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.

Not Affiliated with Any Federation

Le Club des Cheminots operates as an independent members' club rather than part of any formal governing body. Ethiopia is not among the FIPJP's African confederation members, has no listed federation on petanque-world.com, and no evidence was found of any other organized pétanque club elsewhere in the country.