What changed
Ethiopia’s 12th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa has concluded in Bahir Dar, outside Addis Ababa. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Nebiyat Getachew says the event showed Ethiopia can host major international conferences beyond the capital.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, Burundi’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo and Kenya’s Deputy President Kithure Kindiki took part, alongside diplomats, scholars and other stakeholders.
Why it matters
Bahir Dar’s role turns the forum into more than a diplomatic gathering. It tests whether international events can help spread tourism and business activity beyond Addis Ababa, particularly through hospitality, transport and accommodation.
Ethiopia says it hosted 204 international conferences between 2025 and 2026. The Tana Forum adds weight to that record, but there are no spending, visitor or revenue figures yet to show how much the event generated locally.
The forum also tied conference diplomacy to a wider argument about power. Its discussions connected food security and economic sovereignty with political independence. Ethiopia presented its own food-security efforts as part of that push.
The immediate lesson is practical: hosting a major gathering in Bahir Dar gives Ethiopia a chance to build experience in another city and make local destinations part of its international profile. Whether that leads to a larger share of future events remains to be seen.
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