SITUATION REPORT – HORN OF AFRICA No. 407, 07 April 2023

Peace negotiations (per 07 April)

• The federal government of Ethiopia announced yesterday that it will integrate regional forces from Ethiopia’s 10 regions into a central army or the federal or regional police forces. 
• The disarming regional forces established by some regions has already started, spokeswoman Selamawit Kassa stated in a press conference.
• Selamawit Kassa said “Special forces members in the entirety of Ethiopia will be reorganized with their choices fully guaranteed and their desires respected.” 
• Clashes between Amhara Special Forces and federal forces were reported yesterday as units were refusing to give up their weapons as part of the integration process. 
• The spokeswoman dismissed the reports as false information, stating, “The society shouldn’t listen to false information… intended to confuse the population and to create a country which has a weak and disintegrated force.”
• Dr. Samuel Kifle, the Ethiopia State Minister of the Ministry of Education, met with representatives of four Tigray universities to discuss the process of reviving the education system within Tigray. 
• Head of the Tigray Education Bureau Dr. Kiros Guesh and presidents of Tigray universities briefed the State Minister on the damages caused by the war and discussed initial plans of system restoration. 

Situation in Tigray (per 07 April)

• Baitona Abai Tigray, one of the major opposition political parties, is joining the recently formed Tigray Interim Administration (IA), state leaders of the party. It is the only opposition party that is joining.
• The party said it will continue its peaceful struggle from inside the interim administration.
• Tsagazeab Kahsu (Ph.D.), chairman of the party, said it joined “despite dissatisfactions in connection to fairness and inclusion of the establishment of the IA”.
• Two leaders of the party will lead the Bureaus of Water and Energy and Transport of the IA.

Situation in Ethiopia (per 07 April)

• The UN International Commission of Experts on Ethiopia are not replicating the joint investigation team’s investigation, but are doing complementary work, states Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chief commissioner Daniel Bekele. 
• He said “We have not yet seen the full report of the U.N Commission of Human Rights experts, but my own conversation with the experts have told us that they have this understanding of their mandates.” 
• An estimated 800.000 Ethiopians have reportedly left Ethiopia over the last five years, according to the Mixed Migration Center due to conflict and violence, drought, and the economy. 
• The Governments of Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement on March 30th, 2022, to repatriate more than 100,000 Ethiopians that migrated in an irregular situation to the Gulf country. 
• The Security and Intelligence Joint Task Force has detained over 90 unnamed foreign nationals and their local associates for allegedly engaging in “illegal exploitation” of gold and other minerals in Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz regional states, according to the police task force. 
• In the statement, the task force reported that 45 foreign nationals who allegedly entered Ethiopia without “valid travel documents, entry visas, and residence permits” were detained.
• The statement also said that along with the foreigners three Ethiopians were detained for allegedly engaging “in an illegal exploration of gold and various minerals in the Gambella region.” 
• The Mayor of Nekemte, Tolera Regassa, and several other government officials of the city have been arrested in Nekemte, East Wollega zone of Ethiopia’s Oromia region in connection to the murder of the city’s ruling Prosperity Party (PP) office head last week, says the city council.
• The mayor was arrested a day after Desalegn Bokonja, head of Nekemte city’s Prosperity Party (PP) was shot dead “at the door of his residence”.

Regional Situation (per 07 April)

• Protesters took to the streets in Sudan yesterday after the signing of an agreement for a transitional government was delayed a second time.
• Disagreement remains over the military restructuring around the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
• The large number of protesters called for an end to military influence. They were faced with tear gas.
• The demonstrations took place on the fourth anniversary of demonstrations that led to the toppling of Omar Al-Bashir. 
• Kenya remains calm, but high cost of living remains a problem for many people. 
• Silas Omenda, a founder of a research and data analysis firm for small businesses, says President Ruto needs to address inflation.
• Omenda said “The president had to sort out the political angle of the protests, which was to stop the protests from happening, which had already started to cannibalize the economy.” 
• He added: “The next conversation is that now it becomes a conversation around the economy in terms of what needs to be done to alleviate the current economic crisis.”
• Flash floods in Somalia and Ethiopia have killed at least 50 people, displaced 30.000 families, killed 10.000 livestock and destroyed 21.000 hectares of crops, states Save the Children.
• The extreme rains in the region follow three years of extreme drought, increasing the impact.