Addis Abeba Closes Roads Around Meskel Square From Saturday Morning for the Demera

Roads around Meskel Square will be closed to vehicles from the morning of Saturday, 26 September, and will stay closed until the end of the programme, for the Demera that opens the Meskel festival, Fana Television reported, carrying the announcement of the road closures.

The notice as carried begins with the approaches from 22 Mazoria to Meskel Square and from St. Urael Square, in both directions. fact.et has not seen the complete list and is not reproducing a partial one; drivers and dispatchers should take the closure schedule from the original notice.

What it means for a business operating on Saturday

Meskel eve is one of the heaviest trading days in the Addis calendar, and the closures sit on top of the capital's main north–south spine at exactly the hours retail needs it. Two practical consequences follow.

Deliveries scheduled across the Bole–Meskel Square–Arat Kilo axis on Saturday will not run on their normal timings, and the usual workaround has just been removed: the city banned two-wheeled motorcycles indefinitely on 25 September, taking the one vehicle that ordinarily gets through a closed-road day out of service.

Staff rostered for Saturday will be affected in the same way, and the closure start time is early enough to catch the morning shift rather than only the evening crowd.

The safety notice alongside it

The Addis Abeba City Administration Fire and Disaster Risk Management Commission has urged the public to take care during the Demera, citing the rise in fire and electricity use over the festival. Its advice, as carried, covers torches lit indoors near carpets and curtains, caution with modern torches and fireworks, and not using damp wood for the Demera torch.

Open

The notice as translated gives a start hour in Ethiopian reckoning that fact.et is not converting without the original text; the full road list and exact times are in Fana's published notice. The city has not said when roads reopen, and no separate guidance has been issued for commercial vehicles. Both accounts reach fact.et through machine translation from Amharic.

Sources: Fana Television, 25 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 25 September 2026