In a surprising but strategically sound turn of events, Somalia eased tensions with Ethiopia through a deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Ankara Declaration, as it’s being called, not only provides a face-saving exit for both countries but also positions Somalia for a stronger future—one grounded in pragmatic diplomacy rather than regional rivalry. For context, Somalia’s initial alignment with Egypt—an archrival of Ethiopia—came as a response to Ethiopia’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Somaliland, a de-facto independent region that Somalia considers part of its sovereign territory. Egypt, ever wary of Ethiopia’s growing influence sought to draw Eritrea into a broader…
Author: Abren
In towns and cities across the Amhara Region, people ignored threats by Fano insurgents not to demonstrate in public Hundreds of thousands of people in dozens of cities and towns across Ethiopia’s Amhara region have taken to the streets in a powerful demand for peace. Amid a year of violent conflict between the government and the Fano rebels, demonstrators are calling for an immediate end to the armed conflict, the restoration of safety and security, and the return of normalcy to their daily lives. Demonstrators defied threats by Fano not to come out onto the streets. The Fano, a group…
Biden’s foreign policy failure to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate violence in Ethiopia is depressingly déjà vu. Let’s hope Trump’s team can see through the garbage. This is an excerpt from the latest extended version of “Getting Ethiopia Dead Wrong” a book by veteran Horn of Africa correspondent Rasmus Sonderris A quick Google search finds that “Meaza Mohammed is an Ethiopian journalist and human rights activist”. Countless newspaper articles depict her as an advocate for raped women. International organizations dedicated to press freedom portray her as persecuted for speaking truth to power. The website of the US State Department, no less, pays homage to…
Port competition in the Horn of Africa has escalated in recent years, with growing geopolitical tensions and strategic interests at play. One of the latest developments in this rivalry is Djibouti’s decision to offer Ethiopia a concession to operate the port of Tadjoura. This move further complicates the already complex dynamics between the region’s key players and underscores the importance of port access for landlocked Ethiopia, whose rapid economic growth has made it a critical market for port operators and neighboring countries. Ethiopia, with a population of 130 million, has experienced remarkable economic expansion over the past two decades, positioning…
The Ethiopian Capital Markets Authority (ECMA) has introduced its inaugural regulatory guidelines for the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), aiming to build investor confidence ahead of the exchange’s imminent launch. The Ethiopian government has been working for four years to establish a securities exchange as part of its broader economic reform and liberalisation agenda. This includes the recent decision to allow the Ethiopian birr (ETB) to float freely and open up strategic sectors such as banking and telecommunications to competition. The exchange’s debut will feature several significant state-owned enterprises, including Ethio Telecom, the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation, and the Ethiopian Shipping and…
This is an excerpt from the latest extended version of “Getting Ethiopia Dead Wrong” a book by veteran Horn of Africa correspondent Rasmus Sonderris Even in the event of peace, Ethiopia is not going to achieve a democratic political culture overnight. It may even get worse before it gets better. However, it is wrong and reckless to conclude that violence is now a last resort. During the darkest years of the TPLF/EPRDF, when armed resistance was in every way legitimate, I personally disagreed with that path, not out of pacifism, but from a strategic perspective. Because violence begets violence. Conversely,…
This is an excerpt from the latest extended version of “Getting Ethiopia Dead Wrong” a book by veteran Horn of Africa correspondent Rasmus Sonderris On November 3, around one thousand senior Ethiopian commanders stationed in Tigray went for a dinner party with regional government officials. The invitation, however, was a ruse to take them prisoner. That same night, while the world was focused on vote-counting in the US presidential election, a total of five federal military bases in Tigray came under fire. Defenders were killed or captured, though those in the Sero Base, near the border with Eritrea, held out for a grueling ten…
Washington, D.C. – October 20, 2024 – The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) Governor Mamo Mihretu, alongside CEOs from several leading Ethiopian banks, gathered at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington to discuss recent banking reforms and financial restructuring initiatives designed to modernize the nation’s banking sector. During the event, Governor Mamo addressed concerns from the Ethiopian diaspora regarding the floating exchange rate of the Birr and the significant regulatory changes underway. He noted real progress towards convergence between the parallel exchange rate and the newly established market-based bank exchange rate over the past two months, a natural result of the free…
Deepening rifts between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the interim administration of the Tigray region in Ethiopia have led to significant political shifts, culminating in the displacement of TPLF hardliners from the regional capital, Mekelle. For months, the TPLF’s old guard and the interim regional government, led by Getachew Reda, have engaged in a blame game over the region’s botched recovery, marked by military defeats, what many claim to be “loss of territory”, and a breakdown in law and order. These tensions have roots in the discord that emerged in 2019 when the newly formed Prosperity Party, led…
Addis Standard published a piece earlier in the month titled “Op-ed: Red Sea is not the Suez Canal: What will be the outcome of Egyptian intervention in Ethiopia’s sea access quest?” It was authored by Miessa Elema Robe, who holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations and is currently serving as head of the press secretariat at the Addis Abeba City Administration. He relevantly referenced the Moldovan-Ukrainian land swap of 1999 as a lesson for the Horn of Africa, which will be elaborated on. His article cited the New York Times’ 2015 piece about how “Time-Worn Village in Moldova Springs…