Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 24th of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The National Dialogue Commission, established by the government to bring together different parts of society, including those in prison, to resolve disagreements without resorting to violence, has called on some opposition parties that didn’t participate in the agenda identification phase to join in the subsequent phases of the dialogue. During the identification phase, the Commission received potential topics to discuss.

It urged parties, such as the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress, to encourage inclusion and ensure that all voices are heard. The Commission believes that if not everyone is included in the dialogue, it won't achieve its goal of addressing the concerns of every part of the community.

It admitted that the present situation in the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, doesn’t allow for effective dialogue, although it said it has been trying hard to expand to the north.

On the other hand, the National Election Board of Ethiopia is saying it isn’t letting the situation in Tigray hold it back. Speaking at a recent press conference, Melatework Hailu, the Board’s Chairwoman, said preparations are well underway to hold the upcoming general election across the country, including the troubled Tigray region.

She also talked about the recent electoral law amendment, dismissing criticisms against it and explaining that changes were made to integrate tech in the voting process and boost youth participation. One of the amended clauses states that citizens can now register to vote even if they’re not eighteen years old as long as they turn eighteen on election day.

Opposition parties don’t believe the Board is doing enough, as they think the ruling party heavily influences it and that the current state of affairs cannot allow for the organization of an independent election.

More news on Tigray, as late last week, several religious leaders, civil society representatives and elders from the region went to Addis Ababa to talk about the current situation in the region with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The PM said he wanted the region’s issues to be resolved through peaceful dialogue, underscoring how war will not bring about sustainable stability. The region has been plagued with internal and external political disputes and an ailing economy that has failed to recover from a two-year-long war with the federal government.

PM Abiy called the meeting productive.

The Tigray region isn’t the only one that’s troubled, as several parts of the country need aid. One of the providers of aid is the World Food Programme, which said that its executive director Cindy McCain will head to Ethiopia in the coming week and visit various parts of the country.

Aside from looking at humanitarian aid distribution, the Executive Director is also expected to attend the 2nd UN Food Systems Summit, which Addis Ababa is going to host. The Summit will start this Sunday the 27th and end on Tuesday the 29th.

Another forum that was held, this time involving local actors, was the first ever Ethiopian Finance Summit Private Sector Forum which some entities, including the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance, organized. The summit, in which various private businesses participated, took place on Tuesday the 22nd.

Representatives of the businesses complained that they’re finding it difficult to understand complex tax rules and are having a hard time dealing with revenues and customs authorities. One tax consultant also pointed out how this has led to differences between what the rules provide and how they’re being implemented.

Also at the summit, the governor of the National Bank said foreign currency supply for the fiscal year that just began will be even better than last year. Explaining this projection, the governor said in the past fiscal year, the Bank was also taking up the supply because it had to increase its reserves.

He added that the Bank no longer has to compete for foreign currency supply because it has received enough for its reserves.

In other news, housemaids in Ethiopia are not subject to and do not benefit from the main labor law because lawmakers and some people believe that the relationship between housemaids and employers is different to the relationship between workers and employers in other jobs. It's very common that housemaids become an important and valued member of the household. Some even become family

According to the results of studies commissioned by The NGO Forum for Social Studies, there should be a separate legal framework regulating the housemaid’s employment and there should be statutory minimum wages for them.

Currently, the Civil Code is the main legal document applicable to such employment which researchers said leads to the unfair exploitation of the housemaids because it doesn’t limit working hours, one among several reasons why they said it’s outdated and should be replaced.

Another organization also wants change; this time it’s the Public Services International, which represents millions of workers in the public sector. On Monday the 21st, it urged the government to release Daniel Fentaneh, a doctor in the Amhara region who was an important figure in the organization of protests and strikes against the government, where health professionals asked for better pay.

He was detained a month ago. The organization called his and some other health professionals’ arrests an attack on workers’ right to organize. Previously, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had both denounced his detention.

Meanwhile, the Gamo Zone High Court, in the Southern Ethiopia region, has found the alleged murderers of Alelign Azene, a football player of the National Team and Bahir Dar City FC, guilty. The player passed away over a year ago at twenty-six and reports initially said he committed suicide.

However, following an investigation, police said his wife and her sister’s husband murdered the footballer. The Court delivered a guilty verdict against the defendants on Friday the 18th and, on Tuesday the 22nd, sentenced the player’s wife to sixteen years and her sister’s husband to fifteen years in prison.

In the capital, reports came out earlier this week that the Millennium Hall, a popular venue just a few minutes’ walk away from the Bole International Airport that hosts conventions, concerts and other major events, is going to be demolished and rebuilt to expand the venue’s capacity and address safety issues amid a recent fire accident.

The Midroc Investment Group, owned by Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi, the richest Ethiopian man, had the venue constructed almost eighteen years ago at the turn of the millennium in the Ethiopian calendar, hence its name. The Group said the amount of capital set aside for the rebuild and the contractor will be revealed soon. Reconstruction is set to begin in December this year or January twenty twenty-six.

Speaking of construction, Ethiopian Airlines inaugurated a new aircraft component maintenance shop, a central warehouse, and two hangars on Tuesday the 22nd. Mesfin Tassew, the airline’s CEO, and Yilma Merdassa, the country’s Air Force Commander and the airline’s board chairman, attended the inauguration, where it was revealed that the Airline spent over a hundred and million US dollars on the projects.

And to wrap up this episode, Ethio Telecom held a press conference to brief the public on its performance for this past fiscal year and its plan for the next three years. Frehiwot Tamiru, the company’s CEO, said Ethio Telecom brought in over a hundred and sixty billion birr in the past year, which is a little over a billion US dollars.

She said this revenue count means the company has brought in ninety-nine percent of the revenue it expected to generate. She also said the number of its customers has exceeded eighty million, and added that there are plans to replace copper conductors with fiber modems.

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

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Ciao!