Hi there,
I wrote half of this week’s edition at a restaurant, not because I can ‘work from home’ but because I can’t. We’ve had no power at our house for over 24 hours now and I had to go and find a place to charge my things. But alas, then the restaurant lost power, and I had to head over to my friend’s house in the middle of the night to edit (special shout out to Hawi!). So you can imagine the range of emotions I have experienced writing the first update of this week’s edition.
For new subscribers, welcome, I’m Maya Misikir, a freelance reporter in Addis Abeba and I write Sifter - this weekly newsletter on the top 5 news items in Ethiopia.
Finance: Bitcoin miners have set their sights on Ethiopia
Bitcoin miners have made their way to Ethiopia.
A report by Bloomberg says 21 miners have struck ‘power supply deals’ with Ethiopia and that they’ve already set up their 'energy-guzzling computers’ here.
The miners have been kicked out from China due to tightening regulations (as well as Kazakhstan and Iran) and they’ve made their way over here to capitalize on Ethiopia’s ‘cheap electricity’ through energy produced by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“Buffeted by political and economic headwinds, they were lured by some of the world’s lowest electricity costs — as well as an increasingly friendly government. Ethiopia, which allowed Bitcoin mining starting in 2022 even though it still bans cryptocurrency trading, has bolstered ties with China over the past decade, and several Chinese companies helped build the $4.8 billion dam the miners plan to draw their power from.”
How important is electricity to miners? The story says that electricity, can ‘account for as much as 80% of miners’ operating costs’.
Why is Ethiopia giving the green light? The desperate need for foreign currency.
But the story says this comes at a risk for the mining companies because regulations change and they could see themselves being kicked out overnight.
Yet I suppose the risks outweigh the benefits because the country has, ‘risen to become one of the world’s top recipients of Bitcoin mining machines’, and could potentially rival Texas in mining.
Here’s an article from the New York Times, which explains the 1Bitcoin mining industry in Texas, the pressure these miners put on power grids including rising electric bills for customers, and of course, the ‘enormous carbon pollution’.
For those of you interested in understanding the (purposefully murky?) cryptocurrency world, I highly recommend an interesting (and humorous) breakdown by Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine on, “The Crypto Story: Where it came from, what it all means, and why it still matters.”
The full story on Bloomberg here.
Security: we don’t know her (XVI)
Last week, I compiled all the developments on the security situation in Ethiopia’s Amhara region – ever since fighting erupted in the region following the government’s decision to integrate the region’s militia into a formal security structure (in August last year). You can find the table of contents here.
The conflict has continued and last week reports came out about a massacre in an area known as Merawi. Over 80 people were killed, most of which were men, according to a story in The Guardian.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
The bloodshed started on 29 January, after several hours of fighting between federal forces and Fano militiamen, witnesses said. When the militia retreated, soldiers went into houses targeting civilians, accusing them of being fighters, they said.
The full story on The Guardian, which includes multiple witness accounts, as well as a statement from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, here.
Labor rights: miners trapped for the fourth day
There are close to 30 miners trapped in an opal mining cave in Ethiopia’s Amhara region according to a story by Addis Standard.
The mine caved in on the artisanal miners last Thursday, in South Wolo Zone, ‘where the opal deposits were first discovered in 2008, quickly making Ethiopia the world’s second-largest exporter.’
What do the rescue efforts look like? Here’s an excerpt:
Despite efforts by local people and officials, the status of the trapped miners remains “difficult to know.” Zonal Communication office said that the position of the mine has made it for machines to reach and extract the trapped miners, reducing efforts to to digging by hands. The opal mine is believed to be around 750 meters long, the local authorities said.
The full story on Addis Standard here.
Peace: the contested territories
When representatives of Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s Interim Administration met last week Friday, the issue of the disputed areas in south and western Tigray was at the forefront of the agenda according to a story by The Reporter.
If you remember in 2022, rights organizations were saying that ‘Amhara security forces and interim authorities had been ethnically cleansing the Tigrayan population’, in western Tigray.
The federal government says that a referendum will help decide the issue of these disputed territories. What about Tigray’s Interim Administration (TIA)?
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“The Pretoria Agreement, which ended the bloody two-year war, stipulates the territory disputes are to be solved based on the Ethiopian constitution. The Agreement directed the territories be returned to Tigray, with discussions on sovereignty to follow. It is a perspective supported by TIA officials.”
Here’s another excerpt from the story on what else is possible:
“The federal government is also considering making the disputable territories a self-governing regional state, instead of giving these territories either to Tigray or Amhara,” said another anonymous and well-placed source.
The full story on The Reporter here.
Press: can you censor a blank page?
The Reporter interviewed a high-level official earlier this month; the Ethiopia representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the story never ran, as the official later backtracked, and demanded to change his replies.
If the paper didn’t allow this, he warned, he would ‘go to the highest authorities of the Ethiopian government’ according to a story on Semafor.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Ashenafi Endale, accused the publisher, Amare Aregawi of siding with the Ethiopia representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Tobias Rasmussen. Journalists there, who spoke to Semafor Africa on condition of anonymity, said Rasmussen sought to retract what they said were lukewarm comments about economic reform efforts by the Ethiopian government.”
So what did the paper do in the end? They published two blank pages, saying, that it was a ‘result of undue pressure to withhold the piece.’
Threatening journalists by getting the government involved, in a country infamous for unlawfully arresting and detaining members of the press? Not a good look for a high-level representative of one of the most prominent organizations in this world.
The full story on Semafor 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 to friends and family (and help them keep up with what’s going on).
Initially spelled bitcoin.
Cold last week, power outages this week, our favourite Substack author can't get a break :(
Appreciating critical updates on two kinds of mining, and the ridiculous Mr. Rasmussen.