MINILIK SALSAWI

It has been a bad year for Ethiopia, a country with very low forex reserves, a double-digit inflation, high external debt, and just recovering from a civil war, and economists warn that it could be on the verge of economic crisis after it missed interest payment on its only sovereign bond this week.  Ethiopia formally defaulted on $33 million interest repayment on its $1 billion Eurobond, joining Zambia and Ghana, the other bond defaulters on the continent. The default followed weeks of discussions and on December 15, Eyob Tekalign, State Minister for Finance, held a global investor call, in which he explained that Addis was “seeking to ensure consistency and fairness by requesting other external creditors, including bondholders, to participate in similar debt arrangements”. Read more  here

  ‘Collective punishment’: #Ethiopia drone strikes target civilians in #Amhara Ethiopia’s latest conflict has intensified in recent months with a surge in drone attacks seemingly targeting civilians. https://aje.io/hir5rs via @AJEnglish #AmharaGenocide     Weeks after a deadly drone attack on November 30 killed five civilians in the town of Wegel Tena in Ethiopia’s Amhara region about 570km (350 miles) north of the capital, Addis Ababa, a witness is still reeling from the trauma. “It’s extremely difficult to even describe the scene of the aftermath,” said Gebeyehu, who requested use of his first name only for safety reasons. “Bodies were burned so badly they had turned to dust. I saw the finger bones of one of the victims still shaped as though it was still clutching a mobile phone.” Several witnesses told Al Jazeera that a drone fired on an ambulance as it approached the Delanta Primary Hospital in Wegel Tena and obliterated it. Hospital staff, including a doctor and t

GENEVA (28 December 2023) – A new report issued today by the UN Human Rights Office and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) calls on the Government of Ethiopia to ensure that ongoing efforts to address the country’s legacy of human rights violations and abuses are grounded in applicable international human rights law, and consistently focus on the rights and needs of victims and their families.  The 90-page report sets out findings of 15 community consultations held from July 2022 to March this year with more than 800 participants, including 319 women, in Afar, Amhara, Harari, Oromia, Somali and Tigray regions, and in the Dire Dawa city administration. Participants included victims, internally displaced people, people with disabilities, traditional and religious leaders, and grassroot civil society organizations. “I welcome Ethiopia taking concrete steps to develop a national transitional justice policy in line with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement,” sai