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☆ Social media restricted in Ethiopia after church rift turns violent
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Access to social media platforms has been restricted in Ethiopia, Internet watchdog NetBlocks said, following violent protests sparked by a rift within the country's Orthodox Church. The protests broke out in the Oromiya region when three church officials declared themselves archbishops last month and set up their own governing body. At least 30 people have been killed in protests since Feb. 4, the church said in a statement on Thursday. The Ethiopian state has traditionally maintained close ties to the Orthodox Church, to which more than 40% of the population adheres. The Orthodox Church vowed in its statement that Sunday's protest would go ahead.

☆ Eritrea president says rights violations by Eritrean troops in Ethiopia "a fantasy"
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NAIROBI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki said on Thursday that reports of Eritrean troops committing human rights violations during the conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region were "a fantasy" and "misinformation". Eritrean troops fought alongside the Ethiopian military and allied militias in the bloody two-year conflict that pitted the Ethiopian government against rebellious forces in the northern region of Tigray. In November, the Ethiopia government and the Tigray forces signed an agreement to end the hostilities. During the war, Eritrean troops were accused by residents and human rights groups of various abuses, including the killing of hundreds of civilians in Axum during a 24-hour period in November 2020. At a news conference in Nairobi Afwerki called the allegations of human rights abuses by Eritrean troops "a fantasy of those who went to derail the peace process... a factory of fabricating misinformation."

☆ Ethiopian PM meets Tigray region leaders for first time since peace deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends his last campaign event ahead of Ethiopia's parliamentary and regional elections scheduled for June 21, in Jimma, Ethiopia, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File PhotoADDIS ABABA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met senior leaders of the Tigray region forces on Friday for the first time since they signed a peace deal with the national government ending two years of war, the state-run broadcaster said. The Addis Ababa government and forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed agreements in November to permanently cease hostilities, ending fighting that killed tens thousands and displaced millions. Friday's meeting was Abiy's first with senior administrators of the northern Tigray region since the fighting broke out. Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; writing by George Obulutsa; editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Top U.S., Chinese and Russian officials tour Africa as global charm offensive gathers pace
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, during a news conference with Enoch Godongwana, South Africa's finance minister, at the National Treasury in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Yellen met with South African officials including President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, just days after the country's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor stood alongside Lavrov and vowed to strengthen bilateral relations between Pretoria and Moscow. South Africa was one of 17 African nations to abstain from the U.N. vote in March to condemn Russia's war of aggression. As such, many African nations desire a strong relationship with both the U.S. and China, and U.S. diplomacy will be more effective when not framed as an "us-or-them" proposition. What's more, the BRI projects were "largely uncoordinated and unplanned," he said, with competing Chinese lenders offering credit to African nations, challenging the notion of a coherent centralized "debt trap" policy from Beijing.

☆ Eritrea troops still on Ethiopian soil - U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Eritrean troops fought alongside the Ethiopian military and allied militias in the two-year conflict that pitted the Ethiopian government against rebellious forces in the northern region of Tigray. In November, however, the Ethiopia government and the Tigray forces signed an agreement to end the hostilities. The possible continuing presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray thus has been seen as a key obstacle to effective implementation of the deal. A senior Ethiopia military officer briefing foreign officials on Saturday denied there were any Eritrean troops in the country. A spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces, Getachew Reda,dismissed claims that the Eritrean troops had left Tigray and said "thousands" were still there.

☆ Lavrov shores up Eritrean support for Russia over Ukraine conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Duncan Miriri | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NAIROBI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki on Thursday on a tour of Africa to shore up support for Russia, focusing on the "dynamics of the war in Ukraine", Eritrea's information minister said. "We are thankful to Eritrean friends for their consistent support of Russian initiatives in the UN," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency TASS. The talks in Eritrea also explored ways of enhancing ties in energy, mining, information technology, education and health, Information Minister Yemane Meskel said on Twitter late on Thursday. "The sad fact is that Ukraine is both a pretext and victim of this policy," Osman said during the speech delivered in Massawa. There was no mention of the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region, where Eritrean troops fought alongside their Ethiopian federal counterparts against rebellious Tigrayan forces.

☆ Eritrean Troops Endanger Ethiopian Peace Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Nicholas Bariyo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A peace accord meant to end Ethiopia’s civil war is hitting a stumbling block, as troops from neighboring Eritrea who had been fighting on the side of the federal government have failed to withdraw, local and international officials say. Two-and-a-half months after rebel leaders from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and the federal government signed a cessation-of-hostilities agreement on Nov. 2, Eritrean soldiers still control more than a dozen towns across Tigray, where they have continued to kill and abduct civilians and block aid for millions of people, local and international officials say.

☆ Eritrean troops seen leaving Ethiopian town of Shire
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Tigray war is believed to have resulted in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and forced millions to flee their homes. Witnesses and an Ethiopian official reported last month that Eritrean soldiers were leaving Shire and two other major towns, but many ended up staying behind. A Shire resident said the Eritrean convoys were seen leaving the town from early in the morning until about 5 p.m. on Friday. All Eritrean troops in the town seemed to have left by Friday evening, he said. A second aid worker said hundreds of Eritrean vehicles had left Shire but that some soldiers remained in the town.

☆ Ethiopia deputy finmin: rumour of FX devaluation "completely unfounded"
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Rachel Savage | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"There is widespread rumour that devaluation is in the making. loading"A sensible macro reform is always our agenda but there should not be any concern about mere devaluation." Ethiopia currently operates a managed exchange rate for the birr, allowing it to depreciate gradually against the dollar. In 2020, the IMF recommended moving to a market-clearing exchange rate regime, to deal with an overvalued currency and FX shortages. "So the exchange rate unification remains one important policy goal, but we are just doing it gradually."

☆ Ethio Telecom posts H1 growth in revenue, financial service subscribers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Ethio Telecom employees serve a customer inside their call centre in the Bole neighborhood branch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa NegeriADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's state-owned Ethio Telecom on Thursday reported a 20% rise in half-year revenue to 33.8 billion birr ($633 million). Subscribers to its mobile phone-based financial service Telebirr, launched in May 2021, grew to 27.2 million out of its 70 million total subscribers, CEO Frehiwot Tamiru told a news conference. That was up from 21.8 million Telebirr subscribers in June 2022. Efforts to attract investment have been hampered, however, by a two-year war in the northern Tigray region, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

☆ Tigray forces begin handing over heavy weapons to Ethiopian army
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Abandoned ammunition boxes lie on the ground following a battle between the Ethiopian military and Tigray forces along the road between the village of Sheweate Hugum and Yechila town in south-central Tigray, Ethiopia, July 10, 2021. REUTERS/Giulia ParaviciniADDIS ABABA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Tigray forces, who fought a two-year war against Ethiopia's federal government, began handing over heavy weaponry to the national army as part of an African Union-led peace process on Tuesday. The demobilisation of Tigray forces is seen as central to the Nov. 2 ceasefire agreement, alongside the restoration of services, resumption of humanitarian aid and withdrawal of Eritrean troops, who fought alongside Ethiopia's army but were not party to the truce. The conflict created famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands of Tigray's population, killed thousands and displaced millions across northern Ethiopia. At the ceremony, Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) representative Mulugeta Gebrechristos said the start of the disarmament would play a major role in restoring peace.

☆ Eritrean soldiers leave major towns in northern Ethiopia - witnesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Eritrean soldiers, who fought in support of Ethiopia's federal government during its two-year civil war in the northern Tigray region, have pulled out of the major towns of Shire and Axum and headed toward the border, three witnesses told Reuters. It was not immediately clear if the Eritrean troops were leaving Tigray entirely or just pulling back from certain towns. Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces, and Ethiopian national security advisor Redwan Hussien did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. Aid workers in Axum and Shire said they saw several trucks and dozens of cars packed with Eritrean soldiers on Thursday leaving toward the border town of Sheraro. Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war between 1998 and 2000, when the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which now leads the Tigrayan forces, dominated the federal government.

☆ Meta lawsuit: An Ethiopian professor was murdered by a mob. Son alleges Facebook fueled the violence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The case is a constitutional petition filed in Kenya’s High Court, which has jurisdiction over the issue, as Facebook’s content moderation operation hub for much of east and south Africa is located in Nairobi. “They have suffered human rights violations as a result of the Respondent failing to take down Facebook posts that violated the bill of rights even after making reports to the Respondent,” reads the complaint. The legal filing alleges that Facebook has failed to invest adequately in content moderation in countries across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, particularly from its hub in Nairobi. In a statement to CNN, Meta did not directly respond to the lawsuit:“We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Last year, whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, told the US Senate that the platform’s algorithm was “literally fanning ethnic violence” in Ethiopia.

☆ WHO chief says his uncle was murdered in Ethiopia's Tigray
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday that Eritrean troops "murdered" his uncle in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. The Ethiopian government and regional forces from Tigray agreed in November to cease hostilities last month in a major breakthrough. However, troops from Eritrea, to the north, and forces from the neighbouring Ethiopian region of Amhara, to the south, who fought alongside Ethiopia's military in Tigray were not party to the ceasefire. That followed the killing of his cousin last year in Tigray when a church was blown up, he said, without giving further details.

☆ Factbox: What is happening in Sudan?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Under an August 2019 agreement, the military agreed to share power with officials appointed by civilian political groups ahead of elections. But that arrangement was abruptly halted by a military coup in October 2021, which triggered a campaign of frequent pro-democracy mass rallies across Sudan. Another is an investigation into the killings of pro-democracy protesters on June 3, 2019, in which military forces are implicated. Several of its neighbours, including Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan have been affected by political upheavals and conflict. Talks stalled and Ethiopia started filling the reservoir behind the dam, which Sudan says could put its citizens, dams and water facilities at risk.

☆ Ethiopia's Tigray forces say they have withdrawn 65% of fighters from frontlines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - More than half of Tigrayan forces have withdrawn from the frontlines, the forces' top commander said, a month after a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the two-year conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. "We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army," Tadesse Wereda, commander-in-chief of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) said in a video posted on the forces' official Facebook page late on Saturday. War erupted in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region in November 2020, pitting the Tigrayan forces against federal troops and their allies that included fighters from the Amhara region that borders Tigray and Eritrean soldiers. Tadesse said TPLF was still maintaining fighters in some locations "where there is a presence of anti-peace forces". "Our forces are still on the ground in those places due to the problems they (anti-peace forces) are creating for our people.

☆ WHO says it still does not have full access to Ethiopia's Tigray
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Bhanvi Satija | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Tiksa NegeriBENGALARU, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday it still does not have the unfettered access to Ethiopia's northern Tigray region stipulated in a truce signed a month ago. Troops from Eritrea, to the north, and forces from the neighbouring Ethiopian region of Amhara, to the south, fought alongside Ethiopia's military in Tigray but were not party to the ceasefire. "That peace process has not yet resulted in the kinds of full access, unfettered access and in the massive scale of medical and health assistance that the people of Tigray need," WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan said. Ethiopia's Minister of Health Lia Tadesse, State Minister Redwan Hussien, and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in October accused Ethiopia's government of using the denial of food and healthcare as weapons of war in Tigray.

☆ First international aid arrives in Ethiopia's Tigray since ceasefire
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Tommy Wilkes | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and Tigrayan forces signed a ceasefire on Nov. 2 to end two years of fighting that have killed thousands, shattered infrastructure and uprooted millions from their homes. The ICRC described the delivery into the regional capital Mekelle as the first international aid into Tigray since a previous ceasefire broke in August. We have discussed, agreed and signed," Abiy told Ethiopia's national parliament in his first comments on the ceasefire since it came into force. Abiy said on Tuesday that a territorial dispute between forces in Tigray and the neighbouring Amhara region should be resolved legally and through discussion. Authorities in Amhara last week welcomed the ceasefire agreement but made no mention of the disputed territory.

☆ Ethiopia combatants sign deal to start implementing truce
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The deal will be put into effect "immediately", mediator Olusegun Obasanjo told a news conference before the signing. Both sides said they were committed to the declaration, stressing it was the only way to restore peace and stability. One of TPLF's representatives, General Tadesse Werede, said the declaration on implementation had given them hope that the suffering of the people in Tigray would end. The two sides agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities in an unexpected diplomatic breakthrough in South Africa on Nov. 2. Reporting by Ayenat Mersie, Writing by Duncan Miriri and Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Clelia OzielOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The truce has raised hopes humanitarian aid can start moving back into a region where hundreds of thousands face famine. Representatives of Ethiopia's military and government and forces from Tigray are in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to discuss how to begin implementing the ceasefire, with the talks set to last three or four days. Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray authorities, said the talks were to figure out implementation of the agreement. In a statement on Monday, the AU said it expected the outcomes of the talks to "include modalities for silencing the guns, humanitarian access and the restoration of services in the Tigray region". The ceasefire agreement says Ethiopia's army will safeguard the country against "foreign incursion" but analysts are worried about whether Eritrea - the TPLF's sworn enemy - will listen.

☆ Ethiopia: Warring parties agree to a truce in two-year civil war. Here's what to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

CNN —When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, he was lauded as a regional peacemaker. A year later, he launched a conflict that spiraled into a brutal civil war, spawning one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In November 2020, Abiy ordered a military offensive in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and promised that the clash would be resolved quickly. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Tigray conflict has its roots in tensions that go back generations in Ethiopia. For months at the start of the conflict, Abiy denied that civilians were being harmed or that soldiers from Eritrea had joined the fight.

☆ NYC Marathon: 'Only God knows when we can meet,' says marathon runner Gotytom Gebreslase, cut off from her parents amid conflict in Ethiopia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —It’s almost a year since marathon runner Gotytom Gebreslase last spoke to her parents over the phone, a detachment she feels most strongly during races. “My wish is to meet them soon – that would make me happy.”Gebreslase breaks the tape at the World Athletics Championships. Some reassurance over her parents’ safety arrived following Gebreslase’s victory at the world championships in July, when she came across a TV report featuring an interview with her mother. “The result I got in the world championships built my confidence,” she says. “When I started running, [my parents] didn’t discourage me, they were encouraging me – especially my mom,” says Gebreslase.

Creditors and investors are closely monitoring how China, the world's largest bilateral lender, is managing debt negotiations around the world. The policy bank has extended to Zambia more than half of Chinese loans while a $982 million loan was made jointly with the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Including commercial lending, Zambia government data showed it owed more than a third of its $17.27 billion external debt to Chinese lenders by end-2021. Reuters GraphicsThe bank also leads China's team in Ethiopia's bilateral debt talks, its state finance minister told Reuters last month. In 2018, EximBank agreed to extend repayment on a loan worth at least $2.5 billion for a railway between Addis Ababa and Djibouti by 20 years.

☆ For survivors of Ethiopia's Tigray war, truce brings cautious hope
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"I'm very happy - because this will put a hold on the suffering," said a Tigrayan man in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa who declined to be named out of fear of repercussions at his place of work. All sides fighting in the Tigray war committed violations that may amount to war crimes, according to a joint investigation by the United Nations and Ethiopia's state-appointed human rights commission. We haven't even gotten any voice messages from him," the Tigrayan man in Addis Ababa told Reuters. Human Rights Watch, citing witnesses, said 23 civilians were killed by Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters in Kobo at that time. Just, literally everything," said Andom Gebreyesus, who ran a tour company in Tigray before the war.

☆ Ethiopian government and Tigray agree to end fighting after 2 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Eritrea, which has fought alongside neighboring Ethiopia, was notably not part of the peace talks. Eritrean forces have been blamed for some of the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang-rapes, and witnesses have described killings and lootings by Eritrean forces even during the peace talks. Forces from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region also have been fighting Tigray ones, but Amhara representatives are also not part of the peace talks. The conflict began in November 2020, less than a year after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with Eritrea, which borders the Tigray region. In a speech Wednesday before the peace talks’ announcement, Ethiopia’s prime minster said that “we need to replicate the victory we got on the battlefield in peace efforts, too.

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