Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia regional briefings

Jimma Times

• Ethiopia's Priorities mixed up as Coca-Cola company shuts down

The East African Bottling Share Company (EABSC) in Ethiopia stopped its production of Coca-Cola and related beverage brands on Thursday. It shut down due to the country's shortage of foreign currency and around 1,000 direct employees are left without jobs. Together with vending shops beneficiaries nationwide and others indirectly involved in products and services, more than 150,000 Ethiopians will be badly affected because of the closure.

According to local sources, EABSC asked the Ethiopian government to intervene and for the national bank to temporarily borrow money to fulfill the foreign currency need. But the company's appeal was allegedly rejected and some critics believe it was a big mistake to allow a big company to close, since tens of thousands of Ethiopians depend on it for their livelihood in this tough period when jobs are scarce and when Ethiopia's inflation has become the second highest in the world.

The Coca-Cola company in Ethiopia began in 1959 and opened its second branch in Ethiopia's second largest city of Dire Dawa in 1965.

• al Qaeda Yemen Bomber trained inside Somalia

An al Qaeda suicide bomber who killed five people in Yemen was reportedly trained across the Gulf of Aden inside Somalia. Four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni guide were killed in the eastern Yemeni city of Shibam. Five other Koreans were also injured during the deadly blast.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden and a UN report in 2006 claimed Yemeni organizations were financing the al Qaeda-linked Shabab group inside Somalia. The security situation in the Somalia capital Mogadishu has improved in recent months after a moderate Islamist from the local Hawiye clan was elected as President of the transitional government, after a UN-brokered peace deal that saw the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. 

• Private schools under government scrutiny

The Ministry of Education of Ethiopia is threatening to close down some private schools who allegedly are not following government regulations, according to a Jimma Times source. The ministry officials accused some private schools in Ethiopian cities of teaching students under grade eight using English language, instead of the required Amharic. 

While an English subject is provided, the schools are obligated to use Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, to teach all other school subjects. Some private schools are breaking the policy and the government has notified that it will take away their permit or certifications unless they address the issue. 

• Somali Islamist opposition leader stuck in Eritrea

According to Somali media outlets, the hardliner Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a renowned leader of the Islamic Party (Hizb al-Islamiya) and the head of the defunct Islamic Union (al-Itihaad al-Islamiya),  was stopped by Eritrean security forces when he attempted to leave Eritrea.

The Somali Waagacusub Media said Eritrea sees Sheikh Aweys as a "key Islamist leader who they can bargain with the Western powers." The Somali media also reported that Eritrea has cut off its financial support to ICU's Islamist warlord Yusuf Mohamed Siad Inda-Ade. The Eritrean move came after Inda'ade showed interest in accepting a peace deal with the new President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), moderate islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

• Diverse opinions about PM Zenawi's resignation plan

Many expect the EPRDF ruling party chairman and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to step down from power next year. However, some Ethiopians believe Meles will not be that far away from the government leadership, similar to the case of Russia's former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. PM Putin claimed he was invited by Medvedev and by his party to remain in power, and critics expect Meles to do the same during his fourth term. They say dictatorships naturally do not permit peaceful power transfers while some Ethiopians say there is no other EPRDF official that can replace Meles to effectively sustain an Executive's control over the Judiciary and Legislature branches of the Ethiopian government. Therefore, if Meles steps down, critics say only a figurehead will become the new PM, who will be taking orders from Meles during critical periods.  Domestically, the lack of "term limit" requirements from the Ethiopian constitution means Meles will evaluate his foreign relations to check whether resigning will benefit his relations with western donors or not, before he makes a final decision.

Meanwhile, some Ethiopian government supporters, who see Meles Zenawi's popularity worsening in the eyes of the international community, are very eager to see him resign in 2010 so they can honor Meles as the first Ethiopian leader to step down from power peacefully. However, historically, it would not be the first time for peaceful power tranfer in Ethiopia. Several Oromo-led states under Gadaa Democracy have witnessed peaceful power transfers for many centuries while similar events have taken place historically in many large states found in what is now Ethiopia, before the 20th century. 

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who has been in power longer than President Mengistu Haile mariam, first became the President of Ethiopia in 1991 before beginning his Premiership in 1995. 

• EEPCo state monopoly untamed by crisis

The Ethiopian state utility monopoly, Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), is recently facing geological and financial obstacles. But it is resisting worldwide calls for privatization. 

Its Tekeze dam project has being delayed due to sliding mountains in Tigray that will cost EEPCo extra millions of dollars. Meanwhile, a rural Kenyan community is also threatening to cut off the African Development Bank (AfDB) financing for the Gilgel Gibe (GG) III Dam in southern Ethiopia and Ethiopia's capital city is also suffering under more rounds of power outages. In response, the EEPCo began asking the Ethiopian Diaspora for financial help but it avoided offering Equity financing and stocks that would lead to reduction of the government monopoly of its ownership. Instead, the EEPCo offered Bonds to the Ethiopian Diaspora communities which are already aware of EEPCo's inefficiencies and the communication problems that plague government organizations throughout Ethiopia.

The bonds issued by EEPCo could help to solve financial problems for the Dam constructions and provide a vital alternative monetary source, however the bonds also help to sustain the government EEPCo ownership monopoly. According to some Ethiopians in the Diaspora surveyed by Jimma Times regarding the Bond offers, the majority want to help their country but they want to see equity financing from EEPCo and more transparency as well as specific information about which Hydroelectric Dams their money will be used for.