Mager Media News Update – Wednesday, August 17, 2022 (Nehase 11, 2014 EC)
Today’s Mager News Updates are as follows:
- The fourteen imprisoned members of Amhara Fano Amechach have begun a hunger strike;
- Kebeles of Addis Ababa to be administered under the Oromo Region &
- Telemt Identity Restoration Committee submits a letter to the House of Federation.
Fourteen Amhara Fano Amechach members begin hunger strike
The fourteen (14) detained members of Amhara Fano Amechach and other prisoners in Bahir Dar’s Sebatamit Prison have commenced a hunger strike.
Mager Media has confirmed that the Amhara Fano Amechach members and other detainees are protesting today, August 17, 2022 (Nehase 11, 2014 EC), in the form of a 3-day hunger strike against the denial to recognize the bail granted to them by the Amhara Region Supreme Court.
It has been three weeks since the court ruling to grant bail to the Fano Amechach members was made and yet they have been held in prison for 21 days and counting which has led to this hunger strike.
Mager Media previously reported that the fourteen Amhara Fano Amechach members remain in prison and the federal police head issued a letter for the prisoners to be transferred to their custody from Sebatamit Prison and in turn informed the court that it was difficult to release the prisoners.
Kebeles of Addis Ababa to be placed under the Oromo Region administration
The Addis Ababa city administration and the Oromo Region Government have reached an agreement to resolve the controversial administrative boundary issue.
Yesterday on August 16, 2022 (Nehase 10, 2014 EC), an agreement was made between Addis Ababa’s mayor Adanech Abiebie and Oromo Region President Shimelis Abdisa that the areas Koye Feche, Tuludimtu, and the Jemo number 2 condominium houses would be placed under the Oromo Region Administration.
As part of the agreement, everyone will continue under the regular circumstances until the new administrative boundaries are determined.
Although it was stated that local residents supported the decision, it was not brought before the Addis Ababa city council.
Parties and individuals who had followed the matter of the administrative boundary have voiced their opposition to the decision saying the decision did not consider current circumstances and that the people were not consulted as part of the process.
Regarding this matter, VOA Amharic spoke to Ethzema Deputy President Mr. Yohannes Mekonnen who stated their party opposes the decision and explained that the decision had at least three shortcomings.
Mr. Yohannes explained that the matter requires national deliberation and the lack of this failed to address its timeliness or acceptance and that the people were not included in the decision process which was advancing the agenda of a single group.
In addition, residents of the areas to be incorporated into the Oromo Region which identified as Addis Ababans and established means of living are facing a foreign identity being forced onto them by the interests of one group.
Mager Media has presented news in the past week of plans to incorporate areas of Addis Ababa under the Oromo Regional Administration according to insider sources and that the ruling party’s member organizations, sub-city and woreda administrators were made aware of this plan and the intent to implement it, and that under the new administrative structure areas including Kolfe, Nifas Silk and Akaki Kaliti sub-cities as well as Legetafo, Yeka Abado, Koye Feche, Bole Bulbula, Jomo Condominiums Number 2 up to Repina Weybela Maryam, and Entoto were all part of the administrative boundary agreement.
Telemt Amhara Restoration Committee has called for its requests to be reviewed urgently
The Telemt Amhara Identity, Border, Peace and Development Restoration Committee (Telemt Committee) issued a letter to the House of Federation Council Office calling for an urgent resolution to the border issue.
At this time, the TPLF still occupies five woredas of Telemt, and yesterday, August 16, 2022 (Nehase 10, 2014 EC), a letter was issued to the House of Federation regarding the questions of borders and identity which the house has received according to the Telemt Committee’s Head, Memhir Tsegaye Eshete who has confirmed to Mager Media.
Seven leaders and members of the Telemt Committee were delegated to travel to Addis Ababa to speak to the federal government, various media agencies and human rights institutions, to bring forward their demands.
The committee’s letter to the house of federation explained that from old times, the Amhara people of Telemt were administered under Adirkay and Telemt Woredas of Semien Awraja and that the the Tigrayan identity which was unknown to the people was forced upon them against their will and that areas from Adirkay and Telemt Woredas were annexed to Tigray.
The letter further explains that since 1991 (1984 EC) the forced incorporation into the Tigray Region commenced against the will of the people. And the people who opposed this over 30 years including historians, residents who voiced opposition would face abductions in the night by TPLF and their whereabouts would be unknown, though many of them would end up in a place called Fiyel Wuha (concentration camp) where they would suffer in underground prisons.
The letter adds that the Amhara people of Telemt however did not stop questioning despite facing many crimes and abuses but there was nobody to hear them, and to this day, the people of Telemt are facing intense suffering under occupation and annexation to the Tigray Region.
At various times, thousands of Tigrayans were resettled in Telemt in a clear and meticulous demographic/social engineering.
During this time when negotiations are taking place between the ruling OPDO-led (Oromo People’s Democratic Organization aka Oromo Prosperity Party) Prosperity government and TPLF, Adirkay, Maygaba and three over woredas of Telemt from Semien Gonder remain under TPLF control.
In areas controlled by TPLF, thousands of Amhara residents in Debark, Dabat and surrounding area have no access to shelter or humanitarian assistance and are suffering as a result.
