Eritrea to play Monday night against Uganda in the under 17 Cecafa finals of the regional soccer tournament in Khartoum sponsored by President Omar al-Bashir.

Sports authorities in Kampala said on Monday that Uganda’s Hippos edged Tanzania in a penalty shoot out on Sunday to qualify for the final match of the Confederation of Eastern and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) second edition in Sudan.

In 2007, the Uganda team lost to Burundi in the finals by two to nil.

The tackle minded Eritreans are said to have ejected the host country Sudan in another semi final. The final will be preceded by Sudan playing against Tanzania to decide the third position. The Uganda national team, the Cranes are the current champions of the senior CECAFA challenge cup.

Cecafa Cup-2009

Tanzania and Uganda clash in today’s first semifinal match of the Cecafa Under-17 tournament following their victories in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Tanzania confirmed their place after a hard fought 1-0 victory over Ethiopia while Uganda ran down Malawi 2-0. Tanzania started their match strongly making a series of attacks in the Ethiopian goalmouth.

Their efforts were rewarded in the 35th minute when Hamisi Thabit headed past towering Ethiopian goalkeeper Zerihun Tadele.

Uganda scored in the 30th minute through Julius Kigori who slotted home a penalty and Danniel Sserumkuma in the 58th minute capitalizing on a defensive blunder that left hard working goalkeeper and captain Victor Nangwale exposed.

Uganda would have run off with a bigger score line but the Malawi goalie was always at his best pulling off a series of saves. In the other quarterfinal played last evening in Wad Medani Eritrea beat Zanzibar 2-1.

The last quarterfinal between defending champions Burundi and Sudan had not yet been played by press time. Eritrea scored their goals through Osman Mohamed (11) and Kulu Berhane (55). Yohanes Tilahune got Zanzibar’s consolation in the 42 minute.

Cecafa U-17 Cup

Quarterfinal

Wednesday

Tanzania 1-0 Ethiopia

Uganda 2-0 Malawi

Thursday

Zanzibar 1-2 Eritrea

Source: (The Newtimes Rwanda)

Mumbai, Aug 26 Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) today said that it has extended a USD 20 million Line of Credit (LoC) to the Eritrea Government to finance agriculture and educational projects.

This is the first LoC extended by Exim Bank to Eritrea, a country in the north-east of Africa.

“Exim Bank will reimburse 100 per cent contract value to the Indian project exporter(s) upfront upon the shipment of goods / provision of services,” the bank said in a release here.

The Eritrean economy is agriculture-based with 80 per cent of the population involved in farming and herding.

India exports sugar, pharmaceutical products, rubber-manufactured products, machinery and instruments among others to Eritrea.

With Letter of Credit to Eritrea, Exim Bank has now 118 LoCs in place covering 95 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the CIS with credit commitments of over USD 3.87 billion, the release said. Source: (Samalive)

Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh arrived in Cairo today on a several days visit to Egypt.

During the visit the Eritrean minister will hold talks with Egyptian officials on the latest developments in the Horn of Africa especially securing of navigation in the Red Sea, the situation in Somalia in the light of accusations that Eritrea’s was supporting some Somali opposition groups.

Somalia’s government has accused Eritrea of supporting al Shabaab insurgents with planeloads of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. Source: (QNA)

Nile

Egypt State Information Service (SIS) is reporting that Egypt is denying reports that Eritrea diverted one of the Nile tributaries away from Egypt and Sudan.

Dr. Mohamed Nasr Eddin Allam, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation said reports are not true on Eritrea’s diversion of one of the tributaries of River Atbara which is nourishing the River Nile away from Egypt and Sudan.

He added that Eritrea’s technical capabilities are limited in this field and its contribution to the water resources of the Nile Basin is rather weak.

Allam said Egypt has approved last week the establishment of a number of dams in Ethiopia and some Nile Basin countries to cultivate 20,000 feddans by those countries. He affirmed that Egypt does not object the establishment of small dams by those countries, contrary to some parties’ allegations that Egypt is against development process in Nile Basin countries.

Egypt had approved the establishment of Tikrizi dam in Ethiopia since the year 2005 as the Ethiopian government presented the detailed feasibility studies on the dam to Egypt and Egypt approved as it is to be built for only power generation and would not affect Egypt’s quota of Nile water, he added.

The projects of building dams for power generation would also benefit not only Ethiopia but also the down stream countries, Egypt and Sudan.

On the other hand, Allam said the satellite survey of the Nile Basin by the Ministry for the Nile Basin countries indicated that the establishment on the Nile establishments including the small dams would not affect Egypt’s water Quota.

The two largest such establishments is Marwa dam of Sudan which stores 12 billion cubic meters a year and that is within the limit of Sudan’s water quota according to 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan.

The second establishment is that of Tikrizi dam in Ethiopia which stores nine billion cubic meters of water a year and it is used for power generation. Allam added that he made a report to the political leadership in this respect.

Relations between Egypt and Ethiopia at the best and there are cooperation by the two countries in the water question through the Nile Basin countries, the Minister added.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia the eastern Nile Basin countries are conducting studies to carry out a number of power generation projects and power linkage, for the good of the three countries, the Minister added.

Weather conditions are said to remain the same until the beginning of next week, according to meteorological forecasts. Phil and Caroline, who work for VSO in Eritrea, report on their blog that it has been raining almost constantly in the last 48 hours and that work and school has come to a halt until the rain stops.

Eritreans are happy about the “blessing from the skies”. Especially, when taking into account that Eritrea has experienced the worst drought in 2008 since gaining independence as stated by the Director General of the Department of Environment, Mogos Weldeyohannes, in a recent IRIN article.

Eritrea is taking water scarcity issues very serious with crop cultivation and animal farming accounting for 60 percent of rural incomes. Climate experts suggest that Eritrea will likely experience rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall over the coming decades.

Therefore, the government of Eritrea is taking proactive measures such as the construction of dams, implementation of pilot projects for fog water harvesting, manage flood waters efficiently and practising spate irrigation systems to restore agricultural productivity. The current rainfall season may also help Eritrea to improve the food security situation, if the “blessing from the skies” continues to fall on Eritrea.

“Asmara Dream” is a beautiful book with pictures of the Italian colonial architecture of the Eritrean capital Asmara. The book was made between 2006 and 2008 with a Polaroid camera SRL 690 by Italian Artist and Photographer Marco Barbon.

Marco describes that his pictures emphasize the idea of a suspension of time and history, between a colonial past that has left deep scars on the face of the city and a present that seems stuck in an endless waiting. The Artist compares his visits to Asmara with the experience of dreaming. Dreams are in a sense an interruption and a breach in the fabric of time.

Usually, dreams seem to have a different rhythm and course making them more subtle and abstract, as if they were suspended in a limbo outside of time. Marco believes that Asmara captures the same feeling at every step one makes in the city, from the bars and cafes, facades of buildings to even a man reading his newspaper.

asmara dream a

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Marco Barbon

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