We must not look away from the crises in Africa-Maaza Mengiste

A single photo focused the world’s attention on Sudan in 93. As Gaza and MH17 dominate, Africa’s horrors remain invisible
In the photograph a little girl is hunched low, head bent to the ground, ribs jutting out from a too-small body wasting away from starvation. A few feet behind her, a vulture waits, avid and focused, for her to die. When this photograph, taken in southern Sudan in 1993 by the late photojournalist Kevin Carter, was published, the outcry from the public was immediate and visceral. Questions of ethics, and inquiries on how to help, flooded the New York Times. The Pulitzer prize-winning photo riveted the world and directed attention to the devastating famine in the country.

As controversial as the picture was, as problematic as it may have been for Carter to shoot it while the young girl sat, helpless prey to a vulture, the image sparked worldwide interest in the famine. People noticed and, suddenly, people cared.

Kevin Carter’s photograph, taken during the 1993 famine in Sudan. ‘The outcry from the public was immediate and visceral.’ Photograph: Megan Patricia Carter Trust/Kevin Carter/Corbis Sygma

Now, three years after independence, South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, is expected to declare that it is once again in a state of famine. The crisis has been caused by conflict between government forces and various opposition groups. Four million people are facing emergency levels of food shortages. One and a half million have been displaced and 50,000 children are at risk of death from malnutrition.

The situation has been called the most rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis today, but without an image startling enough to make the headlines, it has remained invisible. The world’s gaze is being directed elsewhere, towards the devastating news emerging daily from Gaza and the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Ethiopia migrants escape Saudi jail

Riyadh, Friday Nearly 70 illegal migrant workers, mostly Ethiopians, have fled from a detention centre in the Saudi capital, local media reported today, adding that authorities have re-arrested 25 of them.

Police have been cracking down on illegal migrants since the expiration in November of a seven-month amnesty during which they had to regularise their status or leave the country, in operations that have sparked deadly clashes.

“Around 70 detainees broke the wall of their cell at a foreigners’ detention centre in Al-Marbaa neighbourhood of Riyadh and managed to escape,” online news website Sabq.org said, quoting a prisons spokesman, Abdullah al-Harbi.

25 HAVE BEEN CAUGHT

“Twenty-five of them have been caught and a search is ongoing for the rest,” he said.

Ethiopia sets up anti-Ebola committee

“A national committee is set up to design a guideline enabling to prevent Ebola,” institute spokesperson Abel Yeshaneh told Anadolu Agency. "The guideline will be made official soon.”
ADDIS ABABA

Ethiopia has set up a national committee to draw up a plan to prevent and contain any possible outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which is currently sweeping West Africa, the country’s Public Health Institute said.

“A national committee is set up to design a guideline enabling to prevent Ebola,” institute spokesperson Abel Yeshaneh told Anadolu Agency. "The guideline will be made official soon.”

“Members of the committee are drawn from the Ethiopian Airlines, the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders,” he said.

Ethiopia's national flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, which operates extensive flight network connecting affected West Africa countries to other parts of the world, said that it is implementing “precautions in connection with the outbreak of the disease in some parts of West Africa.”

While continuing daily flights as usual, the national carrier said “stringent and specific surveillance is being carried out regarding all flights from West Africa at Addis Ababa airport.”

Addis Ababa Doubling in Size Gives Africa Another Hub

Ethiopia, Africa’s fastest-growing economy, is looking to its capital to help sustain an expansion that averaged more than 10 percent a year in the past decade.
Planners predict the population of Addis Ababa and five satellite towns will more than double by 2040 to 8.1 million, highlighting United Nations estimates that Africa’s global share of urban dwellers will double to 20 percent in the next 35 years. Planners envisage developing an area 20 times the current boundaries of the city. Ambitions for mass transport match the standard of central Paris, ensuring every resident lives within 500 meters (0.3 miles) of a bus or train ride to the center.
One of its new residents would be Bekele Feyissa, a 45-year-old father of six who farms cereals on a plot in Sebeta. The town is about 20 kilometers south of the center and is set to be swallowed by the city.
“If the city grows, it will be good for us as we will get electricity,” Bekele said, standing in the shade of a hedge as a donkey pulled a cart along an unpaved road beside him.
The government’s plan for Addis Ababa is critical to its aspirations for developing into a middle-income country in about a decade, mirroring efforts by Kenya and Zambia. The continent’s economic potential will be highlighted as U.S. President Barack Obama hosts more than 40 African leaders at a summit in Washington next week.
International Monetary Fund data show Ethiopia is on the way to achieving its goal, with average annual growth of 10.9 percent during the past decade powered by spending on electricity plants, railways, roads, health and education.

Ethiopian athletes: 1 signed with Nike, 1 with Adidas, coaches told University of Oregon police

Two Ethiopian runners signed contracts with Nike and Adidas hours before disappearing from the IAAF Junior World Championships in Eugene, according to a report released Thursday by the University of Oregon Police Department.
The Ethiopian team's coaches reported four members of the team missing to police just before 1 a.m. Saturday. They told an officer that Zeyituna Mohammed had signed a contract with Nike on Friday, and that Dureti Edao had signed a contract with Adidas the same day, according to the report. Both women are 18-year-old runners.
Nike declined to comment on Mohammed's contract. As of Thursday evening, an Adidas spokeswoman did not have any more details about Edao's relationship with the company.
The police report only details the hours leading up to the runners' disappearance. It remains unclear how police found the athletes, or how long they plan to stay in the U.S.
The coaches also told police they believed the four runners -- Mohammad; Edao; Amanuel Abebe Atibeha, a 17-year-old boy; and Meaza Kebede, an 18-year-old woman -- were planning to defect to the U.S., and were mostly likely destined for Portland or Washington to get help from Ethiopian communities there.

Ownership Does Not Determine Success of an AirlineVice-President of Ethiopia Airlines

Vice-President of Ethiopia Airlines, Esaya Wondermariam Hailu

Vice-President of Ethiopia Airlines, Esaya Wondermariam Hailu, visited Nigeria recently and spoke about how an African airline can be successful, the potential of Nigerian aviation market and the partnership between Ethiopian Airlines and Nigerian travellers. Chinedu Eze presents the excerpts:

Why are many African airlines failing; has it got to do with ownership?

Ownership is not the question. There are so many private airlines which came and faded away and there were government owned national carriers also in other parts of the world which have survived and thrived. For example, when we take the case of Ethiopian Airlines, despite 9/11 terror attack on US soil, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which affected air transportation, energy price hikes; at least two domestic revolutions: the toppling of Monarchy in Ethiopia and the toppling of the military junta in Ethiopia, Ethiopia-Eritrean war, all these were obstacles that were survived by Ethiopian Airlines.

The secret is not in the ownership, whether private or government owned. If it is squandered or mismanaged, it will be no more. So, it is a matter of diligent management. When it comes to Ethiopian Airlines, government has given the management of the airline 100 per cent autonomy to run the company with industry discipline in economic sense. The only thing they request at the end of the year is to show them the numbers; our performance.
Any company that is in Africa be it private or government that has hardworking workforce, diligent management, prudent cost management and customer service and if you continue to maintain these, your business is going to succeed.

India’s Allanasons to Invest $20 Million in Ethiopian Meat Plant

Allanasons Ltd., an Indian food company, plans to invest $20 million in a meat-processing plant in Ethiopia as it seeks to take advantage of a large population of naturally fed cattle and sheep.

The Mumbai-based producer has been allotted land in Adami Tulu in Oromia region, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, where it will build a facility to produce 70 metric tons of meat products a day, said Aman Khan, head of Ethiopian operations.
“Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa and the demand for meat proteins continues to increase globally, so we feel it is the right decision to invest in the livestock sector here,” he said in an e-mailed response to questions today. Allanasons is India’s largest exporter of processed food and commodities, according to its website.
The Horn of Africa nation’s estimated livestock population of 49 million cattle, 25 million sheep and almost 22 million goats directly contributes 15 percent to 17 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency. Foreign sales earn about $150 million a year, or 10 percent of exports, and another $300 million of livestock may also be illegally exported, it said.