Addis Abeba Bans Two-Wheeled Motorcycles Indefinitely, Effective Today

Riding two-wheeled motorcycles in Addis Abeba is banned indefinitely, effective today, 25 September, the Addis Abeba Police Commission announced. The measure was carried by both Tikvah Ethiopia and Fana Television, which reported it in near-identical terms.

The commission said some individuals have been arrested while committing extortion and theft using motorcycles and are under investigation, and that motorcycles are frequently used to move between locations and to carry stolen goods.

The stated traffic case

Alongside the criminal justification, the commission listed violations it attributes to a significant number of riders:

• running red lights
• striking other vehicles and fleeing the scene
• riding without a helmet
• using obscured or unreadable licence plates

No figures were published for any of these categories, and the announcement as carried gives no arrest count, no incident count, and no review date.

What it removes

Two-wheelers are the delivery layer of the capital's commerce. Food platforms, pharmacy runs, document couriers, parts distribution to garages, and the last kilometre for small e-commerce sellers all ride on them, precisely because a motorcycle is the only vehicle that beats Addis Abeba traffic at a price a small margin can carry.

An indefinite ban with same-day effect gives none of those businesses a transition period. Riders working as independent contractors — the usual arrangement — carry the loss directly, and the asset they financed to get the work is now unusable inside the city where the work is.

It also lands the day before Meskel, one of the two heaviest trading days in the Addis calendar.

Open

The notices as carried specify two-wheeled machines; fact.et has not established whether three-wheelers are covered, whether licensed commercial delivery operators are exempt, or what conditions would lift the ban. Neither the city administration nor the transport bureau has published the directive text. These accounts reach fact.et through machine translation from Amharic.

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