Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday unveiled a down-sized cabinet where, in a first, half the members are women, a top official said.
Women occupy key positions in the 20-member cabinet that includes a newly created Ministry of Peace to oversee the federal police and intelligence agencies, Abiy’s Chief of Staff Fitsum Arega said.
Ethiopia is now the second African nation after Rwanda to achieve gender parity in its cabinet, and one of only a handful of nations to achieve this worldwide. The new Minister of National Defence, Aisha Mohammed, is the first woman to hold the post.
Aisha was earlier construction minister and before that in charge of the tourism ministry. She is from the drought-prone and poor Afar region, where she had once headed the disaster prevention office.
Minister of Peace Muferiat Kamil is a former speaker of parliament. The previous cabinet had 28 ministers, of which only five were women.
Kenya currently also has a female defence minister, Raychelle Omamo, while South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Nigeria
and Central African Republic have all in the past appointed women to the job. — AFP
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