KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The crown jewel in Ethiopia’s transformation to continental power in recent years is Ethiopian Airlines, the state-owned company that calls itself…
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The crown jewel in Ethiopia’s transformation to continental power in recent years is Ethiopian Airlines, the state-owned company that calls itself “the new spirit of Africa.”
Sunday’s crash that killed 157 people also puts a dent in Ethiopia’s grand designs, spurred on by a dazzlingly reformist new leader. He vows to turn a state controlled-system into free and fair elections next year.
Even as the crash crater smoked, Africa mourned not only the dead but a symbol of the continent’s rise.
“This couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ethiopian Airlines,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement, mindful that his own country, Africa’s largest economy, has no national carrier. “Like every other African leader, I am proud of the fact that Ethiopian Airlines represents one of Africa’s success stories.”
The airline, Africa’s only profitable carrier, is the high-flying symbol of a country shaking off its decades-old image of devastating poverty and famine.
Thanks in part to financing from China, Ethiopia has ambitious undertakings in infrastructure and industry that have facilitated some of Africa’s fastest rapid economic growth.
Bold projects include one of Africa’s few metro rail services, a massive hydropower dam on the Nile and numerous projects linking the landlocked nation with the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
