ETHIOPIA: Macron in Ethiopia & more – 24th Dec 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 24th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Big news from this past week was French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Ethiopia. He arrived in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Saturday the 21st and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed him at the airport. They headed to the national palace and visited Emperor Haile Selassie I’s jubilee palace, which had undergone renovation with support from France. President Macron also visited other parts of the capital.

Abiy and Macron held bilateral talks and later on, there was a press conference in which President Macron expressed his support for Ethiopia's bid to gain access to the sea and praised the deal signed recently between Ethiopia and Somalia, which Turkey brokered.

France is Ethiopia’s long-time ally and has supported various projects including the renovation of the palace as well as the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, a UNESCO world heritage site. Macron’s trip to Addis was his second in six years.

Speaking of the deal between Somalia and Ethiopia, on Monday the 23rd, Somalia sent a delegation, including the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, to Addis, to build on the agreement. The delegation later said it is exploring opportunities to forge a bilateral relationship that will benefit both countries.

One last news on foreign affairs. On Saturday the 21st, the US trade representative announced that Ethiopia will not be reinstated to the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act program for the twenty twenty-five calendar year, which means the country will miss out on a lot of trade and export volume from the United States.

Even though Ethiopia was an original member country in the program, the US government decided to remove it in twenty twenty-one because of the twenty twenty Civil War. Although the war ended two years ago, the US still wants to see more progress on the human rights front before reinstating Ethiopia back to the program.

On that note about human rights, The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission issued a report late last week on human rights abuses over the past five years. The Commission put together the report after collecting data from several sources, most notably eyewitnesses.

It concluded that around eleven thousand people were detained in the Amhara region, in the north-central part of the country, during the civil war. The report indicated that detainees were deprived of their human rights as well as due process. A judge at the time told the Commission that he and his fellow colleagues were ordered not to inquire about human rights abuses that detainees suffered.

The document also said officers arrested individuals who weren’t suspects simply because they were related to them. However, The Commission explained that they used this method to draw out the main suspects.

Still in the Amhara region, food aid deliveries finally resumed in the Bugna district in the north Wollo zone, after a weeks-long halt due to conflict between the popular youth movement Fano and the federal government. On Friday the 13th, elders and health professionals facilitated talks between stakeholders so that food could be distributed and eventually militants of either side reached an agreement.

Food aid delivery resumed last Tuesday the 17th and on Saturday the 21st the US embassy in Ethiopia revealed that it will take advantage of the situation and increase food supply, adding that it is closely following the state of affairs in the district.

Beyond the southern border of the country in neighboring Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Jawar Mohammed, a famous Oromo politician, wanted to launch his new book last Thursday the 19th. However, Jawar was forced to postpone the event because it drew a bigger crowd than anticipated, adding that the local police recommended the postponement.

However, news outlets reported that the organizers had received threats from undisclosed parties saying not to launch the book. Jawar had previously expressed his desire to launch the book in Ethiopia but scrapped the plans, fearing government reprisal.

The book is an autobiography that focuses on his political career and is titled No Regrets. The politician also said the book will be available in both Amharic and Oromo languages.

In other news, workers fed up with low wages and high-income tax rates asked the Confederation of Labor Unions to go on strike to force the government to make changes. The workers made this request on Wednesday the 18th at the Confederation’s twentieth regular meeting. The Confederation had been urging the government to set a federal minimum wage rate and lower the income tax that workers pay. However, it doesn’t seem like the government is going to make changes soon.

Recall that in our previous episode, we said that the government had decided to indefinitely postpone minimum wage determination as it could force employers to lay workers off en masse, as they might not be able to pay their workers the minimum wage.

The Confederation has not called for a strike yet but has acknowledged the government’s failure to do anything about the situation.

In western Ethiopia, in the Benshangul-Gumuz region, the regional Industry and Investment Bureau announced that it had stripped land use rights from fifteen urban investors after they failed to implement projects, such as building hotels, schools, and health care centers, for several years. The bureau said that it had notified the investors to go forward with their projects but they haven’t done anything for years. Not only that, the bureau tried to meet up with the investors to discuss issues that forced them to not build for so long but the investors didn’t show up.

Urban investors aren’t the only ones who had their land use rights stripped; in fact, the bureau stripped off over seven hundred investors’ arable land. News outlets, however, mentioned that these investors couldn’t go ahead with the projects because of the region’s security issues.

Back in Addis, last Thursday the 19th, the new fintech solution Fast Pay ET was revealed in a press conference. Representatives told the media that Fast Pay is a solution that will allow money to be transferred to any local bank account within minutes from over a hundred and thirty countries. What raised eyebrows was the representatives' statement that neither senders nor receivers will pay a fee on the transferred amount and that the service is free. Apparently, the company said it had signed a deal with over thirty banks to facilitate services and has already obtained a license from the regulator, the National Bank.

You might wonder how this company will make money. According to Fast Pay, it would charge the banks that receive the transferred amount because banks want more cash in foreign currency.

More news on the city’s business scene as the City’s Chamber of Commerce election for senior management has become a controversial issue. A credential committee was evaluating the credentials of candidates but things took a turn when the Chamber’s current president disbanded the committee late last week.

Now, chamber members are expressing skepticism, saying that the president did this in collaboration with city government officials to install candidates that favor the city administration, an allegation she denies. The election is currently scheduled for next week, on Thursday the 2nd of January, twenty twenty-five.

There was another election this past week, but in the sports scene. The Ethiopian Athletics Federation held its twenty-eighth regular meeting on Sunday the 22nd and held an election for a new President. The Federation revealed that day that Seleshi Sehen, former long-distance runner and Oromia region representative, won the election and will serve as the Federation’s president for the next four years, replacing Derartu Tulu, another legendary runner.

However, this doesn't mean that she'll leave the Federation once and for all because she was voted in as the Federation’s executive chair. One candidate representing Addis Ababa expressed his doubts over the process, saying it was hard to believe that the election was fair.

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

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Ciao!