Africa

Condominiums in Addis Ababa: Slums in the making?

Mercifully, Addis Ababa has avoided having slums in many of its neighbourhoods; but that may be only so far

 Rose Mestika

In 2004-5, residents of Addis Ababa city woke up to a pleasing news when they were asked to register in their respective Kebeles for a new housing scheme that since then has come to be popularly known as condominium housing projects. For a city, which, by some conservative estimates, has 80% of its residents living under housing conditions that are not considered decent, the news that the government plans to build thousands of condominium houses for low income families was indeed a big one. Some people had their doubts about and voiced their concerns on whether such initiatives were not meant to win voters’ favour for an upcoming national election scheduled to take place in less than one year after the announcement of the program.  Others dubbed it too ambitions.

Africa

Ethiopian Muslims and the state: arrests, twists, and anger

A yearlong protest by Ethiopian Muslims against uncalled for interference by the government came to a disturbing twist on Monday Oct. 29^th when a federal court in Addis Ababa decided to charge 29 Muslim protestors arrested in July with “plotting acts of terrorism” under the country’s infamous anti-terror law.