Tag Archives: Ethiopia

The Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ News:

The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish citizens in Ethiopia to leave the country immediately.

International concern has been increasing due to the escalating war in Ethiopia as Tigrayan rebels edge closer to the capital Addis Ababa.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said that around 80 Irish citizens in Ethiopia have been advised it would be prudent to leave the country due to an escalation in the political situation in the conflict-ridden country.

Earlier…

Statement On November 5 from the UN Security Council on the situation in Ethiopia

Via AP:

Ethiopia has ordered four of six Irish diplomats working in Addis Ababa to leave the country because of Ireland’s outspoken stance over the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia

The Department of Foreign Affairs said Ethiopia’s government informed the Irish Embassy in the Ethiopian capital that the four must leave within one week. The Irish ambassador and one other diplomat were allowed to stay.

In a statement, the department said that Ethiopian authorities indicated this was “due to the positions Ireland has articulated internationally, including at the U.N. Security Council, on the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the yearlong war between Ethiopian and allied forces and fighters from the country’s northern Tigray region, who long dominated the national government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office

Ireland and African members of the U.N. Security Council led a statement on Nov. 5 calling for a cease-fire, stressing the importance of full humanitarian access to Tigray and political dialogue between parties.

Ethiopia expels Irish diplomats over Ireland’s stance on war (AP)

Pic: DFA

From top: The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed six minutes after take off from Addis Abba Bole airport killing all 157 on board; A warning from the US Embassy in Ethiopia to staff about movements around the capital, Addis Ababa

The U.S. State Department reversed a March 8 travel alert for Americans traveling in Ethiopia just hours before the fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302. The update reversed a warning to Americans from traveling into or out of Addis Abba Bole airport on Sunday, March 10.

Meanwhile…

Several airlines have grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash.The flight crashed minutes after takeoff on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second disaster in five months involving a Boeing 737 Max 8.

U.S. State Department Reversed a Security Alert Hours Before Ethiopian Airlines Flight Crashed (Daily Beast)

US warned its citizens to avoid airport over protests (The Standard.ke)

Ethiopian Airlines crash: Shock at Clare man’s death (Irish Times)

Boeing: Airlines ground 737 Max 8 jets after latest crash (BBC)

Pic: Getty

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (centre) visits the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, Axum, Ethiopia in last  Friday

“Like many churches, convents, temples and mosques, they have rules about who may enter and how they should dress…It is appropriate to respect the rules and customs of different cultures and religions especially when you are in their countries, holy places or homes….”

A spokesman for the Taoiseach on his visit to a male-only church in Ethiopia

Taoiseach forced to leave high ranking female officials to visit monastery in Ethiopia (Independent.ie)

vso

Aisling Healy, from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, volunteering in Ethopia.

Donnacha Maguire writes:

I‘m just back from Ethiopia where VSO made a number of cool videos about Irish people volunteering to fight poverty.
Above is Aisling’s video. She is from Clonmel, works as a secondary school Irish teacher and is involved in local politics.

 

VSO.ie

Aisling’s blog

The One Laptop Per Child project, a non-profit outfit that has so far delivered 2.4 million XO laptops to children in the developing world, reported recently on their efforts in Ethiopia.

Rather than give out laptops (they’re actually Motorola Zoom tablets plus solar chargers running custom software) to kids in schools with teachers, the OLPC Project decided to try something completely different: it delivered some boxes of tablets to two villages in Ethiopia, taped shut, with no instructions whatsoever. Just like, “hey kids, here’s this box, you can open it if you want, see ya!”

At MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference last week, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said:

“We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He’d never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android.”

dvice/MITtechreview

A group of tourism and catering experts more used to catering to the most privileged in Ireland will be helping some of Ethiopia’s least privileged next week by letting them in on the tricks of the tourism trade.

Chef Kevin Thornton, who owns and runs a Michelin-starred restaurant, and hotelier and television presenter Francis Brennan, who owns the Park Hotel in Kenmare, are leading a 14-strong team of people with backgrounds in tourism, catering, marketing and crafts.

The voluntary trip is organised by Connect Ethiopia, a charity that uses the skills of Irish business people to help their Ethiopian counterparts. They are focusing their efforts on Lalibela, a holy city known for its churches hewn out of rock. It is about 45 minutes by air from Addis Ababa but western tourists tend to stay only one or two nights. Connect Ethiopia manager Katherine Meenan said the team was aiming to improve the offering for tourists so they would stay longer.

One week. But no film crew. Pity. It would have made an interesting documentary.

Irish entrepreneurs head to Ethiopia to help it improve its tourism offering (Alison Healy, Irish Times)