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The United States (US) government is soon to erect
perhaps its largest single structure in Africa, in
the compound of its Embassy in Addis Abeba, which is
also one of the three largest embassies it has on
the continent. When the construction is completed in
three years, the four-storey building is projected
to consume a total investment of 140 million
dollars.
This investment will be one of two such projects in
the Horn of Africa; the US government also plans to
build a brand new Embassy in Djibouti City,
projected to cost 100 million dollars.
Clearing works inside the Embassy compound in Addis
Abeba has already begun, although the construction
contract is due to be awarded to an American firm in
October 2007, according to senior diplomatic
sources. The firm to be awarded the project is,
however, expected to sub-contract much of the local
component to local construction firms, and
anticipated to offer job opportunities to over a
1,000 people, according to these sources.
“More than the employment opportunities, we at the
Embassy are very excited for the technology transfer
this project will bring to local companies,” Donald
Yamamoto, US ambassador to Ethiopia, told Fortune.
The four-storey building, depicting a ship, will be
erected right in front of his residence, on the vast
green area. It will serve as offices to the various
bureaus the Embassy has inside the compound.
The US Embassy in Addis Abeba was moved from its
previous location in Mercato, a.k.a. American
Gibe, to its current location in 1945. The white
building that serves as the ambassadors’ residence,
recently renamed after President Theodore Roosevelt,
was first built in 1920 by the Japanese, who used it
as their first legation before they were expelled
from the country for their support of the Italian
occupation of Ethiopia.
It was during President Roosevelt’s reign in the
White House that the US started a diplomatic
relationship with Ethiopia. Mr. Robert P. Skinner,
the US’s consul-general in Marseilles, France,
visited Emperor Menelik’s court in Addis Abeba in
December 1903.
The Americans, however, took the Embassy compound
and its buildings, which also incorporate two
tukkals, after promising Emperor Haile Sellasie that
the residence and the tukkals would always be
preserved.
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