Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi has been released from Saudi prison. Arega Yirdaw, CEO of MIDROC, a private company that belongs to Al-Amoudi, confirmed the news to the Ethiopian state television. Al-Amoudi, 72, was detained more than 14 months ago as a result of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on corruption along with dozens of princes, officials and businessmen.
Al-Amoudi owns vast assets in oil, gold mines, agriculture and cement in Ethiopia and he is the second largest employer next to the government. Since the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in May 1991, he has invested more than $ 2 billion in the country, according to his entourage. He built the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa, which enjoyed a reputation to be a luxury collection hotel.
According to multiple accounts, al-Amoudi made his fortune in 1988: a $ 30 billion contract for the construction of an oil storage complex in Saudi Arabia, the country where he emigrated at the age of 19. Since then, he has come to assume control of two major oil refineries Morocco, and one in Sweden and holds stakes in oil blocks in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Congo and Angola.
Al-Amoudi is a divisive figure in Ethiopia where opponents accuse him of being supportive of a dictatorial regime, while supporters portray him as a great philanthropist and a champion who created job opportunities.
Al-Amoudi’s imprisonment has drawn attention and shock in Ethiopia’s political and business elites because of his close involvement in the country’s economy. In May 2018, during a visit to Saudi Arabia, after making a personal appeal to the crown prince, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that he was sure Al Amoudi would be released and returned to Ethiopia soon.
According to a Forbes report last year, Al-Amoudi’s net worth was estimated to be $10.9bn.
Obsession with Al Amoudi is one rare national trait that transcend poltical, ethinc and religous difference in Ethiopia.Good luck, my beloved Ethiopoa.
To lebel Al Almoudi as a divisive figure is wrong as there is no public opinion that attests the allegation . Infact, some individuals within the politics may consider him as this or that sort of person on the basis if their political and business interest . However , the tycoon has been embraced as a patroit and philanthropist by most of the population .
What was the Revolution of Mengestou Hayena Mariam based on? Certainly not on the ideology of crude reading of Marxism. Far from it, it was based on jealousy and resentment. So was the biterness of Meles Zenawi against Amhara and Oromo students on arrival at the gate of Wingate school as a scholarship boy. One doesn’t find it not-so a-strange-case that Habeshas are born with resentment. It was Khadir Eaba yesterday and now the tycoon. I think it is time for Ethiopians to reflect on this malignant disease which afflicts the nation.
Al Amoudi, the Saudi national, enters Ethiopia following Tigray Front (Tplf) takeover of power in Addis in the early 1990s. Tplf leaders were virtually inexperienced in state governance and especially the financial world. Al Amoudi reclaims his Ethiopian birth mother and makes a deal to partner with Tplf. He gets to cherry-pick state owned enterprises (gold! hotel (recall how Sheraton was built?) , agri, etc) and with commission for Tplf, the latter providing state institutions and bureaucracy to facilitate those interests.
Al Amoudi on arrival was worth a little over one billion dollars. Twenty Five years later he has grown to nearly ten-fold. (Of course he had businesses in other countries.) The point is that he literally run the show in Ethiopia without proper supervision (where he bribed his way through); he run his own airplane services/cargo at Ethiopian Airlines (the airline run by Tplf).
Al Amoudi came out full force promoting Meles and Tplf rule in the 1997 elections. A Saudi national was given dual citizenship (Saudi and Ethiopian) though there is no such diplomatic agreement! He extracted gold to his heart’s content bribing officials and at a time when gold price was skyrocketing.
Al Amoudi would send Bereket Simon (Bank of Ethiopia Board Chair and Meles Zenawi’s right hand man) to South Africa for medical treatment (hotel, air fare, personal security, and medical bill covered by Al Amoudi); and then covering costs for a book by Bereket and Bereket’s cousin AND ordering about 50,000 copies for distribution, etc!! Bereket reciprocating by allowing Al Amoudi take a loan of 50 million dollars from Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (later quickly stopped for some reason or other).
Al Amoudi owning a prime real estate next to Addis Ababa Municipality for about 15 years. An eye sore, really, a crater, and never building on it or letting someone else build!
Al Amoudi flies back to Saudi in time to avoid the looming people’s revolution in early 2016 (the epicenter in Oromiya region where Al Amoudi has been running unsupervised gold production with catastrophic environmental disaster on lives and the earth. Who do you think gave Al Amoudi a wink?
Al Amoudi run an agri business in Gambela (the granary of Saudi royal family). Tplf handed him (and their own comrades) an expansive tract of land for literally nothing (or as The Guardian put it, for the price of a pack of cigarettes per hectare!). Tplf chases away indigenous populations; some later returned to burn down part of the farm. Al Amoudi ordered his private militia to hunt down and shoot few of those. They did. No repercussions. Al Amoudi the diplomat came around and promised he would build schools and create 5,000 jobs for locals. He NEVER did. He did not need to because Bereket and Meles and their comrades are out to cover his back. Al Amoudi knew enough of vice to silence every community leader by handing out fat cash.
In the end, Al Amoudi milked our country on profit-sharing deal with Tplf, goes back to his country. Guess what? The Saudi tyrant Prince Salman demands several billions of Al Amoudi’s money including some jail time. Al Amoudi is now coming back to Ethiopia to replenish his stolen treasure!