Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 31st of December twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Kicking off this edition, Egypt’s foreign minister said in an interview with a Saudi outlet that the country will be against the construction of new dams on the Nile River, which provides a significant portion of the freshwater that Egypt needs. The minister said Egypt has a problem with what he called Ethiopia’s one-sided actions regarding the Nile.

Recall that Ethiopia has completed building a dam on the Nile river, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the largest in Africa. The minister said there are ongoing talks, but that Egypt will not compromise its water rights, while Ethiopia accuses Egypt of appealing to colonial-era agreements, which the minister denied.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, appeared before Parliament to take questions from members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives on Tuesday the 30th. Members were interested in the progress the government has made in gaining access to the Red Sea. They recalled that the government had struck deals with both Somalia and Somaliland, but haven't heard news of further developments.

The minister said Ethiopia’s requests have been met with international recognition and what remains now is the groundwork. The minister also talked about bilateral deals with various countries to ensure that the rights of Ethiopians working abroad are respected. However, after the session, the members told reporters that they were frustrated and said the minister didn’t directly address their specific questions regarding access to the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, The Federal Supreme Court issued an injunction last week restricting thirteen individuals, including senior leaders of the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front, from running the business conglomerate Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray.

The injunction was issued amid an ongoing court case in which prominent politicians from the region are fighting to control the Fund, which has several companies under it. The Tigray Region’s High Court approved the injunction on Friday the 26th.

More news from courts as Human Rights First, a local civil society organization, sued the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Peace, the Tigray, Amhara and Oromia region administrations at the Federal High Court. The organization asked the court to order the government bodies to work to return internally displaced persons across the country to their homes.

The organizations mentioned in their petition that, because these bodies failed to carry out their responsibilities under international and national laws, hundreds of thousands of people have been suffering since the beginning of the war in Tigray over five years ago.

The Federal High Court said on Friday the 26th that it will decide whether the case should proceed on Friday the 2nd of January, twenty twenty-six.

In business news, Tsehay Bank, one of the latecomers in Ethiopia’s banking sectors, released its annual report for the previous fiscal year on Thursday the 25th. The bank reported a loss of over two hundred and seventy million birr, which is more than 1.5 million US dollars.

It is the bank’s second consecutive year reporting a loss; in the twenty twenty-three/twenty twenty-four fiscal year, it said it lost over a hundred million birr, which is under a million US dollars based on current exchange rates, but much higher, if we take into account the birr’s inflation.

The bank said that despite losses, some things are looking up, like its deposits, which have grown by almost thirty percent and its total assets, which climbed by over thirty-five percent in value.

The last two fiscal years were hard on some private banks because of the government’s decision to let market forces determine the value of the birr and restrictions on lending.

Speaking of loans, the Ministry of Industry revealed at a forum held on Thursday the 25th, that it is talking to banks about the possibility of reserving a quarter of all loans for the manufacturing sector, so that investors in manufacturing will have enough access to finance. During the forum, investors and officials from the ministry discussed expansion and increased investment.

The minister said he was talking to banks in response to questions from investors, for whom financing has been a serious issue. He said the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the biggest in the country, has approved of the plan, but another state-owned bank, the Development Bank, is not on board yet. Local investors said they’re also struggling with the cost of renting working stations in industry parks, which they have to pay for in foreign currency.

More news in finance, as the Ethiopia Reinsurance Company said on Tuesday the 30th that it brought in over half a billion birr, which is almost three million US dollars, in profits before tax, and a forty-five percent increase compared to last year. Its earnings per share have also reached over twenty-six percent.

The company’s CEO said it maintains a presence abroad and has achieved its plan of earning five percent of its revenue from services it provides abroad in foreign currency. Its total assets are also rising with an eleven percent jump. The Commercial Bank and the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation, the largest insurance company in the country, own forty percent of the company’s shares, while individuals and private insurance companies own the rest.

On Tuesday the 30th, at a forum on agriculture organized by NGOs and aid organizations, experts said the focus on farming should shift from increasing productivity to protecting soil health. The organizers said that, although previously fertile, soil quality has declined all over the country due to excessive farming and erosion.

They added that according to studies, thirty-eight tons of soil per hectare are being eroded every year and that this is costing the country almost two billion US dollars annually. They also said they’ve been teaching farmers all over the country practices that will help them preserve the fertility of the soil on their lands.

Still in agriculture, the Oromia region’s trade bureau announced that it will add a five percent fee per kilogram (around two pounds) of coffee sold¿.

The bureau said it made this decision to benefit the region’s farmers, as it said the regional government will use revenues to improve the products and lives of farmers.

In a feature article in English that the BBC released earlier this week, Marta Pausilli wrote about Mulatu Astatke, one of the most renowned Ethiopian musicians, as he goes on his final world tour. Pausilli captured one of the eighty-two-year-old’s shows in London, part of the world tour, as he created what she called delicate, resonant sounds through his vibraphone.

Pausilli detailed Mulatu’s upbringing, educational background and musical career as he studied music in the UK and then the US, creating what came to be known as Ethio-Jazz, which is, as its name suggests, a mix of local Ethiopian sounds and Jazz. His works received acclaim among both audiences at home and abroad and many consider him to be a musical legend.

Meanwhile, in the digital world, billions of people use AI nowadays, but according to the World Bank's Digital Progress and Trends Report, Ethiopians aren't using it as much due to limited internet access and low digital literacy. The report also said the country doesn’t yet have the market or infrastructure to work on AI technologies.

The World Bank said lagging behind in AI brings several risks, including widening income gaps between urban and rural residents, as people living in cities adopt AI and benefit from productivity gains, while people in rural areas are left behind.

Closing this edition, although most Christians all over the world have already celebrated Christmas, Ethiopians will have to wait until next Wednesday the 7th to celebrate the holiday because Ethiopians don’t use the Gregorian calendar, but the Julian calendar.

This has also led to one of Ethiopia’s most renowned quirks - it’s officially twenty eighteen there.

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

Before we head out, we just want to wish you an awesome twenty twenty-six! Thanks so much for listening, sharing the show, and being part of the Rorshok community.

Ciao!