ETHIOPIA: Addis’ Land Auction & more – 10th April 2025

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 10th of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The biggest news this week is the appointment of Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede as the new president of the Tigray region’s interim administration. Tadesse, who served as the deputy of the former interim admin president Getachew Reda, and the head of the region’s peace and security bureau, was appointed on the recommendation of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (or TPLF’s) Central Committee.

On Tuesday the 9th, Tadesse officially took over after a handover ceremony in Addis Ababa, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Getachew Reda along with several dignitaries, including Mohammed Ali Yousouf, the newly elected African Union Chairman.

Many hope that this marks the end of the TPLF’s internal strife, which led to Getachew’s resignation. During the handover ceremony, Tadesse signed an agreement that includes the return of internally displaced persons.

Meanwhile, The National Election Board needs a deputy chairperson and two board members. The government recently unveiled a recruiting committee with members from the inter-religious council, the human rights commission, among other organizations. On Tuesday the 8th, the Committee called on the public via an official statement to submit recommendations starting from Wednesday the 9th of April, until the 8th of May. People can recommend nominees via email, WhatsApp, Telegram or in person at the Parliament by filling in a form.

Nominees must be unaffiliated with political parties, and competent and knowledgeable in election-related affairs. The current chairwoman will remain but three members and the deputy chairman will be replaced.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the government is drawing up a controversial bill which will force almost all workers and companies to contribute to the country’s emergency fund. Well, that draft bill has entered the deliberation stages.

The Disaster Risk Management Commissioner appeared before a House Standing Committee and said the mandatory contributions will help the country stand on its own and not expect other countries and organizations to jump in for support.

He said the Commission reduced the number of people who need aid by eighty-six percent over the past five years. However, officials scrutinized the broad powers that the draft bill gives to the Commission in terms of the source of the funds it can collect. The draft bill states that the government will sell and deposit the proceeds from contraband merchandise it seized into the fund.

The CEO of the Commercial Bank also appeared before a standing committee, this time to present a report to the state-owned enterprises. He said that the total amount the Bank is owed has reached almost one point four trillion birr, which is over ten billion US dollars, with the government owing about seventy-five percent of this amount.

He also mentioned that the Bank is lending to the government at low interest rates, with most of the loans taken out at about eight percent. He recalled that parliament recently approved a nine-hundred-billion-birr bond, which is almost seven billion US dollars, to be paid over a decade. He clarified that the bond was not a subsidy or support but a commitment to pay back what the government owes the Bank. If the loan isn’t paid back, it could mean that the Bank won’t be able to continue to operate.

On another note, The Ethio-Djibouti Railway Company said that next fiscal year it will transport fuel from neighboring Djibouti to the depot in Awash, eastern Ethiopia. The Company’s spokeswoman said it plans to transport over four million tons of fuel annually. She pointed out that this development will save time and effort, explaining that it currently takes about a week for truckers to transport fuel. The Company said its trains will transport it in ten rounds daily.

She said transporting fuel by rail will drive gas prices down and eventually, the Company will usher in a new era where fuel is transported only this way, which aligns with the government’s plans. The Company has also increased train speeds from thirty to sixty kilometers or around eighteen to thirty-seven miles per hour, with plans to reach eighty kilometers or fifty miles per hour, in the future.

Late last week, The Addis Ababa City Administration held its fifth land auction. This time around, over four hundred plots were up for grabs, with a combined area of eighteen hectares. Almost seven thousand participated in the auction, with only seventy-six winning.

The city’s land development and administration bureau began revealing results on Monday the 7th and said the highest bid in the entire round was almost two hundred and seventy-thousand birr, which is almost two thousand US dollars per square meter in the much sought-after Kazanchis area. Officials said there were no complaints from participants, hinting at a transparent and fair process.

The EU and the Ministry of Finance signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday the 3rd, which will see the Union donating 240 million euros, which is thirty-two billion birr. The money will be used over the next five years to strengthen democratic institutions, facilitate elections, implement transitional justice, and support the private sector, and it will also aid in post-war rebuilding, and green development.

At the signing ceremony, the EU’s representatives said they support the government’s macroeconomic reform program. However, they clarified that the EU will not provide budgetary support to the government, which stopped because of the twenty twenty-twenty twenty-two war in Tigray.

In our previous update, we talked about a controversial broadcast from the Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (or EBS) on a woman alleging that she was raped and attacked while attending the Dembi Dolo University and how she later said the segment was not true. Well, the journalists as well as the woman are still under arrest on terrorism charges because the government believed that the broadcast intended to sow mistrust between ethnic groups.

On Wednesday the 9th, the Committee to Protect Journalists (or CPJ) called on authorities to drop the terrorism charges, saying they were disproportionate, admitting, however, that the broadcast was a result of not observing journalistic ethics.

The CPJ said the government has already taken regulatory measures against the EBS, suspending its New Chapter segment that airs every Sunday, where the woman gave the allegedly false testimony.

Officials from the government-controlled Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation appeared before the government expenditure administration standing committee to receive questions. Members of the committee criticized how the channel is being used to further the goals of the government instead of being a voice for the people, and noted that government officials are excessively influencing the channel’s content.

The Corporation’s CEO, however, did not agree with the members, saying that the organization is operating freely and impartially. Commenting during the session, the Federal Auditor General reminded the organization that its fidelity ought to be with the public.

And for our final update this week, we have news from the hospitality industry. The Ministry of Tourism held a program to launch the quality standard determination process of hotels in the Oromia region. Hotels in the region haven’t had their quality standards weighed and determined on the five-star scale in about a decade.

An official from the Ministry said that the process will be carried out in a transparent manner to ensure accurate results. The Ministry has also said that stakeholders and professional unions will be observing the process.

Meanwhile, the Oromia region’s deputy tourism commissioner said this initiative will help say what the hotels can do to improve their services.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Enjoying the update? We hope so! Wanna chat, toss us an idea, or ask something? Email us at info@rorshok.com.

Ciao!