Ethiopia hopes a new dam on the Nile will help the nation overcome chronic power shortages and entrenched poverty but it’s causing tensions with Egypt.
Saturday 25 July 2015 - 5:23pm
A graffiti of US President Barack Obama is seen on a wall in Nairobi on July 25, 2015.
ADDIS ABABA - When US President Barrack Obama arrives in Addis Ababa on Sunday, it will be hard for him to ignore the Chinese-funded and built $475 million Addis Ababa Light Rail Project (AALRT), the Chinese-financed new African Union headquarters and the many road construction projects that are also being undertaken by the Chinese.
While locals in Addis Ababa frequent American movies (as well as movies in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia), eat at American-lookalike eateries through locally owned Pizzerias and Burger joints and chat on their i-Phones, the Chinese have made inroads in infrastructure, from hard infrastructure like hydro-electric power plants and telecom projects to soft ones like the Huawei Smartphone.