ETHIOPIA: Threatening the EU & more – 16th May 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 16th of May twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release over the weekend that Ethiopia will take proportional measures against the EU if they don’t remove the visa restrictions soon. However, the Ministry’s spokesman didn’t say specifically what measures Ethiopia will take.

Recall that last week we talked about the EU introducing restrictions on visas for Ethiopians. The EU will only issue single-entry visas, visa-application processes will take forty-five days instead of fifteen, and there will be additional visa fees. The Union made this decision because Ethiopia didn’t cooperate enough in repatriating its own citizens who are living in EU member states undocumented, even though the country says it has been working very hard to fulfill the task.

The Union was in the news again as it announced that it would be donating sixty million birr or almost one million one hundred thousand US dollars to help Ethiopia combat cholera. There’s been a cholera outbreak in the country and the number of cases has been increasing steadily. The EU says drought and untimely rainfall are partially responsible for the persisting outbreak. This round of the Union’s funding will be used to provide clean water and increase hygiene and sanitation, as in making available more soap and detergents in targeted areas.

Media outlets asked the deputy commissioner of the Commission if the investigation into the murder of prominent Oromo politician Bate Urgessa was still underway or if the news was true that the Commission had decided to end the investigation process. the deputy commissioner of the Commission said that the investigation hadn’t stopped, that the Commission was in talks with the Oromo regional government, and that she couldn’t reveal anything further because the investigation was ongoing.

Last week, we told you that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission had tapped out of the investigation of Bate Urgessa citing that it had found evidence linking the government with the crime and that law enforcement made it difficult to proceed further with the investigation.

Speaking of politics in Oromia, two politicians of the Oromo Federalist Congress and the Oromo Liberation Front had a talk with Ambassador Mike Hammer, the special envoy of the US to the Horn of Africa. They talked about the state of affairs in Ethiopia as well as Oromo politics. One of the politicians said they told Ambassador Hammer of their doubts about the effectiveness of the National Dialogue in bringing about peace and political stability. Hammer also expressed how shocked and sad he was over the murder of Bate Urgessa.

Moving on, The National Defense Forces announced that they are working on enhancing cooperation with Qatar’s military. The Forces announcement came after a meeting between Qatar’s military attaché to Ethiopia and the Defense University’s commander. The attaché also visited the Defense University. He expressed interest in forging a deeper relationship with Ethiopia and expanding collaboration in the fields of military technology and training. The attaché’s visit comes two months after both Ethiopia’s and Qatar’s ministers of defense and senior military staff met in Qatar’s capital Doha on the occasion of the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference.

In previous updates, we have talked about the bill on religious affairs, which is a draft law that concerns the government’s relationship with religious institutions, and issues the two can and can’t collaborate on. It hasn’t been approved yet. The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and the Gospel Believers Council sent a letter to the Ministry of Peace, the government organ drafting the law, expressing concern over the omission of certain matters that should be included in the draft; for instance, rights accorded to followers of the faith in international instruments. The Council criticized the draft saying it rolled back progress made thus far in ensuring religious equality and goes against the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The Gospel Believers Council also questioned the constitutionality of the provisions of the new law. But the Ministry is not showing signs of slowing down as there are plans to present the draft before the Council of Ministers in the next two weeks for approval.

From the Ministry of Peace to the Ministry of Health, as it presented its nine-month executive report to the House of People’s Representatives Health and Social Development Standing Committee on Thursday the 9th.

While talking about the report, a member of the Standing Committee pointed out that in the South-Western region, people are tragically passing away because of blood shortage.

The Standing Committee also asked why maternity and infant mortality rates in the past nine months have increased to over five hundred mothers dying while pregnant or during childbirth, with more than five thousand children passing away. The Standing Committee asked why the Ministry hadn’t come up with a solution. The Public Health Institute Director told the Committee that the reason behind the mortality rates was hospitals being far out in rural areas. The issue of water and power shortages in hospitals in the South-Western region was also raised.

Another draft law in the approval process is the new Civil Servants Proclamation which is comprised of a hundred and sixty articles and deals with issues such as criteria for wage increases, benefits, promotions, training, and certification. The new law will also establish a merit and wage board with nine members and will be presided over by the Prime Minister. Among other duties, the board is expected to ensure that wages are determined based on a nationwide scale system as well as reward government offices and employees who have excelled in their work. The draft law was presented before the House of People’s Representatives on Wednesday the 15th.

In bills that did pass… The House approved the new rural land use and administration proclamation a day earlier, on Tuesday the 14th. The House had been mulling over the draft for six months. The law concerns rural land in all parts of the country except the Tigray region and allows smallholder farmers to take out loans from financial service providers using their land as collateral, and sell their land-holding rights

You may be asking what about Tigray? Well, the House’s Agricultural Affairs standing committee chairman explained that Tigray was excluded because it only has an interim administration and doesn’t have a Council constituted through an election.

The House had a busy week as it also held a panel discussion on the issues challenging the construction sector and how the House could help solve them. The panel discussion was held on Thursday the 9th. A talking point that frequently popped up during the discussion was the construction sector’s dependence on imports for raw materials. Panelists said this affects the foreign currency coffer of the country. They also said the construction sector depends on the government for financing, that there’s an imbalance between supply and demand, and that stakeholders aren’t working in unison.

On the brighter side, on Monday the 13th, private real estate developer Ovid announced the completion of a joint housing development project. It was done in collaboration with the Army Foundation and cost more than one and a half billion birr or almost thirty million US dollars. The project includes seven buildings located right outside the capital Addis Ababa and contains a total of almost two hundred and fifty unit homes for the defense community.

And to close this edition, some news about the environment. The Addis Ababa City Administration Environmental Protection Authority reminded plastic manufacturing companies on Tuesday the 14th to start producing paper bags immediately. The Authority warned that if they don’t and if they produce plastic containers smaller than .03 micrometers, the companies will be shut down and the owners will be arrested.

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

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Ciao!