Strategic Thinking on East Africa

“We encourage the Ethiopian people as well to maintain patience, maintain support for your government through this change or this transition but also through this journey of pursuing democracy which takes time and effort. Democracy is not easy, it takes a lot of work.” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson This week U.S. Secretary of […]

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From BBC Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionDemonstrators celebrate the release of political prisoners in Adama, Oromia A national state of emergency has been declared in Ethiopia just one day after the unexpected resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. A statement by the state broadcaster said the move was necessary to stem a wave of anti-government protests. Hundreds […]

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  by the Strathink Editorial Team The discourse on Ethiopian politics is a bleak landscape of twisted and oblique narratives packaged in a one-size-fits-all generic model of “the African state” rather than “the state in Africa.” Current writing about recent events in Ethiopia theorizes the state as authoritarian, repressive and corrupt. The cause of the […]

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To our readers: This week we feature commentary on Rene Lefort’s recent article, “Ethiopia’s crisis,” published in openDemocracy. Today we post an article by one of our readers, Elias Dawit. We encourage more submissions for posting in the hope that we can facilitate a reasoned conversation about Ethiopian politics, devoid of the polemics and narrow […]

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Editors Note: From one of our readers. by Kassahun Alemayehu The spike of unrest in parts of the country that preceded the Ethiopian government’s declaration of a state of emergency led many observers to ask, “Is Ethiopia’s success story of economic growth and political stability at last fizzling out?” For fourteen years, Ethiopia has registered […]

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This came in from one of our readers. by Abebaye Tegen The Ethiopian ruling party, for the first time in its quarter of a century in power, declared a state of Emergency following over a year of protest that claimed thousands of lives and a huge damage of property. Every day people are dying or jailed in […]

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by The Strathink Editorial Team It is understandable that Freedom House, in their own words “an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world,” expresses its concern about the current situation in Ethiopia. What is not understandable, but rather irresponsible, is the narrative they present that attempts to explain […]

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  By the Strathink Editorial Team The Ethiopian Government has declared a “state of emergency” following a series of protests that have rocked the country to its core. Disenchantment with the government, high rates of unemployment, rising costs of living and the absence of a platform for expressing any opposition to the government (e.g. legislature) […]

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Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 @ 7:59 am by Daniel Berhane A Directive issued on Saturday detailed the restrictions imposed as per the State of Emergency. It is to be recalled a State of Emergency was decreed a week earlier by the Council of Ministers, as the Parliament was in recess. The Decree, which […]

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Government Has Declared a State of Emergency   Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn   The federal government has declared a state of emergency as of Saturday, October 8, 2016. The cabinet of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has an emergency meeting on Saturday afternoon where the government declared the state of emergency at a time of deteriorating security […]

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