Another week of rising tensions
and worsening food insecurity in Tigray
Hi there,
I hope you had a good Timket (Epiphany) over the past weekend - if you are in Ethiopia and celebrate the holiday. I usually use these opportunities (holidays) to do something I enjoy (nothing). But I spent most of last week on a field trip for work and while that means you can expect some original reporting from me in the coming weeks, this week’s edition of Sifter is going to be brief because there’s only so much energy a girl can muster.
If there’s anything in here that’s caught your interest though and you want more info on that, hit reply and I’ll share more of the stuff I’ve left out.
Now, to the news.
Infrastructure: the port issue compounds
The news updates on the port deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland continued to come at warp speed last week further cementing my love-hate relationship with Google Alerts. But I have outlined a few things below to mark the major updates.
So far, this deal has resulted in protests in Somalia (against it), and others coming out in support (in Somaliland). Somaliland’s defense minister has resigned (in protest). Regional blocs like the African Union, and the European Union have said it’s important to respect the territorial integrity of Somalia.
The Arab League was less diplomatic in its wording last week. It denounced the port deal and called it a “blatant coup” according to a story by Daily News Egypt. Representatives from both Ethiopia and Somaliland swiftly rejected the statement, says Addis Standard.
Yet another regional bloc, The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, followed through with the emergency meeting it had called to discuss this issue among its members, which include both Somalia and Ethiopia.
But who ended up at the meeting last Thursday? Here’s an excerpt from a story on Reuters:
Those in attendance included the presidents of Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan as well as the leader of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
There were no representatives from Ethiopia, as they were, ‘informed too late about the summit’. Mediation is off the table for Somalia, which said that the port deal needs to be ‘retracted’ first according to the same story.
At this same meeting, the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa said that this ‘could undermine international-backed efforts to combat al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia, according to one story by the Associated Press.
Another story by The Continent says that the ‘large numbers of Ethiopian troops within Somalia’ are securing territory from the al-Qaida-linked militants, Al-Shabaab. So how will this play out between Somalia and Ethiopia? Here’s an excerpt on that from the story:
The federal government in Mogadishu is in a difficult position,” said Dr Peter Chonka, a senior lecturer in global digital cultures at King’s College London. “The irony here is that for all of the protests about Somalia’s sovereignty, the federal government and the federal member states still need Ethiopia to be an active security partner within the country against Al-Shabaab.
Another major update from last week is that the Egyptian president was quoted as saying that Egypt will give its “support in case of aggression against one of the Arab countries, especially when brotherly countries ask us to stand by them”.
A full breakdown with the latest updates on The Continent here, a story on Somaliland’s rejection of mediation on Reuters here, and the latest on what the Egyptian government is saying on The Guardian here.
Food: an intervention is necessary
In December, a report came out warning of a possible and looming critical food shortage in parts of Ethiopia. The report was done by the Famine Early Warning System Network. By January, a story in The Globe and Mail came out detailing the situation in one of the worst-hit regions in the country, Tigray.
A story run by BBC last week says that more than 200 people have died of starvation in the region and that most of them are children and young people.
Here’s an excerpt:
Officials in Tigray warn the region is on the brink of famine on a scale last seen in 1984, prompting the global fundraising music event Live Aid the following year.
But famine is a highly sensitive word in Ethiopia. The central government in Addis Ababa denies famine is looming and says it is working to provide aid. Yet medics and humanitarians say aid is not coming fast enough, leaving them helpless to save lives.
The full story on BBC here.
Press freedom: coming out on top
My last update on press freedom was in mid-December last year when the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) flagged the continued and unlawful detention of journalist Belay Manaye, who remains in detention to date.
Last week, CPJ released its annual prison census, which ‘documents journalists in jail around the world on December 1 each year.’
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is ranked in the top three worst jailors of journalists, with 8 people in jail by the end of last year. Eritrea takes the top spot in the region with 16 journalists in jail.
Here’s an excerpt from the report:
The number of jailed Ethiopian journalists reflects the difficult environment for the media. Despite the signing in 2022 of a peace agreement that ended two years of civil war, parts of Ethiopia remain restive and conflict is raging in the country’s Amhara State between regional militia and federal forces. All eight journalists in CPJ’s census were arrested in 2023 after covering this conflict.
You can go through the database here and find the profiles of all 8 journalists in prison in Ethiopia (and all 320 globally).
The full report from CPJ here.
Law: patching things up with the Bank
In November last year, two senior African Development Bank officials were physically assaulted and illegally detained by Ethiopian security personnel. The Bank lodged a formal complaint, asked for a thorough investigation, and a month later decided that it was best to withdraw all its international staff from the country.
At the time, representatives of the Bank said that they were concerned that no details or report was coming out of the promised investigation into the egregious matter.
Last week, the Bank announced that a series of meetings between the Bank’s president and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has ‘brought a resolution to the matter.’
Here’s an excerpt from the Bank’s official statement on what resolution means here:
The Bank has subsequently received formal apologies from the Prime Minister on behalf of the Government of Ethiopia, with firm assurances of the security and safety of the Bank and its personnel, the respect for the rights, privileges, and diplomatic immunities of staff and the Host Country Agreement of the Government of Ethiopia with the African Development Bank.
The Bank further received firm commitment by the Government to investigate and share the formal report of the investigations into the incident with the Bank and to ensure full accountability for all involved.
This doesn’t look too different from what the Bank was promised back in November but this round of apologies must have been worded differently because all international staff will be returning and the Bank is expected to resume operations as usual, according to the same statement.
The full press release by the Bank here.
Investment: under new management
The Ethiopian Investment Commission has a new head. The former CEO of Ethiopost, the state-owned postal service provider, Hanna Arayaselassie, was appointed last week to lead the Commission.
Her ‘appointment is seen as a move by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's administration to recharge the investment environment in an economy starved of foreign currency’ according to Addis Fortune.
What has her record looked like as CEO at Ethio Post? Here’s another excerpt from the same story:
Under her watch, Ethiopost achieved a financial turnaround, tripling its revenues. It was a result acknowledged internationally in 2023 when the Universal Postal Union awarded Ethiopost the Postal Excellence Award for the Africa Region.
The full story, which includes details on the background of the new commissioner, on Addis Fortune, here.
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That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
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