Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 31st of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Gideon Timotewos, Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in the capital of Belarus, Minsk, on Tuesday the 29th. He had a discussion with Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus’ President, who said he wants to strengthen relations between the two countries both politically and economically.

Lukashenko said Ethiopia is one of the most important countries in East Africa for the Eastern European nation in terms of bringing about mutual benefits in trade, politics and education. Following reports from media outlets that the two countries were discussing plans to assemble agricultural machinery in Ethiopia, he said during the meeting that his country is ready to provide Ethiopia with agricultural machinery.

Also late last year, Lukashenko advocated for Ethiopia’s bid to gain access to the sea.

A few days after the Federal Police said it would be conducting inspections all over Addis Ababa to find and combat those intending to endanger the city’s peace and security, the city police seized rifles and hundreds of bullets when carrying out these sudden searches. The weapons were found in rental bedrooms, which are not checked on a regular basis. Since they aren't being monitored closely, people with bad intentions use them for malicious purposes and have less chance of getting caught.

Police said it has identified four suspects. They also believe that these weapons would probably have been used to destabilize the city. They also warned that they are going to crack down on social media users who use the platforms to stir up violence and conflicts.

More news from the police but this time from Adama, in the Oromia region in central Ethiopia as an Indian working in construction was found dead on Saturday the 26th. Both the Indian Embassy and the city police confirmed this. The embassy said it will closely follow the matter.

The city police, on the other hand, said it has launched an investigation to find what led to the Indian man’s passing away, adding that the investigation’s results will be revealed soon. Neither the embassy nor the police have provided specific information thus far.

On another note, Human Rights Watch, an international human rights advocacy organization, released a statement on Tuesday the 29th urging the House of Peoples Representatives not to pass the draft amendment bill that regulates civil society organizations’ activity because it grants almost complete control to the government and will restrict civil society organizations from carrying out their plans.

The draft, if passed without modifications, will prohibit civil society organizations from receiving funds that will be used for voter education or activities related to elections from foreign sources. Organizations will also be required to report any donations, from both local and foreign sources, to the civil society organizations’ authority within fifteen days.

Also on Tuesday the 29th, the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF and other UN organizations jointly released a report on food security and nutrition. According to the document, Ethiopia is ranked fifth among countries in the world with severe food insecurity. Nigeria, Sudan, Congo and Bangladesh occupy the remaining four slots above Ethiopia as the most at risk.

According to the report, only about forty-five percent of people in Ethiopia have access to healthy, nutritious food.

Meanwhile, The Tigray Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday the 29th to lift the freeze of the region’s finance bureau bank account to pay teachers in the region who haven’t received seventeen months’ worth of their salaries.

The court itself had ordered the freeze to prevent the bureau from making withdrawals before paying the teachers. The court dismissed allegations that the funds were needed for administrative purposes.

The Ministry of Revenues issued a directive this week identifying products on which excise stamps will be put on and determining the type of stamps that will be applied to the products.

There will be two types of stamps - digital and physical, and cannot be reused. Wines, bottled water, perfume and cigarettes will have both types of stamps.

In news from another ministry, The Ministry of Transport and Logistics issued a notice to electric vehicle importers last Wednesday the 23rd requiring them to provide battery safety certifications for the vehicles they import. The notice also includes mandates that force importers to make sure that the cars have software that works in English. They will also have to install at least two electric vehicle charging stations.

Importers are upset, saying these requirements are unrealistic. They said obtaining safety certifications is very difficult, if not impossible. They also said they can’t afford to build charging stations, which could cost up to ten million birr a pop, which is around sixty-five thousand US dollars, a figure importers say is out of their reach.

Airlines and agencies that help locals get jobs abroad are also not happy with the new government requirements. This time they’re complaining about the Labor Ministry’s new requirement mandating individuals and agencies to purchase tickets to fly abroad for work through the Ministry’s app called the Ethiopian Labor Market Information System.

The Ministry also wants them to pay for tickets using the Telebirr app only. The main reason why airlines and agencies don’t like this requirement is that the app is not compatible with the systems of some airlines, which means some agencies wouldn’t buy tickets from airlines they regularly purchase from, sometimes on credit. The airlines whose system is not compatible with the Ministry’s say they appreciate the initiative but it is harmful for their business.

The government established the Deposit Insurance Fund to ensure that depositors get at least some of their money back if banks aren’t able to return the money they collected. The fund said recently that it has loaned almost fourteen billion birr, which is over ninety million US dollars, to the government in treasury bills over the past two years.

The fund explained that it chose treasury bills to invest the premium it has received because they’re low-risk investments. It collects premiums from all financial institutions that are its members.

Abyssinia Bank revealed on Saturday the 26th that it plans to leave behind paper-based banking in the past and inaugurated kiosks that will be used after the transition to digital solutions. The self-service machines are like ATMs but with more options; they will allow customers to carry out most of their transactions including making deposits, withdrawals and cashing cheques. The bank’s executives said these kiosks will be imported and distributed to the almost one thousand branches that the bank has all over the country.

The inauguration was held at the bank’s headquarters and the bank’s CEO and Mamo Mihretu, the National Bank’s Governor, attended the ceremony.

The National Bank’s Governor said going paper-free is no longer an alternative, saying that it is vital if local banks want to compete with foreign banks that are expected to enter the Ethiopian market soon.

Speaking of banks, some of them may be forced to merge soon because of a rule that the National Bank issued four years ago that says that if banks aren’t able to fulfill the capital requirement, which needs banks to raise five billion birr in capital, which is a little over thirty million US dollars, the National Bank will force them to merge with other banks.

The deadline is fast approaching with about ten months left.

Several banks are not happy with this rule. Those that haven’t managed to reach the threshold yet say they don’t want a merger.

Experts say only recently established banks are at risk of merging and even those aren’t throwing in the towel yet: they want to see if they can make it on time.

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

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Ciao!