Ethiopia’s Amhara state hit by protests over govt’s plan to disarm regional forces

Scores of people have been killed in huge protests that have taken place in Ethiopia’s Amhara region for the past few days against the federal government’s plan to disarm regional paramilitary force.

The plan by the Ethiopian government to disarm Amhara State’s volunteer civilian militia has sparked protests and deadly clashes in the northern part of the region, with demonstrators blocking roads with rocks and burning tires to prevent the military from traveling around. This comes after some residents expressed fears that the government’s decision might force them to give up territory that Amhara now controls or leave them exposed to attacks by neighboring regions.

Ethiopia’s 11 regional states have their own special forces to protect their borders, and to fight rebels but the federal government announced last week that it wants the special forces to be integrated into the federal army or police force in order to promote national unity.

The confrontations come at a delicate time for Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has been struggling to contain growing ethnically based political movements that could threaten the integrity of Africa’s second-most-populous nation.

In November last year, his government finally inked a peace deal with rebellious forces from the northern region of Tigray after a two-year civil war there claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Abiy is also struggling to contain a spreading insurgency in the southern region of Oromiya, where Amhara civilians have frequently been the target of mass killings. The regional forces have grown powerful enough to sometimes present a threat to central authority. But Abiy warned last Sunday (9 April) that the federal government would not tolerate opposition to the decree.