Accra, July 31, GNA - Mr. K.Y Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been awarded an honorary degree by the Addis Ababa University (AAU).

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi, bestowed the degree upon Mr. Amoako and five other distinguished Africans for their exceptional contribution to the Pan-African ideas of liberation, democracy and development.

A statement issued form the Ethiopian Embassy in Ghana on Tuesday said the award took place on Saturday along with the annual graduation ceremony of the AAU in which 4,070 students graduated.

Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, the last Secretary General of the OAU, Ambassador Mohamed Shanoun, former OAU Secretary General and now Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the UN and Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and Nobel Prize Laureate were among the recipients.

The others were Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, Ethiopian-born Saudi businessman and philanthropist and Kifle Wodajo, Interim Secretary General of the OAU, 1963-1966 and Director of East African Peace Centre.