Nairobi — THE MULTINATIONAL food corporation Nestle is reported to have backed down from its demand that the Ethiopian government pay it $6 million in compensation for a business nationalised by the previous Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime 27 years ago.
Nestle was demanding compensation for the business that was nationalised in 1975, despite the fact that the cash-strapped Addis Ababa government is facing famine across much of the country. But now, faced with unprecedented protest - 40,000 people wrote letters to the company complaining - it has decided to accept the $1.5 million cash settlement originally offered by Meles Zenawi's government.
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