ETHIOPIA: Tigray’s New Cabinet & more – 24th April 2025

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 24th of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s begin with the biggest news from this past week, the death of Pope Francis. Following the pontiff’s death on Easter Monday, Ethiopia’s President Taye Atske-Selassie and PM Abiy Ahmed extended their condolences, along with Ethiopia’s religious leaders, Father Mathias, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Berhane-Eyesus Demerew, the Cardinal and Archbishop of the Addis Ababa diocese.

During the war in northern Ethiopia that took place between twenty twenty and twenty twenty-two, the Pope had called for the fighting to stop and prayed for the civilians who suffered from the fallout.

Speaking of Tigray, Tadesse Werede, the newly appointed president of the region’s interim administration, unveiled his new cabinet, axing about six members from the previous president’s tally, meaning there are now twenty-one cabinet members.

Three senior Tigray army members, whom the former president Getachew Reda had sacked, were also called back. While announcing his new cabinet members on Saturday the 19th, Tadesse said his administration will address pressing challenges and lead the path toward reconciliation and unity.

The region’s opposition parties, however, have criticized Tadesse’s appointments, saying they lack inclusivity and are not participatory. They also raised legitimacy issues, stating that the Tigray interim council doesn’t accept Tadesse’s reconciliation initiatives.

In other news, on Tuesday the 22nd, the World Food released a statement, saying that ten million Ethiopians are at risk of hunger, with a third being dangerously at risk.

The Program said the conflicts, displacement, instability and drought have worsened hunger, with 10 million suffering from it. It predicts lower-than-normal rainfall in southeastern Ethiopia, which will also endanger its population.

What’s worse is that the Program is reporting that it doesn’t have enough funds to support the people who need aid, adding that it requires an extra two hundred million US dollars to continue its support from April until September.

Meanwhile, the UN Development Program (or UNDP) said Ethiopia’s annual inflation for twenty twenty-five will be twenty percent and won’t fall to single digits until twenty twenty-eight.

The UNDP said the country’s inflation rate is high compared to its neighbors and that ever since the National Bank decided to cap loans, banks haven’t been lending much.

Shifting gears, companies that only buy and sell foreign currency are calling on the National Bank to allow them to participate in the foreign currency auctions it is organizing every two weeks for commercial banks.

After allowing market forces to determine exchange rates, the National Bank licensed these companies to deal in foreign currency and, although they said business has been going well so far, they have been facing foreign currency shortages, which can be resolved if the Bank allows them to participate in its auctions.

The Bank’s representatives have said that the auctions are only open to commercial banks. Recall that the companies offer higher buying and selling rates than commercial banks and if they participate in the auctions, they can offer higher prices to the National Bank for the foreign currency.

Still on business, Fintech Investment, a company in various business sectors, said this past week that it plans on importing twenty thousand electric vehicles from the Chinese company Build Your Dreams (or BYD) over the next five years. Fintech Investment said it has imported and delivered two hundred and fifty BYD electric vehicles to date and that another two hundred and fifty have already reached the port in Djibouti and will arrive in Addis soon.

The company explained that it is offering these vehicles at affordable prices and has collaborated with financial institutions to enter into loan agreements.

Another Ethiopian company has also penned a deal with a Chinese automotive company, this time with Zhejiang Geely, which is a major shareholder in renowned car brands Volvo and Polestar.

Kerchanshe, an Ethiopian company engaged in various retail markets, will enter the automotive market with this exclusive deal, allowing it to assemble the Geely brand vehicles locally, along with warranty and technical support for future customers.

At the signing ceremony, the two companies highlighted Zhejiang’s brand power and innovation, and Kerchanshe’s reliability as a local partner that has over two decades of experience in various industries in the country.

From the roads to the air, Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturing giant, officially opened its Africa office in Addis on Tuesday the 22nd, with the Minister of Transport, the Ethiopian Airlines CEO and the US ambassador in Ethiopia all attending the ceremony.

This development means Boeing will directly manage its operations in Africa, which it previously did from its offices in the Middle East. Boeing’s choice to establish its office in Ethiopia also indicates the country’s status as Africa’s aviation hub. Henok Tefera, a former diplomat and executive of Ethiopian Airlines, will preside as Boeing Africa’s managing director.

Ethiopian Airlines, the largest in Africa, already has a number of aircraft orders in the pipeline with the aircraft manufacturing company.

In more news from Addis, in a previous episode, we mentioned that the city administration was auctioning land in nine sub-cities. Well, scratch that to eight because this past week, reports surfaced that the government has cancelled the auction for land in the Arada sub-city.

The auction was cancelled because the government said it would develop the land in the sub-city itself. After this cancellation, the total number of winners stands at three hundred and eighty, with the highest offer at over two hundred and fifty thousand birr per square meter, which is almost two thousand US dollars, and the lowest, eight thousand birr per square meter, which is around fifty US dollars.

The city’s Land Use and Development Bureau head told the media that after the winners pay the lease price in full, the government will get almost seven billion birr, which is almost fifty million US dollars.

The government continues to take stern measures against the media as police detain yet another journalist. Abebe Fiker, a journalist at the newspaper Reporter, was arrested on Wednesday the 23rd, as he was trying to interview officials at the Lideta sub-city in Addis.

Even though the reason for his arrest is unclear, it may be related to the government’s suppression of the media. Just last week, parliament approved a new media law that grants the executive significant power over the licensing and suspension of media organizations.

From the media to medicine, as a representative of the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday the 22nd that it is not only the government’s burden to raise the standards of the lives of medical professionals.

The representative said this at the inauguration of a loans and savings institution that Droga Pharma, a private company, established to help finance the lives and businesses of medical professionals.

The representative admitted the struggles and challenges that people have faced in their journey to becoming doctors and that they need to get benefits and compensation that reflect their hard work.

Medical professionals frequently say they’re not being paid enough.

And to close this edition, in the Semien Mountains National Park in the Amhara region in central Ethiopia, some members of the community have been hunting the Walia Ibex, an endemic animal only found in the Park.

Last week, the Park’s office head told the media that the hunters are killing these animals due to an unfounded belief that the Walia’s horns and nails can be used in traditional medicine. He recalled that similar misconceptions had previously led hunters to kill another endemic wild animal, the red fox.

Illegal hunting has gone rampant in the park, especially due to the instability in the region. Prior to the conflict between the youth movement Fano and the government, there were over eight hundred Walias in the Park, but the number has since dwindled to three hundred.

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

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Ciao!