ETHIOPIA: Controversial Regulations in Addis & more – 20th Mar 2025

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 20th of March twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The feud within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF), Tigray’s predominant political party continues as Getachew Reda, the leader of one of the factions and president of the interim regional administration, went to Addis Ababa on Thursday the 13th to discuss solutions with the federal government. He alleged that the officials siding with the other faction within the party, led by Debre-Tsion Gebre-Michael, are conspiring with the Eritrean government to attack Tigray in northern Ethiopia.

The other side has dismissed these allegations and said that Getachew’s trip to Addis aimed to get support from the federal government, which is yet to take sides and hasn’t made any significant intervention so far.

Numerous Western countries, along with the US and the EU, released a joint statement late last week saying they’re closely following developments and that they urge all involved to take the peaceful route to resolve differences.

On a related note, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared before parliament on Thursday the 20th to brief the House of Peoples’ Representatives on various matters, including the situation in Tigray. He talked about the upsides of the Pretoria agreement, but admitted that there are gaps in implementation regarding rehabilitating combatants and supporting people displaced because of the conflict.

He added that the interim regional administration has completed its initial two-year term but will likely be extended for a year, after which there will be an election. He also said that the federal government has discussed with the interim administration, the TPLF and other regional parties about how matters will be dealt with going forward. He thanked the interim administration officials for choosing peace and not continuing to fight over these past two years.

The PM also discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, whose construction has gone beyond its original timeline. Abiy said that the Dam would be inaugurated in the next six months, recalling that it was built without taking out external loans. He also said Ethiopia is open to negotiating with Egypt, a country in distress because it is concerned that the Dam could reduce the water volume that reaches it.

He also talked about getting a sea outlet, denying rumors that Ethiopia plans to invade Eritrea to gain access to the sea. Still, he said the country will double down on its attempt to get a sea outlet but will do so on a give-and-take basis. He also said there are plans to build a fertilizer plant, that Ethiopia has become the largest wheat producer in Africa, and that over a billion US dollars worth of coffee has been exported in the current fiscal year alone.

More news from parliament as the House of Peoples’ Representatives looked at the draft bill that will re-establish the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission as an autonomous executive agency. The executive presented the draft bill to the House on Tuesday the 18th, which contains provisions to create a disaster risk response fund.

If passed, the bill will require private and public employees to make a monthly contribution. It will also be funded through fees from services, including insurance, telecom, flight, gas, and customs. Enterprises that fail to deposit fees in the fund’s bank account on time will be fined with a ten percent interest on the fees due.

Representatives explained that the current disaster risk management policy has lagged behind the country’s needs and is heavily dependent on foreign aid.

Young Ethiopians are immigrating in droves and some of them are doing it through illegal, unsafe pathways. This week alone over a hundred Ethiopians have returned from Djibouti and Myanmar. The Ethiopian Embassy in Djibouti said it teamed up with the International Office for Migrants to return over sixty Ethiopians held under unfavorable conditions back to their country.

There were also tens of Ethiopians who went back from Myanmar after they were held captive in a camp where criminals forced them to work over sixteen hours daily, scamming people from all over the world via the internet.

Returnees as well as the local government are encouraging the youth to stay in the country and seek opportunities at home or immigrate legally, saying that illegal means are not worth it and might expose them to dangerous outcomes.

Addis Ababa’s justice bureau head told media outlets that the city administration might require businesses to be open past 10 PM. For reference, they usually open between 8 and 9 AM, and employees tend to rotate with morning, afternoon, and night shifts. Still, many business owners work on their own businesses.

The justice bureau head explained that working during the day alone has harms that outweigh its benefits, including less productivity and fewer nighttime interactions, making it difficult to monitor crimes. According to the current regulations, if businesses close or do not clearly display an open sign before 9:30 PM they can be fined.

Public transport providers will be fined five thousand birr, which is about forty US dollars, if they change their routes or charge passengers higher fees than the transport bureau established.

In other news, despite the cuts from funds that the Ethiopian Public Health Institute was receiving from the US Agency for International Development, the Institute’s director said on Friday the 14th when speaking with Chikwe Ihekweazu, the World Health Organization’s Africa director, that the Institute has been faring well.

The director said the funding cut hasn’t affected its operations so far because it’s been working with funds from the government and has benefited from the local Ethiopian community’s active engagement. Even though he said that the funding cuts may pose challenges going forward, he added the Institute is working with the Ministry of Health to become self-sufficient.

Ihekweazu, on his part, lamented that the US left the organization but that the rest of the member countries will keep working together. He added that the Ethiopian government should fill the gap that US aid cuts left in the country’s health sector.

Ethiopia is negotiating to join the World Trade Organization. A delegation led by the Minister of Trade and Regional Integration was in Geneva, Switzerland this week and it discussed Ethiopia’s entry into the organization with various stakeholders. Aside from the World Trade Organization, the Minister said the delegates spoke with various representatives of countries and organizations, including the World Bank, the EU, India, China and the European Investment Fund.

Shifting gears, Ethiopia’s and Russia’s navies said they are interested in working together on training and capacity building. The National Defense Force said Russia’s Navy Deputy Commander was in Ethiopia this past week and visited the country’s naval facilities. The two countries signed a preliminary agreement as they reached an understanding to cooperate and strengthen collaboration.

More news on defense cooperation as Ethiopia’s army signed a defense agreement on Thursday the 13th with Rwanda’s army in Ethiopia. Unlike the agreement with Russia, this will not be limited to the navy since it includes other military sectors. In addition to capacity building and training, the deal also includes cooperation on counterterrorism.

Ethiopia has been signing similar agreements and exploring military cooperation with various countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa and neighbors South Sudan and Kenya.

To wrap up this edition, Ethiopian Airlines has revealed that it has brought in a Boeing 737-800 business jet that can be chartered for private use. The company’s CEO recalled that clients were chartering regular planes for special flights, indicating that this new addition would lift the burden from standard planes. The company said it had plans to expand charter services and would make more similar purchases.

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

Did you know that you can send an episode as an MP3 file? You can download it directly from our website: www.rorshok.com/ethiopia. The link’s also in the show notes.

Ciao!