we need to talk
and some constitutional encroachments
Hi there,
It’s been a busy news week, and we have lots to catch up on.
Last week, the Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy released the results of an investigation it had been conducting in Ethiopia’s Oromia region; in particular the Guji and West Guji Zones. This is a place in the region where the Ethiopian government has been fighting heavily with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) over the last five years. The report is detailed and says it uncovers, a ‘grim reality’, of widespread ‘killings, secret and public executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, burning of homes, hostage-taking for ransom, and sexual abuses against women and young girls’. I will have more detailed updates on this in next week’s edition.
This week, we delve into the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission and other follow-up updates from the past weeks.
Welcome to new subscribers; this is Sifter, a weekly round-up of the top five news and human rights stories in Ethiopia. I’m Maya Misikir, a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba, and I write it.
Now, to the news.
Peace: attempts to hash out our differences
What is the latest on Ethiopia’s National Dialogue Commission? At the beginning of this month, the Commission reached a milestone; it finalized, ‘a week-long agenda gathering and consultation meetings in the capital Addis Abeba.’ What this means is, that people representing different walks of life (‘government bodies, political parties, associations and institutions’, etc) have contributed their ideas as to what they think is important to discuss in the upcoming national dialogue.
Then the Commission is set to repeat this process of collecting agenda from across all the regions of Ethiopia. Following that, the dialogue will take place with selected representatives from across the country; they talk, and come to a solution (consensus) on how to move forward as a nation. That’s the idea. Here’s what’s happening in reality.
Some highlights on the Commission itself: the National Dialogue Commission was established in December 2021 by parliamentarians.
Who makes up this Commission? 11 Commissioners, selected from an original list of over 600 people (later shortlisted to 42 by parliamentarians.)
Why a National Dialogue Commission? The need for an institution that can help facilitate dialogue as a way to solve contested issues is desperately (!) needed in the country.
This process is already facing major obstacles; one is the various continued armed conflicts in the country. Since the Commission does not have the mandate, or ability, to mediate these conflicts, or facilitate political settlements between different groups, then what kind of dialogue can take place with all the fighting going on?
Two particular ongoing conflicts stand out right now; the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, and the informal Amhara militia, the Fano, in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region, both fighting against federal troops. There have been requests and calls by the Commission to involve armed groups in the dialogue process but can the Commission, a state-appointed entity itself, be seen as trustworthy? Can it also do its work, impartial to government influence?
Armed groups aside, even opposition political groups, who at first had agreed to join the call for dialogue, like Enat Party, and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), have now withdrawn their participation; the Caucus of Opposition Parties, a group of eleven opposition groups in Ethiopia, says the Commission has not been inclusive and instead is being used a tool by the ruling party to achive its political desires.
The Commission has also faced serious questions of legitimacy from the selection of its Commissioners. There was no transparent process as to the basis of their selection and about who was making the decisions on their selection.
Now that the Commission has started the process of collecting the agenda for the dialogue, there are questions regarding its methodology itself, meaning; why the Commission is consulting different communities across the country, and following a ‘bottom-up approach’, when the purpose of the dialogue is to get the political elites to bargain?
Furthermore, religious organizations have also complained that they have been sidelined in the process, despite playing a major role in the country.
Look out for the coming editions of Sifter, where I will go into the possible suggested scenarios exploring how the Commission’s work will likely end.
The story on the Commission’s latest milestone, collecting agenda in the capital, on Addis Standard, here.
Migration: looking beyond the symptoms
The previous edition of Sifter included a report by the Mixed Migration Center, on how international indifference toward the killing of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi patrol guards has further emboldened this action. You can go here to read more on that.
Last week a report by BBC said that forty-nine people had died after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen. The boat had 260 migrants, ‘115 Somali nationals and 145 Ethiopians’, who had left Somalia for Yemen.
Here’s an expert from the report:
According to the UN, 97,000 migrants arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa last year. They are motivated by political and economic instability, droughts and other extreme weather events in their own countries, the organisation said.
The number of migrants arriving to Yemen annually has tripled from around 27,000 in 2021 to more than 90,000 in 2023, the IOM said. The increase has occurred despite the war in Yemen and recent Houthi assaults on ships in the Red Sea.
Weeks before, a year-long investigation by Lighthouse Reports revealed the involvement of the EU and European countries, in financing, ‘clandestine operations in North African countries’ to racially profile, detain, and expel migrants.
Here’s an excerpt from that investigation:
Our findings show that in Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia, refugees and migrant workers, some of whom were on their way towards Europe, as well as people who had legal status and established livelihoods in these countries, are apprehended based on the colour of their skin, loaded onto buses and driven to the middle of nowhere, often arid desert areas.
The story says, ‘money, vehicles, equipment, intelligence and security forces provided by the EU and European countries’ are supporting these operations, which include cases of migrants reportedly sold by the authorities to human traffickers and gangs who torture them for ransom.’
The funding given to Tunisia, Mauritania, and Morocco of more than €400m in recent years was under the guise of ‘migration management’, says the investigation.
I’ll be organizing all my reports on migration in one place, similar to the updates I have compiled on the conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, which you can find here.
The full story on BBC here, and the investigation by Lighthouse Reports, here.
Banking: better late than never
Does anyone need a reminder of the system glitch the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia encountered in early March? The one where the Bank lost nearly 14 million USD in a matter of hours in unauthorized transactions? If so, I have updates here on when the news first broke, and another one on when the Bank froze customers’ accounts and started threatening to reveal their identity if they didn’t return the money. The updates continued when the Bank went ahead and did the unthinkable (and illegal); posting hundreds of customers’ private data including names, account numbers, and photos. I wrote the final update when the Bank’s CEO came on national TV to double down on this decision.
Last week, digital rights group, Access Now and the Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy released a statement asking the Bank to take down this sensitive data.
Here’s an excerpt from a story I covered for Semafor on that:
A personal data protection law was approved by Ethiopia’s parliament in the weeks following the incident, and contains, “clear provisions on the legal basis for the processing of personal data which the CBE has failed to comply with,” said a statement from the organization.
A day later, the Bank announced that it had taken down, ‘all previously posted identities and photographs’ of customers, as, ‘the majority of the people whose names and images were placed there have paid for the money that was taken inappropriately.’
The Bank’s sorry excuse for an explanation, here, the statement by Access Now and Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy, here, and the full story on Semafor, here.
Law: an erosion of checks and balances
A series of draft laws have been tabled to parliamentarians over the past couple of weeks, that, if passed, could limit rights on the freedom to movement and encroach on the mandate of courts.
Travel bans on citizens can be implemented only through court orders in Ethiopia; a new draft immigration law aims to give this power over to the head of the Immigration and Citizenship Services. According to the new draft law, the director (a single human being), will be authorized, in cases of national interest and security, to ban a citizen from traveling (a constitutionally given right). The justification in place is that the old law, in place for the past 21 years, requires court orders; a lengthy process that gives criminals ample time to escape the country, according to a story by Ethiopia Insider.
The second draft law proposed aims to, ‘grant investigative bodies the authority to intercept communications’. The latest amended draft justifies this by saying that it would only be so in ‘emergency cases’.
This can affect the division of power between the country’s executive and judicial bodies, further raising questions about the impartiality of the executive body, says a human rights expert cited in a story by BBC Amharic.
The third draft law deals with the asset recovery law; under this, the proposed changes are, among others, to give the power to freeze assets (property, money, etc) to the Minister of Justice, or a person representing the Minister. Previously, this could only be done through court orders. This has proven to be disasterous for critics of the government, according to one parliamentarian cited in the BBC Amharic story.
The full story on BBC Amharic, here, and on Ethiopia Insider, in Amharic, here.
Intraregional: can we get ahead of this one?
In February last year, reports were coming out that there had been clashes in the border towns of Ethiopia’s Afar and Somali regions. Then a reconciliation committee was set up, mediated by the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council. But by March, clashes had erupted again.
Last week, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said despite a ceasefire agreement in April, it ‘is concerned by reports of armed clashes, civilian casualties and displacement in areas’ since early June.
Here’s an excerpt:
EHRC has been receiving complaints and reports of casualties, damage to private and public civilian property and other damages amid escalating tensions which have led to armed clashes in the areas since June 6, 2024.
The statement adds that the clashes have taken between both region’s security forces.
The full statement from the Commission, here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, you can say thank you by forwarding this to friends and family (and helping them keep up with what’s going on).
Was this forwarded to you by someone? Then hit the button below to subscribe and get free weekly updates.