It has been hailed as an oasis of political stability and a model of growth in Africa but for the past year, Ethiopia has been in the news not because of its economic successes, but because of insecurity on its streets.
Ethiopians – mostly from the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups – are angry about what they describe as decades of marginalisation.
They are also upset about government plans to build factories on land they consider their own. The protests have frequently grown violent, and police are accused of responding with unnecessary force.
Activists say at least 450 people have been killed. For the first time in 25 years, ruling party leaders have declared a six-month state of emergency.
It gives the government power to ban protests – and troops can be deployed to maintain calm.
John Kirby Assistant Secretary and Department Spokesperson, Bureau of Public Affairs
The United States takes note of the Government of Ethiopia’s October 8 declaration of a State of Emergency in response to recent protests and violence in the Oromia and Amhara regions. We are troubled by the potential impact of the decision to authorize detention without a warrant and to further limit freedom of expression, including by blocking Internet access, prohibiting public gatherings, and imposing curfews. This declaration, if implemented in these ways, would further enshrine the type of response that has failed to ameliorate the recent political crisis.
Political pluralism and respect for fundamental freedoms are essential to addressing the legitimate grievances of protesters and other Ethiopians. We reiterate our longstanding call for the Government of Ethiopia to respect its citizens’ constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms of expression and association, and to release those detained for peacefully exercising those rights. Arresting and silencing independent and critical voices is self-defeating and will lead to greater polarization, and makes it harder to find a solution acceptable to all Ethiopians.
We strongly encourage everyone to refrain from committing further acts of violence in Ethiopia. Peaceful dialogue is the path to resolution of Ethiopia’s need for reform. Too many innocent lives have already been lost and too much destruction has already taken place.
We welcome President Mulatu’s October 10 address to Parliament committing the government to addressing some of these grievances – such as land rights, electoral reform, and recognition of the special interest of the Oromia region in the city of Addis Ababa. We encourage the government to act on these commitments decisively and quickly, and urge it to undertake further comprehensive reforms with the goal of opening political space and ensuring respect for fundamental freedoms and the democratic rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ethiopia. We also note the Prime Minister’s commitment that the state of emergency will not breach human rights protected by the Ethiopian constitution.
The country’s deadly protests stem from ethnic division, endemic corruption and high youth unemployment. The world must support calls for a new government
‘A further factor fuelling the protests in Ethiopia is youth unemployment and the sense of hopelessness it has engendered.’ Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters
The deadly protests that have rocked Ethiopia over the past several months, resulting in the declaration of a six-month state of emergency, stem from many regional and national grievances, most of which reflect a sense of economic and political marginalisation by wide sections of the country.
The unrest in the south dates back to November 2015, when demonstratorsopposed a government plan to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa into the Oromo regional state. Farmers were particularly upset, worrying that they would lose their farms in the government’s notorious “land grab” policy. Those protests have claimed the lives of hundreds of people and still counting.
In July, another wave of protests began in the Amhara region when the government arrested members of the Welkait Committee, who were demanding the reversal of a 1991 decision by the ruling party to annex three districts of the Amhara region into the Tigray regional state. The inhabitants of these districts identify as ethnic Amhara and want to be reintegrated into the Amhara regional state, of which they have been a part for centuries.
In a word, the TPLF owns the government. Although the federal constitution was designed to empower the major ethnic groups of the country to form their own states as the main framework for their governance, none of the member states (with the sole exception of Tigray) have any real powers to take care of its internal affairs.
As a consequence, the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups – who together constitute close to 70% of the population – are deeply resentful about playing second fiddle. Naturally, this has been a deep source of political disaffection for vast numbers of the members of these communities.
‘Freedom of assembly and association are guaranteed by the constitution but they remain a dead letter in practice.’ Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP
At the same time, the ethnically based federal system has left minorities trapped in their respective regions. They are treated as second-class citizens, lacking access to education, civil service employment, business licenses, bank loans and land leases on a nondiscriminatory basis. Even worse, they are liable to be expelled from regions in which they are considered “outsiders”.
This has particularly been the fate of the Amhara, who have faced mass killing at various times since the current government came to power. Yet the central authorities have shown no willingness to take protective measures or to provide any legal redress for these minorities.
Compounding the problems thrown up by ethnic division is endemic corruption. Ethiopia ranks 103 out of 168 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, a global civil society coalition that encourages accountability. It has also lost about $25bn since 2000 to illicit financial outflows, according to Global Financial Integrity.
Government officials and party loyalists receive preferential access to credit, land leases and jobs. Areas vulnerable to corruption are land administration, tax and revenue, the justice system, telecommunications, land procurement, licensing areas, and the finance sector.
Particularly egregious is the government’s practice of leasing large tracts of landto foreign governments and local investors in opaque deals that have displaced thousands of people. Also disconcerting is the fact that 50% of the modern economy is controlled by conglomerates affiliated with the ruling party.
A further factor fuelling the protests in Ethiopia is youth unemployment and the sense of hopelessness it has engendered. In recent years, the country has been producing thousands of college and university graduates each year but only a limited number are able to obtain productive employment. A sizable number often risk their lives to brave the Sahara desert and Mediterranean Sea in a desperate search for better opportunities. Others remain unemployed for long periods or are engaged in cutting cobblestones for streets.
Freedom of assembly and association are guaranteed by the constitution but they remain a dead letter in practice. The government often resorts to its anti-terrorism law to stifle political dissent and to terrorise its political opponents. The judiciary is officially independent but in practice it rarely deviates from government policy. As of 2014, Ethiopia holds the second highest number of journalists behind bars.
The TPLF-government has to be held to account. The donor communities, particularly the UK, the US and the EU, should stand with the Ethiopian people by ceasing all military, financial and diplomatic support to the tyrannical government, supporting instead the opposition’s call for an all-inclusive transitional process to replace the current government.
FILE – Ethiopian soldiers try to stop protesters in Bishoftu, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
VOA- At a European Parliament subcommittee meeting on human rights and development, Human Rights Watch called on the European Union and international community to take strong action against Ethiopia.
The international community has largely looked the other way when it comes to human rights abuses and limits to the freedom of expression in Ethiopia, according to international human rights groups.
HRW senior researcher Felix Horne says he believes there is an unwillingness to address hard issues with Ethiopia because it has strong relationships with its international allies on development, migration and security.
“The European Union should be taking much stronger action on Ethiopia, should be pushing for an international investigation; it should be pushing for special U.N. investigators to be allowed into the country – 11 of which have outstanding invites,” Horne said. ” And it should be pushing Ethiopia to release all of those arbitrarily detained during the protests.”
Protests for wider political freedoms have been ongoing and led to the Ethiopian government’s recent declaration of a six-month state of emergency for the first time in more than 20 years. Ethiopia is the largest recipient of EU assistance. The European Union adopted a resolution last January condemning violence used by Ethiopian security forces.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, is welcomed by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as she arrives at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Oct. 11, 2016.
Merkel visit criticized
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Ethiopia this week. Although she refused to speak at the Ethiopian parliament for its lack of opposition members, she urged the government to open up the political space.
EU Parliament member Ana Gomes led an observer mission during Ethiopia’s contested and bloody 2005 elections. She describes Merkel’s decision to go to Ethiopia as regrettable.
“It was important the message she passed that indeed there must be dialogue and open space for opposition and activists and critics of the government to exist,” Gomes said. ” That is a weak message nevertheless, because of course Germany has tremendous responsibilities in the position of the EU toward Ethiopia.”
People in Ethiopia’s Oromia region started protesting an urban expansion plan last year.
The demonstrations have spread across the country and led to more than 500 deaths, according to rights groups. Ethiopia said this week foreign groups are stoking unrest in an attempt to overthrow the government.
Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade, with tension among the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups which feel marginalized by a minority-led government (AFP Photo/Zacharias Abubeker)
Washington (AFP) – The United States warned its African ally Ethiopia on Tuesday not to abuse the state of emergency it declared this week to suppress dissent and welcomed talk of political reform.
Ethiopia declared an emergency on Sunday after six months of anti-government protests, but on Tuesday Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn promised that opposition voices would be heard.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby welcomed this offer from the government “to address some of the grievances raised by protesters such as land rights and electoral reform.”
But he urged President Mulatu Teshome’s administration to “clarify” how it intends to implement a state of emergency which authorized “detention without a warrant, limitations on free speech, prohibitions on public gatherings and the imposition of curfews.”
“Even if these measures are intended to restore order, silencing independent voices and interfering with the rights of Ethiopians is a self-defeating tactic that exacerbates rather than address those grievances,” he argued.
Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade, with unrest among the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups which feel marginalized by a minority-led government.
Tensions have been rising since an Oromo religious festival last week ended in tragedy when police fired tear gas on protesters, triggering a stampede that left more than 50 dead.
The declaration of a six-month state of emergency is unprecedented in the 25 years the current Ethiopian government has been in charge.
The United States regards Ethiopia as its key partner in the Horn of Africa, and works with it in its efforts to resolve crises in neighboring South Sudan and Somalia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled support for protesters demanding wider freedoms in Ethiopia during a visit to the country on Tuesday, saying “a vibrant civil society is part and parcel of a developing country.”
After meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Merkel said Germany has offered to train Ethiopia’s police to deal with the sometimes deadly demonstrations that have caused one of Africa’s best-performing economies to declare its first state of emergency in 25 years.
“We are already working in Oromia to de-escalate the situation there by offering mediation between groups,” she said, referring to the region where protests have simmered for nearly a year.
“I would always argue for allowing people of a different political opinion … to engage with them and allow them to express their views because, after all, a democratic experience shows that out of these discussions good solutions usually come,” Merkel said.
The Ethiopian prime minister responded by suggesting his government may increase dialogue. “We have shortcomings in our fledgling democracy, so we want to go further in opening up the political space and engagement with different groups of the society,” he said, noting that the East African country’s huge youth population has created “dissatisfaction and desperation.”
But the prime minister also sounded a note of defiance. “Ethiopia is committed to have a multi-party democracy as per our constitution. And Ethiopia is committed to have human rights observed. … But Ethiopia is also against any violent extremist armed struggling groups,” he said.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency Sunday, faced with widespread anti-government protests. More than 50 people died last week in a stampede after police tried to disperse protesters. The incident set off a week of demonstrations in which both foreign and local businesses with suspected government ties were burned, and one American was killed in a rock attack.
Merkel said the German business community has criticized the business climate in Ethiopia, and she expressed hope that the government will discuss the criticism openly.
At least 500 people have been killed in anti-government protests over the past year, according to Human Rights Watch. The protesters demand more freedoms from a government accused of being increasingly authoritarian.
The United States and others have called on the government to use restraint against protesters, and the U.N. human rights office has asked for access to allow independent observers into the troubled Oromia region.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s president announced during a Parliament session that the country’s election law would be amended to accommodate more political parties and opposing views.
But the country’s internet service continues to be largely blacked out after last week’s unrest.
Merkel’s African tour, with stops earlier this week in Mali and Niger, is also meant to highlight the global migration crisis and security issues. Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest hosts of refugees, with an estimated 780,000 from nearby Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere.
Ethiopia’s prime minister appealed for German support.
Merkel also inaugurated the new African Union Peace and Security Council building in the capital, Addis Ababa, constructed with German funding of 27 million euros. It is expected to be the base for coordination of peacekeeping missions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled support for protesters demanding wider freedoms in Ethiopia during a visit to the country on Tuesday, saying “a vibrant civil society is part and parcel of a developing country.”
After meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Merkel said Germany has offered to train Ethiopia’s police to deal with the sometimes deadly demonstrations that have caused one of Africa’s best-performing economies to declare its first state of emergency in 25 years.
“We are already working in Oromia to de-escalate the situation there by offering mediation between groups,” she said, referring to the region where protests have simmered for nearly a year.
“I would always argue for allowing people of a different political opinion … to engage with them and allow them to express their views because, after all, a democratic experience shows that out of these discussions good solutions usually come,” Merkel said.
The Ethiopian prime minister responded by suggesting his government may increase dialogue. “We have shortcomings in our fledgling democracy, so we want to go further in opening up the political space and engagement with different groups of the society,” he said, noting that the East African country’s huge youth population has created “dissatisfaction and desperation.”
But the prime minister also sounded a note of defiance. “Ethiopia is committed to have a multi-party democracy as per our constitution. And Ethiopia is committed to have human rights observed. … But Ethiopia is also against any violent extremist armed struggling groups,” he said.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency Sunday, faced with widespread anti-government protests. More than 50 people died last week in a stampede after police tried to disperse protesters. The incident set off a week of demonstrations in which both foreign and local businesses with suspected government ties were burned, and one American was killed in a rock attack.
Merkel said the German business community has criticized the business climate in Ethiopia, and she expressed hope that the government will discuss the criticism openly.
At least 500 people have been killed in anti-government protests over the past year, according to Human Rights Watch. The protesters demand more freedoms from a government accused of being increasingly authoritarian.
The United States and others have called on the government to use restraint against protesters, and the U.N. human rights office has asked for access to allow independent observers into the troubled Oromia region.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s president announced during a Parliament session that the country’s election law would be amended to accommodate more political parties and opposing views.
But the country’s internet service continues to be largely blacked out after last week’s unrest.
Merkel’s African tour, with stops earlier this week in Mali and Niger, is also meant to highlight the global migration crisis and security issues. Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest hosts of refugees, with an estimated 780,000 from nearby Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere.
Ethiopia’s prime minister appealed for German support.
Merkel also inaugurated the new African Union Peace and Security Council building in the capital, Addis Ababa, constructed with German funding of 27 million euros. It is expected to be the base for coordination of peacekeeping missions.
BBC-Ethiopian troops fighting militant Islamist group al-Shabab have withdrawn from a key military base in central Somalia’s Hiran region, residents say.y.
Al-Shabab fighters have taken control of el-Ali village following the withdrawal, the residents added.
Ethiopian forces had destroyed the base before abandoning the area, a radio station run by al-Shabab said.
The troops withdrew after the base came under artillery fire, a Somali security official said.
Ethiopian has not commented on the withdrawal.
In recent weeks it had also withdrawn its forces from the nearby town of Moqokori, AFP news agency reports.
In June, al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, said it had killed 60 Ethiopian soldiers in an attack on a base in Halgan town, also in central Somalia.
The withdrawal from el-Ali has made a large and strategic area vulnerable to occupation by the militants, reports the BBC’s Ibrahim Aden from the capital, Mogadishu.
Image captionAl-Shabab militants say they attacked an African Union base in central Somalia
Some Ethiopian soldiers are in Somalia as part of a 22,000-strong African Union (AU) force while others are there as a result of a bilateral deal with the weak Somali government.
The Ethiopian soldiers in the AU mission are responsible for securing Bay, Bakool, and Gedo regions but are also present in Hiran, which borders Ethiopia.
Somali security official Abdirisak Moalim Ahmed confirmed to AFP news agency that al-Shabab had occupied el-Ali, and the Ethiopian troops had headed for the regional capital, Beledweyne, about 70km (43 miles) away.
Most traders had fled the village following its seizure by al-Shabab, resident Osman Adan told AFP.
Ethiopia has a long and porous border with Somalia, and has been anxious to stop the infiltration of Islamist militancy into its territory.
Earlier this week, a state of emergency was declared in Ethiopia itself to quell the worst unrest in the country since the government took power in 1991.
Opposition groups in Ethiopia are demanding more political and economic rights, accusing the government of being repressive.
The government has blamed the unrest on “terrorists”, accusing them of trying to break up the East African state of more than 86 million people.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently visiting Ethiopia, where she called on the government to allow protests, Reuters news agency reports.
GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. human rights experts urged Ethiopia on Monday to allow an international investigation into its violent crackdown on
peaceful protests that monitors say have led to more than 500 deaths since November 2015.
“The scale of this violence and the shocking number of deaths make it clear that this is a calculated campaign to eliminate opposition movements and silence dissenting voices,” Maina Kiai, the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association, said in a statement by seven U.N. experts.
“The deaths in the Oromiya region last weekend are only the latest in a long string of incidents where the authorities’ use of excessive force has led to mass deaths,” he said, referring to a stampede that killed 55 people.
The Horn of Africa state has accused “elements” in Eritrea, Egypt and elsewhere of being behind a wave of disturbances over land grabs and rights issues that spurred the government to declare a state of emergency. It says the death toll figure given by rights experts is exaggerated.
The emergency was invoked on Sunday after more than a year of protests in the Oromiya and Amhara regions, near the capital Addis Ababa, where demonstrators say the government has trampled on land and other political rights.
The U.N. statement cited allegations of “mass killings, thousands of injuries, tens of thousands of arrests and hundreds of enforced disappearances”. It also criticized the use of national security and counter-terrorism laws to target people exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
Agnes Callamard, the United Nations expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said many of the killings could constitute extrajudicial executions.
“Whenever the principles of necessity and proportionality are not respected in the context of crowd control, any death caused by law enforcement officials is considered an extrajudicial execution,” she said in the statement.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
FILE – Ethiopian soldiers try to stop protesters in Bishoftu, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade, with tension among the majority Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups which feel marginalized by a minority-led government (AFP Photo/Zacharias Abubeker)
The deadly protests that have rocked Ethiopia over the past several months, resulting in the declaration of a six-month state of emergency, stem from many regional and national grievances, most of which reflect a sense of economic and political marginalisation by wide sections of the country.
The unrest in the south dates back to November 2015, when demonstratorsopposed a government plan to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa into the Oromo regional state. Farmers were particularly upset, worrying that they would lose their farms in the government’s notorious “land grab” policy. Those protests have claimed the lives of hundreds of people and still counting.
In July, another wave of protests began in the Amhara region when the government arrested members of the Welkait Committee, who were demanding the reversal of a 1991 decision by the ruling party to annex three districts of the Amhara region into the Tigray regional state. The inhabitants of these districts identify as ethnic Amhara and want to be reintegrated into the Amhara regional state, of which they have been a part for centuries.
In a word, the TPLF owns the government. Although the federal constitution was designed to empower the major ethnic groups of the country to form their own states as the main framework for their governance, none of the member states (with the sole exception of Tigray) have any real powers to take care of its internal affairs.
As a consequence, the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups – who together constitute close to 70% of the population – are deeply resentful about playing second fiddle. Naturally, this has been a deep source of political disaffection for vast numbers of the members of these communities.
At the same time, the ethnically based federal system has left minorities trapped in their respective regions. They are treated as second-class citizens, lacking access to education, civil service employment, business licenses, bank loans and land leases on a nondiscriminatory basis. Even worse, they are liable to be expelled from regions in which they are considered “outsiders”.
This has particularly been the fate of the Amhara, who have faced mass killing at various times since the current government came to power. Yet the central authorities have shown no willingness to take protective measures or to provide any legal redress for these minorities.
Compounding the problems thrown up by ethnic division is endemic corruption. Ethiopia ranks 103 out of 168 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, a global civil society coalition that encourages accountability. It has also lost about $25bn since 2000 to illicit financial outflows, according to Global Financial Integrity.
Government officials and party loyalists receive preferential access to credit, land leases and jobs. Areas vulnerable to corruption are land administration, tax and revenue, the justice system, telecommunications, land procurement, licensing areas, and the finance sector.
Particularly egregious is the government’s practice of leasing large tracts of landto foreign governments and local investors in opaque deals that have displaced thousands of people. Also disconcerting is the fact that 50% of the modern economy is controlled by conglomerates affiliated with the ruling party.
A further factor fuelling the protests in Ethiopia is youth unemployment and the sense of hopelessness it has engendered. In recent years, the country has been producing thousands of college and university graduates each year but only a limited number are able to obtain productive employment. A sizable number often risk their lives to brave the Sahara desert and Mediterranean Sea in a desperate search for better opportunities. Others remain unemployed for long periods or are engaged in cutting cobblestones for streets.
Freedom of assembly and association are guaranteed by the constitution but they remain a dead letter in practice. The government often resorts to its anti-terrorism law to stifle political dissent and to terrorise its political opponents. The judiciary is officially independent but in practice it rarely deviates from government policy. As of 2014, Ethiopia holds the second highest number of journalists behind bars.
The TPLF-government has to be held to account. The donor communities, particularly the UK, the US and the EU, should stand with the Ethiopian people by ceasing all military, financial and diplomatic support to the tyrannical government, supporting instead the opposition’s call for an all-inclusive transitional process to replace the current government.