Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 20th of February twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

It’s been a busy week in Addis as the capital welcomed heads of state and members of the diplomatic community for the 38th African Summit. The government reported that the summit was a success and there were no major issues.

However, distinguished guests kept arriving in the city even after the summit. Angela Rayner, the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, went to Addis and met with PM Abiy Ahmed, his deputy and other top government officials. Her trip was not limited to the capital as she headed to the Sidama region, a few hundred kilometers south from Addis. In the region’s capital, Hawassa, Deputy PM Rayner discussed investment with the CEO of Industrial Parks Development Corporation. The CEO highlighted efforts to combat pollution and protect the environment on top of investment and productivity goals.

She also said there are plans to connect UK investors to Ethiopian manufacturers.

Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council, was also in Ethiopia this past week. She arrived on Tuesday the 18th and her counterpart, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, welcomed her at the Bole Airport along with other government officials. She met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to talk about aid, investment and the BRICS economic bloc.

On Wednesday the 19th, she attended the launch of Spudnik’s, the Russian state media outlet’s first-ever editorial center in Africa in Addis.

Ethiopia and Russia’s official relations go back decades and range from military to education and cultural ties. Ethiopia also recently joined the BRICS bloc of countries which is set to bolster their relations further.

In internal affairs, the rift between leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF), the region’s predominant political party, has entered an external dimension. The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced last Thursday the 13th that it has banned the TPLF from any political activity for ninety days because it couldn’t meet the deadline to hold a general assembly and vote in leaders.

The federal government and the Board said that the assembly couldn’t be held because two factions had formed within the party, with Chairman Debre-Tsion Gebre-Michael leading one, and Getachew Reda at the forefront of the other. The federal government couldn’t hold the assembly because it didn’t know to which faction it was going to give recognition to. The feud is ongoing but there are plans to negotiate.

The TPLF is still not happy with the Board’s decision, saying in a statement on Friday the 14th that it violates the Pretoria agreement, a peace deal signed in twenty twenty-two ending a two-year war between the TPLF and the federal government.

More on local politics as the House of Peoples’ Representatives extended the term of the National Dialogue Commission, which was established to foster peace and reconciliation through dialogue. The Commission initially had a mandate of only three years and was supposed to carry out its tasks and dissolve on the 21st of February. However, the Commission reportedly needed more time to fully meet its commitments, and that’s why on Tuesday the 18th, the House voted to give it another year.

So far, the Commission has set out agendas and identified participants. Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations have expressed their concerns surrounding the dialogue process, saying it lacks inclusivity. The Commission’s members, on the other hand, admit shortcomings but blame security issues, especially in the Tigray and Amhara regions.

Speaking of the Amhara region, in the north, the regional judiciary has been under massive pressure from the government. Judges told media outlets that they are being intimidated and forced to overturn their decisions, affecting the impartiality of the region’s judiciary. What’s worse is that about thirteen judges have been detained - only eight have been released.

The threats and pressures on top of low pay have led to the resignation of almost ninety judges in the past six months alone. To combat this trend and ensure that judges serve impartially, the region’s council adopted this week a bill that grants judges immunity from prosecution. The region’s judges association recalled that efforts to introduce this legislation had been blocked twice before and that this approval, at last, is a welcome development.

Back in Addis, the City Council convened for its second regular assembly of the year on Wednesday the 19th. During the meeting, Mayor Adanech Abebe said that the city’s revenue had grown eight times in the past seven years without tax increases. She said this significant increase was the result of strong tax administration schemes and collection strategies. She also said the city administration had collected over a hundred and ten billion birr, which is almost nine hundred million US dollars.

Even though there were no tax increases, the government has re-introduced the property tax and the house roof and walls tax, which caused a stir among the public. The government added these taxes to broaden the tax base. The city administration’s revenue office has been put into question as it might be engaged in near-predatorial schemes and strategies to rip off the people.

The Ethiopian Electric Utility, the state-owned distributor of electric power, revealed this past week that it has barred clients from purchasing electric power distribution transformers from local suppliers. The enterprise said it made this decision because the transformers that clients were purchasing had been malfunctioning.

Initially, the Utility was the only supplier of transformers but then it allowed clients to independently purchase transformers to streamline access to power. However, now it said that until further notice, it will return to how things were; it will import or purchase transformers from local assemblies and clients will buy transformers from the Utility.

There are twelve companies that assemble and sell transformers and they’re understandably not happy with this development. A representative from one of these companies explained that because the Utility will be the only buyer, it will be able to drive prices down, taking away from these companies’ profits and forcing them to downsize.

The Ethiopian Electric Utility, along with several other state-owned enterprises, is a subsidiary of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Ethiopian Investment Holdings. Brook Taye, the CEO of the fund, told media outlets on Tuesday the 18th there are plans to renovate the Tana Beles sugar factory located on the border between the Amhara and Benshangul-Gumuz regions, in the northwestern part of the country.

He said the Board had been reorganized and charged with getting the factory back up to full speed in a year and a half. The CEO added that in two months from now, two thousand hectares of land will be developed.

Just about a month ago, about seventy-five percent of the factory’s workforce was laid off without receiving four months’ salary, which led to a demonstration. Brook clarified that these workers had been re-employed in various other factories and promised that they would be paid the amount they hadn’t received yet.

The Tana Beles is the only sugar factory that the government plans to keep; it wants to sell the rest to private investors.

This past week, The Immigration and Citizenship Service announced plans to publish passports and visas locally with new designs and features in around a month. In a few weeks, the new passport design will be revealed. The Service said they would have another color and reflect the country’s heritage by including images of the Axum obelisks, among other landmarks.

A new visa design and urgent travel document were also introduced, with stronger security features.

The current passport, which is being printed abroad, will be issued to citizens only until June because it has outdated security features. The Service said that the current passport is being forged in other African countries, such as Uganda and Somaliland.

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

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