New Ethiopian Ambassador to Egypt Markos Tekle has presented his credentials to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to start his duties yesterday, August 27, 2020, officially.
The Ethiopian Embassy in Cairo had no appointed Ambassador since mid-June 2020 as the previous Ambassador Dina Mufti concluded his tenure and was reappointed as the new spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs.
Markos was a Lecturer at the Department of Governance and Development Studies at Addis Ababa University before joining the diplomatic service in 2010. The seasoned diplomat has served as the state minister of foreign affairs, Ambassador to Japan, and director of the Ethiopian Foreign Service Training Institute.
The Ambassador’s appointment comes on the same day the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved a plan to halt U.S. foreign assistance to Ethiopia over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)
According to Foreign Policy, an American news publication, the decision could affect nearly $130 million in U.S. foreign assistance to Ethiopia in security assistance, counterterrorism and military education and training, anti-human trafficking programs, and broader development assistance funding.
So far, the government of Ethiopia has not made any official comments on the aid cut.
