EasterNile

  Bill Gates, the Co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates, has commended the commitment of the His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to the global fight against polio. "The UAE is an essential partner in stopping polio in Pakistan. Thank you @MohamedBinZayed for your continued commitment to polio eradication," Gates said on his Twitter account. Bill Gates' comment came as the Emirates Polio Campaign, EPC, announced it administered over 28 million vaccine doses in Pakistan between July and September 2020, reaching over 16 million children as part of its recognition of World Polio Day. This comes on the heels of the EPC’s recent announcement that it had completed the world’s first polio vaccination campaign since the outbreak of COVID-19 this spring.

The Raxio Group (Raxio) has acquired land at the ICT Park, in the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to build the country’s first private uptime certified Tier III colocation data centre. The site, purchased through Raxio’s fully owned subsidiary in Ethiopia, Raxio Data Centre PLC (Raxio Ethiopia) is set to be commission in the third quarter of 2021. Once completed, Raxio Ethiopia will offer its customers an optimised environment for their IT equipment in a state of the art, modular facility, fully equipped with leading technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy. “Following the holistic reform that our nation is undergoing, new mobile operators are expected to be licensed soon; as a result, our internet usage is projected to rapidly grow,” said Ato Sandokan Debebe, CEO of Industrial Parks Development Corporation. “It is our belief that Raxio Ethiopia will play a paramount role in strengthening and developing the country’s digital infrastructure capabi

  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met the Head of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, on Tuesday for discussions on the latest developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations. The meeting took place in Cairo,  Anadolu  has reported. According to a statement by the Egyptian Presidency, there is a new round of talks between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union (AU), after several years of stumbling negotiations. Sisi and Burhan affirmed that their countries want to agree “a binding legal agreement that includes clear rules for the process of filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, in order to achieve the common interests of all parties.” They also want to strengthen cooperation and coordination between Egypt and Sudan in all areas of mutual interest. On Monday, the official  Sudanese News Agency  quoted Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas as saying that Sudan would participa

Addis Ababa — Ministry of Health today disclosed that the construction of six cancer treatment centers is being underway in four regions of the country including Addis Ababa. In her remarks at a media briefing on Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Minister of Health Lia Taddesse said huge efforts need to exert in increasing the level of breast cancer alertness of the community at large. About 2.1 million breast cancer cases are reported annually worldwide while in Ethiopia out of the total cancer cases, breast cancer accounted for more than one-third, she pointed out. She noted that breast cancer is the top cancer in women worldwide and is increasing particularly in developing countries where the majority of cases are diagnosed in late stages. Lack of awareness coupled with inadequate cancer treatment centers tend to raise the incidence of breast cancer and becoming a major public health in the country, Lia said. In order to improve the situation, the ministry has managed to

  ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES GROUP, the largest aviation group in Africa, has won the 2020  Business Traveller  Award as the Best African Airline in 2020.  The award was announced recently, by the publishers of  Business Traveller  magazine, Panacea Media. The  Business Traveller  Awards are voted for by readers of the magazine, with the results produced by an independent research company, and are widely recognised as the market’s benchmark for excellence. A fixture of the business travel and hospitality calendar for more than 30 years, this year’s awards were based on the survey which took place from April to July 2020 concerning readers’ experiences of the previous 12 months, and before the widespread restrictions on business travel that were imposed by most countries in mid-March. Ethiopian Airlines won best African Airline beating other leading African carriers, SAA, Royal Air Maroc and Kenya Airways.   Ethiopian now sits alongside other leading carriers, with Singapore Airlines who won

For more than two decades, the question of statehood formation has been  raised  by identity-based zones in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS). In particular, the issue proliferated after the collapse of the authority of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the  arrival  of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018. Consequently, the question has been raised by the Wolayta, Keffa, Gurage, Gamo, Gofa, and Sidama ethnic groups. Given this political context and the House of Federation’s  approval  this week of the zonal councils of Dawro, Bench Sheko, Sheka, West Omo and Keffa’s request to form a single region, it is important to assess this new approach to regional statehood in Ethiopia. Fresh thinking During Ethiopia’s last transition, the SNNPRS was formed by  merging  five districts following regional council elections in 1992. Furthermore, as a region of  more than 56 ‘nationalities , it is one of the largest in Ethiopia,

 Israel’s leading hospital is in talks to open a branch in Dubai and potentially relocate some of its top doctors to the UAE, according to Israeli media reports. Hadassah Medical Center, based in Jerusalem, is in the beginning stages of negotiations to open in Dubai, according to the hospital’s director-general Zeev Rotstein. “They want us in the Emirates; they appreciate us; they want to benefit from our abilities,” Rotstein told the Jerusalem Post following his visit to the UAE last week as part of the Abraham Accords Business Summit. Rotstein told Israeli news outlet Kan that the “proposal is a revolution — to establish Hadassah Hospital as a medical power in the United Arab Emirates.” If the partnership materializes, some Israeli doctors and research departments at Hadassah could move from Jerusalem to Dubai. Business – not as usual Weeks before the August 13 announcement that the UAE and Israel would normalize relations, two private UAE companies signed a scientific and medical ag

  Exports in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2020 compared to in the previous fiscal year, export revenue increased by 115.6 million USD or 16 percent and a total of US $ 838.6 million was earned, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI). The mining sector has achieved 300 percent of the plan and 205 million USD earned. The industrial sector earned 95 percent and 94 million USD, while agricultural products earned 73 percent and 541 USD respectively, said MoTI. It is stated that the export Products contract registration and implementation of export contracts then major contribution to the improvement of export trade. Establish a responsible and accountable contract registration system for export contracts; to prevent improper storage of a product; it has made commodity trading more compatible with the global market and has led to improved prices for commodities. On the other hand, the lack of coordination between the federal and state governments, the op

Dr. Hamid Jafari, Director of Polio Eradication at the World Health Organisation, WHO, Eastern Mediterranean Region, stated that the UAE plays a pioneering role in health issues, both within the region and globally, and most notably in combatting polio. In a statement to Al Ittihad on the occasion of World Polio Day, Jaafari said, “There are many key examples of the UAE’s global pioneering role in benefitting the public.” “These examples include the continuous support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, for the polio eradication efforts, especially his financial assistance, as well as the direct support provided to Pakistan by the UAE,” he added. Jaafari described this investment as wise, as it not only protects Pakistani children and people, but also others, including Emirati citizens, as it reduces the worldwide risks posed by polio and other diseases. Speaking about the co

  Lawyers for relatives of Irish UN worker Mick Ryan, who was killed in an air crash in 2019, have accused Boeing of refusing to hand over relevant documents and of dragging its feet in the case. More than 18 months after 157 people died when a Boeing 737 Max crashed six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, lawyers say they are still seeking important information. “Boeing, thus far, has been less than forthcoming with information about the events that led to the horrific tragedy,” aviation lawyers Steven Marks and Kristina Infante of Podhurst Orseck law firm in Florida told the Irish Examiner. While Boeing has said it released millions of documents, lawyers say the aircraft manufacturing company has been less than transparent. “Boeing has dragged its feet in handing over relevant documents that could reveal what it knew about the fatal flaws in the Max, when it knew about those flaws, and what it did about them,” said Mr Marks and Ms Infante. They said they would continue

 Ethiopia on Saturday denounced "belligerent threats" over the huge dam it has nearly completed on the Blue Nile River, a day after US President Donald Trump said downstream Egypt will "blow up" the project it has called an existential threat. Without naming Mr Trump or the US, the statement by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office came amid an outcry in Ethiopia over Mr Trump's latest threat over the dam. The $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a source of national pride, aimed at pulling millions of people from poverty. "The man doesn't have a clue on what he is talking about," Former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn tweeted, calling Mr Trump's remark reckless and irresponsible. Mr Trump made the comment while announcing that Sudan would start to normalise ties with Israel. Downstream Sudan is a party to the talks with Ethiopia and Egypt over the disputed dam. "They (Egypt) will end up blowing up the dam,"

Ethiopia's prime minister said Monday that a new park hugging the country's capital had created 10,000 new jobs. Speaking at the inauguration of the new legislative year of the country's lower parliamentary house, Abiy Ahmed admonished some of the lawmakers for criticizing the opening of Entoto Park in Addis Ababa, as well as other parks like it, while the East African country grappled with security issued. "The park will greatly boost both the country's image and, together with other schemes, its incomes too," he said, adding that he had personally raised funds for its construction. Abiy said the multi-purpose park would contain indoor and outdoor facilities built mostly with local materials, including centers for physical activities, a library, restaurants and coffee shops, fountains, walkways and bicycle and scooter lanes. He underlined that the park would serve as a major tourist attraction in Addis Ababa. "We can build 30 to 40 such parks in the city

  Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Monday that fighters involved in recent attacks on civilians in the west of the country were receiving training and shelter in neighbouring Sudan and that Khartoum's assistance was needed to stabilise the area. Abiy's government had previously said little about what was driving the violence in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, which opposition politicians have described as ethnically motivated. At least 12 people were killed in an attack in the region's Metekel zone last week, while at least 15 died in a similar attack in late September. "In Blue Nile state, hundreds of people are receiving training and are being armed with modern weapons," Abiy told lawmakers Monday, referring to the restive state in Sudan. "While successive measures have calmed the situation, (the assailants) cross to Blue Nile state, and when it's peaceful and people are complacent they come back." Restoring peace "not only requires much

  Ethiopia’s effort to stamp out counterfeiting by introducing new currency notes is pulling people who’ve never had a bank account into the financial system. Over the past four weeks, almost 1 million previously unbanked Ethiopians have handed in their two-decade-old banknotes, according to the central bank. In exchange, they were given a bank account from which they can draw the new notes. The regulator is trying to deter cash hoarding that enables corruption and illegal trading to thrive, and escapes the tax net. The rush of applications forced the nation’s biggest commercial lender to assign more tellers to only handle money changing at it’s main branch next to it headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa. The  Commercial Bank of Ethiopia  branch gained at least 1,000 customers in the past month, while many others deposited cash in accounts that had been dormant. “On the first day of the new currency notes, you wouldn’t believe what happened here -- everybody came,” said Nebyou Birh

  Dubai is the capital city of the Emirate of Dubai, which in itself is one of the seven emirates (states) that form the United Arab Emirates (UAE).The emirates are former British colonies which got independence in December 1971 and formed the modern-day UAE. Dubai is located in the Arabian Desert on the east coast of the Persian Gulf and is home to about 4,2 million people that come from over 200 nationalities. The city has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$109 billion (equal to Ethiopia or Kenya’s GDP) and five times the size of Zimbabwe’s economy. The city was remarkably transformed from a desert fishing port of the 1960s to a global trade hub in less than 50 years. Dubai’s transformation began with the discovery of oil in 1966 which helped accelerate infrastructure development, commodities trading and foreign investment into the city. Today oil revenues account for less than 1% of GDP and the majority of the city’s revenues come from trade, real estate, banking and tourism. La

  Ethiopia has increased the storage capacity of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) from 11 to 74 billion cubic meters, without confirming studies on its safety or environmental impact on Egypt and Sudan, according to Abbas Sharaqy, professor of water resources at Cairo University. Sharaqy stated during a Zoom meeting with African journalists that Egypt has been trying to reach an agreement between itself, Ethiopia, and Sudan for a full decade now with help from the African Union, and the matter has been brought forth to the United Nations Security Council. Sharaqy also discussed during the meeting Sudan’s flood crisis that began in July and left much of the country in complete disaster. He asserted a list of recommendations to Sudan to confront the catastrophe, at the top of which is the country’s need for an emergency rapid relief plan to help the country through its annual flood season. The need for Egyptian-Sudanese cooperation to implement water projects in Sudan also

  Addis Ababa appears to be doing very little to protect its migrant citizens who are facing brutality of both the Saudi government and Yemen’s Houthis rebels. Tens of thousands of Ethiopian migrants have been living in inhumane conditions across the Arabian Peninsula for the last six months, as both the Saudis and their rivals in Yemen, the Houthis, have rendered their living conditions unbearable, according to human rights groups.  The Ethiopian government is yet to own the responsibility for their stranded citizens and save them from the abuse and squalid conditions, as they continue to be  stuck between the two warring sides in the Yemen conflict.  “The Ethiopian government must intervene now. I remember being in Addis Ababa a while back and seeing a plane load of sort of evacuees coming from the Middle East - particularly, I think those from Saudi Arabia and not anywhere else - destitute in their looks,” says Abdi Samatar, professor of geography at the University of Minnesot

On the second day of their working tour, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afwerki set foot on two national energy infrastructure projects' sites that are also expected to foster economic integration in the Horn region and beyond. The premier later yesterday posted on his twitter account expressing his pleasure for visiting the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with President Isaias. "Much more awaits us. Success is inevitable. But marked progress is key," the premier said. Similarly, Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) as well on its Facebook page announced as both leaders paid visit to the GERD and a 2,160-MW Koysha Dam (Gibe IV). The two leaders were also briefed on the current status of the project works. Moreover, it was stated that Koysha hydroelectric project has seen 36 percent of completion, and is expected to serve as a major tourism destination up on full completion, it was leant. According to information obtained from Ethiopian

  This April, as the novel coronavirus accelerated its global sweep of devastation, pandemic modelers in Addis Ababa and London had dire predictions for the continent of Africa. They foresaw a best-case scenario of 300 thousand COVID deaths and a worst-case of 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections without mitigation measures. The World Economic Forum substantiated this by declaring that “in Africa, deaths from COVID-19 might far exceed what the world is seeing.”  Now, seven months later, Africa has recorded 1.2 million cases and 36 thousand deaths. That’s one-tenth of the best-case and one-hundredth of the predicted worst-case scenarios for the continent. Let’s put this into a global perspective. The global share of COVID deaths to share of the global population is 5 for the US, 2.3 for Europe and 0.26 for Africa.  Scientists, health experts and policymakers within and outside the African continent have struggled to find answers for this stunning observation of an exponentia