Today we take a look at the antigovernment protests in Ethiopia, which began over a year ago, led by minority groups protesting political marginalization. These protests intensified this past fall, with reports of hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests in addition to the government calling for a state of emergency on October 9th. For some, the protests were not a surprise considering the long history of systematic repression of those marginalized by the dominant group within the ruling coalition, the Tigraen Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). While ruling over what Yohannes Woldemariam refers to as a “deeply divided and aggrieved populace,” each year, the TPLF continues to become more repressive through “systematically limiting political space.” With a long history of repression and deliberate marginalization, as well as a number of egregious numerous human rights violations reported, the intensification of the mass protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions, two of the largest regions in Ethiopia, was considered inevitable.
While much of the attention on Ethiopia from western media continues to focus on the economic advancements within the country, Al Jazeera reports that “the struggle of the Oromo people has finally come to the attention of the global public conscience.” Awol K Allo while reporting on the first anniversary of the Oromo Protests also highlights the rise of a global discourse on the events in Ethiopia following the Rio Olympics. Significantly, Allo argues that the Oromo people have also been systematically excluded from participating in the formation of mainstream frameworks and narratives. Following the events in Rio, he writes, “If the Oromo protests are a battle of ideas, a contest between those who seek equal opportunity and those who deny these opportunities to all but a few, a conflict between bullets and freedom songs, it was also a battle for the control of the narrative.” Despite Allo’s optimism that the protests have already changed Ethiopia forever, bringing about a change in “attitude and discourse in the Ethiopian society,” recent reports of the ruling regime’s illegal attempts to keep people offline suggest there is still a need for change. Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban, from Amnesty International and the Open Observatory of Network interference (OONI), reported that the Ethiopian Government illegally withheld access to news outlets and social media websites as a means to quell the antigovernment protests.
In November the Ethiopian government granted two key ministries to Oromos. However, there is still much more to be done to address the years of repression and marginalization as well as the massive violations against the protestors in the previous months.
The Ethiopian Intifada is a response to extreme internal repression
by Yohannes Woldemariam, Pambazuka News
Ethiopia: A year after protests started – Timeline of events [1]
by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban, Africa News
Ethiopia: A year after protests started – Timeline of events [2]
by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban, Africa News
The Oromo protests have changed Ethiopia
by Awol K Allo, Al Jazeera
Ethiopian gov’t ‘systematically and illegally’ keeping people offline – Report
by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban with Amnesty, OONI, Africa News