Businesses reopen in Ethiopian region after deadly protests

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Businesses reopened and traffic was back in urban centres of Ethiopia’s Amhara region on Wednesday after six days of violent protests over a planned shake-up of local forces, residents said.

At least five people have died in the demonstrations which are a fresh security challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government following a two-year war in neighbouring Tigray region which ended with a truce last November.

The state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said that unless the security situation in Amhara was not resolved immediately, there was risk of increased incidences of rights violations.

“Clashes in some areas have resulted in the death and injury of civilians, including humanitarian aid workers, as a result of actions taken by security forces and attacks by unidentified individuals,” the commission said in a statement.

Protesters say the intended reassignment of Amhara’s special forces into the federal or regional police and national army would leave the region vulnerable to attacks from other regions in the ethnically-splintered nation.

Abiy has said the move is for the sake of national unity.

Amhara’s forces had fought with Abiy’s troops against the Tigrayans during the devastating conflict that killed thousands, uprooted millions, smashed infrastructure and worsened hunger.

Residents in Gondar, regional capital Bahir Dar and Debre Birhan, which bore the brunt of the protests, said shops, banks and government offices were back open, with traffic flowing.

“The city is now almost returned to normalcy,” said one inhabitant of Debre Birhan who did not wish to be named.

Bekele Gebre, head of the health department in Debre Birhan, said authorities were still checking on casualties from protests there on Tuesday.

A resident of Gondar, where a large protest took place on Sunday, also said the city was relatively peaceful.

It was unclear why the demonstrations had eased.

Authorities had imposed a night curfew in some cities but were not implementing it fully, said the Gondar resident.

Despite their alliance during the war, Amhara’s leaders and activists have in recent months accused Abiy’s government of turning a blind eye to atrocities committed against ethnic Amharas living in neighbouring Oromiya region and of planning to hand back territory captured from Tigray forces.

The government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on these charges.

(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Duncan Miriri, Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis)