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1 1 (August 03, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdbdv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 01;0i E.$~ & p\w -- , gnom goo mppm qq\ , q I as 11LIANJILiN, Updated August 3, 2020 Ethiopia Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent state and its second most populous country. It hosts the headquarters of the African Union (AU) and is the world's largest troop contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations, with forces deployed in U.N. missions in neighboring Sudan and South Sudan, and in Somalia as part of a multinational effort to counter the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab. The United States has viewed Ethiopia as an important security partner in a volatile region. The bilateral relationship, which dates back over 100 years, has been strained at times by tensions over human rights and governance concerns. Anti-government protests, fueled by a violent crackdown on dissent, shook Ethiopia in 2016-2017. Pressure on the government led to a leadership change in 2018 that stirred optimism over the prospects for reforms. The transition underway is fragile, though, and increasingly under strain. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018, he pledged to open Ethiopia politically and economically. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for pursuing peace with neighboring Eritrea, initiating reforms at home, and seeking to mediate other regional disputes. Amidst his reforms, however, ethnic conflict has flared. Violent unrest in early July 2020, triggered by the murder of a popular Oromo singer and activist, underscored deep-seated ethnic tensions that threaten Ethiopia's stability. The government blocked the internet for weeks and arrested nearly 5,000 people, including journalists, activists, and several opposition leaders, raising concerns of democratic backsliding. The government has postponed the 2020 elections due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), adding to tensions and prompting calls for a national dialogue. In the past century, Ethiopia's politics were dominated by three leaders: Emperor Haile Selassie (1930 to 1974), military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam (1977-1991), and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles seized power from Mengistu's socialist Derg regime in 1991 and ruled until his death in 2012. As leader of both the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition and one of its ethno-regional components, the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF), Meles was a powerful figure in Ethiopian and regional politics, and his policies contributed to rapid economic growth. Critics accused him of stifling dissent and ensuring that his minority Tigray ethnic group dominated the government and senior security posts. Political space in Ethiopia closed after contested elections in 2005, following a brief democratic opening in the early 2000s. Thousands of civic activists, opposition members, and journalists were arrested in protests over the results. Some were convicted on treason charges. The EPRDF later leveraged repressive laws and electoral regulations to maintain its political advantage, taking 99.6% of seats in the 2010 elections and 100% in 2015. Ethiopia ranked, until 2018, among the world's most censored countries. Figure I. Ethiopia: Key Facts P atiton; IOR i oJ ComparativE- ares sk yis Ia Religionsi E&:-pia 1 W ' . OyfficiaI ianguage Ase.EhCP Life expuectancyi 3~df GDP, GDP votGDP per capita; ~ ~o,74,$5 Source: CRS map. Data (2019) from CIA and IMF databases. Efforts to suppress dissent intensified in 2016, as protests over the perceived marginalization of the largest and second largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amhara, escalated. The government responded with force and mass arrests: 29,000 people were detained under a state of emergency that tightened restrictions on expression and assembly. Over 1,000 people were reportedly killed, many by security forces, in unrest. The protests surged again in late 2017 and ethnic violence intensified, spurring mass displacement. The unrest shook the foundations of the EPRDF. Under public pressure and internal strain, the coalition pledged reforms. In early 2018, then-Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn released hundreds of political prisoners and then resigned, to pave the way for more substantive reforms. The EPRDF's first contested leadership election followed, and Abiy emerged as its first Oromo leader. In April 2018, the legislature elected him prime minister. Prime Minister Abiy, a military intelligence veteran with a doctorate in philosophy, is Africa's youngest leader. In his inaugural address, he acknowledged critiques of EPRDF governance and the need to address existing inequities that led to recent unrest, stating that democracy cannot be realized in the absence of rights. He shocked many when he admitted that the government had tortured prisoners. He attracted international headlines early in his tenure with fast-paced announcements of political and economic reforms. In his first 100 days, the government released tens of thousands of political prisoners, removed terrorist designations on opposition groups, and closed a notorious detention facility. He invited former insurgents and exiled critics to return, replaced top security chiefs, and fired prison officials. The government opened access to over 260 blocked websites, blogs, and broadcasts. Civil society welcomed the early 2019 passage of the Civil Society Proclamation, a key reform measure that opened space for human rights groups and lifted funding restrictions. Abiy's

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