Great Abyssinia Plc is expanding its existing production facility of carbonated soft drinks and Juice Beverage at an investment of over 500 million Birr.
The new facility, which is being built in Sendafa on 25,000 square meters plot in three phases, will have a production capacity of 100,000 bottles per hour when completed.
Great Abyssinia Plc already produces Prigat Juice beverage in Mango and Strawberry banana flavors. It also produces carbonated soft drink of Splash Brand series consisting of Coffee Cola, Orange, and Passion Fruit Orange, Malt Pineapple, Fresh Lemon and Apple flavors at its facility in Sululta. The existing facility, which was established at 188 million Birr investment, produces 13,500 bottles per hour, working 22 hours a day and employing 400 people.
The first phase of the new facility, which is projected to be completed in a year’s time, will have a production capacity of 36,000 bottles per hour and increase the production capacity of the company to 49,500 bottles per hours. (Press Release)
Djibouti announces mega gas project
President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh has presided over the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new mega gas project, which comprises a natural gas pipeline, a liquefaction plant and an export terminal at Damerjog, Djibouti. The pipeline project will enable Ethiopia to export gas to China and support socio-economic development across the region.
The new 700km pipeline will transport up to 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Ethiopia to Djibouti. The liquefaction plant will have capacity to produce up to 10 million tons of LNG per year after completion.
The project, which will be funded by Chinese firm POLY-GCL, will cost approximately USD 4 billion. Construction work is expected to start shortly and will take three years to complete.
The Djiboutian Minister of Energy, Ali Mahmoud Yacoub, said: “The mega gas project involves three countries – Djibouti, Ethiopia and China – which have agreed to work together in order to make this project successful and operational as soon as possible. (Energy Global)
US sends elite disaster experts to respond to drought
The United States is sending an elite team of disaster experts to respond to Ethiopia’s worst drought in 50 years, it said on Thursday.
Around a dozen members of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) have arrived in Ethiopia to coordinate the US response to the drought.
They will be joined by DART logistics, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene experts in the next few days.
USAID responds to around 65 disasters a year, including the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa and last year’s Nepal earthquakes.
“With the announcement of the DART, we are acting to prevent a major humanitarian crisis and protect Ethiopia’s hard-earned development progress,” USAID’s administrator Gayle Smith said in a statement.
President Barack Obama has made food security a priority of his development agenda, saying in 2013 it was a “moral imperative” to end hunger in Africa.
Ethiopia’s government and the United Nations have asked for USD 1.4 billion to feed 10.2 million Ethiopians. (Reuters)
Somalia sentences al Shabaab media officer to death
A former media officer for the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab who arranged news conferences in the years when the militants controlled the capital Mogadishu was sentenced to death on Thursday for the murder of six local journalists.
The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has remained a potent antagonist in Somalia, launching frequent attacks in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government.
Somalia was plunged into anarchy in the early 1990s following the toppling of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and has been struggling to rebuild.
Hasan Ali, chairman of the Somali military court, told reporters that Hassan Hanafi had admitted to killing one reporter and had been found guilty of killing five others.
“He will be put to death as soon as possible,” Ali said.
Hanafi, 30, has said he joined al Shabaab in 2008 when he was working as a journalist for a local Somali broadcaster. (Reuters)
