ETHIOPIA: EU Financing Agreement & more – 30th Oct 2025

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 30th of October twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s start off with news from the EU-Egypt Summit, in which the two discussed numerous matters. Following the summit, on Wednesday the 22nd, the EU released a statement saying that it understands how important the Nile River is to Egypt and plans to support efforts to ensure the country’s water security.

The statement didn’t sit well with Ethiopia as it criticized the EU’s position saying it looked like the EU was favoring Egypt in the dispute between the two countries over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River, which Egypt fears could reduce the volume of water that reaches the country.

Ethiopia was also unhappy that the EU failed to mention the dam’s official name, opting to refer to the dam generically as the Ethiopian Dam.

So it might come as a surprise that Ethiopia and the EU, less than a week after the EU released its statement, signed a financing deal worth ninety million euros.

A state minister of finance and the EU’s ambassador in Ethiopia put pen to paper on Tuesday the 28th. They said the deal will strengthen the relationship between the country and the union. The state minister said the purposes the funds will be used for include the preservation and protection of the environment and fighting climate change.

In local affairs, Simret, a new party that prominent former members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF) founded, held its first-ever assembly on Friday the 24th in Addis Ababa.

Getachew Reda, one of its founders and current advisor to the Prime Minister on East African affairs, said the party planned to hold its assembly and general convention in Mekelle, the Tigray region’s capital in northern Ethiopia but that it was unable to do so because of the region’s interim administration’s repressive practices.

He strongly criticized current TPLF leaders, accusing them of trying to start another war. A member of the ruling Prosperity Party was present at the assembly and said his party welcomes the Simret formation.

More news on opposition parties as the Citizens for Social Justice Party released a statement on Tuesday the 28th accusing the ruling party, Prosperity, of forcing civil servants to become its members.

The party urged Prosperity to immediately stop pressuring workers into becoming members. The opposition party also said the ruling party has been using government resources for its own benefit. It added that this indicates the party’s lack of confidence in convincing the public to organically grow its supporters’ base.

In Parliamentary session on Tuesday the 28th Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took questions from members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives and talked about Ethiopia’s bid to regain an outlet to the sea, saying that his office couldn’t find legal documents indicating how Ethiopia came to lose its outlet to the sea after Eritrea’s secession.

He said that it was only a matter of time before Ethiopia regained access to the Red Sea. Responding to concerns from members about renewed conflict in Tigray, he said his government doesn’t want to fight and questioned the priorities of the TPLF, adding that the party is hindering the peace process.

During another Parliament session, this one taking place last Wednesday the 22nd, politicians already in office called on the Ministry of Justice to work on ensuring that citizens’ human rights are respected and that perpetrators are held accountable.

Members of the House Legal and Justice Affairs Standing Committee said they have received complaints from their constituents regarding the handling of human rights. Some of them said they have received reports of extra-judicial killings and that civilians are fearing for their lives in certain parts of the country as kidnappings have increased, especially in parts of Amhara and Oromia.

The Information Network Security Administration also had to present a report before Parliament, this time to the Foreign Relations and Peace Affairs Standing Committee on Monday the 27th. The administration said it is aware that, in just the first quarter alone, there have been over thirteen thousand cyber attacks, with nine hundred of them capable of posing serious danger.

The administration’s director general also said it has been monitoring for terrorism, fraud, defamation and money laundering crimes. She added that, just this quarter, her office handed out permits to four companies to allow them to mine cryptocurrency. She explained that the permits were given after careful consideration of how much electricity the country has generated and how much will be left unused.

The government is involved in yet another run-in with the media as the Broadcasting Authority suspended the reporters of the Amharic service of the German outlet Deutsche Welle The service confirmed the suspension last Thursday the 23rd. The authority hasn’t said when the suspension is going to be lifted.

An official from the Authority explained that the service’s journalists were violating broadcast rules and received warnings prior to the suspension. The service said it has been operating in the country for over sixty years and that this is its first suspension.

Media outlets have reported that the government decided to ban the outlet due to a story it reported about Fano, a popular youth movement the government is fighting against.

In business news, the Mines Corporation, a state-owned, for-profit enterprise, signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday the 24th with the English company Sunbird Bioenergy to cooperate on biofuel development.

A representative of Ethiopian Airlines expressed excitement about the deal, saying that it could save the carrier a significant amount of money because forty percent of its costs come from fuel.

Sunbird’s CEO said his company plans to produce sixty million liters of bioethanol annually and will use cassava to produce the biofuel. He added that his company needs twenty thousand square feet of land to plant enough cassava.

Speaking of fuel, the Petroleum and Energy Authority said on Saturday the 25th, during a consultation with companies that provide gas, that the government has decided to prohibit the construction of new retail gas stations.

The authority’s PR head explained that the government made this decision because it is aware that there are stations being built without the authority’s approval in parts of the country where they aren’t necessary.

She said that the government was also comfortable making this decision because it wants to pivot to expanding the use of green energy. Energy companies aren’t happy with this development, saying that the ban is costly. They added that the legality of the ban is questionable.

Still in energy news, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics said the country needs over two thousand electric vehicle charging stations, with Addis Ababa requiring about half of them. The ministry said that fifteen companies that the Petroleum and Energy Authority granted permits to are installing stations.

It added that the government is interested in getting more companies to install these stations and is willing to provide financing and other incentives to domestic, foreign and state-owned enterprises that want to build them.

And to close this edition, Nib Bank has struggled over the past few years and many blame its disappointing performance on former executives and ex-members of its board of directors. The bank decided to sue them for over half a billion birr, which is more than three million US dollars. However, before it could proceed with the lawsuit, it needed a majority vote from its shareholders, which it got in the shareholders’ general assembly on Saturday the 25th.

The majority also voted to leave out three former members of the board from the case upon recommendation of the current board, as they were dissenting voices at the time.

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

Did you know that we talk about many places besides Ethiopia? We’ve got nine country updates! We also have three non-sovereign shows, about the Ocean, the Arctic and Multilateral organizations. Interested? Check out the link in the show notes. Got any feedback? You know how to contact us.

Ciao!