ETHIOPIA: Human Rights Commission report & more – 3rd Oct 2024

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

Let’s start this week’s episode off with news from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which released its quarterly report last week on human rights violations that took place over the past three months. The Commission said that, during this time, instances of serious human rights violations have escalated with physical harm, robberies, kidnapping, and numerous civilian deaths in conflict, among others.

The report said more than twenty civilians -including a child- lost their lives due to stray bullets from a conflict in a small town in the Amhara region. The Commission pointed its fingers at the government, the Oromo Liberation Army and the Fano popular movement saying that they are responsible for these abuses. The Commission also blamed the federal government for ignoring the Commission’s policy recommendations, which could have helped avoid these human violations.

Moving onto the economy, on Wednesday the 2nd, the National Bank announced that as part of this deregulation, it has granted licenses to five non-bank businesses to operate as independent foreign exchange businesses. Despite this development, the Bank said it will keep a close eye on these businesses, which are only allowed to carry out transactions on the spot, and are not allowed to open letters of credit for export and import transactions.

Wednesday the 2nd was a busy day for Ethiopian Airlines as well. The government-owned flight carrier, which is known for engaging in other related lines of business like hospitality, announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Ethiopian Tourist Trading Enterprise to build a duty-free mall in Addis. The Airline said the mall will be a state-of-the-art facility which will showcase global, luxurious brands and a high-end shopping experience. The joint project is set to cost the two companies over four billion birr, which is almost forty million US dollars, and will be built next to the Airline’s cargo headquarters in the capital.

Up next, Ethiopia’s chat export has been steadily declining over the past few years as exporters say that the government's high tariffs and recent diplomatic strifes with Somalia’s current administration are affecting their business. Chat is a plant that is used (often abused) for its stimulating effects. Somalia used to be the prime destination for Ethiopia’s chat exports. The country’s daily demand was five hundred kilos, around 1,100 pounds, which is eighty percent of the chat Ethiopia exported.

Now, exporters say Kenya is taking the edge and Ethiopian exports are falling out of favor — with Ethiopia’s local demand for chat outweighing that of neighboring countries, leaving exporters struggling to grow their business.

More business news as former Andualem Admassie, Ethio Telecom’s CEO, was named Chief External Affairs Officer of Safaricom Ethiopia on Monday the 30th of September. He’ll be replacing Henok Tefera, who resigned from this post to serve as the managing director of Boeing Africa. Wim Vanhelleputte, Safaricom’s CEO, said Andualem’s experience will contribute to the company’s effort to enhance local leadership. Before Andualem received the call from the first and only private telecom services provider in Ethiopia, he was working as CEO of Tele-Mobile in South Sudan.

In other news, The Addis Ababa City Housing Development Corporation urged homeowners who recently purchased condos from the corporation to move into those houses. The Corporation warned that it will terminate these contracts if homeowners don’t move in within a month.

The corporation explained that it was forced to make this decision because some individuals are renting out these empty houses without the owners’ knowledge, which is illegal, and poses a security risk. If the owners don’t move in by the 9th of November, the contract will be terminated and the houses will be sold to other people.

The Ethiopian Communications Authority, a government entity that regulates radio frequency, telecom, information addresses, and assets, issued a directive this week that will require internet service providers to pay five million birr (which is forty-five thousand US dollars) just to get a license. On top of that, the new directive requires internet service providers to pay one percent of their annual revenue in service fees to the authority. However, for data center service providers, the license is more affordable at half a million birr, which is around 4,500 US dollars.

Aside from this directive, a lot of other bills are in the works. On Tuesday the 1st of October, a dozen draft bills were presented to the Council of Ministers for deliberation in its regular session, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed chaired. The highlight of the meeting was that the Council voted unanimously to approve new legislation on intellectual property rights. These draft laws aren’t new rules; they’re just bills acceding to international agreements on industrial property and trademarks. PM Abiy explained that adopting these international rules will help Ethiopia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization. The bills haven’t entered into force yet as they require the House of People’s Representatives' final approval.

More on this meeting as the Council also approved a proposed national revenue strategy which will be in effect for the next three years. The strategy’s goal is to increase revenue by enhancing the country’s tax system and increasing private investment. The Council said this strategy was approved and synchronized with the ten-year development plan. Unlike laws, strategies don’t need the final say of the House of People’s Representatives to have effect.

The Council additionally approved two proposed bilateral air transport agreements that the country signed with Chad and Malta. The agreements will allow Ethiopian Airlines to fly cargo and passengers to any city in Chad and Malta. The Prime Minister Office said in a statement after the meeting that this will not only increase trade volume and tourism with the countries but also create more jobs and generate foreign currency. This doesn’t mean that the agreements will be effective because they still need the House of People’s Representatives final approval.

Before presiding over this meeting, on Saturday the 28th, Abiy was in the North Shoa Zone in the Amhara region. He went there to inaugurate the country’s biggest cement production plant, Lemi. The plant can produce thousands of quintals of cement every day.

People involved in the project say that the plant’s production will cover fifty percent of the total cement demand in the country. Before Lemi, there were around twelve cement-producing plants across the country.

During the inauguration, Abiy said this project shows his government's commitment to building fast, big, and clean. The plant took two years and six hundred million US dollars to build and reportedly uses advanced tech to reduce emissions.

In sports news, the controversy surrounding the Ethiopian Olympic Committee continues. In a previous update we mentioned that prominent members of the sporting community had sued Ashebir Wolde-Giorgis, the Olympic Committee’s President in federal court alleging that he was unlawfully re-elected as president and had mismanaged the Committee’s funds. The court had issued an injunction freezing the bank accounts and assets of the Committee.

However, two weeks ago, despite this ruling, the Committee held an awards and recognition ceremony using funds from the bank accounts that were frozen. The group that first brought the suit against the committee sued the President again, this time on criminal charges that the committee refused to respect the court’s ruling to freeze the accounts. The court adjourned the hearing for next week when the courts will be fully reopened and judges will return to their benches after recess.

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

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