ETHIOPIA: Food Shortage & more – 22nd Feb 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 22nd of February twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

We kick off this episode with the severe food shortage that is affecting certain parts of the country. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported this past week that if Ethiopia doesn’t get half a billion US dollars soon, the food scarcity and the consequences of the current drought will worsen, with residents that are short on food expected to enter a very critical stage. The office said the money required should be collected immediately because delayed financial support will break the supply chain, further deteriorating the current situation. Recall that there’s an ongoing drought in the Amhara, Tigray, and Afar regions, which has allegedly claimed lives.

Moving on, on Saturday the 17 and on Sunday the 18th, Addis Ababa hosted the African Union Leaders Summit as always and leaders of most African countries and other distinguished guests went to the conference and talked about various continental issues. On Sunday, in front of the African Union (or AU) political affairs, peace and security department building, a statue of panafricanist and Tanzania’s first Prime Minister Julius Nyerere was put up. This is the third statue of a statesman unveiled at the AU headquarters in Addis, along with the sculptures of Emperor Haile Selassie I and Kwame Nkrumah, who were pioneers of the AU.

African leaders weren’t the only ones in Addis for the weekend. Brazil’s president Lula da Silva also paid an official visit. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed the president. Subsequently, his office issued a statement saying that the PM and the president engaged in discussions aimed at bolstering cooperation and nurturing a more profound partnership. Still, the two countries have maintained relations for over fifty years. PM Abiy said that relations are set to strengthen since Ethiopia just joined the BRICS bloc of countries (recall that Brazil is a member of the group). While addressing the Union in Addis, Lula da Silva made remarks that strained relations between Brazil and Israel, comparing the holocaust with Israel's attacks in Palestine.

The eventful weekend continued as Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud alleged that Ethiopian security forces attempted to stop him from attending the AU summit. He said on Saturday the 17th that security forces didn’t allow him to leave the hotel he stayed at. However, he eventually attended the meeting by entering the AU headquarters with the security team of Djibouti’s president. Ethiopia denied these allegations and said that Somalia's president refused to leave his hotel for the AU headquarters with the security detail assigned to him. This debacle comes after rising tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Somaliland and Ethiopia, granting Ethiopia a sea outlet. Somalia is not content with this state of affairs as it considers Somaliland to be part of its own territory, and not an independent state.

Both Ethiopia and Somaliland have denounced the allegations of Somalia’s president, with Somaliland’s foreign minister describing it as ‘unpalatable, rogue and savage behavior’ and Ethiopia saying that it is an attempt to garner media attention.

However, Ethiopia and Somaliland are proceeding with their plans. Somaliland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said on Tuesday, the 20th that the implementation of the memorandum of understanding is well underway. The statement also said the agreement is lawful and highly beneficial to Ethiopia, Somaliland, and the Horn of Africa at large.

Let’s move on to an update of a story from last week. We told you in our previous show that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Inter Religious Council have both denounced clauses including homosexuality in international agreements, specifically the Samoa agreement, which the Ethiopian government is set to sign with the European Union. Opposition to such clauses continues this week as well as four opposition parties called on the House of People’s Representatives not to ratify the Samoa agreement as it stands. The parties said homosexuality goes against the religious and traditional values of the Ethiopian public and said that it is also a crime. They added that entering into such an agreement goes against the culture and values of Ethiopia, and that they consider that signing the deal encourages and supports crime.

The parties called on the House to consider one of two alternatives - either enter reservations on clauses of the agreement that refer to homosexuality or not ratify the agreement at all.

Next up, The Ethiopian Development Bank said in a press release on its six-month report that it has managed to lend more than twenty billion birr or more than three hundred and fifty million US dollars, a hundred percent execution rate of its plan at the beginning of this budget year. The Bank said that compared to February twenty twenty-three, it has managed to loan out an additional eleven billion birr or more than two hundred million US dollars. The bank’s president said it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine as it revealed that it had collected almost seven billion birr or more than a hundred million US dollars, a bit short of its goal of almost eight billion. There have been challenges in collecting payments as the bank discontinued certain incentives that it had deployed last year. Besides, the bank’s profits have shown a slight decrease compared to February twenty twenty-three.

In more news on state-owned enterprises, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Tuesday the 20th that Ethiopia is planning to sell ten percent of shares in Ethio Telecom to the public via the soon-to-be operational capital market. There have been unsuccessful attempts so far to sell the company’s shares to foreign investors. Still, the government would like to sell another forty-five percent of the company’s shares to foreign investors and retain the other forty-five.

On another note, The National Archives and Library Agency is set to inaugurate its new building this Saturday the 24th. The Agency’s director announced in a press release that the Agency had spent seven hundred million birr or over twelve million US dollars on the project. He also said that on Saturday the 24th, along with the building’s inauguration, the agency will also celebrate its eightieth-year anniversary.

But the inauguration isn’t the only thing happening this Saturday the 24th. The Addis Ababa City Council is also set to convene for its second general assembly of the year at the Adwa Memorial Museum. The Council is expected to hear six months’ reports from various executive offices and deliberate and approve numerous matters.

In unrelated news, Ethiopian Airlines has signed a loan agreement with CitiBank for more than twenty-five billion birr or four hundred and fifty million US dollars. The Airline is set to use this money to purchase five new planes from the US aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing. It will buy three Boeing 737-8s and two 777F Cargo planes. The Export Import Bank of the United States has guaranteed the loan. This is not the first time that Citi has financed aircraft purchases for Ethiopian Airlines, the largest carrier in Africa.

Speaking of Ethiopian Airlines, last week, Wednesday the 14th was Valentine's Day and it was a busy day for Ethiopian Airlines as it delivered more than two hundred and fifty million stems of flowers all over the world. The company revealed that it was hard at work for the past two weeks transporting flowers with sixty cargo flights which weighed more than four thousand tons. The airline’s cargo service transported the flowers from Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Bogota to many destinations all over the world. Recall that the Airline has the largest cargo network in Africa.

Aaaand that’s it for this week!

Thank you so much to everyone who filled in the survey over the past few weeks, we really appreciate your comments and ideas. Many of you mentioned you would like to get some more in depth episodes and interviews, is that something you would like? Do you have any topics in mind? Something specific about Ethiopia that you want to know more about for us to do a special show on? We want to do some new things very soon! Please email us at info@rorshok.com. The survey is still linked in the show notes if you are interested in that as well.

Ciao!