a blow to the Human Rights Commission
and imprisonment every which way
Hi there,
The week is off to a great, yet potentially stress-inducing start so I’m keeping this edition short. In the coming editions, I’ll be looking into the legal amendments to Ethiopia’s election law and what those changes could mean for the upcoming national elections set for June 2026.
If you know of any reports or research that could complement this deep dive, please reply to this email and let me know – I’m on the other end and I’d be happy to hear from you.
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: the man who keeps failing upwards
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has a new head. I wrote an update when the last Commissioner (a ‘powerful and credible voice for human rights in Ethiopia’) stepped down from this role last year, in July.
Last week parliamentarians appointed a new Commissioner – Berhanu Adelo, a man who used to serve as, ‘Minister for Cabinet Affairs and a top adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for six years’ (before being removed).
Berhanu has served in other government posts, including as the Director-General of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office. He stayed in that position for 8 years before being removed, again, by the Prime Minister at the time (Hailemariam Desalegn).
Why was Berhanu removed from these two high-level positions? Because of complaints lodged against him by employees, according to a story published in The Reporter in January 2015.
The first time around, Berhanu was removed from his role as Minister of Cabinet Affairs, when residents from his hometown, Bonga, in the country’s South West Region, where he used to work in the justice bureau, came to Addis Abeba to present a petition against him at the Prime Minster’s office.
Years later, during his post at the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office, employees and customers, filed complaints against him, which were later shared with parliamentarians. A committee was formed to investigate these issues at the time, and he was removed from his position after they shared their findings.
There are no details on the specifics of these complaints.
Yet, Berhanu was appointed last week to lead the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission after a ‘rigorous selection process’ from among ‘50 candidates, including 45 men and five women, nominated by the public’.
The full story on Ethiopia Insider, in Amharic, here, and on Addis Standard, in English, here, and the story from January 2015, on The Reporter, in Amharic, here.
Security: we don’t know her (XXXVI)
The conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara region is around its year-and-a-half mark. I’ve been writing updates on the developments in the region as fighting continues between the federal troops and the region’s informal militia, the Fano. You can find the chronological list of updates since August 2023, here.
Last week, I shared highlights from a report on the state of human rights in conflict settings in Ethiopia, a result of investigations carried out by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. Most of what I have shared from that report — extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate attacks on civilian life and property, enforced disappearances — took place in the Amhara region, but I haven’t made it part of this series because the conflict in the report, and the country, is not limited to this region.
(For instance, in the country’s Oromia region, insurgents have been fighting the federal government since 2019, devastating communities and their livelihoods. Yet even the report doesn’t cover Oromia as extensively because access is restricted).
Part of the rights violations included in the report was the mass arbitrary detentions in the region – the report states that there are over 6,000 people imprisoned in irregular detention centers.
Last week marked the four-month date since the ‘launch of a state-led campaign of mass arbitrary detention of thousands of people’ in the region.
Here’s an excerpt from a statement on this by Amnesty International:
“The international silence over the mass and arbitrary detention of thousands of people in Amhara region is beyond shameful. Ethiopia’s development partners, as well as African and global human rights bodies, must use their influence to publicly call for the release of all arbitrarily detained people.
Thousands of people remain locked up, ‘without charge or trial’, and for this to ever stop, ‘international pressure on Ethiopia is essential’, adds the statement.
The full statement, from Amnesty International, here.
Politics: opposition political party members, in jail
I have written about the opposition political party, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (Ezema) before: one update was last year in June when the party’s former head was detained on charges of ‘using the media to incite people’.
The party’s representatives now say 75 members have been imprisoned in connection to the upcoming general elections in June 2026.
The members in jail are from areas in the country’s Amhara, Harari, and South Ethiopia Region, according to a story on Ethiopia Insider.
50 of the party’s members imprisoned are from one particular area in the country’s South Ethiopia region, where it has a stronghold. The party’s representatives say that the government – and members of the ruling Prosperity Party – are behind the unlawful imprisonments, adds the story.
The full story on Ethiopia Insider, in Amharic, here.
Afar: drone strikes from Djibouti
A drone strike has killed eight people in Ethiopia’s Afar Region, in a border town. The strike, which happened last week Wednesday, injured eight more people, although the exact number of causalities remains unclear, according to a story on Addis Standard.
Here’s an excerpt:
The resident alleged that the attack was carried out by the Djiboutian government, stating that it was “the second time in two months” that drones had targeted the area. He further claimed the attack was launched “under the pretext of attacking FRUD,” referring to the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), an armed group opposed to the Djiboutian government.
Djibouti’s government has confirmed carrying out a drone strike on the same day, and that the location they targeted was identified as a ‘logistical and operational base’ by terrorists.
The government also ‘acknowledged “collateral damage” involving Djiboutian civilians, added the story, and that an investigation was underway to determine the circumstances of their presence’.
The Ethiopian government has yet to release any statements on what happened to its citizens in Afar.
The full story on Addis Standard, here.
Labor rights: the response to rightful demands
At the end of 2023, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released a report on how the newly established Central Ethiopia Region, was facing serious budget shortages, and delaying employee salaries.
In November 2024, teachers in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, took the regional administration and the Ministry of Finance to court, over 17 months of unpaid salaries.
Medical professionals in the country are also facing similar delays in payment across the country, and their demands to get paid, not unlike other cases, are being met with force, according to the Ethiopian Medical Association.
Here’s an excerpt from the Association’s statement from a story on Addis Standard:
Although our country’s doctors continue working while enduring many pressures, this has been a year when doctors have faced non-payment for their duty work,” adding that in some regions, “doctors who request payment have even faced imprisonment.”
The full story on Addis Standard, here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, feel free to share this with anyone you think can benefit from keeping up with what’s going on in Ethiopia.
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