This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "2020 in Ethiopia" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

← 2019 2018 2017 2020 in Ethiopia → 2021 2022 2023
Decades:	2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2020 Timeline of Ethiopian history

Events of2020 inEthiopia.

• President:Sahle-Work Zewde
• Prime Minister:Abiy Ahmed

• Benishangul-Gumuz conflict
• Tigray War
• COVID-19 pandemic
• OLA insurgency

• 14 February – U.S. Secretary of StateMike Pompeo begins a visit toSenegal,Angola, and Ethiopia.^[1]
• 20 February – TheNetherlands returns a stolen crown to theGovernment of Ethiopia.^[2]
• 29 February – Egypt says it will use "all means" to defend its interests in a dispute with Ethiopia andSudan overthe new dam on theNile River.^[3]
• 13 March – First case of theCOVID-19 pandemic was reported.^[4]
• 25 March – At least 60 people believed to be migrants from Ethiopia are found dead in a cargo container inTete, Mozambique.^[5]

• 13 April – 14,000 cases ofCOVID-19 and 788 deaths have been reported across Africa. Cases by country: Comoros – 0, Djibouti – 214, Eritrea – 34, Ethiopia – 71, Kenya – 197, Madagascar – 106, Malawi – 13, Mauritius – 324, Mozambique – 21, Rwanda – 126, São Tomé and Príncipe – 4, Somalia – 25, South Sudan – 4, Tanzania – 32, Uganda – 54, Zambia – 43, Zimbabwe – 14^[6]
• 24 April – One million people in Ethiopia face hunger due to crop destruction by locust swarms. Swarms have been reported in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Tanzania.^[7]
• 8 May
  • Bereket Simon, formerCommunications Minister for theEthiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, was convicted of corruption and sentenced to six years of prison. Tadesse Kassa, a former TIRET Corporation board member, was also convicted.^[8]
  • A hospital inKilembe, Uganda and a small town Somalia are washed away in flooding; an unspecified number of people are killed.^[9]
  • Hundreds protest when the government destroys 7,000 homes and a market inKariobangi, Kenya.^[10]
• 12 May – Sudan pushes Ethiopia to resume discussion related to the $4.6 billionGrand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on theNile River.^[11]

• 1 July –166 people are killed in protests after the death of Ethiopian singerHachalu Hundessa.^[12]
• 4 September – Elections are announced for 8 September inTigray Region.^[13]
• 7 September – Journalists are banned from observing the elections in Tigray. The government says the elections are illegal.^[14]
• 9 September – TheTigray regional election is held inTigray, as theEthiopian government condemning it.^{[citation needed]}

• 3 November – At least dozen of peoples weremassacred in ethnic violence in Gawa Qanqa, southwest Ethiopia.^[15]
• 4 November – "Scores, probably hundreds" of civilians are killed inAksum in the Tigray conflict, northern Ethiopia.^[16]
• 7 November – The Ethiopian parliament voted to endorse the creation of an interimgovernment for the northern Tigray region
• 9 November – Up to 500 civilians were alleged to have been killed in amassacre in the town of Mai Kadra. Most of the victims wereAmhara people, but there are conflicting reports regarding the aggressors,Amnesty International suggesting that both Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian federal forces were involved in the massacres.^[17]
• 14 November – multiple rockets launched from Ethiopiahit Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea. UN Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres warns theTigray conflict in Ethiopia may destabilize the entireHorn of Africa.^[18]
• 15 November – 25,000 refugees flee from Tigray, to Sudan while the Federal Ethiopian Government invades the Ethiopian region of Tigray.^[19]
• 17 November –Mekelle was hit by an air strike, killing two civilians and injuring several others.^{[citation needed]}
• 18 November – The Prime Minister was reported as saying that the Ethiopian Army was advancing onMekelle, and had captured the cities ofShire andAxum.^{[citation needed]}
• 25 November – TheOrganization of African Unity sends ex-presidentsJoaquim Chissano (Mozambique),Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), andKgalema Motlanthe (South Africa) to Addis Ababa to negotiate a peace.^[20]
• 27 November – The first of fourUnited Nations humanitarian flights land in Khartoum carrying 32 tons aid from theUNHCR.^[21]
• 28–29 November – Seven to eight hundred civilians are massacred by theEthiopian National Defense Force andEritrean Army in theAksum massacre.^[22]
• 8 December –Tigray war: Government forces shoot at and temporarily detain representatives of the United Nations as they try to reach theTigray Region. Camps holding 100,000 refugees in Eritrea are said to be without food.^[23]
• 15 December –Sudan says that "Ethiopian forces and militias" ambushed Sudanese army forces near Jabal Abutiour, Sudan. Sudanese Prime MinisterAbdalla Hamdok visited Ethiopia briefly on 13 December to discuss the security situation.^[24]
• 17 December – The U.N. pledges US$35.6 million in civilian aid for the Tigray Region, including $25 million for Ethiopia and $10.6 million in Sudan.^[25]
• 21 December – Tigray conflict: TheAfrican Union says the military action of the Ethiopian government in Tigray was "legitimate".^[26]
• 23 December – TheAmhara Mass Media Agency says that dozens of people have been killed along ethnic lines inBenishangul-Gumuz Region. Attacks in September and October in the same region killed 14 and displaced 300 people.^[27]
• 28 December
  • Reuters Group cameraman Kumerra Gemechu, 36, is arrested for undisclosed reasons.^[28]
  • Banks reopen inMekelle.^[29]
• 31 December – The government human rights commission says 76 people were killed and 200 wounded in June and July during unrest following the killing ofHachalu Hundessa. The commission said a total of 123 people were killed and at least 500 were injured.^[30]

• 5 February:Abadi Hadis, 22, Olympic long-distance runner (2016 Summer Olympics).^[31]
• 29 June:Hachalu Hundessa, 34, singer.^[32]
• 8 November –Raphael Hadane, 97, Ethiopian-Israeli religious leader,Kahen ofBeta Israel.^[33]
• 19 November – Kitilaa Guddata, 32, teacher from Sekela,Oromia Region; executed by Oromia Special Police Force.^[34]
• 12 December –Fikre Selassie Wogderess, 75, politician,Prime Minister (1987–1989); complications from diabetes.^[35]
• 17 December –Tesfaye Gessesse, 83, actor, General Director of theHager Fikir Theatre (1974–1975).^[36]
• 29 December –Agitu Ideo Gudeta, 42, farmer, entrepreneur, and environmentalist^[37]

• Media related to2020 in Ethiopia at Wikimedia Commons
• Why there are fears that Ethiopia could break up (Desta Gebremedhin - BBC Tigrinya, 6 September 2020)
• Amnesty report describes Axum massacre in Ethiopia's Tigray (by Cara Anna, Associated Press, 26 February 2021)

• 2020 in Ethiopia
• 2020s in Ethiopia
• Years of the 21st century in Ethiopia
• 2020 by country

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2021
• Articles needing additional references from October 2021
• All articles needing additional references
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2020
• Commons category link from Wikidata