the British Embassy in Ethiopia changes its travel advisory

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Dear All,
1. As you are aware, over the last few months there have ongoing protests and security operations in the Oromia region, some of which have turned violent. This prompted us to change our travel advice just before Christmas where advised against all but essential travel to the West and South West Shewa zones in the Oromia region (this area includes the popular tourist destination Wenchi Crater).
2. Over the weekend, and continuing into this week, there has been a further serious outbreak of violence in the Shashemene and Langano areas of Ethiopia. This began with a dispute between police and a wedding party, but has quickly spread. More than 20 people and 9 police have reportedly been killed in armed clashes. Parts of at least one, possibly two, lodges at Lake Langano have been burnt down, and vehicles have been attacked. An army operation is underway. As a result, we put a recommendation to Ministers to change our travel advice (TA) yesterday evening. I’ve just had confirmation that the Minister has approved this overnight so we will be updating our TA immediately as a result.
Change
4. Our TA will be updated to say:
• That we advise against all but essential travel to Ziway and Adami Tulu Woredas in the East Shewa Zone and the Shashemene, Arsi Negele, Seraro, Kofele, Dodola, and Kokosa Woredas in West Arsi Zone in the Oromia Region. This includes travel from Ziway town to Hawassa town, including the Lake Langano area.
Please note that the previous changes remain in place, namely that:
• The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the West and South West Shewa zones in the Oromia region (this area includes the popular tourist destination Wenchi Crater).
• There have been widespread protests across the Oromiya Region in recent weeks, some of which have reportedly turned violent and resulted in casualties, and others which have caused severe disruption to road travel. The situation is changeable and there is a heightened risk of travel across the Oromia region. If you do decide to travel to the Oromia region, plan well ahead, seek information about the local situation before you leave and avoid large crowds and demonstrations.
What this means for you
5. This means that staff wanting to travel to these areas for work purposes will need to submit a TRA to Alan for approval before going ahead, but that they’re off-limits for personal travel.
6. I’m conscious that as well as visiting Lagano, the Ziway-Shashemene road is the main route that people use to visit Bale Mountains. This is obviously now out of bounds. There is an alternative route to Bale that goes from Nazaret/Adama via Asela to Adaba. This does not pass through the affected woredas but we understand that the final part of that road leading into the Bale mountain National Park is unpaved and therefore may not be of particularly good quality. We’ll try and get more information on the state of it (grateful for views from anyone who may have driven it) but people might want to think hard about how comfortable they feel driving off-road before attempting it.
Further Action
7. Alan and his security team, together with input from political and consular sections, will continue to monitor the situation. If calm is restored then we will remove the advice against all but essential travel and will inform staff accordingly. However, if it spreads further we may need to make further changes. Again, I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend that all staff and their families sign up to alerts for changes in our TA. This is easy to do via www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.
8. If you have any questions on the above then please do contact either me, Alan or Fasil as the Post Security Manager. If you have a query out of hours then please use the Duty Security Manager number 0924 43 84 81.
9. I would be grateful if line managers could make staff sure that staff without IT access are aware of the contents of this email. Dom – Please disseminate more widely in Girl Effect. Alex – Please forward onto spouses.