Episode 178

ETHIOPIA: New Party in Tigray & more – 1st May 2025

A wage increase pending, Angola President's message to PM Abiy, Ethio Telecom share sale below target, Embraer and Ethiopian Airlines to work together, Amnesty’s CDP project,  and much more!

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Transcript

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 1st of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s begin this month’s first episode with news from the turbulent Tigray region. Getachew Reda, the former president of the region’s interim administration, is at the forefront of the formation of a new party called the Tigray Democratic Liberal Party. This comes only a few weeks after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a new interim president for Tigray and named Getachew his East African affairs advisor.

Recall that Getachew was once a prominent figure in the region’s leading party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF). However, over eight months ago, a feud between members emerged, notably between Getachew and Debre-Tsion Gebre-Michael, the head of the TPLF, resulting in Getachew’s expulsion from the party and eventually the federal government removed him from the interim president position.

In the Amhara region, in north-central Ethiopia, judges are not happy with their wages. The region’s judges' association issued a statement on Sunday the 27th, saying that, although its administration had approved a salary increase, it has yet to be implemented.

The judges are also yet to receive increases based on the nationwide salary adjustment. The region’s Supreme Court has also weighed in on the matter, affirming that it is contacting stakeholders to implement approved increases, explaining that the delay has been due to budget allocation issues.

The region’s judiciary has been in the news for the past several months, with controversial cases, judges detained, and most recently, the approval of a bill that grants judges immunity.

In Addis, on Tuesday the 29th, the House of Peoples’ Representatives unanimously approved the animal health and wellbeing proclamation. However, despite unanimity in the House, stakeholders have considered the bill controversial because of major changes introduced late in the legislative stage. These include a punishment of up to five years in prison and fifty thousand birr, which is almost 400 dollars, to individuals who mix animal products with offbeat, odd ingredients, and animal owners will be required to report to nearby vets if their animals have strayed.

The House’s agricultural affairs standing committee chairman admitted that significant changes were made to the draft but that they were warranted and in line with the House’s responsibility to prepare laws that enable workers and that resolve issues in the sector.

Speaking of animal products, butchers are fed up with the ever-increasing taxes that the Ministry of Revenue is levying on them. The city’s butchers’ association said it had even written a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office to have the situation resolved, but that the Ministry has continued to levy an unreasonable amount in taxes.

On the other side, however, government representatives say the tax they’re paying is fair, since they’re selling meat for steep prices.

More news from the House as one member grilled the Minister of Urban and Infrastructure Development this past week over an Amnesty report of human rights violations in the implementation of the Corridor Development Project (or CDP). The CDP is the government’s initiative to improve the aesthetics and standards of living in urban centers.

The member reiterated Amnesty’s concerns about the lack of due process, forced evictions and low compensation, if any, offered to expropriated residents, especially in Addis Ababa. The Minister, however, hit back at Amnesty’s report, saying that it is unclear why the organization would express concern just now, since the affected residents in central areas of the city were living in makeshift houses, unclean, undignified neighborhoods, implying that the CDP would fix this.

Amnesty’s report, which called for an immediate halt to the corridor project, seems not to have done much as the project is going ahead with full speed, with the most recent Kazanchis corridor in Addis inaugurated just this past week in the presence of PM Abiy and other dignitaries.

On that note about PM Abiy, he welcomed Tete Antonio, Angola’s Minister of External Relations, on Thursday the 1st of May.

After welcoming the minister, PM Abiy took to Twitter to say that Minister Antonio brought a special message from João Lourenço, Angola’s President, but didn’t say what the letter was about.

Thursday was a busy day for the PM as he also presided over a cabinet meeting in which the Council of Ministers passed numerous resolutions.

The Council approved a loan deal worth about eleven million euros with the Italian government. Pending parliament approval, the Council also unanimously voted for Ethiopia’s membership in the African Finance Corporation. The Council additionally voted to reduce the amount of tariff levied on imports from African countries and directed a draft proclamation to parliament for approval that will enable foreigners to own immovable properties and land rights.

Shifting gears, The Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions held a press conference early this week ahead of International Workers’ Day. The Confederation’s president recalled that, although they’d made demands to the Prime Minister in a meeting held about a year and a half ago, including the reduction of income tax rates, wage increases and the fixing of a statutory minimum wage, changes haven’t been made yet.

The Confederation called on the PM to hold another meeting to discuss workers’ issues. They also expressed concern over plans for mandatory deductions from all workers for an emergency fund. The Confederation announced the slogan for this year’s May Day celebrations, and if you haven’t guessed it yet, it’s We urge the government to immediately respond to our demands!’

On that note about workers, this week, the Textile and Apparel Professional Association criticized textile companies for hiring untrained workers to avoid paying market-rate wages to educated professionals.

The Association’s heads also said this trend has rendered trained professionals jobless and is discouraging professionals from pursuing their master’s in textile engineering programs at universities and vocational institutes. They echoed the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions’ call to fix a statutory minimum wage.

In business news, Ethio Telecom briefed the public on Friday the 25th about its share sales, which began about seven months ago. The company reported dismal rates. Even though the company issued a hundred million shares for sale, only ten million were bought.

What does this mean in terms of cash? The company hoped to bring in thirty billion birr, which is a little over two hundred million US dollars, and only managed to get three billion birr, about twenty million US dollars.

The CEO explained that the reason for these lower-than-expected sales included the share sale only being open to Ethiopians, being capped at a million birr, about seven thousand US dollars, and that companies weren’t allowed to buy shares.

She also revealed that the company will soon resume offering shares.

Another state-owned company, but one that has not yet offered shares to the public, is Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest airline. It was in the news this week because it opened talks with Embraer, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturing company.

The Airline wants to purchase a regional jet Embraer E2 but the Brazilian manufacturer’s heads see more avenues for cooperation in addition to aircraft sales, noting that they see Ethiopia as an attractive market. Embraer has already broken ground in Africa supplying its E2 aircraft to various airlines on the continent.

News of Ethiopian Airlines and Embraer working together comes only a week after US aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing opened its Africa office in Addis, a story we covered last week.

In another update from a story from last week’s show: Abebe Fiker, the arrested journalist for the renowned newspaper Reporter, had his day in court on Friday the 25th.

The prosecution alleged that he was filming and recording officials of the Lideta sub-city in Addis on Wednesday 23rd without displaying a journalist identification and aimed to stir the crowd. The accused denied having filmed or recorded them. He was released promptly after posting bail.

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

Want to share an episode? You can download any of them as an .mp3 from our website at www.rorshok.com/ethiopia — the link is in the show notes too!

Ciao!

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