June 8, 2025
Borkena
Toronto – A four part “interview” of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with State Media was released on the state-owned media this week on all of the government media outlets.
In substance, his appearance was rather like a long speech following a lead from the state-owned journalist. And it appears that this transmission of the recorded content was planned in a way to dominate discussion for a week.
One of the topics he talked about was, it was expected, on the conflict situation in the country.
He claimed that it emanates from “some groups’ unwarranted thirst for power.” He also partly sees it as something that arises from failure to accept a “peaceful democratic competition” in the democratic process and a political culture in the country which he described as a “culture of self-destruction.”
In all that he paints his government and the ruling party he (it is presumed that he was the central figure) formed as free from all the three problems.
On the other hand, main opposition parties in the country have been accusing the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government of cracking down on the democratic space in the country. One of the key issues that led to a situation where the now defunct Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Party reached to a point it can no longer rule the country was a nation wide protest due to political repression and the negligible or non-existent political space for dissenting voices in the country.
Following what the then party called “Tilk Tehadso” – could translate to ‘deep rejuvenation” – one key decision made was ( in March 2028) to broaden the democratic space in the country. Consequently, political prisoners and journalists were released from prison.
However, the pattern started to change after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s party started to suffer dwindling public trust, subsequently leading to a legitimacy crisis. It was in that context that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government started to trash the pledge to broaden the democratic space in the country to a dust bin and revert to harassing politicians with strong dissenting voices. The cycle persisted over the past two years. Last week, his government arrested Taye Dendea, who used to be a member of the ruling prosperity Party, as he became increasingly critical of Abiy Ahmed’s government including on failure to end the war in different parts of Ethiopia.
On Saturday, 15 opposition party figures outside of the country organized an online protest months after Abiy Ahmed’s administration denied some opposition party leaders in the country the right to protest peacefully. In November 2024, dozens of opposition parties legally operating in the country were arrested after they made a move to organize an anti-war rally in Addis Ababa. One of the key organizers of the online protest on Saturday was Lidetu Ayalew, former leader of Ethiopian Democratic Party, whom the Abiy Ahmed government denied entry to Ethiopia despite his Ethiopian citizenship rights.
The emergence of armed struggle in the Amhara region of Ethiopia is also linked to Abiy Ahmed’s government attack on the rights of Amhara. Those who took up arms in the region justify their armed struggle as one whose mission is to reverse existential threat against ethnic Amhara.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s accusation of political forces in the country for not wanting to “struggle peacefully” does seem to defy the records in the country including from the Human Rights Commission. The problem is Abiy criticized even the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission – which is primarily funded by the government – over alleged bias and wrong data.