Earlier this week, members of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia started their first visit to Ethiopia…reports Asian Lite News
The Ethiopia Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday signed two grant financing agreements worth 44.4 million U.S. dollars.
The MoF said in a press statement that two projects focused on food security and capacity building, respectively.
“The first project is a 40 million U.S. dollars scheme to finance the implementation of a program to build food and nutrition security,” the MoF statement said. “The second project is a 4.4 million U.S. dollars scheme to be used for the implementation of a program to strengthen macroeconomic management.”
The two grant financing agreements aim to boost peace and security in drought-prone lowland areas of Ethiopia through agricultural resilience, as well as strengthen the capacity of key macro institutions.
The AfDB has previously signed a host of financial aid agreements with Ethiopia to boost the East African country’s economic development, including a 71.3-million-U.S.-dollar grant agreement to finance the Ethiopia-Djibouti power interconnection project. The agreement signed in July 2021 is used to finance the construction of a transmission line from Ethiopia to Djibouti.
Earlier this week, members of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia started their first visit to Ethiopia.
The visit, slated from July 25 to 30, will be the Commission’s first-ever visit to the East African country since it was established by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in December 2021, the the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Monday in a statement.
The Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to, among other things, conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and international refugee law in Ethiopia committed since November 3, 2020, by all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia.
The OHCHR added that during their visit in Ethiopia, the members of the Commission will interact with a wide range of interlocutors. The experts are also expected to issue a statement after they conclude their Ethiopian visit, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said the experts are in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to discuss with Ethiopian government officials and other stakeholders to try to find mutually acceptable modalities for possible engagement with the government in discharging their mandate.
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