The administration of Kombolcha and Woldiya cities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region announced on Tuesday evening they are imposing curfews bringing the number of cities in the region under curfew to at least five.
Gonder, Debrebirhan and Dessie cities in Amhara region have been put under curfew since Yesterday.
All five cities have banned the operations of bars and nightclubs as well as auto-rickshaws in the evening time until dawn morning.
The movement restrictions in the five cities also includes strike prohibitions, as well as the vaguely worded prohibition from “disrupting regular work”.
While Gonder, DebreBirhan, Kombolcha and Dessie cities have nearly identical set of curfews and movement restrictions, in an especially alarmingly development, the Woldiya city peace and security council added its own set of prohibitions.
These include the prohibition of movement of people with the exception of authorized security forces between 9pm to 6m in the morning, legal obligations on residents to cooperate with security forces and punishment for those who help deserting security forces as well as give shelter to deserting security forces.
Meanwhile, on the ground the protests in Amhara region seem to not be waning, despite extensive communication blackout and a bloody crackdown by security forces.
On Tuesday, reports of civilians’ deaths at the hand of security forces were reported by multiple media outlets in Merawi, Kombolcha and Debrebirhan cities.
Unrest which started last week sparked by Ethiopian federal government attempt to disarm Amhara region special forces has expanded in scope in the last few days.
Protestors regard the Amhara region special forces as guarantors of their lives and security. The protestors don’t trust federal government assurances that the “disarmament” will happen “transparently and fairly”.
The protests have also tapped into widespread underlying anger about persistent reports of ethnically targeted killings and displacements of ethnic Amharas in other parts of Ethiopia.
