News: Amhara state gov calls on regional special forces to “return” to respective camps, remain calm
Addis Abeba– The Amhara regional state government has called on members of the regional special forces “to return to their respective camps or assigned workplaces and remain calm” while the ongoing “reorganization” works of regional special forces continues to take place.
The Amhara region government also assured that it “will not implement any decision that violates the rights and interests of the people of the region” and urged the people of the region to “stay away” from the campaign of “false allegations” which is “practically disturbing our people and and our special forces members.”
The region said this in a statement it issued late this evening regarding the reorganization of the controversial regional Special Forces. The region said that the same reorganisation of the Special Forces “is an important task” that all regional states believed in” and is being carried out.
This comes in the backdrop of the announcement on Thursday by the federal government that it has started taking “practical activities” to dissolve the controversial regional state special forces following a decision that put “direction to build a strong centralized army that can protect the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
But days of intense criticisms – especially by Amhara activists and political elite- accusing the government of hatching a plan to disarm Amhara special forces in order to hand over the occupied western Tigray and parts of southern Tigray, which are under the control of Amhara forces, back to Tigray, have made the move by the federal government to implement its decisions in the Amhara region precarious. Several media reported on Thursday news of confrontation between federal and the regional special forces in the Amhara region and tthat vehicles were blocked for tow hours on the main road connecting the region’s capital city Bahir Dar to Gonder; in Amhara region on Thursday. Eyewitnesses also reported hearing gunshots in the town of Gobye in North Wollo Zone.
Neither federal nor regional authorities issued a statement on the reported incident but the federal government admitted that “certain special forces units in the Amhara region” have been “deliberately disrupting the process” and blamed the events on “false propaganda” that are “circulating alleging that the reorganization program is being carried out only in the Amhara region.”
In the statement tonight, the Amhara state government said that it wanted “all the members of the special forces and the entire people of the region to understand” that the government, which is responsible for this reorganization, is not working to dissolve the special forces but is in the process of reorganizing in a bid to qualify “the manpower of our special forces for a more useful mission.” AS
