Pétanque in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has no national pétanque federation recognized by the FIPJP - the country does not appear among the 24 nations affiliated with the Confederation Africa of Sport Pétanque, and petanque-world.com's own federation, club, and competition listings for Ethiopia are all empty. What Ethiopia does have is one of pétanque's more remarkable outposts: Le Club des Cheminots ("The Railwaymen's Club"), a members' club in downtown Addis Ababa that has kept the game alive for more than a century as a living relic of French colonial-era railway history.

A Railway Legacy

The club traces its origin to the early 20th century construction of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway (also known as the Ethio-Djibouti Railway), a French-built line that connected Ethiopia's capital to the Red Sea port of Djibouti, then a French colony. French engineers and railway workers stationed in Addis Ababa taught pétanque to their Ethiopian colleagues more than 100 years ago, and the club that grew up around them took its name directly from that workforce: cheminot is French for "railway worker."

Many of the club's roughly 150 members are pensioners who worked on the line themselves and learned French at Addis Ababa's Lycée Guebre-Mariam, a French-curriculum school. The railway itself stopped operating in 2008 after falling into disrepair, and a beloved adjoining institution, the Buffet de la Gare restaurant, was demolished in 2019 - but the pétanque club has endured as one of the last visible traces of this Francophone chapter of the city's history.

Where and How Members Play

The club sits near Addis Ababa's iconic Meskel Square. Members gather daily under a corrugated metal roof to play on sand imported from Dire Dawa, a city roughly 350 kilometers east of the capital and itself a historic stop on the same railway line. The club runs an organized pétanque league of 20 teams and holds an annual tournament each March to mark International Francophonie Day.

Named members and officials interviewed by journalists in 2025 include Alemneh Abebe, the club's president; Assefaw Geremew, a 68-year-old retired railway worker and longtime member; and Daniel Bewektu, a 38-year-old who had played at the club daily for nearly seven years - evidence that the club has drawn in players well beyond the generation that originally worked the railway.

Under Threat

As of 2025 reporting, the club's future was uncertain. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's large-scale demolition and redevelopment program for central Addis Ababa - the same push that had already leveled the neighboring Buffet de la Gare in 2019 - had raised concern that the club's own neighborhood could be demolished and its community relocated. One member told reporters: "We're worried because we've been told the area will be demolished and the whole neighborhood will be relocated." The club's general secretary reportedly appealed to the French embassy for help preserving the site, without success as of the most recent available reporting.

No source found during research confirms whether the club has since been demolished, relocated, or has continued operating unaffected; this page will be updated if newer, verifiable information becomes available.

A National Championship, Organized Without a Federation

Despite having no national governing body, Ethiopia has an organized competitive circuit that reaches well beyond Addis Ababa. According to Capital Ethiopia, what the outlet calls Ethiopia's "annual National Pétanque Championship" concluded in April 2026 with its final rounds in Dire Dawa - the same eastern railway city that supplies the sand for Le Club des Cheminots' courts in the capital. The tournament was organized by Francophonie in collaboration with the French Embassy rather than by any Ethiopian sports federation, consistent with the sport's roots here as a Francophone cultural import rather than an internationally federated discipline.

The 2026 edition began with qualifiers in Addis Ababa, where about 20 teams of three players competed; the top three advanced to Dire Dawa to face 10 local squads, bringing the finals field to 16 teams. Organizers issued special invitations to teams featuring female players as part of a push for broader participation. The Addis Ababa trio of Zelalem Gizaw, Zelalem Fisseha, and Tsegaye Wolde won the title, having finished second in the capital's own qualifiers before topping the Dire Dawa field. "This sport is about more than just physical fitness," Gizaw told the outlet. "It requires proper adherence to rules and high sportsmanship discipline."

This shows organized pétanque in Ethiopia is not confined to Le Club des Cheminots alone - Dire Dawa fielded ten separate squads of its own for the 2026 finals - even though Capital Ethiopia's report does not name any club structure behind them, and the Cheminots itself was not mentioned in the coverage.

Not Affiliated with Any Federation

Le Club des Cheminots operates as an independent members' club rather than part of any formal governing body, and the National Pétanque Championship described above is run by Francophonie and the French Embassy rather than a domestic sports federation. Ethiopia is not among the FIPJP's African confederation members and has no listed federation on petanque-world.com.