In the past few days at least five towns located in the Ethiopian Somali regional state were hit by public protests. The protesters in the towns of Afdem, Bike, Erer, Shinile and Hadhagala district, Sitti zone, were denouncing the regional state’s maladministration, in general, and accusing the president of the regional state, Abdi Mohamed Omar, a.k.a Abdi Illey, in particular, of “endemic nepotism and corruption,” according to protesters who spoke to Addis Standard by phone.
This picture sent to Addis Standard by a source close to the matter show the protest in Hadhagala district, Sitti zone.
The two sources who are from Jigjiga, the capital of the Somali regional state, and who do not want to be named for fear of reprisal against their families, (something critics of Abdi Illye say is very common), said although discontent against the regional administration were not new, this week’s protests began “simmering underground” ever since claims of the release of 1, 500 prisoners by the administration were made, which, our sources said, were “fake and simply fabricated for media consumption.” “Most of the prisoners allegedly released by the regional government have been returned to the notorious jail in Ogaden,” a prison off the beaten radar of mainstream media coverage. “The actual number of prisoners released is not more than 25,” said one of the sources. […] CONTINUE READING
