Keeping the Horn on its toes
and local media house gets a final warning
There was a dizzying number of updates on the deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland last week so you’ll find I’ve written a summary of that here, an important story on a local media house (that’s not a crackdown!) as well as a couple of reports that concern Ethiopia.
Welcome to the 50th edition of Sifter, a newsletter that brings you the top 5 news stories on Ethiopia. I’m Maya Misikir and I am a freelance reporter who writes this from Addis Abeba.
As usual, if you see an update of interest, feel free to hit reply and ask for more details. I’ll respond!
Now, to the news.
Infrastructure: Ethiopia’s getting that port
I don’t know how many of you remember this, but in early August last year, Inside Story on Al Jazeera ran an episode entitled, “How will landlocked Ethiopia get direct access to a port?” I wrote an update on that at the time on how the guests discussed the many options Ethiopia could explore. The Port of Berbera, in Somaliland, was mentioned but the expert speaking said this would mean de facto recognition of Somaliland and it would cause problems for Ethiopia with the African Union.
As many of you are already aware, in an agreement that took place during an official visit from the president of Somaliland last week, Ethiopia has done just that.
The agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding (legally non-binding) and the deal says that Somaliland will grant access to the Red Sea (through the port of Berbera) to Ethiopia. In return, the government of Somaliland will get shares in Ethiopian Airlines and a recognition of its statehood from the Ethiopian government. The wording on this recognition from the two sides is slightly different but we’ll get to that in a bit.
This is a big deal for the government of Somaliland, which, as a breakaway nation, has been seeking exactly this for over 30 years, since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991.
This has gone down rather badly over in Somalia, which claims Somaliland as part of its territory. The government there has put out repeated calls saying that this deal encroaches on the territorial integrity of Somalia and that it is a ‘blatant disregard for international norms.’
The president of Somalia (following an emergency cabinet meeting) stated that, ‘not an inch of Somalia will be given away’. He said this the day after the deal was signed and again two days ago reiterated this stance by saying that Somalia has ‘signed a law which nullifies this ‘illegal’ agreement’. Not much more has come out on what exactly the last part means.
For the Ethiopian government, which lost access to the Red Sea after Eritrea seceded in 1993, this deal is seen as a correction of a ‘historical mistake’.
But coming back to the details of the agreement, and the burning question of whether Ethiopia will give Somaliland recognition; the government of Somaliland has been unequivocal on what it expects to receive through this deal.
Here’s an excerpt on that from its official statement:
In exchange for 20km sea access for the Ethiopian Naval forces, leased for a period of 50 years, Ethiopia will formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland, setting a precedent as the first nation to extend international recognition to our country.
What’s the statement on the Ethiopian side? An excerpt from a statement released on the same date says the agreement,
“…also includes provisions for the Ethiopian government to make an in-depth assessment towards taking a position regarding the efforts of Somaliland to take a position.”
So…a strong maybe?
The Islamist insurgent group in Somalia, Al-Shabab, has also opposed this agreement, and the group’s spokesperson is quoted as saying that the deal is "unlawful" and "invalid”.
As for the relations between Somalia and Somaliland, the two had days ago signed an agreement to restart communications after years of deadlock. This recent deal with Ethiopia ‘torpedoes all those efforts’ according to an expert in a story by VOA.
Somalia, on its part, has recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia.
And the rest of the world?
The African Union says to ‘deescalate simmering tensions’, and that the nations should engage in negotiations keeping in mind the importance of, ‘good neighbourliness’.
The E.U. is firmer, stating that it would like to ‘remind the importance of respecting the unity, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia’ (remind who? Ethiopia presumably).
I’ve linked most of my sources in the update but here are two other good reads on this: Why a Port Deal has the Horn of Africa on Edge on the New York Times, and a story on Addis Standard on where regional blocs stand on this issue.
Media: a final warning to Abbay Television
Local media house, Abbay Television has received a final warning from regulators for airing content that promotes violence against women. The warning was issued after what the regulating body, the Ethiopian Media Authority, said were multiple prior attempts to get it to rectify its mistakes on other occasions.
So what was the final straw for the Authority? A Christmas special aired on Sunday, January 8, featuring a group of comedians and which included a confession, jokes, and a jingle (!) about raping women, and how that is a part of Ethiopian culture.
Watching the show, I wasn’t sure what was worse; the famous comedian who says that ‘he’s sorry but he has raped a woman’, the other famous singer who jokes that ‘there’s nothing to be sorry about’, the audience breaking out in laughter at intervals or the multiple people on the editorial team who signed off on this episode.
The television channel responded to this warning given by regulators, saying that the meaning of the show had been misconstrued (especially since the title of the video, directly translated, reads, ‘I have raped a woman’.) Clickbait is as clickbait does, I guess.
Lawyer and talk show host Liya Terefe has also announced that she has discontinued her show at another television station, NBC Ethiopia. In a statement posted on Facebook, the host said that she has chosen to step away as the right decision to protect herself, her dignity, and her ideals.
Though she did not get into the details on her post, it is worth noting that a few days before this announcement, the host had invited three women’s rights activists on her show at NBC to respond to pushback on their campaign against gender-based violence.
During filming, the show was abruptly interrupted by the television’s CEO and the activists opted to to walk out instead of following what they said were directions on how to frame certain issues. They were then surrounded by security personnel and staff of the station when they tried to leave according to videos posted on their TikTok pages.
“We felt like we couldn’t leave because they were blocking us, including a security guard. We felt unsafe,” said Betelehem Akalewerk, one of the three activists and vice president of the Ethiopian Women Human Rights Defenders Network. The episode never aired.
Though some parts have been removed, snippets of the video from Abbay Television are still online on TikTok; this one captures what I described above, this is the final warning from the Ethiopian Media Authority, this is the response from Abbay Television (all of these in Amharic) and a story by state broadcaster EBC in English here.
Geopolitics: it’s official, Ethiopia is in BRICS
At the end of August last year, Ethiopia was invited to join BRICS, the bloc composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. As of January 1, Ethiopia along with four other countries has formally accepted this invitation (Argentina declined).
A story on Bloomberg talks about how this expanding group may be a ‘a stronger counterweight to the so-called Group of Seven — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.’
Here’s an excerpt from the story on what it says is the group’s biggest achievement:
The countries agreed to pool $100 billion of foreign-currency reserves, which they can lend to each other during emergencies. That liquidity facility became operational in 2016. They founded the New Development Bank — a World Bank-inspired institution that has approved almost $33 billion of loans — mainly for water, transport and other infrastructure projects — since it began operations in 2015.
The full story, which looks into how much trade between the countries of the bloc has changed (a 56% increase within 5 years!), it’s history and which country holds the most sway here.
Youth: not getting along with the government
A new research on four countries in Africa, including Ethiopia, is looking at the relationship between young people and regimes in their country.
The relationship between the youth and governments will be extremely important according to the researchers, mainly because of the rising youth population on the continent: ‘By 2030, 75% of the African population will be under the age of 35’.
In Ethiopia, this, along with rising youth militant groups makes this more relevant.
The four countries in the report all have elected autocracies according to the authors. What are elected autocracies? Here’s another excerpt from the story on that:
“Electoral autocracies are regimes elected into power using authoritarian strategies. These include manipulation of elections and repression of the opposition, independent media and civil society.”
The research looked at what kind of policies were in place that were targeted at the youth in these countries (loans, quotas, etc). It also notes that opportunities – for jobs, and political participation – mostly favored those in support of the regime.
In Ethiopia, though the youth played an important role in bringing the current regime to power, they have since been silenced, it indicates.
The research is not final so you’ll be seeing more updates on that here.
The article on The Conversation is entitled, “How Africa's post conflict regimes handle the African Millennias”.
2024: look out for these humanitarian crises
A recent story by The New Humanitarian has made a list of the top 10 humanitarian crises to look out for in the coming year. These crises are neglected by donors, it says, because of ‘their complexity or their relative lack of geopolitical importance.’
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“According to the latest UN figures, nearly 300 million people in 72 countries will require humanitarian assistance and protection this year. Globally, response plans in 2023 were less than 40% funded, while the donor outlook is even gloomier for the coming year as the UN scales back its ambitions.”
The story features the situation in the Horn of Africa; the record droughts followed by the floods, along with conflict in the region, including the one in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.
The conflict in Sudan and Myanmar, soaring gang violence in Haiti, as well insurgencies in the Sahel region which have left people displaced and in need of humanitarian support in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are also mentioned.
The full report, which includes updates on the situation in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Venezuela here.
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The T on this edition though! Loved it!