Ethiopia’s new Ambassador to Uganda, Etsegenet Bezabih, has called on Ethiopians in Uganda to join the upcoming Africa Day 2023 celebrations that Uganda will host.
The Ambassador made the call Sunday during an event hosted by the Ethiopian Embassy in Kampala to officially welcome her as the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to Uganda.
The Sunday event was also meant to introduce her and her new staff to representatives of various Diaspora associations based in Uganda.
On the occasion, the diplomat also called on Ethiopians residing in Uganda to extend their support for the “Dine for Generation” Initiative, which aims to boost tourism in Ethiopia.
Etsegenet warmly welcomed the guests and delivered an opening remark following the Religious Leaders’ Invocation and the Tour of Duty’s best wishes. She expressed her delight and gratitude for the warm family welcome and hospitality she received from the airport to her residence on April 19, 2023, when she arrived in Uganda.
Africa Day is an annual celebration of the achievements and potential of the African continent, which is celebrated in Africa and countries around the world. Its date, May 25, commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
(Daily Monitor)
Ethiopian launches new flights to and from Atlanta airport
On Wednesday, the world’s busiest airport will launch flights to and from the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
This is big news for the city of Atlanta and its efforts to expand airline services to Africa.
Mayor Andre Dickens is currently on his way back from Ethiopia to celebrate this accomplishment. Executives from Ethiopian Airlines welcomed him two days ago for some fruitful discussions and a visit to their facilities in Ethiopia.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will celebrate the first flight of the now four-times-weekly service to Addis Ababa International Airport. That flight will stop in Dublin to refuel, and then it will arrive in Atlanta later Wednesday morning.
The inaugural flight, Flight 518, will be greeted with a water cannon salute as it lands at Hartsfield-Jackson. This will all take place at the Maynard Jackson International Terminal.
Atlanta News First will be there to welcome the mayor and a delegation from Ethiopia to celebrate this moment.
(Atlanta News First)
Floods in Ethiopia leave at least 45 people dead
Recent floods in Ethiopia have killed 45 people and displaced more than 35,000 households, the UN said on Monday.
Floods have caused widespread destruction and displacement in the regions of Somali, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples, South West Ethiopia Peoples, and Afar, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Over 23,000 livestock perished, and more than 99,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed in the Somali Region alone,” the OCHA said in a statement on Monday.
The UN agency said the humanitarian partners and the government of Ethiopia are providing lifesaving assistance to affected communities, but “assistance remains inadequate relative to the scale of needs.”
An emergency relief fund of USD 40 million will be allocated to address the needs of people affected by floods and drought, according to the statement.
“The flooding has deepened the vulnerability of populations whose resilience is already highly affected by the impact of a prolonged drought since 2020 as the areas most affected by flooding and drought overlap,” OCHA said.
The floods have also exacerbated health risks, including cholera, which continues to be reported in five regions of the Horn of Africa nation.
(Anadolu Agency)
Kenya, Colombia seek to deepen ties through coffee, trade partnerships
Kenya’s President William Ruto has promised to explore new areas of trade, investment, and partnership to strengthen bilateral relations with Colombia.
Ruto, together with his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, hosted Colombian Vice President Francia Elena Marquez Mina at State House, Nairobi.
The president said that the two countries would partner to advance coffee production in Africa, citing that both countries are renowned globally in the coffee sector.
“Colombia produces an average of 12 million bags of coffee a year, which is one of the world’s highest. Kenya will work with this South American country to enhance its capacity in the coffee value chain, especially in increasing value addition and exports, to boost earnings,” Ruto said.
On Monday, May 15, the DP also held a joint press conference with the Colombian counterpart, where they committed to enhancing bilateral ties.
Gachagua stated that the country would enhance cooperation through a multi-sectoral approach and engagement in the multilateral arena.
He further stated that Kenya and Colombia are working towards making direct flights between the two countries to facilitate trade and investment.
(The Standard)
‘Little Ethiopia’ cultural district nearing reality
Ethiopian and American flags waved as cheers erupted in the Clark County Commission chambers after lawmakers voted to direct the creation of the “Little Ethiopia” cultural district in the central valley.
The unanimous vote instructed staff to draft a proclamation to turn the district into a reality — probably the easiest steps in a four-year effort spearheaded by the Ethiopian Community Center of Las Vegas.
Being the county’s first official cultural district “means that we are part of Clark County, and Clark County is part of us,” said Girma Zaid, the project’s chair. “We’re going to work together and make sure that we teach, work with, educate, and be part of this great county.”
Twain and University avenues will border the corridor located near Decatur Boulevard, where there’s a large concentration of Ethiopian restaurants and markets that people in that 40,000-member community in the Las Vegas area frequent.
The lengthy, pandemic-related process, according to Commissioner Jim Gibson, ultimately benefited the corridor because it allowed officials to recognize “the enormity of value you bring to our community.”
Commissioner Michael Naft noted that the local Ethiopian community was the first to get such a designation from Clark County.
(Las Vegas Review Journal)
Kenya to build three more ships for Uganda’s fuel
Kenya plans to build three more ships to enhance the export of oil products to Uganda through Lake Victoria.
Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said this would ensure daily trips instead of the current weekly voyages to the landlocked country.
Despite being launched in early January, Kenya has only shipped 20 million liters of petroleum products.
Chirchir, while noting that the KSh two billion project that was completed in February 2018 is being underutilized, said the government is on track to regain its market share of East Africa’s oil exports.
“We have embarked on building three more ships so that the jetty can be doing shipments daily,” said the Cabinet secretary.
The fuel is transported to the Mahathi terminal in Entebbe, where the product is loaded onto trucks for Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Other than being cost-effective, Chirchir said the haulage through the lake would help reduce road congestion and improve the reliability of supply. A single ship across the lake with the capacity to carry 4.5 million liters of oil products is equivalent to 135 trucks, according to the Minister.
(Business Daily)
Uganda-Rwanda power connectivity project back on track
Projects for power connectivity between Uganda and Rwanda are back on, profiting from warming relations between the two sides, as are some of the projects meant to enhance the East African power pool.
“Commissioning of the Uganda-Rwanda line awaits installation of communication boosters on the Rwandan side,” Uganda’s Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary Irene Pauline Batebe told The EastAfrican recently.
Rwanda-Uganda high-voltage power trading was expected to start in 2020. Completion of the project will see the power exchange rise from the current two MW to over 200 MW.
Richard Okou, the technical director of Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority, says the two sides are awaiting the installation of adequate electrical equipment and a linkage for communication.
Since 1995, the two countries have been exchanging power at the Cyanika border, which serves Kisoro in Uganda and Gatuna. Both countries produce more power than they can consume, although they are constrained by low-power distribution networks.
On the Rwandan side is the 220/110 kV Shango substation, described as a strategic infrastructure to interconnect the electric grids of Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was commissioned in 2019.
(The East African)
Oxfam campaigners urge G7 leaders to act on East Africa’s famine
Oxfam has called on the G7 to take “life-saving action” over famine in East Africa, as campaigners protested in Trafalgar Square ahead of the summit in Japan on Friday.
Demonstrators dressed up as G7 leaders, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, wore oversized masks as they stood in front of six-foot-tall letters spelling “famine”.
The climate-induced drought in the region, covering Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and South Sudan, has left 36 million people facing severe hunger, the charity warned.
Magnus Corfixen, Oxfam’s humanitarian lead, said: “G7 leaders have failed to live up to their commitments made two years ago.
“We know that the UK Government in particular made promises to do more to address the crisis in East Africa, but we haven’t seen them fulfill their commitment as of now. We are here today to ensure that they live up to their political obligations to address this crisis with partners in the affected countries.”
At the 2021 UK summit in Cornwall, G7 leaders committed an initial GBP five billion in humanitarian assistance to 42 countries at risk of catastrophe and famine, including £1 billion in aid to South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen.
(Evening Standard)
