Ethiopia: Louder Than Words

ETHIOPIA

Louder Than Words

Ethiopia’s attorney general announced the dismissal of five top prison officials for alleged human rights violations, making good on new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s strong condemnation of what he called government terrorism.

The announcement came just hours before the release of a damning Human Rights Watch report describing systematic torture in Jail Ogaden, a prison in Jijiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali region, the Washington Post reported. None of the officials dismissed were linked to that institution, however.

Earlier, Abiy had denounced the use of torture before the country’s parliament, saying, “Does the constitution demand people be flogged, be injured, be kept in dark rooms? It doesn’t. That is the terrorist act of us, the government.”

Abiy’s government has closed the infamous Maekelawi detention center in Addis Ababa, the Guardian noted. But brutality remains particularly severe in eastern Ethiopia under Somali regional president Abdi Mohamed Omar.

“Torture in detention is a serious problem throughout Ethiopia, but Jail Ogaden is in a class of its own,” said Felix Horne, the HRW report’s author.