Tewodros Adhanom is confident that Walia can still beat Nigeria

Ethiopia’s foreign affairs minister Tewodros Adhanom is confident that Walia Ibex can still make it to Brazil 2014 World Cup.
Pundits might have written off Walia after the 1-2 loss to Nigeria at home in the first leg play off but Tedros who is passionate about football and recently asked teenage Arsenal prodigy Gideon Zalalem to play for Ethiopia thinks it is not over.
"Its not over yet! Our team has very good chance of beating Nigeria. Our team reached here against all odds. Anything is possible," Tedros told supersport.com.
Walia have been undergoing training under coach Sewnet Bishaw ahead of the do or die match though their hopes of playing friendlies against Cameroon and Burkina Faso were dashed at the 11th hour.

Ethiopian Maid throws newborn down garbage chute in Abu Dhabi

The maid allegedly wrapped the newborn girl in a piece of cloth and put her in a plastic bag before throwing her in the garbage chute.

The Abu Dhabi Police have arrested an Ethiopian domestic worker for allegedly dumping her newborn baby in the garbage chute of a building in Khalidiya area here.

The 26-year-old maid allegedly wrapped the newborn girl, conceived through an illicit affair, in a piece of cloth and put her in a plastic bag before throwing her in the garbage chute.

Colonel Dr Rashid Mohammed Borshid, head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said the preliminary investigation showed that the baby girl was born full-term late on Saturday. The mother claimed that her baby was stillborn. She also admitted to getting pregnant from an adulterous relationship in her home country.

“The CID is currently investigating whether the baby was alive when she dumped the newborn in the chute on the seventh floor. The investigation would also examine whether the baby’s fall from such a height was the cause of death. Additionally, the investigation will reveal the circumstances leading to this incident,” added Colonel Borshid.

“The mother thought that disposing of her daughter after firmly sealing the baby in a plastic bag would hide her secret forever. She was surprised that the police discovered her secret within hours, thanks to the efforts of the investigative team trained to deal with such situations,” he said.

The preliminary examination indicated a crime. “An investigation was carried out and information was collected based on the specifications of the deceased newborn.”

The circumstances and evidence collected during the initial investigation were linked, resulting in the identification of the domestic worker, called L.A.S. She was working illegally for a Canadian family in the building where the crime occurred. “The family will also be held accountable under the law for employing a worker on someone else’s employment visa,” said Col Borshid.

The housemaid confessed that she gave birth in her room without anybody’s assistance or the family’s knowledge, after she developed labour pain. “The housemaid claimed that her newborn baby was born dead and not breathing. She cut the placenta herself, cleaned the remnants of the birth, and then wrapped her with a piece of cloth, and put her in a plastic bag and dumped her in the garbage chute on the 7th floor. She then returned to work as if nothing had happened.”

He condemned this hideous crime, describing it as an aggression against the dignity and inviolability of the human body and human feelings. It violates the teachings of the divine religions and social values, he added. -

Ethiopian military receiving T-72 Tank

It appears that the Ethiopian military is receiving T-72 main battle tanks from the Ukraine, with a consignment delivered last month.

According to IHS Jane’s, satellite imagery taken on August 24 at the Otkyabrsk port in the Ukraine showed 16 tanks and other equipment waiting to be loaded. Apparently, the tanks were loaded onto the Ocean Power cargo vessel, which departed on September 7 for Djibouti.

It is believed that these tanks are part of a contract for 200 T-72s signed in June 2011 with state controlled arms exporter Ukrspecexport SC. The deal, worth more than $100 million, was one of the largest contracts signed by the Ukrainian arms exporter in more than 15 years.

The T-72 was first produced in the Soviet Union in the 1970s but the tanks that will be supplied to Ethiopia were to be modernised with a new engine, guided weapons and reactive armour.

Ukrspecexport also received maintenance and repair contracts for the upkeep of Ethiopia’s T-72s.

Ethiopia already operate the T-72, 60 of which were purchased from Yemen in 2003, according to Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessment.

Ethiopia is concerned with improving its military in order to secure its borders in the restive horn of Africa region. Over the last decade the country has engaged in several skirmishes and conflicts with neighbouring countries, particularly its neighbour Eritrea (which used to be part of Ethiopia). Between 1998 and 2000 Ethiopia fought a costly border war with Eritrea that did not significantly alter the border line. During the conflict, Ethiopia increased its stocks of T-55 tanks and artillery pieces, including BM-21 122m multiple rocket launchers and 122 mm D-30 towed howitzers.

The T-72, a development of the earlier T-64 main battle tank, entered production in 1972 in the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Army’s most numerous tank until the collapse of the Soviet Union, but was also exported in large numbers to Warsaw Pact countries, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It was built with and without license in several countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. More than 40 countries have operated an estimated 50 000 T-72s.

The T-72B entered production in 1985 and in export form is known as the T-72S. It has a new engine and suspension system and is configured for mounting explosive reactive armour (ERA). It is armed with a 125mm smoothbore gun, a 7.62mm co-axial machine gun and a 12.7mm air defence machine gun mounted on the commander's cupola

The T-72 can also carry guided weapons in the form of the 9K120 Svir (Nato codename AT-11 Sniper). It is intended to engage tanks fitted with ERA as well as low-flying targets. It has a range of 100-4 000 metres and firing requires the tank to be stationary. Both shells and missiles can be fired from the main gun.

The hull and turret are protected by armour plating, including combined armour arrays over the frontal arc. Since 1988, ERA has been fitted.

Various upgrades offer more powerful engines, new guns, updated sighting systems and countermeasures.

Africa’s fastest-growing economies have not relied on oil or mining

AFRICA is a continent rich in minerals and oil. China has an economy that requires them in abundance. Since the mid-1990s the economy of sub-Saharan Africa has grown by an average of 5% a year. At the start of this period Africa’s trade with China was negligible. It is now worth around $200 billion a year. Most of Africa’s exports are raw materials. China sends manufactured goods back in return.

It can thus be quite hard to see past the role of China’s ravenous appetite for raw materials in Africa’s recent economic success. Natural resources make up a quarter or more of export revenues for around half of the 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Nine of them, including Nigeria and Angola, which have two of Africa’s largest economies, benefit from exports of oil and gas.

Yet mining and oil are far from the whole story. A study published this week by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) finds that eight of the 12 fastest-growing economies in Africa in recent years did not rely on natural resources. Together these economies grew more quickly even than the group of oil producers.

To discover what lay behind this success, IMF researchers focused on countries that met two criteria: GDP growth of at least 5% a year on average from 1995 to 2010, and growth in GDP per head of at least 3% a year. Six countries qualified: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda (see chart). They are a diverse bunch. Mozambique and Tanzania have ports; the rest are landlocked. Ethiopia has a population of 87m; Rwanda 11m. What they have in common is poverty. Even after their growth spurt none has an average income per head above $1,500 a year.

The first thing the IMF wanted to confirm was that the growth was real. Countries of meagre means cannot afford to devote much money or manpower to gathering economic data; their GDP figures can be shaky, forcing analysts to fall back on rough-and-ready guides to the economy’s health. Beer sales, for instance, are often a good gauge of overall consumer spending. The IMF’s researchers used such ploys to check official statistics in four of the countries in their study, and found that they stacked up. Construction figures tallied with cement sales; output growth in telecoms was in line with mobile-phone subscriptions; growth in financial services mirrored the rise in bank deposits.

Why did the six economies grow so fast? Stable and purposeful policy-making helped. All six countries took steps in the 1990s to control public finances and curb inflation. Tanzania is a striking example. In 1998 it introduced a value-added tax in place of less reliable forms of revenue. Income-tax bands were simplified and rates cut. Tax inspectors focused on the cases likely to yield the most money. Receipts rose from 10% of GDP in 2000 to 16% by 2009. That allowed higher public spending.

Higher revenues, in turn, helped to control inflation. Tanzania’s government had once relied on the central bank to plug its budget deficits. The more money the bank printed, the less it was worth. From 1980 to 1994 inflation in Tanzania averaged almost 30%. With a more reliable tax base and better control of public spending, the central bank was freed to focus on inflation, which has since dropped to single digits. In neighbouring Uganda the headway has been even greater. Inflation fell to 6% in 1995-2010 compared with an average of 92% over the preceding 15 years.

Progress was not restricted to economic policy. The six countries in the IMF study are far better governed than they were in the mid-1990s. Based on indicators compiled by the World Bank, they are less corrupt, have better bureaucrats, enjoy more stable politics and are better regulated than their African peers.

My plan is to hit $10m mark by 2016

Born and raised in Zenebework,Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. As a child, she discovered that people of her community were living in abject squalor because there were very few jobs available.

While most of the locals were unemployed, Bethlehem discovered that several of them possessed remarkable artisan skills which remained largely unexploited. This observation drove her to brainstorm on ways through which she could transform the skills of her community members into a sustainable enterprise that could generate livelihoods for them, and create wealth over the long term.
By 2004, armed with startup capital sourced from her husband and members of her immediate family, Bethlehem mobilised artistically-gifted members of her community and founded SoleRebels which has become one of Africa’s most recognisable footwear manufacturers.
Basically, SoleRebels produces footwear locally that often features a strong infusion of ancient Ethiopian culture with subtle undertones of modern, western design influences. Practically, all SoleRebels shoes are redesigns and reimaginations of the famous Selate and Barabasso shoe, a traditional recycled tire sole shoe which has been worn by Ethiopians for a very long time. The Selate and Barabasso shoe was famously worn by Ethiopian rebel fighters who vehemently opposed western forces from colonizing the country. As matter of fact, that’s where the name ‘soleRebels’ emerged from.

SoleRebels manufactures comfy sandals, slip-ons and lace-up shoes hand-crafted from recycled, weather-beaten tires and an assortment of locally-sourced natural fiber ingredients such as the ancient Koba plant (an indigenous plant which has been cultivated in Ethiopia for over several thousand years) and organic Abyssinian jute fiber which are used mainly in creating the mid-soles of SoleRebels shoes.

By blending this ancient recycling tradition with contemporary, western-influenced, hip shoe designs, SoleRebels has built a successful footwear brand utilizing a production process that is zero carbon production and very eco-sensitive. All of SoleRebels shoes are hand-crafted by Bethlehem’s staff of over 100 people strictly using Ethiopian craft practices such as hand-spun organic cotton and artisan hand-loomed fabric.  And the company sources all of its raw materials locally.
Today, shoes under the SoleRebels brand are sold in over 30 countries around the world and through various e-commerce sites like Amazon and Endless.

SoleRebels has become a hugely successful, sustainable, truly world-class enterprise.  The company takes in at least $1 million in annual revenue and was among the top 5 finalists of the 2011 edition of the prestigious Legatum Africa Awards For Entrepreneurship. One of the criteria for the finalists was that their companies had proven annual revenues of $1 million – $15 million.
Bethlehem has earned significant international recognition for her work at SoleRebels and is now one of Africa’s most recognisable female entrepreneurs. Early last year, she was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In June she won the award of ‘Most Outstanding Businesswoman’ at the annual African Business Awards organised by African Business Magazine, and in November, she was named the ‘Most Valuable Entrepreneur’ at the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).

A lady of grandiose ambitions, Bethlehem is relentlessly pursuing her dream of building an international footwear brand right from the heart of Ethiopia. And she’s making significant progress.  SoleRebels has opened up a retail outlet in Taiwan and has franchise proposals for Canada, Italy, Australia, Israel, Spain, Japan and the United States among other countries.
Speaking on the company, Bethlehem estimated that revenues from Sole Rebels retail operations will hit the $10 million mark by 2016. Considering the exceptional success she’s achieved in less than 8 years,  Bethlehem  will probably exceed her estimations.

Global charity donates books to Ethiopian universities 

Global charity World Vision (WV) has donated 41,194 reference books worth about $235,000 to the Ethiopian Ministry of Education to be distributed to about 10 new universities in the country.

WV Ethiopia Director Margaret Schuler handed over the donation to Takele Gebre-Kidan, Office Manager for Construction of 10 Ethiopia's Universities, in a ceremony held on Saturday at the Ethiopian Ministry of Education in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Schuler said World Vision's key strategic direction focuses on education at the elementary, secondary and university levels.

The donation, which came from WV's Australia division, demonstrates "the interest the World Vision has in helping the government of Ethiopia to strengthen the universities and to ensure quality education both the lower levels and also the university levels," she said.

Takele said that the donation from WV Australia is timely as Ethiopia is currently working to improve the quality of education in higher education.

He said that the books would be distributed to the universities soon.

Ethiopia refuses to recognise Abyei referendum 

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, said on Friday that his country will not recognise the recently conducted referendum to decide on the future of the Abyei region which is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan.

Hailemariam made the remarks while holding talks with visiting Sudanese Foreign Minister, Ali Karti. The African Union (AU) had proposed that a referendum be held in October but the two sides could not agree on who could participate in the referendum.
The Dinka Ngok who are resident in the area held a unilateral referendum at the end of last month, which saw over 99% of voters opt to transfer the oil-rich region back to South Sudan from where it was transfered for administrative purposes in 1905 during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium.
A senior government official who attended the meeting said on Saturday that the Ethiopian prime minister, who also is the current chair of the AU has made clear that it was the Ethiopian government’s and the continental bloc’s decision that a unilateral move to decide the fate of Abyei is unacceptable.
The AU has said that the vote was illegal further describing it as a threat to peace between Sudan and South Sudan.
According to outcomes of the referendum reveled on Thursday 99.98% of the Dinka Ngok voted to join South Sudan. However neither Khartoum nor Juba have recognized the poll.
During his meeting with the Ethiopian premier, Karti reiterated that his country won’t accept any unilateral actions taken to determine the fate of Abyei.
Since South Sudan officially proclaimed independence in 2011, the final status of Abyei is one of the key and sensitive issue that remain to be settled between the two former civil war rival neighbors.
Ethiopia has deployed 4,000 peacekeepers to Abyei as part of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which was established in June 2011 just one month before South Sudan voted to secede from Sudan.
The Sudanese foreign minister also briefed the Ethiopian prime minister on the current developments between Sudan and South Sudan particularly on president Bashir’s recent trip to Juba.
The two sides discussed the Ethiopia-Sudan Joint Ministerial Commission meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Khartoum next month as well as ways to further bolster bilateral relations.