Ethiopia ratifies ComprehensiveNuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Ethiopia has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the United Nations Secretary-General on 8 August 2006, bringing the total number of ratifications to 135. The number of ratifying States in the Africa geographical region now stands at 33. Ethiopia hosts two International Monitoring System (IMS) facilities, an auxiliary seismic station at Furi and a radionuclide station at Filtu.

The stations form part of the global network of 337 IMS monitoring facilities which is being established under the terms of the CTBT to verify compliance with the terms of the Treaty. The monitoring facilities transmit data via satellite to the International Data Centre (IDC) in Vienna, where the data are used to detect, locate and characterize events. These data and IDC products are made available to the States Signatories for final analysis. The CTBT bans any nuclear weapons test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.

Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. To enter into force, the CTBT must be signed and ratified by the 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty. These States formally participated in the work of the 1996 session of the Conference on Disarmament and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at that time. To date, 34 of the Annex 2 States have ratified the Treaty.

For further information on the CTBTO, please see www.ctbto.org or contact: 

Annika Thunborg, Chief, Public Information   
T    +43 1 26030-6375  
E    press@ctbto.org
M    +43 699 1459 6375