Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 6th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

For our first update of the week, let’s talk about tensions between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF) and the federal government. The federal government held an event on Monday the 3rd of November to commemorate the TPLF’s attack on the country’s armed forces’ northern command five years ago, which led to a deadly two-year-long war.

At the event, the armed forces’ Chief of General Staff said that TPLF has done a lot of provocation and that the federal government had been very patient, as the TPLF's actions had been enough to start another war, referring to how the party is collaborating with the Eritrean government to provoke another round of fighting.

Many people fear that another war is brewing and that, this time, the TPLF and Eritrea will work together to attack Ethiopia, even though they had been enemies in the recent past, as Eritrea sided with the federal government during the war and attacked the TPLF.

A famous professor said a prominent government official told him the differences between Ethiopia’s government and the TPLF and Eritrea will probably not be resolved peacefully.

Meanwhile, here’s an update on another conflict, this time in the Amhara region, in north-central Ethiopia, which has been underway for more than two years between the government and Fano, the region’s popular youth movement.

On Thursday the 6th, reports came out that the regional police seized weapons and ammunition trafficked from Sudan and en route to Fano members. Police got hold of the weapons as traffickers were transporting them using four motorcycles through the western part of the region.

Next up, The World Justice Project, an international civil society organization, released its rule of law index last Wednesday the 29th of October, ranking over a hundred and forty countries based on the prevalence of the rule of law. Ethiopia is hovering at the bottom end of the list and did worse than last year, coming in at a hundred and thirty-second, while Denmark came in first and Venezuela last.

The country is also ranked just four spots away from dead last among African countries included in the report, at thirtieth out of thirty-four. Ethiopia's poor ranking is a result of the courts’ lack of independence and the executives’ excessive intervention in the justice system. The report also said civic space is shrinking in the country and that people’s rights to freedom of expression and association aren’t respected.

In other news, The Ethiopia-EU Investment Forum was held on Monday the 3rd of November in Paris, organized and hosted by a business federation from France called MEDEF International, where The EU and Ethiopia identified four priority sectors of collaboration - renewable energy, infrastructure, tech and aviation.

Top government officials, including the ministers of finance and foreign affairs, attended the forum and recognized the EU and its member countries as important partners.

On the sidelines of the forum, Gideon Timotewos, the minister of foreign affairs, sat down with Jeremy Robert, the French president’s advisor on African affairs. According to state media, the minister explained in detail the politically volatile situation in the Horn of Africa, where Ethiopia is located. The state media said thatRobert reiterated France’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations.

At another forum held a few days prior, on Thursday the 30th, The Addis Ababa Government Property Administration Authority said it wants a government office to establish a committee that will get rid of expired chemicals in laboratories in schools and unused medical equipment in health centers.

A representative from the city’s education bureau said at the forum that a study recently indicated that there are lots of chemicals that are past their expiry dates in schools’ labs and that they pose threats to public health. He added that, even though there were plans to dispose of these chemicals, disputes over the mandate of which government office should do this resulted in a delay.

Another forum was held in Addis Ababa last week, this time about plant protection. The Agriculture Authority said it has drafted an amendment to the current plant protection law in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.

What remains now for the amendment to take effect is the approval of the House of Peoples’ Representatives. The authority’s VP said the draft will be one of the first bills the House will review this fiscal year. He explained that an amendment is necessary because it’s been over fifty years since the current plant protection law took effect and that there have been major global and local changes since, like climate change and the prevalence of new pests, that make it important to modify the rules.

Earlier this week, during a performance review of the fiscal year’s first quarter, the Federal Police announced that it has trained and will soon graduate a sub-unit called Special Anti-Terror Commando Forces.

According to the head of the police, members of the sub-unit have undergone intensive training and will be equipped with advanced weaponry. He also announced that the Federal Police will begin using an improved radio communication system that will provide reliable connectivity.

On another note, The Ministry of Finance laid to rest concerns about budget shortfalls for salary increases of civil servants in five regions, including Benshangul Gumuz and Sidama. It explained that reported budget shortages are a result of the Civil Service Commission mistakenly allocating funds.

The ministry added that the confusion was due to the commission’s not following the calculation scheme that the ministry used.

The Ministry of Education announced this week that it is preparing a regulation that will ban bars, garages, furniture manufacturing plants and other businesses from operating within a five-hundred-meter radius of schools, which is over a thousand and six hundred feet, and shut down existing ones. It said these businesses disturb students and teachers and have negative effects on the teaching and learning process.

Changing gears, a delegation of top officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was in Addis this week. According to a statement that the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration issued on Wednesday the 5th, the delegation paid a visit to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange.

The ministry said the visit was part of the IMF’s plan to review progress on the government’s economic reform program. The official who led the delegation sat down with the exchange’s management to talk about the exchange's operation.

Private bank Birhan held its annual shareholders meeting this past week, where it announced that the previous fiscal year was its most successful in terms of revenue, as it earned over ten billion birr, which is more than sixty million US dollars.

Also breaking its own records is the bank’s earnings per share. The bank said its shares earned about fifty-five percent for shareholders. It has one of the highest numbers of shareholders among private banks, with more than twenty thousand.

And for our final update, a lawyer whose passion project —a Facebook page documenting historical photos —has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers.

Sisay Tefera has been working in the legal field for over twenty-five years, and dedicates a significant chunk of his packed schedule to scouring the internet and other archives for photos and videos with historical significance. He then posts them on his Facebook page, which has grown very popular over the years. His page’s increased reach has, in turn, helped him obtain even more relevant content as people from all over the world, who have pictures of Ethiopia from the past hundred or so years, reach out to send their keeps.

What’s surprising is that despite the page’s traction and the amount of time and energy he spends on running the page, he said he hasn’t monetized it and doesn’t intend to do so in the future.

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

We have some new t-shirts coming out soon, just in time for Christmas! Stay tuned!

Ciao!