African leaders condemn Israel’s offensive in GazaADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Leaders at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza and called for its immediate end. Moussa Faki, the chair of the African Union Commission, said Israel’s offensive was the “most flagrant” violation of international humanitarian law and accused Israel of having “exterminated” Gaza’s inhabitants. “Rest assured we strongly condemn these attacks that are unprecedented in the history of mankind,” Faki said to applause from delegates. Israel strongly denies committing genocide in Gaza and says it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. Concern over conflicts and the resurgence of coups across the African continent also underscored the opening of this year’s summit.

Mogadishu has reacted angrily after Ethiopian security services tried to block Somali leader Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his delegation from accessing the venue of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday. Mohamud gently walked to the salute dais for the playing of the national anthems of Somalia and Ethiopia. The Somali leader listened attentively as the Somali national anthem was played to the end. This investigative media house has learned that as Somali President Mohamud arrived at the AU headquarters, he found Ethiopian security services with orders to block him from accessing the venue. Nevertheless, Mohamud’s security detail quickly contacted the IGAD Chairperson and Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh to engage Ethiopian leaders to allow the Somali leader to attend the summit.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told reporters Ethiopian security forces tried to block his access to the AU summit (Michele Spatari)Somalia and Ethiopia, already at odds over a controversial maritime pact, locked horns again on Saturday over Somali claims that Ethiopian security forces tried to block President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud from accessing the African Union summit. But Ethiopia insisted Mohamud was warmly welcomed and said that the Somali delegation was blocked when its security detail tried to enter a venue with weapons. She said the Somalia delegation had declined the security offered by Ethiopia and tried to enter a venue with their weapons. "The Somali delegation security attempted to enter the AUC premises with weapons which was blocked off by AUC security." In return, Somaliland -- a former British protectorate -- has said Ethiopia would give it formal recognition, assertions not confirmed by Addis Ababa.

President Mohamud ‘categorically objects’ to Ethiopia’s Red Sea port deal with Somaliland, territory Somalia claims as its own. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has accused Ethiopia of trying to annex part of his country’s territory by signing a sea access deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland. The agreement between Ethiopia and Somaliland signed on January 1 “is nothing more than annexing part of Somalia to Ethiopia, and changing the borders of Somalia,” Mohamud told reporters. “Ethiopia is misleading the world by claiming that they need an access to the sea,” Mohamud said on Saturday. ‘Provocation’Reporting from Addis Ababa on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall noted that Somalia’s president had been very outspoken in his remarks at the AU Summit.

Côte d’Ivoire and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff level agreement on a package of reform measures for 2024-26 in line with the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) program objectives for an amount of about US$ 1.3 billion, or 150 percent of quota). The RSF program request will be submitted for approval to the IMF Executive Board in the coming weeks, according to the information from the IMF. “Côte d’Ivoire and its economy are exposed and vulnerable to climate change, especially in the agricultural sector and other economic activity sectors in coastal areas. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in urban areas are increasing and pose additional challenges. Based on these findings, the authorities are committed to reducing the harmful effects of climate change and have implemented several government initiatives,” he said.

The Republic of Korea has contributed KRW 390 million (CHF 260,000) to the Global Trust Fund to finance capacity-building programs in 2024, with the objective of helping developing economies participate more effectively in global trade. A significant proportion of this contribution is allocated to the WTO Chairs Program, an initiative aimed at supporting trade-related academic activities in developing economies and least-developed countries (LDCs). Partner institutions of the WTO Chairs Program receive financial and technical support from the WTO for trade-related research, curriculum development and outreach activities. I thank the Republic of Korea for generously supporting these initiatives.”Korea’s Ambassador in Geneva, Yun Seong Deok, said: “As an active participant in the multilateral trading system, Korea strongly supports efforts to integrate developing countries and LDCs into global trade. Our contributions to the Global Trust Fund are a reflection of this commitment.

Data Center1 min readEthiopia to set up large data center amid reported bitcoin mining surgeEthiopia's strategic investment arm, Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), has signed a preliminary agreement with a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based West Data Group to develop infrastructure for data mining and artificial intelligence training operations. Although the value of the project and the company's identity were initially mentioned in a social media post, these details were later removed. This partnership aims to boost Ethiopia's capabilities in these emerging technologies.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco hosted a mini-summit in Addis Ababa on Friday in a bid to revive peace efforts for the violence-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to quell the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army in the mineral-rich east of the vast central African nation. Angolan state news agency Angop has said earlier that the mini-summit would "discuss the relaunch of the peace process" in the eastern DRC. It said Lourenco was expected to be joined by the leaders of Burundi, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan and Tanzania. Militias have plagued the eastern DRC for decades, many of them a legacy of regional wars fought in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

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Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the continent’s leading instrumental infrastructure solutions provider, has announced several strategic partnerships on the sidelines of the recently concluded 2024 Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town to boost Africa’s mining sector. Since 2014, AFC has invested over US$1billion in Africa’s mining of precious metals and critical minerals across several countries, and the latest partnerships will further strengthen the sector by driving significant capital flow into the continent. GécaminesAFC signed an expression of interest (EOI) with Gécamines, the largest mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to develop certain assets in the mining sector in DRC, including critical minerals. The launching of the syndication process follows the successful completion of the project development stage, which AFC co-financed with a US$3 million Project Development Facility. Wood Mackenzie’s study focused on the viability of processing a number of critical minerals including lithium, cobalt, and manganese.

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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on bilateral agenda. "Today, I have the honour to officially welcome Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his state visit to Ethiopia. During our talks, we addressed several issues related to the development of bilateral relations," Ahmed wrote on social media. The Ethiopian Prime Minister added that this meeting can be considered an important step towards building a strong partnership". Photo:Prensa Latina

The partnership between the country and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will bring $28 million into Ethiopia’s textile and apparel sector to fuel growth focused on promoting circularity. Currently, more than 230 large and medium-scale textile production factories operate in the country, along with 11,800 small-scale enterprises, according to UNIDO. According to UNIDO, Ethiopia’s leather industry benefits from having one of the world’s largest livestock populations with 52 million cattle—ranking the country first in Africa and sixth in the world in cattle. The PCP also has plans to set up three additional footwear and leather goods clusters, while also strengthening fashion design and training capabilities of the country’s Leather Industry Development Institute. This new influx of cash will help fund many of those projects, as well as other initiatives to bolster textile and leather production in Ethiopia.

“Today, I have the honor to officially welcome the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on his state visit to Ethiopia. During our talks, we have addressed various bilateral and multilateral issues, reflecting the depth of our relationship,” Ahmed wrote on his X account. During the 15th BRICS Summit, held last August in Johannesburg, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the acceptance of these memberships. Earlier, Lula visited the Adwa Victory Memorial Museum in Addis Ababa, accompanied by the Minister of Finance Ahmed Shide and the mayor of the Ethiopian capital, Adanech Abiebie, the administration of this city revealed. The South American leader arrived last night from Egypt for an official state visit and was received at Bole International Airport by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Taye Aske-Selassie.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia has signed a preliminary agreement to develop infrastructure for data mining and artificial intelligence training operations, the government's strategic investment arm said. The EIH, West Data Group and an official from the Information Network Security Administration, which oversees data mining in Ethiopia, did not respond to requests for comment about the deal. Bloomberg reported last week that Ethiopia has become a leading destination for bitcoin mining - which an Ethiopian official referred to in a statement to the news agency as "data mining" and "high-performance computing" - since the government authorised the practice in 2022. China banned crypto trading and mining in 2021 to control financial risks and reduce energy consumption. It is also finalising construction of the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD), which has a projected installed capacity of 5,150 MW.