Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) on has welcome and discussed with General Stephen J. Townsend, Commander of the United States Africa Command at his office.
General Townsend congratulated the Premier for his recent Nobel Peace Prize Award, the US Embassy to Addis Ababa said in a statement sent to The Reporter on Tuesday, adding that the award is remarkable for Ethiopia and the region.
Recognizing the longstanding relationship between Ethiopia and US, particularly in the areas of military cooperation, they discussed on ways of strengthening the national army of Ethiopia with short and long term capacity building support.
Building on the reforms work within the National Defense Forces, PM Abiy reiterated the Government’s commitment to professionalizing and ensuring the national army a non-partisan and non-political entity in support of democracy.
Townsend has also discussed with Deputy Chief of Staff – Operations Division of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).
General Stephen Townsend has become the fifth commander of the United States Africa Command on July 26, 2019. (Press Release)
Blood Bank says low awareness “adversely” impacting volunteer blood donation
Lack of education coupled with low awareness adversely impacting on efforts to enlist non-remunerators blood donors in Ethiopia, National Blood Bank said on Tuesday.
Blood Bank Service Deputy Director, Yaregal Bantie indicated that fear and public awareness as well as lack of institutional frameworks is strong deterrents that hampered volunteer blood donation across the country.
To meet the country’s over 100 million people’s demand for blood, the Bank annually collects nearly 200,000 units of blood from donors.
The country needs 18,000 units of blood daily, he said, adding that the highest collected so far in just a day stands at 1,100 units.
Lack of effective education, awareness and misconception are some of the challenges that are negatively impacting blood donation in Ethiopia, he added.
“The major problem is lack of awareness–awareness about blood is very low. Many people fear to donate blood but there are persons who donated blood over 1000 times in the world. In Ethiopia, we have some persons who donated 85 times,” Yaregal pointed out. (ENA)
Senior gov’t officials hold talks with Kemant communities in Amhara
Minister of Peace, Muferihat Kamil, held consultation with representatives of the Amhara and Kemant communities in Amhara regional state Tuesday.
President of the Amhara Regional State, Temesgen Tiruneh and Chief of Staff of the Defense Force Gen. Adem Mohammed also attended the discussion held in Serba town, Chilga district.
In her remark, Muferihat called on both communities to resolve their differences through dialogue.
“The two peoples are of the same family. Family problems cannot be solved by others unless they are solved by the family themselves. Nobody wins from the conflict,” she said.
She further said all community members should do their parts to build a peaceful tomorrow, according to AMMA.
Muferihat assured the participants of government’s commitment to hold series of consultations to address problems and build consensus between the two peoples.
Temesgen Tiruneh said “the regional state will provide the necessary support for the peace dialogue to be held between the two sides as peace is the foundation for all things.” (FBC)
Genale Dawa Hydropower project to be operational after 2 months
The Genale Dawa III hydropower project, being built in the southeastern part of Ethiopia, will be fully operational after two months, the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) said on Thursday.
CEO of the Ethiopian Electric Power, Abraham Belay (PhD) said that 99 percent of the hydropower dam has completed.
He said that the dam with the installed capacity of 254 MW power will be operational after two months when the test that needed for the work completed.
Launched in 2010, the 110-meter-high and 426-meter-long dam has the capacity to hold 2.57 billion cubic water.
Up on its completion, the dam is expected to increase the country’s generating capacity to 4,514 from the current 4,260 MW.
The hydropower dam is being built by China Gezhouba Group on the Genale Dawa River costs around 450 million USD.
Ethiopia plans to increase its current 4,300 MW electricity generation capacity to 17,300 MW by 2025, with power generation projects in hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass sectors. (ENA)
