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

The country’s second-biggest state has been riven by mass street protests, armed clashes between local police and the federal military as well as the fatal shooting of two aid workers

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.