The nation paid its respects this week to Girma Wolde-Giorgis, who died on Saturday (December 16) after a short illness. Ethiopia’s President for more than a decade, a greatly respected environmental activist, and long-time civil servant, he was laid to rest on Wednesday (December 19) with full state honors including a 21-gun salute at the Kidist Selassie Menbere Tsebaot Church (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Addis Ababa. The funeral ceremony was attended by high-level government officials, including President Sahle-Work Zewdie, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, the Speaker of the House of People’s Representatives, Tagesse Chafo, the Speaker of the House of…

The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Meles Alem, in a press briefing on Thursday this week (December 13) emphasized the Government was redoubling its efforts to ensure safety and wellbeing of Ethiopian citizens living in the Middle East and other African countries. He noted the Ministry had issued Ethiopian passports to over 40, 000 unregistered Ethiopian nationals who had been stateless in other countries. In addition, 2,250 Ethiopians, released from Saudi Arabian jails following successful negotiations with the Government of Saudi Arabia had also been recently repatriated. Ethiopia is, of course, both a destination and a country of…

The 3rd Ethiopia-Canada Business and Investment Forum was held on Tuesday (December 11) in Toronto, Canada, co-organized by the Embassy of Ethiopia in Ottawa, WAFA Marketing and Promotion and MineAfrica. The official delegations were led by Ethiopia’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. AkliluHailemichael, and Canada’s delegation by Mr. Jean-Philippe Linteau, Director of Clean Technology, Infrastructure, Climate Finance and Life Sciences, of Global Affairs. Representatives from more than 80 Canadian companies attended. Dr. Aklilu in a keynote speech underlining the all-round bilateral cooperation between Ethiopia and Canada and the investment opportunities and incentives that Ethiopia offered to foreign investors, urged…

State Minister Dr. Markos Tekle led the Ethiopian delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration hosted by the Government of Morocco this week in Marrakech (December 10-11). 164 of the 193 members of the United Nations have now adopted the Global Compact which includes 23 distinct objectives and nearly two hundred actions to achieve these objectives which include protecting the lives, security and human rights of all migrants; strengthening measures to combat trafficking, improving migration management and regular migration pathways; gathering and disseminating information; promoting productive employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in…

Ethiopia started its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council on 1st January 2017. It ends on 31st December 2018 and South Africa will join the Security Council to represent Africa alongside Cote D’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea. In these two years, the world has faced unprecedented peace and security problems and the multilateral international system has been under enormous pressure in many respects. Indeed, in terms of threats to international peace and security, the Council has witnessed tensions not seen since the end of the Cold War. Before it joined the Security Council, Ethiopia emphasized…

The Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) produced its fourth progress and status report on implementation of the Revitalized South Sudan Peace Agreement at the beginning of the week. Chaired by its interim chair, Lt. General Njoroge, the RJMEC noted overall progress in terms of implementing the peace agreement and of establishing institutions and mechanisms. It emphasized the need to expedite establishment of the other commissions and called for financial support from partners for the implementation of the peace agreement. The RJMEC made it clear there had been delays in disengagement of forces, in the release of all political…