Somalia announces plan to defeat al-Shabaab

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi said Wednesday his government -- elected in February this year -- had strategized to defeat the militant group al-Shabaab in two years.

“Al-Shabaab has been active in Somalia for the last ten years causing huge destruction,” Abdullahi said during a joint news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa following a close session with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Al-Shabaab is intent on expanding its reach to neighboring countries, and that gives a reason for cooperation against the menace posed by the militant group, the Somali president added.

He praised the support provided in this regard by Ethiopia and Kenya as well as the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

“AMISOM has been working together with government and the sacrifices of [men in uniform] of neighboring countries will not go in vain,” he said, commending the regional collaboration against the al-Qaeda affiliated group.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, for his part, said his discussion with the Somali president was on “major pertinent issues” including the fight against terrorism, the current drought that affects both countries as well as development cooperation.

“We sink or swim together," Hailemariam said. “We cannot thrive leaving other nations behind."

The prime minister added that lack of security in Somalia would ultimately affect neighboring countries by way of a spillover effect.

President Abdullahi’s Ethiopia visit coincided with the announcement of the recapture of Halgan province in Hiran region by the Somali National Army backed by Ethiopian troops.

“We entered a new chapter of wide ranging cooperation," PM Hailemariam said.Read more here

Indonesian textile industry facing competition from Ethiopia

The government's effort to lure textile manufacturers away from China to the archipelago is facing a rising threat from East African country Ethiopia, which is offering companies a competitive cost structure.

Under an agreement with the United States, namely the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Ethiopian exports are not limited by duties and quotas, said Indonesian Textile Association (API) chairman Ade Sudrajat in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The country also has cheap labor and cheap electricity, as low as 4 US cents per kilowatt hour, he added.

"China’s textile manufacturers are shifting their production overseas due to increased labor costs and air pollution. We want to attract them here. But some are already moving to Ethiopia," Ade said during a discussion on the textile industry.

According to data from the Ethiopian Investment Commission, 124 foreign investors have expressed an interest in the Ethiopian textile sector, 71 of which are from China.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), investment realization in the Indonesian textile industry in 2016 decreased by 7.3 percent to Rp 7.55 trillion compared to 8.14 trillion in 2015.

Foreign investors only contributed 42.5 percent in 2016, the lowest in six years.

 "Some of our members are actually already invested in Ethiopia," Ade said. (bbn)

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U.N. Human Rights Chief Pushes for Inquiry Into Ethiopia Unrest

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday he would push Ethiopia to allow his agency to investigate rights abuses during months of unrest in 2015 and 2016 in which hundreds of people were killed.

The Horn of Africa country declared six months of emergency rule in October after more than a year of violent protests in its Oromiya and Amhara regions. Demonstrators in the areas say the government has trampled on their political rights. The state of emergency has since been extended by four months.

Last month, a government-sanctioned investigation said 669 people had been killed in the violence.

Speaking to journalists during a three-day visit, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said there was a "clear need for a much wider and freer civic space" in Ethiopia.

"Although I benefited greatly from the briefings provided to me by the Attorney General's office, the extremely large number of arrests – over 26,000 – suggests it is unlikely rule of law guarantees have been observed in every case," he said.

"I believe my staff ought to be given access to the affected areas, and I renew my request, so we can assess the situation and ascertain what further support can be given to the authorities, including justice officials."

Ethiopian authorities say a crackdown on the unrest was necessary because "elements" from Eritrea and Egypt whipped up much of the violence, including attacks on farms and factories, by protesters with legitimate grievances.

Since imposing emergency rule, government officials have repeatedly refused access for international investigators, saying they would undermine Ethiopian sovereignty.

Ethiopia is an important Western ally against Islamist militants in neighboring Somalia as well as an increasingly important economic player in a unstable region.

Ethiopian leaders have pledged to carry out political reforms. In October, President Mulatu Teshome Wirtu acknowledged that Ethiopia had to broaden democracy given the complete lack of opposition deputies in its 547-member parliament.

Zeid said he planned to pay a return visit in January and expressed hope that he would secure permission by then.

In its report, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said 462 protesters and 33 security personnel were killed in unrest that engulfed 91 towns in the Oromiya region alone. The protesters opposed having their land incorporated into the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa.

In the Amhara region, 110 demonstrators and 30 police officers died in clashes sparked by the arrest of activists campaigning over disputed territory, it said.

The report said another 34 people died in the SNNP region which lies to the south of Addis Ababa.

(This version of the story has been refiled to tweak second paragraph to show protests were over broader political rihts)

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Read more here

Ethiopia is facing a killer drought. But it’s going almost unnoticed.

World Food Program supplies are distributed in a village in Jijiga district, part of Ethiopia's Somali region. (Michael Tewelde/World Food Program)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The announcement by the United Nations in March that 20 million people in four countries were teetering on the edge of famine stunned the world and rammed home the breadth of the humanitarian crisis faced by so many in 2017.

Yet even as donors struggle to meet the severe needs in the war-torn nations of Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, another crisis, more environmental in nature, is taking place nearby — nearly unnoticed.

On Thursday, the Ethiopian government increased its count of the number of people requiring emergency food aid from 5.6 million to 7.7 million, a move that aid agencies say was long overdue. The figure is expected to rise further as southeast Ethiopia confronts another fierce drought.

But with food crises erupting across the continent and the government's budget strained by last year’s drought, the money isn't there to fight it. There could eventually be as many people in Ethiopia needing emergency food assistance as in Somalia and South Sudan combined.

[Wars in four countries have left 20 million people on the brink]

Ethiopia, long associated with a devastating famine in the 1980s, returned to the headlines last year when it was hit by severe drought in the highland region, affecting 10.2 million people. Food aid poured in, the government spent hundreds of millions of its own money, and famine was averted.

Now it’s the turn of the lowland region, particularly the area bordering Somalia, where a drought brought on by warming temperatures in the Indian Ocean has ravaged the flocks of the herders in the region and left people without food.

With their sheep and goats mostly dead, the nomads are clustered in camps surviving on aid from the government and international agencies — but that food is about to run out.

“This response capacity that is currently holding it at bay is about to be overwhelmed,” said Charlie Mason, humanitarian director of Save the Children, which is particularly active in Ethiopia’s impoverished Somali region. “We’ve spent all the money we’ve got, basically.”

With donors focused on Somalia across the border, little international aid has found its way to the Ethiopian areas hit by that drought. “I think it’s partly because there are other priorities, and they are not signaling loudly enough to donor offices,” Mason said.

[World Despite outward calm, Ethiopia extends state of emergency]

According to a document detailing Ethiopian’s humanitarian needs that was drawn up in January by the government and aid agencies, Ethiopia needs nearly $1 billion to confront the crisis, more than half of which it still lacks. That figure also does not take into account the revised estimates in the numbers of people requiring aid.

During last year's drought, Ethiopia came up with more than $400 million of its own money to fight off famine, but this year, it has been able to commit only $47 million, probably because of an exhausted budget.

There have also been accusations that the government is playing down the severity of the crisis to keep the country from looking bad internationally. During the earlier drought, it was months before the government admitted there was a problem, in part because Ethiopia had gained a reputation as Africa’s rising star and didn’t want to go back to being associated with drought and famine.

The contrast is clear in the bustling capital, Addis Ababa, where rainy skies and a hive of construction projects make it feel thousands of miles away from any drought. While Pizza Hut restaurants are set to soon open in the capital, thousands of children in the arid southeast suffer from acute malnutrition, and cholera is ripping through the relief camps.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which is working in Ethiopia's drought-hit Somali region, has started cutting its food rations to 80 percent. It is short $121 million for its Ethiopia operation this year, and the money is expected to run out over the summer.

If no new money arrives, the rations could be cut to 420 calories for the whole day — the equivalent of a burger. The government’s food contribution will probably suffer a similar fate.

“It’s stretching the humanitarian community,” WFP regional spokeswoman Challiss McDonough said, referring to the string of crises in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere on the continent. “I don’t think of it as donor fatigue. Quite frankly, the donors have been extremely generous, continuing to be so — but they are overwhelmed.”

There is also the fact that the Horn of Africa has been incredibly unlucky these past few years in terms of weather. Though famine was averted, many parts of the Ethiopian highlands are still recovering from the 2015-2016 drought, which was attributed to the El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon in the Pacific. Read more here

Ethiopian market insights presented at Flexofit seminar

Flexofit has hosted its first seminar in Ethiopia as it seeks to present the country’s booming packaging industry with information, knowledge and experience of the flexo printing process.

Flexofit is a company of experts with more than 30 years of experience in the flexographic printing industry, with the aim to share information, knowledge and experience of the flexo printing process with partners around the globe. It connects companies from the flexo industry with each other and organizes seminars, audits and trainings about the flexo printing process with a focus on Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

With the largest economy in East and Central Africa and the fastest-growing economy in Africa, with an annual growth rate averaging 9.7 percent over the last three years, the Ethiopian industry is mainly focused on agriculture and agro-processing, enjoying large exports to China and India, with huge demand for packaging these goods professionally. Most packaging is currently imported as there's a shortage of materials and technology, and a lack of experienced machine operators in Ethiopia.

For these reasons, members of the local packaging industry were delighted to meet with experts from global companies such as Esko, DuPont, Chespa, Renzmann and Windmöller & Hölscher at the Flexofit Ethiopia seminar. Presentations covered innovations in pre-press, flexo presses, flexo plates, inks, cleaning and recovery systems. The audience was eager to learn about new strategies and concepts in pre-press and flexo printing processes and greatly appreciated the networking opportunities.

Through the Flexofit series of seminars in Africa this year, under the theme 'The Future of Packaging in Africa', founders, Karla Grey and Hans-Peter Hormann, are connecting European producers of print technology with local industry and transferring valuable knowledge in flexographic printing and packaging. Forthcoming Flexofit seminars in Africa will take place in Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast Mauritius, South Africa and Namibia. Visit flexofit-print.com for more information, and see the L&L Events diary.

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