Nine people working in the Ethiopian region of Amhara (North) were arrested by local authorities, their employers Nisir International Broadcasting Corporation and Ashara said on Monday May 23.
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These organizations covering Ethiopian news via YouTube channels claimed that these arrests took place in the context of raids on their studios in Amhara.
Nisir said in a statement that four of his employees, journalists and members of the administrative services, were arrested and their equipment confiscated Thursday and Friday in the town of Bahir Dar by local police and security forces.
Over 4,000 suspects arrested
Two of them are said to be in a prison in the regional capital, and the other two about 185 kilometers from it, the organization said.
“
We call on the government to immediately release our journalists and return our equipment
,” Nisir writes.
The other outlet, Ashara, said five of its members were arrested in a raid on its Amhara premises on Thursday and are in a detention center outside Bahir Dar.
“
We received no alert, or prior information, that this mass arrest of our employees was about to occur
,” Ashara observed in a statement.
Authorities in Amhara, Ethiopia's second most populous region, said more than 4,000 suspects had been arrested in a law enforcement operation.
"
The government will continue this peacekeeping initiative in a strengthened manner
," Desalegn Tassew, director of Amhara's peace and security office, said in a statement.
On Sunday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC, an independent public body) expressed concern over waves of arrests that have affected "
journalists and activists
".
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The EHRC pointed out that many detainees "
were unlawfully detained, were not brought before a court and did not receive family visits
".
“
Particularly in the Amhara region, many detainees have been held in detention centers far from their homes and arbitrarily detained, making it difficult for their families to know their whereabouts.
".
Journalist Solomon Shumye, who hosts a show on YouTube, was also arrested in the federal capital Addis Ababa on Friday and charged with inciting violence, his sister Tigist Shumye said.
Amhara authorities have supported Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the federal army in the conflict between them and rebels in the neighboring Tigray region since November 2020. But divisions have emerged over Abiy Ahmed's handling of the war.