The latest installment on Abdi Mohammed Omer, the former powerful regional president of Ethiopia’s eastern Somali Regional State, SRS, is formal laying of criminal charges against him and over 40 others. The Prime Minister’s first internal visit was to the then restive regional state’s capital Jigjiga where he met with top officials of the region including then president Abdi Iley. His regime had routinely been accused of crass human rights abuse which according to human rights watch included torture, rape and killings. Then came August 2018 when federal forces were deployed to Jijiga to secure the region and to arrest the regional president. The once powerful Iley is not alone in the human rights crackdown Ethiopia has in the past months arrested scores on the back of human rights abuses and others for corruption especially in the military-run conglomerate, Metec.

Source: Ethiopian News January 31, 2019 03:00 UTC