Selam r/Ethiopia!

I need to share something with you because honestly I don't know where else to turn.

I've been building Ivy for the past year - an AI tutor designed specifically for Ethiopian students. It works completely offline, runs on cheap phones, and teaches in Amharic. I built it because I grew up seeing how many students in this country never get access to a real tutor. The teacher-to-student ratio is 1:70 in most schools. I wanted to fix that.

Last month, AWS announced the largest AI competition in history - AIdeas 2025. Over 10,000 projects submitted from every corner of the world. Teams from Silicon Valley, London, Bangalore - backed by entire companies with full engineering teams.

Ivy made the top 50.

An Ethiopian-built project, made by one developer from Addis Ababa, is standing in the finals next to the biggest names in global tech. This has never happened before.

But here's the thing -- the winner is decided by community votes. And that's where we lose. The US teams have thousands of people in their networks ready to vote. European teams have massive tech communities. Indian teams can mobilize entire universities.

I have Ethiopia. And that's enough - if we show up.

Today I went to campus and got 175 votes in person, one by one. But I can't do this alone. I need every Ethiopian who sees this to take 20 seconds:

1. Click this link
2. Sign in with Google
3. Hit "Like"

I'll drop the voting link in the comments. Sign in with Google, hit Like - 20 seconds.

https://builder.aws.com/content/3CQJ9SY2gNvSZKWd3tEq8ny7kSr/aideas-finalist-ivy-the-worlds-first-offline-capable-proactive-ai-tutoring-agent

I'm not asking for money. I'm not asking for clout. I'm asking for 20 seconds from my people so that for the first time, Ethiopia wins something like this.

If you vote, share this with one person. If every person who votes gets one more person to vote, we win this.

🇪🇹

URGENT UPDATE (Mon 9:15 PM): We are currently neck-and-neck with a team from India for the #1 Global spot. The gap is less than 10 votes. They are pushing hard right now while we are sleeping. If you haven't voted yet, please take 30 seconds to help us keep Ethiopia at #1! https://builder.aws.com/content/3CQJ9SY2gNvSZKWd3tEq8ny7kSr/aideas-finalist-ivy-the-worlds-first-offline-capable-proactive-ai-tutoring-agent

Source: https://x.com/addisstandard/status/1979211173980496118

Hey r/Ethiopia,

A few weeks ago, I posted here asking for your help when my project, Ivy, made the AWS Global Finals.

Today, I can officially share the result: We won.

Out of 10,000+ international submissions, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Principal Engineering panel officially awarded Ivy the Global Innovation Award.

For those who missed the first post: Ivy is an AI tutoring agent that runs entirely offline on cheap $80 Android phones. It uses a 1-bit quantized LLM to bypass our internet blackouts, proactively calling students to deliver personalized education in Amharic without needing a single byte of data.

I built the architecture on an overheating 8GB laptop, and because of this community’s support, we trended #1 Globally on Amazon's platform for 5 days straight. (This is also my second major Amazon win this month, having just won the global Amazon Nova Hackathon out of 14,000 entries).

What’s next for Ivy:

• Enterprise Pilot: We are currently entering deployment discussions with St. Paul's Hospital to assist medical students on rural clinical rotations.
• Global Press: We are recording features with BBC World Service (Tech Life) and DW this week.
• Global Showcase: The architecture will be showcased at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas (60k attendees).

I am currently transitioning this from a hackathon project into a scalable enterprise company. If you are an investor (pre-seed/grants), an EdTech/Health-tech operator, or if you have strategic pathways regarding international tech hubs (UK/US Visas), my DMs are open.

Let's build.

LinkedIn for professional connections: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natnael-getenew/

Also on Instagram: natnaelgzeleke

Tigray state media reports that the TDF has engaged combat with government forces in western tigray(possibly in the disputed welkite territory). The TPLF will soon make statements regarding the occasion.

There is already the war going on in the Amhara region. If this is true then Abiy is opening a two front war whilst losing one.

This is an accidental exposure of how financially unequal and fragile Ethiopia really is, the insurance fund was just trying to calculate how much of the banking system needed coverage, but ended up revealing that 97% of deposit accounts are under 100k birr. And considering the birr notes change pushed more cash into banks, serious people/businesses are generally banked, we have very limited investment alternatives, and 100k isn't even a huge buffer anymore(max 1 week private hospital stay), this number feels way more revealing than it was probably intended to be.

whats alarming is the study in Amharic version puts it up to like 99% with the 1-3% that have more is stated as state related and big corps: ~.6% holding ~60% of the total savings

https://ethiopianreporter.com/159969/

A friend of mine just called me and said we can't leave the country without a permission or defined letter showing reason for your leave. How true is that? Anyone of you who recently left the country or any one heard of this plz? I just came here for the summer vacation from my work and a bit stressed.

“ETHIOPIAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR, PARAMILITARY MEMBER & GENOCIDE INFLUENCER DEPORTED

Criminal illegal alien Solomon Bogale was denied immigration benefits and ultimately deported to Ethiopia March 5 by our Phoenix officers after ICE discovered numerous social media accounts where he openly identified himself as a member of Fano, a Tier III terrorist group.

Bogale’s posts called for persecution and violence against Tigrayans by “cleansing” them from Ethiopia.

Since 2003, ICE’s HSI-led Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has deported 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators and war criminals.”

https://x.com/icegov/status/2032080482674872415?s=46

The Adwa Market Centre and Transport Terminal in Addis Ababa’s Piazza (Arada) district is a new multi-use hub with taxi and bus terminals, over 101 shops, cafés, offices, and a two-level underground parking system.

Without getting too deep, there is an entity that masquerades as Habesha while secretly being of foreign origin. This entity has the goal of slowly rewriting history through name changes, generalizations, and abstractions to favor not only its political but also its vengeful ideology against actual Habeshas. They are not Habesha; they know that, but you don't, and they're secretly coming after you for it.

_xx_

The lurker to talker ratio is absurd here.

Youre anonymous, you can say or ask whatever.

Who knows, maybe i'll even allow you to freely express your opinions.

Israeli support for landlocked Ethiopia’s bid for access to the Red Sea is fueling tensions with Egypt, which has repeatedly opposed Addis Ababa’s moves amid a separate dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and its impact on Cairo’s Nile water share.

The Israeli backing raises friction with Egypt and gives Tel Aviv another way to pressure Cairo over its positions, despite the legitimacy of Egypt’s stance under international law, experts told Asharq Al-Awsat. They said the international community would ultimately determine the outcome.

Ethiopia has been landlocked since 1993, when Eritrea gained independence after a three-decade war. It relies on neighboring countries’ ports, particularly Djibouti’s.

The Ethiopian News Agency said Israel had announced diplomatic support for Ethiopia’s efforts to secure access to the sea. It quoted Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise as saying that his country firmly backed the East African nation’s push for a Red Sea outlet.

Empowering and strengthening Ethiopia and stabilizing the Red Sea are in everyone’s interest, not Ethiopia’s alone, and Israel stands with Ethiopia in this effort, Neguise told the agency on Thursday evening.

It was not Neguise’s first intervention on an issue dividing Egypt and Ethiopia. In August, he told reporters that Israel would “continue to strengthen its support for Ethiopia, with the aim of helping it become a leading economic power on the African continent.”

African affairs expert Asmaa al-Husseini said the Israeli statements “increase tensions with Egypt” and point to “a covert Israeli role in Ethiopia’s Red Sea moves aimed at harming Egyptian interests.”
The issue may not trigger a direct crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv, she told Asharq Al-Awsat, but Egypt would closely monitor it. Cairo’s response would depend on the level of escalation and Ethiopia’s actions on the ground.

“Egypt has the right to defend its national security,” Husseini said. “If any military arrangements targeting it are pursued in the Red Sea, Egypt will take measures to prevent them. Ethiopia and Israel understand this, but they are trying by every means to impose a fait accompli. Egypt will never accept that.”

Neguise’s latest remarks coincided with renewed Egyptian opposition to Ethiopian access to the Red Sea.

“There are sovereign states with ports on the Red Sea, and no one has the right to grant any country military maritime access. Otherwise, there would be chaos, particularly as many African countries are landlocked,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told a news conference on Thursday evening.

“There is no problem with commercial access,” he added.

Ramadan Qarny, an expert on African affairs, said Egypt’s opposition rested on several established principles.

“The first is legal: respect for international law, which affirms the exclusive right of littoral states to maintain a presence on the Red Sea coast,” Qarny told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“The second is respect for African Union principles, which uphold the sanctity of borders inherited from the colonial era. Raising this issue could therefore open the door to widespread unrest across African countries.”

The third principle, Qarny said, was that “Egypt’s actions and position align with the principles of the African and Arab states bordering the Red Sea.”
Qarny said Israel was seeking Ethiopian backing on a similar issue: Israel’s presence in, or recognition of, the breakaway Somaliland region, which took place in December 2025.

“There is a political quid pro quo,” he said. “Israel supports Ethiopia in obtaining access to the Red Sea coast in exchange for Ethiopian support for Israel’s recognition of the breakaway Somaliland region.”
Cairo’s position
Cairo has not officially responded to Israel’s continued moves on Ethiopia.
Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed El-Orabi, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, has downplayed their impact.
In earlier remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said they would “neither undermine nor change” Egypt’s positions.

Qarny said Israeli support was unlikely to significantly alter the dynamics of the Egyptian-Ethiopian disputes.

“Tensions already exist and are likely to increase,” he said, adding that Ethiopian media had in recent months waged what he described as “a coordinated and organized campaign,” led by the Ethiopian News Agency, against Egypt’s positions.
The campaign, he said, had targeted Cairo’s stance on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Nile Basin countries’ Cooperative Framework Agreement and Ethiopia’s bid for maritime access.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/articles/c9989lm0vkro

Apparently a zoo in North Carolina had been using the sacred and deeply religious rock hewn style architecture found in Lalibela, where thousands of Ethiopians take pilgrimage to, as a themed housing for Baboons in their Apes section since 2023.

Their explanations state that it was meant to mimic the baboons indigenous habitat(The Horn) by featuring ancient architecture from the region, but I wonder who's bright idea it was to use revered religious architecture seen as a "Second Jerusalem" by the locals & from Africa to house baboons; or even if it was deliberate in the first place.

Surprised the church never took action the whole time or even the Ethiopian diplomats there. This could easily pass as racism and blatant disrespect towards local religious beliefs.

https://www.aza.org/connect-stories/stories/north-carolina-zoo-baboon-habitat-is-reopening-to-the-public

Hey guys, as you all know or may heard of, Ethiopians are getting targeted and killed in south Africa as we speak and they’re asking for your advocacy. Please start advocating and making content on social media using English. As I heard from a trusted source in South Africa, one south African TikToker called lax who visited Ethiopia around 6 months ago is the reason for the targeting of Ethiopians.