ETHIOPIA: The New President & more – 10th Oct 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Kicking off this episode, Parliament has voted for Taye Atske-Selassie, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be the country’s president and was sworn in. This appointment of the veteran diplomat comes after Sahle-Work Zewde finished her term in office as head of state. As her final act, on Monday the 7th, she presided over this year’s parliament’s opening ceremony and addressed members. Even though Sahle-Work could’ve been re-elected since the constitution states that the president can run for a second term, members chose to appoint Ambassador Taye as the new president. There are allegations that Sahle-Work and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed weren’t getting along well. Maybe that’s why just two days before her presidency came to an end, she said in a cryptic tweet that she had remained quiet for a year without giving any context.

On the same day Taye Atske-Selassie was sworn in, he said the executive is willing to sit down with all factions who’d like to engage in peace talks but warned that there’s no room for forces wanting to advance their political interests using other means. He said the government would exert diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia.

Up north, the division within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF) is still in the headlines. Debre-Tsion Gebre-Michael, The TPLF’s chairman, is leading the rift on one side while Getachew Reda, the region’s interim president, heads the other group. Getachew’s supporters allege that Debre-Tsion’s group is plotting to oust the interim government, while the other side is saying that Getachew’s faction wants to engage in violent conflict to stay in power.

On Monday the 7th, the region’s defense force said it would not tolerate disorder stemming from this feud. It also warned both groups to refrain from statements that could potentially instigate violence.

In news outside of politics, residents in certain parts of the capital city of Addis were concerned on Sunday the 6th as they sensed the aftershock of an earthquake that measured four point nine on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred over a hundred and fifty kilometers away from the city. There were no damages or injuries reported both in the places where the earthquake hit and in Addis. Fortunately, experts said this poses no danger and is unlikely to happen again.

In more imminent danger are Ethiopians in Lebanon who are caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah. The Ethiopian government says it is trying to get them to safety, with repatriation efforts underway. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently welcomed over fifty Ethiopians who were repatriated from Lebanon. The Embassy in Lebanon is also providing shelter to Ethiopians and has set up hotlines for them to reach out. It also announced on Thursday the 10th that there is no fee for registering to get repatriated, asking citizens to contact the embassy and report cases where they were asked for fees as those are likely fraud attempts.

In other news, the federal government increased gas prices. As we reported on previous shows, the executive has been steadily raising the prices per liter by a few birr every few months. On Tuesday the 8th, the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration announced the biggest price jump in years. A liter of regular gas was being sold for a little over eighty-two birr (which is about seventy cents US) but starting from Tuesday, it will set buyers back over ninety-one birr, eight cents US. The Ministry said this won’t be the last time there will be price hikes as there are plans to increase prices every quarter this year to remedy market-price imbalances that floating the currency caused.

From the Ministry of Trade to the Ministry of Revenues as the Minister said in a press release on Monday the 7th that her office is going to award over five hundred loyal federal taxpayers for the previous fiscal year. She said this is the sixth year running that loyal taxpayers have been annually rewarded. The ministry initiated the award program to encourage a culture of voluntarily declaring and paying taxes. Despite these loyal taxpayers, the government missed its tax collection goals by seventeen billion birr, which is over a hundred and fifty million US dollars, even though it collected more than it did in the previous fiscal year.

Another Ministry in the news this week was the Ministry of Transport and Logistics as it released a report on what’s needed to improve the country’s logistics infrastructure. According to the document, an investment worth over two and a half billion US dollars is needed to upgrade the country’s railway networks. Already operational is the Ethio-Djibouti Railway but it hasn’t lived up to expectations, unable to cover its costs, let alone generate profit. The experts at the Ministry said this was due to security issues, robberies, theft and vandalism, which will still be challenges in the future in improving the country’s logistics infrastructure.

Next up, the Indian embassy in Ethiopia announced that it had suspended the issuance of medical visas. The embassy explained that it made this decision because certain individuals were submitting fake documents, obtaining medical visas, and using India as a gateway to other countries instead of returning to Ethiopia. India is a well-known destination for receiving essential treatment that isn’t available in Ethiopia and that is why it issues these special medical visas but it will not be available temporarily because it’s being misused for fraudulent purposes.

In business news, the Chinese company Chongqing Kunhuang has agreed with the Ethiopian Investment Commission to develop the land in the Geda special economic zone as a sub-contractor. The two penned the agreement on Tuesday the 8th at the Commission’s head office. The deal is worth six billion birr (which is fifty million US dollars) and will create job opportunities for many citizens, contribute to import substitution and bring in foreign currency, among other benefits. The project will be developed on about twenty hectares of land.

Speaking of project development, the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority announced that it expects three pharmaceutical companies to begin production during this budget year. Two of the factories are located in the Amhara region, and one, which has already gotten a Good Manufacturing Practice standard certificate, is in the capital.

An official from the Authority expressed concern over one of the companies in the Amhara region, saying the instability in the area might delay the company's being fully operational. The plant built in Addis is located at the Kilinto Industrial Park — the project plans to attract pharmaceutical companies to open plants there.

In sports news, club football is currently halted because of the international break, and players are representing their national team for a few matches this weekend. Gebre-Medhin Haile, the national team’s head coach, called up twenty-three players last week and began preparations for two matches, both against the Guinea national team. The matches will take place on Saturday the 12th and Tuesday the 15th in Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan. Ethiopia’s team, nicknamed the Walia antelopes, sits in third place in their group with one point, and their opponent, Guinea, is at the bottom with no points. Democratic Republic of Congo leads the group with six points and Tanzania trails with four.

And finally, let’s talk about Irreecha, which was celebrated last weekend. The holiday is mainly celebrated among the Oromo community. Oromos from all over the country went to Addis and then to the nearby city Debre-Zeit to celebrate this holiday, which mainly revolves around expressing gratitude and exchanging thanks for the past year.

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

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

Ciao!