ESAT News (May 24, 2018)
Ethiopian authorities banned a forum of humanitarian organizations and civic associations saying there were too many foreign organizations in the consortium.
The government agency in charge of overseeing non governmental and humanitarian organizations said it had banned the association because it was dominated by foreign organizations.
Director of the agency, Meseret Teklu was quoted as saying that the forum would be split into foreign and domestic.
Ethiopia’s restrictive Charities and Societies Proclamation bans NGOs from getting over 10% of their money from foreign sources. According to the Proclamation, those NGOs that drive over 10% of their funds from foreign sources would be registered as a non local NGO and would not permitted to work on human rights and democracy issues.
The restrictive Proclamation had forced over 3,000 NGOs to close shop in the last five years.