Ethiopia plans stringent security, legal measures to forestall violence countrywide

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADV) – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that stringent security and legal measures were being floated to forestall any future trouble that could displace citizens in the country.

Ahmed made the disclosure during a casual chat on Thursday with reporters in his office in Addis, but did not elaborate on the nature of the security and legal arrangements that he intends to install.

He said it was shameful that over a million of his native and ethnic Oromo tribespeople were forced out their homes due to inter-ethnic violence over political governance at the time of his inauguration to power two years ago.

The majority of the displaced were Oromo populations whom he said have now returned to their homes after long hesitation and suffering in hiding due to the fragile security situation.

“It is shameful that this happened in a time of change, he said, adding, we are taking strong legal measures to ensure the rule of law is respected.”

Last month, authorities in Oromia state, one of the most popular in Ethiopia, said up to 1,000 fighters with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel group have given up arms and entered rehabilitation camps.

The OLF fell out with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1992 and soon began launching armed attacks.

Last year, reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed removed the OLF from a list of terror organisations, and after peace talks in Eritrea’s capital Asmara, the group’s exiled leadership made a triumphant return home.