Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 1st of February twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

We kick off this week’s episode by telling you about the resignation of one of the longest-serving government officials in Ethiopia. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen officially left both posts on Friday the 26th. He announced his resignation at the Prosperity Party’s Central Committee members meeting. Demeke was also the second vice president of the party, and the director general of the National Intelligence and Security Service took up this post. Demeke has served as deputy PM for the past twelve years and three years ago he obtained the Minister of Foreign Affairs position.

But Demeke’s resignation wasn’t the only news related to top government officials that made the headlines. Last week, news about Minister of Justice Gedion Timotewos submitting a resignation letter went viral on social media. However, government officials told media outlets that this was fake news. Since becoming Minister of Justice in late twenty twenty, Gedion has been a prominent figure in Ethiopia politics, playing a key role in the Pretoria agreement, which ended the two-year-long war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Recall that he also participated in talks with the Oromo Liberation Army (or the OLA) a few months ago, which were unsuccessful: The OLA and the federal government are still at odds.

Moving on, the UN Security Council has decided to convene to discuss the situation between Ethiopia and Somalia after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland, which will grant Ethiopia a sea outlet in exchange for diplomatic recognition of the state of Somaliland. Somalia asked the Security Council to convene to talk about the issue, and the Council agreed. Ethiopia had similarly sent a letter to the Council on Friday the 26th asking it not to convene over the matter as it is already being seen under the African Union framework. However, the Council rejected the call. Ethiopia’s incumbent party, Prosperity, decided on the same day to morph the memorandum of understanding into a ‘practical agreement’ and expressed interest in acquiring additional sea outlets through other neighboring countries.

Next up, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (or FAO’s) Agricola medal for his leadership and commitment to food security. He received the award on Sunday the 28th, in Italy. The award prompted mixed reactions with some lauding Abiy and saying that the award was well-deserved, while others criticized the FAO’s decision to award Abiy the medal because they said there's no food security in the country, with citizens dying from hunger.

In a follow-up of a story from last week’s show, the Addis Ababa Trade Bureau is cracking down on businesses that aren’t registered and didn’t renew their business licenses for the current year. Recall that twenty-eight percent of all businesses in the city have not had their business licenses renewed for this year despite a ten-day deadline extension.

The bureau said that almost three hundred businesses have been sealed. More than two hundred were sealed because they didn’t renew their business licenses, while a hundred didn’t have a license in the first place. More than a hundred have received final written warnings.

Speaking of businesses, the Minister of Transport and Logistics sat before the House of People’s Representatives City, Infrastructure and Transportation Affairs Standing Committee for his six-month executive report and said that they would allow the import of electric vehicles only, making it clear that neither individuals nor businesses can import internal combustion engine vehicles. To support his decision, he said that they shouldn't import combustion engine vehicles because the government is already importing gas and that has proved to be very expensive and requires foreign currency, that electric vehicles (or EVs) are more efficient and that it this is in line with Ethiopia’s green economy as EVs don’t release CO2.

However, after the Minister’s report, a top advisor at the Ministry of Finance told the media that the import of internal combustion engine vehicles hasn’t been completely banned since there was no government directive that imposed a prohibition. The official said the government is trying to encourage EV imports while simultaneously discouraging the import of internal combustion engine vehicles through excise taxes.

In other news, The Addis Ababa City Administration wrote a letter to all the sub-cities and three bureau heads on Tuesday the 30th, announcing the temporary suspension of land-related services. Starting last month, numerous civil servants of the city have sat for exams, and only less than half passed. The most recent batch of workers that took the exams were employees of the city’s land holding bureau, land development administration bureau, and the mayor’s office - a total of almost four thousand workers.

The National Ombudsman Institution revealed that weak monitoring and distribution of humanitarian aid has affected the trustworthiness of international aid organizations. The Institution released its report, which it put together after sending its workers for a survey in Amhara and Tigray regions. The surveyors were sent to check how aid from governmental and non-governmental institutions was being distributed in the two regions.

It found that there was a vast discrepancy between the federal government's and the Tigray interim administration’s estimate of the number of internally displaced people. The government said there’s a little over two million, while the interim administration said that there are more than four million. This difference is affecting aid supply and distribution. The Institution also said that despite the Amhara region’s claim that there’s no hunger in the region, the survey indicates that the drought is turning to hunger. And finally, the Institution asked the House of People’s Representatives to command the relevant federal government institutions and regional governments to work on narrowing the gap between their estimates.

Another institute had some big news this week. The Manufacturing Industry Development Institute announced that a new bank that will solely serve the manufacturing sector will be established. The Institute announced this at an event on Tuesday the 30th, where it signed a memorandum of understanding to work together with the Adama Science and Tech University. The Institute explained the move by saying that players in the manufacturing sector aren’t getting enough, and conducive loans. This new bank was also included in the new manufacturing industry policy. However, it is still not known when the bank will be formed or with how much capital.

And to close this edition, The Federal High Court has ordered Yinager Dessie, the former National Bank governor, and Muferiat Kamil, the current Minister of Jobs and Skills, to appear in the court as defense witnesses of Tewodros Bekele, the former director general of the Finance Security Service. Bekele has been accused of corruption. The case file indicates that he hired an individual who didn’t have the credentials nor the experience as the Service’s top expert for investigation and analysis on financing terrorism. The hired individual, in turn, served the personal benefits of the former director general and his family (which have been included in the indictment. The Federal High Court has adjourned the case for next month.

Aaaaaand that's it for this week. So you listen to us, ideally almost every week, but we don't actually know each other. Here's a chance to fix that. On Monday the 8th of April there is a total eclipse of the sun in Dallas, Texas, in the US. There will be events organized the whole weekend before. So on the off chance you can get here, send us an email or check the show notes for more information.

Ciao!