Addis Ababa, September 24/2023 (ENA)-Ethiopia's Athlete Tigist Assefa obliterates women's marathon world record at the Berlin Marathon by clocking 2:11:53 to finish the race. The 29-year-old Athlete ran a staggering 2:11:53 to take over two minutes off Brigid Kosgei’s world record of 2:14:04 from 2019. In her first race of 2023 and only her third marathon ever, Tigist Assefa charged to a massive lead and didn’t look back. Assefa went out aggressively, separating herself from the pack after 15K and only continued to grow her lead. Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya ended up second in 2:17:49, followed by Tanzanian Magdalena Shauri in 2:18:41. It is to be recalled that Assefa's winning time is the 13th world record to be set in Berlin, where she won last year in 2:15.37. In men's Berlin Marathon, Kenyan athlete Eliud Kepchoge finished first, while Ethiopian athlete Tadese Takele finished third. Winning the Berlin Marathon for a record fifth time in a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 42 seconds confirms Kepchoge's status as the Greatest of All Time, it was learned.    

Addis Ababa, September 24/2023 (ENA)- The Ethio-Djibouti railway, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative flagship infrastructure project for African continent, has been providing economic and social benefits to the people of Ethiopia and Djibouti, Chinese companies stated. The Belt and Road Initiative is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth. Ethio-Djibouti railway is one of the several development projects of the initiative which was put into operation on January 2018. With a total length of 756 kilometers, the railway that starts from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia in the west, and ends in the port of Djibouti in the east, is the first electrified railway project in Africa. The project is being operated and maintained by the joint venture of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) under China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and China Railway Group Limited (CREC). Representatives of the companies told ENA that the railway is playing significant role to the development of the countries in terms of increasing transport revenues, enhancing import and export trade as well as in the provision of passenger transport services. They said railway has been facilitating regional connectivity, people to people interaction and economic integration. Deputy General Manager of CCECC-CREC JV project office Yang Anwei, said the Addis Ababa Djibouti railway has been successfully operated nearly six years, which is also the end of the operation service contract of the Chinese management. According to him, over the past six years of operation, the transportation revenue has increased by more than 35 percent every year. The revenue in the first half of 2023 alone has increased by 76 percent compared with same period of last year. This shows that the Addis Ababa - Djibouti railway playing significant role in serving the socio-economic development of Ethiopia and Djibouti. The railway has been providing crucial benefits to Ethiopia as it is transporting Ethiopia’s import and export goods from and to Djibouti port in addition to passengers, he added. He pointed out that the number of Ethiopia’s export goods containers has been increasing every year over the past six years. According to the Deputy General Manager, refrigerated facilities essential to transport export items such as beef, meat, vegetables and coffee will be instrumental for the future growth of cargo transportation in Ethio-Djibouti railway. Ethiopia-Djibouti railway has significant impact to increase development and people to people relation. Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway is bench mark project of China-Africa cooperation under the "Belt and Road Initiative, he said. The dry port of Mojo and Dire Dawa, built alongside Addis Ababa Djibouti railway have been put into use one after another and the expansion project of Mojo logistic center which is under construction has its own impact for the railway transport. The railway is also vital to stimulating the activities and further development of Dire Dawa Free Trade Zone, it was indicated. All of these activities are expected to increase railway contribution for the economic development of Ethiopia, the deputy general manager said expressing his hope that “the future development perspective of this railway line is very good.”   China Railway No.2 Engineering Group (CREGC), a subsidiary of China Railway Group Limited (CREC), international corporation General Manager Hu Tianran on his said the management contract of the Chinese companies will be completed this year. By working together and transfer the infrastructure operation and maintenance responsibility to Ethiopians he noted that “in the near future our Ethiopian friends can manage this whole system as what we have done in the past five years”. He mentioned that even if the maintenance and operation contracts are closed, the technical support from the company will continue. The Belt and Road Initiative 10th year anniversary summit will be held in China on second half of October, 2023, to discuss about the achievements of the initiative and will agreed up on future cooperation areas.  

BY SOLOMON DIBABA The Addis Ababa University School Law commemorated its Alumnae Convention and 60th Anniversary of its founding in the presence of government higher officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and various institutions on the 23rd of September 2023. Established on 23rd September 1963, Addis Ababa University school of Law is the oldest law school in Ethiopia, pioneering in legal education in both undergraduate and graduate levels. The Law School was established with a mission to produce competent, ethical and responsible profession who can actively contribute towards the prevalence of the rule of law, equality, human rights, democracy, social justice, tolerance and development. The basis for the establishment of the Faculty of Law was laid down by the momentous decision to codify the laws of Ethiopia gave rise to the need of trained lawyers who could understand, interpret, and apply them.   Speaking on the convocation of the former Haile Selassie I University in 1961, the late Emperor Haile Selassie said, “We would ask for the immediate founding of a Faculty of law where our own students may be trained to enter the legal profession. Our empire has need, its government and its commerce for well-educated lawyers and particularly for those who have been trained in their own university, in their own codes and customs.”   The author of this article recalls that the completion of the codification of the laws of the country from 1951-1952 and the consequent issuance of the 1954 Revised Constitution backed up the establishment of such a school for training qualified legal experts. The writer notes that for 40 years out of 60 Addis Ababa University Faculty of Law was the only higher institute for training legal professionals in the country.   Over the last several decades the Law School was engaged in its flagship publication, Journal of Ethiopian Law. Nonetheless, the School was also publishing thematic research publications including Ethiopian Constitutional and Public Law, Ethiopian Civil and Commercial Law series and international law research papers on major contemporary local and global policy and legal issues are debated on regular annual conferences.   As part of its legal social services, the School is running 6 legal aid centers to provide general free legal services to local community members. Out of the 6 one center is reportedly dedicated to providing free legal services for refugees and asylum seekers.   Addis Ababa University School of Law Library established in 1964 boasts one of the finest collections of over 30,000 periodicals, reference books, over 10,000 e-books on law journals and dissertations. To date, the School of Law has graduated more than 6000 highly skilled legal professions who are currently serving in various government institutions.   Over the last several years the author recalls that members of the Law School have been participating in the legal reform programs the government undertaken. The professionals and scholars of the Law School are also networking with Justice and Legal Systems Institute. As stated by several speakers on the occasion, the author is of the opinion that the administrative autonomy granted to the Addis Ababa University could be exploited by the School of Law to further promote the prevalence of quality and practical legal education in the university.   The celebration of the 60th anniversary of the School of Law is of significant importance at a time when Addis Ababa University granted its autonomy very recently. The autonomy status is also crucial in accelerating the growth and development of the school in its aspiration to become a preeminent center of excellence for legal education and scholarship in the changing global, regional and national order, he noted.   The Addis Ababa University Law School can also serve as a unique center for the improvement of legal education in other public universities across the country by establishing projects that are geared towards building the capacity of the legal schools in these universities.   The Law School can assist in developing some kind of public legal education program in cooperation with CSOs and professional associations in the country. This is important because a huge gap is being observed in public adherence to the rule of law, conception of their constitutional rights and obligations as citizens.   The Law School provides lectures and seminars in English and new students are on several occasions challenged by their inability to comprehend legal concepts in their proper context. The author holds the opinion that legalistic English needs to be taught as a full course particularly for under graduate students who may also need extensive tutorial classes. This could be supplemented with practical knowledge with orientations on the practical legal technical application of the laws of the country at the various levels of courts of law.   The author would also like to stress on the growing significance of conducting researches on important legal issues pertaining to the protection of the environment, natural resources of the country, cyber-attacks, computer crimes and other crimes related to the modernization of the socio-economic development of the country.    

Addis Ababa, September 23/2023 (ENA) The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a project that meets the legitimate development aspirations of Ethiopians and the region at large, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen said. The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister delivered his statement today at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. During the occasion, he said Ethiopia honored its responsibility by promoting regional integration to advance peace, stability, economic cooperation and people to people ties. “We are working to materialize the development potential of our region. Ethiopia is determined to cooperate with its neighbors to expand trade, investment, and regional integration through infrastructural development, efficient logistics, and connectivity, ” he said. Highlighting that any bottleneck that would constraint the shared prosperity of the region needs to be addressed in a concerted approach, he said fostering a closer approach is critical to create access to seamless connectivity. Cultivating mutual trust and friendship is the right choice for regional cooperation and interdependence, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister said, adding regional integration positively impacts the lives of people especially when complemented by well developed infrastructure development projects. For Demeke, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is one such project that meets the legitimate development aspirations of Ethiopians and the region at large. And he welcomes the resumption of the trilateral talks. Regarding Ethiopia’s commitment on climate change, he stressed “we are committed to finding comprehensive solutions to the climate crisis, Ethiopian owned flagship program, the national Green Legacy Initiative, is a demonstration of this commitment.” Noting that the objective of the program is to cultivate a green culture and ensure the country’s development through rural and urban green initiatives, he said the program has been successful and we are making every effort to share our experience.  

Addis Ababa, September 23/2023 (ENA) Africa needs to improve investment in appropriate technologies to reduce post-harvest loss, African Union CAADP Coordinator Komla Bissi told ENA. Out of the more than 800 million people facing hunger globally, 278 million are in Africa where 30 percent of the food produced for human consumption is wasted, he added. According to Bissi it is a common knowledge that at least about 30 percent of all the total green produce in this continent is lost in many ways along the value chain from the farm to the processing and to the table. Therefore, “emphasis must not only be made on producing more food to achieve continental food security but also work towards reducing the losses that we are experiencing along the value chain from the farm to the dining table.” He emphasized the need to improve investment in appropriate technologies to reduce post-harvest loss. “We need to improve our investment in the capacities research that enables us to be able to identify the areas of losses, quantify the losses, and then develop mechanisms that allow us to be able to reduce these losses along the value chain,” the coordinator stated. In connection with this, the African Union Commission has approved a continental process that has developed the continental Post-harvest Management Strategy to help countries identify their own priorities on what needs to be done to reduce post-harvest loss. Bissi noted that African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, adopted a remarkable set of concrete agriculture goals to be attained by 2025. “As we speak a number of countries are on a positive movement towards activities. In the last review that we conducted, we are aware that at least 11 countries have done extremely well towards meeting these targets.” South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, among a few, seem to be on track, he revealed. “We encourage countries to continue to innovate and continue to prioritize post-harvest losses as part of the global food security agenda of different countries and the continent,” the coordinator added. Sasakawa Africa Association Strategic Partnerships Director, Mel Oluoch said on his part that post-harvest management is a really critical area in the food chain. “If you look at the entire food systems there's a lot of work which goes into making sure that we produce the food that we eat. And unfortunately, in Africa, up to 30 percent of the food that is produced is lost after harvest.” He stressed that it is important to find solutions in how we can reduce this post-harvest food loss. “Farmers who engage in the agriculture value chain can be able to maximize the profits they get by reducing this food loss and making sure also that the food that ends up in the market for consumers is of top quality, not toxic, and not affected by aflatoxin.” He underlined that the key issue here is partnership, coming together, working together amongst us to be able to find these concrete solutions that we need to be able to reduce post-harvest food loss or food waste in Africa.