Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 23rd of May twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

This week marked the hundred and twentieth year anniversary of the beginning of the diplomatic relationship between Ethiopia and the US. Irvin Massinga, the US ambassador in Ethiopia, gave a long speech on the recent political state of affairs and human rights in the country. He urged the government and other belligerents to lay down arms and respect human rights, specifically referring to the Oromo Liberation Army, the Fano youth military movement, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. He also called for a temporary nationwide ceasefire. Massinga also mentioned the benefits of the national dialogue and efforts for transitional justice.

The Ethiopian government, however, did not like Ambassador Massinga’s discourse at all. On Thursday the 16th, the government said via a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Ambassador’s speech was accusing the executive of being responsible for the country-wide instability. The document additionally said the speech was uncalled for and contained unsolicited advice on how the government should run the country. It also criticized Massinga for saying the names of the armed rebel groups that are attempting to derail the constitutional order since it legitimizes the groups that the executive considers criminals. Finally, the Ministry said the US embassy in Addis would have to fix fundamental errors made in the ambassador’s speech.

Speaking of the government, it’s in the process of replacing the value-added tax (or VAT) law, which has been in force for over two decades. Recall that the VAT in Ethiopia is 15%.

The new law has been presented to the House of People’s Representatives for deliberation, and the House directed the matter to its Plan, Budget, and Finance Standing Committee for improvements. There are several additions to this new law. For instance, large tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Apple will have to be registered for value-added tax payments and open a bank account in Ethiopia to pay the VAT on transactions from the country. If this law gets approved, Residents will have to start paying the VAT on electricity and water bills — there was no VAT before to support low-income households.

The controversy surrounding the draft law of the religious affairs proclamation continues, as news outlets revealed recently that the new law would require all religious institutions to submit an audit report to the Ministry of Peace and report any funds received from foreign entities. The law also says that the Ministry of Peace has to publicly release the audit reports after examining them. A member of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs said that even though he has no objection to these requirements, he is concerned that this might open the door for increased government intervention in religious matters.

Other controversial matters included in the draft are the prohibition of worshipping in groups in schools and workplaces, lowering voices coming from religious institutions in residential areas, hospitals and schools. Various religious institutions have said that they are against this draft law but the government isn’t showing signs of slowing down.

Some sad news now as the Ethiopia Education Cluster issued a report on the state of students' enrollment. It found that due to a lot of problems that have aggravated in the country, almost nine million children aren't going to school regularly. The report said ten million children require educational support. The document cited the drought, floods and the destruction of schools due to the armed conflicts as the main reasons for the increase in the number of school-age students not going to school. The report also pointed out that this year it should help three million students, but only a little over three hundred and fifty thousand have gotten support as of March.

But students aren't the only ones in need. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report that floods caused by heavy rain affected over half a million people in early April and May. Nine out of the twelve regions of the country have been hit with floods and many residents in these regions have been displaced.

In other news, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reshuffled his cabinet once again as he reappointed Engineer Aysha Mohammed as the Minister of Defense, a position that Abraham Belay occupied for two years. Recall that Aysha was the first-ever woman Minister of Defense five years ago but only stayed in the post for six months. Now Abraham will be the Minister of Irrigation and Lowland Development .

Moving on, this week, The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates the aviation sector, announced that it had granted a maintenance, repair, and operation service license to a private service provider for the first time ever. Until now, the only aircraft maintenance, repair, and operation service provider was Ethiopian Airlines. An official from the Authority said that the recipient of the license is an Ethiopian company called One MRO, and clarified that the license isn’t comprehensive and only allows One MRO to make minor reparations. The official also said that there are three other companies in the process of obtaining a similar license

The Civil Aviation Authority also revealed that two private companies, Axum and North Star Aviation, have gotten an investment and are registered to provide aviation services, including the right to establish an aviation academy. Reports indicate that renowned investor Dawit Gebre-Egziabher owns Axum, which is headquartered in Nigeria.

On that note about Ethiopian Airlines, it has inaugurated its renovated domestic flight terminal at the Bole International Airport in Addis. The renovation doubled the terminal’s capacity and cost almost three billion birr or fifty million US dollars. The renovation includes the addition of four contact gates, over twenty check-in counters, and ten remote departure gates. The airline amped up its security system and opened a premium passenger lounge. The Airline has seen a surge in domestic flight demand, so it has increased the number of flights to many cities in the country.

Up next, The Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration reported on Tuesday the 21st that export earnings have dwindled because of instability and increased contraband trade. In the past nine months, the Ministry said that it earned a hundred and forty million birr or two and half billion US dollars, a notably lower amount compared to the two hundred billion birr or three and a half billion US dollars it had planned to get. The earnings also showed a five percent decrease when contrasted with the numbers of this time last year.

But it wasn’t all bad news; goods were exported to new destination markets such as Hungary and Honduras.

The government is reaping profits from foreigners stationed in Ethiopia as well. The state-owned enterprise Ethiopian Electric Power's Market and Business Development Directorate said that it collected more than half a billion birr or almost ten million US dollars in electric power fees from data mining companies working in the country. The enterprise additionally earned over seventy million birr or over a million US dollars in service fees from the data mining companies for storing their servers at the enterprise's distribution station. Originally, twenty-five companies had asked permission to mine data in Ethiopia but only four are currently operating. The enterprise said an additional nine are on course to begin operations as they have stored their servers at the enterprise's distribution station.

And to close this week's episode, let's talk about Shiro, a stew made from chickpeas. Even though Shiro is stereotypically a lower-income man's staple meal in Ethiopia, it is very popular in most households and easy to prepare. Now, because a foreign company is interested in manufacturing Shiro, the Ethiopia Standards Institute has announced that it will prepare a non-mandatory standard for Shiro indicating its safety and nutritional content.

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

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Ciao!