ETHIOPIA: Shooting & more – 18th Apr 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 18th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

On Friday the 12th, there was a shootout between city police forces and three members of the popular movement Fano around the Millenium Hall in Addis a few meters away from the Bole International Airport. Two of the three Fano members and a civilian died in the shooting. The police of the city released a statement shortly after the incident, saying that law enforcement intercepted the members before carrying out a terrorist attack. The remaining member is currently in custody. Recall that Fano and the federal government have been at odds for a while, with fighting in the Amhara region, which began almost a year ago. Amidst calls for a peaceful resolution, the violence is raging on.

Since we mentioned Amhara, the feud between the Amhara and Tigray region continues as the Amhara regional government called on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to immediately pull out of the disputed areas in Southern Tigray or Northern Amhara and comply with the Pretoria agreement, stating that not doing so may lead to another round of conflict. The region alleges that Tigray ‘invaded’ the disputed areas, citing Amhara student textbook maps, which include the disputed areas as part of the Amhara region. This invasion has resulted in thousands of residents of these disputed areas leaving their homes to seek refuge in more peaceful places in their vicinity.

Moving on, The Mass Media Council called on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to sit down with journalists and media outlets to discuss the detention and abuse of journalists among other problems that media outlets are facing. The Council said that this request comes after the Prime Minister’s recent discussions with various factions, also pointing that it submitted this request to the Prime Minister’s office three weeks ago. The Council, which recently held its general assembly, recalled that even though the PM has talked to many social and professional groups over the years, he hasn’t talked to journalists and mass media professionals since coming to power six years ago.

Addis is currently under reconstruction. On a random stroll on the city’s main roads, you’d see several heavy machinery and earth-moving equipment lined up on the sides. Well, it appears that those already in the country will be the only ones available as importers of this equipment said that the Ministry of Transport and Logistics has denied them import permits. They said the Ministry made this decision without a directive being issued from the government and that they have expressed their concerns before the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Bank, the Ministry of Finance, and the Customs Commission. The importers say they suspect that the ban results from the executive’s decision to prohibit importing internal combustion engine vehicles. They called on the government to issue them permits to import.

Speaking of heavy, the executive is working on establishing a legal framework to regulate heavy borrowers. The National Bank says only ten borrowers have taken out almost twenty-five percent of all loans that commercial banks have made available. Not only are loans concentrated in the hands of the few, but they’re also concentrated in certain sectors. This concentration poses risks because if these heavy borrowers default, they will affect the entire banking industry. That’s why the Bank is eager to introduce new laws along with the comprehensive banking reform in the books.

More on the finance industry as the Adwa Victory Microfinance Association, a small-scale finance company supported by the National Defense Forces, said it has collected a billion birr or more than seventeen million US dollars, comfortably surpassing the seventy-five million birr or a little over a million US dollar minimum requirement to form a microfinance company. The Association’s main aim is to support members of the armed forces by making them owners of the company through shares and extending loans to them. The Association’s organizing committee head said it will continue selling shares until early August this year and that shares worth a billion birr are still available for purchase, primarily for members of the armed forces and secondly to the public and companies.

In other news, England, in collaboration with the United Nations and the Ethiopian government, organized a humanitarian aid fundraiser for Ethiopia. It was held on Monday the 15th in Geneve, Switzerland. Twenty donors made contributions that totaled over six hundred million US dollars. However, the goal was to reach a billion dollars to contribute towards the grand total of over three billion dollars Ethiopia needs. The US donated a hundred and fifty million dollars, and England contributed with a hundred million. Taye Atske-Selassie, The Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador, gave an opening speech, which a heckler reportedly interrupted.

On Thursday, the 11th, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed presided over the Council of Ministers' regular session. The Council approved the Public Service and Administration Policy, so a competency certification system will be developed for civil servants. The aim is to develop a free, impartial, accessible public service delivery system with an efficient implementation to provide services to society properly.

The Council also approved another policy on small and medium enterprises or SMEs development which will allow certain SMEs to grow and contribute to the economy. And a new law re‑establishing the Environmental Protection Authority was also enacted, an approval that the director general of the authority said would empower the authority to curtail pollution effectively.

Six days later, on Wednesday the 17th, the Council assembled again to decide on the draft policy on transitional justice. In a statement after the meeting, the Council said that in the past, there have been attempts to address various human rights abuses, civil wars and transgressions. The Council went on to say that these attempts haven’t brought about the desired results because they haven’t managed to incorporate truth, reconciliation, justice and amnesty. The Council also announced that the draft policy had been approved after including proposed improvements and that the draft policy has officially taken effect from that dayh.

PM Abiy also presided over the Investment Board’s meeting. The Board approved a directive that permits foreign investors to engage in sectors that they weren’t previously allowed to participate in. The sectors newly open to foreign investors include coffee, chat, pulses, and poultry. However, it leaves out fertilizers and oil. Recall that four years ago, the government closed many sectors to foreign investors in a bid to protect domestic investors from unfair competition. However, the executive said making certain sectors exclusively open to domestic investors hasn’t proved effective as they haven’t made their services accessible or streamlined. Still, there are important caveats like how a foreign investor is required to export from Ethiopia at least five hundred and seventy million birr or ten million US dollars for three years before being issued an investment permit.

More business news as on Thursday the 11th, at a shareholder meeting, United National Petrol, a gas retail company, said that it plans to supply gas to Ethiopian Airlines. The company’s board said supplying gas to the airline is part of an expansion project following the raising of the company capital from four hundred million birr or seven million US dollars to six hundred million birr or ten and a half million dollars. The board also said that it plans to either build a station at the airport that costs around four hundred and fifty million birr or almost eight million dollars or partner up with other gas companies that have stations in the airport and improve them without having to build brand new ones.

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

Do you know that besides the Ethiopia Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, and the Ocean Update, about 70% of the world covered in salt water. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates to see the full list. Find the link in the show notes as well.

Ciao!