Ethiopia Gets First Oromo and Muslim PM, Backgroung to the Crisis

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Somalilandsun- The 180-member Council of the ruling Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has elected a new Prime Minister to replace resigned Hailemariam Desalegn.
Following a unanimous defeat of his only opponent Abiy Ahmet becomes not only the Prime Minister of Ethiopia but also chairman of the ruling party.
Effectively Abiy also becomes not only the first person from the ethnic Oromo tribe to rule Ethiopia but the country’s first Muslim to do so.
The exit of Desalegn and ascension of youthful Abiy was occasioned by huge protests led by the Oromos and Amharas supposedly in Oppostion to domination by minority Tigrayans.
But what are the many layers of the crisis that almost brought Africa’s giant country to its knees.
According to Mohammed Ademo, a freelance journalist, the answer to Ethiopia’s malaise is greater democratic space and national reconciliation and removal of the state of emergency. It is also necessary to address the root causes of the protests in Ethiopia: the inequity within the governing coalition and the need for legitimacy. Continue reading his analysis titled “The Many Layers of the Ethiopia Crisis”

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