Following fatal violence in the nation’s Amhara region, authorities in Ethiopia are making major arrests of hundreds or maybe thousands of people in the capital, according to attorneys and witnesses.
This month, the local Fano militia took over several important towns, prompting Ethiopia’s Cabinet to declare an emergency there. The military has now used force to recover the cities. The Fano have resisted being disbanded since a peace agreement was reached in November. The Fano fought with Ethiopian armed forces during a two-year struggle in the neighbouring Tigray province.
The formal ratification of extraordinary measures, which permit authorities to detain individuals without a warrant, perform searches, and impose curfews, will be decided by Ethiopia’s parliament on Monday. Tens of thousands of people of ethnic Tigrayan descent were apprehended nationwide under the last state of emergency that was imposed during the Tigray conflict.
According to the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, this time “there has been widespread arrest of civilians who are of ethnic Amhara origin,” calling on the federal authorities to stop the detentions.
According to activists, ethnic Amharas are the target of the widespread arrests.
In the capital, Addis Abeba, where suspects are being kept at police stations, schools, and other improvised detention facilities after being swept off the streets, two lawyers claimed the emergency measures also appear to be in place. For fear of retaliation, the attorneys spoke on the condition of anonymity.
One attorney claimed that last week, he visited seven schools and “hundreds” of people were being held in police stations. According to the other attorney, 3,000 persons had been detained in Addis Abeba, according to police sources.
A third attorney reported meeting numerous young people who had been detained and charged with having connections to the Fano militia last week at Addis Abeba’s police stations and courts.
One man, of Amhara descent, claimed that plainclothes police officers hauled him up off the street last week after overhearing him discussing the recent turmoil on the phone. He claimed that before being taken to a police station, he was held at a school among hundreds of other people. On Thursday, he was let go without being charged.
Another individual claimed that his brother was jailed at a school with several hundred other people after being arrested in Addis Abeba the day before the state of emergency was imposed. The man, who has visited his brother there twice, claimed that most of the prisoners are young boys.
According to the federal administration, just 23 persons have been detained in Addis Abeba as a result of the emergency declaration. Christian Tadele is among them an outspoken opposition lawmaker who should have immunity from arrest under Ethiopia’s Constitution as a member of parliament.
“(N)o suspect has been arrested apart from these 23 individuals and the information circulating that there are mass arrests is wrong,” the federal government’s communication service said a statement Friday.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission demanded on Saturday that the state of emergency be kept to one month and be applied just “to the specific place where the special danger is said to have occurred, rather than applying it throughout the entire country.”
On Monday, the commission announced that it had documented “heavy fighting in and around towns and cities throughout the Amhara region, which involved the use of heavy artillery and resulted in civilian casualties and property damage.”
According to the report, intruders broke into jails and police stations in the area, and Amhara regional authorities were the targets of attacks. Some of the attackers killed the officials, “resulting in the temporary collapse of local state structure in many areas.”
