communities caught in between a fight
and a rally for Muslim students
Hi there,
I’m sending this edition out from Addis Abeba, as opposed to Brussels — as my work trip was derailed by being denied an entry visa. I can only chalk this up to the latest EU visa sanctions on Ethiopia, which have now hit home. You can read more on the sanctions, in effect since last June, here.
Instead of flying, I spent my time doing other enjoyable things over the weekend, like reading this hilarious, yet serious, blog about the horrible state of bathrooms in courts and legal institutions across the city (it’s in Amharic). I always wonder where we went wrong here in terms of our collective disregard for the state of public bathrooms. I walk into a restaurant, bar, or café, and more often than not, I find the restrooms do not match the state of the rest of the institution and certainly not the price you’re being charged for food or drinks.
Anyway, as the author notes, the situation is getting better, slowly, but surely. I mentioned this once before in Sifter when I attended what was purportedly one of the biggest tech and start-up summits in the country. The organizers charged over a hundred dollars for entry but had neither soap nor tissue in the restrooms.
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: a teacher, a driver, a civil servant, and many, many more
Here’s a horrendous list of some of the serious rights violations happening in conflict areas in Ethiopia: extra-judicial killings, civilian deaths and bodily harm, damage and theft of property, mass, arbitrary and prolonged arrests, enforced disappearances, kidnappings, unlawful blockades on transportation routes, displacement and erosion of judicial independence.
This is from the findings of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, from its latest quarterly report released last week. The findings, spanning from last September to December, are focused on conflict-affected areas and despite the long list of incidents listed, do not fully represent the scale of what is happening (because the Commission’s investigators cannot access all conflict-affected areas in the country).
In Ethiopia’s Amhara region, where the federal government has been actively fighting the region’s informal militia (Fano) for the past year and a half, the principle of distinction, where parties to an armed conflict are expected to distinguish between civilians and combatants, has been utterly disregarded.
The report cites several incidents where government forces attacked without differentiating civilians from combatants, killed and injured people, and burned down their homes. The civilians killed in many cases included children, as young as 2 years.
This is not the first time government security forces have been accused of retaliating on the local community after shootouts with the Fano militants. As reported in the past, these retaliatory killings are done on people they find in the community, those found inside their homes, or the ones soldiers come across walking on the streets.
In other areas (like East Gojam Zone) government soldiers have killed and beaten up teachers because they found out they were working on getting schools re-opened in their communities (only 2.3 million students have enrolled for the current academic year out of 7 million in the region).
At times, the soldiers prohibited family members from holding funerals for their deceased relatives. These same patterns were present during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. I shared an excerpt on why they did this – it’s a way to rob the community of a ‘sense of healing’. Sometimes, soldiers even killed people they found organizing a funeral.
The report mentions aerial attacks on neighborhoods and gives details on how civilians, including children, have died from being unable to access healthcare due to the unlawful roadblocks imposed.
The Fano militia are not exempt from rights violations either. They are also implicated in similar actions: in one town in East Gojam Zone, the militants imprisoned at least 80 government officials and community residents, accusing them of being informants, and later on killed 38 of them, all of them civilians.
However, conflict is present in other regions of the country.
The report mentions the fights over border demarcation between Ethiopia’s Gambella and South West Region, where people have been hurt and property lost during these fights.
In the country’s Oromia Region, where the federal government is fighting another insurgency against the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), civilians are again facing the worst from both sides. The OLA kills people they believe are supporting government actors while government forces are accused of doing the same to those they think support the rebels.
In June last year, a report on the human rights situation in Oromia’s Guji Zones showed similar trends where people were killed either by the OLA or government forces because they were suspected of providing support to the opposition, whichever party that happens to be. The organization that had published that extensive report — the Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy — is currently suspended by the government.
This is a summary of the Commission’s report, which goes into the details of exact places, and times of the incidents as well as the names of people who lost their lives.
The full report, in Amharic, here.
Migration: the boat that almost reached Yemen
I’ve been tracking migration reports on Ethiopia, including reports on the different routes taken by migrants, the fate of some saved from traffickers, and stories on the role of Saudi Arabia and the EU on migration on the continent.
Last week, the UN’s migration agency reported that 20 Ethiopians had died off the coast of Yemen when their boat capsized due to ‘strong seasonal winds’. The report says that the boat was carrying 35 people when it had left Djibouti, but had only 17 survivors: ‘15 Ethiopian men and two Yemeni crew members, who reached the shore after the harrowing ordeal’.
Here’s an excerpt:
Most Ethiopian migrants traveling through Yemen are seeking to reach Gulf countries driven by conflict, climate change and a lack of economic prospects, only to encounter exploitation, violence, and life-threatening conditions along the way.
I have written about this Eastern Route before; the one that goes ‘from Ethiopia, through Somalia or Djibouti, into and through Yemen, and often to Saudi Arabia’.
A route taken by tens of thousands of Ethiopians every year and made possible, ‘through a network of smugglers and traffickers (with many other state and non-state actors complicit along the way)’. I wrote an edition, entitled ‘the migration route from hell’, which you can find here.
The report from the International Organization for Migration, here.
Education: protesting the hijab bans
Thousands of Muslims were out on the streets last Tuesday in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The rally was organized in protest of the decision to ban Muslim girls from sitting for their exams in another city in the region (Axum) unless they removed their hijabs (headscarves).
A representative of the Tigray Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, which organized the rally said that this was ‘deeply concerning in a region where Islam has been part of the culture for centuries’, according to a story on Addis Standard.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
… wearing the hijab is a religious obligation for many Muslim women and is protected under international human rights frameworks, including the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
This is not only happening in Tigray. In South Ethiopia Region, students at Dilla University say they were barred entry from their campus because they were wearing their niqab, (a recent prohibition based on security concerns).
The full story on Addis Standard, on the protests here, and the niqab bans, here
Infrastructure: the demolitions happening outside of Addis
Parliamentarians were in a back-and-forth with the head of the Ethiopian Ministry of Urban and Infrastructure Development last Thursday for over three hours.
The session, set for the Ministry’s half-year performance report, brought attention to the ‘unapproved and unregulated execution of the corridor development project’, according to a story in the Reporter.
Here’s an excerpt:
The government has yet to disclose the source of funding for the project, which has been going on for a year now. The large number of residents being relocated to make way for green areas and the clearing of land for private development ventures has been a bone of contention, particularly in Addis Ababa.
The full story, which has the Minister’s response to the rollout of this Corridor Development Project in cities and towns outside of the capital, on The Reporter, here.
To get a better understanding of the project, check out this edition entitled, Addis Abeba’s facelift.
Earthquakes: the tremors continue
A recent assessment of seismic impact details a severe humanitarian need where earthquakes have displaced people in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. The humanitarian needs caused by the earthquake come on top of other issues, including conflict and drought, according to a story in Addis Standard.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“In most assessed sites, the impact of the seismic shocks on living conditions was reportedly very high, affecting up to three out of four individuals in local communities,” the impact assessment stated. “Many displaced persons are living in precarious conditions near Metahara town without access to food, shelter, or essential non-food items.”
This is the latest update on the effects of the earthquakes in Ethiopia. Over the past weeks, I have written about how humanitarian aid wasn’t reaching those in need because of security issues and how the earthquakes could also affect movement along the Ethio-Djibouti trade route.
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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