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☆ Ethiopia Extends State of Emergency in Amhara
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Feb. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's parliament on Friday extended by four months a state of emergency declared in August to respond to an insurgency in the northern region of Amhara that has resulted in hundreds of deaths and drawn accusations of widespread human rights abuses. Fighting erupted in Amhara last July between federal forces and a local militia called Fano, which has accused the government of undermining the region's security. The state of emergency handed the government powers to impose curfews, restrict people's movement and ban public gatherings. The state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has documented a range of alleged abuses in the Amhara conflict, most of which it has attributed to government forces. EHRC head Daniel Bakele said on social media on Friday that his organisation was "gravely concerned" about the implications of the extension for human rights and the humanitarian situation.

Persons: Fano, Abiy, Daniel Bakele, Dawit Endeshaw, Bhargav Acharya, Aaron Ross, Angus MacSwan Organizations: ADDIS ABABA, Reuters, Ethiopian Human Rights Locations: ADDIS, Amhara, Fano, Tigray

☆ Ethio Lease set to wind down operations in Ethiopia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Equipment leasing company Ethio Lease, Ethiopia's only foreign-owned firm to obtain a financial services licence from the central bank, said on Wednesday it was winding down operations in the east African country. The National Bank of Ethiopia granted a financial services license to Ethio Lease in 2019 - the first such for a foreign firm - as part of the government's economic reforms aimed at opening up the economy. New York-based African Asset Finance Company, the owner of Ethio Lease, has instructed the company to begin the process of voluntary liquidation, Ethio Lease said in a statement. "Despite their sustained efforts, Ethio Lease and its investors have been unable to achieve resolution with the Ethiopian government." Ethio Lease's license enabled it to lease equipment such as MRI scanners, tractors and drilling rigs to companies that could not import such equipment themselves due to foreign exchange shortages.

Persons: Abiy Ahmed, Bhargav Acharya, Duncan Miriri, Jason Neely, Alexander Winning, Nellie Peyton, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Equipment, Ethio, National Bank of, Lease, African Asset Finance Company, Ethio Lease, birr, Ethiopian, Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, National Bank of Ethiopia, New York, birr, Johannesburg, Nairobi

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s federal government says the future of contested land in its northern Tigray region will be settled by a referendum, and hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people will be returned. The disputed status of western Tigray, a patch of fertile land bordering Sudan, was a key flashpoint in the two-year conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and the federal government. Western Tigray belongs to Tigray under Ethiopia’s constitution. A referendum will then be held to reach “a final determination on the fate of these areas,” the statement said. Suggestions that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed might return western Tigray and other disputed land to Tigray helped fuel the violence, which has turned into a rumbling insurgency in the countryside.

Persons: Abiy Ahmed Organizations: —, United Nations Locations: ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Tigray, Sudan, Western Tigray, Amhara, Fano, Ethiopia's, Adet

☆ Ethiopia PM Abiy Seeks to Quell Neighbours' Concerns Over Invasion
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +3 min

"Ethiopia has never invaded any country and now Ethiopia has no intention to invade any country," Abiy told thousands of soldiers gathered in the capital Addis Ababa to celebrate the national army on Thursday. Abiy said Ethiopia would not pursue its interests "through force", and that "it wouldn't pull the trigger on its fellow brothers." Abiy won a Nobel peace prize in 2019 for his peacemaking efforts which ended two decades of hostility with Eritrea. "There are major concerns around the region that the relationship could deteriorate further and risk outright hostility." (Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Giulia Paravicini, writing by Giulia Paravicini; Editing by Hereward Holland and Christina Fincher)

Persons: Dawit Endeshaw, Giulia, Abiy Ahmed, Abiy, Alan Boswell, Horn, Alexis Mohamed, Somalia's, Giulia Paravicini, Hereward Holland, Christina Fincher Organizations: Ethiopian, Crisis Locations: ADDIS ABABA, NAIROBI, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa, Coastal Eritrea, Addis Ababa, Eritrea, Bure, Tigray, Asmara, Djibouti, United States, China

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts say war crimes continue in Ethiopia despite a peace deal signed nearly a year ago to end a devastating conflict that has also engulfed the country's Tigray region. The violence has left at least 10,000 people affected by rape and other sexual violence — mostly women and girls. The violence erupted in November 2020, centering largely — though not exclusively — on the northern Tigray region, which for months was shut off from the outside world. Citing consolidated estimates from seven health centers in Tigray alone, the commission said more than 10,000 survivors of sexual violence sought care between the start of the conflict and July this year. The commission said it knows of only 13 completed and 16 pending military court cases addressing sexual violence committed during the conflict.

Persons: — U.N, Abiy Ahmed, Mohamed Chande Othman, ”, ” Othman, Radhika Coomaraswamy Organizations: GENEVA, Human Rights, Ethiopian Locations: Ethiopia, Tigray, Amhara, Eritrea

☆ Blue Nile: Ethiopia says it has filled the reservoir on its highly controversial megadam project
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Reuters —Ethiopia announced on Sunday it had completed the fourth and final phase of filling a reservoir for its huge and controversial hydroelectric power plant on the Blue Nile, a project that Egypt and Sudan have long opposed. Construction of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began in 2011 and Ethiopia sees the project as crucial to powering its economic development. Egypt and Sudan, however, consider the project a serious threat to their vital water supplies. “Congratulations to all on the fourth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. With a projected capacity of more than 6,000 megawatts, Ethiopia sees GERD as the centerpiece of its bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.

Persons: GERD, Abiy Ahmed’s, Abdel Fattah el, Abiy, …, ” Organizations: Reuters, ” Locations: Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan

☆ Ethiopia says it has completed filling of disputed dam project's reservoir
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Sunday it had completed the fourth and final phase of filling a reservoir for its planned massive hydroelectric power plant on the Blue Nile, a project that Egypt and Sudan have long opposed. Construction of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began in 2011 and Ethiopia sees the project as crucial to powering its economic development. "Congratulations to all on the fourth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. With a projected capacity of more than 6,000 megawatts, Ethiopia sees GERD as the centrepiece of its bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter. Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: GERD, Abiy Ahmed's, Abdel Fattah al, Abiy, Dawit Endeshaw, Elias Biryabarema, Hugh Lawson Organizations: Thomson Locations: ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan

☆ After Taming Rebels, Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner Faces New Threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Nicholas Bariyo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Three years ago, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed raised an army from the country’s militias to tame a rebellion in the northern region of Tigray. Now some of his allies are turning on him in what is shaping up to be an even bigger threat to both his leadership and the stability of one of Africa’s largest and most strategically significant countries.

Persons: Abiy Ahmed Organizations: Ethiopia’s Locations: Tigray

BRICS - whose acronym was originally coined by an economist at Goldman Sachs, currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called the BRICS leaders' decision to invite Ethiopia to join "a great moment". "It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries." More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials, and 22 have formally asked to be admitted. "The expansion and modernization of BRICS is a message that all institutions in the world need to mould themselves according to changing times," he said.

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa, Narendra Modi, Sergei Lavrov, Alet Pretorius, Goldman Sachs, BRICS, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ramaphosa, Lula, globalisation's, Mohammed bin Zayed, Abiy Ahmed, Antonio Guterres, Xi Jinping, Bhargav Acharya, Sergio Goncalves, Ethan Wang, Vladimir Soldatkin, Joe Bavier, Toby Chopra, Emelia Organizations: South, India's, Russia's, REUTERS, United Arab, United, United Arab Emirates, New Development Bank, Ethiopian, United Nations, . Security, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, BRICS, Indian, Thomson Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, UAE, JOHANNESBURG, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Ukraine, United States, Beijing, Moscow, United Arab, Lisbon

A partial view of the Lalibela town in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia, January 25, 2022. In that war, federal forces faced battle-hardened fighters loyal to Tigray's ruling party, who at one point advanced hundreds of kilometres towards the capital Addis Ababa. Following the Tigray deal, his government held preliminary talks with rebels in the Oromiya region, Ethiopia's largest, about ending a decades-long insurgency. But anger was building in Amhara, where the Tigray deal deepened existing suspicions of Abiy's government. It said the status of lands claimed by both Amhara and Tigray, which Amhara forces captured during the war, should be resolved "in accordance with the constitution".

Persons: Abiy, Tewodrose Tirfe, Temesgen, Ethiopia's, Fano, Addisu Lashitew, Befekadu Hailu, Aaron Ross, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Tiksa, Fano, Amhara Association of America, Brookings Institution, Protesters, Thomson Locations: Amhara Region, Ethiopia, NAIROBI, Tigray, Amhara, Fano, Africa, Eritrea, Sudan, Addis Ababa, Oromiya

☆ Ethiopia accuses Amhara militia of trying to overthrow government
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File PhotoADDIS ABABA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A senior Ethiopian official accused militiamen in the Amhara region of seeking to overthrow the regional and federal governments following days of fighting that led the authorities to declare a state of emergency. Clashes between Fano militiamen and the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) continued over the weekend. The conflict has quickly become Ethiopia's most serious security crisis since a two-year civil war in Tigray region, which neighbours Amhara, ended in November. Fano is a part-time militia that draws volunteers from the local population and was an ally of the ENDF during the Tigray war. Violent protests erupted across Amhara in April after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered that security forces from Ethiopia's 11 regions be disbanded and integrated into the police or national army.

Persons: Abi Adi, Amhara's, Temesgen Tiruneh, Temesgen, Legesse Tulu, Abiy Ahmed, Dawit Endeshaw, George Obulutsa, Aaron Ross, Nick Macfie Organizations: Ethiopian National Defence Force, Amhara Special Forces, REUTERS, Tiksa, Ethiopian, Fana Broadcasting, Protesters, Thomson Locations: Tigray, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, ADDIS ABABA, Amhara, Fano, Gondar, Ethiopia's

☆ Ethiopia declares state of emergency following militia clashes
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A partial view of the Lalibela town in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia, January 25, 2022. Picture taken January 25, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File PhotoADDIS ABABA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's federal government on Friday declared a state of emergency following days of clashes in the Amhara region between the military and local militiamen. The statement by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office announcing the state of emergency did not say whether it applied only in Amhara or across the country. Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Abiy, Dawit Endeshaw, Aaron Ross, Toby Chopra Organizations: REUTERS, Tiksa, Ethiopian National Defence Force, Thomson Locations: Amhara Region, Ethiopia, ADDIS ABABA, Amhara, Fano

☆ Ethiopia to offer up to five banking licenses to foreign investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ADDIS ABABA, May 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopia will issue up to five banking licenses to foreign investors in the next five years, part of plans to open up the financial services sector to foreign competition, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday. "We will give three to five licenses within five years," vice governor of the central bank Solomon Desta told reporters. Ethiopia's banking industry is dominated by state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and the sector has 29 players, all of them locally owned. Desta said foreign investors would have different options to enter the industry, including forming joint ventures with domestic players, or establishing local subsidiaries. Foreign investors have long eyed sectors including banking, telecoms, transportation and aviation in Ethiopia, a country of more than 100 million people and one of the biggest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - All U.S. government personnel were evacuated from Washington's embassy in Khartoum, as well as a small number of diplomatic personnel from other countries, U.S. officials said on Saturday, as fighting rocks Sudan. The operation evacuated fewer than 100 people, the officials told reporters. "We evacuated all of the U.S. personnel and dependents assigned to Embassy Khartoum," said Under Secretary of State for Management John Bass. A substantial number of local staff remain in Khartoum supporting the embassy, where Washington decided to suspend operations on Saturday due to the security risks, Bass said. U.S. forces spent just an hour on the ground in Sudan before taking off again, entering and exiting Sudan without being fired upon by the warring factions on the ground, the military said.

☆ Ethiopia to begin negotiations with OLA rebel group
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 23 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his government will begin negotiations with rebel group the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Tanzania on Tuesday. "A negotiation with Oneg Shene will start a day after tomorrow in Tanzania," Abiy said on Sunday, using another name for the OLA. The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition party that returned from exile after Abiy took office in 2018. In October, the OLA and another Oromo group blamed the Ethiopian government for airstrikes they said had killed a number of civilians. The fighting between the OLA and the federal government is separate to the fighting in Tigray, but the OLA forged an alliance with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2021.

☆ Facebook depends on local partners to flag hateful content. In Ethiopia, those partners say they were ignored.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Tekendra Parmar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Trusted partners say warnings were ignoredInsider spoke with six current and former trusted partners from Ethiopia who said that Facebook routinely ignored their pleas to take down content that they deemed hateful or likely to incite violence. Some of the trusted partners declined to be named because they've faced death threats and fear for their own safety. Multiple trusted partners in Ethiopia said hate speech is still proliferating on the platform. Rafiq Copeland, a senior adviser at InterNews, one of Meta's longest-standing trusted partners globally, told Insider that the core complaints of trusted partners in Ethiopia have come up in other Rest of World countries. Even in Addis Ababa, it seemed that everyone knew about the Facebook posts, and many people now saw him as a traitor.

☆ Aid group says two employees killed in Ethiopia's Amhara region
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, April 10 (Reuters) - Two Catholic Relief Services (CRS) workers were shot and killed on Sunday in Ethiopia's Amhara region, the charity said, amid violent anti-government protests triggered by a federal government decision to disband regional special forces units. Spokespeople for Ethiopia's federal government and for the Amhara regional government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Residents in the town of Dessie reported large protests there on Monday, with young people blocking the roads and burning tyres. Amhara forces fought alongside the federal army in that conflict. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the integration of the regional special forces is needed to ensure national unity in a country with a long history of inter-ethnic conflict.

☆ Gunfire, protests in Ethiopia's Amhara over plan to disband regional force
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ADDIS ABABA, April 9 (Reuters) - Gunfire was heard in at least two towns in Ethiopia's Amhara region on Sunday as thousands protested against a federal government order to integrate regional special forces into the police or national army, residents said. Spokespersons for Ethiopia's federal government and army and for the Amhara regional government could not be immediately reached for comment. In fact it was simply organising regional forces under federal security institutions, it quoted him as saying. Special forces and militias from Amhara fought in support of the federal army during its two-year war in the neighbouring Tigray region. They say the dissolution of their region's special forces would leave them vulnerable to attacks from Tigray and Oromiya.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The United States has determined that all sides committed war crimes during the conflict in northern Ethiopia that killed tens of thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands facing hunger and displaced millions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday. Members of the ENDF, Eritrean forces, and Amhara forces also committed crimes against humanity, Blinken told reporters, including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence and persecution. Members of the Amhara forces committed the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer and committed ethnic cleansing through their treatment of Tigrayans in western Tigray, Blinken said. "In terms of what happens next in Ethiopia, including what process they establish to provide for justice, for accountability, we'll see. The United States was outspoken in its criticism of alleged atrocities by Ethiopian forces and their allies from Eritrea and the Amhara region during the Tigray war.

☆ Blinken brings U.S. aid to Sahel for fight against Islamist insurgencies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NIAMEY, March 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $150 million in new humanitarian aid for Africa's Sahel region during a visit on Thursday to Niger, a country Washington views as an important ally in the fight against Islamist insurgencies. Landlocked Niger and its neighbors Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Chad are all struggling to repel Islamist insurgents who have killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and in some cases seized control of vast swathes of territory. "They're making the right choices, we think, to help deal with the kind of threats that are common across the Sahel. Blinken said the use of Russian mercenaries had not proven an effective response to insecurity. Ghana has asserted that Burkina Faso has also hired Wagner mercenaries.

☆ Blinken brings aid and praise to Niger as it battles insurgents
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Blinken's visit to Niger, the first by a U.S. Secretary of State, signals its importance as a U.S. ally in the Sahel, a senior State Department official told reporters travelling with Blinken. Landlocked Niger and other countries in the Sahel, including its neighbours Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Chad, are all struggling to repel Islamist insurgents who in some cases have seized control of swathes of territory. The official praised Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum for opposing military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso and for consulting the parliament over security issues rather than deciding alone. Ghana has asserted that Burkina Faso has also hired Wagner mercenaries. "They use a lot of misinformation and disinformation to besmirch the French, I think, and the traditional French security partnership."

☆ Blinken meets Ethiopian leader to repair ties damaged by war
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/11] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 15, 2023. "We have agreed to strengthen the long standing bilateral relations between our countries with a commitment to partnership," the Ethiopian leader said. While the peace deal has allowed humanitarian aid to flow into Tigray, needs remain immense after the conflict left hundreds of thousands facing starvation. Eritrean troops remain in several border areas while militia from the Amhara region, which neighbours Tigray, occupy large areas of territory in contested parts of western and southern Tigray, humanitarian workers said. A spokesperson for the Amhara regional government said it and the people of Amhara were "always ready to co-operate with peace deal process and activities".

[1/3] An Ethiopian boy who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray region, gestures in the Hamdayet village, in eastern Kassala state, Sudan December 15, 2020. The Ethiopian government's two-year conflict with forces in the northern Tigray region ended last November with thousands dead and millions uprooted. Though the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council has never ended a probe before its mandate, Addis Ababa has circulated a draft version of a resolution calling for the Tigray inquiry to stop some six months early. AFRICAN OPPOSITIONThe war pitted the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) against federal troops, who were also backed by fighters from nearby Amhara region and Eritrea. Reporting by Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Additional reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis AbabaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ African countries are charged 'extortionate' rates on debt, U.N. chief says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We need a new debt architecture that provides debt relief and restructuring to vulnerable countries," he said. "The global financial system routinely denies (developing countries) debt relief and concessional financing while charging extortionate interest rates." Governments on the continent, including Ethiopia, sought debt restructuring deals under an IMF programme to help them navigate the crisis, but conclusion of the process has been delayed. Others, which have not sought to restructure their debt, like Kenya, have seen their debt sustainability indicators worsen after the pandemic hit their finances. "African countries cannot... climb the development ladder with one hand tied behind their backs," he said.

☆ Debt-laden African countries charged 'extortionate' rates, U.N. chief says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - African countries are getting a raw deal from the international financial system which charges them "extortionate" interest rates, the U.N. chief said on Saturday, as he announced $250 million in crisis funding, including for famine risk on the continent. "The global financial system routinely denies (developing countries) debt relief and concessional financing while charging extortionate interest rates," he said. The coronavirus pandemic pushed many poor countries into debt distress as they were expected to continue servicing their obligations in spite of the massive shock to their finances. Public debt ratios in sub-Saharan Africa are at their highest in more than two decades, the International Monetary Fund said last year. "African countries cannot... climb the development ladder with one hand tied behind their backs," Guterres said.

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