Great rift ally

20 December 2018 By Ed Cropley Follow @edwardcropley

Twenty-five years after genocide, Rwanda’s economy is motoring sufficiently to need new markets. The potential inclusion of Ethiopia would make East Africa a single market of 250 million people. If it prospers, it would provide a useful counterpoint to global balkanisation.

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New Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pledged on July 6 to overhaul the East African nation’s economy, saying it had to work harder to attract foreign investment and boost international trade.

A month earlier, Ahmed said ending war and expanding economic ties with neighbouring Eritrea was critical for stability and development in the impoverished Horn of Africa region.

Ethiopia is not a member of the regional East African Community. However, it joined a sub-regional development initiative with Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda in 2015.

An East African railways master plan aims to upgrade decrepit colonial-era rail-lines between Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The first leg, from Kenya’s Mombasa port to Nairobi and financed by Beijing, opened in October 2016.

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