The celebration of the 125th anniversary of Addis Ababa that has been going over the past few months ended on Saturday (November 24th) in a ceremony held at the stadium in Addis Ababa.

The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, mayors of various African cities and other dignitaries. Ato Demeke in his speech noted that "the rapid growth of the city within a short period of time has made it city one of the best cities of the world", a point emphasized by Lonely Planet's selection of Addis Ababa as one of its classifications for the best places to visit in the world in 2012. The Deputy Prime Minister, however, also noted that despite the considerable strides taken to develop the city, the city administration still faced a daunting task to make the city more hospitable to urban life. He underlined that the federal government supported the city administration in all its development efforts. In his own closing speech, Addis Ababa Mayor, Kuma Demeksa, said that Addis Ababa, founded a hundred and twenty five years ago, had passed through many historic trajectories, but it could now be "considered as a second home to all Africans".