A closer look at an 'African' solution
and an investigation with some interesting results
Welcome to Sifter,
A weekly newsletter focused on news on Ethiopia. My name is Maya Misikir, I am a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba. Every week I go through mostly news, sometimes reports and publications, notes on parliamentary sessions, and write five quick updates on what’s been making headlines in Ethiopia.
If you have a question or want to know more about any of the updates below, hit reply and let me know - I’ll write back.
Now, to the news.
Peace: we need better ‘African solutions’
The war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region came to an end after two years, in a peace deal signed in November last year. The peace deal, between the federal government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was brokered by the African Union. The role of the African Union (AU) was at the time – and to this day – lauded as being an ‘African solution to an African problem’.
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while, I have written updates highlighting some hiccups in this ‘African solution to an African problem’.
One such example was the issue of the Commission of Inquiry, set up by the AU’s human rights mechanism to investigate rights violations in Tigray. The issue was that it dissolved without any tangible results after two years.
The AU’s role in the peace deal was to monitor the implementation of this peace deal, among others. Officials in Tigray region are now accusing the AU of, ‘abandoning the implementation of the Pretoria peace agreement’.
Here's an excerpt from the story:
“Since the Pretoria agreement and the meeting of high military commanders in Nairobi, the AU high level panel has been nowhere. They have not been active since then,” Amanuel Aseffa, chief cabinet secretary of the Tigray Interim Administration (TIA), told The Reporter.”
There are a few things that officials in the region say have not been done despite being key parts of the peace deal, one of which is, ‘restoring Tigray’s borders to their pre-conflict boundaries’.
Another story came out by The New Humanitarian last week on the issue of this unresolved territory, and how it could threaten this peace deal.
The story puts three perspectives on this issue: Tigrayan officials, who expect the land to be returned to their administration; the Ethiopian government, which is suggesting a referendum as a deciding factor; and a perspective from Amhara officials which tend to look at referendum as tantamount to a betrayal (after supporting the federal government in the war).
If you don’t know about this contested land I write of, go here for more context.
The story cites multiple people including a, ‘a senior TPLF member, who asked not to be named,’ ‘a foreign researcher, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely,’ and a ‘Western diplomat, who didn’t want to be named so they could speak freely on the sensitive issue.’
The full story on The Reporter here and The New Humanitarian here.
Investigation: about the WHO chief
A story came out last week on Bloomberg that unveiled what it said was, ‘The Secret Plot Against the Head of the World Health Organization’. The secret plot was, according to the story, allegations made against the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom, by the Ethiopian government, to discredit him.
Tedros was the former Ethiopian Minister of Health and one of the long-serving members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the faction that went to war with the federal government in Tigray.
A truce was reached to end the war last year in November, but during the two-year war, the Ethiopian government was vocal on its stand against the WHO Director-General, saying that his comments on the Tigray war were partisan and that he was aiding and abetting the TPLF. So, how secret could this plot have been?
Here’s an excerpt:
The intelligence unit probed allegations that Tedros was involved in embezzlement of state funds, sexual misconduct, illicit purchases of property in Addis Ababa, rigged tender offers and illegal procurement during his tenure as Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to 2012, the documents show.
The story says that Tedros was targeted (as were a lot of Tigrayans) in random searches of his home in Ethiopia. He also had his apartment confiscated and an uncle of his was brutally murdered in Tigray where his family lives.
No charges were filed, the story continues, but the reports, ‘paint a picture of an effort by the Ethiopian government to criminalize the head of the WHO’.
The story cites a few people, including the Director-General himself, on their response to the allegations – all of which deny it and instead call it a ‘smear campaign’.
The full story on Bloomberg, which is for once, not behind a paywall, here.
Intra-regional: fighting over many reasons
Fighting that occurred in a border area of two of Ethiopia’s regional states – Somali and Oromia – has resulted in the death of several people. In a report written by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, internally displaced people as well as those living in these border areas have been most affected by this dispute.
An earlier story by Addis Standard says that this was a clash that happened between militia coming from the two regions. The reasons for the clashes were unsubstantiated but could possibly be a multitude of issues. Here’s an excerpt:
“A source close to the Somali regional administration told Addis Standard that the latest clashes are neither between local civilian people from the two regions nor over land claims as the administrative boundaries in the area have been clearly demarcated following the 2004 referendum.
The source who also conveyed the killing of civilians from both sides during the recent clashes claimed that people who have interests with regard to contraband trade, mainly khat, may have utilized state militias to start the fighting, adding that the Somali regional state had recently put up a checkpoint in the area.”
The full report by the Commission in Amharic here and the story by Addis Standard in English here.
Local politics: stabbed from the front
Back in July, I wrote an update on what was happening to one well-known opposition political party in the country. Members of the political party, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, or Ezema, were leaving in large numbers saying that the course of the party had changed and that its allegiance had shifted to align with the leading party while it turned a blind eye to atrocities in the country. Seven founding members left in May and a month later 250 others followed them.
At the time, the party’s leader – who serves as the Minister of Education – had been accused of ‘cozying up to the current regime.’
About a week ago, the party’s chairman, Dr. Chane Kebede, was arrested, and his home and office were searched. No warrants were involved in this process.
The party's head of legal and organizational affairs Seyoum Mengesha had said this at the time in a story on The East African:
“Seyoum said Chane's arrest did not comply with "constitutional procedures" and that he was taken away by unknown people in a vehicle without licence plates.”
In a follow-up statement since then, the party has done what looks like a one-eighty, saying that the arrest of its chairman, ‘will be evaluated with the principle that accountability applies to all.’
Here’s an excerpt from a story on Addis Standard:
“The Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (Ezema) party has stated that the recent arrest of its chairman, Dr. Chane Kebede, is unrelated to his leadership role within the party. In a statement released yesterday, after an emergency meeting of its executive committee, Ezema expressed that it conducted a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Chane’s arrest.
The full story on Addis Standard here and The East African here.
Mining: biggest yet gold mine en route
A multinational gold-producing company is in the works to develop, potentially, the biggest mining project in the country. According to a story published in Addis Fortune last week, the Kurmuk Project is a gold processing plant in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz Region, which will require half a billion dollars in development capital.
Who owns this company? ‘Toronto-based mining multinational Allied Gold Corporation’.
Here’s an excerpt on where the gold mining industry stands today:
“The country only has one active large-scale gold producer for the past quarter of a century, run by MIDROC Goldmine Plc, in Lega Dembi, Oromia Regional State. The site has been a source of public outrage due to its environmental damage.
Do they foresee challenges in operation for the new one?
“They expect to start early works by the end of the year and target to reach commercial production in a couple of years despite setbacks due to the presence of artisanal miners, which had posed a security threat to exploration efforts.
The full story on Addis Fortune here.
If you’re curious about lithium mining in the country, here’s a quick update on that from an investigation into the sector a couple of weeks ago.
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That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
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