The Police in Ethiopia is making mass arrests of people in Addis Ababa following a deadly unrest in the Amhara region last week that left many civilians dead or injured and properties damaged, lawyers and witnesses have said.
The Ethiopian Government had recently declared a state of emergency in Amhara after formerly aligned militia, Fano, took control of several towns, which were once forcefully taken by the military.
The local militia group had joined forces with the Ethiopia military forces during the two-year conflict in the unstable Tigray region, but have repelled being disbanded after peace was established in the region in November.
The government is set to receive formal approval from Ethiopia’s parliament on Monday to use extraordinary measures to ease the unrest.
The approval will allow authorities to arrest suspects without a warrant, and also conduct searches and impose curfews. The previous state of emergency imposed left tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans rounded up across the country during the Tigray conflict.
The state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Monday said the state of emergency recently declared has recorded “widespread arrest of civilians who are of ethnic Amhara origin,” and has called on the federal authorities to cease the detentions and mass arrests.
Two lawyers who spoke on the condition of anonymity have said the measures seem to be in effect in the capital with suspects detained at police stations, schools, and substitute detention centers after arrests were made across the streets.
Some rights activists have also alleged that the Amharas have been the targets of the mass arrests.
The lawyers, who visited last week, said citizens were held in their “hundreds” at schools and police stations; adding that 3,000 people have been arrested in Addis Ababa, citing police sources.
A man had narrated that his brother was arrested in the capital a day before the state of emergency was declared and is currently detained at a school alongside several hundred others, of which most were young boys.
However, the Ethiopian government said only 23 people have been arrested under the state of emergency in Addis Ababa, and they include Christian Tadele, an opposition lawmaker who according to the constitution should have immunity from arrest as a member of parliament.
The federal government’s communication service said a statement Friday that “no suspect has been arrested apart from these 23 individuals and the information circulating that there are mass arrests is wrong.”
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission had on Saturday urged that the state of emergency be limited to one month and “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 said it had confirmed “heavy fighting in and around cities and towns across the Amhara region, which involved the use of heavy artillery resulting in the deaths and injuries of civilians, as well as damage to property,” with prisons and police stations in the region were broken into.
It added that Amhara regional officials were the target, with some killed, “resulting in the temporary collapse of local state structure in many areas.”
