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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Guardian reporter

Gun battles erupt in Ethiopia as PM axes Amhara region’s security force

Call for unity: Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, in parliament in Addis Ababa last month.
Call for unity: Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, in parliament in Addis Ababa last month. Photograph: Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images

Gun battles and mass protests have engulfed parts of Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-biggest region, after a move to centralise the regional security forces of the country’s 11 states.

The federal government announced the policy last Thursday, in pursuit of building “a strong centralised army”. People from several towns in Amhara responded with protests, while some units of the region’s security forces refused to disarm and clashed with the federal military.

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