Confirming what we knew all along
and good news on the dam
Hi there,
This is Sifter - a weekly newsletter where I round weekly news about what’s happening in Ethiopia and get it to your inbox come rain or shine (and it’s been a lot of rain.)
It’s been an intense (news) week. Most of this week’s updates are taken from reports released by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, including its annual report on the state of human rights in Ethiopia. There’s also concerning news from Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambella but it’s not all grim, thankfully. There’s also a bit of good news at the end to wrap things up on a good note so keep reading.
If there’s something you want more information on though, don’t hesitate to hit reply and I’ll write back.
Now, to the news.
Human rights: annual report confirms what we all knew
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released its annual report last week, which basically outlined the overall human rights situation in the country. The report mentions some of the most egregious abuses of human rights happening in the country – excessive use of force by the government, torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detentions among others.
Here’s an excerpt:
“While the Commission has noted significant improvement in detention facilities and treatment of detainees, the number of reported instances of inhuman and degrading treatment in police stations and prison facilities is still not negligible.”
The Commission when referring to the situation in Oromia region, where there is recurring conflict and attacks, has said it is, ‘extremely concerning and requires urgent attention.’ Another thing that the report lists as needing urgent attention is ‘failure to execute bail order by courts.’
If you remember, I wrote an update about the Federal Police Commissioner being asked this very question by parliamentarians in May: why is the police refusing to take orders from the court? Go here to read more on that.
The crackdown on media, opposition political parties, and civil society groups has also grown worse over the past year (case in point is the fourth update of this week).
The biggest success of the past year has been the Cessation of Hostilities, which ended the two-year war ended in Tigray. The report also mentions that some police stations in Addis Abeba, have now installed CCTV cameras, ‘to monitor the treatment of persons in their custody.’
The summary of the Commission’s report in English here and in Amharic here.
Security: ethnically motivated attacks in Gambella
Last week, an attack on two public buses resulted in the death of three passengers – injuring many more – in Gambella city. According to a report by Addis Standard, the attacks on the buses were carried out by members of the Anywaa community – while the victims of the attacks were from the Nuer community.
In May, a shoot-out lasted for hours in Gambella in an area known as Itang Special Wereda where the two communities live. Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“Another local resident, also requesting anonymity, detailed the circumstances of the attack. “Despite the presence of security forces escorting the buses—a measure taken due to the rising fear of attacks following similar incidents— the attackers managed to launch their assault from the rear, where the vehicles were most vulnerable,” the resident informed Addis Standard.”
The full story on Addis Standard here.
Peace: deal falls through in Benishangul-Gumuz
A peace deal has fallen through between the regional government of Benishangul-Gumuz and a local armed group, known as the Gumuz People’s Democratic Movement. The peace between the two was signed last year in October when both sides had agreed to work things out over dialogue.
After the October peace agreement, the armed group was assigned to stay in one part of a town in Gilgel Beles city until they were disarmed. But according to a report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, their presence in the town has been anything but peaceful.
Members of the group have been harassing residents, moving around the town fully armed, using services and then not paying, taking money by force from people in the community, threatening and even holding them in their camps.
The attacks carried out last week by this armed group were against people in the community that were not ethnically Gumuz. The reason behind the attacks was, as the report found, that the peace agreement was not being implemented as promised.
Part of the agreement reached last October between the regional government and the armed group was land for farming and housing for the members of the armed group including positions with the regional and local administration.
The report by the Commission here and the story in English on Addis Standard here.
Media: stealing equipment when harassment won’t cut it
Local media house, Ethiopia Insider, is one of my most frequented news sites and I link stories from their website on Sifter regularly. The media house released a statement that its office was looted by unknown people and that it had lost many valuable items including expensive cameras, zoom lenses, laptops, and a mobile phone.
The media house has received a lot of pushback for the stories it has covered in the past and this is part of those tactics according to the statement shared.
This is a big blow to the media house which has been operating for the last three years and one more arsenal employed to weaken media houses and to make sure stories don’t get told.
The statement on Ethiopia Insider here.
Politics: Egypt and Ethiopia on the same page?
Looks like the Ethiopian and the Egyptian government heads may finally be on the same page. If not, this is still more progress than the past few months when they were sending out thinly veiled threats. Just in March, the Egyptian Foreign Minister had declared ‘all options open’.
But it looks like things have changed for the better. Last week Thursday, the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent out a joint statement on Ethiopia-Egypt relations, saying that both parties have discussed ways to overcome the current stalemate in negotiations regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Part of the statement read that both parties will do all they can to expedite negotiations and reach a final agreement on the filling of the dam. The statement added that during this time of negotiation, Ethiopia is committed to filling the dam in a way that will not cause significant harm to Egypt and Sudan.
Some good news, finally.
The full statement from the office of the Prime Minister on Twitter here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, you can help support my work by forwarding this email to friends and family who might benefit from keeping up with what’s going on.
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.