The Ethiopian government has announced plans to revive its defunct naval forces, the state media said Saturday.
The landlocked East African nation disbanded its naval forces decades ago.
Abiy Ahmed, the country’s Prime Minister has made the announcement to re-establish the forces during a meeting with officials from Ethiopia National Defense Forces.
The ruling party-funded Fana Broadcasting Corporation quoting Ahmed said the country will put in place well design plan to form the naval forces.
“Following the efforts made to build capacity of our national defense, we built one of the stronger ground and air forces in Africa,” Fana Abiy as saying on Friday. “We should build our naval force capacity in the future.”
However, the announcement did not specify where the navy would be based or when it would be established
The country has trained hundreds of marine engineers and electro-technical graduates since the inception of the Ethiopian Maritime Training Institute on Lake Tana.
The institution trains more than 500 marine engineers and electro-technical officers each year.
According to the Institution’s Website, it plans to increase this to more than 1,000 officers annually.
Ethiopia had a navy up to the early 1990s when the independence of Eritrea left Ethiopia landlocked and prompted the Ethiopian government to disband the navy.
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