Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 8th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

The general elections are coming up and despite opposition parties’ dissatisfaction, the National Election Board is going forward. On Monday the 5th, it revealed its digital voters’ and candidates’ registration system. Out of the total 55,000 polling stations, only 30% will use the digital system. The remaining will be paper-based.

The chairwoman of the board said it limited the number of stations where the digital system will be available because it would be difficult to use the system all over the country, given the size of the nation and the high number of people who are expected to vote. The board can’t make the digital system available at every polling station because of costs and logistics.

Over the weekend, reports came out that Ethiopia and a committee representing organizations that lent the country over a billion US dollars had reached an agreement to restructure the debt. The Ministry of Finance said it had been discussing the issue with the committee over the last week of twenty twenty-five and that the discussion resulted in an agreement in principle, meaning the deal is not final, may be modified and must have the acceptance of lending organizations and countries.

Recall that Ethiopia said it could not pay the amount in late twenty twenty-three and that it has been trying to cut a deal for several months. The International Monetary Fund said it welcomes the agreement and will review it before approval.

On the legal front, the House of Peoples’ Representatives approved the appointment of thirty-four judges for the Federal High Court on Tuesday the 6th, who were sworn in on the same day. The Federal Judicial Administration Council had vetted the judges and the Prime Minister had nominated them.

However, members were worried that there might be too many vacant posts left at the Federal First Instance Court because twenty-two of the thirty-four new High Court judges were former First Instance Court judges. The Council responded to members’ concerns by pointing out that it has been recruiting new judges for the First Instance Courts and will send them to the House for the approval of their appointments.

The UN said in a news brief released on Monday the 5th that aid shortages are becoming more concerning by the day, warning that refugee response is at a breaking point. It recalled a statement from one of its agencies, the World Food Program, which said that over one million are at risk of losing food, water and healthcare.

The briefing also said that there’s a massive number of refugees in the country and, despite the government and the UN’s efforts, refugees have gotten more vulnerable due to aid cuts, stressing that without immediate help, more lives will be at risk.

Still on health, the Marburg Virus became a public health scare about two months ago when several cases were confirmed in the southern parts of Ethiopia. From the almost four thousand that got tested, fourteen cases were confirmed and nine lost their lives. Since then, the government has been working to get it under control.

On Monday the 5th, the Ministry of Health announced that there were no cases confirmed in the past twenty-one days and almost three hundred suspected of contracting the virus have left health centers after completing screening and treatment.

However, the ministry hasn’t officially declared the virus’s eradication yet because, according to the World Health Organization and the ministry’s own rules, forty-two days must pass without new cases being reported to say that the outbreak has been contained.

In some news on education, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at a forum held at the Addis Ababa University that the government has completed preparations to open a university that will train students and conduct research exclusively on artificial intelligence. He added that the university will open its doors within the next six months and would be one of only two universities in the world exclusively dedicated to AI, the other one being Mohamed Bin Zayed University of AI in the United Arab Emirates, one of Abiy’s government’s closest allies.

Abiy said the university will enroll and graduate a thousand students annually and that about a hundred slots will be reserved for students from Africa; two for students from each African nation. He has frequently mentioned that AI holds a lot of promise to transform the country's economy.

PM Abiy was in the news again as he welcomed Wang Yi, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, who arrived in Addis on Thursday the 8th as part of a tour to four African countries and is expected to stay for one more day before heading to other destinations in Africa.

The PM and Minister Wang Yi had a meeting where they discussed bilateral and international matters. The Chinese minister will also attend the launch of the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchange.

Meanwhile, French supermarket chain Carrefour announced on Monday the 5th that it is going to enter Ethiopia’s market. The company will begin operating in the country through a franchise model and has struck a deal with local retailer Queens. The company expressed excitement about the launch and expects to open its stores within the first half of twenty twenty-six. It also wants to expand to seventeen locations over the next two years.

Midroc, the company that owns Queens, which agreed to work with Carrefour, said it is delighted with the development as well, adding that the partnership means Carrefour will benefit from Queens’ years of experience in Ethiopia’s retail market.

More business news involving France and Ethiopia, as Ethiopian Airlines, the largest airline in Africa, announced that it is going to begin flying to Lyon, later this year via Geneva. The carrier said once it does, it will fly there three times a week with its Airbus A350 aircraft. Lyon is set to be the airline’s third destination in France, after Paris and Marseille.

The CEO said the addition strengthens the airline’s European network and the longstanding aviation services to France. He mentioned that the carrier has been flying to the country for over five decades.

Companies better follow tax rules, as the Ministry of Revenues said it has issued a manual that will allow it to punish companies that don’t pay excise tax on certain goods. The punishments range from fines with interest to business license suspension and revocation.

The ministry said the Tax Administration Proclamation has given it the authority to issue the manual and punish businesses that don’t comply with the rules. Recently, taxpayers have been criticizing the ministry for issuing confusing new rules thick and fast, without holding deliberations.

On another note, Euronews published an article in English and a video in its no-comment section about the Melody of Myriads, a hymns and prayers ceremony that a Christian youth group organized.

Thousands of Orthodox Tewahedo Christians dressed in white traditional clothing gathered in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa on the eve of Ethiopian Christmas, which is called the Genna Holiday in Ethiopia, to mark the end of a fasting period that lasted over forty days. Many of them also went to Church after the ceremony to attend mass, which went past midnight, before returning to their homes to break their fast.

Closing this edition with some sports news, the US embassy in Addis Ababa denied visa applications of fourteen athletes who would have represented Ethiopia at the twenty twenty-six World Athletics Cross Country Championships.

The youth team has been hit worse with the rejections because, since not enough youth athletes hold visas, Ethiopia will not field a youth team at the championships, and will miss out on medals at the championships for the first time in over thirty years.

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

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