ETHIOPIA: Oxfam hunger report & more – 15th Feb 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 15th of February twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

On Thursday the 8th, British NGO Oxfam issued a statement expressing concern over the impending humanitarian situation in Tigray due to war and drought. The statement asserted that looking on as people starve is political and moral bankruptcy and highlighted that Tigrayans suffering from the current drought have resorted to drastic measures to cope with their hunger, including forcing children to sleep long hours and eating grass roots. Oxfam also pointed out that more than 300 people have died due to hunger in the region.

Recall that the federal government previously said there had been no deaths due to starvation. Not only that, thay even said that droughts in Ethiopia were nothing new and that this shouldn’t be a topic deployed to amass political capital.

Speaking of Tigray, the region’s interim administration’s top officials, including president Getachew Reda, were in Addis to evaluate the implementation of the Pretoria Agreement which ended the two year long civil war with the federal government. After the meeting, on Monday the 12th, Getachew Reda said in a press conference in Tigray that unless the provisions of the Pretoria agreement are fully implemented, the Tigray Defence Force will not be disbanded. In the conference he also mentioned that his party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, hasn’t yet been recognized by law as a legal entity, that displaced people haven’t returned to their homes and that the Amhara and Eritrean forces haven’t completely left the region.

On the other hand, the federal government claims that the Tigray interim administration is using the Pretoria Agreement to buy time to strengthen its forces instead of taking meaningful positive action.

But Tigray isn’t the only region that’s concerning the federal government. In the Amhara region, clashes between federal forces and the youth movement Fano have been going on for over six months. In relation to this dispute, there have been allegations of extra-judicial killings on the part of the national armed forces.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission issued a statement on Tuesday the 13th expressing concern over the killings and said that there was a brutal clash between Fano and the army in the north Gojam zone in which forty-five innocent civilians were killed. The Commissioner called on the government to use peaceful means to resolve this conflict before further damage is caused.

The recent cabinet shuffle continues as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed two new heads for prominent executive institutions.

Veteran politician Ambassador Redwan Hussein was named the new director general of the National Intelligence and Security Service. He’s been working as the Prime Minister’s national security advisor and played a key role in the Pretoria agreement.

The second is Tigist Hamid, who was named as the new director general of The Information Network Security Administration. He’s been working as senior tech advisor to the Ministry of Transport and Logistics. Recall that the former director general of the national intelligence and security service is the new deputy prime minister replacing Demeke Mekonnen.

Speaking about Demeke Mekonnen, he was recently relieved after serving for more than a decade as deputy PM, ending his over 30-year old career in politics. So, this begs the question: what's next for him? Well, whatever he decides to do, it is certain that he’ll be taken care of.

According to a law in force for over a decade, former presidents, prime ministers and deputy prime ministers are entitled to get the wage they’ve been earning while they were in office for the rest of their lives; they also get a four to five bedroom home, three vehicles, private security and more. However, these benefits may be stripped away if the former official engages in treasonous crimes.

Onto some religious updates, the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church issued a statement on Monday the 12th condemning westerners’ influence on promoting homosexuality in the country. Recall that same-sex marriages and acts of homosexuality are illegal in the Ethiopia.

The statement mentioned that certain agreements made with western countries contain problematic clauses that include sex-ed, facilitation of same sex and loose opposite sex practices and that the country should get into those agreements. The Inter-Religious Council also issued a statement denouncing parts of the EU agreement that touches on sexual subjects.

In business news, the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority and the Mass Media Authority came out to say that they have begun monitoring inaccurate ads for share sales. The Capital Market Authority’s Director General said they found many inaccurate ads calling for the public to buy shares in companies that won’t be as profitable as they claim.

The Capital Market Authority sent a letter last week to the Mass Media Authority explaining the situation with such companies. As a response, the Mass Media Authority sent a letter to various media outlets to not broadcast the ads of companies that haven’t obtained a license from the Capital Market Authority to sell shares.

Addis is preparing to host the African Union Summit this weekend and is currently hosting the executive council’s meeting of the African Union in which foreign ministers from member states of the Union are partaking. At the opening session of this executive council’s meeting, Ethiopia, through the recently appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie, proposed that the country’s working language Amharic be included as an official language of the African Union. He said that including Amharic as an official language would be consistent with the Union’s goal of empowering indigenous African languages to contribute to Africa’s progress and would also honor Africa’s lingustic diversity.

Moving on some cultural updates, the Adwa Memorial Museum was inaugurated on Sunday the 11th. Recall that the battle of Adwa was where Ethiopians, through the leadership of Emperor Menelik the second, defeated the invading Italian army in northern Ethiopia, being the only African country to have never been colonized.

The Museum rests on five hectares of land in the heart of Addis Ababa. During the inauguration, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, President Sahlework Zewde and Addis mayor Adanech Abebe were present along with other top government officials.

The Museum includes auditoriums, cinemas, stores and statues of historically prominent figures (whose design’s quality is questionable).

What else does the museum have? Well, it is also going to be home of the first ever aircraft made in Ethiopia in nineteen thirty-five. The aircraft was built during Emperor Haile Selassie’s reign and is named after his daughter ‘Tsehay’. Unfortunately, the Italians had appropriated the plane that same year and Tsehay would stay in Italy for the past eighty years until last Friday the 9th when she arrived at the Bole International Airport. The Italian government decided to return the aircraft during PM Abiy’s trip to Italy last week. Tsehay was taken straight to the Adwa Memorial Museum where she is set to stay permanently.

Rophnan, Ethiopian Electronic Dance Music DJ turned vocalist and songwriter, released two albums on the same day on Sunday the 11th entitled Zetegn (which means nine) and Nor. Rophnan is the first and only Ethiopian artist to sign with Universal Music Group, the biggest music company in the world. What’s unique about Rophnan is that he writes, sings and produces all of his songs. The albums also feature big names including world renowned Reggae artist Chronixx.

You can check the music video of the fan favorite track Shegiye using the link in the show notes. The track is a tribute to Addis Ababa and if you’ve ever wondered what Addis looks like, the music video does a good job of portraying certain parts of the city.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

Last week we asked you to fill in a survey to get to know you and we got quite a few replies, thank you so so much ! We are very excited, tons of great ideas! We’ll be sharing the link to the survey in the shownotes one more time this week in case you didn’t see it. All respondents will be entered in a lottery to win a cruise in the Mediterranean… just kidding, it's in the South Pacific, but we would love to hear from you! Don’t be shy!

Ciao!