Peace talks underway, again
and talking to the Saudi government about everything but human rights
Hi,
I hope your weekend was fun. I’m battling the mother of all jetlags writing this edition, as I just arrived from the Splice Beta media festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Due to that reason, I will be keeping this edition short and sweet. Splice Beta, where I went to talk about my creator journey in starting Sifter - this newsletter that you’re reading - was incredible. I came back energized, inspired, and validated that what we do matters!
Also got to meet other incredible creators who are working on their own newsletters, Michael Tatarski’s Vietnam Weekly, is like Sifter but for Vietnam, and Yaling Jiang talks about the consumer market in China on her substack Following the yuan. Also, notable mentions for those of you looking into being more inclusive either in your storytelling or in general, I suggest checking out Inclusive Journalism and Reframing Disability.
I talked about my newsletter on Baraza Media Lab, so go here if you want to check it out and other great opportunities in the media sector.
For new subscribers, expect longer editions in the future, and welcome to Sifter, a newsletter written and curated by me, Maya Misikir, a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
So what made news last week?
Peace talks: second attempt to work it out
The last time the Ethiopian government sat down for talks with the rebel faction from the country’s Oromia region, in May, nothing came out of it. In fact, fierce fighting took place in the region with federal troops and fighters from the Oromia Liberation Army (OLA) immediately following this attempt.
Last week, reports came out signaling that not only has a second round of talks commenced but that it’s looking promising. The talks have high-level representation on both sides, according to a story by Addis Standard, and are being facilitated by a U.S. delegation, senior diplomats from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the governments of Kenya and Norway.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
The talks which started on Tuesday last week, in the Tanzanian capital, with top military leaders from both sides on board, were preceded by series of meetings over the previous weeks. The “positive outcome” of these meetings helped progress to the talks between senior military officials of the two sides.
Fingers crossed.
The full story on Addis Standard here.
Security: we don’t know her (XI)
For those of you less familiar with Roman numerals, this is the eleventh1 part update on the security situation in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Ever since April of this year, the region has had varying levels of fighting between the federal government and the region’s militia, known as Fano.
Last week, reports came out saying that a fresh round of heavy fighting took place in the historic town of Lalibela. Lalibela is where some of the country’s oldest churches are found and one of 11 sites in the country inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Here’s an excerpt from a story on Reuters:
On Sunday, Ethiopian soldiers fired heavy weapons 11 times from locations near the churches in Lalibela, a deacon said, sending damaging shockwaves through one of the subterranean places of worship.
"The vibrations are affecting the churches," the deacon said, requesting anonymity for fears of reprisals.
Two residents confirmed the fresh wave of fighting. One said the army was stationed outside Lalibela and by the airport and started fighting on Saturday, firing heavy weapons towards a mountain overlooking the town.
The full story on Reuters here. For more context on the beginning of this conflict, go to here.
Peace deal: a referendum for contested lands
We are now a year since the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region came to an end. The war came to an end through an agreement between the two warring factions, formally known as the Cessation of Hostilities.
The two warring factions were the federal government and fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). But the two-year war involved more actors than just these two; there were the external Eritrean forces, and the internal Amhara regional forces as well as the Amhara militia, known as Fano (among others). The peace deal did not include the last two actors. Both forces had fought alongside the Ethiopian federal government.
During the two-year war, the Amhara militia was able to take over control of land that was previously under Tigrayan regional administration. These lands, or their ‘rightful’ return have been a major thorny issue since the peace signing of the peace deal.
Last week, the Ethiopian government announced that this issue will be decided by a referendum.
Here’s an excerpt from a story in the BBC:
Many of the one million displaced people, who remain sheltered in makeshift camps throughout Tigray, are reported to have fled the contested areas.
The Amhara administration says the territory was forcibly annexed by Tigray in the 1990s when the TPLF was the dominant political force in Ethiopia.
The full story on BBC here and the statement by the Ethiopian Government Communication Service here.
Go here to read my previous update on the status of all the ex-fighters from the war who are waiting to be reintegrated into normal life.
Election board: revealing the new head, soon
In July, the head of the National Election Board of Ethiopia resigned. She cited health reasons and a need for rest. She came to this position when Prime Minister Abiy came to power and had served for four years at the point of her resignation.
A committee, created to select potential nominees, has announced that it will be putting its two best candidates forward in the coming weeks, according to a story by Ethiopia Insider.
The Election Board is in charge of executing local and national level elections as well as referendums in the country.
The full story in Amharic on Ethiopia Insider here.
Diplomacy: are the right topics being raised?
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in Saudi Arabia last week. So were several other high-level ministers from across the African continent. This was for the first Saudi-Arab-African Economic Conference in Riyadh.
The conference ended in many deals between various African countries and the Saudi government worth over half a billion dollars. Ethiopia signed one memorandum of understanding on ‘cooperation in the field of energy’ according to a story by Arab News.
Here’s an excerpt of what the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund (PFI)was quoted as saying:
“PIF is looking at Africa with great interest and I believe they will be in due course making some game-changing announcements about their intent to invest in Africa,” he said, adding that Ma’aden and PIF’s joint venture – announced in January – is going to “invest in the critical minerals in Africa.”
The Prime Minister said that in his meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, they reached an agreement to ‘establish a high-level joint ministerial committee’.
What’s the committee set up to do? ‘Saudi support on Ethiopia’s macroeconomic reforms through debt restructuring; energy cooperation and development finance and investments.’
Wonder if this joint committee could also look into the mass killings of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi border guards at the Yemen border.
The full story on Arab News here, the tweet from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed here, and a Human Rights Watch report saying the killings of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi security may amount to crimes against humanity here.
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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.
This was initially published as the tenth part update. But in actuality, it’s the eleventh part. As you can see, even I’m starting to lose count.