Killed (or found dead?)
Hi there,
If you’re a new subscriber, welcome. I’m Maya Misikir, a freelancer reporter based in Addis Abeba and this is Sifter, a newsletter where I curate the week’s top five stories on Ethiopia in under 10 minutes.
This week’s updates are on the heavy side but, alas, they must be written.
Politics: another message for us all
To say that the death of Ethiopian opposition political figure, Bate Urgessa, shook me to my core when I read about it last week, would not be an understatement.
The last time I wrote about Bate, in March, was when he was released from jail. This followed his brief imprisonment (not for the first time) along with visiting French journalist Antoine Galindo. Government officials said Galindo was here in Ethiopia accredited for covering the African Union Summit and not for, ‘gathering information about Ethiopia’s internal political issues’ as he was later accused of doing.
Galindo and Bate were both taken away by plainclothes officers from a hotel in Addis Abeba and thrown in jail. After an appearance in court, Galindo was set free and left for France. Bate was held for another week before he was let go. Last week, he was shot dead in his hometown of Meki, in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.
Here’s an excerpt from a story on Addis Standard, which has covered this extensively:
Sources confirmed to Addis Standard that Bate was shot dead on Tuesday night and his body was found dumped early on Wednesday.
A family member who spoke to Addis Standard said Bate was taken out of his hotel room around mid-night on Tuesday, and his body was found dumped by the road the next morning. The family member added that those who took him “looked like government security forces.”
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, the EU, the US, and the Oromo Liberation Front (the party he served), have all called for an impartial investigation into his death. Thirteen people have since been arrested since his killing, according to a story on VOA.
When Bate was thrown in prison for the last time, Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa Director for Human Rights Watch had written that ‘these latest arrests demonstrate that in Ethiopia today, no one is safe from arbitrary arrest and detention.’
The full story on Addis Standard here.
Banking: experts say multiple breaches took place
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has been in the headlines for the past few weeks and if you don’t know why yet, I suggest looking through the short update I wrote, here.
Over the past week, I spoke to even more commercial and banking law experts on the (il)legality of the steps the Bank took to get lost money back. While certain comments by people on social media seem to indicate that this sort of questioning is akin to sympathizing with thieves, experts say that this ‘sets a dangerous precedent’ for a Bank acting outside its legal mandate.
Here's an excerpt of what senior commercial law attorney, Fekadu Petros said in a story I did for The Africa Report:
“Petros says the bank has a duty to protect customers' data, including the name, photo and other details, according to financial customer protection laws by the regulatory body, the National Bank of Ethiopia.
"Just because the bank has the data in its control doesn't mean it can publish it," he says. "This sets a dangerous precedent. In the future, whenever it deems it necessary, then it can publicise any other data as it sees fit."
There were customers I spoke to for the story who told me that they have not taken any money that wasn’t theirs but because their transfers happened during that window when the system glitch happened, their accounts are still frozen, weeks later (despite complaints). On the bright side, at least their faces weren’t mistakenly printed on posters the bank had put up across ATMs in the country (which also happened).
Interestingly, one expert thought these ‘steps were necessary to avoid a bigger catastrophe’ (like a bank run).
Here’s another excerpt from a story covered by the BBC:
In an interview with the BBC's Newsday programme following the glitch, CBE boss Abe Sano said the bank was already in the process of reporting customers to the police.
A move that arguably should have happened way before.
This incident, ‘should serve as a grim reminder of Ethiopia's privacy challenges’ says a story by Addis Fortune, which describes it as, ‘a grave misjudgment by Abie and his team, exposing an utter disregard for legal norms and ethical standards in the pursuit of accountability.’
The full story on Addis Fortune here, The Africa Report here, and BBC here.
Migration: facing hell in every direction
At least 38 migrants, most of them Ethiopians, died in a shipwreck last week, according to a story on Reuters. The boat was coming from Yemen, the story adds, and that they were, ‘trying to return to Djibouti to buy time and try again later or return home.’
I wrote about this migration route, known as The Eastern Route, from Ethiopia, through Somalia or Djibouti, into and through Yemen, and often to Saudi Arabia last year. You can read about that, here.
Another, less documented, migration route out of Ethiopia is the South-South Route, going from Ethiopia, through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique to South Africa. You can go here to read an update on that, also from last year.
The migration route is complicated, often characterized by smuggler abuse and those who make it get into exploitative work arrangements in South Africa. But even Ethiopians running successful businesses have faced increasing arbitrary harassment over the past few months, according to the latest story on this by The New Humanitarian.
Here’s an excerpt:
African migrants have historically faced a significant degree of hostility in South Africa. The common narrative is that they have come to sponge off the state – from social services to welfare grants – and have brought crime with them. Simultaneously, they are also accused of stealing jobs, in an economy that cannot create enough of them.
The evidence, instead, shows that migration is a net positive – like in the rest of the world. Foreign-run spaza shops provide employment to South Africans, as well as opportunities to small-scale suppliers, research repeatedly shows.
So what could have brought on this new wave of harassment of Ethiopians in South Africa? ‘A volatile election year, with populist afrophobia becoming politically normalised ahead of next month’s polls,’ indicates the story.
The full story on The New Humanitarian here and Reuters here.
Investment: different tactics
The Ethiopian government is making ‘sweeping changes’ to investment law in the country, allowing foreign investors in sectors that previously were reserved only for Ethiopians, says a story on Birr Metrics.
Though this includes the export of crops (coffee, oilseeds, pulses, hides, and skins) as well the import of, ‘all goods except fertilizer and petroleum’, the minimum requirements set for foreign investors are high, it adds.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Analysts say these steep criteria aim to attract only the world's largest trading and supermarket groups with proven balance sheets rather than small or medium investors.
It signals Ethiopia's goal of dramatically scaling up major exports and modernizing downstream sectors through substantial foreign capital injection and expertise.
This latest news comes after another announcement in plans for a major policy change; one that will allow foreigners to own property in the country.
Though the dates are not yet set on the property ownership law, a story on Semafor says that the previous ban was in place for a variety of reasons including, ‘fears that opening the real estate market could work against locals, some of whom could be priced out of the market’.
The full story on Birr Metrics here, and Semafor, here.
Power: a possible reason for cuts across the country
A lot of us here in Addis (not unlike the rest of the country) have been experiencing power cuts quite frequently. This and overall systemic failures revealed through an audit report, now have the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) facing serious questioning at Parliament, according to a story by Addis Fortune.
While power cuts are serious, this update includes the more colorful exchanges documented by Addis Fortune at Parliament last week.
The story says that a session where the Public Expenditure Administration & Control Affairs Standing Committee at Parliament was planned to question the EEP was threatened to be cut short. Why? A late appearance by the head of the EEP, ‘who joined mid-session with an apology.’
What did the audit of EEP find? Among other things, this excerpt says:
Equipment valued at nearly 17 million dollars had been stolen from three projects between 2020 and 2022. On the other hand, only 11 out of 33 projects had been completed on schedule, with the remaining largely attributed to inadequate follow-up procedures.
What was the CEO’s response to this? Another excerpt:
"I'm not denying the audit findings were wrong," Ashebir said. "But there is ongoing progress."
The EEP is now expected to produce an action plan that details its, ‘performance and governance practices’.
The full story, by Addis Fortune, here.
Was this forwarded to you by someone? Then hit the button below to subscribe and get free weekly updates.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, you can help support my work by forwarding this to friends and family (and help them keep up with what’s going on).
They took our jobs! 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you, Maya. That was a good read.