The Ethiopian federal government has announced that it has begun the dismantling of controversial, sometimes powerful military forces, which certain regional states have acquired in recent years, a move likely to meet with opposition.
"
Members of the
(regional) '
special forces
'
will be reassigned
" within the federal army or the regional police, or "
may return to civilian life
", Selamawit Kassa told a press conference on Friday. , Secretary of State for Communication.
Unofficial "Special Forces"
Late Thursday, the Ethiopian government announced in a statement that it had begun "
the implementation of the integration of special forces from each region
" into various security structures and reported incidents during operations to "
disarm
" the "
Special Forces
” of the Amhara Regional State.
According to the government, these incidents are due to "
misunderstandings
" resulting from the "
spreading of false rumours
" about this disarmament.
The Ethiopian Constitution provides that the 11 federated states, drawn along linguistic and cultural lines in a country with more than 80 peoples, have their own institutions and a regional police force.
But over the past 15 years, some states - including the Somali region, faced with armed groups and incursions by Shebab Islamists from neighboring Somalia - have gradually set up "
special forces
", not provided for in the Constitution but widely tolerated.
Conflict in Tigray
The federal government explains that it wants to "
build a strong and centralized army capable of protecting the sovereignty and unity of the country
", a decision which, according to it, makes consensus among "
the leaders of all the regions
" and having received "
the agreement of the chiefs and members of the special forces
”.
"
The process is underway in all regions
" of Ethiopia, he said.
Asked by message to find out when this decision had been formalized, Selamawit Kassa did not respond to AFP.
The Amhara special forces, supported by the Fano, Amhara " self-defense
" militias
, supported the federal army during the two years of armed conflict against the forces of the Tigray region, which ended last November by an agreement of peace.
This provides in particular for the disarmament of the forces of Tigray, a region led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) which governed Ethiopia for 30 years before being marginalized when the Prime Minister came to power in 2018. Minister Abiy Ahmed.
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This peace agreement has aroused discontent in the Amhara community - the second largest in the country, of which it was for a long time the political and economic elite - which border disputes have opposed for years to the TPLF.
Since the conflict, the Amhara special forces and the Fano have occupied the area of western Tigray, part of Tigray according to the Constitution, but claimed by the Amharas and which the TPLF intends to recover under the terms of the peace agreement.