Ethiopia is dispatching 50,000 jobless people to work in the United Arab Emirates in an effort to ease an unemployment crisis that is fuelling unrest.
Lack of work for the growing generation of restless youth is seen as the biggest challenge facing Abiy Ahmed, the reformist prime minister.
The economy has grown at nearly 10 per cent a year for more than a decade but the benefits have hardly been felt by the under-thirties. They make up about 70 per cent of its soaring population of 105 million, Africa’s second highest proportion. However, just over 20 per cent of those aged 15 to 29 are out of work.
Money sent home by those going to the UAE will also boost Ethiopia’s cash flow, which remains