Pledge to reconstruct power plant

The government of Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a US $5 million loan agreement to repair the Hargigo power plant, near the eastern port town of Massawa. The power plant was damaged last year when it was bombed by Ethiopia during the border conflict. According to Eritrean state radio, the agreement was signed by the Eritrean ambassador to the UAE, Uthman Idris Jimmy, and the director-general of the Abu Dhabi Development Centre, Ahmad Khalifah, on 9 April. The loan is part of a US $25 million dollar agreement signed between the two countries on 4 July 1995, the radio said. A spokesman at the Eritrean embassy in Nairobi told IRIN that the UAE had been involved in the installation of the plant since its inception in 1995. Construction of the power plant was affected by the border conflict, which erupted in 1998. According to the spokesman, Hargigo power plant was near to completion before it was bombed last year. “It would have probably tripled our supply in Eritrea,” the spokesman said.