30 August 2007
Addis Ababa — Thousands of homeless people mostly from the regions are to be taken out of Addis Ababa to the countryside before the turn of the new millennium, a news agency reported on Tuesday citing a local group tasked with the evacuation.
Ethiopia is planning a 10-hour celebration in Meskel Square to mark the millennium, an event expected to draw tourists from around the world.
The group, Elshadai Relief & Development Association, the reports said receives government funding, has been granted $930,000 to accomplish the task of moving some 5,700 people out of the capital" in time for the celebrations." The group said the evacuees will be provided with food, shelter and medicine, according to the report.
Beggars are a common sight in Addis Ababa, a city of 5 million with an estimated 90,000 living on the streets.
Most of the homeless are from the northern Tigray region and that the group was simply sending them back home, the report indicated.
"It's good for the whole world, not only for Ethiopia," the report quoted a spokesman for the local group as saying.
"Nobody wants to have this miserable life for their citizens," the spokesman said adding only those who volunteer will be moved.
The report indicated efforts for comments from Government officials Hope Enterprises, a homeless advocacy group, were not returned Tuesday.
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