Ethio Engineering Group has asked its more than 3,000 employees ​to switch to virtual meetings to ‌reduce fuel usage following government guidance to avert a full-blown energy crisis.

Like other countries in the region, ​landlocked Ethiopia faces fuel supply disruptions ​after the eruption of the U.S.-Israel ⁠conflict with Iran. The government in Addis ​Ababa has responded by boosting fuel subsidies ​and laying out a set of energy-saving measures.

“Our government has set a direction stating that institutions ​and citizens must use fuel economically, ​and everyone is carrying out activities based on their ‌specific ⁠realities,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

“These actions are expected under these mandatory circumstances.”

Apart from virtual meetings, employees ​of the group ​will ⁠be required to pool transport when travelling for vital projects, the ​group said, and restrict movement ​of ⁠vehicles to regular working days only.

The group, which produces a range of products from ⁠plastic ​packaging to farm machinery, ​will also cut monthly fuel allocations to its senior executives.

Safaricom Ethiopia’s M-PESA mobile money platform has reached 5.2 million active users, reflecting a 258.5 per cent year-on-year surge in the quarter ended December 2025, driven by expanded interoperability and merchant adoption across the country.

The rapid growth follows M-PESA’s integration with EthSwitch in October 2025, connecting it to over 30 banks and digital wallets regulated by the National Bank of Ethiopia. This enables real-time wallet-to-bank transfers, bank-to-wallet payments and EthQR merchant transactions, expanding acceptance to more than 50,000 merchants nationwide.

Transaction values jumped 192 per cent to KSh364 million ($2.8 million) during the period, showing users shifting from peer-to-peer transfers to broader payments and commerce applications.

Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Peter Ndegwa said the expansion targets everyday economic use cases for merchants, MSMEs, enterprises and households while building toward profitability. “M-PESA expansion into more diverse everyday use cases is designed to support merchants, MSMEs, enterprises and households while maintaining a path toward profitability,” he stated.

The feline is highly sought after by wealthy collectors of wild animals, who are numerous on the Arabian Peninsula. Across the way, in the Horn of Africa, Somaliland has become the main hub of a thriving trafficking network, even as the species itself is under threat. Neptune, Enki, Anuket … The eight young cheetahs pacing in their enclosure have survived against all odds. They all bear the names of water deities because the Somaliland Coast Guard rescued them at sea in September 2025. In total, 11 cheetah cubs – three of which have since died – just a few days old, were crammed into potato sacks hidden in the hold of a dhow. While this traditional boat is usually used for fishing, in the strait separating Somalia from Yemen, it also serves as a vehicle for all kinds of trafficking, including cheetahs taken from the Horn of Africa and bound for Gulf countries. In the opulence of the Gulf petromonarchies, these trophy animals are displayed on social media as the ultimate status symbol, sometimes seated in the passenger seat of luxury cars, sometimes tethered in enormous private zoos. Le Monde

Yordanos Bezabih, an Ethiopian women’s rights activist, had faced online threats for years: of acid attacks, gang-rape and death. She tried her best to ignore the abuse as she continued her advocacy work. But in 2025, the threats became more menacing. In April, an anonymous Telegram group with 6,000 subscribers organised an effort to track down her location. They shared deepfakes of her – nude images and videos. The following month, a stranger started to film her in the streets, calling her by her social media handle. In summer, thieves broke into her house and stole her laptop. Soon after, her Telegram account was hacked and her private photos and messages were circulated on social media. The perpetrators later circulated her address, she says, demanding she be found and “executed”. … Bezabih is one of a small but growing number of feminists and women’s rights defenders who have left Ethiopia over the past two years, as online violence has become all-pervasive and uncontrolled. Three years after Facebook was accused of allowing hate speech to spread unchecked in Ethiopia, amid genocidal violence against ethnic Tigrayans during the civil war – claims rejected by Meta – social media inciters in Ethiopia have found a new target: women online. The Guardian