In May 2019 Prensa Latina reported that Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers had approved an anti-terrorism bill after what the wire called extensive discussion.
Abiy Ahmed’s government had earlier released prisoners held under the old anti-terror statute and promised a narrower law. Rights groups still warned that vague terrorism definitions could again silence journalists, opposition figures, and protesters if parliament rubber-stamped broad powers.
Anti-terror drafts matter because they decide who can be held without ordinary due process and how speech or association is criminalized. The cabinet vote was only one step, but it dated the regime’s attempt to rewrite the tool that previous governments had used heavily.
Kept as rights and governance archive, the 2019 cabinet approval belongs beside later hate-speech and security bills that tested whether reform language matched practice.
Sources: Prensa Latina