February 8, 2025
Gedion Timotheos, Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with Türkiye’s Deputy Foreign Minister Burhanettin Duran on Thursday, 06 February 2025, to discuss the upcoming technical negotiations on the implementation of the Ankara Declaration, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The Ministry stated that Gedion Timotheos welcomed a high-level delegation led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, Burhanettin Duran, where the two sides “exchanged views on the technical aspects” of the declaration’s implementation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Gedion “expressed Ethiopia’s commitment to the full implementation” of the agreement and thanked Türkiye for its role in facilitating the tripartite deal with Somalia.
The Ankara Declaration, signed in Ankara by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, reaffirmed “respect and commitment to one another’s sovereignty, unity, independence, and territorial integrity,” according to the joint statement.
The agreement recognized the “potentially diverse benefits” of Ethiopia gaining “assured access to and from the sea” while emphasizing respect for “the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia.” It also stated that the leaders agreed “to forgo and leave behind differences and contentious issues.”
The declaration outlines plans for technical negotiations on Ethiopia’s sea access, set to begin by February 2025 and conclude within four months. Both countries agreed “to closely work together to finalize mutually advantageous commercial arrangements” under Somalia’s sovereign authority.
(Addis Standard)
Ethiopia invites Russian companies to start business from scratch in gold mining
Ethiopia invites Russian companies to develop a business from scratch in gold mining, Ambassador of Ethiopia to Moscow Genet Teshome Jirru said in an interview with TASS.
“As for gold mining, Russia has extensive experience on Ethiopian soil since Soviet times. So, this is one of the areas where we expect the participation of the Russian side both in cooperation with our existing entrepreneurs and in the development of business from scratch,” he noted.
The ambassador added that Ethiopia is also open to Russian capital in other areas, such as fertilizer production. According to him, this area is very important for the agricultural country that is currently engaged in industrialization. “At the same time, Ethiopia imports a large volume of fertilizers every year. One of the tasks of our government is to start producing the fertilizers that we import in large quantities from abroad. These are mainly mineral raw materials such as urea,” the diplomat explained.
He stressed that if foreign investors decide to set up the corresponding production facilities in Ethiopia, “it will be highly welcomed and will receive full support from the state”. “So, we invite Russian businessmen to consider investing in this sector. However, Ethiopia has many other opportunities: agricultural production, forestry, information and communications technology, tourism, and mining,” the ambassador concluded.
(Tass)
Ethiopia launches digital roadmap to modernize agricultural sector
Ethiopia has launched a roadmap aimed at advancing its agriculture sector by promoting digital technology across rural communities.
The roadmap, dubbed the “Digital Agriculture Roadmap (DAR) 2025-2032,” is set to improve the way farmers and herders engage with technology and digital services, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) reported on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, Minister of Agriculture Girma Amente said the DAR is instrumental in modernizing agricultural data, providing market information and enhancing financial accessibility for farmers and pastoralists.
“This roadmap is not just a document; it is a lifeline for our farmers and herders. By integrating digital services into agriculture, we can significantly enhance productivity and improve livelihoods across the nation,” Girma was quoted by the EBC as saying.
The vision of the DAR is to create a digitally advanced agricultural sector where farmers and pastoralists have access to real-time data and modern tools, as well as improved market linkages, to drive productivity, sustainability and food security.
Girma said that the roadmap also aligns with Ethiopia’s broader Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy, which has already begun yielding positive results in various sectors.
Central to the roadmap are 25 key areas where digital services can have a significant impact, including the digitalization of trade and market information, enhanced financial access for farmers, the establishment of robust market linkages, and improvements in agricultural extension and advisory services.
(The Peninsula)
CBE reverses private banks’ dominance, now holds 58% of deposits
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has shown signs of regaining its market position, reporting deposits of 1.4 trillion birr in the first half of this fiscal year.
The state giant collected 246 billion birr in fresh deposits during the first six months, exceeding its six-month target by an impressive 147.6 percent.
By the end of January 2025, the fresh deposits had grown further to reach 300 billion birr.
This performance marks a notable rebound for CBE, which had seen its market share decline to 47.9 percent by June 2024 amid growing competition from private banks.
The bank has now managed to capture more than half of all new deposits in the banking sector during the current period.
The surge accounts for almost 58 percent of the deposit base of 423.1 billion birr by all commercial banks.
The improved performance comes at a crucial time for Ethiopia’s banking sector, which has recently opened its doors to foreign competition.
Over the past two years, private banks had been steadily eating into CBE’s market dominance, but the latest figures suggest the state bank is regaining its footing in Ethiopia’s evolving financial landscape.
(BirrMetrics)
TPLF affirms peace as “foremost choice” of Tigray following PM Abiy’s remarks
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has stated that “the foremost choice of the people of Tigray and its leadership is peace,” following Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call for Tigrayan elites to resolve their differences peacefully, emphasizing that this should be done “in a way that ensures the unity of the Tigrayan people.”
In a statement issued on February 5, the TPLF, led by Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD), called on all parties to play a “constructive role” in realizing the aspirations of the people of Tigray and expressed its willingness to work with any force that seeks peace. “We want to confirm,” the statement said, “that we have been, are, and will be ready to work with all peace-seeking forces.”
The statement follows remarks by Abiy, who, in a speech on February 3, urged Tigrayan elites to resolve their differences through “peace, dialogue, and understanding.” He stated that the people of Tigray are still “living in war rhetoric, fear, and terror.”
Abiy noted that for centuries, Tigray has repeatedly been engaged in conflicts with the central government. “The land of Tigray has become a battlefield; the people of Tigray have also become instruments of war,” he said, calling on Tigrayan elites to “declare that the price the people have paid so far is enough and that there is no gain from war.”
In its statement, the TPLF said that conflicts involving the people of Tigray over the past century were fought “to ensure their survival and not to give in to oppression.”
The party asserted that “the struggles waged by the people of Tigray make them proud, not regretful,” adding that these struggles were for “sovereignty, freedom, and dignity” and were “crucial moments that determined the state of their existence as a nation and a people.” However, it insisted that this does not mean that “the people of Tigray have a culture of war.”
The TPLF reaffirmed that the people of Tigray “have a strong desire for peace,” stating that they “accepted the Pretoria Agreement, which stopped the genocidal war against them” and are calling on “all concerned parties to fully implement it.”
However, the party stated that “the Pretoria Peace Agreement has not been implemented, it has not been implemented on the ground,” adding that “the people of Tigray want and support peace to be accompanied by action.”
The statement from the party comes amid a deepening rift within the TPLF, particularly between factions led by Debretsion Gebremichael and Interim Administration president Getachew Reda, with tensions escalating since the TPLF’s 14th Congress.
This internal split previously led to Debretsion’s group removing Getachew and others from their roles, while the interim administration under Getachew repeatedly accused Debretsion’s faction of attempting to “destabilize” the region through a “coup d’état.”
Tensions have risen recently after some senior members of the Tigray military forces made an unprecedented announcement calling for the dissolution and restructuring of the region’s interim administration. They expressed support for one faction within the TPLF’s political divide, abandoning their previously neutral stance and escalating Tigray’s political crisis into a potential military crisis.
(AS)