Police in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa on Thursday shot and killed two men they said were wanted fighters belonging to the Somali Al-Shabaab group, a senior officer said.
The two, who had been under surveillance for two months, were killed after police raided their hideout in Mishomoroni area, deputy area police chief Walter Abondo said. Another man escaped.
“We have identified the dead suspects…and the two have been linked to terrorism activities in Malindi and Lamu,” Abondo told reporters, referring to towns north of Mombasa that have witnessed attacks and heightened activity related to Al-Shabaab.
Police found grenades, bullets, explosive acid and compact discs that had bomb-assembling instructions in the hideout.
The group has said in the past its attacks in Kenya are in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia in 2011 where they are battling the militants as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.
Al-Shabaab also seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law. (Reuters)
Ethiopian Cargo appoints GSSAs in Italy, France
Ethiopian Cargo has appointed Air consult and ATC Aviation Services as its new general sales and service agents (GSSA) in Italy and France effective from June 24 and July 16 respectively.
ATC Aviation Services, a Germany-based GSSA, has 32 offices worldwide. The company has already been serving as a GSSA for Ethiopian in Germany and Austria.
Italy-based Air Consult has been operating in the airline industry for more than 24 years as general sales and service agent.
Fitsum Abady, managing director of Ethiopian Cargo services, said: “Appointing these two well experienced cargo GSSAs will surely improve our accessibility to the market, increase market share and improve customer service delivery in our major cargo hub, Europe.
“Hence, we call up on our valued customers in Italy and France to use these outlets and benefit the huge, seamless freighter and passenger cargo capacity.”
Ethiopian Cargo Services is the second largest strategic business unit of Ethiopian Airlines group and provides the largest cargo network operator in Africa. (Air Cargo News)
Ethiopia, Djibouti, China to launch USD 4 bln gas project
Ethiopia says physical work on a massive USD four billion cooperative natural gas project between Ethiopia, Djibouti, and China will soon be launched.
The announcement was made Thursday by Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom (PhD) at the opening of the 4th Ethiopia-Djibouti Joint Ministerial Committee Meeting in the capital, Addis Ababa.
The project is made up of a natural gas pipeline, a liquefaction plant, and an export terminal at Damerjog, Djibouti.
Speaking at the event, Tedros said the project is one component of a number of cooperation areas between Ethiopia and Djibouti, its smaller neighbor lying where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
“We will expedite the process of economic integration,” he said, highlighting the importance of highway, railway, and electric power interconnection projects.
Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf on his part said, “We are meeting to push forward our agenda of integration,” which he described as being a dynamic, performing role model.
He said, however, that the process is facing “daunting challenges.” (Anadolu Agency)
Chicken odor ‘prevents malaria’ research in Ethiopia finds
The smell from a live chicken could help protect against malaria, researchers have found.
Ethiopian and Swedish scientists discovered that malarial mosquitoes tend to avoid chickens and other birds.
The experiments, conducted in western Ethiopia, included suspending a live chicken in a cage near a volunteer sleeping under a bed net.
Last year malaria killed nearly 400,000 people in Africa, the UN says.
Infection and death rates are declining but health officials are continuing to look for new ways to prevent the spread of the disease.
The malaria parasite, which initially hides in the liver before going into the bloodstream, is carried from person to person by mosquitoes when they drink blood.
The scientists, whose research was published in the Malaria Journal, concluded that as mosquitoes use their sense of smell to locate an animal they can bite there must be something in a chicken’s odor that puts the insects off.
Researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences were also involved in the project. (BBC)