Speaker of Federal Council defects

In a statement released on 11 August, Almaz said that as Speaker and as a central committee member of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) he had hoped to advance the cause of his Oromo people through the official Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), but that the EPRDF had “brought untold miseries and sufferings on the Oromo people”. He said the dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) did not tolerate political independence, and that the government paid “lip service to democracy”. According to the statement, Oromiya had lost its autonomy as a region, and “innocent Oromos have disappeared, perished in detention centres from torture, and many more forced to flee the country”. He said by retaining his post he would “give the false impression that the Oromos are represented in the government”. The Ethiopian government has dismissed the armed OLF movement as an unrepresentative terrorist organisation.