The Council of Ministers in its regular meeting on Saturday June 2 lift the state of emergency that was imposed on February 15, right after the resignation of the previous Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn. The draft law will be sent to parliament for approval by next week.
According to a tweet from Fitsum Arega Chief of Staff at the Prime Minister office the lift came after the security situation in the country is back to normal. ‘The Council of Ministers in its regular meeting reviewed the security situation of the country. It noted that law and order has been restored. It has approved a draft law that lifts the State of Emergency. The draft will be sent to Parliament for its consideration’ reads the tweet.
The lifting of the state of emergency was widely expected after the new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed came to power. However it took him exactly two months to lift the emergency decree after he took power.
Ethiopia announced a state of emergency on February 15, a day after the prime minister resigned, as pressure mounted on the country’s ruling coalition. The coalition decided emergency rule was ‘vital to safeguarding the constitutional order’.
The country fully lifted its last state of emergency in August 2017, following months of curfews, restrictions on movement and the detention of thousands of people.
Those measures followed two years of anti-government protests in which security forces killed hundreds of people in Amhara and Oromia Regions, the nation’s two most populous provinces.
EPRDF has been in power since 1991 and controls all 547 seats in parliament. But cracks have appeared since the outbreak of unrest, with some senior officials resigning and others being sidelined.
Council of ministers lifts the State of Emergency
Andargachew finally walks free
The Federal Attorney General pardoned and drop charges of known figures on Saturday May 26.
The main figure, Andargachew Tsigie a prominent politician was pardoned in a special pardon.
Ethiopians across the world celebrate his release on social media after his pardon was announced by the Attorney General in the morning of Saturday. Speculations were also high in the past few weeks that his release was eminent.
Andargachew “Andy” Tsigie is a prominent Ethiopian politician who previously served as the secretary-general of Ginbot 7, a political party labeled as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian government.
According to his profile on Wikipedia, when Derg was overthrown in 1991, Andargachew came back to Ethiopia from exile to help the then newly formed EPRDF government led by his former university friend Meles Zenawi. Within two years he left the government. He moved back to London and started writing articles that were critical of the regime and its divisive politics.
In 2005 Andargachew returned to Ethiopia and published a book in Amharic which loosely translates to “Freedom fighter who does not know freedom”, an analysis of the state of Ethiopian politics at the time. Soon, with an invitation from then deputy leader of Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party Berhanu Nega, he joined the party and helped the party in the ill-fated election of May 2005.
In June 2005, Andargachew was imprisoned during the crackdown by the Ethiopian government after the election. After his release, he returned to London, where he was able to campaign against the regime by testifying at different government or international organisations including the US congress and European Union Human Rights committee as well as think tanks. He became the principal spokesperson for the CUD party in exile and was instrumental in mobilizing the global Ethiopian diaspora for a worldwide campaign to secure the release of the CUD leaders and all prisoners of conscience.
In 2008, he founded Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy with Berhanu Nega, one of the exiled leaders of CUD. He was elected as Secretary General of Ginbot 7.
On 22 December 2009, The Federal High Court sentenced Andargachew to death, in absentia, while 33 others were sentenced to life in prison along with four others who were also sentenced in absentia.
On 7 November 2013, Ginbot 7 claimed it foiled an assassination plot that targeted Andargachew, as well as commanders and high-ranking officers of Ginbot 7 Popular Force.
On 23 June 2014, he was once again imprisoned by the Ethiopian regime. He was arrested by Yemeni security forces, in collaboration with Ethiopian intelligence service members, at Yemen’s Sana’a International Airport while in transit from the United Arab Emirates to Eritrea. He was detained in an unknown location and no official statement was forthcoming from either the Yemeni or Ethiopian governments.
Andargachew is married to Yemserach Hailemariam (Yemi). They have three children together Hilawit, Menabe, and Yilak. In 2015 Hilawit awarded the Christine Jackson Young Person Award by the charity Liberty in recognition of her ongoing battle for the release of her father.
In related news 27 individuals 4 companies were pardoned from corruption crimes, 137 individuals were also acquitted of their terrorism charges, 576 individuals who were charged with different criminals activities were pardoned.
Among them, Melaku Fenta Former Director of the Ethiopian revenue and Customs Authority, his deputy Gebrewahid Woldegiorgis, former State Minister of Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, Alemayehu Gujo and other prominent business figures were included in the pardon.
Moreover, prominent business people who were charged with corruption, such as Ketema Kebede owner of KK plc, Getu Gelete owner of Get-as International, Nega Gebreegziabher, Simachew Kebede owner of Intercontinental Addis Hotel, Gemshu Beyene owner of Ellily International Hotel, and Fitsum Gebremedihn are also expected to be pardoned.
Officials of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation are also expected to be pardoned. These include Wasihun Abate and Aklog Demissie.
Zaid Woldegebriel former head of the Ethiopian Roads Authority is also included in the pardon.
Ministry steps in as two entities file for Employers’ Confederation name
Will the real Ethiopian Employers’ Confederation please stand up? That’s what the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) is asking after they received documents from separate entities with that name.
Last week two meetings were held at the Sheraton Addis and InterContinental Addis hotels with both groups claiming they were launching the Ethiopian Employers’ Confederation.
The Sheraton meeting was called by the old Ethiopian Employers’ Federation (EEF) which is run by Tadele Yimer and the InterContinental meeting conducted by a new group the federation of Hotel, Small and Medium Enterprises, water and sewerage service providers and the Amhara and Addis Ababa Employers’ Federations.
During both meetings Hirut Woldmariam (Phd) Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) did not attend even though she was invited. But the Sheraton meeting was attended by President Mulatu Teshome (Phd).
Fikadu Gebru, Industry Peace Relation Director at MoLSA told Capital that the Ministry will announce its findings after it commences its investigation.
“We will determine if both confederations are made up of legal federations or not, we will investigate their working process and will say something after we are finished. If both pass our investigation they can both be confederations and the one who applied first will be the Ethiopian Employers’ Confederation.’’
Capital asked Fikadu how the Ministry will work if two confederations are operational in the country.
“It will not be a problem for us if we have two or more confederations the confederation with more members will be stronger and will have more contact with the government.”
Tadele Yimer head of EEF told the press last Thursday that EEF has encompassed regional federation, Women’s Business Federation and other federations to form the confederations.
“Our plan to establishthe confederation was made three years ago, we are happy for others to join us, we don’t want to quarrel, we want to make a difference” he told the gathering.
Capital asked Tadele why EEF does not have term limits for the head.
“It is not a political election, it is an election based on willingness. The president does not get any money, people may not be happy about some of our work but it is better to sit in a chair and solve our problems rather than talking outside.”
Feteh Woldesenbet who is the Vice President of the certification seeking, Ethiopian Employers’ Confederation said that their new confederation has the right documents to be legalized.
“A Confederation is a group of federations. We have five federations out of the six legal federations in the country.” In his previous exclusive interview with Capital he said“We don’t have a right to strengthen another federation as we all are equal level federations. The old Employers Federation can’t be a confederation unless it is combined with the other federations as the legal ground permits.”In Ethiopia more than two associations can make a federation and more than two federations can make a confederation.
Housing Enterprise shifts supply responsibility to contractors
The Addis Ababa Saving House Development Enterprise is tasking contractors with supplying materials except for steel bars and lifts.
This new procedures will begin next fiscal year on 8,428 condo houses to be constructed in Bole Arabssa. The contractors who win the tender to build the condos will bring cement, wood, electric lines and other materials. The new Bole Arabssa sites lie on 38 hectares and will have 40 buildings that will either be G+15 or G+13. According to the Enterprises the old procedure will still be applied on homes that are already in the process of being built.
Yohannaes Abayneh, the communication officer for the Enterprise told Capital that contractors should purchase 40 percent of their material supply from small and medium enterprises.
“It is less efficient for the Enterprise to buy materials and supervise their construction, so we have shifted our role to quality control for the condos. Our working procedure states that small and medium enterprises should play a role in the construction and contractors have an obligation to give 40 percent of the supply to the small and medium enterprises which has been supplying sand, bricks and grind stones”.
He added that the Enterprise is working to deliver 17,000 houses by September.
“We are trying our best but the hard currency shortage still affects our procurement but if things go well we will deliver the houses before the end of this Ethiopian year,” he said. According to Yohannes the Enterprise is also working to leave the finishing work to the beneficiaries which will include fixing of doors, windows, ceramic floors, kitchens and toilets.
The agency is spending more than 150,000 birr per house to install finishing materials and Capital understands that so far 90 percent of the recent 972 transferred houses have replaced the finishing materials, which means that the original work is wasted.
Currently over 38,000 40/60 condos are under construction in Gerji, Bole Bulebula, Hayat Meri and Summit and more than 139,000 people are on the waiting list for these houses.
For the current fiscal 6.5 billion birr has been approved for the 40/60 condo and 150 contractors and 10,000 small and medium enterprises are working on the construction sites of these homes.
