Following the murder of a prominent member of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ruling party, Ethiopian security forces announced Sunday that they had detained 47 suspects, accusing them of plotting to overthrow the government.

According to the authorities of the northern region, Girma Yeshitila, the leader of the Prosperity Party in Amhara, was one of five individuals slain in an attack on Thursday.

According to a statement released by Ethiopia's Joint Security and Intelligence Task Force, 47 "terror" suspects were captured in Amhara with firearms, bombs, and satellite communications equipment.

Without providing a timeframe for the arrests, the statement said that these "extremist forces" were responsible for the murder of Girma.


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Girma, a 45-person executive committee member of the Prosperity Party, was routinely harassed on social media by Amhara nationalists who termed him a "traitor" due to his close friendship with Abiy.

Abiy announced the "shameful and horrible act" in a Facebook post, calling it "the taking away of the soul of our brother Girma Yeshitila by those who couldn't win ideas with ideas."

The Amhara government claimed that Girma was attacked by "irregular forces" while he was travelling to Debre Birhan, a city located 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Addis Abeba, with his personal bodyguards and family members.

Violent protests over the controversial federal government's plans to abolish regional forces in Ethiopia and incorporate them into the national army occurred in Amhara earlier this month.


The Amhara forces vitally supported the federal army during the harsh two-year conflict in the neighbouring Tigray province, which was finally stopped in November with a peace accord.

Early this month, Ethiopia's army chief declared that the regional paramilitaries had been successfully disbanded.

Abiy had previously defended the action, saying it was done for the benefit of "unity" among Ethiopia's many ethnic groups.

However, Amhara nationalists charged that the government was attempting to weaken the second-most populous region in Ethiopia by only disbanding Amhara forces.

Western Tigray, a region both the Amhara and the Tigrayans claim, is still under the control of Amhara "special forces" and neighbourhood militias known as the Fano, notwithstanding the Tigray peace agreement.


The 11 states of Ethiopia, which were divided along linguistic and cultural lines, are permitted to run their local police forces under the country's constitution.

However, some states gradually established separate forces over the past 15 years, acting outside these constitutional restraints.

Ambachew Mekonnen, the leader of the Amhara government, Seare Mekonnen, the commander-in-chief of Ethiopia's army, and other leaders perished in a concerted attack in June 2019 dubbed an attempt at a regional coup.