Last Friday, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency, invoking a grave threat to the constitutional order. Just a day before the government declared the emergency, even the government's chief spokesperson, Negeri Lencho, told the Voice Of Africa: "There will be no other state of emergency. The emergency-ethnicity nexusThe state of emergency has always been the working paradigm of the Ethiopian government. An important feature of Ethiopia's state of emergency is the intersection between emergency powers and ethnic identity, in which emergency powers are used by the ruling elites to maintain their social and ethnic privilege. Activists are calling upon the OPDO and ANDM to reject the state of emergency when it is tabled before parliament for ratification.

Source: Ethiopian News February 19, 2018 16:18 UTC