The "Amhara" Prosperity Party which makes up the second largest bloc of Prime minister Abiy Ahmed's prosperity party has reportedly left the ruling coalition.
The "Amhara" Prosperity Party which makes up the second largest bloc of Prime minister Abiy Ahmed's prosperity party has reportedly left the ruling coalition. In a dangerous turnaround of events, the group is said to be training thousands of militia men in the "Amhara" province to protect itself in case the maniac Abiy Ahmed sends troops to squash any rebellion in the region. In response, Abiy Ahmed has been secretly working with TPLF to bring them onboard in the ruling coalition.
The region saw a bloody coup attempt just before the TPLF war in 2019 that took the lives of the country's army chief and the regional governor. As recent as last January, an assassination plot against the commander of the regional paramilitary force was said to have been foiled. Many blame Abiy for scripting all these bloody events to eliminate his opponents.
This is the most dangerous political crisis Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has faced since he came to power in 2018. The "Amharas" were assumed to be his biggest supporters as he faced TPLF's war and far-right militias in his own Oromo province. But this latest fall out might be the toughest jab that shakes up his ruling clique beyond a point of no return.
Prosperity Party was born out of the former ethnic ruling coalition, EPRDF which the Tigreyan militia men dominated for three decades. When the Tigreyans were kicked out in 2018, Oromos led by Abiy Ahmed and his Amhara allies formed Prosperity Party inheriting everything the EPRDF owned prior to 2018.
The Ethiopian army has been used as cannon fodder to make up for the political failures of the ruling party and its leader Prime minister Abiy Ahmed. Most parts of the country are ruled by military command posts.
Prosperity party claimed it had dropped EPRDF's Leninist ethnic politics and big government economy. But there was nothing clearly defined as a political program by the group. It can fairly be said that PP was formed as a makeshift ruling coalition to fill the power vacuum left by TPLF who fled to the northern Tigray province. There were cracks even how the TPLF war was handled by Prime minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Amharas blame Abiy Ahmed's poor leadership for allowing TPLF to destroy over 50% the Amhara province in the war and the ethnic cleansing of over a million ethnic Amharas from the Oromoya province in just four years.
The Pretoria peace deal signed between the TPLF and Abiy Ahmed's government is also not being implemented. It's been over three months now but most of the agreed action items are not being checked out mainly because Abiy Ahmed's ruling clique in the name of the federal government has used the peace deal as a political opportunity to scare potential power rivals like the Amharas. There are strong signs the TPLF and Abiy are ganging up to defend themselves from possible war crime allegations by the international community.
Observers say Ethiopia's bloody civil war that started in 2017 will not end until a national dialogue with all stake holders is done and a new government with fresh elections set up. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has catastrophically failed to end the bloodshed simply because he lacks the skills and is not ready to ask for help.
The Ethiopian army has been used as cannon fodder to make up for the political failures of the ruling party and its leader, the Prime minister. Most parts of the country are ruled by military command posts. The current situation feels like the two years before the TPLF war erupted in Nov 2020. Another horrific civil war is in the making and all concerned bodies should call for an immediate dialogue and new political process.