Ethiopia's political landscape is marked by a complex interplay of ethnic tensions, internal conflicts, and evolving international relations. The country, which adopted ethnic federalism in 1995, has a history of imperial monarchy and unitary Marxist-Leninist rule under the Derg. In Ethiopia, individuals are generally referred to by their first name rather than their last name.
The current political structure of Ethiopia was formed after the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) overthrew dictator President Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. A general election was held in June 1994 and Ethiopia has maintained a multiparty political environment until today.
The government of Ethiopia is structured in the form of a federal parliamentary republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government while legislative power is vested in the Parliament. The Judiciary is more or less independent of the executive and the legislature. The president of Ethiopia is elected by the House of Peoples' Representatives for a six-year term. The prime minister is chosen by the parliament. The prime minister is designated by the party in power following legislative elections.
In May 1991, a coalition of rebel forces under the name Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) overthrew the dictatorship of President Mengistu Haile Mariam.
The first election for Ethiopia's 547-member constituent assembly was held in June 1994. This assembly adopted the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in December 1994. The elections for Ethiopia's first popularly chosen national parliament and regional legislatures were held in May and June 1995. Most opposition parties chose to boycott these elections. The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was installed in August 1995.
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The EPRDF-led government of Prime Minister Meles promoted a policy of ethnic federalism, seemingly devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically based authorities. The ruling party, EPRDF was declared a winner by the election board in 2000, and then again in 2005 amidst protests and riots that led to the death of many Ethiopians.
In the 2015 general election, Opposition parties lost the only seat which they still held in the House of Peoples' Representatives.
Ethiopia held its third general election in May 2005, which drew a record number of voters, with 90% of the electorate turning out to cast their vote.
The EPRDF won the 2010 elections by a landslide, taking 499 seats, while allied parties took a further 35. Oppositions parties took just two.
Internal Conflicts and Human Rights Abuses
Between 2020 and 2022, Ethiopia fought a war with militants from its northernmost region of Tigray, then under the control of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The conflict was one of the deadliest in recent history and drew international attention for alleged war crimes, human rights abuses, and ethnic cleansing.
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By 2020, ethnic relations within Ethiopia began to deteriorate once again. Repeated delays of long-promised national elections and the June 2020 extension of Abiy’s first term provoked indignation from the TPLF.
On November 4, 2020, Abiy accused Tigrayan troops of attacking a federal military camp in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, and ordered Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) troops to move north.
Ethiopia’s neighbor and former adversary, Eritrea, intervened militarily on the side of the Ethiopian government. In 2021, the United States characterized the war as an ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans, and some NGOs raised concerns about the potential of genocide.
In 2021, the government declared a state of emergency in Amhara after a series of attacks against ethnic Oromos. Similar bouts of ethnic violence occurred in Oromia, where local militants began attacking Amhara-majority enclaves in March 2021, forcing thousands to flee. As the war intensified, the attacks worsened. In June 2022, more than two hundred Amhara were murdered in Oromia.
After a series of failed efforts to negotiate a settlement to the civil war, the TPLF and the Ethiopian central government signed a cessation of hostilities agreement on November 2, 2022, in Pretoria, South Africa.
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The effects of the war have been devastating. In 2021 alone, 5.1 million Ethiopians became internally displaced, a record for the most people internally displaced in any country in any single year at the time. Thousands fled to Sudan and other neighboring countries. Despite the signing of the Pretoria Agreement, instability and violence continued to characterize Ethiopia throughout 2023.
In April, the central government announced that all regional security forces-permitted to operate under the national constitution-would be integrated into the national security services. The decision was largely seen as an attempt to degrade the autonomy of the regions, and it sparked violent protests and militia activity across the country.
Insurgencies in Oromia and Amhara intensified in 2024, further challenging the federal government’s authority. In Amhara, the Fano militia launched offensives against major cities for the first time in nearly a year, including Bahir Dar, the region’s capital. Fighting similarly escalated in Oromia, where the government intensified its efforts against the OLA as violence spread ever closer to Addis Ababa.
Recent events have further destabilized Tigray, raising fears of a return to civil war. In August 2024, the TPLF excluded Getachew Reda, the interim regional administrator for the federally-appointed Tigrayan Interim Administration (TIA), from its fourteenth Congress.
The TPLF has taken effective control of the region’s two largest cities, Mekelle and Ad Gudan, after a series of skirmishes with federal forces that have killed, injured, and displaced thousands of civilians. The violence threatens to escalate into a regional war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
A November 2022 cessation of hostilities agreement between the federal government and Tigrayan authorities, two of the main warring parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, ended active fighting in the Tigray region.
Ethiopia's Civil War Explained...
In August, clashes between the Ethiopian military and militias in the Amhara region escalated, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and displacement. On August 29, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) found that at least 183 people had been killed in fighting since July.
On August 5, Ethiopia’s parliament declared a sweeping state of emergency in the Amhara region that could be extended to any part of the country as deemed necessary.
The government relaunched its counterinsurgency campaign against the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in May after the collapse of peace talks in April. Reports of attacks against the population in Oromia, including Oromo and Amhara communities, continued through August.
Since the August state of emergency declaration, mass arrests of ethnic Amharas have been reported in the Amhara region and in Addis Ababa. In early August, federal police arrested Christian Tadele, an opposition member of parliament and outspoken critic of the ruling party and the government’s actions in the Amhara region; Yohannes Buayelew, a member of the Amhara regional council; and Kassa Teshager, a member of Addis Ababa city council.
Between April 3 and 18, Ethiopian authorities arrested eight journalists who had reported on the deteriorating situation in the Amhara region. In August, authorities arrested three more journalists following the state of emergency declaration.
Following the November 2022 cessation of hostilities agreement, the Ethiopian government committed to implement a national transitional justice policy framework to ensure accountability, truth, reconciliation, and healing. In January 2023, the Ethiopian government released a draft “Policy Options for Transitional Justice” (Green Paper) as a starting point for public consultations.
The government continued its campaign against independent rights scrutiny when, in March, it threatened to introduce a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council prematurely terminating the ICHREE’s mandate.
Human Rights Concerns
There were reports of widespread killings of civilians, mass forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, rape and other forms of violence against women and girls, looting, and destruction of property by Amhara militias and affiliated groups in western Tigray. There were also reports of widespread unlawful killings of civilians and government officials in the Amhara and Oromia regions and elsewhere, including by the Oromo Liberation Army and Amhara Fano militia.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) reported numerous cases of unlawful or extrajudicial killings within the context of continued conflicts in Amhara and Oromia regions and other parts of the country, including Tigray.
In 2022, the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA), ending active hostilities, which continued to hold throughout the year, although reports of abuses by Eritrean troops along the border and by militia groups persisted.
During the year, government counterinsurgency campaigns against the Fano militia in Amhara Region, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Oromia Region, and militias in the Benishangul-Gumuz, Central Ethiopia, and Gambella regions continued, with numerous reports of unlawful killings, including killings of civilians.
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles by government forces resulted in 248 civilian deaths between August 4 and December 31, 2023, and destroyed vital infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and water infrastructure, according to the OHCHR update.
The ICHREE reported in September that Eritrean troops continued to engage in violence after the CoHA was reached. Security worsened in Amhara in 2023 after paramilitary groups that had backed the federal government in the Tigray conflict resisted Addis Ababa’s instructions to disband, instead joining the Fano.
Same-sex activity is prohibited by law and punishable by up to 15 years’ imprisonment. Women face discrimination in education. A gender gap persists in many aspects of economic life, including pay.
LGBT+ people do not have social freedoms and do not publicly identify themselves for fear of violent retaliation.
Restrictions on Freedoms
The federal government repeatedly restricted access to the internet and social media. In early February, authorities restricted access to social media platforms after protests broke out in the Oromia region following tensions in the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
Authorities suppressed the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including by intimidating human rights defenders and others, and blocking internet access in Amhara region. Activists, human rights defenders, journalists and artists were arbitrarily arrested and detained and some people fled the country during the imposition of state of emergency laws that were used to target peaceful dissenters.
The government silences critical voices including those of political opponents, members of Parliament, and Prosperity Party members to control the narratives around internal conflict. Free assembly is restricted by insecurity and associated declarations of states of emergency or martial law.
The constitution guarantees judicial independence, but courts face political interference and lack autonomy in practice. Due process rights are generally not respected. The right to a fair trial is often not respected, particularly for government critics.
The constitution and law provided for freedom of speech, including for members of the press and other media. The government’s respect for this right deteriorated, especially in response to the conflicts in Amhara and Oromia regions.
While independent media were active, reports of harassment, intimidation, and other restrictions of journalists critical of the government - especially its response to internal conflicts - were widespread.
The constitution and law provided workers, except for civil servants and certain categories of workers primarily in the public sector, with the right to form and join unions, conduct legal strikes, and bargain collectively. Other provisions and laws, however, severely restricted these rights.
On July 5, the EHRC released its Annual Ethiopia Human Rights Situation Report (June 2023 - June 2024) highlighting multiple cases of enforced disappearances and the detention of persons in informal detention facilities, especially in conflict-affected areas of the country.
Authorities arrested hundreds of people nationwide under the state of emergency which had granted them excessive powers of arrest. They flouted constitutional provisions, including the requirement to publicize, via the State of Emergency Inquiry Board (an oversight committee), the names of anyone arrested and the reasons for their arrest within one month.
International Relations
In January, the French and German foreign ministers traveled to Ethiopia and pressed for accountability for widespread abuses committed during the two-year armed conflict as a condition for the European Union to normalize its relations with the government.
Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have been locked in a political dispute since 2011 over Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a hydroelectric dam on the Nile River that restricts the northern flow of freshwater.
In 2023, Ethiopia and Eritrea reignited political hostilities, marking a troubling shift in their relationship. Tensions flared between the two countries when Abiy began signaling Ethiopia’s intention to secure a Red Sea port, and, with it, participation in international maritime trade.
In January 2024, Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland (a semi-independent state in Somalia), in which it promised to recognize the latter’s independence in exchange for access to a nineteen-kilometer-long stretch of coastline on the Gulf of Aden.
Ethiopia’s destabilization holds significant security implications for the Horn of Africa, a region that is facing armed conflict in Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Ethiopia has been landlocked since the 1990s when the coastal region of Eritrea broke away to form an independent state following a decades-long war of independence.
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