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Ethiopian Economist Unveils Economic Cost of War With Eritrea
A senior Ethiopian economic consultant said Monday in Addis Ababa that at least 3.1 billion U.S. dollars had been looted or damaged by Eritrea at Assab port and from Ethiopian civilians in various parts of Eritrea during the two- year border conflict.
Speaking at a two-day conference on Ethiopia's post-war economic development, Abebe Tefera, a private economic consultant, said the confiscated and destructed properties and assets belonged to private companies, governmental organizations as well as Ethiopians expelled from Eritrea during the conflict.
He said the Ethiopian government had also incurred a 397 million dollars cost due to the two-year war with Eritrea, noting the military expenditure was increased by 8.2 percent per year during the war.
He also accused the Bank of Eritrea of freezing 289 million dollars that belonged to Ethiopia while the commercial bank of Ethiopia had only 144 million dollars registered in Eritrean government account before the eruption of the hostility between the two countries.
Meanwhile, President of the Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development (EIIPD) Kinfe Abraham said although the war ended in favor of Ethiopia, it had unleashed massive devastation with staggering human cost, demolition of social and physical infrastructure and diversion of the economically active population, which had a dire implication on the economy, said the president citing by the Walta Information Center.
The recent assertion by the Eritrean government that 19,000 soldiers were lost on Eritrean side was below the real figure, he said, adding that more than triple or quadruple even more Eritrean soldiers might have perished in the recent war with Ethiopia.
United Nations Agencies Resident Coordinator in Ethiopia Samuel Nyambi was quoted by the Walta Information Center as saying that the effect of the war coupled with decline in global Official Development Assistance (ODA) had affected the flow of external assistance to Ethiopia.
He said that the ODA would continue to play a crucial role in the economic development as an important source of public sector financing in the country.
Senior government and private sector officials, ambassadors as well as academicians attended the forum jointly organized by EIIPD and Friedrich-Ebert Foundation.
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