Through the eyes of women and children
and our clear disdain for restrooms
Looks like we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming, folks. This is Sifter, a newsletter that brings you weekly updates on what’s been making news in Ethiopia. I’m Maya Misikir, the freelance reporter who runs it.
Last week I attended the Enkopa Summit at the Millenium Hall in Addis Abeba and I’ve included it in this week’s updates. Not sure how many of you made it out there, but would love to hear your thoughts on it - feel free to hit reply and let me know.
Now, to the news.
Women and children: status report
A report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission that looks at the status of the rights of women and children in the country is out.
The report includes some encouraging highlights, one of which is the inclusion of displaced children in school programs in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region. In Oromia and Somali regions where people have been displaced due to drought, they have also started accelerated education services in the shelters.
But then the report talks about concerning trends and issues in a much more comprehensive list than what I mention here.
The report says that there is widespread trafficking of women and children in the country and that the police are out of their depth and unable to investigate this properly. Women and children are being trafficked and sold off to brokers, working in servitude, forced labor, and facing gender-based violence.
One thing the report looks at is the legal framework in the country and whether it provides adequate coverage and support for women's and children’s rights. I’ll let you be the judge.
Other worrying trends include child marriage and kidnapping. The report specifically mentions Bonga, a regional seat in the south of the country, where women being kicked out of their homes whenever they’re menstruating is a common occurrence.
It says kidnapping and rape are getting worse in the country’s Sidama region. If you remember, a few months ago, the security guard of Hawassa city’s mayor made headlines for kidnapping a woman he ‘loved’.
In cases of rape, the Commission says a lot of legal cases are initiated and then dropped as families are forced to ‘mediate’ and come to an agreement.
When it comes to children in particular, the report says that a lot of children accused of committing crimes are kept in the same cells as adults and that children in orphanages are not protected from gender-based violence.
The report points out that instances of child marriages have spiked in Tigray region over the past three years due to the discontinuation of schools.
On the issue of gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict situations in Ethiopia, the report doesn’t say much other than there isn’t adequate and updated information on what the government is doing about follow-ups and prosecution.
The full report from the Commission in Amharic is here.
Tech: Enkopa
The Enkopa Summit was a tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship-centered two-day event that took place last Thursday and Friday in Addis Abeba. It was packed with sessions, though unfortunately, not with actual attendees. Perhaps this is something to be expected when you start off with an ambitious project like this - the event had over 150 speakers with more than 30 countries represented. What I did not expect, however, were bathroom facilities with no tissue paper or soap for the entirety of the event which cost 150 U.S. dollars for entry.
For what it’s worth, the sessions were extremely interesting (there was one on Climate Change in Africa: Will Clean Tech Come to the Rescue? and another on AI in Agriculture). The sessions started and ended on time which was nothing short of miraculous and I’m keen to see where it goes over the coming years.
Here’s an excerpt from a story I did for VOA:
Feven Tsehaye, founder and CEO of Chakka Origins — which sources natural ingredients in biodiversity hotspots — said land management is crucial to the work the company does in Ethiopia.
She said working with small holder farmers is essential.
“It makes sense to work with them and more efficiently utilizing their space instead of engaging in land clearing or displacing people,” Feven said.
Despite all these back-to-back sessions at the summit though, I couldn’t find a single one that addressed inclusivity or diversity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The response I received from an organizer wasn’t very promising either (something something Western ideals). Hopefully, they’ll rethink this approach for future editions.
My story for VOA here.
Finance: IMF, an abbreviation to keep an eye on
Representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Ethiopia for a few days at the end of last month to meet with Ethiopian officials. Then both parties met again last week in Marrakech, Morocco, on the sidelines of a bigger meeting. Both talks revolve around one main issue; loans (or to put it in a more nuanced way; support for the country’s reform programs.)
The Ethiopian government has been trying to secure this loan from the IMF since an agreement to provide a 3-billion-dollar loan was partly paused when the war started. Partly only because Ethiopia had already taken some amount prior to the start of the war.
Why does the Ethiopian government need this loan? Initially, this agreement was signed to help support the Ethiopian government in implementing its Homegrown Economic Reform, a plan crafted when Prime Minister Abiy took over, currently in its second iteration.
Now though, the government needs this money for other reasons like to bounce back from the effects of the war in Tigray, drought, and a slew of other issues including the reform.
What else? Securing this credit facility from the IMF is important for the Ethiopian government so it can get debt relief from its other creditors.
Who are its other creditors? Enter the Paris Club, a group of creditors (rich countries), ‘organized to work in a coordinated manner to address the debt payment abilities.’ Countries with a lot of external debt, like Ethiopia, have requested debt restructuring from the Paris Club. One of the conditions in place for this request to be accepted is that Ethiopia gets support from the IMF.
So, why is the IMF reluctant? Politcial instability for one. Ethiopia and the IMF also need to see eye to eye on certain things like exchange rate liberalization.
Following these recent meetings, here’s what the IMF’ deputy director for Africa said:
“Fedelino added that the IMF was "almost there" on a loan programme agreement with Ethiopia and that once that was in place the Fund was confident that a Common Framework debt rework would move quickly.”
The full story in English on Addis Standard here, Reuters here, and in Amharic on Ethiopia Insider here.
Human rights: one last thing before we go
One of the updates last week talked about how the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia - the Commission set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council – had come to an end. You can go here for some backstory.
Last week Friday, the Commission put out a final report before its work officially came to a close. The report outlined the ‘staggering scale’ of rights violations in Tigray, as well as Amhara, Oromia, and Afar regions in the country.
Here’s an excerpt from a story in Addis Standard:
“The scale and continuity of violence in Ethiopia since 03 November 2020 is such that the present report cannot be considered to be fully reflective of the harms experienced by civilians in the regions under investigation,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the chairperson of the Commission.
The commission said it did not have sufficient time or resources to make a determination on potential genocide or crimes of extermination. But Othman stressed the vital need for fuller investigations to establish facts and legal accountability.”
In this last report, the Commission said that Eritrean forces are still present in Tigray region and that this report must not be ‘the final word’.
The full story on Addis Standard here and the Commission’s report here.
Security: drone attacks in Oromia region
Two drone attacks in the country’s Oromia Region have killed 12 people and injured many others in the vicinity according to a report by Addis Standard. The attacks happened during a confrontation between federal troops and members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLA), in an area known as Hababo Guduru and Kombolcha districts.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“Many residents expressed concern about the escalating conflict between the federal forces and OLA rebels, which has resulted in numerous civilian deaths and displacements from villages in recent days, particularly in the Kombolcha and Hababo Guduru districts. However, this is not the first time such incidents have occurred during confrontations between federal forces and the OLA.”
Telephone and electricity services have since been disrupted in the area.
For those looking to get a bit more context into who the OLA are and where they stand with the Ethiopian government, I wrote an update in early May talking about the peace talks initiated then and the OLA’s political manifesto. Go here to read that.
The full story on Addis Standard here.
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That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
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Wondering if Sifer would accomodate expletives in its comment section because ....Article 565 of the Ethiopian Criminal Code?!?!