Amhara state council appoints Arega Kebede as regional president

 

Arega-Kebede-was-sworn-in-as-new-president-of-the-Amhara-regional-state-on-Friday-August-25-20223

At the ongoing 6th round, 2nd year term, first emergency meeting being held in the capital city Bahir Dar, the Council of Amhara regional state accepted the resignation of Dr. Yilkal Kefale and appointed Arega Kebede, the former director of the Amhara region vital events registration agency, as the incoming president.

 

Director General of the Amhara State Vital Events Registration Agency was Arega Kebede. Arega was selected to lead the Amhara regional state militia bureau in the wake of a high-level assassination in June 2019 that also claimed the life of the region's then-president, Dr. Ambachew Mekonnen. Arega held this position for nearly a year.

 

The emergency meeting of Council convened this morning to discuss about the crisis in the regional state where six months state of emergency was declared earlier this month by the national parliament.

 

In his resignation speech, Dr. Yilikal said that that the political struggle of the Amhara people is complex and that the lack of common goal, common vision, adequate struggle strategy and lack of alignment with others have made the work of leading the region challenging, according to regional media.

 

He added that while the issues of the Amhara people that have been singled out are being resolved under the broad Ethiopian frameworks, polemic ideas have narrowed the platform to stand together.

 

The Amhara regional state is put under a state of emergency in the wake of rising security crisis that hit the region since April this year.

 

The Amhara region's civilian governance is suspended under the SoE, and many people's rights are restricted. The Command Post is empowered to enact a number of restrictions and measures for the anticipated six-month duration of the SoE.

 

The federal government's decision to reorganize regional Special Forces into ordinary police and the national army was the immediate cause of the current crisis in the Amhara regional state. The federal administration declared on April 6 that it has begun "practical activities" to disband contentious regional state special forces and "reorganize" them into the normal regional and federal police, as well as the national army. While the process has largely went unimpeded in other regional states, the decision has quickly led to mass protests and widespread instability in Amhara regional state and the subsequent assassination on 27 April of the Head of the ruling Prosperity Party in the region, Girma Yeshitila.

 

The state of emergency was declared after a letter was issued on 03 August by the outgoing president Dr Yilikal requesting the federal government to intervene in the region and “implement the necessary legal framework” in order to control the deteriorating security crisis in the region.