Somali leader of regional State in Ethiopia resigns




The long-serving leader of Ethiopia’s Somali regional state has announced his resignation after the Federal forces have raided and seized control of his seat in Jigjiga city recently.
President Abdi Mohamud Omar stepped down as negotiations with the Federal government of Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa, according to the sources.

His Finance minister, Ahmed Abdi Mohamed, 32, has been appointed as president of the regional administration to replace the outgoing leader. Omar has been under pressure since the Human Rights Watch report on the abuse against the inmates held at jails in his region was published last month.

The 88-page report, “‘We are Like the Dead’: Torture and other Human Rights Abuses in Jail Ogaden, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia,” describes a brutal and relentless pattern of abuse, torture, rape, and humiliation, with little access to medical care, family, lawyers, or even at times to food. The prison’s security

The Somali region has seen sporadic violence for three decades. The government has fought the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) since 1984 after the group launched a bid for the secession of the province, also known as Ogaden.

Since 2017, clashes along its border with Oromiya province have displaced tens of o attacked and banIn July, the region’s officials were accused by the government in Addis Ababa of perpetrating rights abuses. Last month, authorities fired senior prison officials there over allegations of torture.