Ethiopia

Obama’s Upcoming Visit to Ethiopia Recognizes Country’s ‘Enormous Importance’

Atlantic Council’s J. Peter Pham applauds decision to add Ethiopia to African itinerary Nearly 112 years after the United States and Ethiopia established diplomatic ties, US President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American leader ever to visit the East African nation—a visit the Atlantic Council’s J. Peter Pham says is long overdue. “This […]

Free Trade Pact Highlights Egypt’s Pivot Back towards Africa

By J. Peter Pham

On Wednesday, presidents and other leaders representing twenty-six African countries meeting at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh signed an agreement to launch a “Cape to Cairo” free trade zone spanning the length of the continent. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), as it will formally be known, will embrace three of Africa’s […]

Nile Accord Opens Opportunity

By J. Peter Pham

Amid the attention recently focused on the Nigerian presidential election and the resulting democratic transition in Africa’s most populous country as well as on the brutal al-Shabaab terrorist attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, an equally momentous event that took place at roughly the same time passed relatively unremarked. On March 23, the leaders of […]

Ethiopia: Press Restrictions and the 2015 Elections

By Africa Center

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, will go to the polls in May. The election will be the country’s first since the death of longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and has brought into focus the state of independent media and citizens’ access to information in the East African country.

Muddying the African Waters: Assessing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Visit to Africa

By Bronwyn Bruton

Secretary of State John Kerry ended an impromptu six-day tour of Africa yesterday, May 5. The trip was undertaken with little fanfare—the State Department announced the visit just a few days before his departure—and the Secretary’s activities received little attention from the press. (None of the five major American television networks even opted to send […]