Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 22nd of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Kicking off this episode, police said they seized over fifty thousand rounds of ammunition, and that investigations have confirmed that the ammo came from the Eritrean government. The Eritrean government sent it to help the Fano, a violent, popular youth movement that has been fighting against the Ethiopian government for more than two years. The police also said they arrested two suspects

Eritrea, on the other hand, denied sending arms and ammunition to Fano, with a minister adding that Ethiopia is making false allegations to justify a war against Eritrea, which it has been planning for the past two years. Ethiopia has repeatedly stated its plans to gain access to the sea, and many believe it will do so by attacking Eritrea.

Recall that in twenty eighteen, the two countries agreed to improve relations, which led to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ethiopia itself is also reportedly intervening in its neighbors’ conflicts. Elfadil Ibrahim wrote for the Arab Weekly, an outlet based in the UK, in English that Ethiopia is providing military support to the Rapid Support Forces (or RSF), a paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese Armed Forces (or SAF) in Sudan’s civil war. He cited recent reports of an RSF’s vehicle convoy that the Sudanese Armed Forces intercepted.

According to Ibrahim, Ethiopia’s stance is clear: the country is against the SAF. He added that there are several reasons for the bad blood, including border disputes, the SAF’s increasingly stronger relations with Eritrea and Egypt, both of which harbor hostility towards Ethiopia, and the SAF’s support for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which was fighting against the Ethiopian government earlier this decade.

Read the full piece with the link in the show notes.

Aside from Eritrea and Sudan, Ethiopia has a longstanding feud with Egypt, which has recently escalated because Ethiopia built the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River. Egypt has been calling on other countries to tell Ethiopia to back down, including the US. And now it appears that US President Donald Trump has taken Egypt’s side.

On Friday the 16th, in a letter Trump addressed to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, his Egyptian counterpart, he said he is willing to take a mediating role between the two countries, adding that Ethiopia should give or sell electricity generated from the dam to Egypt and Sudan and guarantee that a certain volume of water reaches the countries. He also said that no country in the region should unilaterally control the Nile’s resources at neighbors’ expense. The US currently maintains significantly stronger relations with Egypt than with Ethiopia.

Changing gears, PM Abiy Ahmed announced last week that his government plans to print the country’s money locally, to lower risks associated with printing currency abroad. The decision may also reduce printing costs for Ethiopia, which has relied on overseas printing for decades.

The prime minister also said that Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, will take over the transition. He added that the fund is expected to make up a fifth of the country’s GDP by the end of the decade. Recall that the fund was also responsible for overseeing the transition to printing passports domestically.

In health news, Ethiopia inches closer to the forty-two days without new cases required to declare the Marburg virus outbreak completely under control. The EU donated almost a million US dollars to the World Health Organization (or WHO) in Ethiopia to help prevent further cases. The WHO said it will use the funds to buy and distribute critical medical supplies, support health centers, and increase surveillance and contact tracing.

The virus broke out in Ethiopia in mid-November last year in the southern parts of the country. Until now, the virus infected fourteen, out of whom nine died.

The Immigration and Citizenship Service said it took measures against thousands of foreigners who violated the country’s immigration rules. Foreigners who failed to renew their residence and business permits were either fined or deported, while tens of thousands who tried to enter Ethiopia illegally were forced to return to their country of origin.

The Immigration and Citizenship Service said it is also taking measures against citizens who are breaking immigration laws by illegally acting as travel agents and saying that they work with the Service to scam people. It also reminded the public about these scammers, saying it doesn't have working agreements with these individuals and businesses, which pretend to help people book appointments to receive passports.

This week, media outlets have reported that the government has begun cracking down on fintech companies, suspecting that they are being used to evade taxes and launder money.

The Ministry of Justice requested all commercial banks to freeze the accounts of most of the well-known fintech service providers and to pass on the accounts’ transaction information. Just a few weeks ago, authorities also requested that banks block the account of the CEO of one of these companies, but it was later unfrozen. Reporters speculate that the investigation could result in administrative penalties and criminal prosecution.

This week, prosecutors charged an individual at the Federal High Court with transferring money using illegal means. According to the charges, the suspect helped people living abroad to transfer money to Ethiopia without obtaining a license from the National Bank, which the Banking Business Proclamation requires.

State media reported that the suspect has been engaged in illegal transfers for over six years and that because of him, the country lost thirteen million US dollars, which

Ethiopia would have earned had the money been transferred through legitimate payment systems.

Meanwhile, The Ministry of Education said it has been trying to improve the quality of education and as part of this effort, it issued yet another directive; this time regulating distance learning.

According to the directive, distance learning institutions will have to hand in their license and be forced to close if over seventy-five percent of their high school seniors fail to pass the national university entrance exam in two consecutive years. This definitely poses a challenge as the exam’s total passing rate sits at just around three percent annually.

Also, if fifty percent of a distance school’s eighth-grade students don’t pass the national high school entrance exam for two back-to-back academic years, schools will also face closure.

In business news, private bank Tsedey, which used to be a credit union, reported a loss of more than two billion birr, which is over twelve million US dollars, in the previous fiscal year after several consecutive years of turning over a profit. Revenues also took a hit, despite deposits increasing by almost a quarter. Its shareholders won’t be happy to hear that each of their shares has lost more than thirteen percent of its value.

According to media outlets, the company didn’t give specific reasons for the steep decline. Its president stepped down recently as well, although outlets report that his resignation is not related to the bank’s performance and that he’s retiring.

The bank boasts more branches and customers across the country than many other private banks.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration revealed on Thursday the 22nd that Ethiopia brought in more than five billion US dollars in exports in the past six months alone.

The minister said this figure came as a pleasant surprise as his office expected to earn six hundred million US dollars less at the beginning of the fiscal year.

And to wrap up this episode, the renovation of the Africa Hall, in Addis Ababa, has won the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize. The studio that renovated the building, Australia-based Architectus, will receive the award next month.

The award was established to recognize efforts to preserve modernist architecture. This is the first time the prize has been awarded for works in the African continent.

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

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Ciao!