Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 25th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

After much anticipation about who was going to be the new governor of the National Bank, reports came out on Friday the nineteen sixty-threeth saying that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Eyob Tekalign, the State Minister of Finance to the position. Mamo Mihretu, the former governor, resigned three weeks ago.

After his resignation, rumors circulated on social media saying that PM Abiy would appoint Fitsum Assefa, the minister of Planning and Development. However, Eyob’s appointment was confirmed shortly after.

The new governor quickly got to work as he went to China on Monday the 22nd, leading a delegation that would discuss debt with high-ranking Chinese officials, including those from China’s Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China, and the Exim Bank.

According to state media, the trip aims to build on debt restructuring talks and strengthen economic cooperation.

News surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, inaugurated two weeks ago, continues to make headlines as US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the 20th at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder’s Dinner that the dam is a big problem as it limits the water going to the Nile.

He also mentioned the tension between Ethiopia and Egypt, which he is saying he’s helping to de-escalate, alongside tensions between several other countries. Recall that in July he said the US had funded the dam.

Meanwhile, the UK Parliament talked about tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia in a session last week, as Ethiopia insists that it is entitled and says that it will eventually gain access to the Red Sea. David Lammy, Deputy PM of the UK, said he has directly spoken to Gideon Timotewos, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and warned him that any miscalculation could have significant risks.

There are worries that a renewed conflict may arise in northern Ethiopia due to complications and tensions between Ethiopia’s federal government, the Tigray region and Eritrea.

More on foreign relations as Ethiopia signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Kenya for the first time since nineteen sixty-three. The Ethiopian National Defense Force said on Wednesday the 24th that the agreement was signed in Addis Ababa and comes after a meeting between Ethiopia’s Chief of General Staff Field Marshal Birhanu Jula and his Kenyan counterpart.

The Chief of General Staff said the agreement will increase intelligence sharing, joint military exercises, training and other key aspects of military engagement between the two neighboring countries. The chief said that the deal will not only bring advantages to the two nations, but it will also contribute to stabilizing the Horn of Africa region.

The World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized UN organization, recently released its global innovation report and ranked Ethiopia just five slots away from dead last, taking the 134th spot. Switzerland came in first while Niger ended up last. The organization said it has weighed numerous factors when preparing the report, including the flow of capital, the state of research and studies, and the export of technological products.

Ethiopia fared even worse than last year when it ranked a hundred and thirtieth but the report noted that there have been improvements in terms of accessibility of investment for tech, the provision of government services online and increased internet coverage.

The government has laid out plans for digital transformation but the report noted that infrastructural and manpower issues might affect progress.

In an update on a story from a previous show, the two radio journalists from Sheger FM who were detained three weeks ago were released on Thursday the 25th after the Federal Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court to have them released on bail. Police appealed the High Court’s decision, saying that if released, the detainees might destroy evidence.

The Supreme Court rejected the police’s grounds for appeal and said they should be released after paying fifty thousand birr, which is around three hundred US dollars, in bail. Authorities said the journalists had been detained on suspicion of inciting violence.

The Communication Authority said this week that there are plans to approve a new postal service bill to keep up with the changes ecommerce and digital communication have brought. The authority’s director general said that digital products and services aren’t a threat to postal service; on the contrary, they can even help improve it

He said that there are plans to unveil the draft bill soon but that he can’t provide more details before stakeholders review it. He added that the draft is expected to be approved within a year. The law that is currently regulating postal services entered into force about sixty years ago.

The director general was in the news again as he announced that entities that collect private data will be required to register with his office. He added that for the first time ever, the government will start providing licenses to about a hundred organizations that collect private information.

These organizations will be allowed to register and request a permit online. Aside from data protection and the new postal bill, the authority said it has another plan this year to expand the accessibility of telecom services in underserved parts of the country.

The number of electric vehicles in Ethiopia has been rising at an accelerating rate over the past few years, partly because the government is implementing policies that discourage the public from buying internal combustion engine vehicles.

Electric car owners are now complaining that there are not enough charging stations, which are owned by the stations’ telecom service provider Ethio Telecom, one of the fastest available. They pointed out that their charging prices have recently more than doubled. Some electric vehicle owners said that it is a lot cheaper to charge their cars at home, although it takes significantly longer to be fully charged..

Ethio Telecom, on the other hand, said that these price increases aren’t unjustified and that the previous rate was promotional, adding that the current prices aren’t even enough to get back the money it spent installing the stations.

There’s no good news in the sports scene for Ethiopia this week, as the country’s athletes failed to bring home gold after participating in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. This is the first time in thirty-four years that Ethiopia hasn’t won a gold medal at the championships.

However, athletes didn’t return empty-handed, as they won two silver and two bronze medals that served as little consolation to Ethiopians, who expect gold every time the country’s long-distance athletes take on the track.

Speaking to the media after the championships, Olympic gold medalist Solomon Barega blamed the lack of teamwork for the disappointing result.

And for our final update, let’s talk about the Meskel holiday that will be celebrated this Saturday the 27th. Meskel or the Finding of the True Cross of Jesus Christ is one of the major national holidays in Ethiopia. On the eve of the holiday, on Friday the 26th, when celebrations begin, Christians in Addis flock to Meskel Square, the biggest square in the capital city, and attend a ceremony.

This event is a reproduction of the process of finding the True Cross, which was lost for about three hundred years until Saint Helena, an empress of the Roman Empire, burned a large bonfire and followed the smoke that led to the Cross. In Ethiopia, every year, mainly at the Meskel Square and in Churches and neighborhoods, bonfires are burned to commemorate how the True Cross was found.

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

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