Regional special forces: liabilities or assets for Ethiopia’s peace and security?
Heavily armed security forces in the regional states could undermine the work of police and military.
Ethiopia’s government consists of 10 regional states and two city administrations. The ethnically established states have the power to make and enforce their own laws, using regional police forces. The federal government controls the Ethiopian Federal Police and the military.
Regional states have, over the past few years, developed special heavily armed security forces for interventions in inter-regional state conflicts. This seminar considers whether these special forces are legal in terms of the constitution, and the extent to which they are destabilising or promoting peace and security.
This seminar is jointly organised by the ISS and Institute for Strategic Affairs (ISA) and will be conducted under Chatham House Rule.
Chair: Dr Frehiwot Sintayehu, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Addis Ababa University
Speakers:
Yohannes Buayalew, Director, Institute for Strategic Affairs
Mesganaw Mulegeta Assefa, Legal, Human Rights and Governance Expert
Dr Asnake Kefale, Associate Professor, Political Science and International Relations, Addis Ababa University
