Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 7th of September twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

After the war between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF), an interim government mainly composed of TPLF officials was put together. Parties left out of this interim administration are not happy. A few of them got together and issued a statement on Tuesday the 29th asking for permission to hold peaceful demonstrations from Thursday the 7th to Saturday the 9th of September in Tigray’s capital Mekelle in regards to the internal administration, the situation of the internally displaced Tigrayans, among other issues.

However, on Thursday the 31st of August, The city administration replied that even though the parties are entitled to a peaceful demonstration, it will have to turn down the request. They said that since officers will be busy as there are religious holidays on the dates of the proposed demonstrations they couldn’t grant them permission to stage the protests. On Friday the 1st of September, the parties released a statement saying that they’ll proceed with the demonstrations nonetheless, as the city administration’s decision was unacceptable.

The parties began campaigning on Tuesday the 5th all around Mekelle on rented cars and speakers to have as many people show up. Police detained party members and the people who rented their cars and speakers to the demonstrators. A head of one of the parties confirmed the news on his social media page and urged regional government officials to release detainees immediately. On Wednesday the 6th, one of the parties, Assimba, announced that it was not going to partake in the demonstration as officers had clearly explained that the protest wouldn’t be legal. The heads of three parties that said they were going to demonstrate were arrested, released, and rearrested the same day, within the span of a few hours.

The region’s interim president Getachew Reda finally spoke out. He told media outlets that his administration isn’t trying to restrict the rights of the parties. He explained that right now demonstrations can’t be held as there are security concerns.

Next up, the Amhara region is still in an unfavorable predicament even though there have been fewer reports of fights between the army and the youth group Fano. On Friday the 1st, Berhanu Jula, the National Defense Force’s Field Marshall, said that the situation in the region no longer poses a security threat. Despite his statement, civilians are suffering due to a shortage of goods and reduced health services. The state of emergency has also contributed to the present debacle since the declaration restricts movement, which in turn is increasing prices. Recall that last week, a new president was appointed for the region. Arega Kebede, the new president, put together his cabinet immediately after being sworn in and held a meeting on Saturday the 2nd with the regional security council.

Moving on, The Ministry of Defence said this past week that it has started replacing the license plates of the vehicles of the armed forces. The Ministry began switching plates on Thursday the 31st and said that it will have changed all the plates for all the armed forces vehicles very soon. The Ministry said this decision comes after it obtained information that certain other entities have gotten a hold of the old plates. The Ministry explained that the change was necessary because these unnamed entities could use the plates for illegal purposes.

Onto news about social issues, the Addis Ababa Civil Registration Services Agency told media outlets that in this ending Ethiopian calendar year the number of divorcees has doubled compared to last year. The Agency’s director said this statistic only includes those married couples that have officially filed for divorce. According to the Agency, divorces have been on the rise for various reasons, including communication issues, finances, family interference, among others.

Last week we told you that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and executives of the Ethiopian Workers Association Confederation held talks and that the details of the discussion weren’t made public just yet. Well, since then, specifics have been revealed. The executives of the confederation asked the government to set a minimum wage, decrease tax rates for workers, and reboot the workers and employers affairs advisory board (which has been dormant for the past two years), among other requests. Media outlets reported that the PM has told the respective government entities to take action in accordance with the requests of the confederation. The PM ordered the immediate resumption of the advisory board but explained that the other requests take time to implement.

On that note about the executive, recently, the government decided to make Addis Ababa University a self-governing entity. Last week on Wednesday the 30th, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Minister of Education Berhanu Nega as the university’s chancellor. The Ministry of Education said that the university also has new board members, with Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru as its chairwoman. The Ministry hinted that the board will go on to appoint a new president and vice president for the university.

Two weeks ago, we told you that the Sidama region office of the Prosperity Party fired Tsegaye Tuke from his post as mayor of Hawassa, one of the biggest cities of Ethiopia. The office said he was fired for his incompetence. The city administration’s council voted on Monday the 4th to appoint a new mayor and Mekuriya Mershay was sworn in. Mekuriya was previously working as the head of Sidama’s urban development and construction bureau. However, Former mayor Tsegaye took to social media to say that he didn’t commit a single mistake. He blamed ‘conspirators’ for his removal from office, saying that even other officials who outperformed him had been removed as part of the efforts of these conspirators, whom the mayor didn’t identify.

In some tech news, one of the most popular browsing apps in the world, Opera, has launched a marketing campaign in Ethiopia in collaboration with the first and only private telecom services provider Safaricom. As part of the campaign, Safaricom subscribers will get a free 1.5 gigabytes of data to browse the internet through the Opera app on Android phones. Opera executive Jorgen Arnesen said that the company is excited to join forces with partner Safaricom to expand Ethiopia’s digital economy, a place in which Arnesen said there’s great potential.

It’s ‘back to school’ season. In the past few years, although many goods and services prices have skyrocketed, one of the most notable and sharp price increases is observed in exercise books. To get prices under control, the Ethiopian Trade Enterprises Corporation said that it has bought more than three million exercise books from China. The Corporation added that the exercise books will arrive very soon and will be distributed to the public at a fair price.

Here’s a quick question - how many months are in a year? Twelve? Wrong. In Ethiopia, there are thirteen months. The thirteenth month, called Pagume, has five days (six days in a leap year). There’s a thirteenth month because, in Ethiopia, all the other months have exactly thirty days. Add the remaining, and you’ll get a month of five days at the end of the year. This year’s Pagume lasts from Wednesday the 6th to Monday the 11th. And Tuesday the 12th? Well, that’s the Ethiopian New Year. If you wanna go back in time, then we recommend you hop on a flight to Ethiopia because the Ethiopian New Year we’ll be celebrating is…twenty sixteen. Happy New Year!!

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