Instability may make Ethiopia a hard sell to foreign investors
Posted: 05 Feb 2021, 18:45
Once a frontier market superstar, Ethiopia has seen its investment lustre dimmed by conflict and the coronavirus pandemic.
By Zecharias Zelalem
5 Feb 2021
Since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory over the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in late November, Tigray’s airspace has opened and businesses are gradually picking up again, despite ongoing tensions and a vow by the TPLF to continue fighting.
Abiy even visited the embattled city of Mekelle on December 13, his first trip to the Tigray region since hostilities broke out there on November 4.
During his visit, Abiy, clad in military camouflage and a green beret, promised that work was under way to restore phone and internet connectivity to the northern region after services were cut. But Tigray’s internet blackout persists, while phone calls are possible in only about a dozen of the region’s towns.
It’s not a novel occurrence. In 2019, there were eight internet shutdowns across Ethiopia.
Swathes of the country’s Oromia region were without phone and internet services during the first few months of 2020, as the Ethiopian army battled Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters based in the area.
In late June of last year, mob violence following the murder of superstar musician Hachalu Hundessa led to hundreds of deaths and a nationwide internet shutdown that lasted 23 days and is estimated to have cost Ethiopia’s economy at least $100m.
Continue reading https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/ ... Y6NLAexEN4
By Zecharias Zelalem
5 Feb 2021
Since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory over the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in late November, Tigray’s airspace has opened and businesses are gradually picking up again, despite ongoing tensions and a vow by the TPLF to continue fighting.
Abiy even visited the embattled city of Mekelle on December 13, his first trip to the Tigray region since hostilities broke out there on November 4.
During his visit, Abiy, clad in military camouflage and a green beret, promised that work was under way to restore phone and internet connectivity to the northern region after services were cut. But Tigray’s internet blackout persists, while phone calls are possible in only about a dozen of the region’s towns.
It’s not a novel occurrence. In 2019, there were eight internet shutdowns across Ethiopia.
Swathes of the country’s Oromia region were without phone and internet services during the first few months of 2020, as the Ethiopian army battled Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters based in the area.
In late June of last year, mob violence following the murder of superstar musician Hachalu Hundessa led to hundreds of deaths and a nationwide internet shutdown that lasted 23 days and is estimated to have cost Ethiopia’s economy at least $100m.
Continue reading https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/ ... Y6NLAexEN4