Abiy Ahmed’s party says 615.7 million trees have been planted in Ethiopia

Subscribe

Toronto – The tree-planting campaign, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has packaged as a “Green Legacy,” has always been a cause for celebration for the Prosperity Party.

This year, his government announced plans to plant 600 million seedlings across the country in one day. At the end of Friday, Abiy Ahmed posted about the campaign on his social media page.

On his X-page, he wrote: “We didn’t want to let the sun go down without reaching our goal. We exceeded it and planted an incredible 615.7 million seedlings by the end of the day.” The figures given by government officials trigger skepticism among the majority of Ethiopians. They are also satirical content for Ethiopian activists on social media.

While there is no hostility towards the need for the reforestation program for the country, his government has been heavily criticized for the economic and security crisis that is making Ethiopia uninhabitable.

Kidnappings of civilians for ransom are commonplace in many parts of the country, especially in Oromia Region. In the recent spate of kidnappings, over 100 university students were abducted on their way to visit their parents near Gerbe Guracha region of Oromia. The Abiy Ahmed government lied that the students were released while they were still in the hands of the kidnappers, who demanded 700,000 ransom per person.

The war is another tragedy that has become the hallmark of Abiy Ahmed’s government. Barely a year after ending the devastating war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which claimed over a million lives, his government launched another war in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, where egregious human rights violations against civilians, including extrajudicial killings and rape, have occurred. In the Oromia region, there is an ongoing war against OLA rebels.

The economy is in shambles and some experts speculate that it may collapse. Abiy Ahmed is perhaps the only head of government in the world who has openly stated that the World Bank is like “mother’s stock exchange.” As part of the IMF-World Bank meeting on the terms of a loan agreement, Abiy Ahmed decided to devalue the Ethiopian birr by more than 50 percent, although his government had not yet admitted it. Before the official announcement of the devaluation in early July, the Ethiopian birr was trading at a rate of 57 and 58 to the US dollar, respectively, but now it is trading at over 115 birr in most Ethiopian banks. The devaluation had an immediate negative impact on Ethiopians: prices skyrocketed, subjecting the majority of Ethiopians to unprecedented economic hardship. This week there were reports that the IMF is reconsidering whether to release the fund after helping to implement the devaluation of the Ethiopian birr.

From the perspective of these challenges, the question remains whether the Prime Minister’s bravery on Page X even makes sense to most Ethiopians.

__

Join our Telegram channel: t.me/borkena

Like Borkena on on facebook.

Add your company to Ethiopian Business listing / Ethiopian Business Directory

Join the conversation. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @zborkena to get the latest Ethiopian News is updated regularly. Subscribe YouTube channel To share or submit information, send an email to [email protected]