A foreign aid worker was murdered in the town of Gode on April 1. Lourenco Mutaca, a Mozambican working with the U.N. High Commission of Refugees, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. A few days later the government announced that two individuals suspected of the murder have been apprehended. After the
incident, U.N. officials had told all staff working in Gode and other towns in the area to leave.

Concerned about the conflict between the EPRDF and OLF, the U.S. government and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) arranged a meeting in Mekele which reportedly produced an immediate ceasefire agreement in mid-April. The two sides stressed the need to prepare the ground for regional elections, according to a statement broadcast by Ethiopian radio on April 16. According to this agreement, both sides will recall their forces to their respective camps within a week.

The agreement reportedly required 15,000 OLF fighters to go into specially-created camps. An additional 5,000 fighters will follow later and the EPRDF military presence will also be scaled down.

Both sides also agreed to pave the way to hold “free and just” regional elections. The proposed elections have been postponed several times due to hostilities.

Newly-appointed Ethiopian ambassador to China, Haile Girogis Brook, presented credentials to Chinese President Yang Shangkun in early April. Ato Brook arrived in Beijing on March 23.

In early March, the newly-appointed Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, Jin Sen, presented his credentials to President Meles Zenawi.

Ethiopia and the U.S. also exchanged new ambassadors. President Meles Zenawi appointed Berhane Gebre Christos as the new ambassador to U.S. President Bush appointed Mark Baas, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Addis Abeba, as ambassador.

Minister for Foreign Economic Relations Abdul-Mejid Hussein said on April 16 that Ethiopia has accepted a World Bank recommendation to devalue the birr. He told Reuter the details and timing of the devaluation, the first in more than two decades, is yet to be decided. “The principle has been accepted. We are committed to devalue, the birr.”

The birr has been fixed at 2.07 to the U.S. dollar for more than two decades. The government has been reluctant to seek more realistic valuations fearing major economic and social problem.

Abdul-Mejid added that transitional Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi had assured World Bank Vice President Edward Jaycox that the government now fully accepts the principle of a devaluated birr as part of a wider assistance package.

Other important elements of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund assistance package include adoption of conservative fiscal policies and a timetable for eliminating subsidies.

Abdul-Mejid said he hoped negotiations on the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) would be concluded by the end of June.

In other African countries where SAPs have been implemented, two-tier systems valuation has resulted. Accordingly, individuals and private businesses use a rate more in line with the black market rate while official agencies use the established rate. The current black market rate is around six birr to the dollar. Official rates will gradually conform with the market rate.

“On the other hand, it may better to go to the whole way at once. Either way, the social dimensions of adjustment and the cost of it have to be agreed,” Abdul-Mejid said.

He said the transitional government has calculated a “safety net” of around 1.7 billion birr ($825 million) to alleviate the effects of devaluation.

Source: Reuter

Twelve Ethiopian-Somali clans have reportedly agreed to organize themselves under a single political group. A conference has been scheduled for July in Dre Dawa to draft the group’s political program and establish a committee to promote development and humanitarian assistance in drought and war-ravaged ethnic Somali areas.

In a resolution adopted last month, clan leaders promised to insure safe passage for United Nations convoys transporting relief supplies to famine victims and refugees in eastern Ethiopia.

Bandit attacks on relief supply trucks and the killing of foreign aid workers in eastern Ethiopia in recent months have severely disrupted relief to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Somalis.

At least 17 people were wounded as bombs exploded in early April in downtown Addis Abeba. The blast, which took place at the National and Adam Hotels also caused other property damages.

Mulugeta Seyoum, commander of the Second Police Station, suspects that the bombings might have been committed by agents of some political organizations which are active in the transitional government.

The wounded persons are now receiving medical treatment and the causes of the explosions are under investigation.