Functioning of Government in Ethiopia – World Countries for Kids
The inadequacies of the 2021 elections, including an environment of insecurity and growing repression of some opposition groups, presaged a stall in political reform. Many Ethiopians are deprived of representative rule in practice because of enduring uncertainty and because the government has imposed restrictive measures in response to that uncertainty. The escalation of violence in Tigray, which further got worse due to the deployment of Eritrean troops, prevented the 2021 elections from happening in the region, leaving people there deprived of elected representatives.
The federal government lack control over areas beset by insecurity, such as parts of Amhara and Oromia. Other areas have been under protracted states of emergency with heightened military presence and control, including parts of Amhara, Gambella, Benishangul Gumuz, and Oromia. Unequal resource distribution and corruption are significant issues that have contributed to civil unrest. Authorities arrested 41 officials within the Immigration, Nationality, and Vital Events Agency in October 2023, over accusations that the passport-issuance process was affected by corruption. In December, the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission accused federal and regional officials of sacking anticorruption personnel in their offices for exposing wrongdoing by those officials.
Food-aid distribution has been badly impacted by official corruption. In June 2023, USAID (the US Agency for International Development) suspended food deliveries throughout Ethiopia amid certain reports of a government-initiated “diversion scheme” that partially benefited the military. USAID had previously suspended deliveries in northern Tigray in May. The World Food Programme (WFP) did the same throughout Tigray that very month and began a nationwide halt in June. USAID restored deliveries in the month of October, while the WFP announced a new food-aid delivery scheme in November.
Very little info is available about counterinsurgency operations and ethnic conflicts in Benishangul Gumuz, Amhara, and Oromia. The real extent of the human rights abuses and war crimes committed in these areas remains hard to verify. State media and government statements have bolstered an official narrative that has been confronted by reports of alleged atrocities, sexual violence, and the scale of insecurity. Amid extensive impunity for security forces, efforts to ensure answerability for abuses committed by those forces lack transparency.
Since the war in northern Ethiopia started in 2020, Amhara regional forces have taken control of and tried to annex areas in Western Tigray, with the support of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Regional officials and Amhara security forces allegedly ordered the removal of thousands of Tigrayans, while Amhara forces were implicated in an ethnic-cleansing operation against Tigrayans. Ethnic displacement has continued in Tigray after the CoHA (Cessation of Hostilities Agreement) was reached in 2022.