Latest news with #AddisStandard
Coin Geek
3 days ago
- Business
- Coin Geek
Ethiopia boots out BTC miners despite $200m revenue
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Ethiopia has become the latest country to purge BTC block reward miners as their strain on the national grid becomes unsustainable. The Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) company recently announced that it intends to gradually phase out BTC miners from the East African nation as concerns mount over their astronomical power demands. Source: Addis Standard In its Ethiopian Energy Outlook 2025 report, EEP revealed that its short-lived romance with the block reward miners has come to its end, less than two years since it signed its first power purchase agreement with a mining firm. 'There will be no new contracts in the field of data mining, and we are not interested in continuing with existing ones either,' EEP CEO Asheber Balcha revealed during the grid operator's annual performance review, as reported by the local paper, Ethiopian Reporter. Ethiopia was hailed as the new destination for BTC miners who had been booted out of jurisdictions like China, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, and Norway. However, according to Balcha, EEP only sought a short-term dalliance with the sector to prop up its coffers and never intended to make Ethiopia a permanent home for the miners. 'We have only started it for a short time. After a few years, companies engaged in this sector will leave or shift to other sectors…Domestic consumers and strategic industries are always our priority,' he stated. Ethiopia's BTC mining honeymoon cut short Ethiopia started warming up to BTC miners in late 2023, culminating in the first major arrival of a miner—Hong Kong's West Data Group—in February 2024. The $250 million deal, signed with the Ethiopian Investment Holdings, was hailed as a new era for the country that prioritizes the next generation of digital industries. Within the first ten months, the country had generated $55 million in revenue from the sector and contributed 2.25% of the global BTC hash rate. The revenue has surged since, with EEP making $220 million over the past year. The miners have kept coming. EEP's most recent data shows that it has signed power purchase agreements with 21 BTC miners, with 19 being foreign-owned and mostly linked to Chinese investors fleeing Xi Jinping's anti-crypto regime. Earlier this year, Chinese miner BIT Mining signed a $14 million agreement with the Ethiopian grid operator to establish a 51 megawatt facility. It claimed that Ethiopia's power was so cheap that it could reuse mining rigs that had become obsolete in its U.S. facilities, where they couldn't mine fast enough to justify the power costs. 'The price of electricity is maybe 70% higher in Ohio than in Ethiopia, sometimes almost double, so it can only run very advanced ASICs…Now we can just move older generation machines into Ethiopia,' the company said at the time. It's not just BIT Mining (NASDAQ: BTCM) that was taking advantage of Ethiopia's low power rates. BitFufu (NASDAQ: FUFU), Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR), Canaan (NASDAQ: CAN), and the Phoenix Group (NASDAQ: PNXGF) have all established mining facilities in the country. EEP projects that by the end of the year, BTC miners will consume a third of all Ethiopia's electricity, and it is concerned that this could be at the expense of other essential sectors. While the miners in the capital, Addis Ababa, enjoy the low power rates, a substantial portion of the country remains off-grid. Some sources say that nearly 60 million Ethiopians still lack electricity. Ethiopia joins a list of countries that have restricted BTC mining due to energy concerns. While a few, like China, have issued a blanket ban for the sector, most have scaled back the energy allocated to miners. Russia, for instance, banned mining during winter when power demand is high. The U.S. is one of a few countries bucking the trend. Since he took over, President Donald Trump has doubled down on making America the BTC mining capital, stating last year that he wants 'all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!' Trump's rally has been backed by some red states like Arizona and Kentucky that have passed right-to-mine laws, protecting miners from being targeted by local zoning authorities. The sector received a boost two months ago when the three largest Chinese ASIC manufacturers—Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan—announced they would set up production facilities in the U.S. as Trump's tariffs disrupt global supply chains. The three control 90% of the global BTC mining rigs production. Watch: Why Proof of Work is the most secure model of consensus title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
eNCA
10-05-2025
- Politics
- eNCA
Ethiopia journalists face renewed 'climate of fear'
ADDIS ABEBA - Journalists are facing raids and terrorism charges in Ethiopia as the media denounces a renewed "climate of fear" ahead of elections next year. There had been hopes for greater press freedom after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018, with exiled journalists encouraged to return. But a brutal war in the Tigray region from 2020 to 2022, and ongoing insurgencies in Amhara and Oromia regions, have led to those freedoms being once again harshly curtailed. Last month, three employees of Addis Standard, an online newspaper published in English, were detained for several hours for unknown reasons following a police raid on their offices. Six laptops and eight phones were seized and have still not been returned. In March, seven journalists from the private Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (EBS) were arrested in a terrorism investigation after the broadcast of a documentary in which a woman claimed to have been raped by men in military uniform. The woman later retracted her statements and the station apologised, but that was not accepted by the authorities. On April 23, a journalist for The Reporter newspaper, who was investigating the grievances of dismissed former military personnel seeking financial compensation, was arrested. Last month also saw parliament pass an amendment to the press freedom law, putting oversight powers more firmly in the hands of the prime minister's office rather than the semi-independent media association. "The current situation for journalists in Ethiopia is more dire than ever," said "Tesfa", a journalist who has worked in the east African country for 10 years. Like other journalists interviewed by AFP, he gave a false name for fear of repercussions by the security agencies, describing a widespread "climate of fear". - 'Pressure' - After the raid at Addis Standard, "Admasu", who works for another private media outlet, said he deleted messages on WhatsApp and social media. "I realised it was time to think twice before doing anything that might land me in jail for no reason," he said. Last Saturday, World Press Freedom Day, 14 diplomatic missions in Ethiopia, including Britain, Belgium and France, issued a statement, deploring the fact that "freedom of expression continues to be subject to significant pressure". Ethiopian authorities did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP. Some of the toughest restrictions are around access to Oromia and Amhara, the insurgency-hit regions that are Ethiopia's most populous with more than 60 million people between them. Millions of children are deprived of schooling and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence, but reporters are rarely granted access. - 'Retake control' - France-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) put Ethiopia 145th out of 180 countries in its latest press freedom ranking. It said Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his temporary rapprochement with neighbouring Eritrea, had opened up the media space for a while. RSF said Ethiopia was "more open and pluralistic than under the previous regime, and more than 200 once-banned media outlets are now authorised". But it said the government was now moving to "retake control of the information space". Sadibou Marong, director of RSF's sub-Saharan Africa bureau, told AFP the "recent attacks on press freedom... are weakening an already precarious situation", with journalists facing "long detentions" and being forced into self-censorship. Local reporters fear the situation will only get worse. "This trend will continue as the elections approach," said "Yosef", referring to the vote due by June 2026. Yosef, who works for a foreign media outlet, said he "expects further arrests" and intimidation, with many journalists now thinking of leaving Ethiopia or quitting the profession. by Dylan Gamba
Al Arabiya
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
‘Many killed' in restive central Ethiopia: Local official
Ethiopian local authorities said Thursday that 'many civilians' were killed last week by militias in the restive Oromia region, without giving more details. Oromia, the country's most populous region, has since 2018 been in the grip of an insurrection by the Oromo Liberation Army, with peace talks failing to yield progress. The central region, which contains capital Addis Ababa, is racked by conflicts including political schisms, land disputes, and ethnic strife. The attack occurred on Friday, local district administrator Ketema Wakuma told AFP, roughly 300 kilometers (180 miles) west of Addis Ababa. 'The extremist forces of Fano had committed the atrocity that killed many civilians,' he said, a reference to the 'self-defense' Fano militia, which have clashed in neighboring Amhara region against government forces since April 2023. 'The exact number of people killed is not known,' he added. Local independent outlet the Addis Standard said at least 20 were killed in the incident, and three kidnapped. The Fano, a largely autonomous group with no central command, have been increasing their attacks against security forces and managed to briefly seize towns in Amhara several times. Armed conflicts are currently roiling Ethiopia's two most populated regions, Amhara and Oromia. The country endured one of the deadliest conflicts in recent decades in northern Tigray, when federal forces clashed with Tigrayan rebels between 2020 and 2022. At least 600,000 were killed.
Al-Ahram Weekly
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
'Many killed' in restive central Ethiopia: Local official - Africa
Ethiopian local authorities said Thursday that "many civilians" were killed last week by militias in the restive Oromia region, without giving more details. Oromia, the country's most populous region, has since 2018 been in the grip of an insurrection by the Oromo Liberation Army, with peace talks failing to yield progress. The central region, which contains capital Addis Ababa, is racked by conflicts including political schisms, land disputes, and ethnic strife. The attack occurred on Friday, local district administrator Ketema Wakuma told AFP, roughly 300 kilometres (180 miles) west of Addis Ababa. "The extremist forces of Fano had committed the atrocity that killed many civilians," he said, a reference to the "self-defence" Fano militia, which have clashed in neighbouring Amhara region against government forces since April 2023. "The exact number of people killed is not known," he added. Local independent outlet the Addis Standard said at least 20 were killed in the incident, and three kidnapped. The Fano, a largely autonomous group with no central command, have been increasing their attacks against security forces and managed to briefly seize towns in Amhara several times. Armed conflicts are currently roiling Ethiopia's two most populated regions, Amhara and Oromia. The country endured one of the deadliest conflicts in recent decades in northern Tigray, when federal forces clashed with Tigrayan rebels between 2020 and 2022. At least 600,000 were killed. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
