The African Development Bank has decided to immediately withdraw all its international staff from Ethiopia after two members were unlawfully detained and assaulted by state security forces last month, the bank’s president announced Tuesday.
The bank “will assure” its local Ethiopian employees “and their families of its duty of care,” Akinwumi Adesina said, noting that they will continue working at the bank’s Addis Ababa headquarters.
The incident occurred October 31 when two international bank employees “were unlawfully arrested, physically assaulted, and detained for hours without charge,” Adesina said.
He called it “a gross violation of their personal diplomatic immunities, rights and privileges” under the bank’s agreement with Ethiopia’s government.
“On learning of the incident, I immediately contacted the highest levels of authority in the Ethiopian government,” Adesina said, after which the employees were released.
But more than six weeks later, Ethiopia’s government “has, to date, not shared with the Bank any report, or details of investigations into the incident,” Adesina said.
That and other issues raise doubts “that all the African Development Bank’s employees feel safe and secure to carry out their duties and move around the country without fear of harassment,” he said.
“The incident continues to cause much anxiety across the African Development Bank Group and especially among staff at the Ethiopia country office,” he added.
Adesina said the bank remains committed to supporting Ethiopia’s development but that “its continued operations and future presence in the country could be negatively affected if the incident is not fully resolved.”
As of September, the bank had 22 active projects in Ethiopia totaling $1.24 billion.
The incident “raised concerns among the Bank’s shareholders, other multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, the broader diplomatic community, and other stakeholders,” Adesina said.
It also shows that “the situation is still not yet resolved in a satisfactory manner” and has “not provide(d) full confidence that all the African Development Bank’s employees feel safe,” he said.
Adesina emphasized that the bank “will do everything possible to ensure the safety and security of its personnel.”
The withdrawn international employees will work from outside Ethiopia “until the findings of the (Ethiopian) government investigations into the grave incident are transparently shared with the Bank, and full details of the measures taken to bring the guilty parties to book are made public,” he said.
