ETHIOPIA: Parties Talk & more – 25th Apr 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 25th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The Prosperity Party, which is the incumbent government, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF), which used to be the dominant party in Ethiopian politics for almost three decades, have been at odds since the Prosperity Party’s rise. This feud morphed into a two-year war which ended in November twenty twenty-two.

On Tuesday the 23rd, news began circulating on social media that, despite their history, the two parties were in talks for a merger. However, that same day, the TPLF denied the allegations, saying they were completely false and indicated that the continuous talks that the party has been having with Prosperity were on strengthening peace, according to what is established in the Pretoria agreement that officially ended the war. The TPLF added that despite the fundamental ideological differences with Prosperity, they will still work together on common issues.

Peace and stability have eluded various parts of the country for several years now. There have been unlawful killings of civilians and ever-increasing reports of abductions along with fighting between the government and rebel groups.

On Wednesday, the 24th, the National Security Council convened to discuss these matters. Various intelligence and army officials attended the meeting, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed presided. The Council later put out a statement saying that the government is taking various measures to control activities that are disturbing peace in urban and rural areas. The Council outlined measures, such as improving law enforcement institutions. In areas where abduction for ransom is widespread, it introduced plans to have residents trained to maintain local peace, stressing the role that local militias play in vast and densely populated countries like Ethiopia. The Council talked about how the government had defused terrorist attack attempts and gained ground against the rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army.

Along with the Council, G7 countries also say they are concerned over tensions and violence in Ethiopia. The G7 countries' foreign ministers had a meeting in Capri, Italy, last week. After the meeting, they said various issues, including conflict, food insecurity and human rights abuse in Ethiopia are worrying them. They also expressed their concern over the memorandum of understanding signed between Ethiopia and Somaliland, which is set to grant Ethiopia access to the Red Sea. The memorandum has severely disgruntled Somalia, which claims Somaliland as its own.

The Ministry of Peace announced that they drafted a bill clearly delineating the relations between religious institutions and the government. The Ministry said the new law intends to clarify the constitutional clause that deals with the separation of state and religion, pointing out that is not absolute and doesn’t mean that the government and religious institutions can’t come into contact or collaborate in certain areas. The Ministry also said that discussions over the draft law have started with a few religious institutions, even though the content hasn’t been made public yet.

Recall that a month ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sat down with representatives from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Muslim fathers and said that a new law concerning religious institutions was going to be issued soon.

Speaking of religious fathers, notorious priest Belay Mekonnen was taken into custody after he attempted to make a bank transfer of over three hundred and fifty million birr (around six million US dollars), presenting forged bank documents at a Commercial Bank of Ethiopia branch located in the premises of the African Union (or AU). The bank employees suspected foul play and contacted AU officials, who said they didn’t order a transaction. Shortly after that, officers of the AU detained the priest and handed him over to the Federal Police. He was brought before the Federal First Instance Court last Thursday the 18th. He denied his involvement in any crime and requested bail. The Court adjourned the matter and denied the bail

Episodes of attempts to defraud banks have increased recently and the National Bank, which regulates the banking sector, is worried. On Thursday the 11th, the bank's representative said that banks have become increasingly susceptible to fraud and that this trend is set to continue in the foreseeable future. The representative added that, according to its study, banks have been defrauded of about a billion birr (over seventeen million US dollars) in the past year alone. Fraudsters have been using an array of methods, including forged cheques, stolen ATM cards, scam calls, and text messages. Recall that the biggest bank in Ethiopia, the Commercial Bank, made international headlines as hundreds of millions of birr were overdrawn due to what it called “a system glitch.”

The Civil Aviation Authority’s nine-month report indicated that it earned the most revenue in the organization’s history. The expected earnings for the period were three hundred million birr (a little over five million US dollars) but ended up being over seven hundred million birr (more than twelve million US dollars). The Civil Aviation Authority attributed this rather surprising increase in revenue to the rise in payments airlines make for using its air navigation service. By the end of this budget year, the Authority expects over a billion birr (over seventeen million US dollars) in revenue.

However, the Civil Aviation Authority wasn’t completely content with the work done in the past nine months as the budget the executive allocated to it hadn’t been enough to make planned purchases and keep their employees —They were leaving because they wanted higher salaries and better benefits. The organization hasn’t been able to attract new employees. Additionally, the Civil Aviation Authority said the lack of administrative and operational freedom has significantly affected its performance over the past nine months.

Speaking of flights, Ethiopian Airlines announced that it will begin flying directly to Poland’s capital Warsaw via Greece’s capital Athens four times every week, starting from the 16th of June. Ethiopian Airlines currently has more than a hundred and thirty-five destinations across the world and continues to expand. Mesfin Tassew, the Company’s CEO, expressed his excitement saying that adding yet another European destination will help the Airline’s effort in bringing Africa closer to the rest of the world.

Last week we told you that the government issued a directive allowing foreign investors to engage in sectors previously reserved for domestic investors. Well, on Thursday the 18th, the Investment Commission and the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration held a joint press release in which they announced that foreign investors looking to engage in the newly opened sectors will be asked to allocate anywhere between five hundred thousand and ten million US dollars depending on the sector. The representatives from the two regulatory organs said that these sectors being closed to foreigners affected trade competition and that upon the directive’s implementation, domestic investors’ profits will take a hit, the price of goods will dip, and the government’s revenue will increase.

Even though Ethiopia has made significant progress in many sectors, especially digitization, the country didn’t have a digital ID program. However, now, the National Digital ID program has been registering citizens and is set to issue IDs on a rolling basis. Over four million citizens have registered and this number will predictably increase as, on Wednesday the 24th, the National ID program and state-owned telecom services provider Ethio Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding enabling citizens to register for a digital ID in twenty-nine of Ethio Telecom's service centers. The company plans to register over thirty million citizens via its service centers fulfilling over thirty-five percent of the program's goal of registering at least ninety million by twenty twenty-six. Recall that the program had received three hundred and fifty million US dollars in financing from the World Bank late last year.

And that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Ciao!