Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency, a day after the country's prime minister abruptly resigned. The measure was announced on Friday by the Council of Ministers, the Ethiopian government's cabinet, according to state broadcaster EBC. In August 2017, Ethiopia lifted a 10-month state of emergency imposed after hundreds of people were killed in anti-government protests demanding wider political freedoms. Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo rights activist and head of the Oromia Media Network, said the state of emergency declaration was "unnecessary, unhelpful and unwise". Felix Horne, a Human Rights Watch researcher on Ethiopia, said during the last state of emergency - the first in 25 years - more than 20,000 people were arrested.

Source: Ethiopian News February 16, 2018 17:17 UTC