to use another road.”
However, he feared the continued heavy rains would hamper relief efforts.
“Meteorology reports show there will not be heavy rain in the next three days,” he said. “If there is any heavy rain, the only choice is an airlift.”
The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau in the region has begun dispatching relief food and was preparing to distribute non-food items.
“All affected woredas need emergency relief,” Ramadan said. “We have not yet released any appeal, but it will be ready as soon as we get a complete assessment of the situation.”
In 2007, flooding left 135,000 people displaced across Ethiopia. In August, flash floods in Gambella regional state displaced about 20,000 people.
The opening of the international tender for the procurement of fertilizers last Tuesday November 11, 2008, for the first time in the current year, has been more than just good for Ethiopia’s agriculture.
The major sector of the country’s economy recently suffered a blow due to meteorological factors. The absence off fertilizers was also feared would aggravate the situation, had it not been for this procurement.
The procurement has been undertaken after the World Bank approved a 275 million dollars transfer the Ethiopian government requested the Bank to make from other projects. The government wanted 250 million dollars for the procurement of fertilizers and 25 million dollars as additional funds for the Productive Safety Net Programme.
It is also at this tender that contenders offered an unexpected low price for fertilizers – they offered to provide a tonne of Dap for as low as 633 dollars while the highest price was 877 dollars.
The offer for Urea ranged from 315 to 375 dollars a tonne.
“The prices offered at the tender are the least and unexpected,” Demere Demissie, general manager of Lome-Adama Farmers’ Cooperatives Union and a member of the Tender Committee established a week ago told Fortune.
Though these prices are not that much different from those offered during a tender in September 2007, they are significantly lower than the prices of April and May 2008.
In the tenders opened on September 12 and October 4, 2007, the offer for a tonne of Dap was between 510 and 560 dollars. In another tender opened in April 2008, the price climbed to 871 dollars. The rise in the price of fertilizers at that time was mainly due to the equally soaring price of petroleum in the global market.
The high rate of sudden price increase had repelled most of the active cooperative unions involved in the import of fertilizers from the business. Subsequently, 100,000 metric tonnes of the 530,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers the country had planned to import for the year failed to reach the country.
That placed the fertilizers procurement by the Ethiopian government close to the risk of not having interested contenders, almost resulting in a monopoly of the sector by two companies – Yara and Amropa.
This scenario forced the Ethiopian government to formulate a new fertilizers procurement scheme. The new scheme reformed the previous procedures that led to the transfer of the mandate to chiefly handle the procurement of fertilizers from the Agricultural Inputs Marketing Department with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) to the state-owned Agricultural Inputs Supplies Enterprise (AISE).
Though AISE is also accountable to MoARD, it is a veteran institute specializing in agricultural inputs trade.
The AISE has already formed a five-member committee led by the Enterprise itself to process the procurement of fertilizers. Mebrahitu Gebre-Egziabher, general manager of the enterprise, chairs the committee whose members include Demere Demesie, representing cooperatives union, and Jemal Suleyman, Trade manager of Wondo Trading House, a party-affiliated business firm owned by the regional ruling party Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO).
In the earlier experience, the committee used to be led by the Department at MoARD and the procurement procedure had been that the department invites local contenders, including unions and companies, to offer prices for the supply of fertilizers. The companies or unions awarded the procurement would, in turn, float an international tender to procure the fertilizers from international suppliers. The tender was to be approved by the committee.
The new procedures mandate the enterprise to undertake the entire procurement in an international tender to be approved by the committee. The procedure allows the enterprise to undertake the procurement as an agent of various licensed fertilizers importers, while the process has also been open to other importers.
Unions would then procure from the enterprise to distribute among their members – the end users of the commodity.
In the first tender the enterprise floated, postponed by two weeks from the original opening date, there were seven suppliers for Dap and four for Urea.
The seven companies that showed interest in supplying Dap were: Trans Amonia; Yara France; Amropa; Jordan Phosphate; GAVI; Mid Gulf; and Key Trade, while those keen on supplying Urea were: Amropa; Yara; Givadan (Libya); and Mid Gulf.
The tender has been for the procurement 250,000 metric tonnes of Dap and 75,000 metric tonnes of urea. The previous regulation had limited procurement to about 75,000 tonnes fertilizers altogether in a single tender. The new procedure allows procuring in bulk, as it is believed that this approach would help solve the problem stemming from frequently changing of fertilizers, usually upwards.
“The bulk procurement and the more number of suppliers interested is more good news for the sector,” Demere said.
The new prices the suppliers offered are expected to lower the prices at which farmers buy a quintal of fertilizer to about 700 Br from the previous between 800-950 Br last fiscal year, especially in East Shoa Zone of Oromia Regional State.
Following World Bank’s request, the date for the opening of bids was postponed to allow for the publication of the tender internationally, “which will promote transparency in the procurement of fertilizer and ensure more competitive prices for Ethiopia,” according to Kenichi Ohashi, country director to Ethiopia and the Sudan.
Ethiopia: Arbitrary detention/torture or other ill-treatment
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
At least 15 members of the Oromo ethnic group, including those named above have been arrested in the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and also reportedly in eastern and western parts of the Oromia region of Ethiopia, since around 30 October 2008. Most are reportedly held incommunicado in detention facilities in Addis Ababa, including Maikelawi, where torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners has been reported in the past.
1. Bekele Jirata (m), General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) party
2. Asefa Tefera Dibaba (m), university lecturer at Addis Ababa University
3. Bekele Negeri (m), a businessman
4. Dejene Borena (m),
5. Fiqadu Jalqaba (m), college student
6. Eshetu Kitil (m), owner of the Hawi Hotel
7. Desta Kitili (m), his brother
8. Kebede Borena (m), assistant manager of the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa
9. Leslie Wodajo (f), a journalist
An unknown number of other members of the Oromo ethnic group
Some of those detained were reportedly briefly brought before a primary court, accused of financially supporting the OLF. Some were also paraded on state television on 5 November. Amnesty International believes that those detained are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
The Government of Ethiopia, including the National Anti-Terrorism Taskforce, has reportedly claimed that those detained had links to the armed opposition group, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and a previously unknown armed group, Kawerj.
Bekele Jirata is General Secretary of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) party, a small registered political party in Ethiopia that holds seats in parliament. Others arrested include Asefa Tefera, a lecturer at Addis Ababa University, and a number of students. Leslie Wodajo is a journalist who worked for the Oromo television programme on Ethiopian state television. On 12 September, the airtime of this programme was cut, a move the OFDM and another opposition party, the Oromo National Congress, claimed was politically motivated. Sixty staff members of the Oromo television programme were also removed from their jobs, many of them placed under security surveillance while their movements in Addis Ababa were restricted.
The OFDM has strongly denied that Bekele Jirata, or the party, has had any links to the OLF. In April, the party accused the Ethiopian authorities of intimidation during local elections, the first held since the post-election violence of 2005 which killed some 187 civilians.
This wave of arrests follows on a series of suicide bombings in Hargeisa, Somaliland, one of which targeted the Ethiopian consulate, killing several Ethiopian officials and a number of Somalilanders queuing for visas.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Thousands of members of the Oromo ethnic group have been detained, and many of them tortured, in recent years on suspicion of links with the OLF. The OLF has been fighting the Ethiopian government in the eastern and western parts of the Oromia Region and other areas since 1992. Among detainees held on these grounds have been people who Amnesty International considered to be prisoners of conscience who had not used or advocated violence.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:
– calling for formal charges to be brought against Bekele Jirata and other Oromo citizens, including those named above, who were recently arrested, or their immediate and unconditional release;
– expressing concern that those detained are being held incommunicado and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment;
– urging the authorities to bring all those detained before a court with a guarantee of fair trial, and allow them access to their families, legal counsel and medical treatment;
– expressing concern that those detained may be prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence.
APPEALS TO:
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Office of the Prime Minister
PO Box 1031, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fax: +251 11 1552020
Salutation: Your Excellency Dedeb Woyanne
Minister of Justice Berhan Hailu
Ministry of Justice
PO Box 1370, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
