Dawit Endeshaw

A new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, released this week, has found out that pastoralist communities in Somali region, affected by drought which occurred from 2015–2017, are still living in camps.

As the talks between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is yet to get a final resolution, the countries have agreed to meet in Washington, once again.

A new monthly report has indicated that, as of November 2019, the spike in inflation and the cost of living shows no signs of abating, as it did for the past four consecutive months, whereby headline inflation has increased by 20.8 percent.

In what seems to be a big upset to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his administration, his closest ally and friend, Lemma Megerssa, who is currently the Minister of Defense and deputy chairman of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), has openly expressed his difference with the PM’s ‘philosophy’ known as medemer or synergy as well as the “hurried” steps taken to merge the incumbent EPRDF and its affiliate parties into a single unified party—Prosperity Party.

In a bid to supply a total of 600,000 metric tons of wheat to the Ethiopian government, two firms have given the lowest total offer of 3.88 billion birr, The Reporter has learnt.

As Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), Chairman of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is pushing for the merger of the Front and its affiliates into a single party; the quest on the legality of the prospective party and the controversy surrounding it are still far from over.

The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of four parties,announced its long-debated merge into a single party this week —dubbed Ethiopian Prosperity Party— ina process that is marred by controversy involving the founder of the front; Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which finally decided to boycott the merger meeting claiming the illegality of the process.

Public universities in different parts of the country were rocked by violence this week following the tragic killings of two students in Woldiya University.

Last week’s turn of events in Ethiopia was probably a big sign of the problems surrounding the so-called political reform. Many still fear that the country is still on the brink of major ethnic and religion induced conflicts.   

In the wake of protests which resulted in the death of dozens of civilians in the Oromia Regional State, Harari and Dire Dawa City Administration, the national army has been deployed to stop the instability and bring calm to regions, The Reporter has learnt.