By The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU – Ethiopia’s young Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has appointed new chiefs for the country’s army and intelligence in a surprise move that will strengthen his reform agenda two months after taking office.
Ahmed’s ruling party, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, surprised many when it said Ethiopia would fully give up its claim on Badme town that was at the center of Addis Ababa’s 1998-2000 war with Eritrea that killed nearly 100, 000 people. The party also said the country would loosen its grip on state-owned companies, such as Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio Telecom, opening the poor nation of almost 100 million to international investors.
Gen. Seare Mekonen was named as the new army chief to replace Gen. Samora Yunis who, according to a pro-government broadcaster, retired on Thursday. Samora headed the army for 17 years after Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae retired.
Like his successor, Samora is from the minority Tigrayan ethnic group that dominated the Eastern Africa nation’s military and economy since 1991, when its forces ousted dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Samora served the Ethiopian military for 42 years, according to Fana Broadcasting Corp.
“The nation will be forever grateful to General Samora for his distinguished services,” tweeted Fitsum Arega, the premier’s chief of staff, sharing Samora posing for a photo with Ethiopia’s President Mulatu Teshome and Ahmed.
Ahmed, 41, has also tapped the head of the Ethiopian air force Gen. Adem Mohammed to become the director of the National Intelligence and Security Services. Mohammed, of the largest ethnic ethnic group, Oromo, succeeded Getachew Assefa, an Amhara, the second largest tribe.
Both appointments were effective from Thursday.
The move on Thursday was a part of efforts aimed at retiring long-serving and veteran government officials from their positions, said a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Prime Minister Ahmed came to power in April after his predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, resigned following anti-government protests in Oromia and Amhara regions. The protestors were agitating for a change in a police state where security forces kill innocent civilians with impunity.
Security agents’ heavy-handed tactics — including killing hundreds of civilians, internet shutdowns and emergency laws — to subdue the protestors have threatened to plunge the country into a civil war.
Ahmed has so far released political prisoners, among them prominent opposition figures.
In a 2009 US cable unveiled by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, the US Embassy in Addis Ababa called the fired pair – Samora and Assefa – “hawkish, yet significantly influential, ruling party members on foreign policy.”
Another cable in 2008 characterized Gen. Samora as one of the most powerful figures in Ethiopian politics.
“He has done so,” the Embassy said, “through his partnership with hard-liners in the Central Committee and his actions of replacing generals — mostly Western trained and highly skilled non-Tigrayans — with not necessarily qualified Tigrayans who are loyal to Samora.
“Samora also succeeded through his superb bureaucratic infighting in getting one pro-U.S. State Minister of Defense dismissed and securing his position as more powerful than the Minister of Defense,” it said.
Getachew, the US cable also said, was “not a skilled bureaucrat nor is he liked by others in his own agency.”
It said the two men were like two peas in a pod.
“They lack the support and respect their predecessors commanded,” said the cable. “Samora and Getachew are perhaps “tougher” hard-liners than their hard-line supporters within the Central Committee” of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the ruling party.