On Wednesday 4 July 2018, Ambassador Teshome Toga met with the 28 members of the Africa Working Party (COAFR) to brief them about the rapid changes taking place in Ethiopia and say goodbye to them, as he will be leaving Brussels this week.

He started his address by explaining that since Prime minister Dr Abiy Ahmed was elected Chairman of the EPRDF, significant changes have taken place at the political, economic and diplomatic levels in Ethiopia.

Politically, PM Abiy Ahmed has first and foremost been engaging with the public. To do so, he has held town hall meetings in eight of Ethiopia’s nine regions so far to listen to the people’s grievances. He also reshuffled the Cabinet, pardoned thousands of prisoners, engaged in a dialogue with opposition parties and lifted the State of emergency. All this brought back peace and stability to the country.

Another issue is that Ethiopia’s growing economy has become increasingly complex. There is, therefore, a need for increased investments from the private sector and foreign currency. Last month, the government took the bold decision to privatise some of Ethiopia’s critical State-owned enterprises such as Ethio-Telecom and Ethiopian Airlines partially. The main objective is to promote exportations and the transformation of the economy and, ultimately, with job creation as the ultimate objective.

On the diplomatic plan, PM Abiy has been touring neighbouring countries as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates Arab United to reinforce existing links and promote regional integration. However, two recent events could drastically change the course of the Horn of Africa region. Salva Kiir and Riek Machar came together for the first time in two years, paving the way to a ceasefire in South Sudan. A true regional revolution is also on the road since Eritrea accepted Ethiopia’s olive branch, which resulted and the first visit of an Eritrean delegation to Ethiopia in 20 years.

All this took place over a very brief period – less than 100 days. Ambassador’s realistically noted that although Ethiopia’s problems are not yet over, the people are supportive and listening. The priority for the government should be to deliver on its commitment.

Ambassador Teshome concluded his address by saying that he hoped that the EU would continue to encourage the reforms in Ethiopia in several ways, including to create jobs on the ground, supporting Ethiopia’s peace and security efforts and collaborating on global issues such as climate change or anti-terrorism efforts.

Ms Michelle LABEEU, Deputy Head of Unit Easter Africa and Horn of Africa at DG Devco, then informed the audience about the sectoral dialogue on social and economic development, investment, trade and climate change that took place in Addis of 2 and 3 July 2018.

The EU and Ethiopia appreciated the extremely constructive discussions. Ethiopia demonstrated a firm commitment for liberalisation, opening and regional integration. Both sides have agreed to continue to have this kind of discussion yearly. Besides, progress has also been made to organise an EU-Ethiopia business forum in Brussels.

Several representatives from the EU Member States appreciated Ambassador Teshome’s efforts while he was in Brussels and welcomed the scope and depth of the current reforms. Most of the audience asked questions about the next steps Ethiopia was going to take in its internal discussions as well as in its relations with Egypt and Eritrea. France’s Representative compared the recent developments between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Ambassador Teshome replied that while he understands Egypt’s concerns, Cairo should also respect Ethiopia’s rights on the river. Ethiopia will only use the Grand Renaissance dam to produce electricity and will not take water from Egypt. He added that while the GERD is the pillar of the relationship between Ethiopia and Egypt, there is also a need to extend it to other important areas such investment and trade.

On the regional side, he confirmed that Eritrea would probably integrate IGAD soon and that a meeting between Ethiopia and Eritrea leaders is on the works. He added that given the current positive and constructive spirit, the security should improve significantly on the Horn of Africa.

Politically, the next steps in Ethiopia will be to continue to discuss with the recently returned opposition parties and obtain consensus on several critical issues for the country, such as the current federal arrangement. However, it noted that this would not be a “top-down” approach, as the process will be open and transparent.

Finally, Ambassador Teshome concluded by hoping that the EU would work with Ethiopia on identifying real challenges on the ground. The EU is a model of democratisation and regional integration, and Ethiopia is willing to learn from its best practices.

 

The Council of Ministers of Ethiopia on Saturday has decided to take out the names of Ginbot 7, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) from the terrorist group list.

The decision has followed Ethiopia’s Parliament ratification of Amnesty Bill on Friday 29 June. Now the decision of the Council of Ministers is expected to be approved by the Parliament. The Bill enables the country to completely free anyone charged and/or prosecuted for whatever crime she/he has done in the past.

The came after the new leadership of the ruling party decided to end internal and neighbouring political conflicts peacefully by involving all parties. As a result, the country has released thousands of prisoners over the past few months.

The new Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed has also travelled to the neighbouring countries as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to elaborate on the new conflict-free policy of Ethiopia.

Through his new conflict-free, mutual interest based and peaceful regional integration approach, Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed has also succeeded to bringing South Sudan opposition head Dr Machar to Addis Ababa last week for the face to face talks with President Salva Kirr for the first time in two years.

Ending the two decades ‘no-peace, no-war’ situation with neighbouring Eritrea, Prime Minister Dr Abiy has also managed to welcome the Eritrean delegation last week who came to Addis Ababa accepting his call to end the dispute peacefully.

Now he is expected to meet with President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea in the coming days, according to the state media reports who quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.

Dear clients of the Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Brussels,

We hereby inform you that applications for all types of visa should follow our new visa procedures.

Starting from 02/07/2018, all visa applicants should apply on this address: the www.evisa.gov.et 

The new visa procedure is open to applicants of all nationalities.

No visa will be delivered at the Embassy.

Thank you for your understanding.

Ethiopia will begin extracting crude oil on a test basis from reserves in the country’s southeast today.

Fitsum Arega, chief of staff in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office, said on Twitter that Abiy had met with officials from Poly-GCL Petroleum Investment Limited to “officially kick-start crude oil production test in Ogaden Region”.

“The company has discovered that there is a prospect of commercial quantities of crude oil in the region,” Fitsum wrote.

The firm is a joint venture of state-owned China POLY Group Corporation and Hong Kong-based Golden Concord Group.

450 barrels will be produced on Thursday 28 June on a trial basis.

The prime minister added that full-scale production of crude oil in the future would help the state alleviate unemployment and the prevailing foreign currency shortage.

Ethiopia also projects to earn up to 8 billion US dollars annually once it begins exporting natural gas at its full capacity.

A pipeline to export gas to Djibouti will be launched in September and will take two years to complete.

Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise will reintroduce flights to Eritrea by mid-September, two decades after a conflict upended relations between the neighbours.

“Ethiopian Airlines get ready because soon you’ll start going to Eritrea and coming back,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at a state dinner for a visiting Eritrean delegation in the capital, Addis Ababa. “Let us not transfer to our children hatred and the holding of grudges.”

Ethiopian Airlines’ Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebre Mariam said flights would resume “as soon as formalities are completed.”

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki sent a delegation including Foreign Minister Osman Saleh for talks in Ethiopia after Abiy said he was keen on normalising relations.

On June 5, Ethiopia reiterated it would fully implement the so-called Algiers Agreement signed in 2000 to formally end a two-year war between the neighbours that killed about 100,000 people.

“Instead of thinking about killing people, instead of being sleepless, let us think of how to develop our countries together, how to be borderless and protect our region,” PM Abiy said.

The ruling party recently announced plans to open up state monopolies in Africa’s fastest-growing economy, including Ethiopian Airlines, to foreign investors and in June lifted a state of emergency imposed after the snap resignation of Abiy’s predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn.

The first high-level Eritrean delegation to visit Ethiopia in decades has arrived for a meeting which could ease military tension. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed has received the Eritrean delegation that includes Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Adviser Yemane Ghebreab, who arrived in Addis Ababa on Tuesday 26 June.

Diplomatic ties have been cut between the two countries for almost 20 years.

A red carpet was rolled out, and the visitors were offered garlands of flowers. Olympic athletes, Ethiopian elders, religious figures, actors, singers and traditional dancers were all part of the welcoming committee. In the streets of the capital, a poster showing both flags together with a message of welcome hung from buildings.

Writing on Twitter, PM Abiy’s chief of staff said the prime minister “hopes the visit will lay the foundation for a much brighter future for Ethiopia [and] Eritrea”.

In a highly symbolic move, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Ethiopian Airlines would restart flights to Eritrea for the first time since 1998 when conflict erupted between the two nations.

 

The speaker of Ethiopia’s parliament, Muferihat Kamil has been elected as chairperson of the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM), one of the constituent bodies of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

Muferihat replaces Shiferaw Shigute, who resigned as chairman of SEPDM. The Central Committee of the party announced the acceptance of his resignation on Monday. Shigute will remain a member of the party’s central committee and retain his position as agriculture and livestock minister.

SEPDM explained that Shigute’s resignation was part of the party’s reforms. Muferihat was elected on Monday at the emergency meeting of the Central Committee of SEPDM.

In April this year, Muferihat was elected speaker of parliament, replacing Abadula Gemeda who had been in the role since 2010.

In 2008, Muferihat was appointed Minister of Women’s Affairs at the age of 32, at the time, the youngest appointee of the late Meles Zenawi.

She was born in Jimma, the largest city in south-western Ethiopia. She Graduated from Haramaya University with BSc. Degree in Agriculture in 2000.

She held different women affairs roles and from 2002 till her appointment as Public Relations Advisor to the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) President in 2007.

She worked at the EPRDF office in Addis Ababa in April 2008, then as a junior public relations officer till her appointment as Minister of Women’s Affairs.