jail (at the slightest inconvenience)
and what may be war profiteering
Hi there,
Did you know that electric heaters can cause a sore throat? They do, and I know this because I was in bed all day Sunday nursing a sore throat and a migraine from turning mine on for an extended period. Now that my heater is out of the equation, I’ll face the coming onslaught of Addis’s cold weather armed with nothing but a blanket. If you have tips on staying warm, please send it my way.
On a related note, the heavy rains are here and I wonder if government agencies will keep their promises to work on solutions after four people died from floods last month. I’ll be looking at this more closely in the coming weeks; please send any tips, ideas, or comments on this my way.
Some of you have commented that you didn’t know I am reachable - I am. If you hit reply to this email, I’ll get your message. If you have nothing to say yet, you can communicate by hitting the like button at the bottom instead – which I’ve also heard you may not be aware of.
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 annual report
Ten days ago, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released its annual report on human rights in Ethiopia. This is the third consecutive year that it’s done this, and this year, the report also coincides with a change in the Commission’s leadership.
A lot of differing opinions about the work of the Commission and Commissioner Daniel Bekele over the past five years; a consortium of civil society organizations wrote a statement calling him, ‘a powerful and credible voice for human rights in Ethiopia’. However, his tenure is not free from criticism and some think he is politically biased.
In his final remarks made in this report, the Commissioner outlined a few noteworthy things; that the past five years have marked Ethiopia with a human rights crisis, and that the work of the Commission should look into these two major things in the coming years; following up the process of the National Dialogue Commission and the implementation of the country’s Transitional Justice Policy.
He also highlighted the impact of conflict on people’s economic lives and rights; the destruction of property, livelihoods, and productivity. He also mentioned education; millions of children are out of school in Ethiopia right now — over 8 million — due to conflict (compounded by budgetary shortage from the government).
The Commission, he concluded in this statement, should pay attention to economic and social rights in the future.
This report notes that violations of human rights under the context of conflict are worsening in Ethiopia. Air strikes and other heavy ‘military actions’ that do not make distinctions between civilians and combatants are killing people, destroying their homes, and their livelihood. In Ethiopia, there are now 3.2 million people displaced internally – more than half of which is because of conflict in the country.
The report also goes into some of the events that transpired while under the state of emergency which lasted for ten months. Long story short, the state of emergency was one of the worst things to have happened to human rights in the past year, according to the report.
Under it, enforced disappearances and detention were rampant. Most of the complaints on enforced disappearances the Commission received came from the capital city, Addis Abeba (but also from Ethiopia’s Amhara and Oromia regions).
Detention was not reserved for those apprehended under the guise of this state of emergency, however. Many others including politicians, and media practitioners, were imprisoned without adequate justifications.
One of the many examples given in the report is the case of (former) rebel fighters in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz Region. Former combatants spent three months in prison before the Commission was able to secure their release after initiating talks with government bodies.
If you remember, back in November, the rebel fighters in the region (the Gumuz People's Democratic Movement ) had agreed to lay down their arms and signed a peace deal with the regional government.
Other reasons hundreds of people are in jail include defaming government officials, inciting violence (mostly targeting people active on social media), and defying the government.
Some of these detentions take place in irregular centers, with no proper facilities, and people imprisoned there fall ill and die due to communicable diseases, says the report. Others simply don’t have the budget for food for suspects in detention. In extreme cases, the ‘detention centers’ don’t even have a roof, and people are imprisoned in open-air prisons, forced to brave the elements, with no charge in sight.
The economic impact of the conflicts in the country has led to the rising cost of essential food items across the country due to decreased productivity; something to be expected when farms and cattle are destroyed. On the other hand, this is also the reason behind the humanitarian crisis in the country with millions of people in need of food aid right now. There are currently 10.8 million people in Ethiopia who are critically food insecure.
The ramifications are endless; conflicts are also a reason behind road closures, and this coupled with recurring ‘security checks’ by both government bodies and armed groups, makes journeys very unsafe, causing prices of food and other items to soar.
The full report, in Amharic, here. If you want to compare notes with last year’s annual report, you can find my updates from 2023, here.
Oromia: the students are still not free
Last week on Sifter, I wrote an update on kidnapping in Ethiopia’s Oromia region; about 100 people including students had been taken by fighters with the ‘same hairstyle as fighters from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group’ said a story I cited from Reuters.
The story has taken many turns since.
Over the past week, representatives of the rebel group, OLA, active in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, published a statement saying that this kidnapping ‘appears to have been orchestrated by the state intelligence officers’ and that they are carried out by impersonators, or ‘OLA-counterfeits’.
The region’s government communication bureau, on the other hand, says it’s the OLA. They even went as far as saying they had secured the release of 160 of 167 students who were taken hostage. (The bus was full of students heading to their hometowns from Debark University in Ethiopia’s Amhara region).
But parents cited in a story by Addis Standard say that this claim by the communication bureau is not true.
Here’s an excerpt of what one parent said:
Expressing disappointment over the recent government announcements, he said, “To this day, not a single student has been released by government forces. We would have known since the kidnappers contact us daily with our children, and they informed us that no government forces have been seen.”
Another father of a third-year student from Debark University, whose daughter has also been kidnapped, corroborated this account.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council says that a significant number of students are still being held and that a few have been released after managing to pay the requested ransom. Others have been released, after being ‘identified by their places of birth’ (read: ethnic identity).
Another comprehensive report that came out a few weeks prior, on the state of human rights in another conflict-hit part of Ethiopia’s Oromia region, says that both government forces and armed groups are complicit in kidnapping and asking for (millions of Birr in) ransom.
The full statement by the OLA in English, here, the story on Addis Standard, here, and the statement from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, in Amharic, here.
Tigray: is this war profiteering?
The big story on last week’s edition of The Continent was the story of Christoph Huber, a Swiss citizen accused of ‘illicit exploitation of minerals’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 6 million Congolese have been killed since 1996, in a ‘scramble for the country’s minerals.’
In Ethiopia, ‘armed groups and foreigners’ are part of a, ‘highly organized and illicit gold rush’ in the country’s Tigray region, says a new investigative report by The Reporter.
The contraband gold trade has led to the death of dozens in the region as it is escalating to armed violence, says the story.
Here’s an excerpt:
Illicit mining is particularly active at the Rahwa gold mine located in Indabaguna Woreda, near the Tekeze River in northwestern Tigray. Former TDF combatants, local youth, refugees, Chinese nationals, and others work at the site. The site itself and the gold mined from there, however, is under the control of senior Tigrayan military officers, according to inside sources.
The story, which looks into the illicit trade, a recent shoot-out between local miners and security personnel of Chinese operators, the ways and routes to smuggle it out of the country, which includes using vehicles ‘marked with the insignias of the UN’, here.
The investigative story on the Swiss national who made millions from the Congo crisis and whose whereabouts have finally been located, on The Continent, here.
Press freedom: highlights from award season
Last week, Wednesday, the Government Communication Services, hosted “Media for the Nation”, an award ceremony recognizing media houses with the Prime Minister himself, giving out awards to 11 selected media houses.
Winners included a (garden) variety of state-owned (‘public’) and state-affiliated media houses like Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, Walta TV, Ethiopian Press Agency, Oromia Broadcasting Network, Amhara Media Corporation, and Fana Broadcasting Corporation.
During a speech he made at the event, the Prime Minister advised people in the profession to take stock of what they have done over one year, to see the full extent of how much poison is spewed and how many lives are impacted.
Another award is also underway, organized by a private group of media practitioners. Votes opened in multiple categories at the end of last month for this award ceremony named…Media Award. The first round of votes is now closed after a controversy that entailed a visit to the regulatory body, and a cancellation of one category altogether. Second rounds will commence after judges’ and voters’ picks have been tallied.
The Prime Minister’s speech at the Media for the Nation award, in Amharic, here, and the story on that, on state-affiliated media house, Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation, in English, here.
Security: we don’t know her (XXIV)
I’m happy to report that today's edition – the 24th part to be precise – is going to be a positive update on the security situation in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.
Internet access – mobile data to be exact - has been restored across 19 cities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, according to a story by Addis Standard. This is after nearly a year of shutdown when the conflict started in August last year.
Here’s an excerpt from what a resident said:
A resident from Dessie, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Addis Standard, “There is congestion because everyone is using it; it comes and goes.” Despite the slow speed, the resident expressed satisfaction with the service’s return.
If you’re wondering why someone would need to remain anonymous to comment on the state of internet connectivity, go here for a better understanding.
The full story on Addis Standard, here, and the chronological breakdown of the security in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, you can say thank you by forwarding this to friends and family (and helping them keep up with what’s going on).
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Thanks for the concise updates.