An extremely bad week for the church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been in the news last week. Three archbishops went ahead and appointed 26 bishops last week in Oromia without the blessing of the the Holy Synod (the highest authority in the Church). This has resulted in a series of back and forths that has since led to revocations of titles, suspension of salaries, and outright excommunication that is threatening a split in the church. The archbishops accuse the Holy Synod of not being inclusive in appointments of priests, particularly those who could preach gospel in the language of the community among others. While this issue was by covered multiple outlets, state affiliated media houses have been hush hush on the topic and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Church, which is asking why this is the case. One report says the media houses have been given strict instructions to steer clear.
Here’s the initial press release given by the three Archbishops, justifying their decisions and here’s a story on the police arrest and disappearance of two church members since, both in Amharic.
Results are in and they don't look good…
Results for give or take 12 students who sat for their school leaving exams last year have come in and it looks like they’ve passed. The results for the remaining 12-grade students not so much. That was an exaggeration but not by a lot; nearly 900,000 students sat for their exams last year, and only 29,909 have scored the mandatory 50 percentile to pass on to university. The numbers are grim whichever way you crunch it. About 411,000 of those students were girls, and less than 10,000 will be starting as freshman next year. Not a single student passed their exams in over 1000 schools.
The Minister of Education says this is indicative of the true status of the students (and the education system). Last year was the first where students took these exams in university halls to avoid students cheating. Only one private school in the country had all its students pass. The days where going to a private school guaranteed a pass to universities might be behind us. Here’s the Minister’s press release in Amharic and the detailed story in English.
Passing the baton of blame
A sudden attack in North Shoa, Amhara Region has led to the death of over 30 security forces and an unknown number of civilian deaths. The zonal representative states this was carried out not just by members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), Shene, but also through those ‘living within the community and harboring personal agendas’. Another official is reported as asking the government for a ‘special operation to clear out the perpetrators from the community.’
The disarming of militia since the peace accord have left the community vulnerable for attacks according to another source in the story.
However, another story states that the attacks were carried out by ‘militants of armed group operating in Amhara Region known as Fano’.
What is incontestable is: houses have been burned down, and the attacks have forced many to just pack and leave their homes in search of safer neighborhoods.
The story in Amharic and English.
A series of appointments
If you’ve been paying attention to the news in past couple of weeks, you'll have noticed that there have a considerable reshuffle of higher level officials most notable of which have been the change of governor of the Central Bank, and three ministers.
Last week parliamentarians were faced with confirmation of the recent appointees of the Prime Minister, for the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Mines (so long Také) and Minister of Transport and Logistics.
Though the nominees were confirmed with a majority vote there were some interesting questions raised, including how the latest nominations do not adequately consider women. We are a long way off from October 2018, when the country emerged as a leader in gender parity. Now, with Dagmawit Moges replaced by Alemu Sime as Minster of Transport and Logistics, women occupy less than a third of the 22 ministerial positions. But who’s counting? I was and I wrote about it some time ago, if you’re looking for a longer read.
Another question raised during the confirmation session, “Why are we ushering in new ministers every year as if it’s a new year tradition?”
Here’s the story in Amharic and English, though you may have to wait a few days until the paywall is down for the English version. Alternatively, you could pick up a print version of Addis Fortune.
Peace deal updates
Last week government representatives stated that there are no other foreign forces other than the Federal Defense Forces in Tigray Region, but there have been no confirmation yet from the African Union monitoring team, which has only spoken on the disarmament of Tigrayan combatants thus far. Spokesperson for the TPLF, Getachew Reda, on the statement by the government.
What Else?
The city of Alamata made news this week, over questions of administration. The city, effectively under the Amhara Region used to be under Tigray, prior to the war. The question of where it belongs has not been given a formal answer by the house of Federation and as a contested area its importance can’t be understated. But this story is mostly about dividing the city’s kebeles for ‘better administration’ and an funny back and forth between the administrators. The story in Amharic here.
There are about 12 road and power projects in limbo in Ethiopia, due to a funding freeze from China’s Export Import Bank. This is has been extremely bad for the Modjo-Hawassa Expressway in particular. The full story in English here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
Note: I go through all the major news outlets, newspapers, online publications, and will at times, include reports, notes on parliamentary sessions, and go through fact checking websites as well. I try to provide links to both English and Amharic sources, and I usually time stamp the video I link to unless I think the whole video is relevant.