Politics

Ethiopian Airlines terminates its service to Eritrea

Published

3 months ago

September 3, 2024

Ethiopian Airlines announced on Tuesday that due to a frozen bank account, it had halted flights to neighbouring Eritrea.

Mesfin Tasew, the CEO of the airline, announced at a press conference that money transfers from Ethiopian Airlines’ bank account in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, had been banned by the Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority.

At the end of this month, Eritrea had already declared that it would stop all Ethiopian Airlines flights.

Following a peace agreement and the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two neighbours, which earned Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, flights from Ethiopia to Eritrea were restored in 2018 after a 20-year hiatus.

“We couldn’t continue in such a situation and we have decided to suspend the flight as of today,” Mesfin said.

Ethiopian carriers had stated in a statement late on Monday that they would attempt to provide refunds or rebook impacted passengers on other carriers at no additional cost.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Ethiopia is the biggest airline in Africa in terms of both revenue and profit.

Sources quoted by Reuters claimed the flight suspension indicated that Asmara and Addis’s relations had seriously deteriorated, but that a war was unlikely at this time.

When a two-year conflict broke out over their disputed boundary, the two nations cut their diplomatic ties in 1998.

In the battle that broke out in November 2020, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia against forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray area. However, the relationship deteriorated again when Asmara was left out of the peace negotiations that put an end to the conflict two years later, and because some of Eritrea’s troops stayed in Tigray.

A request for the response was not immediately answered by Yemane Gebremeskel, the Eritrean Minister of Information.

Related Topics:Eritrea Ethiopia Featured

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Politics

Mali: 7 Russian mercenaries killed

Published

10 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

An al Qaeda offshoot in North Africa has claimed responsibility for the attack in central Mali, killing at least seven mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner private military contractor company.

Wagner earlier lost a battle in July with mostly Tuareg rebels and Islamists close to Mali’s Algerian border, exposing the perils faced by mercenaries used by military juntas in the Sahel area of West Africa.

The separatists and strong branches of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have taken over large areas of the Sahel over the past 12 years, are difficult for Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger to control.

The al Qaeda offshoot JNIM claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack, according to a statement from SITE Intelligence Group, which keeps an eye on extremist activity in the area. According to SITE, JNIM captured several weapons and killed seven Russian Wagner mercenaries.

Following an attack, the bodies of at least five white males wearing army fatigues were seen laying near a military truck in a video obtained by Reuters. The validity of the footage could not be confirmed by Reuters.

SITE Intelligence posted images allegedly from JNIM that showed many crates of weapons and ammo together with the dead and bloodied bodies of troops.

Although two local officials acknowledged the incident, a Malian army source claimed to have seen seven dead bodies, including Russian fighters. Five Wagner warriors were slain, according to one of them.

At least six Russians have been murdered in the attack, which was carried out by Katiba Macina, a division of JNIM, according to a consultant working on security in the area.

The expert referred to the Russians as Africa Corps warriors, a paramilitary group under Kremlin leadership that has taken Wagner’s position in Africa throughout the previous 12 months.

Mali has previously said that Russian servicemen trainers are assisting local troops with Russian-purchased weaponry rather than mercenaries.

Politics

Mauritius’ Prime Minister to double as Finance Minister

Published

2 days ago

November 23, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an effort to maintain a tight eye on the economy, Mauritius’ Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who took office this month following a resounding election victory, said on Friday that he would retain the position of finance minister for himself.

“We are doing an audit of the economy to see to what extent the outgoing government has destroyed it,” Ramgoolam told reporters in the capital Port Louis after he presided over the swearing-in of other ministers.

Ten years after he stepped down as prime minister, the seasoned politician returned to the position when his Alliance du Changement (ADC) alliance won 60 of the 62 seats in the national legislature.

The 77-year-old Ramgoolam said earlier this week that he would be auditing governmental finances. Before this, he was prime minister from 1995 to 2000 and again from 2005 to 2014.

Ramgoolam started a campaign in 2006 to streamline taxes and reduce bureaucracy to diversify the $10 billion economy beyond exports of sugar, textiles, and tourism.

Since then, the 1.3 million-person nation, which positions itself as a bridge between Africa and Asia, has developed into a major offshore financial hub and has been rated by the World Bank as the easiest location to do business in Africa regularly.