Ethiopia has secured a major legal victory against Turkish contractor Yapı Merkezi İnşaat, after an international tribunal dismissed the bulk of a nearly $1bn claim.
The London Court of International Arbitration rejected roughly $750mn of the contractor’s demands and ordered it to repay a $29.1mn advance to the Ethiopian Railway Corporation, according to the Reporter.
The company had sought compensation for alleged losses incurred during construction of the Awash–Kombolcha–Woldia–Hara Gebeya railway, claiming $979.9mn plus 9 per cent interest, the newspaper said.

Yapı Merkezi argued that delays stemmed from the corporation’s failure to secure project financing and to settle right-of-way compensation in a timely manner. It also cited insufficient power supply and disruption caused by conflict in northern Ethiopia, which it said delayed the project by nearly nine years and resulted in significant losses.