ETHIOPIA: Conflict in the Amhara Region & more – 3rd July 2025

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 3rd of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s start off this episode with news from the unstable Amhara region in northcentral Ethiopia. After demonstrations across the region on Saturday the 28th of June urging the end of an almost two-year-old conflict between the government and popular movement Fano, the government issued a statement on Sunday the 29th admitting that the region remains unstable, that civilian safety hasn’t been ensured, that there are threats of kidnapping and that many children are not going to school.

This admission is an interesting development because government representatives have previously said that the region was peaceful and stable. Just a few days prior to the admission, the UN said a humanitarian worker was wounded and eventually died because of crossfire during a fatal encounter between government forces and Fano.

Just a few days later, on Wednesday the 2nd, the National Defense Forces said it killed over eighty Fano militants in what it said was a coordinated operation. The operation was reportedly carried out in the Gojam and South Gondar zones of the Amhara region and took a week.

Still in the Amhara region, a doctor was detained last Wednesday the 25th and law enforcement brought him before court on Friday the 27th, accusing him of organizing a healthworkers’ strike, which they say resulted in one death.

The detainee is a gynecology and obstetrics resident at Bahir Dar University, the largest in the region’s capital. During the May protests, numerous health professionals went on strike and demonstrated, demanding an increase in wages and benefits. Police say the doctor used his social media handle to rile up the health workers to go on strike. Other health professionals from across the country were also detained, but most of them were released later.

A few days prior to the arrest, PM Abiy held a discussion with health workers, where he admitted that their concerns were valid but added that some were taking advantage of the situation to advance their political motives.

In Addis, the House of Peoples’ Representatives approved a bill allowing foreigners to own houses in Ethiopia on Tuesday the 1st of July. The House Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Transportation Affairs said that the legislation will enable foreigners to invest in the country’s real estate market without affecting the interests of citizens.

The Committee said foreigners interested in purchasing property in Ethiopia must buy one that’s worth at least a hundred and fifty thousand US dollars, an amount the Committee said is subject to change going forward. Additionally, foreigners are only allowed to own a maximum of one house and cannot use the property to engage in business, although they can rent it out for residential purposes.

More news from Parliament as PM Abiy appeared before the House to respond to questions from members on various issues. In response to questions about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’s progress, the PM said it will be inaugurated in mid-September, denying allegations that the river flow that reaches Egypt and Sudan will decrease because of the dam.

He also said the economy did very well in the fiscal year that just ended, with exports reaching over eight billion US dollars, compared to the five billion projection.

Thursday was a busy day for Parliament as it approved the budget that the Ministry of Finance proposed for the next twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six fiscal year, right after PM Abiy’s grilling session. The budget approved is one point three trillion birr, which is over twelve billion US dollars, the largest budget for a fiscal year in the country’s history.

The government said over eighty percent will be covered through domestic revenue. Citizens and residents should brace for increased taxes and fees as the government plans to cover this budget mainly by broadening the tax base.

Up north again, this time in the Tigray region, Tadesse Werede, the President of the Interim Administration, said last Thursday the 26th of June that he will speak with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on pressing issues, such as returning displaced people and the status of disputed territories.

He said the talks will aim to permanently solve persisting issues. The president didn’t say exactly when the talks will be held. He added that most of the matters he’ll discuss with the PM have already been agreed upon in the Pretoria agreement, which ended a two-year war between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Recall that Tadesse is a member of this party, which is the predominant one in the region.

Speaking of Tigray, the region has been facing several issues with administering the national university entrance exams, which began early this week. On Monday the 30th, the region’s Islamic Affairs Council accused officials in Axum of preventing female Muslim examinees from entering the venue of the exams because they were wearing hijabs.

However, the region’s education bureau dismissed these accusations and said no muslim women were prevented from sitting for the exam because they wore hijabs, although the bureau admitted that over twenty female Muslims didn’t take the exam because they didn’t show up at the test center. The bureau added that they will be allowed to retake the exams they missed.

The hijab controversy in the historic Axum city has gone on for over a year with education officials there issuing rules establishing that muslim women couldn’t wear hijabs to school. The local court had overturned these rules subsequently in January this year, but schools didn't immediately comply.

Meanwhile, the Creditor’s Committee of Ethiopia’s lenders struck a deal with the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday the 2nd. The deal includes a debt treatment that will postpone the payment of three and a half billion US dollars in loans.

The officials who signed this agreement said they were grateful for this deal because it will help reach agreements with creditors individually.

The African Development Bank released a report a few days ago about foreign aid reductions. The Bank said that due to Donald Trump’s aid freeze, food that has already reached the Djibouti port intended to feed over two million people in Ethiopia is at risk of going bad.

Almost thirty-five thousand tons of food remain at the Djibouti port because there are no funds to transport it to Ethiopia. The report also said that aside from this immediate effect, the slashing of funds will affect sectors in Ethiopia, including health, education, and agriculture. Apart from the United States, Germany has reduced aid for Ethiopia by a billion euros with the United Kingdom planning a significant cut as well.

On that note about banks, Awash Bank, the largest private bank in the country, said on Tuesday the 1st that it has brought in a net profit of almost thirty billion birr, which is about a hundred and fifty million US dollars, in the fiscal year that just ended. The bank’s CEO said this is double the amount of profit the bank made last year.

The CEO also celebrated that the bank collected over a hundred billion birr, which is over seven hundred million US dollars, in deposits, exceeding its expectations by six billion birr, which is forty million US dollars.

And finally, some sports news. The ending of the Ethiopian Cup, a football tournament that the Ethiopian Football Federation organizes, caused controversy. Even though Sidama City won in the final against Wolayta Dicha last month, on Tuesday the 1st, the Ethiopian Football Federation said it has stripped away the championship from Sidama because they fielded banned players.

The Federation declared Wolayta Dicha as the official winner. Sidama said this decision was wrong and urged the Federation to reconsider, signaling its plan to appeal the matter.

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

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