Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ASMARA25
2009-01-21 10:47:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Asmara
Cable title:  

MASSAWA'S ECONOMY DWINDLES

Tags:  ECON SOCI PGOV ER 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1294
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHAE #0025/01 0211047
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211047Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASMARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0113
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUEPADJ/CJTF-HOA J2X CAMP LEMONIER DJ
RUZEFAA/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHRMDAB/COMUSNAVCENT
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASMARA 000025 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E AND GEORGIANNA PLATT FOR USAID
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON SOCI PGOV ER
SUBJECT: MASSAWA'S ECONOMY DWINDLES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASMARA 000025

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E AND GEORGIANNA PLATT FOR USAID
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON SOCI PGOV ER
SUBJECT: MASSAWA'S ECONOMY DWINDLES


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Emboffs traveled to Massawa January 14-15
for a Public Diplomacy engagement (septel) and observed a
more hollow, destitute city than we saw in April 2008.
Although the city's vice mayor remained optimistic about the
city's situation, the evidence on the ground suggested a more
bleak scenario. Emboffs also visited an entrepreneurial
Massawa resident making some headway in the city's shrinking
economy. End Summary.

ON BECOMING A GHOST TOWN
--------------


2. (SBU) The city of Massawa is known for its excellent
snorkeling, picturesque islands, and overall relaxing
atmosphere. Now, however, the city is also defined by
shuttered shops and empty streets. The owner of a dive shop,
not used to mid-week visitors in Massawa, had to be called
from his home to rent a boat. A shopkeeper had to be called
to show us her wares. The Red Sea Hotel, the city's largest
and arguably nicest existing hotel, is a ghost town. Of the
15 rooms with guests, Embassy staff occupied eight.
International visitors occupied only two of the remaining
seven, one from Mogadishu and one from Finland. The hotel
has little to attract international tourists in any case.
The swimming pool has been under renovation for years, the
restaurant fare is mediocre, and the bathrooms squalid.
Massawa's deputy mayor, Yosef Gebremariam, nevertheless was
optimistic about Massawa's future, claiming at least three
new luxury hotels will open by the summer months. However,
Embassy staff observed no progress had been made since April
last year on two of the hotels, one of which is still an
empty shell.

GOTTA KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON
--------------


3. (SBU) Emboffs met with a former USAID micro-credit
recipient, Ms. Aminah. A former fighter in the liberation
struggle, Aminah first went into business in the 1990s baking
and selling bread. Later, she branched out into sandwiches
and eventually also sold beer. Some of her neighbors
disapproved of a Muslim woman selling beer and warned her to
stop. When she did not, they burned her business down. She
then received a micro-credit loan from USAID through the GSE,
for a large tent hotel. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a
storm and she still owes the GSE 50,000 Nakfa (US$3,333). She
now tries to operate a sandwich shop, cleverly housed in an
old Antonov aircraft, which she rents from the Ministry of
Tourism for 1,500 nakfa (US$100) a month. When she was
unable to buy sandwich bread, she built a brick oven and
produced her own. Unfortunately, while Aminah is able to
sell coffee and tea, she has not had a sandwich customer in
over a year and awaits the yearly Fenkel celebration in
February for her business to temporarily pick up. In the
meantime, she pays her rent by traveling to the surrounding
mountains to purchase goats and later re-selling them in the
lowlands for a 28 percent profit. Aminah feeds her family
(husband, daughter, and three grandchildren) from her
spacious garden of tomatoes, corn, peppers, and sorghum,
using the corn husks and some of the sorghum as feed for the
goats. Aminah is hardworking and willing to take calculated
risks to improve her livelihood. She would be a prime
candidate for technical assistance from the government or an
NGO. Although her garden was doing well, it was clear she
could use some advice on how to promote her sandwich shop and
how to raise goats-- two newborn kid goats were being ignored
by their mothers and seemed unlikely to survive.

WHERE DID THE PEOPLE GO
--------------


4. (SBU) When asked where all the people in Massawa went,
Aminah responded that the Massawa economy has contracted to
the point that residents now travel to the highlands in
search of work. Indeed, the streets were devoid of even
beggars, much less shop owners. In contrast, the
considerably smaller city of Ghinda (located midway between
Massawa and Asmara) seemed to be booming. Traders bustled
along while children ran up to the Embassy vehicles to sell
oranges and lemons, in contrast to the Massawa markets, which

ASMARA 00000025 002 OF 002


were closed on both days of our trip.
MCMULLEN