A new year's call for peace
and looks like travel is back on the agenda
Hi and happy Ethiopian New Year!
This is Sifter - a weekly newsletter curated by me, Maya Misikir, a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba. I spend a lot of time reading the news, so now you don’t have to.
Below are the top five news items for the week, and I’ve kept this edition relatively shorter, so you can go back to celebrating.
Now, to the news.
New Year resolution: be peaceful
I’m starting today’s updates on a call for a peaceful resolution to conflicts in the country made by 35 civil society organizations in Ethiopia.
Over the past Ethiopian calendar year, more than 1,000 political conflicts have been reported, according to data from the Ethiopian Peace Observatory.
Here’s an excerpt from a story I did for VOA:
“Armed opposition in the country’s Oromia and Amhara regions, referendums held for the creation of new regional states, and protests over a schism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church were some of the conflicts that took place.
The civil society organizations also addressed the government’s common response to these conflicts, such as partial or full internet shutdowns; widespread, unlawful arrests; and restrictions on the rights and freedoms of citizens.”
Safe to assume we’re all hoping for a better year ahead.
Immigration: oh ye of little faith
If you are living in Addis Abeba, then you or someone you know is queueing to get a new passport or a renewal. No exceptions.
In July I wrote an update on how the top officials heading the Immigration and Citizenship Services, in charge of issuing passports, were removed. The question at the time was, the people have been replaced but will the job get done?
Officials explained that the (insane) queue for passports was created by backlog; the entity in charge of printing passports had been overwhelmed by orders from many countries following the lift of travel restrictions (due to COVID-19).
They then promised that this would be sorted come September. Many of you quickly proceeded to share your disbelief of this plan with me. Well, looks like they’ve delivered on their promise. Around 190,000 passports have made their way to Ethiopia according to a story by The Reporter. An additional 1.5 million have also been ordered.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“Newly-appointed director general Selamawit Dawit, who replaced scandal-plagued former officials just one month ago, vows to clear the whole backlog within the next fiscal year.”
So far, so good.
The full story on The Reporter here.
Dam: fourth filling already
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam or gurd, as it is more affectionately known, has finished its fourth and final filling. This will be the biggest hydro-electric plant on the continent, in terms of power generation capacity upon completion.
Relations with downstream countries like Egypt (and Sudan) have been strained over the years because of this dam and disagreements on its filling and operation.
But things started looking up last July, and the three countries restarted talks in August, in Cairo.
Here’s an excerpt from what the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on their Facebook page, following the announcement of this last filling:
“Such Ethiopia's unilateral measures are considered a disregard for the interests and rights of the downstream countries and their water security, as guaranteed by principles of international law.
This approach, along with its negative consequences, imposes a challenge to the ongoing negotiation process, which has a four-month timeline for completion. The upcoming round of negotiations, scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa, is hoped to yield a tangible and genuine breakthrough in the path to reaching an agreement on the rules for filling and operating the GERD.”
The next round is expected to take place this month in Addis Abeba.
The full story on The Reporter here and the BBC here.
Security: we don’t know her (VI)
This is a continued update on the security situation in Amhara region. For previous updates go here.
Fighting has still continued in smaller towns in the region, and the Committee to Protect Journalists put out an alert on the arrest of three journalists under the state of emergency (declared in early August).
Federal troops are taking control of towns after days of fighting. In some areas, soldiers have camped out in schools and hospitals, and even though the fighting is over residents say that freedom of movement is restricted, and towns have come to a standstill.
Here’s an excerpt from a story I covered for VOA on that:
“A resident of Debre Tabor in the South Gonder Zone said a lot of young people were arrested last week after federal troops took over the town following days of fighting. Troops were going house to house on August 30 and 31, the resident said, going around searching for weapons and Fano. The resident added that people are still in danger.”
Another story by Reuters says that the Ethiopian military killed two dozen civilians in a house-to-house search in a retaliatory act after being attacked by regional Fano militia. This took place in the town of Majete, in the North Shewa Zone of the region.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Ethiopian Defense Forces said that the situation in Amhara region no longer poses a security threat.
The full story on VOA here, on Reuters here, and the alert by the Committee to Protect Journalists here.
Climate: first-ever African summit
The first-ever African Climate Summit took place last week, for three days in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit’s goal, as explained by a story in The Continent, was to, ‘figure out how African countries are going to survive in a much warmer world. And what it will cost.’
So what will it cost? At least 277 billion dollars…per year, according to the Climate Policy Initiative. This amount is needed for climate finance, meaning to deal with the repercussions of climate change and to work on future solutions. 40 percent of this amount is to deal with the damage already done, and the remaining for building a green economy.
The theme of the summit was, ‘‘Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World’.
Who was there? Heads of state, donor governments, banks, climate activists, and experts. Who didn’t make it? Here’s a New York Times article on that:
“The summit’s message of unity was undercut somewhat because the top leaders from some of Africa’s largest economies, including Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt, didn’t attend. Leaders from countries that recently experienced coups, or that are embroiled in conflicts, like Sudan, Niger and Gabon, were also not present. And despite taking a leading role in past climate discussions, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, also did not attend.”
That the African continent is facing the brunt of the climate crisis is not new - 17 of the 20 worst-hit countries in the world are on the continent. All the while, Africa is contributing less than 4% to global emissions.
Here’s an excerpt on what Kenyan President William Ruto said about that:
‘’Who did what is not a conversation we can afford to engage in because, when the apocalypse comes, it will come for all humanity,” he told the assembled delegates on the first day of the summit. “We are not here to catalogue grievances but to scrutinise ideas and unlock solutions.”
And it is true, despite pledges made in the past from wealthier countries to put in more than 100 billion U.S. dollars for climate-related financing to African nations, this promise has not been kept.
But if wealthy nations didn’t pay until now, then the alternative is for Africans to get the money themselves, reports The Continent. Taxes, savings, loans, and public-private partnerships were possible options raised.
The other alternative? Instead of asking for new money, what if African governments get relief from their old debts? For instance, sub-Saharan countries will be paying at least $ 22.5 billion on their debts this year alone.
The summit ended in the Nairobi Declaration, which stressed investing more in building green economies on the continent, among others.
The full story on the New York Times here, The Continent’s piece here, and a really great opinion piece on The New Humanitarian, entitled, ‘It’s not just the economy, stupid! What was off-key about the Africa Climate Summit’, here.
(If you would like to get the weekly editions of The Continent, send them a message on +27 73 805 6068, they do excellent coverage of what’s happening across the continent.)
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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.