August 26, 2010

Desalegn Sisay

Gambela, one of the nine regional states of Ethiopia is fast growing into what the local media has described as “a land grabbing” hub among Indian companies.

Gambela’s new tag as a land grabbing hub comes as BHO Agro Plc becomes the third Indian firm to begin operations in the region after two other Indian companies, Karuturi and Ruchi Group, moved into Gambela in 2008 and early 2010, respectively.

Official reports have indicated that Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, responsible for the regulation of land acquisition by foreign entities, has allowed the lease of 27,000 hectares of land to BHO Agro Plc.

The size of the property, on which BHO Agro Plc plans to grow bio-fuel seed, observers say, is almost half the size of the Horn of Africa country’s capital city, Addis Ababa.

In 2008, Karuturi became the first Indian company to lease 300,000 hectares of land [an area larger than Luxembourg], in Gambela, for the production of wheat which is to be exported to its home country.

Like BHO Agro, Ruchi Group, the second Indian firm to take advantage of the Gambela land grab, is expected to cultivate bio-fuel seeds on its allotted 25,000 hectares of land.

Several companies and governments have so far made land deals with the central government. Early this year, the Ethiopian Government approved the lease of 22,000 hectares of land to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).

Neighbouring Djibouti has also acquired 3,000 hectares of land in Bale, whilst Saudi Star Plc, a company established by billionaire Sheikh Mohamed Al Amudi, an Ethiopian born Saudi national, also received 10,000 hectares of land in the region to grow and export rice to Saudi.

According to Ethiopian authorities, the land grabs will have a significant economic benefit. But critics have slammed the government for using the Gambela region as a commercial farming center.

Meanwhile, analysts argue that the concentration of foreign companies in one region could impact local farmers negatively and also risks whipping up controversy among riparian countries of the Nile basin owing to the region’s only water resource, Baro river, an important tributary of the White Nile.

Afrik

August 23, 2010

Desalegn Sisay

Ethiopia, Djibouti’s biggest port client, expects a boom in its import and export activities as Djibouti gets ready to construct a new port at Tadjoura to handle the growing demands of the landlocked Horn of Africa country.

Djibouti Ports World has indicated that the new facilities have to be built in order to satisfy growing demands, especially due to the expansion of several economic sectors, particularly the agricultural sector.

Nonetheless, the new port will handle everything with the exception of containers and fuel that run through specialised terminals, such as the Doraleh Port.

The Tadjoura Port, according to Aden Ahmed Douale, chairman of the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority, will handle general cargo, including livestock, fertilizers and grain.

The move is also to keep a competitive edge with respect to other harbours in the region. But above all, “It will be another opportunity for Ethiopia,” Capital, an Ethiopian online newspaper quotes the official as saying.

“It’s our biggest client and one of the largest countries on the African continent. More importantly, its economy is vastly growing. That type of country needs more than just one port” says Mr. Douale.

“It is all about Ethiopia,” Aden Ahmed Douale confirms. “In the near future, the country will count over a hundred million people. For such a huge customer, one port is not sufficient.”

Djibouti has attracted financial investments from several fellow members of the Arab League to develop the Tadjoura Port. Government institutions such as the Arab Fund, Kuwait Fund and Saudi Arabia Fund as well as the African Investment Bank (AIB) are expected to contribute to the project.

August 21, 2010

Kaleyesus Bekele

After suspending its daily flight to Djibouti for two weeks, the Ethiopian Airlines resumed Monday its regular flight operations to the neighboring country. The Djiboutian civil aviation authorities recently denied Ethiopian flight operations permit demanding that the airline deploy Boeing jet instead of the turboprop aircraft. Ethiopian has been operating Fokker 50 and more recently the new Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft on the Addis Ababa Djibouti route. The Djiboutian authorities have been complaining about the type of aircraft Ethiopian has been flying to Djibouti and requested the airline to use Boeing 737 jets.

However, the management of Ethiopian did not accept the request on the ground that the passenger traffic on the Addis Djibouti route does not necessitate the deployment of B737 aircraft. A senior executive of Ethiopian told The Reporter that the new Q400 turboprop aircraft the airline acquired from the Canadian air framer, Bombardier, last March was sufficient to accommodate the passenger traffic on the Addis Djibouti route adding that Ethiopian has a shortage of regional jets.

The five ageing Fokker aircraft Ethiopian has been operating for more than ten years mainly on domestic routes each have more than 50 seats. Last year, Ethiopian placed firm orders for eight Q400 aircraft with a total value of 290 million dollars and Bombardier had delivered five of them to the airline. The remaining will be arriving by the end of this year. The new Q400 aircraft known for low noise and higher fuel efficiency has more than 70 seats in a single configuration. Ethiopian has five 737-700 and two 737-800 jetliners. The B737 aircraft has more than 150 seats.

After deliberating on the issue, executives of Ethiopian and the Djiboutian authorities reached an agreement that enables Ethiopian to resume its regular flight operations to Djibouti with the modern Q400 aircraft. An Ethiopian executive told The Reporter that the company does not want to disappoint the Djiboutian officials. However, he said their demand was inappropriate. “Djiboutians are our good customers. Besides, they are our neighbors. We will do our best to continue providing them with commendable services but at the moment we can not deploy B737 aircraft on that route. Considering the market demand we may change the type of aircraft we use in the future,” the executive said. Ethiopian suspended the daily flight to the small Red Sea state on August 1.

In a related the news, the management of Ethiopian is in the process of selling the five Fokker 50s. The management ordered the Q400s with the view to replacing the ageing Fokker50s.

NAIROBI- The northwest and southeast regions of Djibouti should receive good rains from July to September, but thousands of pastoralists will still need food assistance until the end of the year, warns an agency.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said the problems were due to several consecutive seasons of poor rainfall before the last two seasons of good rains. Other factors included above-average cereal prices, decreased demand for milk, and reduced remittances caused by the high cost of staple foods in urban areas.

Djibouti is one of the Horn of Africa countries that suffers recurrent drought. In June, the European Commission warned that drought had affected the coping capacity of vulnerable populations in the region and 12 million needed help.

“Drought is by far the main cause of natural disasters in the Greater Horn of Africa,” said EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, who heads the EC humanitarian aid portfolio. She announced a €20 million (US$26 million) package on 23 June for six countries in the region. “Worryingly, the effect of climate change is felt more dramatically in this region.”

Climate concerns

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 40 percent of the population in the Horn of Africa is undernourished. Millions are food insecure, especially subsistence farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, whose livelihoods largely depend on agriculture and animal production.

“Although populations in areas affected by cycles of drought and flooding have developed specific coping mechanisms, [they] are strained as the climate is becoming more unstable and shocks increasingly severe,” FAO said in its 2010 food security outlook.

The intensity of the poverty situation in Djibouti tells us of the dangerous environment in which children live, one that exposes them to exploitation and abuse
“More than half of the populations in the region survive on less than US$1 per day,” it added. “With little or no saving and lacking the capacity or skills to diversify their sources of income, the poorest suffer the most from external shocks.

“The needs of populations already food insecure or the most vulnerable to food insecurity, namely pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and marginal farmers, as well as women and girls across categories, should be prioritized.”

Children hit hardest

Children, many of whom live in abject poverty, have been particularly hit. According to a recent report by the government and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about two out of three children in Djibouti lack at least one basic right, including shelter, water and sanitation, information, nutrition, education and health. More than half lack proper housing.

“The intensity of the poverty situation in Djibouti tells us of the dangerous environment in which children live, one that exposes them to exploitation and abuse,” said Josefa Marrato, UNICEF representative in Djibouti.

Most of Djibouti’s 800,000 people live in urban areas. Conditions, FEWS Net said, were expected to improve in October, which would lead to an improvement in the health of animals. This would also be after September when schools re-open and petty trade plus casual labour employment opportunities pick up. But until then, 60,000 urban poor would require assistance.

August 9, 2010

ADAM GONN

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines could be close to settling a dispute with the Civilian Aviation Authority in neighboring Djibouti over the type of aircraft used by the airline, according African news portal Afrik News.

Ethiopian Airlines is hoping to use turbo-propelled aircraft, while the Djibouti authority is pushing them to use jet-propelled planes for flights to that country. The two parties have recently entered negotiations.

The dispute started when Ethiopian Airlines wanted to introduce eight Q-400 turbo-propelled aircraft purchased from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier as part of its regional and international expansion plan. Djiboutian authorities, however, refused to let the new planes land.

The route between the Somali capital of Addis Ababa and Djibouti is one of Ethiopian Airlines’ longest-running routes, operating since 1946.

“The major issues facing individual airports where aero-engines is concerned are pollution and noise rather than safety,” aviation expert David J. Bentley told The Media Line. “Safety is the preserve of national and international organizations, either those dedicated to the industry, or political ones.”

“In economic terms, planes with the ‘turbo-prop’ (a gas turbine driven propeller) engine are usually slower than those with jet engines (an internal combustion engine), but are more economic over short distances and modern versions tend to be ‘greener,’” he explained. “That is why the (Bombardier) Dash 8 Q-400 has become a popular model, along with the ATR 72-600,” Bentley told The Media Line.

“There has been a tendency for many African countries to become the graveyard of aircraft as they are passed down from western countries because they fail noise and/or pollution tests there,” he said.

“Sometimes they are then re-engined with substandard parts from other aircraft,” Bentley said. “The entire continent is under pressure, especially from the US, whose airlines are increasing direct flights there — notably Delta — to improve standards.” Berouk Mesfin, senior researcher at the Institute for Securities Studies in Addis Ababa, described the relationship between Ethiopia and Djibouti as good and did not think that the dispute was representative of the political situation between the two countries.

“They (Ethiopia and Djibouti) have always been very close.” He explained that is “because Ethiopians have been using the port in Djibouti for export and imports.” Mesfin added that “ever since 1977, when Djibouti became independent, there have been good relations. There might be some hiccups here and there, but in the whole they are good.”

In 1977, Djibouti, previously known as the French Territory of Afars and Issas or French Somaliland, won its independence from France. The present leadership favors close ties with France, which also maintains a significant military presence in the country. During the time of the rebellion, the government forged close ties with the US leading to the establishment of the Horn of Africa task force.

In 2002, the US Central Command established the Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. The task force comprises some 1,800 staff from each branch of the US military in addition to civilian personnel. Its mandate is to detect, disrupt, and ultimately defeat transnational terrorist groups operating in the region.

For the US, one of the advantages of Djibouti is its geographical location, just across the water from Yemen, north of Somalia, and east of Sudan. Despite the country’s central location in the troubled region, it is relatively quiet, which gives the force a stable base for operations.

US Dept. of State

July 24, 2010

The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2011 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 100,600 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2011 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2011 (October 1, 2010 until September 30, 2011).

Applicants registered for the DV-2011 program were selected at random from over 12.1 million qualified entries (16.5 million with derivatives) received during the 60-day application period that ran from noon on October 2, 2009, until noon, November 30, 2009. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2011 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2011 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2011 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2011 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2011.
Only participants in the DV-2011 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for the upcoming DV-2012 lottery if they wish. The dates for the registration period for the DV-2012 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2010.

* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NACARA program. The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.

The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2011 program:
(Note: Only the Africa list is shown here. See the link to the original for the complete list)
AFRICA
ALGERIA 1,753 ETHIOPIA 5,200 NIGER 89
ANGOLA 55 GABON 41 NIGERIA 6,000
BENIN 508 GAMBIA, THE 72 RWANDA 204
BOTSWANA 13 GHANA 6,002 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0
BURKINA FASO 183 GUINEA 701 SENEGAL 427
BURUNDI 72 GUINEA-BISSAU 5 SEYCHELLES 4
CAMEROON 3,674 KENYA 4,689 SIERRA LEONE 3,911
CAPE VERDE 26 LESOTHO 11 SOMALIA 201
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 18 LIBERIA 1,826 SOUTH AFRICA 963
CHAD 59 LIBYA 114 SUDAN 1,156
COMOROS 7 MADAGASCAR 55 SWAZILAND 4
CONGO 144 MALAWI 33 TANZANIA 174
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 2,575 MALI 88 TOGO 1,011
COTE D’IVOIRE 759 MAURITANIA 25 TUNISIA 132
DJIBOUTI 45 MAURITIUS 61 UGANDA 490
EGYPT 4,251 MOROCCO 2,003 WESTERN SAHARA 0
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 13 MOZAMBIQUE 2 ZAMBIA 128
ERITREA 851 NAMIBIA 13 ZIMBABWE 163

July 23, 2010

NAIROBI — A broad initiative to develop East Africa’s drylands — where living conditions are among the toughest on the planet — was launched Friday by renowned US economist Jeffrey Sachs and regional bodies.

“Under the Drylands Initiative, thousands of pastoralists who have historically been neglected will benefit from animal production, infrastructure, health, education, and business projects,” said a statement.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Centre in East and Southern Africa — which was established by Sachs’ Earth Institute at Columbia University — said the project would be rolled out in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. It added that it was in talks with Eritrea.

“Poverty levels are extraordinarily high in the drylands of East Africa,” said Sachs, who is also UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s special advisor on the MDGs. He added that climate change risked making things worse.

The project, whose funding level was not specified, is to be implemented in partnership with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

“Bringing economic improvement and climate resiliency will not only raise living standards but will also promote peace,” Sachs said at the launch, attended by several ministers from the region.

“Recent history has amply demonstrated that many of the conflicts in the drylands result from water stress, hunger, and other vulnerabilities of the drylands. Investing in drylands development is therefore also investing in peace and security,” he said.

The initiative will implement programmes modelled on the multi-sectoral approach used in Millennium Villages to help communities achieve the UN’s eight millennium goals, the MDG Centre’s director Belay Begashaw said.

The eight MDGs were agreed by UN members states in 2001 and need to be reached by 2015. A conference will take place in Washington in September to review the world’s progress on the goals.

July 20, 2010

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe

The United Nations today welcomed steps by Eritrea and Djibouti to resolve their border dispute through mediation by Qatar, saying Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was ready to provide technical support if needed to facilitate a settlement.

Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council that the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, had written to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informing him that Eritrean troops had withdrawn from the disputed areas of Ras Doumiera and Doumiera Island and that Qatari military observers had been deployed to those localities pending a final settlement.

This follows the signing of an agreement by Eritrea and Djibouti on 6 June, under the auspices of Qatar, in which the neighbouring countries decided to resolve their border conflict through a negotiated settlement.

In March 2008, Eritrea had deployed troops and military equipment to the two areas adjoining its de facto border with Djibouti.

“The Government of Qatar has confirmed to us that cooperation between both countries and the Qatari forces is good and that the Qatari forces will remain deployed in both countries until the dispute between them has been settled,” Mr. Pascoe said.

He said that the UN believed that States in the Horn of Africa, the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the UN should work together to effectively address inter-linked conflicts in the region, including Somalia and the long-standing border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

In his latest report on compliance with a Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on Eritrea for its activities in Djibouti and Somalia, the Secretary-General says that Eritrea deserves credit for its recent constructive engagement with its neighbours and the international community and urges the country to provide evidence that it is complying with the resolution.

“Despite the Government of Eritrea’s long-standing positions on Somalia and Djibouti, it has recently taken a number of steps towards constructive engagement with its neighbours and the wider international community,” Mr. Ban says in the report.

Mr. Pascoe said aspects of the resolution relating to Somalia will be addressed by the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, whose members were appointed on 1 July. “We look forward to the Monitoring Group’s independent reporting on Eritrea compliance with the provisions of the relevant resolutions,” he said.

In a related development, the Security Council today maintained the exemption of activities related to the delivery of humanitarian aid to Somalia from restrictions imposed under the Council’s arms embargoes on Somalia and Eritrea.

“The Security Council noted that the measures in paragraph 5 of resolution 1916 remain necessary to address the situation in Somalia, which continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,” the Council said in a press statement.

July 20, 2010

Larry Freund

Eritrea is asking the United Nations Security Council to end its sanctions, citing a U.N. report indicating some progress in ending Eritrea’s dispute with neighboring Djibouti.

A report from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon points to steps recently taken by Eritrea toward constructive engagement with its neighbors and the wider international community. Specifically, the U.N. report cites an agreement by Eritrea and Djibouti to resolve their border dispute.

At a meeting of the Security Council to review the report, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe said Eritrea has withdrawn its troops from disputed territory, and that Qatar, which is serving as a mediator, has deployed military observers in the area. “We commend the recent concrete steps taken by Eritrea and Djibouti on the border issue with the active meditation efforts of the state of Qatar. The secretary-general has offered the technical support of the United Nations should it be requested,” he said.

Eritrea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Araya Desta, called the agreement with Djibouti a significant development, but he said the sanctions imposed on Eritrea by the Security Council last year were unjust.

“Eritrea takes issues of peace and security very seriously, and it shall not be discouraged or deterred from participating in meaningful and fruitful discussions that would concretely contribute to sustainable peace in its region. In light of the steps taken by Eritrea together with Djibouti under the auspices of the Qatari diplomatic efforts, and Eritrea’s firm commitment towards peace efforts in Somalia, my delegation appeals to the Security Council to lift the sanctions imposed on Eritrea,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of Djibouti, Kadra Ahmed Hassan told the Security Council that its adoption of sanctions against Eritrea was decisive in establishing the peace process. “Even if the process is encouraging, the road that awaits us is a long one, and it requires an undying and a serious commitment on the part of all of us in the months to come; because the matters to be discussed are very sensitive ones, and these are the matters of the war prisoners, the missing persons, as well as the demarcation and delimitation of the border,” he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban, in his report, says recent developments involving Eritrea are a move in the right direction, but he says Eritrea must do more to provide evidence of its compliance with the Security Council’s sanctions resolution.

July 19, 2010

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Chief of defense staff and military experts from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Monday begin a three day forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss new troop contributions for Somalia.

The on-going closed session is being held in the presence of chiefs of defense staff and military experts from IGAD member states, namely, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia.

The forum is being held to assess the IGAD summit decision, which was held a week ago in Addis Ababa, where the leaders decided to deploy additional 2,000 peacekeeping forces to Somalia. Accordingly, the experts and chiefs of defense staff are discussing who should contribute troops and how and when to deploy them to Somalia.

Uganda, which was recently attacked by AL Shabab,a militant group based in Somalia, has already decided to send additional 2,000 troops to Somalia. If Uganda alone sends the 2,000 troops, the number of troops to be sent to Somalia will rise more than the initially decided 2,000 troops, which was decided by IGAD leaders a week ago in Addis Ababa.

Currently, around 5,500 Ugandan and Burundi troops are on the ground in Somalia, helping the weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in stabilizing the country, which remains without a central government for the past 19 years.

Last week’s attack in Uganda by AL Shabab forced IGAD member states to seriously consult on how to fight against Al Shabab.

Next week’s African Union summit in Uganda is also expected to give ample time to discuss the issue of Somalia.