Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 11th of January twenty twenty four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

To open the second episode of this year, we wanted to follow up on last week’s biggest story: the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland which will grant Ethiopia access to the Red Sea.

Well, after the signing of the agreement, Somalians took to social media to express dissatisfaction with the deal, some even suggesting that Ethiopians and ethnic Oromos, in particular, be expelled. Recall that Somalia claims Somaliland as its own.

The Oromo Liberation Front, one of the opposition parties, voiced its concern over the situation with a statement issued on Sunday the 7th. The statement urged parties to reach an understanding and respect refugees and civilians, and also said that Oromos in Somalia have no ill intention towards the country and should be protected in such turbulent times.

Additionally, on Wednesday the 10th, the Ethiopian Common Council for Political Parties issued a statement saying that after discussing the memorandum of understanding, its content, its risks and rewards, it is fully in favor of the agreement and expressed its commitment to support its implementation. The statement also called on the government, political parties and the public at large to play their respective roles to see to it that the agreement bears fruit.

In other news, the Addis Ababa City Administration had made its employees sit for exams administered by the Addis Ababa and Kotebe Universities with the Public Service and Human Resource Development Bureau in December twenty twenty three. The objective was to measure the employees competence and qualifications, and the results are back!

More than fifteen thousand government workers sat for the exam and only forty-three percent passed (around 6,500 people). The results of the exam will be used to better training programs development and growth initiatives, the overarching goal being the improvement of public service delivery.

After a joint operation involving federal and regional security officers conducted throughout last week, the Ethiopian Customs Commission announced that it had seized contraband goods both entering and leaving the country. On Tuesday the 9th, the Commission said that the goods were worth eight hundred million birr or over fourteen million US dollars. Seven trucks containing the contraband were seized and twelve suspects were detained.

The seized goods include coffee, illegal drugs, medicines, cosmetics, vehicle spare parts, khat (which is a legal stimulant plant especially consumed in Ethiopia and in Arab countries) and foreign bank notes.

Speaking of contraband and smuggling, Hong Kong based organization Voice for Prisoners called on parties concerned with drug traffickers at the Bole International Airport in Addis to incorporate new technologies. An official of the organization said that ten individuals have been caught smuggling drugs from Addis to Hong Kong in twenty twenty three alone. It was mentioned that the Bole International Airport is one of the easiest places in the world for drug smuggling because of lax security measures.

According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, the airport is the main line of transport for illicit drugs from Africa to Europe and South America to Asia; in its twenty twenty three report, the office said that of the 165 cocaine smugglers caught in Brazil, 64 had their destination in Addis. The Voice for Prisoners official urged the airport to at least deploy trained dogs to sniff out and catch smugglers, additionally calling on the government to amp up security.

The UN Development Programme (or UNDP) has appointed Samuel Gbaydee Doe as its Ethiopian office resident representative. On Wednesday the 10th, Gbaydee Doe, who is Liberian, presented his credentials to Protocol Affairs Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The newly appointed rep said that he felt honored to lead UNDP Ethiopia at such a crucial time. He expressed his commitment to helping Ethiopia achieve the goals set out in the ten year development plan and the home grown economic reform program.

Lombardia, an old restaurant in Addis located in the booming financial district of the capital, was demolished, despite the Federal First Instance Court having declared it as a heritage site. The restaurant, which was ninety years old, was demolished without any explanation aside from the reason that the land is wanted for development.

When asked about the matter, the Ethiopian Heritage Authority said that the restaurant didnt comply with all the criteria to be considered a local heritage site.

Kelly Larson and partners from the World Resource Institute and John Hopkins University visited Addis and on Thursday the 11th, they met up with the city’s mayor Adanech Abebe to talk about partnering up to improve road safety and traffic management. The mayor said that the guests expressed their admiration for the exemplary progress on road safety in Addis. She added that she thanked the guests for their institutions’ support and agreed to further strengthen relations.

The state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, which is the biggest bank in the country, has fired more than 1,300 of its workers that it had employed through Commercial Nominees, a company the bank itself has a stake in.

The employees association said that they had been dismissed from their posts unlawfully, adding that it is on the verge of suing the bank if it doesn’t reach an amicable deal.

The employees’ association has already begun talks with the Confederation of Labor Unions and legal professionals in preparation for litigation. The employees association head said that the employees were dismissed without being paid any compensation and before their employment contract had run out and added that ninety percent of the employees dismissed are women. The Bank’s representatives haven’t commented on the matter so far.

An international VPN review website has come out with a report saying that Ethiopia has lost more than a hundred billion birr (almost two billion US dollars) because of internet restrictions. This figure is the second highest in the world next to Russia, which the report said has lost four billion US dollars. Early last year, the Ethiopian government had restricted access to platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Telegram and Tiktok because of tensions over the attempted schism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Even though the issue was resolved and matters de-escalated, the restriction pulled through until July last year. Recall also that the internet was completely restricted in the Amhara region because of the Fano militia uprising in August.

On to sports news now as veteran midfielder for the Ethiopian national football team Shimelis Bekele announced that he is retiring from international football. Shimelis made the announcement last week, on Thursday the 4th saying that he was a bit sad that his fifteen years as a player in the national team have come to an end but that he was proud of all he achieved during his stay. His most memorable time in the national team was in twenty thirteen as he was instrumental in the national team’s qualification in the twenty thirteen African Cup of Nations. Shimelis will however keep playing club football. Recall that he’s also played club football in other African countries such as Egypt, Sudan and Libya.

Aaand that's it for this week!

It is the second week of the year and you still haven’t told your friends about us? How do you sleep at night?!

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Ciao!