Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia has lifted a ban on domestic workers moving overseas after passing a new law to guard against ill-treatment, a government official said Thursday. Africa’s second-most populous country instituted the ban five years ago following reports of abuse, and complaints that employment agencies lured Ethiopians …
Read More »BBC launches Ethiopian and Eritrean radio services
London, United Kingdom | AFP | The BBC on Monday launched new daily radio services producing news, current affairs, features and English language training for Ethiopians and Eritreans. The BBC World Service programmes will be broadcast from Monday to Friday in the Amharic, Afaan Oromo and Tigrinya languages and will …
Read More »Egypt, Ethiopia united against ‘conflict’ over Nile waters
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any “conflict” over the sharing of Nile waters. Sisi said that Desalegn’s visit was “a clear sign for our peoples and the entire world of …
Read More »Ethiopia frees prominent opposition leader
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Prominent Ethiopian opposition leader Merera Gudina was freed from jail on Wednesday after the government dropped charges against him as part of a wider prisoner amnesty, state media reported. In his first reported comments after his release, Merera urged the government to hold “honest …
Read More »Ethiopian Airlines eases ticketing with mobile app
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ethiopia’s national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, has eased airt ticketing with the launch of a mobile application. The airline said passengers originating from Addis Ababa will now have the option to effect the payment either through mobile payment or internet banking. This new initiative will …
Read More »Ethiopian dissidents jailed for singing in court
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | An Ethiopian court has sentenced prominent dissident Bekele Gerba and three other opposition figures to six months in jail for singing a protest song in court, a defence lawyer told AFP on Friday. The four, all members of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), …
Read More »Ethiopia bans foreign adoptions
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s parliament has passed a law banning the adoption of Ethiopian children by foreigners, a government spokesman and diplomats told AFP on Wednesday. The vote follows an April moratorium on foreign adoptions issued by Ethiopia’s government which led to the suspension of dozens of cases, …
Read More »Egypt building huge water treatment plant amid supply concerns
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt is building a major water treatment and desalination plant, the president said Monday, as the Nile-dependent nation plans for any fallout from an upstream dam being built by Ethiopia. The North African country is constructing “the largest wastewater treatment and desalination plant”, President Abdel …
Read More »Ethiopia to release jailed ‘politicians’
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | Ethiopia’s leader promised Wednesday to release “politicians” from jail and shut down a detention centre where human rights groups allege torture is routine. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made the undertaking in comments to reporters in the capital Addis Ababa, although he did not …
Read More »Egypt FM visits Ethiopia over Nile dam
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt’s top diplomat is in Addis Ababa to discuss controversial Ethiopian plans to build a dam on the Nile that Cairo fears will impact its water supplies, his ministry said Monday. Construction of the massive dam on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia has poisoned relations …
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