Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Ethiopia launches new initiative to employ disaffected youth

(Feb 21, 2017, (DW))--For the last two decades, the Ethiopian government has been trumping the country's economic successes , which earned it the title the "African Tiger." However the youth appear to have been left behind.

The town of Ambo is located 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Addis Ababa and is knows as the kicking off point of the protests against the infamous re-zoning plan of the government almost three years ago. Reports show that security forces responded to the protests with lethal force that claimed hundreds of lives while thousands more were arrested.

"The urgent problem of the youth now is not unemployment rather lack of peace in their area, because those employed or unemployed people are still getting killed or arrested," said an unemployed young man from Ambo who requested anonymity from due to the current political situation in the area.

As a response to the growing protests, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency last October. One of the factors that the government attributed to causing the protests is unemployment. Read more from Deutsche Welle »

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