By The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU –The Ethiopian government deployed the federal army in Jigjiga, the Somali region’s main city, to reportedly forestall an attempt to secede the territory from the rest of the country. Local officials denied that such a move was in the works.
The army briefly seized control of the president’s office, the region’s parliament building and local TV headquarters.
“They have taken everywhere, and we don’t know the reason,” said the speaker of the regional parliament, Mohamed Rashid Isaq, in a Facebook message early Saturday morning, referring to the federal army’s takeover.
Isaq said local officials didn’t know their leader’s whereabouts.
The army was, however, forced to retreat to the outskirts of the city after angry residents – some say they were members of the local paramilitary who shed their clothes — took to the streets and confronted it with rocks and anti-federal government chants.
The relationship between the region’s leader, Abdi Mohamud Omar, and the federal government was fraught with tensions since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power four months ago after three years of protests ousted the tyrannical regime that was dominated by the minority Tigrayan ethnic group.
An Ethiopian media outlet, Addis Standard, said that Omar –popularly known as Abdi Iley, the one-eyed in English — has since Thursday been pouring thousands of local paramilitaries into Jigjiga.
“He was then asked to come with key members of his cabinet to “Addis Ababa, the capital, but declined, said the outlet in a twitter message, citing an unnamed Ethiopian source.
The Somalia Star couldn’t independently confirm the veracity of this information.
Officials from the region’s ruling party, the Ethiopian Somali People’s Democratic Party, have resorted to Facebook, calling people to resist what they called a “coup” by an “Oromo” leader, a reference to the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed, who hails from the Oromo ethnic group.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Saturday that the army would not tolerate violence in the region, and that it will take decisive action to ensure that people live in peace and tranquility. It said the army is closely monitoring the situation in Jigjiga and trying to stop the riots, along with other security forces, but admitted that the violence did not end as swiftly as it wished.
The ministry’s statement didn’t say how many people were killed or injured during the riots.
The Ogaden Liberation Front, an armed rebel group that has been agitating for the region’s secession since 1984, called on Prime Minister Ahmed “to immediately halt all military activities in the region” and “initiate a peace process inclusive of all stakeholders.”
“Only then can we meaningfully address the future of the Somali people including what an urgent transitional change might look like,” the group said in a twitter message on Saturday.
Abdi Iley — a brutal leader whose administration was accused of egregious violations of human rights – is hated and loved in equal measure by the inhabitants of the region that was historically marginalized by Ethiopia’s successive governments. His detractors call him a “murderer”, while his fans refer to him as a “father.”
The ethnic Somalis living in the region — known both as Western Somalia and Ogaden — never voluntarily accepted Ethiopia’s rule since the 19th century, when the British government handed over the territory to Ethiopia.
Somalia and Ethiopia went to war over the area several times, most notably in 19977, when Somali forces briefly retook the region before Ethiopians pushed them back with the help of the Soviet Union and soldiers from Cuba.
The Somalia government has not officially renounced the territory, whose dispute still remains unresolved despite the relatively good relationship between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa. Ethiopian troops are a part of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.