Prime Minister David Cameron has promised that the UK will accept up to 20,000 more Syrian refugeesby 2020. To help fund this, Chancellor George Osborne says that money should be used from the foreign aid budget to provide support for local councils. He said there should be a "fundamental rethink" of how the aid budget is used.

Neamin Ashenafi of The Reporter sat down with the ambassador [Mohammed Idris] at the Egyptian Embassy to discuss a range of issues including the Nile, his work here in Addis Ababa, the expansion of the New Suez Canal and other pertinent issues. 

Rwanda and Ethiopia have suggested new development models they believe can help Africa break away from the prescribed Western models. The discussion, under the theme “The African Democratic Developmental State”, was inspired by ideals from the late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who believed that Africans needed to shape their own destiny by “doing things their own way.”

The Power of the Diaspora Networks conference, highlighted the importance of Ethiopian diaspora networks in promoting trade and investments in the region. Focusing on Jewish  experience, Powers of Diaspora forcefully argues that diasporic communities exercise a distinct form of cultural power in order to maintain powerful networks to empower the Horn of African states.

Indeed, the annual conference of Ethiopian diplomats is instrumental to further raise the diplomats' role in the overall nation building process and to exchange valuable experiences helpful in enhancing the image of the country and taking the level of the diplomatic services to new heights. 

The President emphasized that both countries share common destiny which enables them to grow by working together. [...] The ambassador [...] mentioned the recent exchange of visits that took place at head of state, religious leaders and public diplomacy delegation levels justifying the increasing political will between the two countries.

The government of North Korea has rightfully gained a reputation in the West for isolation and obstinacy, but its diplomatic ventures in Africa have poised it to be significantly more influential on that continent than potentially anywhere else.