Stop detaining homeless kids every holiday
and stealing aid from Tigray
Security forces are rounding up homeless kids whenever there’s a big event or a celebration around the corner. A report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission corroborates what we knew all along; this is neither legal nor acceptable. The Commission, which has been investigating this says that homeless kids are being rounded up arbitrarily, by force, and being held at a detention center for varying amounts of time.
According to the same report, there are about 150,000 kids living on the street and about 60,000 of these are in Addis Abeba. About 10% of them have disabilities.
The investigation, carried out for six months (August 2022 – January 2023), revealed that about 14,000 people, including kids, have been forcefully rounded up from the streets and detained. This is a regular occurrence during public holidays.
The homeless kids are taken to a detention center known as Akaki Kaliti Tehadeso Center. They are taken in buses upto a 100 at a time, with kids aged anywhere from 4 to 18 years old.
There’s no law or policy to back this up - it’s just a matter of a few higher-ups making calls and the security apparatus swings into action. The Addis Abeba City administration, the Addis Abeba Police, the peace and security bureau, and wait for it…the women and children’s affairs bureau are all involved.
Read the full report in Amharic here.
The Commission also released another report last week, denouncing the use of force by the military in Amhara region. The report talked about how heavy shelling in areas in North Shoa has led to civilian deaths. Read my report for VOA on that here.
Aid to Tigray stopped due to theft
The aid that is intended to reach those in need in Tigray – about 6 million people – is not reaching them. It is instead being stolen and sold off in local markets. The UN and USAID have both stopped sending aid to the region until the matter is investigated. Tigray region administration is saying they’re also launching a high-level investigation.
But who’s involved? USAID Administrator, Samantha Powers says, it appears to involve: “collusion between parties of both sides of the conflict.”
The full story on the Associated Press here.
First round of talks, no agreement yet
Representatives of the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) finalized their first round of talks last week Wednesday, with no agreement reached. The spokesperson for the OLA, Odaa Tarbii, said that, ‘it was not possible to reach an agreement on key political matters’.
Both parties have said they are committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
For more information on the OLF-OLA, and what drives the organization, take a look at last week’s breakdown of their political manifesto.
From Sudan
While Ethiopia is helping other countries repatriate their citizens from Sudan – over 4,000 people so far – spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Meles Alem, has said that Ethiopia has no desire to be a mediator in the conflict.
African Union leaders and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met with a Sudanese delegation (representatives of General al-Burhan) over the same week to discuss a peaceful resolution according to this story by The Reporter.
Ethiopia questioned on human rights in Geneva
Representatives of the Ethiopian government were in Geneva last week answering the UN’s Committee Against Torture on allegations of human rights abuses in the country as well as allegations of ethnic cleansing over the past two years of war.
Some of the questions raised included the involvement of Eritrean forces in the war, extrajudicial killings, and unlawful detention according to a story by The Reporter.
The response by Ministry of Justice, Chief of Staff, Misikir Yirefu:
“There are allegations that Eritrean forces participated in the conflict in northern Ethiopia. We will look into it, investigate, and ensure accountability for the perpetrators of the violations, if any.”
If any.
The response from the deputy commissioner of the Ethiopian Federal Police, Zelalem Mengistie on questions regarding torture and inhumane treatment:
“We turned old torture centers into museums. We allowed detainees to be visited by family and lawyers.”
The full story on The Reporter, here.
Meanwhile, the US is saying that for the peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to be fully implemented, Eritrean (and other non-federal) troops must get out of Tigray.
The full story on Addis Standard here.
Amnesty says media in Ethiopia under attack
It’s hard to categorize this piece under ‘news’, but Amnesty International has released a report stating that attacks on journalists are on the rise in East and Southern Africa. The organization released this report in honor of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3. In Ethiopia, 29 journalists and media workers have been arrested in 2022. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
“Journalists hold up a mirror to society. Targeting them simply for doing their work sends a wrong message that States are not prepared to uphold their human rights.”
2022 was a bad year for press freedom, and last month was even worse. Read about what happened in April here.
The full report from Amnesty here.
Referendum back on the agenda
The referendum in the south had been paused in March after the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia found electoral irregularities. The irregularities were found in Welayta Zone, one of the six zones voting for the creation of what may be Ethiopia’s 12th regional state (Southern Ethiopia Region). Five special weredas are also taking part in this referendum but all the votes have been tallied except for Welayta. Now, the board has set a date fo the voting to take place again in Welayta: June 19.
The full story on Ethiopia Insider here. If this is all new to you, go here for a previous update.
In other news
Are you one of those people who eat Indomie instant noodles? Well, according to this report by Addis Admass, the product is being recalled in Taiwan and Malaysia, where the “special chicken” flavored noodles have been found to cause an increased chance of cancer. The Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority has said that it recognizes only the locally produced Indomie here and that according to their tests, it’s free of harmful chemicals. So, what does this mean? My guess is, just make sure you look at the, ‘made in Ethiopia’ mark on the back (as the Authority has said there is no Indomie imported into the market legally).
The monopoly of a state-owned telecom sector came to an end two years ago when the Ethiopian government gave a telecom license to another private operator - a consortium that included Safaricom. Next up is the banking sector; five banking licenses are planned to be given to foreign investors within the coming five years. The full story on Capital Newspaper here.
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 email to friends and family who might benefit from keeping up with what’s going on.
Note: I go through all the major news outlets, newspapers, online publications, and will at times, include reports, notes on parliamentary sessions, and go through fact-checking websites as well. I try to provide links to both English and Amharic sources, and I usually time-stamp the video I link to unless I think the whole video is relevant.