Aided and abetted by the 'justice system'
and another reshuffle
Hi there,
It’s been an intense week, and there’s lots to talk about but I’ll be keeping this week’s edition on the shorter side, due to…life. The Ministry of Justice says that the roadmap for the implementation of the Transitional Justice Policy is done; I’ve written about the Transitional Justice Policy in detail before, so if you’re looking for a breakdown on that, go here. I attended a panel recently and one of the speakers posed an interesting question on this: even in the case where the Ministry of Justice plays its role well, will the Policy be relevant when the drivers of decisions are individuals and not institutions?
I’ll be following updates on this so if you have any reports, tips, and stories you think I need to take a look at, hit reply to this email and share. I’m on the other end and always respond.
In the coming week(s), I’ll be looking at developments in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which include a rift in the region’s main party, the TPLF, and tense communication once again with federal authorities.
To new subscribers, welcome!
My name is Maya Misikir, and I’m a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba. I write Sifter, this newsletter where I send out the week’s top 5 stories on human rights and news in Ethiopia.
Now, to the news.
Human rights: women and girls in Ethiopia
Over the past week, another horrific event was brought into the limelight: the story of a seven-year-old girl who was found dead, after being sexually assaulted and mutilated by her mother’s landlord. The incident happened about a year ago but this has been a major topic of conversation online last week after her convicted killer, ‘launched an appeal’ on his 25-year prison sentence, according to a story on the BBC.
Here's an excerpt from the story:
One of the largest women’s rights advocacy groups in the country, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), released a statement saying they believe the sentencing was "very light", adding "the murder by itself should have been enough to sentence him to life imprisonment or to death… It’s specially sickening and outrageous when such a horrendous crime is committed against children."
Her killer escaped prison at one point and threatened the life of the mother, and she was forced to relocate for her safety.
Tragically, acts of violence against women and girls have been increasingly common in Ethiopia. I covered a story on the growing counts of sexual violence against women in the country a couple of weeks ago for The New Humanitarian; violence that is not only going unchecked but worsened by the deafening silence and complicity of government actors, judicial institutions, and the wider community.
The full story on the latest incident on the BBC here, the story on increasing levels of sexual violence across the country on The New Humanitarian here, and the online petition, ‘demanding a review of the sentencing’, here.
Finance: how short is short-term?
Ethiopia has a new foreign currency exchange policy, a market-based one, in place. This secured a $3.4-billion four-year IMF loan program. The Birr has lost a lot of value since (90%) and the, ‘depreciation witnessed over the past few weeks is likely the beginning of a longer adjustment period’.
This reform was necessary to, ‘address currency shortages, promote economic growth, and foster a more competitive and transparent foreign exchange market’ say government counterparts, and that ‘short-term shocks were expected.’
But private sector players are not having an easy time, to say nothing of ordinary people who are left to deal with price hikes on basic goods.
Here’s an excerpt from a story on Addis Standard:
Businesses, however, revealed a series of difficulties they have faced in the past weeks. Unsettled payments, rising costs, market volatility, unpredictability, and bureaucratic inefficiencies are stifling their operations.
Part of their complaints also include, ‘inflated domestic commodity costs and their mismatch with international price’.
I wrote a deep dive last week on what the implications of Ethiopia’s IMF loan on human rights and development might be and how that has played out for other African countries. You can find that here.
The full story on Addis Fortune, here.
Security: we don’t know her (XXVI)
The updates on the security in Ethiopia’s Amhara region have continued – this time regarding the death of a humanitarian worker in the region. A statement released by the UN says that Yared Melese, a humanitarian worker, was ‘kidnapped for ransom and later killed by an unidentified criminal armed group’.
Here’s an excerpt from the statement:
Including this latest incident, eight humanitarian workers have been killed in Ethiopia so far in 2024 (six in the Amhara Region), whilst at least 14 incidents of kidnap of aid workers for ransom have been reported, a majority in the Central and North Gondar zones of Amhara Region.
A panel discussion organized by Amnesty International a couple of weeks ago focused on the security in the region, including how the lack of investigation by the government on the killings is, ‘sending a message for impunity for perpetrators’.
The trends in the conflict in Amhara region, now at its one-year mark, show that healthcare facilities and providers are being targeted, not unlike what happened in Tigray during the war and what continues to this day in Oromia region.
A report by Human Rights Watch says that the destruction of health facilities in Amhara region is widespread, and the attacks against providers have made people afraid to go seek healthcare.
The killings that happened in Merawi, in May, have yet to be investigated to this day, and no public information about the investigation or what the response has been is available.
The full statement by the UN here, the report by Human Rights Watch on the impact of the conflict on healthcare here, and all 25 other updates on the security in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, here.
Infrastructure: the qualities of a mediator
This is a continuation of the updates from the week before on Turkey’s mediation efforts between Somalia and Ethiopia.
The aim of the talks? To ‘ease diplomatic tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia triggered by the former’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Somaliland for sea access’.’
But at the end of this second round, Somaliland is questioning Turkey’s impartiality, according to a story on Addis Standard.
Here's an excerpt from the story:
Somaliland expressed apprehension over what it said was “Türkiye’s growing involvement in such regional matters is a clear indication of the lack of impartiality of Türkiye as a mediator and their aim to directly interfere with the MoU between Somaliland and Ethiopia.”
A third round has been scheduled to take place in Turkey.
The full story, which breaks down the statement from the three parties, on Addis Standard, here.
Reshuffles: a woman in charge of a region
It wouldn’t be a busy news week without a good old reshuffle thrown in the mix.
Ethiopia’s Gambella region has its first women president. The region replaced both its president and deputy and appointed Alemitu Omod, who had been serving as a state minister at the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs. She replaced the region’s former head, Umud Ujulu, who was president of the region since 2018, according to a story on Ethiopia Insider.
Earlier in March, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission had published a report on the region, saying that the attacks happening in the community were perpetrated by ‘armed groups in the region operating along communal lines’.
The report also implicated the region’s security in the attacks and said that investigations were underway. Administrators of the region and police were also arrested at the time. You can find a breakdown I did on the human rights report, here.
The full story, on Ethiopia Insider, in Amharic, 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).
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አይ ሀገሬ 😞
Thank you, Maya.