OLA Negotiates with Federal Government & more – 16th Nov 2023

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

In a follow-up of a story we covered in a previous update, in Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam, the federal government and the Oromo Liberation Army are holding negotiations to end their conflict. When talks began last week, military leaders were representing both sides. However, now the federal government has sent Redwan Hussein, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security advisor, and Gideon Timotewos, the Minister of Justice — both were present in the successful negotiations between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front held last year in Pretoria, South Africa. Recall that the Liberation Front and the government reached an agreement to stop the war through these negotiations.

Moving on…

Do you remember that the US Agency for International Development (or USAID) decided to halt aid delivery to Ethiopia? The USAID decided to suspend the aid distribution because it was allegedly being diverted and sold for profit. Well, on Wednesday, the 15th, the agency announced that it would resume providing aid to the country next month after the government and humanitarian partners decided to implement reforms to combat aid diversions. Samantha Power, the USAID’s administrator, said that the reforms include increased food distribution monitoring, more tracking of commodities, and an improved process for identifying and registering beneficiaries. Recall that the USAID and the World Food Programme decided to halt aid delivery a few months ago in May and that the latter resumed provision in August.

Next up, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in Saudi Arabia on Friday the 15th to attend the Saudi Arabia-Africa Summit held in Saudi’s capital, Riyadh. Aside from attending the Summit, PM Abiy sat down with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and talked about bilateral and regional matters. Abiy said later that the two had reached an ‘understanding to establish a high-level joint ministerial committee for Saudi support on Ethiopia’s macroeconomic reforms through debt restructuring, energy cooperation, and development finance and investments.’ Basically, Ethiopia probably wants Saudi financing for development projects.

PM Abiy was in the news again as he sat before the House of People’s Representatives at the National Parliament on Tuesday the 14th to answer questions from House members. He talked about numerous issues, including the conflict in the Amhara region, saying that popular movements won't be able to usurp government power. He also talked about the country’s need for a sea outlet. He said that neighboring countries with ports that Ethiopia is eyeing for a sea outlet, like Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia, should consider Ethiopia’s request as a win-win, a mutual cooperation arrangement and should reject the narrative that the county is hostile about the matter, adding that Ethiopia does not want to violate the sovereignty of another nation.

The PM also talked about the stock market, which will begin operating soon. He said that the newly introduced stock market would significantly bolster the economy, allowing many people with capital to invest in various companies. He said that the government wouldn’t be able to control huge state-owned enterprises like Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio Telecom indefinitely, explaining that allowing the public to invest in these companies would help these enterprises and the economy grow. Allegedly, private entities can do a better job of growing businesses because they are self-interested and motivated by profit and not by other considerations the government might have.

Ethiopian Airlines and American aircraft manufacturing company Boeing revealed on Tuesday the 14th that they have reached an agreement to purchase sixty-seven aircrafts, the highest number of planes an African airline requested in a single order. They signed the agreement at the Aviation Industry Exhibition held in Dubai. From the sixty-seven, eleven are 787 Dreamliner planes, and twenty are 737 Max airliners. The models of the rest of the planes have not been revealed. Recall that almost four years ago, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashed near Addis.

The airline said the aircrafts would be manufactured and delivered in the next few years but refrained from talking about the price of the planes. Boeing and the airline said the ordered aircrafts emit twenty percent less gas emissions and contribute fifty percent less to sound pollution.

But that was not all. On Wednesday, the 15th, the airline announced that it had reached an agreement with the other aircraft manufacturing giant, French company Airbus, to purchase eleven planes. Unlike the agreement we mentioned earlier, this was a Memorandum of Understanding, meaning that Airbus won’t begin manufacturing until the Memorandum matures and an actual order is made. Mesfin Tassew, Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO, and Christian Scherer, Airbus’ Chief Commercial Officer, signed the memorandum at the Dubai Airshow.

The Airline was in the news again as it announced that it had started flying to the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui. The Airline will be flying to the city three times a week. The head of the airline’s business sector said that the airline plans to fly to the capital cities of all African countries by twenty thirty, adding that, with Bangui, the list of destinations in Africa has now increased to sixty-four cities.

In its first quarter performance report, The Ethiopian Electric Power (or EEP) said that it had exported more than twenty million US dollars worth of electricity to neighbors Djibouti, Kenya, and Sudan in just three months. Although the export revenue was less than planned, the EEP said it had shown an increase compared to revenue collected in the same months of the previous fiscal year.

Some news from court - the Federal High Court sentenced the former head of the Metal and Engineering Corporation (or METEC) Major General Kinfe Dagnew to three years and seven months in prison. He was found guilty of corruption concerning the purchase of more than a hundred radars from two Chinese companies for over two hundred million birr or almost four million US dollars, without the tender process required by law. The former head of METEC faces more charges, including corruption charges for illegally procuring agricultural equipment and a boat.

Let’s talk about gas now. Recall that gas stations had to accept electronic payments only. Still, some stations breached this rule, and The Petroleum and Energy Authority imposed restrictions on these filling stations —they wouldn’t receive gas for a month. However, the Authority said on Monday the 13th that it lifted restrictions on forty-one retail gas stations. After gasoline stations protested the decision and after checking with Ethio Telecom, the Authority decided to lift the restrictions but gave the stations a final warning. If they breach this rule again, they will be punished. The Authority said it removed the restrictions because the gas stations admitted their faults, and the punishment could cause a gas shortage.

Addis Ababa’s Work, Enterprise, and Industry Development Bureau revealed that in the past four months, more than fifty thousand citizens have found jobs in the city.

And finally, some great news. On Thursday, the 6th, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the International Black People History and Heritage Center will be created and headquartered in Ethiopia. The Ministry’s spokesperson said that the center will be formed on Friday, the 8th of December. Ethiopia was picked as the seat of the center because of the country’s utmost significance in black history and the fact that the country was never colonized, being a symbol of African resistance and a beacon of freedom.

And that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us! Before we leave, we wanted to thank everyone who has been listening to us, and welcome all the new subscribers! We are happy the Rorshok Ethiopia community is growing!

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Ciao!