Let's talk about wheat
Photo taken from the official Twitter post of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
On February 12, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted that Ethiopia had started exporting wheat, and that the government had made ‘Ethiopia's wheat export dream a reality’. Since then, all hell has broken loose on the local wheat supply chain. Not only are flour factories in a bind over the shortage of wheat but now we have a…black market for wheat? Contraband wheat is being sold from 5,500 to 7,000 Birr a quintal.
Why?
Well, according to this this detailed report form Wazema Radio, the government has put a cap on the price for selling wheat – 3,200 Birr per quintal – and farmers are instead hoarding the produce because this is not profitable as they were selling a quintal for about 4,500 Birr prior to this announcement.
What else?
Those found hoarding will have their produce confiscated and security forces have warned of a house-to-house search.
Farmers with few options are selling to traders at this price, while the traders are reaping the benefits, selling only some of this to the government and making a killing on the rest by bringing it over to the capital to flour factories.
The export wheat is planned to be sold off to to Sudan and Kenya as well as…aid organizations.
If you were looking for a sign to go gluten-free, this is it.
Looking for shelter in Debre Birhan
The conflicts displacing people are putting pressure on host communities in Ethiopia. Last week, I wrote a highlight on the situation in Somali region which is hosting over 80,000 people displaced from Somaliland due to conflict in Las Anod.
This week, I’m sharing an update from Ethiopia Insider, which reports that Debre Birhan is overwhelmed with people seeking refuge from neighboring Oromia region (and Oromo Zone in Amhara Region). Debre Birhan is 130 kilometers from Addis, and found in Amhara Region bordering Oromia. People from all four zones in Wellega, in Oromia region have been staying in factory sheds in Debre Birhan for lack of proper shelter.
Local administration of Debre Birhan put out a notice last week saying that they were at capacity and that displaced people need to find another place to stay. They are hosting around 26,000 people.
Borena hit by drought
The fifth failed rainy season has resulted in severe drought in East Africa, and one of the worst hit places is Borena Zone, Oromia Region. 800,000 people are in need of immediate food assistance and over 3.3 million cattle have died already from this.
Students are dropping out of school in the thousands because of this, despite the region introducing school feeding programs and dormitories for students according to a report by Addis Standard. Severe acute malnutrition in drought affected areas of Afar, Oromia, Somalia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region has jumped by 21% from last year according to a UN report.
BBC Amharic reported that people have died in Teltele wereda (in Borena Zone). The Oromia Region Communication Bureau refutes this and has asked for a retraction of the story, saying it is false and that no one has died from the drought. Furthermore, the Bureau stated that the BBC made up the administrator of Teltele wereda in the story and it named the rightful administrator.
But if you look closer at the story, the BBC named the kebele administrator under Teltele wereda, and not the wereda administrator.
As many of you know, the administration hierarchy starting from the top goes,
Region → Zone → Wereda → Kebele
Referendum updates
Results are in on the referendum held on February 6 across six zones and 5 special weredas in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region. Most of the results, anyway.
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has found multiple serious breaches in the voting process in Welayta Zone, one of which is similar signatures on multiple votes, so the results there are pending further investigations. The rest of the zones and weredas have voted for the creation of a separate region. Overwhelmingly so. For example, in Gamo Zone, over 583,000 people voted for it while less than 10,000 voted against. The detailed breakdown here.
Church updates (?)
The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) has met with the African Union's envoy to the Horn of Africa region, and mediator between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF, Olusegun Obasanjo. Could this have anything to do with the reconciliation letter EOTC sent out to five archbishops in Tigray on February 10? The Tigray Orthodox Church has responded saying it wants nothing to do the EOTC, accusing the EOTC of endorsing a “war of genocide”. An analysis piece in English by Addis Standard.
On Ethiopia’s sovereign debt
Ethiopia has ramped up diplomatic efforts trying to convince creditors to restructure the country’s external debt. Some of Ethiopia’s European creditors on its 1-billion-dollar Eurobond have suggested extending the maturity date to 2029 or 2030. The Ethiopian government had bought this 1-billion-dollar Eurobond in 2014, at a 6.625 percent interest rate.
The Ethiopian government, which has an external debt of 27 billion dollars, had requested for debt restructuring last year.
If none of this makes sense to you but you wish it had, read this helpful article on Bloomberg.
Will Oromia Region finally get respite?
This update is actually from the week before but I thought it was important to include. On February 17, President of Oromia region Shimelis Abdisa called for reconciliation between the government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).
The OLA responded, saying that they have always been open to dialogue but that it rejects the idea of local mediators, because they believe that the mediator needs to be neutral and outside the sphere of government influence.
I will posting updates on this as I get it.
In other news
Schools in Addis Abeba have started giving Afaan Oromoo as an added language course in class. Students already learning in Afaan Oromoo will be adding Amharic as an added course. Nine and ten graders will also have the option to choose between adding French or Arabic in school. Full story in Amharic here. Btw, according to the report, there are 786 private and government schools in the capital.
Tribes in the Omo Valley are facing “starvation and death” due to sugar and dam projects in the area which have displaced indigenous communities according to a new report. The story on The Reporter here, and the report by the Oakland Institute here.
A one-on-one interview with the Foreign Minister of Somaliland on The Reporter.
Finally, to wrap up the sentiment from the past couple of weeks:
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
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Note: I go through all the major news outlets, newspapers, online publications, and will at times, include reports, notes on parliamentary sessions, and go through fact checking websites as well. I try to provide links to both English and Amharic sources, and I usually time stamp the video I link to unless I think the whole video is relevant.