Journalists, general, militiamen arrested in Ethiopia's Amhara

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends his last campaign event ahead of Ethiopia's parliamentary and regional elections scheduled for June 21, in Jimma, Ethiopia, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

 

 

Following the detention of some ethnic Amhara political activists and journalists, a renowned Ethiopian general critical of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's regime appeared in court on Friday, according to his wife.

 

Brigadier General Tefera Mamo commanded the military of the Amhara region until February, when he was abruptly replaced. When war occurred in northern Tigray in 2020, Amhara forces backed Abiy's federal troops against dissident forces.

 

Tefera delivered a television interview last Sunday in which he criticized Abiy's policy against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and accused Amhara members of Abiy's ruling party of being motivated by money.

 

Tefera's wife, Menen Haile, confirmed that he had been remanded in detention for ten days.

 

"Police said they accused him of attempting to destabilize the constitutional order by force," she told Reuters.

 

Menen said Tefera was apprehended in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday.

 

The regional administration's president and spokesman, as well as the police, did not respond to demands for comment.

 

Critics claim that Abiy, who earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his reformist leadership in 2018, is cracking down on dissent in Ethiopia. He claims to be ensuring the multi-ethnic country's stability and law and order.

 

Daniel Bekele has been appointed as Commissioner of the Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on 02 July 2019.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission's head, Daniel Bekele, said his team was monitoring Tefera's imprisonment.

 

He told Reuters, "We are genuinely concerned about the spate of arrests."

 

The federal administration said it was "taking a wide variety of steps in the Amhara region against gangs engaged in the illegal arms trade, stealing and damaging individual property, killings, and inciting public strife."

 

Tefera's case comes amid rumors of arrests and a clash in one town in Amhara, Ethiopia's second most populated province, where the regional president and chief of army staff were assassinated in a 2019 rebellion led by a dissident general.

 

According to Fano member Tafere Damete, allied federal and provincial forces battled with members of a volunteer militia known as Fano in Motta on Thursday. He didn't say anything else.

 

In the Tigray war, Fano had been assisting federal and Amhara soldiers, and Tefera had emphasized in a TV interview that the movement should not be ignored.

 

Eshetu Getinet, a student leader, told Reuters that two Fano members had been arrested in the regional capital in recent days, and that more were being sought.

 

Nine members of the National Movement of Amhara (NAMA), an opposition party, were also arrested in two towns on May 18, said the Amhara Association of America.

 

"We urge the government to immediately stop abduction of NAMA members and leaders, Fano leaders, youths, those who are legally armed, military officers who served their country tirelessly," said a statement signed by five NAMA parliamentarians.

 

Five journalists from local media outlet Ashara, which has focused recent reporting on Fano, were also detained on Thursday, their colleague told Reuters.

 

"Those who took them were wearing a uniform of Amhara special forces, Amhara police and anti-riot forces. I was hiding in a toilet when they took them," he said, adding that they shut down Ashara's offices in Bahir Dar.

 

According to Reuters news agency, Amhara officials, military and police had no comment.